Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

R. Buckminster Fuller

ISBN 10: 0671780468 / ISBN 13: 9780671780463

Published by Pocket Books, New York, 1970

About this Item

In near fine condition; points of light rubbing along edges of front cover; light toning to clean interior; binding tight; spine non-creased. Inv. PA47014. 127 numbered pages. 7 x 4 1/8 in. Seller Inventory # 004474

Bibliographic Details

Title: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

Publisher: Pocket Books, New York

Publication Date: 1970

Binding: Soft cover

Illustrator: Gomez (cover art)

Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis:

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 manâ 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 manâ 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 earthâ is Mr. Fullerâ 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.

About the Author:

R.   Buckminster Fuller has been a Research Professor at Southern Illinois University since 1959. In 1968 the Board of Trustees appointed him University Professor, the second faculty member so honored in the University’s history.