I can’t seem to find my final copy from last year. So this is the essay with the conclusion missing. Other than that, it appears to be in its final form. Enjoy…
“Let me tell you why you are here. You have come because you know something. What you know you can’t explain but you feel it. You’ve felt it your whole life, felt that something is wrong with the world: it is this feeling that brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?” Morpheus. (Larry and Andy Wachowski, 2000)
Everyone can identify with this feeling represented in the quote at least once in their lives. Questions arise throughout everyones lives, such as: “What can we do to stop destroying nature and ourselves?” and “Is my society doing everything it can to operate in the most efficient manner?” and lastly “How can we get people to think, behave, and act in a beneficial (for both society and nature) manner?”. It is the primary purpose of this essay to answer the first question for its priority and importance, less focus will be put on the final two questions.
It is this essay writers opinion that some people feel that there is something wrong with the society they live in, but don’t know what it is. Some guess as to what the reason might be. Few actually know why things happen the way they do. Fewer yet, know why things happen and do anything to change it. It is of these fewer that creates the secondary purpose of this essay; to present one such person, R. Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller, in order to help answer the questions. In answering the above mentioned questions Mr. Fullers notes on innovative technologies and philosophy of life will be drawn upon and analyzed.
Richard Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts on July 12th, 1895. (Kathleen O’Neil and Winslow Colwell, 1996) A listing of his many and varied accomplishments is not provided in consideration for the reader and constraints on the length of this essay. His educational background consists of attending Milton Academy, Harvard, and the U.S. Naval Academy (bfi.org/basic_biography.htm). In answering the first question: “What can we do to stop destroying nature and ourselves?” some of the problems destroying nature and ourselves, that affecting the world today, need to be mentioned.
-Over six billion tons of carbon from fossil fuel burning were added to the atmosphere last year.
-There is a 6 million square mile hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, and a 4.5 to 5% loss of ozone over the Northern Hemisphere.
-The planet has warmed at least 1° C in the last century, and given the annual carbon, CO2, CFC, and methane transmissions into the atmosphere, it will rise another 2.5° to 5.5° in the coming century.
-13 to 18 million people die each year due to starvation and/or starvation-related causes.
-800 million people are malnourished.
-The World will spend approximately 1 Trillion ($U.S.) this year
-18 billion (metric tons) of Carbon Dioxide will be emitted this year
-The US government alone will spend over $600 billion on military expenditures
Fuller: “An entirely new possibility for man is clearly emerging as a result of fallout from technology developed primarily for war purposes between 1900 and today.” (R. Buckminster Fuller, 1970) Fuller explains, we have to use our tools (technology) and abilities in a manner that is beneficial to both humans and nature in order to be able to solve the world’s problems. Moreover, we need to use our abilities for good in all times of our lives, not just when we are pressured to do so. “The lower classes these activists were attempting to “help” (and control) were living in squalid and significantly unhealthy conditions: the middle and upper-class reformers who sought to remedy this situation did so, for the most part, out of their own fear. They knew that for their own safety and business viability something had to be done: the City Beautiful movement." (xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/CITYBEAUTIFUL/city.html)
The City Beautiful movement in 1893 was designed to enrich the city with art, new architecture, and improving sanitary conditions. Unfortunately, many times nothing is done about the excruciating situation and it is these examples that are infinitesimal. Two major examples are fossil fuel dependance, and carbon emissions. We all know that sooner or later we will run out of fossil fuels, but we still depend on fossil fuels for our every day functioning, whether it be for our vehicle, lawnmower, or generator. We also know it is this dependance that inadvertantely creates our global warming and ozone deficiencies. Yet, everyday we go about our lives using fossil fuels and adding carbon emissions. It is Henry Ford’s assembly line that created vehicles so fast and efficiently that no one ever stopped to ask if there would be a negative consequence to all these vehicles. Aside from highway congestion and and the creation of automobile suburbs, a dependency was created on all people owning and operating a car.
“Investing an average of $33 billion per year for ten years in improving energy efficiency,(90)-through such programs as weatherization for buildings, heavier use of insulation and other residential and commercial energy saving devices, state of the art energy efficient appliances and lighting, as well as energy efficient industrial processes, and increased automobile fleet mileage to 50 miles per gallon-would cut in half the total energy needs of the world while not decreasing the performance or benefits technology has brought.”
