Buckminster Fuller
Born July 12, 1895 - - Milton, Massachusetts
Died July 1, 1983 (age 87) - - Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse Anne Fuller - - Children 2

Throughout his life, Buckminster Fuller was concerned with the question "Does humanity have a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how?" Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree, he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual could do to improve humanity's condition that large organizations, governments, or private enterprises inherently could not do. Bucky termed himself as a TrimTab dedicating his life as an experiment he labeled "Guinea Pig B" and as a scientist recorded his experiment in TONS of material he labeled as: Dymaxion Chronofile. His chronological arrangement of files according to EVENTS works in alignment with HOW the brain MEMORY software functions... We remember (store memories) whatever make lasting impressions... He revealed the value of keeping accurate operating records organized in a fashion that is easily remember and accessible. For Bucky, family history was a vital psychological foundation along with his absoltue faith in the eternal cosmic intellligence, we term as God. He definitely would approve of Internet Archives, such as: You Tube, TED, Wiki projects, and historical work of Ephemera Societies that collect a broad range of minor (and sometimes major) everyday documents intended for one-time or short-term use, but often prove extremely value at a later time especially for Collectors, Curators, and Historians. Scrapbooking is a hobby that taps into this memory capturing-sharing "collecting" of snippets and tidbits... Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of a scrapbook. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journaling. Scrapbooking is a widely and increasingly practiced pastime in most developed countries.

Pursuing this lifelong experiment and chronofiling, exploring how human beings could acquire ideals, instead of continuing on the path of self-destruction and being "discontinued items" on this planet or elsewhere in the universe... Buckminster Fuller wrote over 30 books, coining and popularizing terms such as "spaceship earth", "ephemeralization", and "synergetics" - one interdependent system of relationships. He also worked in the development of numerous inventions, chiefly in the fields of design and architecture, the best known of which is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesic_domegeodesic dome... Buckminster Fuller believed that we must work together as a crew if we are to survive on our planet, "spaceship earth."... His visions turn into a Disney World attraction known as Epcot.

Late in his life, after working on his concepts for several decades, Buckminster Fuller achieved considerable public visibility. He traveled the world giving lectures, and received numerous honorary doctorates. Most of his inventions, however, never made it into production, and he was strongly criticized in most of the fields that he tried to influence (such as architecture), or simply dismissed as a hopeless utopian. Fuller's proponents, on the other hand, claim that his work has not yet received the attention that it deserves... One his production is the Dymaxion Map...

R. Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion Map

Dymaxion = Dynamic + Maximum + Tension = 'Doing More With Less'

The word Dymaxion and the Dymaxion Map™ design
are trademarks of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

The Dymaxion™ Air-Ocean World map, invented by R. Buckminster fuller, shows our planet without any visible distortion of relative shapes and sizes of the land and sea areas, and without any breaks in the continental contours. A favorite with Bucky fans, schools, students of all ages, and parents. Get Dymaxion Maps to share and one for you too.

An Accurate Tool

All flat world map representations of a sherical globe contain some amount of distortion either in shape, area, distance, or direction measurements. On the well-known Mercator world map, Greenland appears to be three times its corresponding globe size and Antarctica appears as a long thin white strip along the bottom edge of the map. Even the popular Robinson Projection, now used in many schools, still contains a large amount of distortion with Greenland 60 percent larger than its corresponding globe size

A New Perception of Earth

If a world map presents visually obvious distortions of our world, then our perceptions and presumtions become distorted. Every projection must make certain compromises as information is transferred from a spherical globe to a flat surface. As early as 1927, R. Buckminster Fuller began to search for and develop an accurate 2-dimensional world map. The Fuller Projection enables us to visualize the planet's surface in a single view without visually obvious distortions of the relative shapes, sizes or connections of the continents.

World maps are symbolic tools which help to shape our perception of Earth. Every world map projection must make certain compromises as information is transferred from a spherical globe to a flat surface. With this in mind, as early as 1927 Buckminster Fuller, an educator, engineer, architect, author, cartographer and futurist, set out to develop the world's most accurate 2-dimensional world map.

