Activating the Trim Tabs

An article that bodes well for introducing more science into contemporary interpretations of design science was recently written by Karen O’Brien, a member of Future Earth’s scientific committee. O'Brien points out Fuller's observation that the potential for change is great and that it is Time to Activate the Trim Tabs. In Fuller's words: 

“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary – the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab.”