Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

Appendix

Appendix

2

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Figure 1:  Cover image: Programmatic drawing of Lightful Houses, 1928. [R. Buckminster Fuller Archive. Special Collections, Stanford University]
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Figure 2:  Bucky makes changes to the publishers page proofs for the first edition of Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, taping small pieces of paper to the side of the page. [R. Buckminster Fuller Archive, Special Collections, Stanford University]
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Figure 3: Lecture transcript, October 16, 1967, page 1

3Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth evolved out of a transcript from a lecture Bucky gave on October 16, 1967, in Washington D.C. It was the closing address for the 50th Annual Convention of the American Planner’s Association. This is the first page from the transcript, which was deleted from the opening of the book when it became the raw material for the manuscript.

4

1  Resources

5The Buckminster Fuller Institute

6 www.bfi.org

7Founded in 1983. The Buckminster Fuller Institute serves a global network of design science innovators working at the leading edge of the design revolution Fuller inspired—including the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, an annual $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of solutions to humanity’s most pressing problems. 181 N.11th St. Suite 402/Brooklyn, NY 11211/718 290-9280

8The R. Buckminster Fuller Archive

9 http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/fuller/index.html

10Called in 1976 by archivists from the Smithsonian Institute, ‘‘the most extensive personal archive in existence,’’ the collection contains over 1,300 linear feet of papers and manuscripts, 2,000 hours of video and audio recordings, and thousands of models and other artifacts.

11Dept of Special Collections/The Stanford University Libraries/Stanford, CA 94305

12The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller

13 http://www.buckminsterfuller.net

14Fostering the preservation, publication, and dissemination of Buckminster Fuller’s legacy.

15P.O. Box 3248/Santa Barbara. CA 93130/Fax: 805 456-2912

16The Earth Policy Institute

17 www.earthpolicy.org

18The Earth Policy Institute, dedicated to building a sustainable future as well as providing a plan of how to get from here to there, publishes the remarkable book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by founder and President Lester R. Brown (free online access).

191350 Connecticut Ave. NW. Suite 403/Washington, DC 20036/Fax: 202 496-9325

20The ONE Campaign

21 www.one.org

22The campaign to make poverty history is over 2.4 million people committed to raising public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease, and efforts to fight such problems in the world’s poorest countries.

23Rocky Mountain Institute

24 www.rmi.org

25An independent, entrepreneurial, nonprofit organization fostering the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining, co-founded by scientist Amory Lovins, and featuring publications such as their groundbreaking Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security (free online access).

262317 Snowmass Creek Road/Snowmass, CO 81654/970 927-3851

27The We Campaign

28 www.wecansolveit.org

29A project of The Alliance for Climate Protection—a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore that aims to halt global warming through educating people in the U.S. and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.

30

2  Bibliography

31PIC

32

3  Books by R. Buckminster Fuller

334-D Timelock, 1928

34Nine Chains to the Moon. 1938

35Education Automation, 1962

36Untitled Epic Poem on the History of Industrialization, 1962

37Ideas and Integrities, 1963

38No More Secondhand God, 1963

39World Design Science Decade,3 1963--1967 Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1969

41Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects for Humanity. 1969

42Buckminster Fuller to the Children of the Earth, 1972

43Intuition, 1972

44Earth, Inc., 1973

45Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking.4 1975 Tetrascroll, 1975

47And It Came to Pass--- Not to Stay, 1976

48On Education,5 1979 Synergetics 2: Further Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking,6 1979 Critical Path,1981

51Grunch of Giants, 1983

52Inventions: The Patented Works of R. Buckminster Fuller, 1983

53Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity7 1992

55

4  Published by Lars Müller Publishers

56And It Came to Pass--- Not to Stay, new edition 2008

57Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, new edition 2008

58Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects for Humanity, new edition 2008

59Fuller Houses: R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Dwellings and other Domestic Adventures. Federico Neder, 2008

60Your Private Sky: The Art of Design Science, Volume 1, 1999, edited by Joachim Krause and Claude Lichtenstein

61Your Private Sky: Discourse: The Art of Design Science, Volume 2, 2000, edited by Joachim Krause and Claude Lichtenstein

62

5  Acknowledgments

63From the bottom of my heart, I wish to thank all the devoted and inspired individuals who assisted me in preparing these new editions of Buckminster Fuller’s books:

64I could not have undertaken this project without the unswerving support of my beloved wife, Cheryl. She was my partner, primary advisor, and tireless editor in reviewing the new materials I wrote. She always encouraged me to seize this moment to bring focus to the grave challenges—and opportunities—facing our planet.

65It was a great pleasure to work again with Dr. Janet Brown. She joined me in the multimonth process of re-reading the books for the series, updating facts and figures, and finally in being an expert editor. And as in any project I undertake at this point in my life, John Ferry is at my side—as he has been for over 25 years. He backed me up with finding photos, selecting images, assembling materials, researching background facts, and resolving any other loose ends, not to mention the management of our numerous other projects.

66I want to also thank Roberto Trujillo, head of Stanford University’s Department of Special Collections, for his support of my research at the R. Buckminster Fuller Archive. I especially want to thank Mattie Taormina, the Head of Public Services and Manuscripts Processing Librarian, who facilitated my research and expedited my needs for scans of images from the Archive. Living nearby, it was an unexpected treat to be able to spend some days in their beautiful reading room to joyfully commune with Bucky through his own working papers.

67I particularly would like to express my appreciation for Lars Müller. Lars and I have been enjoying talking about this project for almost ten years, ever since he designed the two beautiful volumes of Your Private Sky: The Art of Design Science. Lars is a great artist of book design, and his encouragement all along the way inspired me to pursue the vision of presenting these books to a new generation in a fashion fitting to their remarkable prescience. I want to also acknowledge his fine team at Lars Müller Publishers in Switzerland: Michael Furrer, Katharina Kulke, and Lea Pfister, supplemented by Jonathan Fox in Spain. I cannot imagine a more competent team to undertake such a task.

68And finally I want to express my gratitude to my dear ‘‘Fuller’’ family: my sister, Alexandra Fuller May, a passionate champion of design revolution, who urged us to go for a design that would reach a vital new audience. My mother, Allegra Fuller Snyder, who cheered me on in this project, and gave of her aesthetic wisdom and deep sensitivity for Bucky’s way of being. My father, the late Robert Snyder, who joined the fold and gave so much to this work as a pioneering documentarian of Bucky. My aunt Alexandra Fuller, who died five years before Allegra was born. And dear dear Bucky and Anne, who gave so much for us.

69J.S.

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Figure 4: Note to Vernon

71During the 1960’s Bucky was Research Professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Illinois. While there, he published a number of books at Southern Illinois University Press, including the first edition of Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. The editor there was Vernon Sternberg. In this handwritten note—a photocopy placed amidst a rather final edition and a schedule from the publisher of upcoming page proofs—Bucky writes of Operating Manual: ‘‘Vernon. As I finished this I realize that we may have in it a runaway bestseller…good luck, and affectionate regard, Bucky.’’

72[R. Buckminster Fuller Archive, Special Collections, Stanford University]