Guest For
Thursday February 2,
2006
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NOTE!!
Dear Members of the List & Others:
We are VERY happy to announce:
Like a Beautiful Soaring PHOENIX - The
STREAMING
OF MNN PROGRAMMING IS BACK!!
Utilizing the much
improved Windows Media Player format:
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GUEST:
(Originally Aired Mid 1974)
R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER
|
GRAPH (BELOW) FROM HIS
WORLD GAME FINDINGS PROVIDING THE THEORETICAL BASIS
FOR
THE MAJOR
PREMISE
OF
R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER'S GRAND
STRATEGY
|
 |
|
FOR
SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS
WITHIN A WORLD SYSTEM'S PATTERN
OF UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS |
BUCKMINSTER
FULLER GRAPH FROM HIS “WORLD GAME” FINDINGS OF THE PERCENTAGE OF THE WORLD
POPULATION
WHO COULD BE SEEN TO BE “HAVES” IN THE MODERN EXPERIENCE IN TERMS OF OUR
ABSTRACT
TECHNOLOGICALLY AUGMENTED "CAPABILITY"
TO PROVIDE "LIFE SUPPORT" TO THE WORLD
POPULATION. FURTHERMORE BOTH “GROWTH AND EQUITY” COULD BE REALIZED WITHIN AN
ECOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE MANNER THROUGH THE INCREASING ELEGANCE OF "GOOD
DESIGN
TEMPLATES”
- “DOING MORE WITH LESS.” HE PROJECTED FROM
THE YEAR
1952 “A TWENTY YEAR PERIOD OF IMMINENT CRISIS TO ALL HUMAN INSTITUTIONS AS WE
APPROACHED
AND CROSSED THE 50% MARK”. HE LIVED OUT HIS LIFE IN THE BELIEF THE
PROCESS
HAD
ACCELERATED AND THAT WE CROSSED THE 50 % MARK IN 1970. AT A DESIGN
(CAPABILITY) LEVEL
MANKIND
WAS TRANSCENDING SCARCITY - THE MOST SIGNIFICANT "PARADIGM SHIFT" IN
HUMANITY'S TENURE
ON EARTH.
REMEMBER THIS IS A “(DESIGN) CAPABILITY" NOT THE ACTUAL
“(POLITICA) REALITY.”
TO BRIDGE
THE TWO - IN TIME - IS THE MAJOR CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME.
Harold H. Channer
“For the first
time in history it is now possible to take care of everybody at a higher
standard of living than any have ever known.
Only ten years ago (1970) the ‘more with less’ technology reached the point
where this could be done. All humanity now has the option to become
enduringly successful.”
– R. Buckminster Fuller, 1980
"To make the world work for 100% of
humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation
without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone."
R. Buckminster Fuller - "Vision Statement"
Buckminsterfullerene, C60, the molecule that started it all.
Polymath / Scholar Extraordinaire / Inventor
Architect / Poet / Ecologist /
Futurist / Philosopher
www.bfi.com
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|
R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER'S GRAND STRATEGY |
|
|
|
FOR SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS |
|
R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER'S GRAND STRATEGY |
|
|
|
FOR SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS |
Throughout the
history of man there has never been enough to go around for everyone---there
has always been scarcity. Therefore, the basic problem was: who gets what? Who
survives and who doesn't? Every society has had a different system for
deciding that question, and which group survived was usually decided by war!
But just
because it has always been that way doesn't mean that it always has to be that
way in the future. Just because there was scarcity in the past, does that mean
that there has to be scarcity in the future?
No! Mankind now
has enough knowledge to be able to invent our way into a future of plenty. We
are just not aware of the fact that we now have that possibility. According to
the engineers, the world's industrial system is now operating at only about
four percent efficiency, but it could easily be improved to an average of
twelve percent. In other words, all we have to do is start using already
existing inventions and stop being so wasteful!
Ok. That sounds
great, but having two or three times as much wealth would not do much good if
the world's population keeps growing. Luckily, it just so happens that as
industrialization increases, the global birth rate decreases. As the amount of
energy per person increases, the birth rate decreases, so that if the world is
completely industrialized by about the year 2010, the total population should
peak at about 6 billion & then start declining.
