Our little Spaceship Earth is only eight thousand miles in diameter, which is almost a negligible dimension in the great vastness of space. . . . Spaceship Earth was so extraordinarily well invented and designed that to our knowledge humans have been on board it for two million years not even knowing that they were on board a ship.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Fuller describes Earth as a well-designed spaceship we have unknowingly inhabited for millennia.
- In plain terms
- Earth is a small, well-designed ship we have lived on for two million years without knowing.
- What can you take from it?
- Treat Earth as a carefully designed vessel that sustains us.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does the spaceship metaphor change how you live?
- What does it mean to be unaware on a ship?
Another view
The metaphor may understate human agency in shaping Earth's systems.
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