A trim tab.... 존재의 이유?

배의 뒷부분에 달려있는 커다란 방향타를 항해 중에 직접 움직이게 하는 기계적 장치는 아직까지 고안되지 않았다고 합니다. 물리적으로 불가능하다고 하네요. 대신 방향타 끝부분에 붙어 있는 trim tab이라 불리는 작은 보조 장치를 움직여 그때 발생하는 압력(low pressure)으로 방향타를 움직이게 한다고 합니다.

미국의 시스템 이론가이자 팔방미인 천재였던 Buckminster Fuller는 자신을 포함하여 우리들 개개인을 이 trim tab에 비유합니다.

어찌해볼 길 없는 이 절망스러운 '현실' 속에서도 희망을 잃지 않고 '꿈'을 꾸는 우리들의 보잘것 없는 작은 몸부림이 거대한 흐름의 진로를 바꾸게하는 힘(low pressure)이라는 거죠.

A great American systems theorist, Buckminster Fuller, said:

"Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab."

(Bucky의 유언에 따라 만들어진 묘석)

"When I thought about steering the course of the 'Spaceship Earth' and all of humanity, I saw most people trying to turn the boat by pushing the bow around. I saw that by being all the way at the tail of the ship, by just kicking my foot to one side or the other, I could create the 'low pressure' which would turn the whole ship."

As a little trim tab in this Spaceship of Earth, we need to kick our foot to "make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offence or disadvantage of anyone."