The World Game cannot be understood without some familiarity with the Geoscope, which in turn is a generalization of the Dymaxion Map. The World Game is essentially a programme for the Design Science Revolution. It is conceived as an Integrative Resource Utilization Planning Tool.
The subject of a chapter in "Critical Path", the World Game is described there as "a continuing scientific research and physical-prototyping development. It is devoted to progressive discovery of how most efficiently and expeditiously to employ,
all three to the ever-advancing equal advantage of all its present and future passengers". (p.202)
The World Game is analogous to War Games, but it is concerned with living rather than killing.
In the course of the chapter, Fuller discusses wealth, cartography, power, resources, banking, salaried leisure, housing, and many other matters.
Earth's resources are grouped into eight categories (p.221), and he gives a list of 15 considerations to be incorporated into the design science of shelter. These include geometrical facts and matters of energy-harvesting from the sun (including by photosynthesis) and wind power.
Writing about industry and the environment (p.220), Fuller makes the surprising suggestion that it is ignorant to describe chemical waste-products as "pollution". He notes that,
"the people who let the sulphur go into the air are not in the sulphur business".
Visit BFI's flagship project, the EARTHscope, a web-based "geo-story-telling" tool, at www.spaceshipearth.org.
© Paul Taylor 2001