1927 marked the major shift in Bucky’s life and path as well as the beginning of the second period of his life. That next phase lasted until 1947 when Bucky invented the geodesic dome.  With the loss of his construction company and the birth of his second daughter Allegra, Bucky found himself stranded with a young family in 1927 Chicago.  He had no money, no job no formal education beyond high school, a reputation as an unsuccessful businessman and no prospects for the future.

Extremely dejected, he seriously considered drowning himself in Lake Michigan.  It was then that Bucky had the insight that transformed his life.  Fate intervened before he could act, and Bucky was blessed with his most well known (but not sole) mystical, life-changing experience. As he walked along the shore of Lake Michigan late one night and mentally prepared himself to swim out until he was exhausted, he found himself suspended two feet off the ground in a ball of white light. A voice spoke to him saying that he (like all humans) did not belong to himself, that he belonged to a larger Whole that Bucky would eventually label Universe.

The voice went on to recount that because he did not belong to himself, he did not have the right to end his life.  It further explained that he (like all people) was a unique link in a chain of experiential wisdom passed down from generation to generation, and that he did not have the authority to break that chain. Lastly, Bucky was told that he would be a mini-Christ on Earth, speaking only the truth. Feeling both elated and burdened by these new challenges, Bucky followed the path of many mystics and visionaries; entering into a nearly two-year period of silent study and meditation.

Vowing not to speak until he had something valuable to say, he devoted much of that time to formulating a fifty-year experiment. The essence of his experiment was to discover and document what one individual with no money, connections or resources could accomplish on behalf of all humankind that could not be achieved by any government, organization or institution regardless of its size or power. This was an outrageously bold undertaking for a man in his mid-thirties because the average life expectancy of a man born in 1895 was only forty-four years.

Following that incident, Bucky understood that he (like every human being) belongs to Universe, and he committed himself to an experiment that provided the foundation and context for his every action and decision during the next fifty-six years.  He decided to embark upon a lifelong experiment to determine and document what one average, healthy individual with no college degree and no money could accomplish on behalf of all humankind that could not be achieved by any nation, business, organization or institution no matter how wealthy or powerful.

With no apparent means of support for his family much less his experiment, Bucky resolved to use the only person available for observation.  Thus, R. Buckminster Fuller adopted the alias "Guinea Pig B," one person under the constant scrutiny of himself.

During the twenty years from 1927 through 1947 a more mature Fuller devoted a great deal of his time to a formidable search for Nature's coordinating system. The discoveries he made in that investigation eventually became Bucky’s radical Synergetic Mathematics, a mathematical system based on what he observed in Nature rather than man-made ideas and concepts.  That system also became the foundation for Bucky’s most famous invention, the Geodesic Dome, and other of his insights and creations.

Following his commitment to work on behalf of all humankind and to never again work for a living, the initial problem Bucky took on was the issue of housing the expanding population of Spaceship Earth. He worked sporadically on the mass-producible Dymaxion House from 1927 until Beech Aircraft and the United States government joined him to produce a prototype in 1944.

To support people traveling to and from their Dymaxion Houses (which were designed to be autonomous and therefore could be erected in very remote locations), Bucky envisioned an "Omni-Medium Transport Vehicle" that could operate in the air, on water or on land.  From 1933 to 1935, he worked to produce three prototypes of that Vehicle, but because they traveled only on land, they became known as Dymaxion Cars.  In the 1930s, Fuller also developed and published Shelter magazine, commercially published his first book Nine Chains To the Moon and worked with Fortune Magazine and the Phelps Dodge Corporation.

His positions with Phelps Dodge and Fortune provided him with an even more potent opportunity to study Earth's resources and Nature's efficient operating strategy of doing "more with less" resources.  Once he realized the significant benefit of Nature’s way of doing anything, he adopted it as a primary aspect of his work and life.  Years later, he would bring the phenomenon of doing more with less into the popular culture as “synergy,” a term he singlehandedly moved from the obscurity of the chemistry lab into the light of public awareness. Today, synergy is a commonly used word, but even as late as the 1970s, few people knew of it, much less understood what possibilities synergy provided.

In examining global resources and their use, Bucky also discovered fundamental flaws in the resource framework first advocated by Thomas Malthus in the early 1800's and spread by those in power since that time. Those antiquated beliefs were established on Malthus' view that the Earth's resources were very limited and could not support an ever-increasing population.

Politicians, businessmen, religious leaders and others who sought to retain control were quick to add Darwin's "survival of the fittest" theory to Malthus' ideas, creating a scenario that continues to permeate most societies. Because of those groundless ideas, most people still believe that might is right and that the strongest individuals and nations are destined to garner and exploit the majority of Earth's resources -- thereby surviving at the expense of all other humans and living creatures.

Bucky realized that Malthus had failed to grasp the fact that humans were employing technology at ever-increasing pace so we are doing much more with fewer resources. He discovered that Malthus had failed to consider that in the process of rapid development and deployment of technology humankind had quickly increased our ability to support an expanding population of life on Earth.

As a scientist and engineer, Bucky studied data which revealed that since the 1800's new technological discoveries such as alloy metals and increasingly rapid communication devices had expanded humankind's ability to support life far beyond anything Malthus described or imagined.  Then, in the 1930's, Bucky accurately calculated the time when humankind would reach a point of doing so much more with fewer resources that we would be able to support all life on Earth.

