July 23 2008 / by garrygolden
Category: Environment Year: General Rating: 8 Hot
By Garry Golden
If curators at New York’s Whitney Museum are correct, the world
might once again turn towards Buckminster
(Bucky) Fuller for inspiration in addressing global
challenges.
Bucky Fuller (1895-1983) is widely recognized as one of the
world’s great modern visionaries of the 20th century. He was a
natural Futurist, not because of his intellect, but his wisdom to
challenge widely held assumptions from the world around him.
He blended his skills as a writer, thinker, and engineer into a
concept he called “Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science.”
Bucky believed that the essence of human life on the planet is to
solve problems and continue expanding our awareness and views of
what is possible.
New York’s Whitney Museum has re-opened the question of Bucky’s
outlook towards the world with its latest exhibition Buckminster
Fuller Starting with the Universe running through September 21,
2008.
Our best strategy for addressing problems of the 21st century
might be to revisit the core principles of his philosophy related
to design, shape and energy. If the Whitney curators, are correct,
Bucky Fuller might turn out to be one of the most influential
thinkers of not one, but two centuries.
Bucky Fuller was best known for his design of the geodesic dome,
and pushing forward the notion that the Earth was a ‘spaceship’
passing through a much more vast universe that could challenge and
inspire us as we addressed global problems.
He was an early advocate for renewable energy, developed the
highly efficient three-wheeled Dymaxion car, and also the ‘World
Game’ which allowed individuals to test strategies for global
solutions. He would surely love Second Life and the ability to
simulate real world situations virtually!
Why is Bucky relevant to the 21st Century?
The Whitney Museum exhibit revisits a few of Bucky’s most
inspiring principles that supported his central philosophy of
planetary abundance through elegant engineering:
Design matters more than politics
Bucky believed in the power and influence of design. In fact, he
believed it could be more influential in changing society than
politics. He argued that politics was driven by scarcity which was
resolved by compromise and sacrifice. Yet, if politics forced us to
work within limits, design could set us free. Fuller turned to the
world of knowledge-based economics and materials science to enable
a philosophy of getting ‘more from less.’ This would be the first
step towards a worldview of abundance, over scarcity.
Shape matters more than substance – Dreaming of Domes or
Nanotubes?
Bucky was an engineer’s engineer- blending deep scientific
thought with constant experimentation and applications of design
principles that pushed the limits of what was possible. He was most
famous for his Geodesic Dome (circa 1954) but today we realize that
Bucky Fuller had conceptualized something much deeper that
proceeded the nanoscale age of scientific knowledge.
In fact, he was imagining the strongest geometric form in the
universe – flat, interlocked carbon molecules.
Nearly fifty years after his geodesic dome, researchers in Japan
and the US uncovered carbon nanotubes
consisting of single layer latticed networks of carbon.
In the early 1990s researchers are Rice University synthesized
fullerenes, a class of nanotubes with rounded edges that made a
tube. They called them fullerenes or ‘Buckyballs’ in tribute to
Bucky. One of the researchers, Rick Smalley (d. 2005) consistently
argued that carbon nanotubes were the strongest chemical bond that
can be formed out of all known materials in the universe. No other
element in nature could match carbon’s natural strength and
performance properties.
Today, we know that these ‘Buckyballs’ hold the potential to
strengthen other materials. And we can easily imagine nanotube
composite plastic homes or cars that have superior performance to
steel at a fraction of the cost.
Energy is everything in the modern age
Bucky understood one of the biggest ideas to emerge in the 20th
century – that energy was the foundation of modern life. And that
all energy strategies must be globally oriented, and move beyond
the limitations of a ‘scarcity’ mindset of extracting fossil fuels.
Bucky wrote extensively on energy and developed a ‘Grand Strategy’
and an
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth to explore the challenges
of energy in the decades ahead.
Fuller believed that a new mental model of energy was emerging
–based on abundance. Just as we have shifted our economic mental
models towards abundance of human knowledge over physical labor,
and now today digital versus physical material transfer, a similar
paradigm exists for energy production.
For Bucky, the key to abundance was based on new production
systems and distribution channels. He explored ideas for a global
power grid that moved beyond a simple one-way model of energy flow.
He advocated moving beyond the combustion of hydrocarbons, like
coal and oil, towards more electron oriented form of energy around
wind, solar, biology and hydrogen.
Bucky Returns
Bucky’s principles have not been lost, as much as they have
never been fully realized. Yet today, he remains a charismatic
visionary through YouTube videos and contests held in his name.
The Buckminster Fuller Institute recently
awarded annual Fuller Prize to John
Todd (University of Vermont) for his vision of revitalizing life in
Appalachian coal country?
Who knows how the Whitney Museum exhibit might spark new
conversations built upon Bucky’s approach to constantly questioning
our assumptions about the future remain.
But if it does catch fire, Bucky Fuller could once again become
a central figure in popular culture especially around the areas of
design, energy and global development! Are the principles of this
20th century visionary ready to return?
[Image Credit: Richard Winchell, FlickrCC]
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