How Would You Run The World? Buckminster Fuller’s World Game and o.s. Earth Global Simulation
All text from: www.worldgame.org
In the late 1940’s, the world was coping with the ravages of world war and nationalism. Buckminster Fuller, the American inventor, educator, and visionary, conceived a tool to help address these critical problems: the World Game.™
Fuller’s vision for the World Game™ grew out of his earlier studies of war games at the U.S. Navy War College. He envisioned a “great logistics game,” like a war game, but he at first called his version a “World Peace Game.” Fuller’s game was intended to be a tool that could be used by people around the world to understand and develop solutions to what he called the real enemies of humanity: hunger, illiteracy, lack of health care, environmental degradation, and “you or me” thinking.
Later, Fuller proposed to house The World Game™ in a giant geodesic dome that he designed as the U.S. Pavilion for the 1967 Montreal World’s Fair. His giant dome was built, but the USIA rejected his World Game™ exhibit as too “revolutionary”. Undaunted, Fuller continued to develop his World Game.™
In 1972, the World Game Institute was established by Fuller and two colleagues, o.s.Earth founders Howard Brown and Medard Gabel. The World Game Institute brought the World Game™ experience to hundreds of thousands of participants around the world. The World Game Institute also developed the world’s largest and most accurate map of the world, one of the most detailed and substantive databases of global statistics available anywhere, and educational resources designed to teach interdependence, collaboration, respect for diversity, and individual participation in a global society.
The o.s.Earth Global Simulation is a direct descendent of Fuller’s “World Peace Game.” In a Global Simulation, Fuller’s original idea is enhanced with state of the art multimedia, the inclusion of relevant current issues, and dynamic game play. What results is a challenging and moving experience that participants remember for a very long time.