Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R. Buckminster Fuller
Personal Review
I had heard the name “Buckminster Fuller”, “RBF”, or “Bucky Fuller” before, and it was always associated closely with the geodesic dome, a structure whose complete meaning is still clouded to me, save for that it has something to do with synergy and tetrahedrons. Seeming lofty and out of my league scientifically and technically, I waited at least to try reading one of his books, until finding Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth for $4 in a used book store.
He begins as any of my favorite thinkers would, “I am enthusiastic”. (pg. 9)
Quickly he transitions to defining our tendency toward specialization, which in a society would manifest as acute compartmentalization. He correctly points out our trend toward becoming a “World Man” (Man used humanistically), and with that connectivity bringing about our dire need to cooperate, for the sake of survival for all.
And yet, he says, “Despite our recently developed communications intimacy and popular awareness of total Earth we, too, in 1969 are as yet politically organized entirely in the terms of exclusive and utterly obsolete sovereign separateness.” (pg. 18)
He then in one chapter, origins of specialization, speaks of Earth’s first “world men”, in boat masters, seafarers, and, he calls them, Great Pirates. These Great Pirates had the first “comprehensive perspective” of human settlement and existence, traveling to faraway lands and meeting different peoples and cultures, using that experience to better universalize their own skills and knowledge, giving them an edge at sea and thus more power when on land. With this power and wealth, Fuller posits, these Pirates found preeminent local leaders who they enlisted as their followers (“There was great safety in the mental dullness of these henchmen.” pg. 22), saying then, “But each of you must mind your own [local] business or off go your heads. I’m the only one who minds everybody’s business.” (pg. 27) And thus was ushered in our tendency to specialize; as “only the king’s son received the kingdom-wide scope of training.” (pg. 28)
Fuller exemplifies different species that have gone extinct due to over-specialization, and uses that to bridge the gap to a solution, which had already presented itself in 1969 and is evermore evident today: computers.
“… computer … made man obsolete as a physical production and control specializing — and just in time. … automation replaces the automatons.” (pg. 40)
He posits that lifestyle up until now has been a sort of incubation period moving us toward a more comprehensive development and thinking, “to develop [us] to a certain point,” whereafter we must discover the next phase of our evolution. “Becoming deliberately expansive instead of contractive, we ask, “How do we think in terms of wholes?” If it is true that the bigger the thinking becomes the more lastingly effective it is, we must ask, “How big can we think?” (pgs. 52-53)
Well, he says, “start with universe.” From there, begin adding the variables of our existence in only as necessary and not to overcomplicate, eventually halting at the question, “What is wealth?” Which he answers in terms of energy: “Quite clearly we have vast amounts of income wealth as Sun radiation … Wherefore living only on our energy savings by burning up the fossil fuels which took billions of years to impound … is lethally ignorant and also utterly irresponsible.” (pg. 79)
“Ergo,” he says, “only complete world desovereignization can permit the realization of an all humanity high standard support.”(pg. 88) Desovereignization, that is, realization of modern World Man, so inadequately accomplished by our United Nations. Society thusly organized will allow humans to be “free in the sense the they will not struggle for survival on a ‘you’ or ‘me’ basis, and will therefore be able to trust one another and be free to cooperate in spontaneous and logical ways.” (pg. 95)
Although he would decry the denotation, he makes an excellent socialist argument for automation once more, saying that “Man must be able to dare to think truthfully and to act accordingly without fear of losing his franchise to live,” (pg. 107) which does not equate to ‘earning a living’.
He suggests, “…we must give each human who is or becomes unemployed a life fellowship in research and development or in just simple thinking. … For every 100,000 employed in research and development … one probably will make a breakthrough that will more than pay for the other 99,999 fellowships. … What we want everybody to do is to think clearly” (pgs. 108-109).
It is probably important to note that within the body of these arguments he makes clear the distinction of payment in symbolical money and payment in societal progress and excellence; the correct dispersal of energies, tangential and direct. For instance in the automation of activities that we humans ought not waste our time-energy on, perhaps “This will permit all the modernly mechanized office buildings to be used as dwelling facilities.” (pg. 109)
Fuller does not lose sight of the hurdles to his philosophy, saying, “This all brings us to a realization of the enormous educational task which must be successfully accomplished … whereafter [we] may turn [our] Spaceship Earth’s occupancy into a universe exploring advantage.” (pg. 113)
He ends with a warning while looping back to his enthusiasm. “Most importantly we have learned that from here on it is success for all or for none, for ‘unity is plural and at a minimum two’… As the world political economic emergencies increase, remember that we have discovered a way to make the total world work. … wealth is as much everybody’s as is the air and sunlight, it no longer will be rated as a personal handout for anyone to accept a high standard of living. … we live in omni-direction space-time and … a four dimensional universe provides ample individual freedoms for any contingencies. … Take the initiative.” (pgs. 113, 116-117, 120).
It total, I would call this necessary reading as regards environmentalism and social philosophy, and I would highly recommend you find yourself a copy.
—Jacob George