Abstract

This article is a reflection of the project ‘Welcome Aboard’, which I collaborated on in 2011, with two scientists Nicola Armaroli (Ist. ISOF/CNR, Bologna and Molecular Photoscience Group, Bologna) and Vincenzo Balzani (Department of Chemistry G. Ciamician, University of Bologna). The video establishes a dialogue based on Buckminster Fuller’s ‘World Game’ where they offer possible scenarios for our planet running under renewable energy sources. Ultimately, a democratic system of energy sharing, between consumers and suppliers, was proposed to be put at the forefront. The article begins with David Bohm’s focus on how a collective thought process can have drastic affects on our society. He proposes that we recognize the ‘whole’ in which we live to avoid becoming a society of fragmented incoherency. Similarly, as an engineer Buckminster Fuller has devoted himself to finding an effective action to change the world through a global approach, which he calls a whole-system perspective. The technology of the Smart Grid, proposed in the dialogue between the two scientists of ‘Welcome Aboard’ in which every individual produces, shares and consumes energy (electricity), seems to be a new tool that could be combined with other technologies to provide a connectivity between human beings.