“Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it” said Buckminster Fuller, in his book aptly titled Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. In this manner, earth can be thought of as a machine, one that an operating manual would certainly be of great help. So with no instruction, how do we know where we are going or how we will get there? And how do we take care of this “spaceship” in the meantime so that we make it to our destination? Fuller also says in his book that this lack of a manual forces us to use our own intellectual ability to “devise scientific experimental procedures and to interpret effectively the significance of the experimental findings.” Fuller spent most of his life devoted to devising and interpreting, failing and succeeding, and doing it all as an experiment to test how much one person can accomplish and contribute to humanity.
Most that know of Fuller would probably say that he saw many things in the world differently, especially in his time. However, he did not only see differently in an insightful way, he literally had vision impairments. Born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1895, he had slightly crossed eyes and a dreadful near sighted issue that went undiagnosed until he was around four. Fuller couldn’t see what other children saw; he could only depict masses of blurred images. Some larger shapes he could sort of tell apart but smaller shapes were hopeless. Since no one knew of his vision impairment, no one discussed what he was seeing. As far as he knew, it was normal to see the way he did. At that young age he began to pay special attention to shapes and patterns.
It is said that everything happens for a reason, and Fuller’s vision impairment was basically the reason why he first constructed what he would later become famous for, and it was only in kindergarten. His teacher there would have construction materials of the day for the class, like in this instance, dried...
