Utopia or Oblivion

Utopia or Oblivion
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
Total Pages: 225
Release: 1963
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9182736450XXX

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Utopia or Oblivion is a provocative blueprint for the future. This comprehensive volume is composed of essays derived from the lectures he gave all over the world during the 1960’s. Fuller’s thesis is that humanity – for the first time in its history – has the opportunity to create a world where the needs of 100% of humanity are met. “This is what man tends to call utopia. It’s a fairly small word, but inadequate to describe the extraordinary new freedom of man in a new relationship to universe — the alternative of which is oblivion.” R. Buckminster Fuller. Description by Lars Muller Publishers, courtesy of The Estate of Buckminster Fuller

Utopia Or Oblivion

Utopia Or Oblivion
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Unknown
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2019-08-20
Genre: Civilization, Modern
ISBN: 3037786221

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A classic of utopian literature, more urgent than ever: Buckminster Fuller's provocative blueprint for the future Composed of lectures given by Buckminster Fuller throughout the world in the 1960s, Utopia or Oblivion presents the thesis that humanity, for the first time in its history, has the opportunity to create a world where the needs of 100% of humanity are met. Fuller's grandson, in the introduction, refers to this selection as "hardcore Bucky," as these essays display Fuller's investigations into mathematics, geometry and how they intersect with the arts, music and world peace. In Fuller's words, "This is what man tends to call utopia. It's a fairly small word, but inadequate to describe the extraordinary new freedom of man in a new relationship to universe--the alternative of which is oblivion. First published in 1969 and then reprinted by Lars Müller in 2008, Utopia or Oblivion also includes one of the earliest published discussions of Fuller's World Game, a revolutionary "game" that set as the goal for players, that the world "works" for 100% of humanity to nobody's disadvantage. It challenged players to overlook traditional world units such as nations, states and other political and economic divisions.

Utopia or Oblivion

Utopia or Oblivion
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Lars Müller Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-06-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3037781270

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Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) was an architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. For more than five decades, he set forth his comprehensive perspective on the world’s problems in numerous essays, which offer an illuminating insight into the intellectual universe of this renaissance man. These texts remain surprisingly topical even today, decades after their initial publication. While Fuller wrote the works in the 1960’s and 1970’s, they could not be more timely: like desperately needed time-capsules of wisdom for the critical moment he foresaw, and in which we find ourselves. Long out of print, they are now being published again, together with commentary by Jaime Snyder, the grandson of Buckminster Fuller. Designed for a new generation of readers, Snyder prepared these editions with supplementary material providing background on the texts, factual updates, and interpretation of his visionary ideas. Initially published in 1969, and one of Fuller’s most popular works, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth is a brilliant synthesis of his world view. In this very accessible volume, Fuller investigates the great challenges facing humanity, and the principles for avoiding extinction and “exercising our option to make it”. How will humanity survive? How does automation influence individualization? How can we utilize our resources more effectively to realize our potential to end poverty in this generation? He questions the concept of specialization, calls for a design revolution of innovation, and offers advice on how to guide “spaceship earth” toward a sustainable future. And it Came to Pass – Not to Stay brings together Buckminster Fuller’s lyrical and philosophical best, including seven “essays” in a form he called his “ventilated prose”, and as always addressing the current global crisis and his predictions for the future. These essays, including “How Little I Know”, “What I am Trying to Do“, “Soft Revolution”, and “Ethics”, put the task of ushering in a new era of humanity in the context of “always starting with the universe”. In rare form, Fuller elegantly weaves the personal, the playful, the simple, and the profound. Utopia or Oblivion is a provocative blueprint for the future. This comprehensive volume is composed of essays derived from the lectures he gave all over the world during the 1960’s. Fuller’s thesis is that humanity – for the first time in its history – has the opportunity to create a world where the needs of 100% of humanity are met. This is Fuller in his prime, relaying his urgent message for earthians critical moment and presenting pioneering solutions which reflect his commitment to the potential of innovative design to create technology that does “more with less” and thereby improves human lives . . . “This is what man tends to call utopia. It’s a fairly small word, but inadequate to describe the extraordinary new freedom of man in a new relationship to universe - the alternative of which is oblivion.” Buckminster Fuller.

