Buckminster Fuller

The concept of four billion billionaires is something that Fuller tries to say is within our reach yet I'm not entirely convinced. He makes optimistic statements without any regard for the consequences. For example, what would happen after we have four billion billionaires? Would we be satisfied with that or reproduce until we push our resources to the limit once more? Why do we need to push our resources to the limits? While I do believe a computer has the potential to make our society more efficiently and justly, what happens when the computer does not operate according to our will?

I feel that the author underestimates humanity's desire to gain power and control over each other. Once we are all billionaires we will have people who will want to become trillionaires and they will not be satisfied with equality. In this sense the author is a naive ideologist.

Our energy usage is inefficient and this is indisputable, and I fully support the idea of change in that regard. We waste so much energy that it almost becomes depressing. In fact we only use five out of 100 units of energy according to the article. This is unsustainable and definitely needs public attention. I feel that the real problem is that we are currently living in a society based on consumption and that owning a gas guzzling hummer is a status symbol. Therefore consuming more is considered to be a good thing when the reality is that the complete opposite is true.