Mr. Fuller devised and created a vehicle that sat 11 people, could travel 195 km/h, got 50 kilometres to the gallon, while also holding on board a bed and a table. The Dymaxion car was never implemented due to an unfortunate accident with a politician’s car, that killed the Dymaxion driver (a famous race car driver) and seriously injured two would-be investors. The technology and the Dymaxion vehicle itself is here and is the solution to our pollution and traffic congestion problems. The Dymaxion car would diminish the severity of the vehicle carbon emissions problem, but fossil fuels in general can be replaced by other forms of energy. Nature has given us many forms of energy, we need to learn how to harness these energies and use them to our advantage.
“The fastest growing energy source in the world in the 1990’s is wind power, which expanded worldwide from 2000 megawatts in 1990 to nearly 5000 megawatts in 1995. There are over 25,000 wind turbines operating in the world in 1996.(95)”
In order for nature to keep supplying us with it’s energy forms we must take care of nature. “The combined effects of planting more trees and grass with a program to reduce both immediate consumption and long-term dependence on fossil fuels would reduce the carbon emissions that are one of the major causes of global warming."
In order to understand how these combined effects work and how to implement them, we must bring it upon ourselves to learn and be educated about the world around us. Information of any kind is important, whether negative or positive information is presented, its importance is only dependant on how you use it. This is the only way we can answer the question “How can we get people to think, behave, and act in a beneficial (for both society and nature) manner?”. No person of a normal state of mind would willfully do something that is bad for themselves and the environment. Everyone needs to be educated to understand what is good and how to attain it for themselves and the environment.
“We have known for over twenty years that people can be taught to read, write and do basic arithmetic through television. Using available technologies, all children and adults who are not currently exposed to traditional education can become literate through educational television.”
Technology can also be used to help educated people of all ages and sexes. Not enough technology is used in teaching people about the world and themselves. It will be a difficult task, but a necessary one for the countries of the world to put aside their religious and cultural dogmatic beliefs and come together to form a system of teaching children all around the world about universal truths (information that is the same in every country, anywhere on the earth). Moreover, the education system needs to be reconstructed, with more feedback from the student while presenting a open-minded atmosphere. The knowledge to help the world is not esoteric but for the majority and we must enable the majority of people to have access to education.
Fuller: “I would not be dealing in tetrahedra and octahedra and icosahedra as the three basic structural systems of Universe if I had gone along with the schools’ geometric teching wherein everything goes back to squares and cubes.” (R. Buckminster Fuller and Anwar Dil, 1983)
Fuller’s dealing with the tetrahedra, octahedra, and icosahedra led him to many findings of the world from the microscopic (that which is to small to be seen by the naked eye) to the macroscopic (that which is big enough to be seen with the naked eye). His revolutionary vision of all matter being multi-faceted and multi-verticed led to the construction of matter in its strongest shape with the least amount of matter used, otherwise known as the “fullerene”, a microscopic molecule theorized to be strong enough to hold metal while also being water soluble. It was later found in nature. The Dymaxion dome is a half portion design of the fullerene acting as the roof with small alteration to the foundation and wood placement for the dome. The dome is constructed out of less material than an equal sized conventional home and has a stronger structural capacity - one of his dome survived unhindered through a massive earthquake in California while all the building structures around it were crippled or destroyed. The Dymaxion Dome is also heated and cooled with ease in comparison to conventional homes. Inexperienced Innuit workers erected a DEW line dome in under fourteen hours under arduous conditions. A Dymaxion house, a variation of the Dymaxion Dome, can be put up by 3-4 people in a matter of a day. Comparing this to conventional homes that are constructed by a crew of 3-4 carpenters that take 6-9 days to construct the frame, the Dymaxion house would be the logical choice for houses. Although, the spherical shape of the Dymaxion house is not pleasant looking to most contemporary people house hunting and remains to be used mainly by scientists. Thousands of domes exist and have found their way into the history books, such as Fuller’s uninsulated aluminum dome in Kumasi, Ghana. This dome uses natural air currents to be suck in from the bottom while the hotter air currents leave through the top, making it cool. The dome uses no evaporation pads, refrigeration equipment, or fans.
“To much of the world, however, homelessness and inadequate housing have long been widespread problems. Currently, about one billion people lack adequate housing,(65) including roughly 100 million who are completely homeless.(66)”
The ease with which a Dymaxion house is built, along with its diminished need of supplies for an equal sized contemporary home, people all over the world would be able to afford one. So affordable and easy they are built that Fuller took the idea a next step further to having a Dymaxion Dome over a city so that the pollution would not escape into the environment and atmosphere, thereby cutting down the carbon emission to almost zero. This dome would also serve as a temperature control unit that could be set to a certain temperature throughout the year, whether it is summer or winter. Moreover, these dome would isolate us from large spatial areas of nature that would go unhindered by human beings, thus conserving the integral balance of nature.
