Whole Earth: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

"We are as gods and might as well get good at it."

That's how Stewart Brand opened the first Whole Earth Catalog in 1968. It was provocative, optimistic, and fundamentally empowering.

The Whole Earth Catalog wasn't a magazine. It wasn't a store. It was access to tools—physical tools, intellectual tools, community tools—that let people take control of their lives.

It's the single biggest inspiration for what we're building with Thios.

What Was the Whole Earth Catalog?

If you weren't around in the late 60s and 70s, the Whole Earth Catalog is hard to explain.

Imagine a pre-internet Amazon reviews section meets a pre-internet Reddit meets a pre-internet maker community, all printed on newsprint and mailed to your door.

It was a catalog of products, books, and tools, but with:

• Honest reviews (not marketing copy)
• Practical information (how to actually use things)
• Community contributions (readers shared discoveries)
• Philosophical context (why this matters)

The Categories

The catalog was organized around life domains:

• Understanding Whole Systems (ecology, systems thinking)
• Shelter and Land Use (building, homesteading)
• Industry and Craft (tools, techniques)
• Communications (media, publishing, networking)
• Community (organizing, governance)
• Nomadics (travel, mobility)
• Learning (education, self-teaching)

Each section had reviews of books, tools, and resources. But more than that, it had context—why these tools mattered, how they fit into a larger vision of self-sufficiency and community.

The Philosophy

The Whole Earth Catalog was built on a few core beliefs:

1. Access to Tools

"A realm of intimate, personal power is developing—power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested."

The catalog didn't give you fish. It didn't even teach you to fish. It told you where to get a fishing rod, which books explained fishing best, and connected you with other people who were learning to fish.

Access to tools meant:

• Information about what exists
• Honest evaluation of quality
• Guidance on how to use them
• Community of fellow users

2. Whole Systems Thinking

The catalog emphasized understanding how things connect. Not just "how to build a house," but:

• How does shelter relate to land use?
• How does energy use affect the environment?
• How do building materials impact health?
• How does design affect community?

Everything connects. Understanding the whole system makes you more effective at any part of it.

3. Personal Responsibility

"We are as gods and might as well get good at it."

Humans have enormous power to shape the world. We can build, create, destroy, heal. The question isn't whether to use that power—we're using it whether we think about it or not.

The question is: will we use it well?

The catalog was about getting good at being human. Learning skills, understanding systems, taking responsibility for your impact.

4. Community and Sharing

The catalog was a community project. Readers contributed reviews, suggestions, and discoveries. The best ideas spread. Knowledge compounded.

This wasn't top-down expertise. It was peer-to-peer learning. People helping people.

Why It Mattered

The Whole Earth Catalog was published from 1968-1972, with occasional revivals and updates through the 1980s and 90s.

It influenced:

• The back-to-the-land movement (homesteading, organic farming)
• The appropriate technology movement (small-scale, sustainable tech)
• The personal computer revolution (Steve Jobs called it "Google in paperback form")
• The maker movement (DIY culture, hackerspaces)
• The internet (decentralized information sharing)

Stewart Brand went on to co-found:

• The WELL (early online community)
• Global Business Network (scenario planning)
• Long Now Foundation (long-term thinking)
• Revive & Restore (de-extinction and genetic rescue)

The catalog's DNA is in everything from Kickstarter to Wikipedia to YouTube tutorials.

The Whole Thios Handbook

When we started documenting the Thiosphere, we knew we needed more than just build instructions.

We needed:

• Context (why this design? why open source?)
• Philosophy (what are we trying to achieve?)
• Community (how do we help each other?)
• Whole systems (how does this fit into larger patterns?)

The Whole Earth Catalog showed us how.

The Structure

Our handbook follows a similar structure:

Understanding Whole Systems:

• Why modular design matters
• How thermal dynamics work
• Systems thinking for builders

Shelter and Space:

• The Thiosphere platform
• Different configurations (Sauna, Immersive, Agro, etc.)
• Customization and adaptation

Tools and Techniques:

• Required tools (and alternatives)
• Building techniques
• Assembly jigs and aids

Materials and Sourcing:

• Standard materials (lumber, plywood, hardware)
• Alternative materials (local, recycled, experimental)
• Supplier recommendations

Community and Cooperation:

• Cooperative ownership models
• Community building strategies
• Sharing knowledge and resources

Economics and Business:

• Cost breakdowns
• Revenue models
• Market strategies

The Philosophy

Like the Whole Earth Catalog, the Whole Thios Handbook is about access to tools.

