Category: Spaceship Earth

If it can be said that our self-understanding changed radically when we moved from seeing the world as flat to seeing the world as round, from seeing ourselves as living on the planet which is the center of the universe, to comprehending that we are part of a vaster universe, then seeing ourselves on Spaceship Earth is another critical growth in our Spiritual progress. 

For Fuller, the uniqueness of the Jewish people in the universe is “their contribution to mankind’s welfarng and environmental conquest, being the preservation of those arts and proclivities which may be kept alive only through, economics of intermittent emergency mobilization.” (Nine Chains to the Moon, page 122). These arts and proclivities are survival skills, developed through historical necessity.

If the concept of entropy, by which we understand that systems, physical or social, tend to wear down, is operative in the universe, and man is seen as being antientropy by function, then it would seem that this is also the historic function of the Jewish people. Fuller notes the historical coincidence of the casting out of the Jews from their homes and the impending decline and fall of the society which cast them out. (Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, page 43

Fuller points out that paradoxically it is the survival skills which caused the Jews to be viewed as disruptive elements in societies which wish to remain static. As will developed within the context of this book, it is a hallmark of Jewish teachings to search for God and God’s operative principles in the universe rather than accepting the apparent-status quo and ideology of subservience to the temporal rulers.

The comments about the Jewish contribution to mankind being that of survival skills lead to speculation about the recent turn of events in Jewish history. Within the context of Fuller’s God of orderly meaning, would it not be possible to say that it was/is the unique Jewish role in the universe to test out the limits of human survival? Is it too demonic to fathom a Job-like experiment using the Jewish people in the laboratory of Jewish history?

Is such an understanding of Jewish history unfathomable when set against the story of the Akedah – the binding of Isaac? In scripture. Abraham is ‘tested’* by God (Genesis 22:1-21) and passes the test of loyalty. In historical terms, the Jewish people have been put to almost every conceivable test of human endurance and have survived, not even the wholesale technological slaughter of six million Jews was able to kill off completely the Jewish people.

If Fuller’s general approach makes sense, then it would also follow in that perspective that it would be in our time that our people would be reestablished in the Jewish homeland. The very survival skills which threatened previous societies are now very much in demand at a point when human survival on this planet is questionable.

Anticipatory Design Science

Buckminster Fuller believes in comprehensive planning, or, as he describes it, “I’ve been engaged in what I call comprehensive anticipatory design science.” (25) In essence, such anticipatory design approach means taking into consideration a variety of factors. It would not be out of keeping with the Fuller type of approach to bring together a series of concurrent problems to see if there is some common solution. Part of anticipatory design science is “ephemeral- ization – doing more with less.”

Synergy

Fuller defines synergy as “wholistic behavior unpredicted by parts.”

Wealth

Wealth, as defined by R. Buckminster Fuller is: “The measurable degree of forwardly organized environmental control, in terms of quickly convertible energy, capacities, and performance ratioed system capabilities per capita, per diem.”

The Power  of 1 to 1 Relationships

The formula used to establish the number of such inter-personal relationships is:     (n2-N)/2

Futurizing the Jews, Tsvi Bisk and Moshe Dror page 173

Unlimited Knowledge

Cyberspace has no limits to the amount of knowledge it can generate and send to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Cyberspace represents the liberation of humankind from the limitations of matter. Humanity no longer deals exclusively with matter but also with elements of our collective human minds electronically encoded. Because the human mind is “the infinite resource” (according to Professor William Hallal in his book by the same name), humanity for the first time has unlimited resources and options to realize its human being.

Decentralized

Even though the internet was originally a Pentagon initiative, it is not regulated by the government. It is organized by private voluntary organizations that want to keep it open for everyone. Some people believe that the internet is inherently incapable of being regulated, that the technology and software present internet libertarian with constantly increasing opportunities to outflank any attempts to restrict his or her freedom. No one really owns any aspect of cyberspace in the same sense that they own land or building space. Cyberspace is a modern version of the common. We all “own” it when we see it.

Empowerment and Freedom of Access

No regulation means no bureaucracy to limit parameters of use. The highway grid is replaced by an open system in which we “get on” or “get off” wherever and whenever we please, a system in which we move information in any way necessary to send messages to their destination.

Hospitable when Customized

Computer technology and software present us with a curious and happy paradox. The technology and software are uniform…but everyone can use them individually to answer his or her cyber needs. The technology liberates us from the Second Wave of massification and enables us to explore the Third Wave of individualization.

Our Future is enabled by Our Past – Ellis Rivkin, Historian

“Judaism is…the prototype of religions that simultaneously undergird continuity and change: thus when historical processes were relatively repetitive, Judaism affirmed its commitment to tradition and an immutable revelation: when they churned with novelty, Judaism fashioned new forms: when they threatened the traditional notions of God, Judaism discovered that the last word about God had not been communicated to Moses or the prophets

“What if any resources do we American Jews have to cope creatively with the crisis of the free choosing individual, a continuous on-going crisis of identity, so long as the developmental frontier generates innovative technologies out of the laws of nature? ..We are a problem solving people.

The goal of the Jewish community must be the individual who “recognizes that Judaism has been the manifold expression of human beings struggling and wrestling with their human problems, and he therefore can enter into the thoughts and feelings of each historical moment and come forth enriched.”

 “free to draw on the riches of our past we need no longer be slaves to it. Judaism, for us, is not only a past, but a future.“

rivkinNLBDownload

The Future is Holy – Alvin Reines, Philosopher

“It is not the past that is taken as holy; the past is nonexistent, living on as relics and in the human imagination…It is the future that is holy.”

“To see the future as holy, therefore, is to understand it’s divine sanction and              inevitability. It means, at the very least, to be open to its image, to listen to its              whispers, to heed its plea for life. Beyond this, the holy attitude toward life calls us to action, to communication and dialogue with its onrushing possibilities”

Alvin ReinesDownload