Approaching the Benign Environment, the Franklin Lectures in the Sciences and Humanities

by R. Buckminster Fuller, Eric A Walker, James R. Killian

A powerful, creative answer to the prophets of ecological doom - three distinguished scientists chart a fresh course for "Spaceship Earth."

Genres: Science

121 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was an American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, and inventor.

Fuller published more than 30 books, coining or popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetic. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, and popularized the widely known geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their structural and mathematical resemblance to geodesic spheres.

Buckminster Fuller was the second president of Mensa from 1974 to 1983.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book. I've tried to read some of Bucky Fuller's work before and found it either too esoteric or dry. The latter was admittedly a collection of patented works. Mr. Fuller is best known as the inventor of the geodesic dome and the term "Bucky Balls" which both relate to his discoveries in ultimate stability of physical states.
This book is actually designed as a lecture series and that is what makes it so accessible. Mr. Fuller is considered one of the great minds of the 20th century and he endeavors here to cover a lot of ground for those who are not so scientifically inclined.

It should be noted as well that there are two other lectures included in the book by Eric Walker and James Killian. I was not impressed by the generalizations of Mr. Walker and have not read Mr. Killian's piece. They both only included 20 pages of material. Mr. Fuller's submission is 80 pages which makes it much more in depth yet renders it more approachable than the longer works of his which I have encountered.

I suppose that I should note at this point that I may be spoiling the book for some with discussion of the subject matter. So consider yourself warned!

I was most impressed with the historical insight into the power struggles of the last thousand years or so. Bucky points out that the laws of man as granted to whatever powers that be have traditionally only been valid on land. With the sea covering the majority of the planet, this means that the majority of laws have never represented a majority of the planet's area.

Also, as the sea-going vessels became larger and more reliable the power of their owners increased. These owners were not subject to national laws and could see fit to associate with anyone they so chose. The trade made possible by their association made them very beneficial friends for any nation. However, the point that Bucky makes is that the shipping powers literally made the nations that they favored, not the other way around, and destroyed those they did not favor. He calls all the shipping interests pirates. He differentiates them only by whether they were "in" or "out". That is, if they were operating "in" the law of any state or not. Essentially, a company like the East India Trading Company was a sovereign power that enabled countries to stabilize their governments, consolidate power and suppress enemies. This was a paradigm that has shifted somewhat in modern times but has left us with a host of artifacts in law, trade, government, national relations, etc.

This is just the part of the lecture that caught my attention. Maybe you will be attracted to another aspect. You can't go wrong when you listen to the insights of a great mind.