I quote some excerpts from two sources,
the first being
Pocket Books, New York 1971
first published by
Southern Illinois University Press
March 1969
the second
Collier Books, New York, 1970
containing Fuller's inaugural lecture
of the Littleton Franklin Lectures
at Auburn University, October 1968
1
“Man has failed thus far, as a specialist, to
define the microscopic limits of divisibility of the nucleus of the atom, but,
epochally, as accomplished by Einstein, has been able to define successfully
the physical universe but not the metaphysical universe; nor has he, as yet,
defined total universe itself as combining both the physical and
metaphysical. The scientist was able to
define physical universe by virtue of the experimentally-verified discovery
that energy can neither be created nor lost and, therefore, that energy is conserved
and is therefore finite. That means it is equatable…
“But the finite physical universe did not
include the metaphysical weightless experiences of universe. All the
unweighables, such as any and all our thoughts and all the abstract
mathematics, are weightless. Einstein and others have spoken exclusively about
the physical department of universe in words which may be integrated and
digested as the aggregate of nonsimultaneous and only partially overlapping,
nonidentical but always complimentary, omni-transforming, and weighable energy
events.
Eddington defines science as ‘the earnest
attempt to set in order the facts of experience.’ Einstein and many other
first-rank scientists noted that science is concerned exclusively with ‘facts
of experience’.
“Holding to the scientists’ experiences as all
important, I define universe, including both the physical and metaphysical as
follows:
The universe is the aggregate of all of
humanity’s consciously-apprehended and communicated experience whith the
nonsimultaneous, nonidentical, and only partially overlapping, always
complimentary, weighable and unweighables, ever omni-transforming, event
sequences.
“Abraham Lincoln’s concept of ‘right triumphing
over might’ was realized when Einstein as metaphysical intellect wrote the
equation of physical universe E=mc2 and thus comprehended it. Thus
metaphysical took the measure of, and mastered, physical. That relationship
seems by experience to be irreversible. Nothing in our experience suggests that
energy could comprehend and write the equation of intellect. That equation is
operating inexorably, and the metaphysical is now manifesting its ability to
reign over the physical.
This is the essence of human evolution upon
Spaceship Earth.
“Man thus began for the first time to really
employ his intellect in the most important way… when he discovered how to use
energy as matter in the form of levers, shafts, gear trains, and dams, and how
to take advantage of and use the energy as Sun radiation which vapourized and
elevated water as atmospheric cloud, allowing it then to be precipitated and
pulled back toward the centre of the spherical Earth from the spherical mantle
of clouds in the form of water molecules collected in droplets. From this
moment of comprehending energy circuits, and thenceforth, man’s really
important function in universe was his intellection, which taught him to
intercept and redirect local energy patternings… to do the manifold tasks
leading directly and indirectly toward humanity’s forward regeneration.
“What we now have demonstrated metaphysically is
that every time man makes a new experiment he always learns more. He cannot
learn less. He may learn that what he thought was true was not true. By the
elimination of a false premise, his basic capital wealth which is his given
lifetime is disembarrassed of further preoccupation with considerations of how
to employ a worthless time-consuming hypothesis. Freeing his time for its more exploratory
investment is to give man increased wealth.
“Sumtotally, we find that the physical
constituent of wealth – energy – cannot decrease and that the metaphysical
constituent – know-how – can only increase. This is to say that every time we
use our wealth it increases. This is to say that, countering entropy, wealth
can only increase…
“Wealth is anti-entropy at a most exquisite
degree of concentration. The difference
between mind and brain is that brain deals only with memorized, subjective,
special-case experiences and objective experiments, while mind extracts and
employs the generalized principles and integrates and interrelates their
effective employment. Brain deals exclusively with the physical, and mind
exclusively with the metaphysical. Wealth is the product of the progressive
mastery of matter by mind, and is specifically accountable in forward man-days
of established metabolic regeneration advantages spelt out in hours of life for
specific numbers of individuals released from formerly prescribed
entropy-preoccupying tasks for their respectively individual yet inherently
cooperative elective investment in further anti-entropic effectiveness.”
“Our wealth is inherently common wealth and our
common wealth can only increase, and it is increasing at a constantly
self-accelerating rate.
This all brings us to a realization of the
enormous educational task which must be successfully accomplished right now in
a hurry in order to convert man’s spin-dive toward oblivion into an
intellectually mastered power pullout into safe and level flight of physical
and intellectual success, whereafter he may turn his Spaceship Earth’s
occupancy into a universe exploring advantage.
“These are the synergetic rules that evolution
is employing and trying to make clear to us.
They are not man-made laws.
They are the infinitely accommodative laws of
the intellectual integrity governing universe.”
