Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth [Hardcover]

R. Buckminster Fuller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 089190235X | ISBN-13: 978-0891902355 | Publication Date: June 19, 1998

In this essay on man Mr. Fuller expresses what may well be his penultimate view of the human condition. Here, in a mood at once philosophical and involved, Mr. Fuller traces man s intellectual evolution and weighs his capability for survival on this magnificent craft, this Spaceship Earth, this superbly designed sphere of almost negligible dimension in the great vastness of space.
Mr. Fuller is optimistic that man will survive and, through research and development and increased industrialization, generate wealth so rapidly that he can do very great things. But, he notes, there must be an enormous educational task successfully accomplished right now to convert man's tendency toward oblivion into a realization of his potential, to a universe-exploring advantage from this Spaceship Earth.
It has been noted that Mr. Fuller spins ideas in clusters, and clusters of his ideas generate still other clusters. The concept spaceship earth is Mr. Fuller's, and though used by Barbara Ward as the title of a work of her own the idea was acknowledged by her there as deriving from Mr. Fuller. The brilliant syntheses of some fundamental Fuller principles given here makes of this book a microcosm of the Fuller system.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Buckminster Fuller was a Research Professor at Southern Illinois University beginning in 1959. In 1968 the Board of Trustees appointed him University Professor, the second faculty member so honored in the University's history.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd (June 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089190235X
• ISBN-13: 978-0891902355
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A primer for Bucky's followers, July 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (Hardcover)

If you have any interest in R. Buckminster Fuller's philosophies, inventions and thoughts, this book is a good starting point. Other of his works can be more difficult to absorb, easily. Fuller's basic concepts of "synergy," "ephemeralization" and "modern day pirates" are all made clear here. If you read this short work and are intrigued by the man and the distinctions he brought to the world, you can proceed from here. Sorry OMSE is getting difficult to find. Now that Bucky's "phantom Captain" has moved on, his words are what we have to instruct us -- these, and the wonderful contributions of Bucky's students to the "world game."

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Control, Operate and Plan Your Spaceship, March 10, 2000

By 

rareoopdvds (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (Hardcover)

R. Buckminster Fuller's (Bucky hereout), designer of the geodesic dome (one can see at EPCOT), lays down the thought patterns of a successful world in this short and concise book based on his discoveries (probably more appropriate than inventions, as he said "I am not tryingto imitate nature, I'm trying to find the principles she uses"). It is in this book that Bucky gives the reader insight into how he thinks, and how to change ones thinking entirely, to see the Earth as a Spaceship. To feel yourself riding the Earth as a Spaceship. Demonstrating from the anceint "pirates" and how evolution is changed through specialization. How a wealthy nation, such as ours, cannot afford to make economical mishaps or delays on such life-giving elements as water. Moving our modes of consciousness into Einsteinian, omni-directional thinking, we can then turn to everyone to "co-operate." To help others, and not gain at the expense of others. Certainly a classic in its own right, this book will change the way you think, not about life or the world, just that you change your thinking, making every action a universal consequence. There is only one Earth, and we are all living in it. Reccomended!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Clairvoyant Work, April 24, 2010

By 

Ila France Porcher "author of My Sunset Rende... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (Paperback)

Buckminster Fuller was a remarkable genius whose works are absolutely unique.

This book is a good introduction to his transcendent way of thinking. It describes for the first time, the concept that our little planet has finite resources, and since it was written, we have seen that he sensed very well the direction that society was taking.

Though his thoughts may seem outdated now in certain ways, this book, and his other works, continue to provide inspired reading within the framework of the quest to understand human life on this planet, and related philosophical ideas.