More With Less

The Path To Global Human Success

Bucky was the person who first proved beyond a doubt that humankind was doing "more with less." He went on to explain that process using the concept of synergy. We are now beginning to pay attention to that "more with lessing" on a global scale as well as in our personal lives. The concept of doing more with less is making its way into our everyday way of thinking and creating, and we need to consider how to more consciously guide that tendency so that it serves life rather than destroying it.

For example, only a few short years ago, we were forced to walk over to the television to change the channel or adjust the volume. Telephones were a convenience that required connecting wires. Computers were bulky expensive tools for business and science, and the news was limited to what major networks and newspapers provided.

These are only a few examples of doing more with less and the concept Bucky spoke of as ephemeralization, in which physical artifacts become smaller and smaller. When ultimate ephemeralization occurs, the physical device disappears because it is no longer needed. Just consider the history of the telephone to gain some understanding of this phenomenon, where humankind is headed and how Bucky could possibly suggest that telepathy will become an everyday way to communicate.

In the 1980's telephones were still clunky devices controlled by a few major corporations. Next came wireless phones, and we were free to wander our homes and offices while talking. Moving forward and doing more with less, cell phones were then developed, but they were initially bulky, limited in their range and expensive. Today, however, the cell phone has grown very small and can also include a camera, web device, music player and other tools. It is also inexpensive enough to be affordable to enormous numbers of people some of whom are homeless and have no address where a phone could be wired. In urban areas, the cell phone is as common as the automobile, and we constantly see people talking away as they drive down the street or shop in the supermarket.

Smaller, cheaper, easier to use and on the way to disappearing. That is the evolution of the telephone as we continue to do more with less physical resources. The phone will eventually transform from an object to a medium of communication requiring no hardware. When we recognize that the physical artifact of the telephone is simply a crutch, we can begin to understand how Bucky knew that it would eventually disappear and we would fully rely on the most powerful, least expensive technology available - the human mind and consciousness.

Almost everyone has had the experience of knowing who was calling before the phone rang, thinking about someone and coincidentally running into them a few minutes later or feeling something tragic had happened only to later learn that a loved one had been in a car accident at that exact moment. These are not happenstance experiences. They are examples of how we were designed to be.

Telepathy is just one of the many undeveloped skills available to us. Bucky realized that at this critical juncture in the evolution of our species, we need the synergetic ephemeralization of our physical requirements and the expansion of our metaphysical abilities such as telepathy.

He understood that we have reached a point in history when physical resources need to be conserved and nonphysical resources need to be more fully utilized as we continue to do more with less. This is the time for a balance between the physical, which has been so dominant for so long, and the nonphysical, which has been neglected by the majority of humankind for many centuries.

Our ancestors were aware of these skills, and some indigenous cultures continue to work with and employ them. They communicate telepathically, travel on nonphysical levels to learn and heal and can actually transform physical reality with their metaphysical talents. This was something Bucky saw as extremely important if we are to succeed in the future, and he did all that he could to emphasize it in his writing, speaking and inventing.