The American utopist, inventor and "design scientist" Buckminster Fuller was probably among the strangest and broadest thinking geniuses of design ever.  In his own words, his aim was, “To make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”

In his book You Belong To The Universe, author Jonathon Keats discusses Bucky's extraordinary work seen in a contemporary context where the great movers in technology such as Tesla and Google are taking on to change the world, although with very different incentives.

Check out Wired's interview with Keats, which is also a great short introduction to Buckminster Fuller's thoughts.