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R. Buckminster Fuller is regarded as one of the most important figures of the 20th century, renowned for his achievements as an inventor, designer, architect, philosopher, mathematician, and dogged individualist. Perhaps best remembered for the Geodesic Dome and the term "Spaceship Earth," his work and his writings have had a profound impact on modern life and thought.Critical Path is Fuller's master work--the summing up of a lifetime's thought and concern--as urgent and relevant as it was upon its first publication in 1981. Critical Path details how humanity found itself in its current situation--at the limits of the planet's natural resources and facing political, economic, environmental, and ethical crises. The crowning achievement of an extraordinary career, Critical Path offers the reader the excitement of understanding the essential dilemmas of our time and how responsible citizens can rise to meet this ultimate challenge to our future.
Paperback: 512 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 2nd edition (February 15, 1982)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0312174918
ISBN-13: 978-0312174910
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #179,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #68 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Reference #238 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Class #360 in Books > Science & Math > Environment > Environmentalism
Bucky is such an inspiration that it is difficult to separate the man from his work.Critical Path is a summation of a life devoted to the betterment of all humanity and based on the premise that one individual can make a difference if he or she takes care of the things that need to be done. Through our combined learnings and accumulated metaphysical know-how, humanity has reached a point where we can all do whatever it was we were doing before we had to earn a living.Unless of course the "pirates" of capital, aka "The Grunch" cheat us of our rightful inheritance.Critical Path is about the evolution of know-how from the beginning of humanity to the present. Fuller charts out where we came from, the accelerating advance of learning, the ephemeralization of tools and technology and where we go from here.He also charts out where the "pirates" came from and how they maintain their grip on things. Indeed I was surprised at how candid Bucky's comments are in this regard. It's as if he somehow got inside the inner clique and is reporting its machinations to the rest of us. Read it and see!Finally, this is a book of suspense. Bucky felt that the war between mind and muscle was coming to a head. He died in 1983 and seemed to predict that the battle between the pirates and humanity would come to pass in the 1990's. I not sure what he would make of things today, but I would recommend that in addition to reading Critical Path, check out the Buckminster Fuller institute's web site and get a copy of "GRUNCH of Giants" (Grunch is the "Great Universal Cash Heist").Fuller said he was ahead of the times by about 50 years. This makes Critical Path mandatory reading from now until 2030 and beyond.Do yourself a favor and become familiar with this friendly genius.
In 1981 I spent the best part of four months sitting on the beach at Laguna Beach, California reading / studying this book. That experience transformed my life and led me to begin working with the pattern integrity that was and is Bucky Fuller. Entering into the realm then led me to produce and present "lectures and seminars" to help other people appreciate the importance of that wisdom and to begin writing "translations" of his ideas for myself and others.Those writings eventually became the book Buckminster Fuller's Universe - an easily accessible translation of some of his ideas as well as a guide to understanding how his life affected the development of his famous operating strategy. Much of that operating strategy (for both humankind and each of us as individuals) is laid out in this book.Spend time with this book. Spend time with Bucky. He was wise enough to make available all that he learned during his fifty-six year personal experiment to determine what one individual could do on behalf of all humankind that could not be achieved by any organization no matter how powerful.Critical Path is but one of the artifacts he left for our enlightenment, and, in my opinion, it is the most accessible of Bucky's writing. It is not an easy read, but it is well worth the effort. I can personally attest to that fact that understanding and employing the wisdom that Bucky uncovered and shared has the power to make enormous shifts in people's lives as well as the welfare of the crew of the planet he named Spaceship Earth.
I first stumbled across this title in the small booklet of a Sting CD, if you can believe that (don't forget Sting was a high school English teacher before his "white reggae" stardom.) This is THE twenty-first century survival manual if you ask me. It has everything: green politics, scientific method, soul mechanics, management poetry, global strategies, new age without the sewage, "righteous" criticism, fraternity, and enough flint to provoke a four-alarm fire in your nascent conscience, with an emphasis on the science. A crunchy read.(Part of my "starter's kit" along with everything ever written by C. Wright Mills, Alvin Toffler, Fritjof Capra, Noam Chomsky, Joseph Campbell, John Kenneth Galbraith, Gaston Bachelard, Abraham Maslow, Michel Foucault, and Bertrand Russell)
In this book, Bucky Fuller shows, in great detail, how it is possible for all humans to live at a higher standard of living with no one and nothing left out. This was an important book when it was first published in the early 1980's and is still a tremendously important book. Its purpose is to show how we humans got into the mess in which we find ourselves and how we can extricate oursleves. But before we can get to that point, we must understand the erroneous beliefs that keep us stuck, such as our belief in scarcity.This book inspired me. It taught me that each of us has the power to make a tremendous difference in the world. For example, the book's Introduction includes a letter that Bucky wrote to a ten year old child in 1970 in which he said in part, "The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done."This book will teach you that we can all live in harmony as brothers and sisters on this magnificient "planet earth."
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