John Allen in the Geodesic Dome at Synergia Ranch.

“The Adventure of the Universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic Beauty.”
— Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas

The online discussion about the recently released Biosphere 2 documentary, Spaceship Earth, seems to revolve around two things. First, the uncanny timing of the film’s release—a documentary about eight people in the early 1990s sealing themselves inside an enclosed space for two years, made available for streaming during our own pandemic quarantine moment. And second, the last half of the film, which takes us through the unravelling of the Biosphere dream, as CO2 levels spike, vegetation begins to brown and wither, and the “biospherians”—addled by slow suffocation and starvation—begin to fight amongst themselves (while on the outside, a sensationalistic news media picks away at the project’s morale, by broadcasting the decline and amplifying the dismissive “hippyphobia” of the orthodox scientific community).

It’s hard to admit (or deny), but such schadenfreude can be entertaining. Still, I prefer the first half of Spaceship Earth, which focuses on the birth and growth of this utopian dream. We witness the beginnings of the Institute of Ecotechnics, in 60s San Francisco, as like-minded adventurers assemble around the “brilliant, charismatic” figure of John Allen. We witness the heyday of the Theater of All Possibilities, followed by the founding of Synergia Ranch in New Mexico (this period also gave birth to Synergetic Press, although it’s not mentioned in the film). We witness the construction and launch of the ship Heraclitus in Oakland during the mid-70s, which launched an ocean-going global tour and a series of business ventures around the world—everything from a hotel in Kathmandu to an art gallery in London. All of this led to a series of international ecological conferences during the 1980s, from which emerged the idea of the Biosphere and its early design process.

The accomplishments of the “synergists” from the 60s to the 80s are impressive—not bad for a bunch of “questionable characters”—and shouldn’t be overshadowed by the tragic spectacle of Biosphere 2. Their boundless energy and imagination continues to inspire. Here are five quotes from Spaceship Earth which capture their spirit of joyous exploration:

“If one wants to make a contribution to history, you notice those moments of opening, and that’s when you act.”
“The magic of the entire enterprise was to always increase the challenge.”
“Small groups are engines of change.”
“Any idea that can be conceived in our time, can be executed in our time. It’s a hell of a mantra.”
“When you’re doing something that no one has ever done before, you learn by doing.”

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5 Inspirational Quotes from 'Spaceship Earth'