cover image Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity

Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity

R. Buckminster Fuller. First Glance Books, $24.95 (277pp) ISBN 978-0-02-541850-9

Fuller's last work, nearly finished when he died in 1983, is composed of short sweeps--for Fuller--of afterthought, and some additions, to the main themes of his previous books. As always, Fuller spikes his science with anthropology and sociology, as he did in Critical Path (1981) and Syngergetics I and II (1971-1979), but for hardcore Fuller fans the heart of this book will be the long chapter called ``Cosmic Conceptioning.'' This section includes a note Fuller wrote to himself, at his wife's hospital bed, on ``spheric experiences'' of the structure of gases--a raw example of Fuller's special ``geometry of thinking.'' (It is dated 1983 and signed ``with thanks to God, the eternal sum of all truths.'') ``History of Structure,'' on the other hand, reads like a guest-lecture speech, summarizing the future world millenium according to Fuller. While obtuse wording, such as ``omninteraccelerating cosmic concept'' can seem to mock his brilliant insights into the grand geometry of structures, topology, chemistry, metallurgy and, perhaps, society, nearly a decade after his death, Fuller is still ahead of the parade. (June)