I'm joining a frat with Buckminster Fuller

Cultural lineage.

I am neither excited nor disappointed to say this, all I know is that it’s true:

I am destined to add to the fraternity of the most dripped out technology brothers.

Growing up, I wanted to be Pre. When I was 15 years old I broke Steve Prefontaine’s Oregon state freshman record for the 1500m, a record that had stood since 1965. It was my honor, and to me, acts as our inextricable link. Forever I had aspired to compete with a Prefontaine-like capacity of guts; I wanted the long hair and the filthy mustache that the ladies loved, I wanted the Nike connect, I wanted America’s love. He was an artist. He was also the mold. And even though I stopped running competitively after my freshman year at Stanford, he always will be to some capacity.

My childhood friend and teammate Miles once gave me a Prefontaine tapestry to hang in my room that I will pin up in every home I occupy for the rest of my life. It serves as a sort of reminder of what the value of dedication over long distance looks like. He’s one of the truest manifestations of pushing yourself to a perceived limit, only to find out that limit doesn’t really exist. Oregon kid, one of the finest.

Ken Kesey is one of those figures whose link to my lineage is a little bit absurd. Seriously, like, a little bit uncanny. Similar to Pre, he attended University of Oregon in Eugene for a while (another one of our finest), and similar to me, he was born in the Willamette Valley and spent a good amount of time at Stanford, where he went to grad school.

Kesey is known for two things: acid and authorship. His hit novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a longstanding American classic, and, as the founder of the Merry Prankster’s, he is also a central luminary figure of 60s American counterculture. He was among the original batch of people to receive LSD in a lab setting (thank you MK-Ultra), and certainly one of the first to arrange recreational access for himself and all of his friends (this includes the Grateful Dead). Peddling drugs to the experimental public via “acid tests”, he effectively became one of the most revered figures of the heady generation. His impact is still felt in SF.

Of course all of this is very inspirational and cool, but what’s more is that in the twilight years of his mass influence, Kesey retreated back to Oregon to found the Oregon Country Fair just outside of Eugene in a nice forest; one of the purest annual hippie gatherings in the entire world to this day. I didn’t actually know that he had founded it until a year or two ago, but I’ve been attending the Fair since I was like... five. My hippie grandparents took my mom when she was growing up, and in turn my hippie mom would take me when I was growing up. The Fair has always held a special place in my heart, and this was only made more special when I would run high school cross country races there on the magical forest fairgrounds. And win! On top of that… Ken Kesey named his son Zane, which my parents were not aware of when they named me.

Does this mean I need to start dropping tabs? Maybe? Probably? Happy Fair.

“Access to tools.” Stewart Brand is someone whose connection to myself has been more recently discovered, but is probably now the largest. Stanford graduate, Bay Area resident, canonical Merry Prankster alongside Kesey, early internet adopter, outspoken advocate of communal power, acidhead turned Whole Earth Catalog founder, Buckminster Fuller stan…

What I’ve come to realize is that in the 70s, Brand was doing exactly what I am attempting to now: compiling examples of physical product and creativity designed or made with true utility and/or pure expression in mind. He was working for a generation of counterculturists and the back-to-land movement, the Whole Earth Catalog was their go-to text; the role it filled for many was borderline biblical. Similarly, I’m working for a generation of subculturists (I’m not sure that we have enough granular counterculture yet, but we will) and making space for the renaissance of critical, intentional, and meaningful consumption. In this way Silknode is like the Whole Earth Catalog, except emerging from a 2022 digicultural context. As for its influence, we are yet to see… but I have high hopes.

Those familiar with Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog know that it was actually born from the impetus of Fuller’s ideological transmission. And those who are familiar with Apple know that Steve Jobs is someone who cites the Whole Earth Catalog as a major influence in his ideological development. He was obsessed with the crossover of art and utility, the brilliance that manifests when those values find balance. Jobs obviously spent a large amount of time in the Bay Area, but he also spent a small pinch of time at Reed College up in Portland, Oregon before dropping out. Which alternately led to the creation of Apple, which I happen to think is kind of neat.

Tying back into the aforementioned psychedelic tradition, he is incidentally also known as an acid head — claiming that the substance led to some of his greatest career breakthroughs. I think that’s neat too.

As an elementary schooler I remember checking out a Jobs biography from my school’s library. This was around the same time that I went to the AT&T store with my mom to buy her first iPhone in 2008 and I was playing chess on my mom’s Mac every chance I got. The physical mark that he has left in both tech and culture inspires me every day. RIP Steve Jobs, you would have loved Silknode.

One of my favorite Buckminster Fuller quotes (and there are a lot, he once gave a 42 hour lecture) is, “trying to change human nature through politics is futile; the best way to improve behavior is via tools we use to engage each other and our environment.” Tools. Community. Humanity. Technology. In one of my favorite essays my favorite professor (and mentor) at Stanford, Fred Turner, calls him the “technocrat for the counterculture.” Definitive.

Lineage wise, Fuller is like my ideological grandpa. He influenced every single one of my influences and many of said influences have outwardly corroborated this. His design philosophy, centered around “comprehensive design,” was the cornerstone of the Stanford design program from the 50s onward — the Stanford design program led to Silicon Valley, and I think you probably know what has become of that.

And as for the lineage of acidheadery, I don’t think he ever dabbled but he probably would’ve loved it. RIP Buckminster Fuller, you would have loved LSD.

Also, just for the record, the Silknode logo will probably reference geodesic domes.

Oregon + the Bay Area; Stanford + influence; culture + technology; boundaries + breaking them. I just can’t help but feel like I’m in some sort of next of kin situation here. Right?

And that’s on fraternity.

Kindly, Zane