PureGin.org

Happy Earth Day!

Buckminster Fuller coined the term "Spaceship Earth" in the 60's [His Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth dates from 1969; I can't find an earlier reference at the moment] to describe the closed system nature of our planet, and to capture the notion that all of Earth's inhabitants are, as it were, in the same cosmic boat.

Since then, the number of passengers has increased to 6.4 billion give or take a few 10s of millions. That's a more than 50% increase over the population in 1970. (see this population clock, based on US Census estimates).

In many ways, this great place, Earth, has become less great in the recent past, as a result of human activity. Buckminster Fuller was a wonderful optimist. He also had many great ideas about how to save ourselves, and the rest of the non-human passengers on the planet, from ourselves. On this Earth Day, 2004, I hope that we will have reasons for optimism in the time to come.

A curious note: Bucky kept a record of his activities, consisting of all of his "to-and-from letters, programs, sketches, memoranda, doodles, etc., plus a few typical bills" [Crititical Path], from the time he was twelve (1907). He eventually named this his 'Chronofile' His motivation, as he explains it, was to integrate his 'self-seen self' with the 'self that others see', and to deal objectively with that integrated self. I'm struck by the similarities between the chronofile and the idea of the 'blog. I'm also struck by the Bucky's considered implementation of this device to take up, as he put it, the challenge issued by Robert Burns:

Interesting to consider 'blogging as a path to selflessness and objectivity.