World Game

For the international multi-sports event, see World Games. For the Doctor Who novel, see World Game (Doctor Who). For the Australian soccer show, see The World Game.

World Game, sometimes called the World Peace Game, is an alternative to war games. The playing of World Game was an idea proposed by Buckminster Fuller. The idea was to "make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone."

He publicly proposed the concept in 1961 as the core curriculum at the (then new) Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Fuller proposed it again in 1964 for the 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal, Quebec.

In a preamble to World Game documents released in 1970, Fuller identified it very closely with his 'Guinea Pig 'B' experiment' and his 'Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science' lifework. He claimed intellectual property rights as well to control what he considered to be misapplication of his idea by others. He also claimed he had been playing it 'longhand' without the assistance of computers since 1927.

In 1972, the World Game Institute was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Fuller, Medard Gabel, Howard J. Brown and others.

In 2001, a for-profit educational company named o.s.Earth Inc. purchased the principal assets of the World Game Institute and has been offering a Global Simulation Workshop that is a 'direct descendant of Buckminster Fuller's famous World Game.' [1]

In 2010, Filmmaker Chris Farina released a documentary on the World Game entitled "World Peace...and other 4th-grade achievements". [2] The film follows the life of 4th-grade teacher John Hunter and his utilization of the game in his classroom. Despite the challenge and the complexity of the game, the 9 and 10-year old students are able to win it and "Achieve World Peace". The documentary was shown at the 2011 South by Southwest Music and Film Festival [3] and has won audience awards at various international film festivals. John Hunter was invited to speak on the World Game at the 2011 TED Talks. [4]

External links

• World Game article at the Buckminster Fuller Institute Website
• World Game Series: Document One
• Global Simulation Workshop (Commercial)
• Buckminster Fuller Challenge
• Global Energy Network Institute
• An interview article with some statements by Bucky about The World Game