We're not selling you a shed. We're giving you:

• Information (how to build one)
• Evaluation (what works, what doesn't)
• Guidance (step-by-step instructions)
• Community (other builders to learn from)

The License

The Whole Earth Catalog was copyrighted, but its spirit was open. Stewart Brand famously said, "Information wants to be free."

We're taking that literally. The Whole Thios Handbook is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The Thiosphere designs are under CERN Open Hardware License with Strong Reciprocity.

You can:

• Copy and share freely
• Modify and improve
• Use commercially
• Build a business around it

You must:

• Give credit
• Share improvements under the same license

This ensures the knowledge stays open and keeps improving.

Standing on Shoulders

We're not inventing this approach. We're following a tradition:

Whole Earth Catalog (1968) → Access to tools for self-sufficiency

Foxfire Books (1972) → Appalachian traditional skills and knowledge

Mother Earth News (1970) → Sustainable living and homesteading

Make Magazine (2005) → DIY technology and maker culture

Instructables (2005) → Online community sharing how-to guides

Open Source Ecology (2003) → Open source industrial machines

WikiHouse (2011) → Open source housing designs

Each of these projects shares knowledge freely, builds community, and empowers people to create.

We're adding to this tradition, not replacing it.

What's Different Now

The Whole Earth Catalog existed in a pre-internet world. Information was scarce. Access was limited.

Today, information is abundant. The problem isn't access—it's:

• Signal vs. noise (too much information, hard to find quality)
• Fragmentation (knowledge scattered across platforms)
• Lack of context (tutorials without understanding)
• No community (isolated learning)

The Whole Thios Handbook addresses this by:

• Curating quality (tested designs, honest evaluation)
• Providing context (why, not just how)
• Building community (connecting builders)
• Integrating knowledge (whole systems, not isolated facts)

The Living Document

The Whole Earth Catalog was published periodically. Each edition was a snapshot.

The Whole Thios Handbook is a living document. It will:

• Update continuously (new designs, improvements, lessons learned)
• Incorporate community contributions (your discoveries become everyone's)
• Evolve with technology (new materials, new techniques)
• Grow with the community (more use cases, more configurations)

When you buy the handbook (PDF or print), you're not just buying documentation. You're:

• Funding development (prototypes, testing, refinement)
• Joining the community (access to forums, updates, support)
• Investing in the future (the handbook gets better over time)

The Mission

Stewart Brand wrote in the Last Whole Earth Catalog (1971):

"Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

(Steve Jobs later made this famous in his Stanford commencement speech.)

Our mission is similar:

Stay curious. Keep learning, keep experimenting, keep improving.

Stay generous. Share what you learn, help others, build community.

Stay humble. We don't have all the answers. We're learning together.

Stay ambitious. We're not just building sheds. We're building a movement.

Domus Opus Est

"The work of shelter never ends."

This is our version of "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

Shelter is fundamental. Everyone needs space—to live, to work, to create, to gather, to grow.

But shelter is never finished. It needs maintenance, adaptation, improvement. Needs change. Technologies evolve. Communities grow.

The work never ends. But neither does the potential for life to flourish in the spaces we create.

The Gratitude

We stand on the shoulders of giants:

Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog team, for showing that access to tools can change the world.

Buckminster Fuller, for geodesic domes and whole systems thinking.

The open source movement, for proving that giving away your work can create more value than hoarding it.

The maker community, for showing that ordinary people can build extraordinary things.

Everyone who's shared knowledge freely, from ancient craft traditions to modern YouTube tutorials.

We're not doing anything new. We're continuing a tradition as old as humanity: teaching each other, helping each other, building together.

The Invitation

The Whole Earth Catalog ended each issue with:

"Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

We end with:

"The work of shelter never ends. Join us."

Previous Post: Proto 3: The Agrosphere—Bringing It Full Circle

Related:

• Whole Earth Catalog Archive
• Stewart Brand's Work
• Open Source Philosophy
• Community Building Principles

About the Whole Thios Handbook

The Whole Thios Handbook is available now as a living document. Purchase includes:

• Complete build instructions for all Thiosphere configurations
• Access to CAD files and technical drawings
• Community forum access
• Lifetime updates as the handbook evolves
• Support for prototype development

Visit thios.co to learn more.

Join the community at thiosphere.org.

Access open source designs at GitHub.

The work of shelter never ends. But neither does the potential for what we can build together.