The Critical Path

H UMANITY IS MOVING EVER DEEPER into crisis—a crisis without prec¬ edent.

av upon completely transforming omnidisintegrated humanity from a complex of around-the-world, remotely-deployed-from-one-another, differently col¬ ored, differently credoed, differently cultured, differently communicating, and differently competing entities into a completely integrated, comprehensively interconsiderate, harmonious whole.

Second, we are in an unprecedented crisis because cosmic evolution is also irrevocably intent upon making omni-integrated humanity omnisuccessful, able to live sustainingly at an unprecedentedly higher standard of living for all Earthians than has ever been experienced by any; able to live entirely within its cosmic-energy income instead of spending its cosmic-energy savings account (i.e., the fossil fuels) or spending its cosmic-capital plant and equipment account (i.e., atomic energy)—the atoms with which our Space¬ ship Earth and its biosphere are structured and equipped—a spending folly no less illogical than burning your house-and-home to keep the family warm on an unprecedentedly cold midwinter night.

Humanity's cosmic-energy income account consists entirely of our gravity- and star (99 percent Sun)-distributed cosmic dividends of waterpower, tidal power, wavepower, windpower, vegetation-produced alcohols, methane gas, vulcanism, and so on. Humanity's present rate of total energy consumption amounts to only one four-millionth of one percent of the rate of its energy income.

Tax-hungry government and profit-hungry business, for the moment, find it insurmountably difficult to arrange to put meters between humanity and its cosmic-energy income, and thus they do nothing realistic to help human¬ ity enjoy its fabulous energy-income wealth—in fact, they send their govemment "revenooers" out into the mountain forest to fine and to destroy the equipment of any civilian so "treacherous" as to apply private enterprise in the alcohol-from-Sun-energy-photosynthesis harvesting to personal advantaging. If any citizens start making their own automobile-powering al¬ cohol, the "revenooers" will have to pounce on them just as they do on those making moonshine "likker."

Ninety-nine percent of humanity does not know that we have the option to "make it" economically on this planet and in the Universe. We do. It can only be accomplished, however, through a design science initiative and tech¬ nological revolution.

For three-quarters of all the trillions of nights humans have been on board planet Earth, the Moon has been their most intimate sky companion. For millions of years humans assumed it to be obvious that no one would really touch the Moon. Those who did not assume that to be obvious were obviously loony—lunatics, "Moon touchers."

In the battle of human power systems to see who is to control the world's people and their economies, the communist U.S.S.R. and the capitalii U.S.A. had been taught by World War II that whoever could fly the highest would gain the observational advantage for controlling the firepower of their guns and thus win the mihtary supremacy of the world. In the "cold" Third World War the U.S.S.R. and U.S.A., inspired by the German rocketry, saw that whoever could maintain the greatest number of around-the world-outer-space-platforms could control around-the-Earth firepower. The Moon was just such a "permanent" sky advantage.

Greatly challenged by the Russians' initially most successful space-operating accomplishments. President John Kennedy authorized the funds for the Apollo Project, which had first to do all of the tasks here on Earth preparatory to getting a team of humans ferried over to the Moon, to land, and then to return safely to Earth.

before third things and 7308 thines before 7309 things. Some wer^ anina tn before third things and 7308 things before 7309 things. Some were going to take longer than others. There would be a pattern of start-ups and lead-ins of differing time lengths. This complex, shad-bone-like pattern would be known as "the critical path." The critical path of overall human history's technological evolution involved two million* things that had to be done before blast-off" of the first Earth-to-Moon ferrying-over-and-back.

It's all about energy, power, and innovation. Buckminster's clever perspective on human history.