In 1950 Fuller produced a chart (Dymaxion World, p.162) depicting the shifting geometry of human movement on Spaceship Earth.
The first half a million years of human presence are characterized by relative immobility and isolation. The next, transitional, phase of about 5000 years yields a 2-dimensional network of transport and communication.
The third phase, beginning this century is one of high-frequency, omnidirectional traffic which "synchronizes with the dynamic universe" and represents intellectual achievement and freedom of movement.
In the Reader (p.83) Fuller mentions a 20ft globe used to model these patterns.
Here we may invoke Marinetti's call for "a fully mastered and definitive Futurist aesthetic of giant locomotives, spiral tunnels, Ironclads, torpedo boats, Antoinette monoplanes and racing cars." (Banham, 1960, p.124)
See Boyden for more on global patterns of civilization.
© Paul Taylor 2001