Alec Nevala-Lee paints a compelling portrait of Buckminster Fuller in “Inventor of the Future”, a new book
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitask“My objective”, Fuller wrote with typical immodesty, “has been humanity’s comprehensive welfare in the universe.” In pursuit of that goal he crafted not only innovative technologies but new perspectives, coining terms such as “Spaceship Earth”, which encouraged his fellow voyagers to view the planet as a fragile vessel. But it was a ship ultimately capable of being steered by a skilled and benevolent captain.
Fuller’s path to recognition as a messiah of salvation-through-technology is an improbable tale of redemption. He was born in 1895 into a distinguished family in Massachusetts ; but his father’s early death left him financially and socially insecure. At the age of 32, with a string of disasters behind him—including two expulsions from Harvard, a chequered employment history and, most tragically, the death of a young daughter—he stood on the shore of Lake Michigan contemplating suicide.
More important than these innovations—which never quite lived up to their transformational promise—were less tangible but mind-expanding ideas, which he tossed off with abandon. Among the most fruitful were “ephemeralisation”, the aspiration to do “”, which anticipated the information age; and the World Game workshops, which involved scores of young disciples dedicated to a more equitable and sustainable distribution of global resources.
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