LOGISTICS AND STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK—ROADMAP TO UNIVERSE
Guest Essays by David McConville, Jim Reger and David Irvine, Werner Erhard, Justine Willis Toms, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gary Zukav, Jack Elias
Chapter 2
PURPOSE: HUMANS ON EARTH
Guest Essays by Robert White, Greg Voisen, Hazel Henderson, TJ Mackey, Anna Beshlian, Stephen Garrett, Velcrow Ripper, Thomas Myers
Chapter 3
BEING: SHOWING UP FULLY
Guest Essays by Randolph L. Craft, Dr. Joel Levey, James Roswell Quinn, Stephan A. Schwartz, DC Cordova
Chapter 4
DESIGN: TRIMTAB ON THE PATH
Guest Essays by Bobbi DePorter, Zoe Weil, Ann Medlock, Satyen Raja, Roshi Joan Halifax, L. D. Thompson
Chapter 5
CONSCIOUSNESS: WAKING UP TO BEING AWAKE
Guest Essays by John Robbins, Ocean Robbins, Lynne Twist, Marilyn Schlitz, Lisa Matheson, David Spangler
Chapter 6
UNITY: IT’S EVERYBODY OR NOBODY
Guest Essays by Kevin J. Todeschi, Lynne Twist, Jamal Rahman, Dr. David Gruder
Chapter 7
ACTION: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Guest Essays by Dr. Cherie Clark, Peter Meisen, Michelle Levey, Bill Kauth, Rick Ingrasci, Michela Miller, Hunter Lovins
INDEX OF QUOTATIONS AND GUEST COMMENTATORS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
EPILOGUE—DEDICATION
AUTHOR BIO
FOREWORD
By Michael Wiese
“Ninety-nine percent of humanity does not know that we have the option to ‘make it’ economically on this planet and in the Universe. We do. It can only be accomplished, however, through a design science initiative and technological revolution.”—Critical Path
I HAD THE EXTREME GOOD FORTUNE TO KNOW BUCKY, TO see him in action, and to try to put his teachings into practice. He influenced and changed the direction of my life.
1970
I am in my early twenties, living in Tokyo, when someone sends me Stewart Brand’s The Whole Earth Catalog. I order all of Bucky’s books and read them in my tiny tatami room. This futuristic city is designed to accommodate and service the needs of its teeming population and therefore seems like a good place to think about how to make the world work for everyone.
In a world convinced that scarcity is the norm, Bucky is the first person I’ve ever heard who is certain the world holds abundance and that by employing design science we can raise the standard of living for everyone. Sitting in a temple in Kyoto, it occurs to me that Bucky may have taken the vow of the bodhisattva.
1972
I visit my folks in Champaign, Illinois. I’ve been invited to a luncheon lecture at my mother’s Art Club. As the red Jell-O is being passed around, the din of silverware on china is hushed by a loud noise as the speaker bangs his shoe on the podium. It is Buckminster Fuller. “It’s five minutes to midnight! This is humanity’s final exam!” Shocked silence. Inwardly, I cheer, “Go Bucky Go”! Afterwards, I hurry up to meet the great man.
1975
In San Francisco, I sit around the kitchen table with a friend planning a series of events to be called “Guardians of the Planet.” Bucky Fuller, Jacques Cousteau, and Frederick Leboyer are on our wish list. We start with Bucky, but after hearing him, we go no further down our list.
1977
I arrange my life so I can work on events and films with Bucky; anything to be in his presence. During filming at Pajaro Dunes, Bucky walks along the beach. Suddenly he stops, stoops down, and scoops up a handful of white foam from the surf. “Dear boy, you don’t think Nature uses pi when she creates these magnificent bubbles?"
1978
I’ve had the good fortune of sharing a July 12th birthday with Bucky. We were able to celebrate it together a couple of times. Once was in Bali. He invites friends and colleagues to a mini-conference he calls Campuan (the meeting of two rivers) to share global or universal experiences. Attendees include Kenneth Clarke, Werner Erhard, Lim Chong Keat, Nina Rockefeller, Arie Smit, Shirley Sharkey, and others. I attend as a “junior varsity” member and tape record the event.
At the birthday party, the Balinese surprise Bucky with a bamboo dome, blessings, flowers, and offerings, which they present in his honor. Bucky loves the Balinese. He says they exemplify natural cooperation and, like the crew of a sailing ship, spontaneously know what to do. This suggests to me a natural knowing and interconnectedness: something Bucky and the Balinese have tapped into.
When we return from Bali, a group of friends host a dinner for Bucky. After dinner, Neal Rogin and I perform a shadow play we had written for Bucky. I made a shadow puppet that in silhouette looks like him. As I recall, the story takes place in heaven as a being is about to be sent down to Earth on a mission to save the planet. Bucky sits in a lawn chair, surrounded by young people, totally transfixed by the shadow play. Then Morgan Smith sings a song she had written for him called “Great Grandfather,” which expresses for all of us our deep affection for Bucky. He doesn’t say anything but I can see tears well up behind his thick glasses.
One beautiful October, as the leaves change to red and yellow, I visit Bucky in Maine. He has just returned from a stint in the hospital and is anxious to get his beloved sailboat Intuition back into the water. We film him sailing around his house on Bear Island for an interspecies communication film called Dolphin.
We watch in wonder as dolphins ride the bow wave, weaving in and out below us. “Beautiful, just beautiful. Nature wouldn’t have given the dolphin such a large brain unless she was doing something quite extraordinary with it.” This statement reflects my own understanding and I spend the next couple years making films on dolphins taking this message to the world.
1979
As a mentor and teacher, Bucky is inexhaustible. At dinner together he fills the tablecloth with drawings of tetrahedrons and tutors me in synergetic mathematics. I tell Bucky that I just don’t get it but he persists, knowing that unless we all understand how to employ Nature’s principles, humanity will be doomed with its antiquated way of thinking about the Earth’s resources.
1982
Even at 86, Bucky is still traveling around the world, speaking