Therefore, if
we only double the average efficiency we could easily take care of the world's
present one billion poor (the other four billion are already "making it" now).
And if we triple the efficiency we could not only take care of any future
population growth, but dramatically raise everyone's standard of living.
(The figures
that I have used are very conservative. The efficiency could probably be
raised much higher, complete industrialization could be achieved much faster,
and population growth slowed down much faster. It is better to understate than
overstate.)
So, we are not
on a treadmill; there is a way out. There is a practical strategy. How,
specifically, can we raise the efficiency? How can we get more energy, use
less materials, & use less time to provide for our basic needs? What do we
need?
Lots of
renewable energy, plenty of food, decent inexpensive housing, medical care,
education, transportation, & communication, to name
the basics.
Energy first:
We need to develop about a dozen types of renewable sources of energy
& we need to develop ways of distributing that
energy.
We now have the
know-how to connect together all the world's electrical generating plants.
That one project would almost double the amount of energy available in the
world because right now most generating plants run at about half capacity &
use the other half for peak demand only. By interconnecting they could all
swap power (especially between the light & dark sides of the earth) and
therefore be run at almost peak capacity most of the time--without building
any new generating plants.
We must also
phase in all the various types of renewable energy as the fossil fuels start
to run out. There are plenty of alternatives to choose from: solar, wind,
hydroelectric, biomass, alcohol, geothermal, tides, photovoltaic, hydrogen,
waves, etc.
All these
alternatives, when fully developed, would not only replace the non-renewable,
polluting, and dangerous sources, but give us three times as much energy as we
have now (not counting the gains through interconnecting).
So, we can have
plenty of energy if we want it. There is no energy shortage! There is just a
shortage of awareness of what is now possible. The crisis is a crisis of
ignorance!
Now, what is
the story for food? Much the same. We produce more than enough food for
everyone, but much of it rots or is eaten by rodents because we don't have the
means of storing, preserving, and transporting it. But, with adequate energy
we could grow, preserve, and distribute plenty of food for everyone. In fact,
if needed, we could probably grow two or three times as much as we do now.
And so, if we
solve the energy & food problems, how do we provide good, inexpensive housing
for everyone? Simple. Shelter people in mass-produced, self-contained,
surplus-energy-producing, geodesic dome homes which would be
helicopter-delivered to anywhere for a tenth the cost of conventional houses.
A geodesic
sphere is the lightest, strongest, and cheapest way of enclosing space ever
invented. Domes can not only house individual families, but they could cover
whole cities---and even float in the air or be anchored on or under the
oceans. Domed cities use about 1/90th the energy of uncovered cities, and have
perfect climates all year round---no matter what the outside climate.
So, if people
have adequate food, energy, shelter, etc., they are bound to be healthier. The
easiest way to control disease is to eliminate its causes, such as
malnutrition, bad water, exposure, vermin, etc.
As far as
transportation is concerned, we need to mass-produce already-invented
ducted-fan air cars that can go on roads or rise vertically on jets of air.
This would allow personal transportation just about anywhere without roads.
Also, we need
to develop personal, modular transportation pods which could go on roads, be
hooked together in groups, be loaded onto trucks, trains and boats, or put
into airplanes for transport anywhere, with the whole global system scheduled
by computer.
Development of
wireless, satellite relayed, two-way communication systems will enable great
numbers of people to work at home, wherever that may be in the world, thus
cutting down on the expense of commuting to the office.
Also, education
will return to the home because students will have two-way multimedia access
(the Internet) to all the information banks of the world. They will be able to
call up the best and latest information presented by the best teachers in the
world. Two-way voice, data and fax will also be transmitted by satellite, thus
cutting down on the use of energy and materials and speeding up the exchange
of ideas and information.
All this vast
increase in wealth and decrease in waste (time, energy, materials) will make
it possible to have a minimum level of guaranteed annual income for all which
should gradually increase with time. People will have to work less and less
and will have more and more time to do whatever they want---study, fish,
travel, think, etc.