He wanted to provide a view of the whole Earth at once which would have the ability to reveal major trends in world affairs and show the shortest air routes between land masses. Fuller predicted even then that global travel would shift from the sea to the sky and anticipated the emergence of what he termed 'a OneTown Air-Ocean World.'

Designing for Accuracy

Using the some mathematical principles on which his world famous geodesic domes were to be based, Fuller carefully designed a way to display the world all at once, with the least amount of visual distortion. Throughout the next 26 years he refined his world projection through many successive versions in order to reach the highest level of accuracy.

In 1954 Fuller called his final icosahedral projection the 'Dymaxion Air-Ocean World.' (The term 'Dymaxion' was coined in the 1930's from Fuller's most commonly used words: dynamic, maximum and tension.)

In 1980, an even more elegant and accurate Dymaxion Map was developed by Fuller associates Rob Grip and Christopher Kitrick, by using computer-generated algorithms for latitude and longitude information. Now a brand new edition of Fuller's remarkable map, 'The Fuller Projection' has been designed and updated by the Buckminster Fuller Institute using the distinguished cartographic services of R.R. Donnelley & Sons.

A Tool for Global Responsibility

With our increasing global awareness, a world map is needed which enables us to highlight the relationships among all nations and cultures of the world rather than one which emphasizes artificial boundaries between them. Environmental concerns are becoming a central focus of our international agenda. Therefore, we must learn to see what unites us rather than what separates us, and to chart global resources, population and distribution patterns which characterize the complex trends and critical needs of the world today.

In Fuller's own words, 'the Dymaxion Map reveals a One-World Island in a One-World Ocean' which helps us to view the world as one interdependent system of relationships.

Our Spaceship Earth: One Island in One Ocean ... from space Satellite Self Portrait Dymaxion Map

Fondly called Our Spaceship Earth, this map combines the latest in natural color satellite photograph technology with the accuracy of the Fuller Projection to create a truly stunning, cloud-free image of our world. (Order)

The Satellite Self-Portrait Dymaxion Map shows a remarkable cloud-free view of Earth was produced by mosaicking hundreds of individual satellite images acquired from the NOAA (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) series of weather satellites which orbit the earth at an altitude of 520 miles (820 km).

Once the base satellite mosaic had been completed, the land areas were enhanced with shaded-relief imagery bringing the Earth's topography to life. For the ocean areas, WorldSat incorporated ocean floor relief data enhanced with SST (Sea Surface Temperature) data, which revealed major ocean currents across the Earth.

Richly colored blues, greens and ambers glow against a deep, matte black background. Sunlight is fixed at 45 degrees over the horizon in a north north-east orientation, creating a uniform shadow that clarifies relief for an excellent delineation of the mountains, plains and ocean floor features.

Dymaxion Globe

The fold-up globe in second earth image is based on R.Buckminster Fuller's world map in third image. Fuller created several world maps in his attempts to create a visually accurate flat rendition of a sherical globe. His final version was based on the icosahedron, a polyhedron with 20 equilateral triangular faces. Fuller first published his icosahedral version of the map in 1954. This is a cloud-free satellite image globe based on his icosahedral world map

The Dymaxion Globe Fold-Up Puzzle teaches tactile skills, geometry, cartography, and a new perception of earth. Excellent for home schooling too.

Order model and map

"Good questions outrank easy answers."
(Economics Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson)
FAQ at http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/faq/index.shtml

The word Dymaxion and the Dymaxion Map™ design are trademarks of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

The map is also copyrighted by the Buckminster Fuller Institute, 1938, 1967, 1980 & 1992

http://www.bfi.org/

Buckminster Fuller had one of the most fascinating and original minds of his century. Born in 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts, he was the latest- -if not the last- -of the New England Transcendentalists. Like the transcendentalists, Fuller rejected the established religious and political notions of the past and adhered to an idealistic system of thought based on the essential unity of the natural world and the use of experiment and intuition as a means of understanding it. But, departing from the pattern of his New England predecessors, he proposed that only an understanding of technology in the deepest sense would afford humans a proper guide to individual conduct and the eventual salvation of society. Industrial and scientific technology, despite their disruption of established habits and values, was not a blight on the landscape, but in fact for Fuller they have a redeeming humanitarian role.

