Buckminster Fuller’s

The World Game

“...The world game is a precisly de�ned design science process for arriving at economic, technological and social insights pertinent to humanity’s future envolvement aboard our planet.

The process consists of mathematical procedures not only as incisive and complex as those involved in celestial navigation, or astro-ballistics, or the space programm but even more so...”

-Buckminter Fuller

World Game

VS

World WAR Gaming Science

World PEACE Gaming Science

150 million

USSR CHINA

[1971]

35x 7x

5 billion

750 million

“The World Game must �nd the speci�c means of making �ve billion humans a total economic and physical success at the earliest possible moment without anyone being advantaged at the expense of another.”

-Buckminter Fuller

“Our World Game will be played electroniclly by remote controls on a giant model of our earth globe opened out into its �at projetion which will be the size of a football �eld.

World leaders will be invited to play the game and to introduce any new data they deem to be missing and the computers memory banks will retain all the data ever fed into it as well as remembering all the plays that have been previously made and their respective outcomes.

-Buckminter Fuller

Game Play

“I propose that if anyone playing the game employs ideological biases and attempts to enforce the dominance of one by another through resort to guns, that such players be disquali�ed. The game must be won by peaceful means, by the use of itelligence and proper use of out resources. The players will not compete.; they will engage in cooperative exploration to see how all humanity can win a successful, pollution-free, life.

...Prizes will be given to those who successfuly improve the standards of living for all while lving within our ”income” energy and not upon our “savings account” energy supply and thus guard the living of future generations and humanity to come.

-Buckminter Fuller

“In today’s economic books there is not one sentence about doing more with less. Everyone knows what ships and airplanes weigh - the Queen Mary 85, 00 tons but not even the architects, let alone the public at large, know what any of our land buildings weigh.

Weight is not in the language of land architecture; not even within 100,000 ton approximations.

If you dont know what buildings wigh, then you are not thinking in terms of performance per pound, let alone more perfor-mance per pound to be accomplished by the incorporation of this and that newly and scienti�cally discovered physcial principle.”

-Buckminter Fuller

First-Things-First

Francois de Chadenedes -Natural pruduction of Petroleum

Photosynthetic transformation to hydrocarbonSun radiation transfromation into vegitationbiological transformation into residueWind blown / Water washed accumulationsBuried within outer crustIce age heat and pressureEarthquakes

Cost per gallon of petrolum for nature to produce energy at rate of public utilites

60% of all jobs in the USA are not producing any real wealth - “life support”Individual uses 3 - 4 gallons of petroleum per day for transportation

What is earths savings per day If worker were payed wage to stay at home

Total Life Support

+$1,000,000 per gallon

+$500,000,000,000,000 per day

The old education facilities and a small fraction of individual teachers who love most to teach will use the old eductional facilities within which to produce the cassette programs... Those who qualify...will not be paid for it...They will act as does any amateur athlete - - doing what they do for the love of it.

The computer will prove to society theat it will pat to introduce automation wherever feasible and to allow the machines to work twenty-four-hour days while paying yesterday’s workers in full to stay at home.

-Buckminter Fuller

POTENTIAL W

SHEEP

CATTLE

CULTIVATED

HOG

WATER-WHE

CULTIVATED C

E A C H

‘ATER POWER

POPULATION

POPULATION

WHEATLAND

POPULATION

COPPER

EL CAPACITY

IRON ORE

LAND

COAL

PETROLEUM

T H E U.S. vs. THE WORLDOF THE FOLLOWING, THESE ARE. THE RESPECTIVE SHARES

IN THE I WORLD RESOURCES E A C HP E S T 1

THE‘HE WORLDAREA

POTENTIAL WATER

SHEEP

CULTIVATED WHEA

HOG POPULATION

COPPER

WATER-WHEEL CAP.

IRON ORE

CULTIVATED

COAL

PETROLEUM

POWER

LAND

3 P R O D U C T S I N U S E

TELEPHONES

MOTIONPICTURETHEATRES

NONMILITARYAIRPLANES

BATHTUBS

industry be located? Thus, each group must ascend through questions 1 through being aware ofthe information gathered by all other groups. The questions of Stage II were to be answered by each“unit”; they are integrative questions which lead the students to synthesize all the data of precedingquestions This would be then followed by each of these groups presenting their results to one another andthen integrating this information to form the basis of their explorations into the chosen topic of theworkshop-in this particular case a regenerative resource industry

Chart V illustrates the flow of information through the organization while emphasizing the relationsof each question to the whole scheme and in particular the importance of feedback to the comprehensivenature of all information gathering.

All the charts together illustrate the process and organization-from general overview of the actualproject to the specific structure of the group-used by the University of Southern California workshop.The content of this organization and process was chosen to facilitate a more comprehensive andscientif ically exact study being carried out by the World Resources Inventory

HOW MUCHCAN BE

RE-USED?

WHERE CAN IT BE RE-USED?

WHAT ARE THEEXISTING

TECH'S FORRECYCLING?

WHATRESOURCES

ARE NEEDED?

JHAT WOULD HAPPENIF IT WERE NOT

RE-CYCLED?

WHAT TECH'SARE NEEDED?

WHAT TECH‘SARE POSSIBLE?

HOW FASTDOES THERESOURCE

RECYCLE NOW?

HOW IS THERESOURCE

COLLECTED?

HOW DOES ITNEED TO BECOLLECTED?

WHAT BASICREGENERATIVE

PROCESSESARE REDUNDANT?

HOW CAN ALL12 RESOURCESBE COMBINED?

WHEREIT

BE LOCATED?

HOW LONGSHOULD IT

EXIST?

WILLTHE

PRODUCT BE?

REGENERATIVERESOURCES

INDUSTRY

133

consider a number of examples.

Stage I

If we take the topic Glass as an example, we see that Unit I would concern itself with answeringfrom Chart III questions I (a) (b) (c) and (d) i.e. what is glass, how is it made, etc.

Simultaneously other groups would gather similar information for Paper, Plastic, Farm Waste, etc. sothat in the first work period this set of questions would be answered for all topics under consideration. Atthe end of this period copies of the information gathered by each group should be made and distributed toall other groups. This procedure would ensure that all the participants while gathering somewhat specialistinformation would in fact be comprehensively informed as to what information was being gathered by thewhole group as a uni t

Next a similar operation for questions 2 and d would be performed, the information shared,and so on. Thus, if we wish to know what 3d under Plastics means, we find from Chart III that it relates tothe question: How fast does Plastic recycle at the present time?

Stage II

When answers to al l the questions indicated have been gathered and shared with al l other part icipants,Stage II of the operation can begin i.e. integration of the information. Here 1 refers to Stage II question

CHART V: EXAMPLE OF INFORMATION FLOW

GLASS

RESOURCE)

WHATIS IT?

HOW MUCHIS THERE?

HOW MUCHIS NEEDED?

WHEREIS IT?

HOW ISIT USED?

HOW ISIT MADE?

HOW MUCHWASTE IS

THERE?

WHERE ISIT USED?

WHERE ISIT MADE?

HOW CAN WERE-USE IT?

t