His prediction was the year 1976, and for the balance of his life he continued monitoring global resource use and was able to confirm his forecast.  In 1976, he reported that there was now enough resources on Earth to feed, clothe and house everyone at a higher standard of living than anyone in all recorded history has ever known. Although this is still a shocking statement for most people, Bucky would explain it based on his own experience.  When he was a child, the richest person on Earth did not have things many people took for granted when he was an adult.  In 1900 nobody had refrigeration, electricity to power all sorts of devices, air travel to take them anywhere in the world in a matter of hours or perhaps a day, reliable rapid land transportation or the ability to speak with another person quickly at a small cost.

Still, the idea that we are essentially “unsuspecting billionaires” who already “have it all” was - and still is - quite a shock to most people who were  -- and still are -- hearing stories of famine, epidemics and other catastrophes around the world.  Bucky would explain that to reach this place where everyone was cared for would require a shift in our priorities from weaponry to livingry.  He would further explain that once people were provided with sufficient livingry (life supporting resources such as food, shelter, clothing, education) and did not have to worry about the necessities of life, they would reduce their propensity to produce children, thereby causing a reduction in population.

When scientists and economists studied the issue of starvation and hunger, they found that in the area of food, Bucky was correct in his prediction.  They found that sometime in the 1970s we had reached a point when there was enough food to feed everyone.  The issue was not quantity but control, and politics was the overriding factor governing starvation and all that it entails.

Bucky had come to that same conclusion over fifty years earlier as a result of his detailed examination of all resources.  He had also found that humankind was approaching a corresponding option for success with other life supporting resources, and he often recounted the details of that hopeful option to his audiences. Yet, regardless of the irrefutable data he used to establish the accuracy his assertions, most people were - and still are - unconvinced that we now have sufficient resources to support everyone.

Bucky’s wisdom and insight were -- and still are -- revered by many.  However, others relegate him to the status of an optimistic dreamer who championed "a world that works for everyone."  When people examine his documentation, insight, wisdom and pragmatic approach to problem solving, they begin to see the emerging potential for a prosperous planet, which Bucky first envisioned in the late 1920's.

During the 1930's, Bucky continued developing and applying the Synergetic Mathematics he had initially created to model and explain nature's fundamental coordinating system. One of the most dramatic artifacts he invented resulted from his combination Synergetic Mathematics and his concern for the success of all humankind.

  In working with the entire planet and its resources, Bucky realized that he needed an extremely accurate method of exhibiting the whole Earth on a single flat sheet. Accuracy and relationships were important, and he quickly discovered that no world map came close to portraying the truth of the relationships and sizes of landmasses much less the correct distances between locations. He tried using traditional maps, but found them so distorted that information displayed became misrepresentation. Always eager to do whatever he found that needed to be done, Bucky began searching for undistorted methods of representing Earth on a single flat sheet of paper.

Combining his love of structure, mathematics, geometry with that quest would eventually lead him to invent the Dymaxion Map, which accurately portrays all the Earth's land masses in proper size and relationship to one another. The Dymaxion Map initially became popular when it was published as a punch-out feature in a major 1943 Life Magazine article.  Later, it became the first cartographical patent issued by the United States Patent Office since the turn of the century.

During World War II, Bucky continued his study of housing.  As part of that research, he invented the Dymaxion Dwelling Unit, which was employed by Allied troops for remote housing at sites where another new technology, radar, was being set up.

Bucky also served as the Chief Engineer for the Board of Economic Warfare during WWII, an amazing achievement for a man with no formal engineering training. During the final months of the War, he witnessed the consummation of another of his dreams when he supervised production of the prototype Dymaxion House at the Beech Aircraft factory in Wichita, Kansas.  Along with his other exploits, this nationally publicized construction and engineering project catapulted him into the public spotlight, and he began receiving invitations to teach and speak at colleges and universities.

It was at one of those engagements in 1947 that he combined his mathematical skills with his knowledge of construction and Nature's coordinating system to produce his most famous invention - the geodesic dome.  The creation of the geodesic dome also ushered in the third significant period of his life.

1927 - Second child, Allegra, born.
Considers himself a failure and contemplates suicide. Has mystical experience in which he is told that he does not have the right to kill himself and that he will only speak the truth from then on. Dedicates himself to the service of all humanity.
Writes and privately publishes first book, 4D Timelock.

1929 - Displays model of 4D round house at Marshall Field Department Store. Coins and copyrights the word “Dymaxion” to describe house and other inventions.

1933 - Establishes Dymaxion Corporation to successfully design and build first prototype Dymaxion Vehicle.

1935 - Prototype Dymaxion Vehicles #2 and #3 are completed and displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair.
Writes Nine Chains to the Moon.

1936 - Meets with Albert Einstein who is amazed that Fuller could conceive of a practical application for Einstein’s theories.

1938 - Nine Chains to the Moon published.
Joins Fortune magazine as science and technology consultant.

1940 - Works on development of Dymaxion Deployment Units at Butler Manufacturing in Kansas City.

1941 - Quits drinking and smoking as an anniversary gift for Anne and to further his mission without his behavior as a hindrance.

1942 - Joins US Board of Economic Warfare as Director of Mechanical Engineering.

1943 - Full color, punch-out rendition of Dymaxion Sky-Ocean World Map is published in Life magazine resulting in the largest printing of the magazine.

1944 - Begins design and production of prototype Dymaxion House in conjunction with Beech Aircraft of Wichita, Kansas.

1946 - Is awarded the first cartographic project patent since 1900 for Dymaxion Map.

1947 - Invents Geodesic Dome.
First teaches at Black Mountain College.