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R. Buckminster Fuller
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Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects For Humanity Paperback – January 1, 1972

by R. Buckminster Fuller (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 68 ratings
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From the back cover: A provocative and challengin blueprint for the future by one of the world's leading philosopher-scientists. The thesis: mankind has, perhaps for the first time, the prospect of a world of maximum abundance--imminent utopia. Man will be able to solve all the physicall problems of his existence because the real wealth of the world is information and energy. And these are increasing without forseeable limit. However, we have acquired the means of total destruction of the human race, too. The threat of nuclear holocaust is very real. Obsolete concerns with political systems, the pressures of unnecessary poverty, with its attendant riots and wars, can easily trigger oblivion. Now is the time for for changes--and here is how they can be made!
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  1. Print length
    366 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bantam Books
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1972
  5. ISBN-10
    0553028839
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0553028836
  7. See all details
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • asherasator
    5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Genius
    Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2012
    This is one of the greatest books you will ever read. He is one of the most important figures of the 20th century only surpassed by Nikola Tesla. This book will open your eyes to so many things of science, politics, ecology, economics & much more. It is so profound & important I think it should be required reading for all politicians, all involved in academia & a must read for all High School & University students.

    Richard Buckminster Fuller is a University to himself. I highly recommend everybody to watch on youtube his series of lectures "Everything I Know", they are from 2-3 hours each, & you'll learn more from him than probably anywhere or anybody else in your life. I discovered him later in life & wish I could have discovered him earlier. This man is a treasure chest of wisdom, profound empirical knowledge & overall supreme intellect he will blow your mind. He is a Demigod.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Denis
    3.0 out of 5 stars Small print for grand ideas
    Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Small print is hard to read
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  • L.Verde
    4.0 out of 5 stars FULLER -- Utopia or Oblivion
    Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    Series of Essays. I was mostly interested in the title essay. Fuller is circuitous and long-winded with a few good "kernels" hidden within :-)
    3 people found this helpful
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  • David Brewer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Ahh Bucky, What Became of Your Kind?
    Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2009
    In its day (1969-72, when I first read it), this was one of those inspirational heartbreakers -- why can't EVERYONE see the promise of the approaching possible Golden Era? But with time (what, over 35 years now, since I first read it) even the great futurist himself seems a little dated. And I'd forgotten (or never really noticed before) how angry he could get, and not just at the Great Pirates who well deserve(d) it (especially considering recent economic news), but for those who had slighted him in the past as a gadfly of sorts. These lectures/expositions are a series of previously-published papers, and there is a lot of redundancy, but the basic question ("It's up to us, do we want to succeed or fail?") still rings true. And some of his ideas, like the World-Wide Electrical Power Grid, and the end of the Nation-States were absolutely brilliant in their foresight. The bottom line, however, and what I think will be his legacy, is to look at the world not only differently (the sun doesn't set, the world turns), but holistically (there is no up and down, only in and out)... and how about those buckminsterfullerene molecules -- they will change the world. We'll miss your kind, Bucky... we already do. (As a side note, I got to shake hands and speak briefly with Bucky after his Earth Day speech at Florida State University in 1974[?], just as the sun went down, and it still brings a tear to my eye to recall how both intelligent and innocent he was at the same time.)
    41 people found this helpful
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  • M. A. Plus
    3.0 out of 5 stars So what went wrong?
    Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2008
    In the 1960's, Buckminster Fuller lectured to anyone who would listen (and he had no trouble getting speaking engagements around the world) that shipbuilders, and then aircraft engineers, aerospace engineers, electronics engineers and companies in the business of building advanced weapon systems, had stumbled across principles for doing more with less, a trend he called "ephemeralization," which squeezed ever higher performances out of every pound of resources. By bringing the obsolete versions of these technologies onto the civilian market while going on to the next technological frontiers, these companies had inadvertently raised humanity's economic efficiency and started the process of overcoming traditional Malthusian limits. Fuller estimated that only 1 percent of humanity could live "successfully" on a physical level before the 20th Century because of the inefficient use of resources, but because of ephemeralization, by the 1960's the percentage of successful humanity had reached into the 40's. Fuller then argued (over and over again, which makes this book a bit repetitive) that a "design science revolution" led by 1960's college students could bypass political barriers and in a decade or so bring this level of success to "100 percent of humanity," even with population growth, which Fuller expected would stop once everyone became sufficiently affluent.

    Well, 40 years have passed since then. We still don't have anything near "100 percent of humanity" living as a physical success despite enormous economic growth since then (and many countries have slipped backwards), so what happened to all those trends Fuller claimed he identified from the scapbooks he kept and called his Chronofile? (I would especially like to see the "500 pound black box," costing $2 a pound in 1960's prices, that Fuller predicts on pages 432-3 would come out of the space program and supply an Earth-based household with its needs for fresh water and sewage recycling without a plumbing hook up. Perhaps we never got that because the manned space age effectively ended over 30 years ago after the Apollo moon landings, an example of technological progress hitting limits instead of shooting off exponentially.)

    And why does Fuller still have a cult following? He seems way over-rated as an inventor, considering that his most famous invention, the Geodesic Dome (which he might have cribbed from a German architect who built one over a planetarium in the 1920's), just doesn't work that well as a practical shelter. In fact, we've seen many of his domes demolished and replaced with more traditional structures since the 1960's.

    Contrast Fuller with Ray Kurzweil, a current celebrity inventor who lectures to everyone who will listen about the Singularity. Kurzweil, like Fuller, has drawn graphs which allegedly show trends to support his vision of the future; but Kurzweil, unlike Fuller, also has some inventions to his credit which happen to work and do useful things, like music synthesizers and reading machines for the blind. But despite Kurzweil's more solid accomplishments, I suspect he'll resemble Fuller as a failed futurologist in another couple decades.

    On the bottom line, "Utopia or Oblivion" has some historical value; but like a lot of gee-whiz books about "the future" published in the 1960's and 1970's, it makes for disappointing reading in the real 21st Century. Fuller's false alternatives of utopia or oblivion failed to take into account man's ability just to muddle along.
    25 people found this helpful
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  • jo
    4.0 out of 5 stars bucky-my hero and inspiration
    Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2001
    A very tough read which I go to over and over again, I was inspired and enlightened every step of the way. Bucky's revolutionary ideas are the way of the future. Enable a future. A true visionary he saw the inevitable and being the humanitarian that he was, along with his genius devised ways to achieve world peace, free of hunger. Less is more...doing more with less. The design science revolution. A must read if you are interested in urban planning, and making a difference. Made me want to fulfill his dream. If you build it they will come. He got the buckyball rolling. Great for youth if only he wasn't so darn hard to read. Explains very well the corporate and military structure as well and the evilness implicit in the malthusian robber-baron structure to our economy. I gave it a four star review but conceptually it is 5 star...it being so difficult...I gave it a four. Bucky like McLuhan is more relevant today than in his own time and equally hard to read.
    15 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Capit
    3.0 out of 5 stars Not what you expected
    Reviewed in Canada on January 9, 2024
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    Just a bunch of conferences put on a paper. Not coherent.
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  • Ana
    5.0 out of 5 stars My experience
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2013
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    The purchase of an old book is always a risk, because you never know how it is and how you'll receive it. I am happy to say that this was a great purchase. I arrived in time and in good conditions.
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  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2016
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    very happy with the service you provide. solid.
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