Ephemeralization
Buckminster Fuller's "more and more with less and less."
Ephemeralization is a term coined by the designer and systems theorist Buckminster Fuller for technology's tendency to accomplish "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing." It is one of the clearest mid-20th-century antecedents of the Age of Abundance thesis: the claim that progress is, in large part, the substitution of information and design for raw material.
Doing more with less
Fuller pointed to examples like communications satellites replacing tons of transoceanic cable, or lighter, stronger structures carrying more load with less material. Each is a case of design and knowledge displacing mass and energy. The modern pillars extend the pattern: a learned model substitutes computation for labor; a solar panel substitutes a one-time manufactured device for a continuous fuel stream.
Why it is not automatic
Critics note that ephemeralization describes a possibility, not a guarantee: efficiency gains can be eaten by rising consumption (the rebound effect), and "doing more with less" says nothing about who captures the surplus. The abundance synthesis keeps Fuller's technical optimism but pairs it with the coordination and governance questions he largely left open.
Sources
- Ephemeralization โ Wikipedia
- Buckminster Fuller โ Wikipedia
- Jevons paradox (rebound effect) โ Wikipedia