Future Positive
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In 1971, Buckminster Fuller and a team of architects began the design for a new city. The project was called Old Man River City. It was to be a single community dwelling machine for 125,000 humans. The following description in Fuller's own words is excerpted from the book Critical Path published in 1981:
Old Man River's City, undertaken for East St. Louis, Illinois,
takes its name from the song first sung by Paul Robeson fifty years
ago, which dramatized the life of Afro-American blacks who lived along
the south-of-St. Louis banks of the Mississippi River in the days of
heavy north-south river traffic in cotton. Cessation of the traffic
occurred when the east-west railway network outperformed the
north-south Mississippi, Mexican Gulf, and Atlantic water routes, which
left many of its riverbank communities, such as East St. Louis,
marooned in economic dead spots. East St. Louis is an American city
overwhelmed by poverty. Its population of 70,000 is 70 percent black. I originally came to East St. Louis to discuss the design and
possible realization of the Old Man River's City, having been asked to
do so by East St. Louis community leaders themselves, being first
approached by my friend Katherine Dunham, the famous black dancer. At
the community leaders' request I presented a design that would help
solve their problem. It is moon-crater-shaped: the crater's truncated
cone top opening is a halfmile in diameter, rim-to-rim, while the
truncated mountain itself is a mile in diameter at its base ring. The moon crater's inward and outward, exterior-surface slopes
each consist of fifty terraces-the terrace floors are tiered vertically
ten feet above or below one another. All the inwardly, downwardly
sloping sides of the moon crater's terraced cone are used for communal
life; its outward-sloping, tree-planted terraces are entirely for
private life dwelling.
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 Timothy Wilken, MD writes: You may have noticed that a lot of the world's news is bad.
Making a living seems to be getting a lot a harder. A lot of people are out of work. Prices are really getting difficult.
Our economy seems not simply to be slowing into a recession, in fact it seems to be genuinely broken.
Our leaders are not very reassuring. They have lots to say, but none of it makes much sense. Their actions seem only to make things worse.
Our planet seems broken too. Our biologists tell us that a lot of the plants and animals are dying. Our atmosphere is getting ever more contaminated, and at times difficult to breathe.
And yet we humans just keep making the same choices over and over again, including making many more of ourselves.
Our population is predicted to reach seven billion in 2012. This doesn't seem to be making things any better. If we are running out of clean water, healthy food, and cheap energy, do we need more mouths to feed -- more bodies to clothe -- more individuals to shelter and transport?
I believe that tomorrow's challenges will require that we make our choices much more carefully, and select actions that are much more intelligent.
In
my search to better understand human behavior, I have discovered seven
states of mind that when accomplished increase human intelligence, they
are: calmness, awareness, synergy, validation, motivation, adaptability & responsibility.
Creativity and productivity are optimized in an environment that is highly supportive of these states of mind.
I think you might want to understand and nurture these states of mind in yourself, in your family, and in your friends. (06/23/08) |
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 Timothy Wilken, MD
writes: ALL is ONE -- ONE is ALL.
Reality is whole -- both physical and
metaphysical.
Reality is UNITY -- both recognized and unrecognized.
One God -- One Spirit -- One Consciousness.
ALL is ONE -- ONE is ALL.
I am the Individualization of that Oneness.
Right Here, Right Now.
Consciousness in me, as me, is me.
Spirit in me,
as me, is me.
God in me, as me, is me.
I am awake now and know who I
am. I am awake now and know who you are. We are the same. I am you and
you are me. I am self and I am other. I am one and I am all. I am me
and I am you.
When I help you, I help myself. All Help is self-help.
When I protect you, I protect myself. All protection is
self-protection.
When I forgive you, I forgive myself. All forgiveness
is self-forgiveness.
When I love you, I love myself. All love is
self-love.
And, so I help you always, protect you always, forgive you
always, and love you always.
All gifts are self-gifts. We are ONE. All
gifts to you are also gifts to me. For this truth, I am deeply
grateful. I accept our oneness as true and valid. I accept our unity as
here and now. I accept our wholeness as natural and necessary.
And, so
it is. ... (06/13/08) |
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 John Fitzgerald Kennedy
speaking in 1963: Professor Woodrow Wilson
once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of
his nation as well as a man of his time, and I am confident that the
men and women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution
will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high
measure of public service and public support.
"There
are few earthly things more beautiful than a university," wrote John
Masefield in his tribute to English universities--and his words are
equally true today. He did not refer to spires and towers, to campus
greens and ivied walls. He admired the splendid beauty of the
university, he said, because it was "a place where those who hate
ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive
to make others see."
I have, therefore, chosen this
time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often
abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived--yet it is the most
important topic on earth: world peace.
What kind of
peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana
enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the
grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace,
the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that
enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life
for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all
men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
...
First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace
itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it
unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the
conclusion that war is inevitable--that mankind is doomed--that we are
gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not
accept that view. Our problems are manmade--therefore, they can be
solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human
destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often
solved the seemingly unsolvable--and we believe they can do it
again.
I am not referring to the absolute, infinite
concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics
dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite
discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate
goal.
Let us focus instead on a more practical, more
attainable peace-- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but
on a gradual evolution in human institutions--on a series of concrete
actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all
concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace--no grand or
magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be
the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic,
not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For
peace is a process--a way of solving problems. (06/08/08) |
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Timothy Wilken, MD
writes: I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking about God
recently. What is the role of God in Humanity's future?
It would seem
that any serious inquiry into that question must start with a
definition of God. ...
Humanity has used the term God to represent
‘that’ in universe that is larger than ourselves. We have used the term
God to represent ‘that’ which is the source of Universe — ‘that’ which
is the source of Heaven and Earth — ‘that’ which is the source of Life
and Humanity. I make no argument against the existence of God. I am in
full belief that there exists ‘that’ in universe that is larger than
ourselves. I am in full belief that there is a ‘source’. And I also
call that source God.
Let us agree then that the source of Universe —
the source of Heaven and Earth — the source of Life and Humanity — is
God.
This agreement does not require that we describe God in anyway.
Harry Rathbun in Creative Initiative writes: "We use the word
God to designate that which is beyond description or definition. That
which is ineffable, unutterable. That which is the Ultimate Reality,
the Ultimate Mystery, which stands both behind and within the universe,
behind Creation; that which is at once both immanent and transcendent.
By the word “God” we refer to that which is source, direction,
intelligence, and will; to that spirit which encompasses the supreme
values of truth, beauty, and goodness; to that reality on which we are
totally dependent and to which we are totally subject; and to that
before which we stand in awe, wonder, and reverence, but with which we
can communicate.
God is that which draws man up toward the heights,
whose plan and intention call for all of us to rise to that level of
being which is our destiny and our fulfillment."
This definition seems
quite positive to me. Life’s power is to create syntropy. This ability
to ever increase order, organization, pattern, and form is a defining
characteristic of life. Life evolves towards ever-increasing syntropy —
ever increasing order — ever increasing organization, form, pattern,
and heterogeneity. ...
And so perhaps God is that which pulls us
towards ONENESS--that which pulls us to be the best we can be. This
seems an appropriate concept of God for a Future Positive. (06/03/08) |
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This page was last updated: Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 2:30:44 PM
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