Foreword

Introduction: Twilight of the World's Power Structures

I

1. Speculative Prehistory of Humanity
2. Humans in Universe
3. Legally Piggily

II
4. Self-Disciplines of Buckminster Fuller
5. The Geoscope
6. World Game

III
7. Critical Path: Part One
8. Critical Path: Part Two
9. Critical Path: Part Three
10. Critical Path: Part Four

Appendix 1. Chronology of Scientific Discoveries and Artifacts

Appendix 2. Chronological Inventory of Prominent Scientific, Technological, Economic and Political World Events: 195 to Date

Index

"Today we find ourselves in the midst of the greatest crisis in the history of the human race. Technology has placed in our hands almost unlimited power at the very moment when we have run up against the limits of our resources aboard Spaceship Earth, as the crises of the late twentieth century -- political, economic, environmental, and ethical -- determine whether or not humanity survives. In this masterful summing up of an entire lifetime's thought and concern, R.Buckminster Fuller addresses these crucial issues in his most significant, accessible, and urgent work.

"Critical Path traces the origins and evolution of humanity's social, political, and economic systems from the obscure mists of prehistory, through the development of the great political empires, to the vast international corporate and political systems that control our destiny today to show how we got to our present situation and what options are available to man. With his customary brilliance, extraordinary energy, and unlimited devotion, Bucky Fuller shows how mankind can survive, and how each individual can respond to the unprecedented threat we face today.

"The crowning achievement of an extraordinary career, Critical Path offers the reader the excitement of understanding the essential dilemmas of our time and how responsible citizens can rise to meet this ultimate challenge to our future." [jacket blurb, US trade pbk, 1981]

"Critical Path is a state-of-the-art summary of human evolution." --Marilyn Ferguson (author of The Aquarian Conspiracy ).

Highly recommended.