Bonnie DeVarco

65 web pages, hyperlinked to more than 250 sites | Copyright 1997 Bonnie Goldstein DeVarco. All rights reserved

This monumental undetaking was completed just when the World Wide Web was beginning to take off. In this online tour de force, Bonnie Goldstein DeVarco masterfully "places Buckminster Fuller, one of the great innovators of this century, into a unique lineage of great thinkers, artists, scientists and inventors." Her thesis "connects some of [Fuller's] ideas to leading edge technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and computer information systems."

This paper was made possible by a research grant from the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

In 1962, R. Buckminster Fuller published plans for a, "giant, 200-foot diameter... miniature earth -- the most accurate global representation of our planet ever to be realized." The Geoscope would be a massive 3-D educational environment, using an array of computers and databases to display real-time and historical data on nearly any world situation.

by Bonnie DeVarco



How might a dynamic, collective, 3D "GeoBrowser" transform our relationship to our planet?

"I am certain that none of the world's problems -- which we are all perforce thinking about today -- have any hope of solution except through all of world around society's individuals becoming thoroughly and comprehensively self-educated. Only thereby will society be able to identify and inter-communicate the vital problems of total world society. Only thereafter may humanity effectively sort out and put those problems into order of importance for solution in respect to the most fundamental principles governing man's survival and enjoyment of life on Earth."

— Buckminster Fuller, "Preamble and Memorandum to Those Interested in Playing World Game"

A Next-Generation Tool for Reflexivity

In the early 1940s, two distinctive views of Earth graced the pages of Fortune magazine. Both reached a similar achievement -- for the first time viewers were brought to a single point above Earth so one could see all of the continents at once -- in such a way that the world appeared to be a one-town island. One image in the August 1941 issue, Richard Edes Harrison's "One World, One War," depicted the rapidly growing world-conflict of World War II.[2] Because it answered the need for Americans to quickly become more literate about global geography, this map became a standard wall decoration in American homes.[3] The other image, appearing in the February 1940 issue, was Buckminster Fuller's "One-World Island in a One-World Ocean."[4] This earliest published version of his Dymaxion map was shown in the context of his study of the evolution of global industrial economy. Fuller's map concentrated on world energy production and consumption, highlighting the disparate distribution of Earth's natural resources.

A half century ago R. Buckminster Fuller - distinguished mathematician, pioneering inventor and 21st century visionary - realized that humanity's long-term success or failure would depend in large part on our ability to:

• "Find effective ways for all humanity to see total Earth"
• Gather & map an inventory of the world's resources, human trends, and needs
• Design "dramatic educational tools" to promote "World Literacy re: World Problems," including "dramatic indication of potential solution[s]"

BFI launched the EARTHscope project to extend this important aspect of Buckminster Fuller's research and vision.