6.2.1 It is logical to consider at this point the contin uingly important part played by historically significant, omni-world-around, electromagnetically triangulated, aerial photo-mapped, latitude-longitude-coordinated, geographical data‹triangular gridding of whose great sphere serves as the spherical scoreboard upon which to display the Geoscope's World Game software. (Fuller, 1981, pg. 184)

6.2.2 Fuller's Geoscope never came to be beyond a prototype, but the idea migrated over to another invention which is still alive and working today: World Game. The physical architecture was not able to manifest because of existing societal constraints, but the software architecture and concept survived. It is important to reconsider the World Game thesis when envisioning how new economies, particularly for creative communities working on the networks, may emerge.

6.2.3 In a 1965 keynote lecture at Southern Illinois University, Fuller announces that the university was about to start "a computer feeding game" called "How to Make the World Work." Teams of players direct the flows of global resources, and the effects of their decisions are immediately registered by a computer display of the Dymaxion map. The originally envisioned map would be football sized, fed live information by satellites, and have access to historical data stored in the computer. Since computers were not capable of what he was envisioning at the time, he proposed an interim proposal of a dome with a 195-foot span in which a tiered auditorium faces a vast screen at one end on which traditional projectors enlarge small-scale computer displays. Thomas B. Turner, the director of development of the project, argues that the appropriate model is the development of the "art of aesthetics" in motion picture, television, and theatre. Sophisticated pattern-recognition software would give seemingly chaotic information an aesthetic form. (Wigley, 1997, pg.17.22)

6.2.4 World Game is conceptualised as the antithesis of War Games. It is utopian at its core, calling for the end of nation states and banking systems as we know them, one that could manifest if humanity would only realise that such a "world-around, satellite-relayed, and world-integrated computer accounting system could overnight provide for a Omnibillionaire Commonwealth" of all humans.(Fuller, 1981, pg. 216) Fuller believed that the computer could be a neutral information provider, disclosing the economic savings of humanity to be accomplished by elimination of race, class, and creed differentials.

6.2.5 In 1969, Fuller initiated the World Game. Developed largely by his students, the World Game seminars have been attended by university faculty, students, scientists, engineers, and government officials:

6.2.6 In playing the game I propose that we set up a different system of games than that of Dr. John Von Neuman whose "Theory of Games" was always predicated on one side losing 100 percent. His game theory was called "Drop Dead." In our World Game we propose to explore and test by assimilated adoption various schemes of "How to Make the World Work." To win the World Game, everyone must be made physically successful. Everyone must win. (Fuller, 1969, pg. 114)

6.2.7 The World Game was an outcome of many years of work on the problem of housing and transportation. Fuller envisaged the contemporary living pattern as a local spherical control systems, everywhere surrounded by an air ocean. He never departed from his 1927 4D assumption that air is our ultimate ocean, our full immersion guaranteed by design-regenerating technology. Fuller intended the game to be played on a giant Dymoxian map or a Geoscope globe. Strategies entered on the player's computers would interact and then appear as moving patterns of light that everyone could see.

6.2.8 Fuller frequently pointed out that people trust computers more than the machinations of politicians. He imagined the United Nation delegates conducting official games that would reveal mutually beneficial moves. Computers would analyse the subtle interactions and side effects of individual decisions. Animations would show effects of the strategic moves over time.

6.2.9 In addition to showing strategic moves, the World Game hardware and software would visually display the data collected by the World Resources, such as spread of disease, filling of wetlands, shipping of various commodities. Data would be easily grasped and understood by all who would view it, literally changing the world view and contributing to a more conscious approach to our place on the Spaceship Earth.

6.2.10 Fuller was confident the World Game would show that international cooperation is so obviously advantageous that war would be unthinkable. In view of all the senseless wars taking place, with the help of computer technologies, it is critical to consider the World Game when conceiving design of online communities. He considered the World Game's highest priority to be connecting the major electrical grids of the world. Shared electrical power would mean a fully connected, interrelated world.

6.2.11 The World Game is still being played today, both in the form that is true to Fuller's vision and in wholly different forms. In 1972 the World Game Institute was established as an independent non-profit entity. This organisation regularly conducts workshops (games) at many universities and corporate offices. Recently, World Game has moved into a NetWorld Game on the web where one can access a variety of statistics about such things as the world's population, resources, and how money is spent, as well as play the game online. [1] [top]