World Game Series: Document One the WORLD GAME: INTEGRATIVE
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World Game Series: Document One THE WORLD GAME: INTEGRATIVE RESOURCE UTILIZATION PLANNING TOOL By R. Buckminster Fuller World Resources Inventory Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Illinois 62901 U.S.A. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the preparation of this document, particular mention should be made of the following members of Professor Fuller’s staff. Research: Neil Hansen Mark V. Hansen Michael Max Ackerman Medard Gabel Ed Hauben Ray Frenchman Michael Ben-Eli Bruce Ashley Larry Jasud Duncan Mitchell Brendan Stephen Short Graphics: Hollis Denn Betsy Secretarial Supervision. Naomi Wallace Joan Eubanks Senior Administrative Assistant: Dale D. Klaus CONTENTS Acknowledgements .............................................. iii Other Volumes in the World Resources Inventory (World Design Science Decade) ................................................ iv List of Charts, Tables and Maps .................................... vii Preface ....................................................... ix A WORLD GAME SCENARIO A 1 Preamble and Memorandum to those interested in playing World Game . , . A 2 R Buckminster Fuller’s Presentation to U S Congressional Sub-Committee on World Game . , . , . 7 A 3 Fortune Magazine Resource Inventory of 1940 and Data Sources (published manifest of work begun in 1927) . 47 A 4 The Fuller Dymaxion Sky/Ocean World Projection; World World II . 75 A 5 Telegram to Senator Edmund Muskie . 83 B WORLD GAME PACKET This section presents the rudimentary procedures involved in playing World Game. It does not attempt to be definitive in its procedural suggestions, but merely offers guidelines for those wishing to start a World Game effort, either individually or as an academic program. B.l Fuller Statement on World Game . 89 B 2 Design Science by R. B. Fuller . 91 B 3 How and Where to Begin by M. Gabel . 9 5 B.4 World Game “World of reference by M. Gabel . 101 World Game Format Outline for Scenarios by M. Gabel . 107 B 6 World Game Pre-Scenario Integration Outlines by M. Gabel . 111 C INFORMATION TO BEGIN STUDYING WORLD GAME C.l Fuller Research Techniques for Compiling and Displaying Data by M. 115 C.2 Examples of Data Handling Techniques by B. and . 121 C 3 Published Data Sources on World Resources . 13.5 C.4 Data Centers with Additional World Resources Data Availability . 137 World Resources Inventory via Satellite . 141 D READINGS D.l Universal Requirement for a Dwelling Advantage by R.B.Fuller . 143 D.2 Conning Tower, Geoscope/Miniearth by R. B. Fuller . 149 D 3 Population Control Dynamism of Universe/ No Race, No Class by R. B. Fuller . 157 D.4 World Game Systems Theory by R. B. Fuller and T. Turner 169 Prospects for Humanity by R. B. Fuller (reprinted from Saturday Review) . , . 173 APPENDIX I Organizing a World Game Operation/Various Options . 181 vi LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES AND MAPS Title Page Fortune Magazine Article ..................................... 50 The History of Progress ...................................... 52 Dynamics of Progress ........................................ U.S.Abroad ............................................... 56 .............................................. 57 Distribution of World Energy and Industrial Energy ................ 60 Dymaxion Sky/Ocean World ....................................... 75 World One/Water/Ocean .......................................... 78 World Two/Sky/Ocean ........................................... 80 Design Science Event Flow ........................................ 91 Progress in Thermal Efficiencies of Engines ........................... 96 World Passenger Vehicle Trend ..................................... 97 Dymaxion Maps Population/l970 ........................................... 99 Energy Slaves/l 970 ......................................... 99 Interconnecting Electrical Networks/l968 ....................... 100 High Voltage Integrative Transmission Network/Projected ...... 100 118 Selected Production Series of Per World Man Data ...................... 117 Performance Per Pound: Coal ...................................... 119 Examples of Data Handling Techniques New York World Game Seminar/Flow Chart I ..................... 122 New York World Game Seminar/Flow Chart II .................... 124 University of Southern California/Flow Chart I .................... 126 University of Southern California/Flow Chart II ................... 127 University of Southern California/Flow Chart III .................. 128 University of Southern California/Flow Chart IV .................. 130 University of Southern California/Flow Chart V ................... 132 World Resources Inventory via Satellite .............................. 