America has been in the middle of a love-hate affair with technology - - and Fuller is right in the middle of it. He introduced not only a unique rationale for technology, but an esthetic of it. Likewise his synergetic geometry bears for Fuller an imperative with an ethical content for humans to reappraise their relationship to the physical universe.

Buckminster Fuller rejected the conventional disciplines of the universities by ignoring them. In their place he imposed his own self-discipline and his own novel way of thinking in a deliberate attempt - - as poets and artists do - - to change his generation's perception of the world. To this end he created the term Spaceship Earth to convince all his fellow passengers that they would have to work together as the crew of a ship. His was an earnest, even compulsive, program to convince his listeners that humans had a function in universe. Humans have a destiny to serve as "local problem solvers" converting their experience to the highest advantage of others.

R. Buckminster Fuller; inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet, philosopher, and cosmologist was one of the most enlightened mystics of the last century. His universal vision saw our planet as ‚"Spaceship Earth‚". He secretly took the responsibility of being a ‚"ship's captain‚" and with passionate intent made his goal helping to care for everyone onboard. Bucky committed his entire productivity to the whole planet Earth and its resources; undertaking to protect and advance all life. He found greater effectiveness in his work when doing so entirely for others. The larger number for who he worked, the more positively effective he became.

Fuller's favorite method of teaching - - in the tradition of all great teachers since the Greek philosophers - - was lecturing to large and youthful audiences. Though his penchant for talking for hours on end was notorious, he really regarded all communication as a two-way street, and he was remarkably sensitive to individual reactions- -well beyond those in the front row. He tuned his always extemporaneous discourse to the rate he could see it being absorbed and digested. In the 1960s and 70s a generation seized on his prescription that there was no need to "earn a living" - - often disregarding the other side of the coin: the need for individual initiative in "doing what needs to be done." In this spirit he advanced "design science" as the solution for worldwide social and ecological problems.

Buckminster Fuller was an architect, though he never got a degree and in fact didn't even get a license until he was awarded one as an honor when he was in his late 60s. This did not prevent him from designing the geodesic dome: the only kind of building that can be set on the ground as a complete structure - - and with no limiting dimension. The strength of the frame actually increases in ratio to its size, enclosing the largest volume of space with the least area of surface. This was his virtuoso invention, and he said it illustrated his strategy of "starting with wholes" rather than parts.

Buckminster Fuller often refers to laws of Intellectual Integrity governing universe: (RE: last 3 paragraphs in 'Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth' by Buckminster Fuller)

It is also to be remembered that despite the fact that you are accustomed to thinking only in dots and lines and a little bit in areas does not defeat the fact that we live in omnidirectional space-time and that a four dimensional universe provides ample individual freedoms for any contingencies.

You may very appropriately want to ask me how we are going to resolve the ever-acceleratingly dangerous impasse of world-opposed politicians and ideological dogmas. I answer, it will be resolved by the computer. Man has ever-increasing confidence in the computer; witness his unconcerned landings as airtransport passengers coming in for a landing in the combined invisibility of fog and night. While no politician or political system can ever afford to yield understandably and enthusiastically to their adversaries and opposers, all politicians can and will yield enthusiastically to the computers safe flight-controlling capabilities in bringing all of humanity in for a happy landing.

So, planners, architects, and engineers take the initiative. Go to work, and above all co-operate and don’t hold back on one another or try to gain at the expense of another. Any success in such lopsidedness will be increasingly short-lived. These are the synergetic rules that evolution is employing and trying to make clear to us. They are not man-made laws. They are the infinitely accommodative laws of the intellectual integrity governing universe.

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