Critical Path

Today we find ourselves in the midst of the greatest crisis in the history of the human race. Technology has placed in our hands almost unlimited power at the very moment when we have run up against the limits of our resources aboard Spaceship Earth, as the crises of the late twentieth century — political, economic, environmental and ethical — determine whether or not humanity survives. In this masterful summing up of an entire lifetime's thought and concern, R. Buckminster Fulller addresses these crucial issues in his most significant, accessible, and urgent work.

Critical Path traces the origins and evolution of humanity's social, political and economic systems from the obscure mists of prehistory, through the developments of the great political empires, to the vast international corporate and political systems that control our destiny today to show how we got to our present situation, and what options are available to humankind. With his customary brilliance, extraordinary energy, and unlimited devotion, Bucky Fuller shows how humans can survive, and how each individual can respond to the unprecedented threat we face today.

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.

The masterwork of one of the finest minds and most significant thinkers of the modern age

Critical Path is R. Buckminster Fuller's masterwork ? the summing up of a lifetime's thought and concern — as urgent and relevant as it was upon its first publication over 20 years ago. 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. Fuller's analysis has been proven correct in many areas since then and his options for the survival of mankind are as compelling as ever. Critical Path is an essential text for any student of humanity.

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.

Over the course of the 88 years of his lifetime, R. Buckminster Fuller became perhaps the best known American thinker of the twentieth century. Sometimes called "the planet's friendly genius," Bucky had gained renown as an inventor and designer (of the Dymaxion House, the Dymaxion car, the Dynaxion map), the creator of the Geodesic Dome, the man who coined the term "Spaceship Earth" and organized the World Game, the mathematician who discovered Synergetics, and as a dogged individualist whose genius has been felt throughout the world for over half a century.