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“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty.
I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished,
if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
—Buckminster Fuller
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To
change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
—Buckminster Fuller
Design Science
By Medard Gabel
Design Science is a methodology for recognizing, defining, and solving complex problems. It is inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller and other planners, scientists, and visionaries. It takes a whole systems, global, and anticipatory approach that fosters creative collaboration and synergy in the development of comprehensive solutions to societal problems.
Very briefly, design science is the comprehensive and anticipatory
application of the principles of science to the creative design of solutions
to the problems of society. It is a way of changing the world in preferred
directions that is based on innovation and thrives on transparency.
The core of this approach to problem solving and planning is both a
concern with whole systems—the whole Earth, the entire history
of the planet, the global economy, all of technology, and all of humanity;
both those living now and those yet to be born—as well as a recognition
that everything is implemented locally, and that the “whole”
is merely the context for the local. It is the local upon which the
success or failure of a particular design solution will thrive or die.
Design science is:
• Comprehensive, in that it
starts from the whole system and works back to the special case; it
deals with all facets of a problem including the larger system of which
the problem is a part; in this sense, design science seeks to build
capacity, not just solve problems;
• Anticipatory, in that it seeks
to recognize the threats coming down the pike before they arrive full
blown on an unsuspecting or ill-prepared society; it deals with the
way things are going to be when the solution is going to be implemented,
not just the way things are in the present;
• A design strategy, in contradistinction to
a political or let’s pass-a-law-and-change-human-behavior approach,
seeks to change the larger system of which the specific problem is a
part through the introduction of innovative artifacts or policies;
• A science–based methodology that uses
the latest advances of science and technology to benefit humanity.
This “comprehensive anticipatory design science” is at least
as much a perspective on the problems of the world as it is a methodology
for tackling those problems. When applied to contemporary problems,
it can lead to strikingly fresh insights and solutions.
Design science is a tool that is based on a global perspective and a
systems approach to the problems of the world. It assumes that globalization
has made the world an ever more interconnected whole, and any successful
problem solving of society’s systemic ills needs to be an approach
that is global, comprehensive, visionary, and based on science, not
politics, ideology, or wishful thinking. The entire world is now the
relevant unit of analysis, not the city, state, or nation. We are onboard,
as Buckminster Fuller pointed out, “Spaceship Earth,” and
the illogic of 200+ nation state admirals all trying to steer the spaceship
in different directions is made clear through this metaphor—as
well in Fuller’s more caustic assessment of nation states as “blood
clots” in the world’s global metabolism.
The design science process is augmented by vast quantities of statistical
information about the state of the world, its resources, human trends,
needs, and technology. With the advent of personal computers and the
Internet this information became almost universally available—and
with it, design science found its perfect compliment. Coupled with the
tools of the information age, design science gains the power to reach
its potential. The Internet has not leveled the global playing field
so much as expanded it, and the good ‘ol boy status quo maintaining
political process can now be subverted by a process that brings Thomas
Jefferson into the twentieth century.
In Fuller’s words, design science is a process where individuals
or teams of people can
“Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible
time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or
the disadvantage of anyone.”
Making the world work for 100% of humanity reflects Fuller’s global
perspective as well as his values. We are not here just to make ourselves
rich, famous or top consumer of the day or decade, or here just for
the 5% living in our part of the world; we’re here for all of
humanity. The “spontaneous cooperation” is instructive in
light of the previous discussion. The phase does not read, “Make
the world work for 100% of humanity through a central government, or
through enforced coercion by a strong military” but through a
cooperation that arises from a fundamental transparency of society and
its needs. If everyone knows what the situation is, has a clear vision
of what should be and what needs to be done, we cooperate to get it
done—as we do as a society in times of emergency.
Fuller said, "I am enthusiastic over humanity’s extraordinary
and sometimes very timely ingenuities. If you are in a shipwreck and
all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat
that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not
to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of
a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops
in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings as constituting
the only means for solving a given problem."
Design science is a method for developing the life preserving and enhancing
solutions to society’s problems.
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