Bucky Fuller

Who is Buckminster Fuller? I know I had never heard of him until a few days ago when I encountered a mention of him in McKibben's 1992 reflection The Age of Missing Information. While I initially questioned why such an important figure has remained virtually unknown within our society for so many years, I quickly realized that his lack of appearance is simply based on the subject he studied and the way he went about his discoveries.

In today’s society, a formal college education is a must, however "Bucky" decided that formal education only limited his creative ability and after being expelled twice from Harvard decided not to return to college. One may wonder how someone could ever be influential without receiving a college degree. The answer is creativity, something Bucky had and many others lacked or chose to ignore. After considering suicide, Bucky Fuller decided to reevaluate his life and realized that by killing himself his life would have been essentially worthless, and decided that he should take the greater good of humanity into his own hands in an attempt to better the chance of existence of the human race. His life would be a test and he would call himself Guinea Pig B. With confidence Bucky began searching for ways to solve the problems of the world, deciding that the greatest problem would one day be sustainability.

Throughout his career Bucky made various discoveries and inventions as he put his creative and devoted mindset to work. All of his designs focused on how to make and do more with less, the idea that he later named “ephemeralization.” Most notably was his idea of the geodesic dome: a self supporting structure that maximizes space while minimizing materials and cost.

This concept alone revolutionized the design of lightweight backpacking tents, some of which weigh only 10 lbs. yet can withstand 120 mph winds.

Along with his idea of ephemeralization, Fuller was devoted to his idea of "spaceship earth." This idea focused on our world floating alone in space, one large, boundless sphere.

Spaceship earth is a completely closed off environment with limited ability to regenerate natural resources, as our earth actually is. By viewing the world in such a way, Bucky was able to understand that man must use natural resources wisely and scarcely as they are not renewable. He also believed that there is no place for selfishness within spaceship earth and all men must work together for the common goal of survival. Although Bucky worked extremely hard for the progression of his inventions and idea, few people recognized his ideas as credible and viewed him as a crazy futurist with radical perceptions of the world.

Today Bucky’s ideas still linger, however the problems he recognized over fifty years ago still exist. Why is it that we have known of these problems for so long, given possible solutions to fix them, yet have not been able to rally society as a whole in an attempt to cure the issue of human sustainability? I wonder if we would still have the problems we have today had be implemented Bucky’s ideas into our society, or are the problems we face inevitable and incurable? While one will never know, maybe we can think more openly next time a monumental figure such as Bucky Fuller comes around.

In researching Fuller I was amazed by his quirkiness yet ability to think so freely against the norm and strive for unimaginable goals. While I admire him, I do not feel the same about Bill McKibben, who mentions Bucky in his work The Age of Missing Information. While McKibben agrees that mans problem is sustainability he seems to follow Bucky's contemporaries by viewing him as a “crank” with “victorious” yet unrealistic goals and ideas. Will our society ever reach a point where we can come together as a whole and fully accept a person’s ideas or has our individualistic nature been too deeply instilled to escape our own trap?

A video of Bucky Fuller describing his idea of the dymaxion car.

Richmond Riverside Safari

One of the best things about the City of Richmond is the James River Park System that offers over 500 acres of parkland laced with a variety of trails along the banks of the river.

On a crisp, clear fall day after hard rains had scoured some of the color from the trees but opened the view of the river, a hearty duo took a spectacular hike along some of these trails.


The "Richmond Riverside Safari" is a 7-mile loop hike that begins at Reedy Creek and continues upstream on the Buttermilk trail through Netherwood Quarry and then up along the bluffs overlooking the river. The geology of the James River is significant for a variety of reasons, but today, it was the sparkling view provided by our elevated position. We could see the Maymont mansion peeking out from the trees just before we crossed the river on the Nickel Bridge a.k.a. Boulevard Bridge from which we could see the Roman arches of the railroad bridge upstream.

Once on the other side of the river, the trail bears left and loops around under the bridge, ultimately passing along the back fence of Maymont Park from the Bear's Den to the Japanese Gardens.

About a mile further, the trail passes behind the biggest cemeteries in Richmond, The Mount Calvary/Riverview Cemetery and Hollywood Cemetery. Along the way, the trail was even dotted with the occasional scrapped tombstone, cooly conveying a reminder of our source and our mortality.

By the time we passed by the spring that gave the Buttermilk Trail its name, my blister was screaming - can you see my grimace? This spring was once surrounded by a wooden tub and farmers heading to the market at 17th St. would keep their buttermilk cool here. Less than a mile beyond this we arrived back at the starting point in the Reedy Creek parking lot. The entire loop takes about three hours to complete and there are more interesting sites along the way!