Throughout our history, humans have set their sights on seemingly impossible goals and found ways to achieve them against all odds. This amazing potential is on full display in the opening moments of the new documentary The Choice Is Ours, where retired NASA astronaut and professional astronomer Jeff Hoffman demonstrates the glory of spaceflight.
With unparalleled willpower and ingenuity, we developed the tools and techniques to explore inventions once restricted to Hollywood myth-makers. But even in an atmosphere other than our own, the planetary challenges we have yet to overcome remain in plain sight. Over the years, after many spaceflights, Professor Hoffman became aware of this reality as he gazed at the surface of our planet from his space capsule. “It gives you an idea of the human impact on our planet, which can be pretty dire,” he muses.
The most pressing issues facing humanity today – from climate change and rampant crime to financial catastrophe and our planet’s rapidly depleting natural resources – are our chosen focus, but from a refreshingly unique perspective departed. This beautifully crafted film advances our ability to create positive change in the world and considers the behavioral and cultural changes that must occur to make this happen.
The Choice is Ours is an outgrowth of The Venus Project, an organization dedicated to discovering innovative ways to solve problems. The group’s founder, 97-year-old futurist Jacques Fresco, serves as the main guide throughout the film’s narration. With compelling and lucid insights, Fresco calls for a reassessment of our individual potential, and that of the wider world. By examining whether our behavior is determined by human nature or by our absorption of our surroundings, the film offers clues as to how we can begin to rebuild Earth’s reality from the ground up.
If overcoming self-doubt and apathy were the rules that ruled our species decades ago, would we invent the technology to venture into space? By applying the same intensity of active attention to global activity, we can improve our view of our planet, even from the stars.
