As an architectural achievement, the Biosphere epitomizes Fuller's idealization of the promise of technology. Through holistic consideration, systemization and mass-production, he saw this project as an example of how architects could wield and deploy the instruments of innovation to create new species of hyper-efficient machines for the good of mankind. The beauty of the Biosphere’s pure geometries was an aesthetic bonus, the intentional but subordinate success of a functionalist and ethical pursuit. However, the capacity of the structure to communicate this message of optimism-through-optimization may have been lost on those who sought and struggled to find practical applications for Fuller’s invention. Although shell structures have endured as standard devices in the international architectural repertoire, geodesic domes in particular never achieved the mass-adoption Fuller hoped for, and his idealistic labors translated into few tangible gains for the human condition he sought to improve.