Critical Path

Critical Path
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
Total Pages: 512
Release: 1982-02-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780996827805

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The masterwork of a brilliant career, and an important document of the crisis now facing mankind. Today we find ourselves in the midst of the greatest crisis in the history of the human race. Technology has placed in our hands almost unlimited power at the very moment when we have run up against the limits of our resources aboard Spaceship Earth, as the crises of the late twentieth century—political, economic, environmental, and ethical—determine whether or not humanity survives. In this masterful summing up of an entire lifetime’s thought and concern, R. Buckminster Fuller addresses these crucial issues in his most significant, accessible, and urgent work. Critical Path traces the origins and evolution of humanity’s social, political, and economic systems from the obscure mists of prehistory, through the development of the great political empires, to the vast international corporate and political systems that control our destiny today to show how we got to our present situation and what options are available to man. With his customary brilliance, extraordinary energy, and unlimited devotion, Bucky Fuller shows how mankind can survive, and how each individual can respond to the unprecedented threat we face today. The crowning achievement of an extraordinary career, Critical Path offers the reader the excitement of understanding the essential dilemmas of our time and how responsible citizens can rise to meet this ultimate challenge to our future.

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2008-07-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9182736450XXX

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One of Fuller’s most popular works, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, is a brilliant synthesis of his world view. In this very accessible volume, Fuller investigates the great challenges facing humanity. How will humanity survive? How does automation influence individualization? How can we utilize our resources more effectively to realize our potential to end poverty in this generation? He questions the concept of specialization, calls for a design revolution of innovation, and offers advice on how to guide “spaceship earth” toward a sustainable future. Description by Lars Muller Publishers, courtesy of The Estate of Buckminster Fuller

Grunch of Giants

Grunch  of Giants
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
Total Pages: 136
Release: 1983-04-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780312351946

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With the appearance of Grunch of Giants, R. Buckminster Fuller consummates his literary canon, his panoramic lifetime survey of all aspects of the responsibility of human beings for their own destiny. This book is a modern allegory - his long-gestated myth-of the villainy of capitalism and the fecklessness of classic economics. For Fuller, the academic discipline of economics is irrelevant since it derives from an invalid assumption of scarcity. In fact, he has long argued that future historians of our era may subsume our business practices as a branch of mythology; thus it is not surprising that the word economic appears nowhere in his text. Fuller’s myth is no idle fairy tale, since he faces his question - the question of a technological imperative which only he could raise with the deadly seriousness of satire. That question is: Can our system of national political sovereignties and corporate profits survive the inevitable technology revolution required to obviate wars by effecting a worldwide rise in the standard of living. One of the functions of myth is to resolve contradictions in our culture. Grunch of Giants portrays the rising of multinational corporations in the paradoxical role of function both as the epitome of capitalistic selfishness and as the inadvertent vehicle for the dissolution of national political boundaries - the last deterrent to a one-world economy. The result is more subversive of the property and profit values of the capitalist system than anything dreamed of since Karl Marx. —E.J. Applewhite, collaborator with RBF on Synergetics and Synergetics 2, author of Cosmic Fishing: A Memoir of Working With R. Buckminster Fuller

Nine Chains to the Moon

Nine Chains to the Moon
Author: Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Courier Dover Publications
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2020-09-16
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780486843339

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In 1938, inventor Buckminster Fuller observed that the Earth's population, standing upon each other's shoulders, would form nine complete chains to the Moon. Fuller's striking metaphor illustrates his proposal that imaginative uses of limited resources can result in extraordinary achievements. Hailed by Newsweek as "a guide book and a dream book of the future," this volume offers innovative solutions for improving the quality of life through progressive design. Inventor and visionary designer Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) dedicated his life to solving problems related to housing, shelter, transportation, education, energy, ecological destruction, and poverty. His best-known invention, the geodesic dome, has been produced more than 300,000 times around the world. Fuller's innovative design philosophy, with its focus on creating technology that "does more with less," continues to inspire designers, architects, scientists, and artists seeking to develop a more sustainable planet.

Intuition

Intuition
Author: R. Buckminster Fuller
Publsiher: Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller
Total Pages: 227
Release: 1973
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9781199341594

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In 1970 and 1971, Fuller was concurrently composing a poem suggested by his new Morgan sloop “Intuition” and rewriting, with my collaboration, the projected first chapter of Synergetics called “Brain and Mind.” Fuller agreed with my suggestion that this first chapter had an integrity of its own separate from the rest of the Synergetics manuscript, and he felt that both of these works had an urgency that argued for their publication at the earliest possible date. WIth the help of Bill Whitehead, our editor at Doubleday, they were combined in Intuition, the first of his two books of blank verse. Description by Ed Applewhite, courtesy of The Estate of Buckminster Fuller