Waiting in the Wings
I'm going to let you in on a secret. Here's a sneak peak at that secret: we've only just begun. The information I'm going to pass on to you would not have come to my attention 15 years ago. A scientist's access to published results is now universal and thorough. Engineers have modelling tools capable of simulating designs that wouldn't have been conceived 10 years ago.
Australia has only had European settlement for about 220 years. Three lifetimes just about cover that. Three. Now we have bridges, buildings, roads, power plants, wireless communication, museums and Olympic stadiums. And how long have we had sophisticated physical modelling tools? About 5 years. How long has a scientist been able to ask a college on the other side of the world to send a paper through by lunchtime? About 10 years.
Let me assure you, we're in for a ride. The developed world has built a great deal. The information revolution is a blip in the historical timeline. And it's a blip that's bursting at the edges.
Here's the secret:
The solutions are already here. There's nothing stopping me, Joe Curious, from reading the works of people who dedicated their life to particular problems. There's nothing stopping me reading the background material to understand the concepts. There's nothing stopping me seeking the wisdom of the experts in the field, constructing detailed designs, running simulations and collaborating with a network of enthusiasts. Nothing except the alignment of my own passion with the task at hand.
I recently did some research on Mr Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller. Here's a bloke probably best known for lending his name to the carbon molecules, "buckballs", or for his iconic geodesic dome designs. Until recently, I never knew much of his revolutionary ideas. Fuller devoted his life to answering particular questions. A life's work answering a tightly bundled group of questions is an extraodinary resource.
In the early 1900's, Fuller was already working hard on "ephemeralization", or doing more with less. Why not built strong, stable, light, attractive buildings based on tensegrity (efficient tension/compression members) structures? Fuller did it. Why not build a nimble, large capacity, efficient, 3 wheeled car that's built on aircraft technology rather than iterating another car design? Fuller did it. Fuller also designed low-cost, energy efficient houses over 50 years ago. I can't help but feel, if Fuller had the tools we have now, we'd all be sitting up and taking notice.
I do have an insight into why perhaps Fuller is not the first name to roll of everyone's tongue when it comes to listing influential inventors. The ability to communicate effectively is a cherished skill in any scientist, engineer or technician. In fact, the correlation between highly developed technical skill and being able to engage an audience for long enough to form a effective narrative on the fruits of that skill, is rather low. It appears Fuller added to that statistic in a truly perplexing way.
After his prototype car crashed at the World Fair in Chicago, Fuller was quoted as providing this description (in part):
But, in England there was a man called, his title was the Master of Semple it was a Scotch title, and he was the greatest aviator in England in those days, and extraordinarily well thought of. When the Graf Zeppelin made a special first trip over to the Chicago World's Fair, and the Master of Semple was invited as the English guest to go on the flight to America, to go to the World's Fair, and the Air Minister of France was on the trip. These two men telephoned me from the Graf Zeppelin over the Atlantic, asking if I could have the Dymaxion Car available for them to see at Chicago with the World's Fair.By this time I let the car go to a man named Al Williams who was the Navy's #1 speed flyer, and left the Navy to become head of gasoline sales for the Gulf Refining. And Al had acquired my first car for the Gulf Company to use at air meets, and it had become the official car at air meets running around the air field. And when this call came I then got in touch with Al Williams, so he had a race driver take the car out to Chicago to meet these two distinguished guests. They, then the car was put at their disposal with this race driver during their visit.
The Graf Zeppelin just dropped them off in Chicago and went back to Akron where it could be moored. The day came a few days later when the word came that the Graf Zeppelin was to return to England and these two guest would have to rejoin in the meantime they had driven the car a lot, and they needed the car to get out to the Chicago Airport in a hurry they called in, so at 7 o'clock in the morning went to their hotel, picked the two men up and started out for the Chicago airport when the next thing I knew there was a NEW YORK TIMES full headline FREAK CAR ROLLS OVER AND KILLS RACE DRIVER AND FAMOUS GUESTS WOUNDED injured and so forth. And I was in Bridgeport, and the Associated Press got in touch with me where I was building my second car at the time no yes, I had just started we were doing the drawings on the second car, and I flew out, and I had an engineer friend in Chicago. I asked him to go and start investigating just as fast as he could. I telephoned him, and I flew out to Chicago, and we found that the car had been removed from this accident.
Finally, I want to share some of the motivation behind my optimisim, that indeed, we're in for a mind-expanding ride. With the proper tools and resources, ideas become prototypes quickly.
Three-wheeled vehicles don't have to be unstable:
Problem faced by millions: opening your door after taking a tight park. Solution (link dead, updated to site with similar idea):