Buckminster Fuller Thinking Out Loud
1.) Buckminster Fuller (or "Bucky" as he was often called) was a hero of the technology counterculture. What was it about his ideas or his personality (or both) that made him so influential?
2.) One of the common phrases of the 1960s youth movements was the call "not to trust anyone over 30." Interestingly, Bucky Fuller became a hero of that movement even though he was very old at the time. Why was Fuller the ideal "grown up" for the 1960s youth movements? Why didnít the "generation gap" taint the image of Fuller as a countercultural hero?
3.) Was Fuller a revolutionary? If so, how exactly? If he was a revolutionary, what kind of revolution was he advocating? How did his notion of revolution compare with others you have encountered (in the Black Panther movement, for example, or in the Anti-War movement)? Where was his notion of revolution compatible with these other notions of revolution and where was it at odds with them?
4.) Consider Fuller's life and work in terms of the notions of freedom that were so important to the 1960s protest movements. What was Fuller's notion of freedom? How were his views on technology connected to his notions of freedom? Why might Fuller have been such a prophet of freedom to some in the 1960s?
5.) Consider Fullerís life and work in terms of the new environmentalism that was so important to the 1960s protest movements. How were Fuller's views on technology connected to ecology and other "Green" causes? Why might Fuller have been such a prophet of environmentalism to some in the 1960s? In what ways did Fuller's "Green" views about technology constitute a critique of prevailing views about the relationship between humans, nature, and technology in America?
6.) Was Fuller a communist? Was he anti-capitalist? Is his philosophy of technology incompatible with capitalism? Why or why not?
7.) If Buckminster Fuller had been a computer scientist,
what kind of computer would he have designed? What would've been his critique
of computing as it had developed before 1970? What would've been his philosophy
for changing it?