141 Myth of the U.S. Population ..................... 160 Birthrate vs. Kilowatt Hours .......................................... 165 ........................................... ........................................... 165 El ...................................... 165 United ..................................... 165 .......................................... 165 vii PREFACE Shakespeare, the consummate artist of the English language, appeared in the history of humanity just as evolution was achieving a differentiation in language, metaphor and visual display that stressed for a convergence, for an integration, in some kind of production Never before and never since has the time been as ripe as was Elizabethan England for a union of art and technology on the stage Newton, Darwin and Einstein were similar playwrights of human evolution’s converging metaphor-civilization. Each of these men powerfully integrated a coherent scenario they perceived as acted out by Nature. Each showed man’s unique role as a contributor to the cast of this scenario by their own as a designer, of reducing the disorder in mankind’s perceptian of the operations and events of its environment, its life support system, its Spaceship Each of these men evolved a powerful script around which a cast of people gathered to test out the new metaphor, to enlarge upon it, if possible, and to ultimately form a production ensemble of gigantic proportions to achieve a new science of action in testing out the script. That is what a metaphor can do when it is powerful enough and when it is successfully delineated by the consummate artist of his era-that is what Buckminster Fuller has done with the design of his World Game. Providence has provided a most sincere and enthusiastic cast of young people (in mind and heart) to test out the script’s relevancy, to elaborate upon it when they can, and to further delineate its fine points. They have walked inside the metaphor and found it the answer to many of their most deep-felt concerns about their quality of life on Spaceship Earth. They bring away with them the firm conviction that the World could be made to work for everyone and this without humanity exacting the price of push-pull politics Each World Game Workshop and/or Seminar achieves this optimum outlook on man’s environment and life within his biosphere. Yet, the World Game has not yet, in truth, been played; for to play it one needs the computer tools, which are not yet commercially available, and the logic to ask the right questions. The energetic/synergetic geometry encourages such methodological ferment, but only Fuller has been able thus far to personalize and innovatively utilize the advantages accruing to applications of this kind of logic. The total accurate earth resources data, which the earth resources satellites promise to deliver, in fact still relies on individual, long-hand study through heavy tomes of statistics. Until all of this is facilitated by a fairly expensive physical facility and staff, the World Game is not played-it is merely acted-out by alert students who wish to demonstrate for themselves the relevancy of the metaphor ix The student’s enthusiasm each time reiterates again the timeliness of this new outlook. Nature does not deploy her resources haphazardly-neither physical, natural or human. There is a rationale which makes actors out of all of us in this huge scenario that we call “Universe.” In 1967, NASA announced a full-scale emphasis on earth resources survey via remote sensing planes and satellites, and at the same time, the international “weather watch” gained momentum. Of a sudden, engineers, geologists, geographers, physicists, foresters, agriculturalists, etc., became interested in the possibilities of total world surveys and of the value such surveys might have to world resource utilization. The sudden zoom from local considerations of resources development and deployment to possible world-wide involvement of such studies necessitated a new script, a new metaphor, a new style in thinking about the problem. In order to do so, a powerful interdisciplinary communication device was needed-one that essentially did away with the necessity of its being adapted to the special languages and instrumentation of a specific science. It must allow the maximum amount of “good thinking” (flow) and dialog about resource deployment and utilization. This communication device was Fuller’s “World Game.” Beginning in May, 1968, the “World Game” was presented by Dr. Fuller to a White House sponsored conference, convened for this purpose, in Washington, D.C.; to the Muskie Committee to establish a select Senate Committee on Technology and the Human environment in March, 1969; to the Joint National Meeting of the American Astronautical Society and the Operations Research Society of America in June, 1969; and to the U.N. Conference on Human Survival in May,