2
“Man is not unique in having altered his environment.
All living creatures alter the environment in one way or another, and then the
altered environment alters them back. There is a chain reaction that goes on,
giving rise to what we call evolution.
“The fact, that energy is not lost, has
not yet found its way into our books on economics. In them we still find the
word ‘spending’ – a word referring to that outdated thinking before man knew
that there was a speed of light. What then do we know about our wealth – about
what we can ‘afford’? … I’m going to say to you first, that no matter what you
think wealth is, would you agree with me that no matter how much you have of
it, you can’t alter one iota of yesterday? … So we don’t have to give any
thought to yesterday as we try to think about what wealth is. Whatever wealth
may be, it has to do with our now and our tomorrows but not our yesterdays. … I
would say, then, that what we probably mean by ‘wealth’, really has something
to do with how many forward days we have arranged for our environment to take
care of us and regenerate us in life and give us increased degrees of freedom.
… Now, regeneration of life is produced first with energy … [which] now we find
that the energy part of the universe is conserved – that it cannot be created
or destroyed. … Every time we rearrange our environment, we can get more energy
and more levers to do more work to take care of the regeneration of more and
more of our forward days. These energies are there, and they cannot be spent.
“The other element of wealth to be defined is by
far the more important. It is our intellectual capacity to recognize
generalized principles that seem to be operative in the universe and to employ
these principles. … There are a number of very important irreversibles to be
discovered in our universe. One of them is that every time you make an experiment
you learn more; quit literally, you can not learn less. That’s a pretty
interesting fact, isn’t it, because it means that the metaphysical factor in
wealth is one that is always gaining.
“That wealth combines two factors – the
physical which is conserved, the metaphysical which can only increase – isn’t
to be found in our textbooks, but it is what we are learning. It explains the
fact that suddenly completely to our surprise, we find forty percent of
humanity prospering as no king ever dreamt of less than a century ago – in that
yesterday we agree couldn’t be repeated or changed. And it means that we are going
to have to get into a completely new accounting system. There’s not a single
chapter in any book on economics about doing more with less. All the great
secrets, how the world was run by the great powers – all carefully omitted from
the books even now. And there is still no integration of the economists with
the physicists in regard to the inner significance of these matters. The
economists and physicists are all too specialized. But these are the kind of
things we are going to have to learn.”
* ”We therefore proceed ever more earnestly with our general systems
analysis of the problems of human survival, with the premise that at present neither
the world’s political officials nor its bankers know what wealth is.”
* ”Typical of the subsidiary problems
within the whole human survival problem, whose ramifications now go beyond the
prerogatives of planners and must be solved, is the problem of pollution in
general – pollution not only of our air and water but also of the information
stored in our brains.”
* ”It is easy to demonstrate to those who will
take the time and the trouble to unbias their thoughts, that automation swiftly
can multiply the physical energy part of wealth much more rapidly and profusely
than can man’s muscle and brain-reflexed, manually-controlled production. On
the other hand, humans alone can foresee, integrate, and anticipate the new
tasks to be done by progressively automated wealth-producing machinery. To take
advantage of the fabulous magnitudes of real wealth waiting to be employed
intelligently by humans and unblock automation’s postponement by organized
labour, we must give each human who is or becomes unemployed a life fellowship
in research and development or in just simple thinking. Man must be able to
dare to think truthfully and to act accordingly without fear of losing his
franchise to live. … Thus, production… will unleash humanity’s unique
capability – its metaphysical capability.
* three apposite & complementary quotes from the MANUAL
So, planners, architects and engineers, take the
initiative. Go to work, and above all co-operate and don’t hold back on one
another or try to gain at the expense of another. Any success in such
lop-sidedness will be increasingly short-lived. These are the synergetic rules
that evolution is employing and trying to make clear to us. They are the
infinitely accommodative laws of the intellectual integrity governing universe.
”It becomes evident, then, that youth’s world-round clamour for peace
can only be realized through technological revolution, which will do so much
more with so much less per each function as ultimately to produce enough to
support all humanity. It is also clear that such task can only be accomplished
by this technological design revolution…They have to shift their effort from
mere political agitation to participating in the design science
revolution. The latter course involves
the development of ever self-regenerating and improving scientific competence, and
that in turn means the individual must plunge earnestly and dedicatedly into
self-development by the resources of an educational system designed to develop
the inherent comprehensivity of humanity.
October, 1968
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[A] SUSTAINABILITY - THE FULL MONTY is published by Lulu Press, at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/CleanEnergyPundit
KNOWLEDGE AS WEALTH is also discussed at:
http://cleanenergypundit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/tyger-tyger-after-whiplashing-me-into.html 
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