Detail View: Conference on World Affairs Audio Archive: The crisis in world affairs

Collection Name: 
Conference On World Affairs Archives
Identifier ARK: 
https://ark.colorado.edu/ark:/47540/dh329b14c8sv
identifier: 
cwa_83-1P.mp3
title: 
The crisis in world affairs
titleType: 
Program
titleSeries: 
Plenary Session
subject: 
Capitalism
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/846425
subject: 
Socialism
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1123637
subject: 
Communication
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/869952
subject: 
Human beings
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/962832
subject: 
War and civilization
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1170426
subject: 
War
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1170328
subject: 
Shipping
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1116352
subject: 
Power (Philosophy)
subjectAuthorityUsed: 
http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1074215
description: 
Fuller presents the hypothesis that humanity has something that no other creature has: mind. This allows us to discover relationships between ideas rather than having to depend on those ideas by themselves. Because of this, we must be here for some reason: to be problem-solvers for the universe. This has been Fuller's drive for the past several decades. Fuller believes that humanity is in a time of extraordinary crisis. He provides a brief history illustrating the links between power and shipping, from ancient times through Magellan to the founding of the East India Company. He then describes the links from this to Malthus and Darwin, then to Karl Marx, and the roots of the two great theories of capitalism and socialism that now have the capacity to destroy all life on this planet within minutes. Next Fuller describes the variety of forces that affect our lives, most of which we are completely unable to sense directly. From there, Fuller lists the development of materials that humanity has invented to deal with those forces and put them to use for us. He continues by describing the differences between tension and compression. Fuller brings out his tensegrity sphere to illustrate these differences, and spends some time describing how the tensegrity sphere works, and how it relates to his geodesic dome designs. Fuller then relates that in 1970, he realized that the Earth has enough resources to provide an excellent standard of living for all human beings, what that means for politics, wars, etc., and the great challenge of trying to communicate this to everyone. Next, Fuller points out a wide range of logical fallacies that are made by the general public, with a bit of nerdy humor thrown in as well as a detailed exploration of geometry. He then makes some lengthy remarks relating to humanity's place in the universe, given recent advances in standards of living as well as the development of technologies capable of destroying all life on Earth. Chairman Arnold Weber presiding.
descriptionType: 
Program
description: 
@00:00:00 Moderator Arnold Weber begins speaking @00:00:50 Weber begins introducing Fuller @00:05:02 Fuller begins speaking @01:00:00-01:00:15 change of tapes (brief silence) @01:38:31 end of speech @01:39:57 end of tape
descriptionType: 
Segment Sequence
coverageSpatial: 
Macky Auditorium
contributor: 
Fuller, R. Buckminster (Richard Buckminster), 1895-1983
contributorRole: 
Speaker
publisher: 
CWA/Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder
publisherRole: 
Publisher
rightsSummary: 
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dateCreated: 
1983-04-04
formatPhysical: 
1/4 inch audio cassette
formatDigital: 
audio/mpeg
formatLocation: 
Box 193, tape 83-1P
formatMediaType: 
Sound
formatGenerations: 
Audio/Original recording
formatStandard: 
MPEG Audio
formatEncoding: 
audio/mp3
formatTimeStart: 
10:00:00-07:00
formatDuration: 
1:39:57
formatTracks: 
1 audio track
formatChannelConfiguration: 
dual-channel mono
language: 
English
formatIdentifier: 
http://cudl.colorado.edu/luna/servlet/s/9b26z3