By John F. Sase, PhD
Forensic Economist
“All of humanity now has the option to ‘make it,’ successfully and sustainably, by virtue of our having minds, discovering principles, and being able to employ these principles to do more with less.”
“Man can and may metaphysically comprehend, anticipate, shunt, and meteringly comprehend the evolutionarily-organized environment events in the magnitudes and frequencies that best synchronize with the patterns of his successful and metaphysical metabolic regeneration while ever increasing the degrees of humanity’s space-and-time freedoms from yesterday’s ignorance-sustaining survival-procedure chores and their personal time-capital wasting.”
“What you do with yourself, just the little things you do yourself, these are the things that count.”
— R. Buckminster Fuller, American architect, author, designer, inventor, and systems theorist “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” (Simon and Schuster, 1969, Lars Mueller Publishers, new ed., 2015)
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
— Jane Goodall, English primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace
In this volume, my view of the best and worst of humanity at this time, we will have the company of R. Buckminster Fuller through his classic book “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.” Many of us may have read this work when it first appeared between the Summer of Love during the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1967 and the Kent State Shootings in Kent, Ohio, during a campus protest in 1970. The words of Fuller, meaningful for those times, are just as relevant today. Many members of our audience have read this work and some of us have been fortunate enough to hear Fuller speak at the many universities that he visited during the early 1970s. After reading his mind-blowing book and experiencing “Bucky” Fuller in person, I (Dr. Sase) internalized what he taught us. Though I did not understand much of it at the time, I have grown with it over the past four decades along my own path of learning. This exploration, then, is the result of my understanding and desire to share this information with the wider community at this pivotal time in our history.
This guidebook is a summary of the salient points in “Spaceship Earth.” Also, it is the process of bringing the work of Fuller forward by half a century through some current perspectives and commentary where useful. This short work was developed as an encapsulation that would serve both my undergraduate and graduate students as we discussed the ideas of Fuller in the context of our economics course. Throughout this work, I have striven not to change the meaning or interpretation of Fuller’s words. My hope is that any adjustments made in language or punctuation within quotes will make his work more transparent to the modern reader.
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A brief biography
Forensic Economist
“All of humanity now has the option to ‘make it,’ successfully and sustainably, by virtue of our having minds, discovering principles, and being able to employ these principles to do more with less.”
“Man can and may metaphysically comprehend, anticipate, shunt, and meteringly comprehend the evolutionarily-organized environment events in the magnitudes and frequencies that best synchronize with the patterns of his successful and metaphysical metabolic regeneration while ever increasing the degrees of humanity’s space-and-time freedoms from yesterday’s ignorance-sustaining survival-procedure chores and their personal time-capital wasting.”
“What you do with yourself, just the little things you do yourself, these are the things that count.”
— R. Buckminster Fuller, American architect, author, designer, inventor, and systems theorist “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” (Simon and Schuster, 1969, Lars Mueller Publishers, new ed., 2015)
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
— Jane Goodall, English primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace
In this volume, my view of the best and worst of humanity at this time, we will have the company of R. Buckminster Fuller through his classic book “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.” Many of us may have read this work when it first appeared between the Summer of Love during the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1967 and the Kent State Shootings in Kent, Ohio, during a campus protest in 1970. The words of Fuller, meaningful for those times, are just as relevant today. Many members of our audience have read this work and some of us have been fortunate enough to hear Fuller speak at the many universities that he visited during the early 1970s. After reading his mind-blowing book and experiencing “Bucky” Fuller in person, I (Dr. Sase) internalized what he taught us. Though I did not understand much of it at the time, I have grown with it over the past four decades along my own path of learning. This exploration, then, is the result of my understanding and desire to share this information with the wider community at this pivotal time in our history.
This guidebook is a summary of the salient points in “Spaceship Earth.” Also, it is the process of bringing the work of Fuller forward by half a century through some current perspectives and commentary where useful. This short work was developed as an encapsulation that would serve both my undergraduate and graduate students as we discussed the ideas of Fuller in the context of our economics course. Throughout this work, I have striven not to change the meaning or interpretation of Fuller’s words. My hope is that any adjustments made in language or punctuation within quotes will make his work more transparent to the modern reader.
