Richard Buckminster Fuller, known by his friends as "Bucky", has undeniably been one of the key innovators in the 20th century. He is known as a philosopher, thinker, visionary, inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet, cosmologist, and more. Buckminster Fuller was probably one of the first futurists and global thinkers. He is the one who coined the term "Spaceship Earth", and his work has inspired and paved the way for many who came after him.  "Bucky" was the person most responsible for making Synergy a common term. Much of his work was about exploring and creating synergy. He found synergy to be a basic principle of all interactive systems. He developed a subject called Synergetics, a "Geometry of Thinking".

Fuller is the inventor of the Geodesic dome, and was a pioneer in utilizing basic geometrical shapes in design.

A key goal for Buckminster Fuller was the development of what he called "Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science", which is the attempt to anticipate and solve humanity's major problems by providing "more and more life support for everybody, with less and less resources."

Fuller routinely demonstrated his ideas in what he called "artifacts", tangible prototypes or models of designs and principles.