“The total cost of providing self-help housing to all of the inadequately sheltered and homeless people of the world-primarily in the developing world where the needs are greatest-would cost about $21 billion dollars per year for ten years.(69 )This is 2.6% of the world’s total annual military expenditures, 2.1% of illegal drug expenditures or the amount the US spends on golf every 16 months.”
This is a new idea, even by today’s standards, proposed by Fuller that people build their own Dymaxion houses. Since they are so cheap and easy to build, everyone should build their own. To Fuller this would help people lives in many aspects from exercise, self-esteem, team work, to a broader understanding of the world and the matter that surrounds them throughout their lives.
With all these solutions in mind, there is one question that remains. How will all of this be paid for?
“Never before in the entire history of the planet has so much been possible for so many for such a small amount and in such a short time. With a relatively small portfolio of investments per year for the next decade-less than 1% of the world’s annual income- everyone in the world would be wealthier, healthier and more secure and the standard of living would be moving forward at an unprecedented pace.”
1% is all that is needed. Yet the United Nations has not put together 1% of the world’s annual income, because the majority of all income goes to security (military, technology, agents, and weapons).
“An unbalanced approach to security has left many developing nations with more soldiers than teachers and more citizens illiterate than literate.”
We have become so taken up with power that we have sacrificed our time and money into ensuring we have the power to destroy a country and its people should it ever attack our own country. This is futile and has led to domestic inconsiderations. People pay taxes and work hard to make a living and provide not only for their family but for their country alike. The country takes the peoples money and uses it to build nuclear and biological weapons that will sit and radiate lethal radiation into the surrounding area from which people may get sick and even die. The building, maintenance, and storage of these weapons costs billions of dollars a year. Should these weapons, their silos, storage units, and the agencies working to keep eye on the weapons be dissassembled, a surplus of billions of dollars a year would be at the government’s disposal to use for the community to better the lives of the country’s citizens. Our society cannot claim to be acting in the most efficient manner when they are impeding the functioning of the society.
“There are 40,640 nuclear weapons in the world.(120) Each one of these weapons has the capacity of leveling a city, not just a building, as conventional Oklahoma City type of terrorist bombs can and have. Thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people can be murdered with one device. Some nuclear weapons can be carried in a back-pack; all will fit in a truck. Such instruments of terror and genocide have no place in a moral, humane or even semi-intelligent world. Their presence compromises all human progress and makes a mockery of all religious, ethical and cultural codes and standards of behavior. There is no moral or economic argument for their existence. There are no valid “limited” or specific military targets for instruments of total or mass destruction. In a world where already 90% of the casualties in wars are civilians,(121) the use of nuclear weapons is genocide.(122)”
We must change the way we think altogether. Fuller: “I don’t know how long Toronto’s golden moment will last. But, for the moment, it’s the most comfortable city to live in. It’s the cleanest city, and it works.” (technology’s prophet, Toronto Sun, Rachel Ross. February 18, 2002. Section E.)
Bibliography
Buckminster Fuller Institute. (2001) Who is Buckminster Fuller? bfi.org/introduction_to_bmf.htm (March 23, 2002).
Colwell, W., & O’Neil, K. (1996). BuckyWorks: Buckminster Fuller’s Ideas for Today. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Dil, A., & Fuller, R. (1983). Humans In Universe. New York: Mouton.
Estate of Buckminster Fuller (1997). Synergetics: Exploration in the Geometry of Thinking. rwgrayprojects.com/synergeti … etics.html. (March 11, 2002)
Fuller, R. Buckminster (1981). Critical Path. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Fuller, R. Buckminster (1971). Nine Chains to the Moon. Illinois: Illinois University Press.
Fuller, R., & Walker, E., & Killian, J. (1970). Approaching the Benign Environment. Alabama: University of Alabama Press.
Fuller, R. Buchminster (1969). Utopia or Oblivion. New York: Bantam Books Inc.
Rose, Julie. (1996). City Beautiful: The 1901 Plan for Washington D.C… xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/CITYBEAUTIFUL/city.html. (March 12th, 2002)
Siqueira, Rodrigo. A Short Page about Buckminster Fuller (Bucky). lsi.usp.br/usp/rod/bucky/buc … uller.html (March 3, 2002)
Technology’s Prophet. (2002, February 18). The Toronto Star, p. E1. Ross, Rachel. (2002).
WGI Inc. (2001). The World Game Institute. worldgame.org (April 2, 2002)