Also, the fear
of not having the basic necessities of life will be gone, &
that should eliminate a lot of worry, stress-caused illnesses,
& crime.
But most of
all, if people no longer have to fight each other over limited resources, then
the basic reason for war will be gone and war will become obsolete. The oldest
dreams of mankind--peace, prosperity--will have come true.
People living
now, for the first time in history, have the opportunity, privilege, and
responsibility to help to make all these things come true. All of humanity has
struggled, dreamed, hoped, worked, and prayed for this moment in history. It
is up to us to help make it happen.
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Who Was Buckminster Fuller ? by E.J. Applewhite
Buckminster Fuller had one of the most fascinating and original minds
of his century. Born in 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts, he was the
latest--if not the last--of the New England Transcendentalists. Like the
transcendentalists, Fuller rejected the established religious and
political notions of the past and adhered to an idealistic system of
thought based on the essential unity of the natural world and the use of
experiment and intuition as a means of understanding it. But, departing
from the pattern of his New England predecessors, he proposed that only an
understanding of technology in the deepest sense would afford humans a
proper guide to individual conduct and the eventual salvation of society.
Industrial and scientific technology, despite their disruption of
established habits and values, was not a blight on the landscape, but in
fact for Fuller they have a redeeming humanitarian role.
Fuller rejected the conventional disciplines of the universities by
ignoring them. In their place he imposed his own self-discipline and his
own novel way of thinking in a deliberate attempt--as poets and artists
do--to change his generation's perception of the world. To this end he
created the term Spaceship Earth to convince all his fellow passengers
that they would have to work together as the crew of a ship. His was an
earnest, even compulsive, program to convince his listeners that humans
had a function in universe. Humans have a destiny to serve as "local
problem solvers" converting their experience to the highest advantage of
others.
Bucky sent this telegram to Isamu Noguchi about Einstein's Theory
of Relativity
Fuller's favorite method of teaching--in the tradition of all great
teachers since the Greek philosophers--was lecturing to large and youthful
audiences. Though his penchant for talking for hours on end was notorious,
he really regarded all communication as a two-way street, and he was
remarkably sensitive to individual reactions--well beyond those in the
front row. He tuned his always extemporaneous discourse to the rate he
could see it being absorbed and digested. In the 1960s and 70s a
generation seized on his prescription that there was no need to "earn a
living"--often disregarding the other side of the coin: the need for
individual initiative in "doing what needs to be done." In this spirit he
advanced "design science" as the solution for worldwide social and
ecological problems.
Fuller was an architect, though he never got a degree and in fact didn't
even get a license until he was awarded one as an honor when he was in his
late 60s. This did not prevent him from designing the geodesic dome: the
only kind of building that can be set on the ground as a complete
structure--and with no limiting dimension. The strength of the frame
actually increases in ratio to its size, enclosing the largest volume of
space with the least area of surface. This was his virtuoso invention, and
he said it illustrated his strategy of "starting with wholes" rather than
parts.
He was also a poet, philosopher, inventor and mathematician, as documented
amply in many other web sites on the net.
America has been in the middle of a love-hate affair with technology--and
Fuller is right in the middle of it. He introduced not only a unique
rationale for technology, but an esthetic of it. Likewise his synergetic
geometry bears for Fuller an imperative with an ethical content for humans
to reappraise their relationship to the physical universe. Manifest
together as design science, they offer the prospect of a kind of secular
salvation.
See also:
» What is Synergetics ? - by E. J.
Applewhite
» Cosmic Fishing - An account of writing
Synergetics with Buckminster Fuller by E. J. Applewhite
» The naming of the Buckminsterfullerene
- by E. J. Applewhite
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Thursday
February 2, 2006
10:30 - 11:30 AM / (NYC Time)
Channel 34 of the
Time/Warner &Channel 110 of the RCN
Cable Television Systems in Manhattan, New York.
The Program can now be
viewed on the internet at the time of cable casting at:
www.mnn.org
NOTE: You
must adjust viewing to reflect NYC time & click on channel 34
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