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.


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