—————
A brief biography
Born in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1885, Fuller was named for his father, Richard Buckminster Fuller, a Unitarian Minister, and also was the grand-nephew of Margaret Fuller, an American Transcendentalist. “Bucky,” as he was called, was the product of an early Froebelian education (based on the theories of Friedrich Froebel, the progressive German educator who created the concept of the kindergarten) and that of the Milton Academy in Massachusetts, which counts T.S. Eliot, Robert F. and Ted Kennedy, and James Taylor among its alumni. Fuller entered Harvard College and was associated with Adams House, in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Robert Frost, and William S. Burroughs resided, among others.
Though he was one of the great minds of the twentieth century, Fuller was expelled from Harvard twice. The first incident was in response to his spending all of his money partying with a vaudeville troupe. After his readmission, Fuller was ejected again for his “irresponsibility and lack of interest,” according to Harvard records. Per his own appraisal, Fuller was a nonconforming misfit in the fraternity environment. Following service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. Though he never completed any formal degree, Fuller was awarded 20 U.S. patents, more than 40 Honorary Doctorates, and many other honors during his lifetime.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Fuller built lightweight housing that was weatherproof and fireproof in the 1920s with his father-in-law before moving to Greenwich Village in New York City. There, his associates included Eugene O’Neill and architect Isamu Noguchi; with the latter, he collaborated on various design projects.
Though he was one of the great minds of the twentieth century, Fuller was expelled from Harvard twice. The first incident was in response to his spending all of his money partying with a vaudeville troupe. After his readmission, Fuller was ejected again for his “irresponsibility and lack of interest,” according to Harvard records. Per his own appraisal, Fuller was a nonconforming misfit in the fraternity environment. Following service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. Though he never completed any formal degree, Fuller was awarded 20 U.S. patents, more than 40 Honorary Doctorates, and many other honors during his lifetime.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Fuller built lightweight housing that was weatherproof and fireproof in the 1920s with his father-in-law before moving to Greenwich Village in New York City. There, his associates included Eugene O’Neill and architect Isamu Noguchi; with the latter, he collaborated on various design projects.
While continuing his design work on the Dymaxion House and Car and reinventing the Geodesic Dome, Fuller taught at several colleges and universities including Bennington College in Vermont and the University of Oregon, School of Architecture. During the 1950s, he began to achieve international acclaim through the success of his creation of huge Geodesic Domes, which he based upon what he called “synergetic geometry.”
(Note: One of the few surviving Dymaxion Houses remains on permanent exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.) Eventually, Fuller authored more than 30 books before passing away in 1983. However, his body of work is still read and studied by students and professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, and systems theory.
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Back to the bridge
I first became familiar with Fuller through his “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” which brilliantly synthesizes his philosophy and observations. In this volume, Fuller investigates the greatest challenges that continue to face humanity. He explores topics such as the principles for avoiding extinction, the impact of automation on individualization, and the more effective utilization of our resources in order to eliminate world poverty and to realize our fullest human potential. Furthermore, Fuller addresses the historical development of specialization and calls for a design revolution of innovation as he advises us on how to move toward a sustainable future. What follows in this guidebook is a reflective and annotated synopsis of some important thoughts from Fuller that all of us may consider in these volatile times.
—————
Chapter One — Comprehensive Propensities
Fuller begins by explaining that our human brains deal exclusively with special-case experiences. However, he notes that our spontaneous initiative has become frustrated in recent centuries, with the result that we tend to continue with the principle of narrow and shortsighted specialization. Primarily, Fuller states that we leave long-distance, wider-scope thinking to politicians, a point that is especially relevant in our current political climate.
We can make reasonably accurate forecasts for a forthcoming quarter of a century by focusing on the current Industrial-Tool Generation of the same length. With such foresight, we could, as Fuller writes, “[A]lter our comprehensive physical circumstances” while addressing critical issues such as global ignorance and hunger.
We continue to fail due to an ongoing belief that specialization remains our key to success, ignoring the realization that “specialization precludes comprehensive thinking.” This means that the techno-economic advantages that should accrue from specialization are not realized in positive ways. Since the time that Fuller wrote these words in 1967, our universities progressively have organized their curriculum into increasingly finer specializations. Generalist-polymath programs foster growth in which students spontaneously apprend (learn), comprehend, and coordinate an expanding universe of experience. However, these remain scarce in the 21st century.
