Chapters 3 Grunch of Giants is quite complex but it can be boiled down to one main ideas–that humans use tools to progress.
Grunch of Giants teaches that humans use tools
Humans use tools In Grunch of Giants, Fuller argues that just as wild stallions engage in battle to contrive to maintain the “strongest, best coordinated, most alert, and fastest strains in the species,” so humans also progress but unlike animals, the human has learned that “human muscle is naught as compared to the competence of the mind-directed brain.” Humans thus function in the universe 1) as local Universe information-harvesters, 2) as critical information winnowers, 3) as generalized Patterns-and-principles discoverers, 4) as employing those principles objectively to serve as local Universe problem-solvers. While Buckminster Fuller’s flowery language might seem a little over the top, his point is well taken–unlike animals, humans use their brain to become a giant, much stronger and more capable than if he were to use his human muscle strength alone.
I like this quote from the Grunch of Giants book, pg. 15:
Mind, which alone comprehens the complex interaction of principles, is required to anticipatorily invesnt stone-throwing slings, spring-loaded catapults, or bow-and-arrows archery.
Tools of self-defense or aggressive warfare, called weapons, frequently embody principles that can be constructively rather than dustructively employed.
Finally, Fuller explains in the Grunch of Giants that there are two types of tools–A) those that can be produced by one human alone, and B) those that can only be invented by many humans in cooperation. The later refers to the complex mind-boggling tools of the information age, such as computers, nuclear power, and other extremely complex technologies that require collective and cooperative engagement by thousands of humans before the end result can be produced.
Buy Grunch of Giants book at www.GrunchofGiants.com
