Paul Laffoley
(b. 1940, Cambridge, Massachusetts)

I, Robur, Master of the World
1968
Oil, Acrylic, Lettering on Canvas
73 1/2 x 73 1/2 in.

Subject: Redesigning Part of the Solar System

Symbol Evocation: The Natural Link between the Earth and the Moon

Comments: As we approach the Twenty-First Century, problems of managing the world seem to be emerging faster than we are able to solve them. Driven close to despair and distraction, architects and designers of the environment in general have become either bricoleurs, frantically trying to patch our reality as it comes apart at the seams, or prophets of doom traumatized by their own foreboding. As in all problem solving, the solution lies first in determining the next highest context of the elements involved, and second in assessing the new possibilities that then appear. In the case of the earth, the next design context is the solar system, specifically our nearest neighbor both physically and mythologically-- the moon. Therefore, I propose an earth-moon link-up through open space to form a simple, but gigantic motor. It would consist of double-layered geodesic spheres that rotate one within the other about ten miles off the surface of the earth and the moon. These friction machines could be constructed of a transparent living plastic and would be linked through space by a tube of the same material. The choice of a living material would mean that repairs would be self-generated and instantaneous. The orbit of the moon would drive the motor and provide all the energy ever needed. The sphere itself could support an atomic train, able to stop at any point above the earth's surface and lower shipments; thus the time needed to distribute goods and services would be minimized. Filtering systems could be installed in the sphere to both clean the air and reclaim lost minerals, or even to add nutrients to the atmosphere.

Next all vegetation around the world would be united into one giant plant, made to grow through the link tube and finally around the moon so that a natural human-sustaining atmosphere would develop there. All buildings and instrumentality would be physically alive. Violent or explosive actions and effects, like atomic energy, would be time delayed and slowed to the rate of human observation. Finally would come the building of a flying saucer city- a new acropolis, the Urban Fossickated Octave. It would be a physically transformative environment circulating the earth and would take those on board those who wished to transit from the exoteric realm of knowledge to the mesoteric and through to the esoteric realm.