The roots of this intense focus on specialization can be traced to the Age of Exploration (15th to 18th Centuries), when the world began to grow from local to global through sea trade. Fuller reminds us that 99.9% of the human population resided upon 25% of the surface of the Earth. At that time, the few existing generalists who possessed great anticipatory vision, ship-designing capabilities, original scientific conceptualization, and mathematical skills for navigation and exploration became the Masters of the Sea.
These few venturers, to whom Fuller refers as the Great Pirates (G.P.s), discovered that the seas interconnected all of the lands and the peoples of the world. The G.P.s found that the resources of the Earth were unevenly distributed, spread across the globe among human beings who often were ignorant of foreign resources or even of the existence of other peoples. The sea-masters took advantage of the disparity in the production of tools, services, and consumable goods. By integrating and redistributing these resources, the G.P.s generated massive amounts of wealth. In order to grow their global empire, these generalists were aided by individuals with specialized knowledge, information that could be compartmentalized and hence controlled through separateness. These specialists included mathematicians, inventors, and designers, among many others.
(Note: One of the few surviving Dymaxion Houses remains on permanent exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.) Eventually, Fuller authored more than 30 books before passing away in 1983. However, his body of work is still read and studied by students and professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, and systems theory.
—————
Back to the bridge
I first became familiar with Fuller through his “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” which brilliantly synthesizes his philosophy and observations. In this volume, Fuller investigates the greatest challenges that continue to face humanity. He explores topics such as the principles for avoiding extinction, the impact of automation on individualization, and the more effective utilization of our resources in order to eliminate world poverty and to realize our fullest human potential. Furthermore, Fuller addresses the historical development of specialization and calls for a design revolution of innovation as he advises us on how to move toward a sustainable future. What follows in this guidebook is a reflective and annotated synopsis of some important thoughts from Fuller that all of us may consider in these volatile times.
—————
Chapter One — Comprehensive Propensities
Fuller begins by explaining that our human brains deal exclusively with special-case experiences. However, he notes that our spontaneous initiative has become frustrated in recent centuries, with the result that we tend to continue with the principle of narrow and shortsighted specialization. Primarily, Fuller states that we leave long-distance, wider-scope thinking to politicians, a point that is especially relevant in our current political climate.
We can make reasonably accurate forecasts for a forthcoming quarter of a century by focusing on the current Industrial-Tool Generation of the same length. With such foresight, we could, as Fuller writes, “[A]lter our comprehensive physical circumstances” while addressing critical issues such as global ignorance and hunger.
We continue to fail due to an ongoing belief that specialization remains our key to success, ignoring the realization that “specialization precludes comprehensive thinking.” This means that the techno-economic advantages that should accrue from specialization are not realized in positive ways. Since the time that Fuller wrote these words in 1967, our universities progressively have organized their curriculum into increasingly finer specializations. Generalist-polymath programs foster growth in which students spontaneously apprend (learn), comprehend, and coordinate an expanding universe of experience. However, these remain scarce in the 21st century.
The roots of this intense focus on specialization can be traced to the Age of Exploration (15th to 18th Centuries), when the world began to grow from local to global through sea trade. Fuller reminds us that 99.9% of the human population resided upon 25% of the surface of the Earth. At that time, the few existing generalists who possessed great anticipatory vision, ship-designing capabilities, original scientific conceptualization, and mathematical skills for navigation and exploration became the Masters of the Sea.
These few venturers, to whom Fuller refers as the Great Pirates (G.P.s), discovered that the seas interconnected all of the lands and the peoples of the world. The G.P.s found that the resources of the Earth were unevenly distributed, spread across the globe among human beings who often were ignorant of foreign resources or even of the existence of other peoples. The sea-masters took advantage of the disparity in the production of tools, services, and consumable goods. By integrating and redistributing these resources, the G.P.s generated massive amounts of wealth. In order to grow their global empire, these generalists were aided by individuals with specialized knowledge, information that could be compartmentalized and hence controlled through separateness. These specialists included mathematicians, inventors, and designers, among many others.
