GUINEA PIG B
The Buckminster Fuller Myth
HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD WORK
Six Visions
I. Mobility: The Dymaxion Car
II. Shelter: The Dymaxion House
III. Education: Two-Way TV
IV. Planning: The Geoscope
V. Environment: The Dome Over Manhattan
VI. Peace: The World Game
THE RANDOM ELEMENT
The Buckminster Fuller Legacy
Jonathon Keats is a writer, artist and experimental philosopher. He is recently the author of the story collection The Book of the Unknown (Random House), winner of the American Library Association's 2010 Sophie Brody Medal, as well as Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology (2010) and Forged: Why Fakes are the Great Art of Our Age (2013), both published by OUP.
"A wonderfully written and highly necessary book about one of the
20th century's most enigmatic outliers." -- Douglas Coupland,
author and artist
"Brilliantly challenging Buckminster Fuller's self-mythologizing by
putting Fuller's life and ideas in their historical context,
Jonathon Keats is all the more able to identify the ways of
thinking that were truly original in Fuller's own time, and the
concepts that can address today's environmental and technological
dilemmas. Keats's sympathetic but firm critique of Fuller, and his
own suggestions for the human future, make this book a must for
Fuller
enthusiasts and skeptics alike - in fact, for everyone aspiring to
think outside the dome." -- Edward Tenner, author of Why Things
Bite Back and Our Own Devices
"Jonathon Keats audaciously tackles the grandiose Buckminster
Fuller, debunking Fuller's legend while extending his inventive
thinking for our present day. Sometimes it takes a real visionary
to know one." -- Bruce Sterling, author of Tomorrow Now and Holy
Fire
"I loved reading Jonathon Keats's fascinating book on one of my
favorite thinkers and optimists, Buckminster Fuller. Keats
illuminates how Fuller's daring mind predicted the Internet, MOOCs,
Netflix, and much more. Even if some of his ideas didn't work out,
it's so refreshing to inhabit Fuller's insatiably curious mind that
truly believed we could design ourselves into a better future." --
Tiffany Shlain, filmmaker, founder of The Webby Awards, creator of
the
show "The Future Starts Here"
"R. Buckminster Fuller was born in privilege, educated by
experience and his own intuition, and created his own myth. Along
the way he enriched human existence with inventions such as the
geodesic dome and revolutionary concepts about peace and our place
in the environment. Jonathon Keats has done a superb job of
distinguishing fact from legend and refocusing our attention on
Fuller's thoughts and perceptions. The work of a remarkable man has
yielded a
remarkable book." -- Michael Hiltzik, author of Big Science
"Keats' excellent book on Buckminster Fuller recalls a remarkable
life in engineering and beyond, an underestimated and
underappreciated life. Fuller's tale reminds us that the future is
best predicted by those who invent it." -- Craig Newmark, founder,
Craigslist
"Was Buckminster Fuller a dreamer, a genius, or a deluded crackpot?
In his fascinating book Jonathon Keats shows that Fuller was all
three--and that his vision of a design-driven global ecosystem in
which humans live harmoniously with nature is more pertinent now
than ever before. More than just a biography of the man and his
ideas, Keats's book is an inspiring call to action." -- Laura J.
Snyder, author of Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni
van
Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing
"Buckminster Fuller is perhaps one of the most unrecognized
visionaries of the 20th Century. In You Belong to the Universe,
Jonathon Keats unpacks the many eccentric details of Fuller's life,
and explores the implications of Fuller's designs and blueprints
for a better society.... Keats presents an interesting look at the
way innovation has transformed from Fuller's day into the energy
and cost-saving practices that are being explored today."
-- The Manhattan Book Review
"Like his formidable intellect, Fuller's self-mythology was an
elastic tool he stretched to suit the audience and the occasion at
hand. In vivid prose that details all of Fuller's eccentricities
and achievements, Keats strips away the icon's layers to reveal a
truer, even more fascinating portrait of the 20th century genius."
-- Discover Magazine
"If Fuller is better known for objects than ideas, that's partly
because of the complexity of how he thought.... It's a
reflectiveness that's present in the book, which is a fascinating
read." -- Fast Company
"It's become cliché for people in tech to say they want to make the
world better. But Fuller meant it. In You Belong to the Universe:
Buckminster Fuller and the Future, Keats explores Fuller's life and
work with an eye toward what companies like Google and Tesla Motors
owe a man who (for real) wanted to change the world." -- Wired
"In You Belong to the Universe, Keats offers a new perspective on
the legacy of R. Buckminster Fuller and suggests that his timeless
approach to design could affect global change." -- Discovery
News
"Keats emphasizes [Buckminster Fuller's] ideas without ignoring his
often controversial accomplishments in a biography that manages to
be enthusiastic without descending into hagiography.... Keats's
insightful account of this impressive American innovator reveals a
man who managed to be 'both corporate and antiestablishment,' more
pragmatic than concerned with resolving contradictions." --
Publishers Weekly
"You Belong to the Universe says more about Fuller and his future
in a few pages than some whole biographies, and renews one's
interest--if not faith--in all those graduate design shows." -- New
Scientist
"Readers coming for an illuminating biography of one of
technology's most colourful characters won't be disappointed. What
they'll get as well though is a primer in a way of thinking about
innovation that warrants a revival." -Engineering & Technology
Magazine
"[Keats's] even-handed treatment of Fuller's failures and successes
enables him to tease out their lessons. One can read Keats's book
as a thought experiment about how the future might be designed."
-The Los Angeles Review of Books
"[Keats] makes a tremendous case for why the eccentric ideas of the
erstwhile visionary matter today. With admirable concision and a
prose style as delightful as it is rigorous, Keats critically
examines six of Fuller's most important ideas, ending each section
with a 'proposition' of his own that builds on-and often goes far
beyond-his predecessor's original. In what becomes a kind of
collaboration between two like minds separated by a century,
Fuller's
soaring mission to 'make the world work for one hundred percent of
humanity' is given new-and newly plausible-life." -Brooklyn Rail
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