Having arrived to the SRI a half hour early, I was sitting in the lobby and reading their 50th anniversary report; an article that attempted to explain why Doug Engelbart failed to receive understanding and support while he worked there early in his career. I met Doug in June 2004 when he gave an invited talk at …
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Holoscope for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge
When he foresaw the end of scarcity, Buckminster Fuller had in mind not only the elimination of poverty, but also of scarcity-based competition, which continues to mark the political and social climate we live in. In March 1969 Fuller spoke to the US Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations about his “World Game” proposal, which he …
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Trimtabs for systemic change
The following excerpt from a recent letter to Marianna Grossman pinpoints an approach to contemporary problematique we have been developing in Oslo. (Trim tabs are small movable surfaces added to the wings of an airplane for the purpose of steering. The term ‘trimtabs’ was introduced and popularized by Buckminster Fuller to name an aproach to …
Change 2.0
America surprised me again. When I was growing up I learned about American life and culture from the songs, books and movies that were popular in the 1960s. But when I moved there in 1982 to continue my education, everyone was only into their careers. And now that I’m back, everyone I meet seems to …
How to improve our collective intelligence
I am sitting in my UCSC office, throwing an occasional glance at tall redwood trees and grazing deer outside my window, otherwise writing an article about knowledge federation. I use some of my spare time to reach out, aiming to connect what I have been doing, and dreaming, with the works and dreams of others. …
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Through the Mirror
On every university campus there is a mirror. Normally we don’t see it; rushing to reach our next course or to meet our next article deadline, we tend to walk by without noticing it. When we look at the mirror, we see the same world that we see when we look around; but now we …
