Sit back, relax, and put on some music (I found it) Chopin’s Nocturne in B major (Pertinent), watch the video above, a silent data visualization by a visionary architect and systems theorist. buckminster fuller“ industrial design james brown” The 1965 short film combined two of Fuller’s main concerns. These are the exponential expansion of human populations onto a finite amount of land and the need to modify the global perspective through “dymaxion maps” to “visualize the entire planet more accurately.” Buckminster Fuller Institute In doing so, he writes, “we humans will be better equipped to meet the challenges as we face our common future aboard Spaceship Earth.”
It may be best known as the geodetic station at Disney’s Epcot Center. The term Spaceship Earth originally came from Fuller.used it to remind us of our interconnectedness and interdependence as we share resources in the only vehicle that can sustain us in the universe.
“We are all astronauts,” he wrote in 1969. Spaceship Earth Instruction ManualYet we refuse to see the long-term consequences of our actions on our specialized technology. “One of the reasons we struggle with inadequacy today is that we measure costs on such short-sighted criteria that we later become overwhelmed by the unanticipated costs of our short-sightedness,” Fuller argued in his introduction.
Like all visionaries, Fuller thought long-term and used his design skills to help others do the same. His population visualizations document the growth of humanity from 1000 BC to Fuller’s present in 1965. In the image above (see a) Click here for larger version), a graphic from the same year created in collaboration with artist and sociologist John McHale, showing “the shrinking of the Earth due to the increasing speed of human movement and communication around the world.” (By now, it must be near the microscopic level.) Fuller writes that he takes a longer view and observes “the convergence of communication and transportation technologies.” Rikke Schmidt Kjaergaard“500,000 BC to 1965.”
Here Fuller combines population data with modern technological advances. Though considered a genius in some quarters and a maverick in others, Fuller demonstrated his extraordinary foresight in countless ways. But it was in the realm of design that he excelled at communicating what he saw. Fuller and McHale, “pioneers of data visualization,” were two of the “first to chart long-term trends in industrialization and globalization.” Fully realizing that “the Earth is a system and a resilient one,” the Fuller Institute writes, “instead of being alarmed or fearful of what trends indicate, we are now working to design for the future.”
Although Fuller thought fundamentally like an inventive engineer, he spoke and wrote like a pacifist prophet, writing that a narrow disciplinary system prevented skill sets from being “understood comprehensively…or realized only in negative ways, only in new weapons and industrial support for the war effort.” We have seen this social vision unfold horribly. Fuller devised a solution that would allow everyone on earth to live comfortably and safely without consuming (and renewing) the earth’s resources. How can we do this? To find out, you need to read Fuller’s work. On the other hand, as his visualization suggests, it is best to take a long-term perspective and forego short-term rewards and gains when assessing the state of Spaceship Earth.
Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on the site in 2017.
Related content:
Buckminster Fuller’s World Map: An Innovation that Revolutionized Map Design (1943)
How Human Population Reached 8 Billion: An Animated Video Covering 300,000 Years of History in 4 Minutes
The Life and Times of Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome: Documentary
Visualizing 200 years of explosive population growth in the United States (1790-2010)
josh jones I’m a writer and musician based in Durham, North Carolina.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
