I got as far as Winnipeg before we turned back.
The captains voice calmly announced to a sleepy load of passengers ‘there’s been an incident in London, Heathrow airport is closed, and we are heading back to San Francisco’. My first thought was what on earth has kicked off in London while we have been flying towards it. The good news they told us, was we didnt have to clear US Immigration when we landed. Hurrah! And so, 6 hours later, I found myself back where I started, collecting my suitcase from a carousel and finding my way to a hotel, courtesy of British Airways at 3am.
Though every cloud has a silver lining and seeing the Universe gifted me an extra day, I tried to put it to good use and by 10am I found myself in a cafe with Kongjian Yu and Dr. Stuart Cowan and George Orbelian of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and Kathryn Langstaff of Autopoiesis LLC.
This led on to a most interesting day, where we walked through Berkeley botanical gardens while George excitedly introduced us to an incredible array of people and we talked about the ideas of Buckminster Fuller and the wider vision for a Sponge Planet. We spoke with Richard Lukens, Bruce Mau, Gil Friend • Sustainability OG and David Milarch of ARCHANGEL ANCIENT TREE ARCHIVE (US).
This sowed the seeds for future collaborations for radical collaboration for regeneration and to continue the move ‘From Lighthouses to Tipping Points’ , which is the theme for BlueTech Forum 2026, in Seattle. So a little bit of serendipity can go a long way.
I got home 24 hours later then expected, but overall the richer for it.
Many thanks to Dr. Stuart Cowan and George Orbelian for their generous spirit of hospitality.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
― Buckminster Fuller
