The average 20th century human? Not quite.
Thanks to social media, lots of people these days spend crazy amounts of time keeping the rest of us up to date on their thoughts, opinions, and totally interesting things like what they're watching on TV or what Star Wars character they most resemble. Well, let me tell you, these obsessive sharers have nothing on Buckminster Fuller.
Bucky, as he was known, was an architect, inventor, futurist, engineer, systems theorist—let's see, what I have I forgotten? Something, I’m sure. He’s probably most famous for the geodesic dome, but he did lots of other cool things, too. He designed futuristic cars and houses. He was really into sustainable energy, affordable housing, and better methods of transportation. So yeah, Bucky, who lived from 1895 to 1983, was a little ahead of his time in plenty of ways. But perhaps the funkiest thing he anticipated was the blog.
For more than sixty years, Fuller kept a detailed record of his life. He called it a chronofile. He updated it as often as every fifteen minutes, and at least daily. He wrote down what he was up to and his thoughts about what he was up to. He kept receipts, notes, newspaper clippings, and whatever other bits of ephemera he had to hand.
If Bucky were alive today, he would no doubt be a Twitter power user.
Why did he go to all this trouble? He thought it would be useful for future generations to have a peek into the daily life of a twentieth-century human. The problem with that plan is that Bucky was a long way from being an ordinary twentieth-century human.
But Bucky was right about one thing: Lots of people are interested in his chronofile. Well, at least some people are. All that stuff is kept in a special collection at Stanford University. If you want to know what Buckminster Fuller was doing pretty much every day of his life, check it out.
’til next time,
Avery
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Image courtesy New York City Department of Transportation CC 2.0