Utopia or Oblivion – The Prospects for Humanity – R. Buckminster Fuller
Utopia or Oblivion – The Prospects for Humanity by R. Buckminster Fuller / ISBN 9783037786222 / 447-page paperback, 5 x 7.5 inches
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A classic of utopian literature, more urgent than ever: Buckminster Fuller’s provocative blueprint for the future
Composed of lectures given by Buckminster Fuller throughout the world in the 1960s, Utopia or Oblivion presents the thesis that humanity, for the first time in its history, has the opportunity to create a world where the needs of 100% of humanity are met. Fuller’s grandson, in the introduction, refers to this selection as “hardcore Bucky,” as these essays display Fuller’s investigations into mathematics, geometry and how they intersect with the arts, music and world peace. In Fuller’s words, “This is what man tends to call utopia. It’s a fairly small word, but inadequate to describe the extraordinary new freedom of man in a new relationship to universe―the alternative of which is oblivion.
First published in 1969 and then reprinted by Lars Müller in 2008, Utopia or Oblivion also includes one of the earliest published discussions of Fuller’s World Game, a revolutionary “game” that set as the goal for players, that the world “works” for 100% of humanity to nobody’s disadvantage. It challenged players to overlook traditional world units such as nations, states and other political and economic divisions.
Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) was an architect, engineer, geometrician, cartographer, philosopher, futurist, inventor of the famous geodesic dome, and one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time. For more than five decades, he set forth his comprehensive perspective on the world’s problems in numerous essays, which offer an illuminating insight into the intellectual universe of this renaissance man. These texts remain surprisingly topical even today, decades after their initial publication. While Fuller wrote the works in the 1960’s and 1970’s, they could not be more timely: like desperately needed time-capsules of wisdom for the critical moment he foresaw, and in which we find ourselves. Long out of print, they are now being published again, together with commentary by Jaime Snyder, the grandson of Buckminster Fuller. Designed for a new generation of readers, Snyder prepared these editions with supplementary material providing background on the texts, factual updates, and interpretation of his visionary ideas.
