From An Interview, an explanation:
"You mentioned "Earth Cubed". What was all that about?
When we were doing projects that others lumped with "Earth Works" a start was made to look at those Earth oriented projects. The Whole Earth Catalog was the only place with a consciousness that really saw the Earth as a total organism but even that consciousness was somewhat limited in that it was mostly concerned with what was going on in the U.S. The Earth works projects were all kind of local and wimpy, seldom arising out of a vision that went beyond the end of the block and hardly ever beyond the horizon.
Reacting to that attitude, we considered the Earth from outer space, the "New Frontier”. We'd begun space travel, landed on the moon and after 1969 a cycle of cosmic consciousness was on the up slope. Projects were developed to reach into outer space to let the universe know we're here. That vision was one-way, outgoing in that it was us telling a possible "them" who we were. The assumption was that we were making the effort, but not allowing for the possibility that someone else might be looking for others as well. This implied that there would be someone, somewhere who'd catch our signal and say "Hi".
There wasn’t a name for what came up with but Earth Cubed or Earth3 made sense. The idea was, is, to build a system of eight satellites and place them at what would be the corners of a cube that enclosed the Earth. The edges of the cube are lasers connecting the satellites. The lasers would be invisible along their length in the vacuum of space much less the atmosphere but they are visible on paper and in the mind's eye. In time a plasmic laser could come along, as Mike Hinge might say and that would take care of that. The Earth revolves within the cube and the cube revolves around the Earth on a calendar to signal its coming and going in the sky.
The cube is an ideal symbol for mankind as we exist on Earth: we are largely a rectilinearly thinking phenomenon as evidenced by what we build. The influence of the cube is inarguably ubiquitous. There have been, in what we tend to call primitive societies and occasionally today, builders who work in circles or amorphous shapes but at a certain point the advantages of right angles overtake other forms and dominate our thinking as we build our environment. The idea is that we identify ourselves by putting out a simple message using the cube as symbol that says: "We are Here and we build".
Sending a space vehicle off into the universe to announce our presence seemed like just another way to spend money - sending it off into infinity. When we really think about our situation we have to realize that we're already on a gigantic space ship cruising in infinity. We broadcast a powerful and diverse radio signal; all we'd need would be a label to distinguish ourselves from all the other "products" out there, as far away as they may be. Is this a concept that would fall into the category of Earth works? A few drawings done a while ago disappeared but this new image gets the idea across.
Earth Cubed.
Why did you select this face of the Earth to depict Earth Cubed? It's usual to use the Western Hemisphere when displaying the globe.
That's question everyone asks on seeing the image for the first time. This face was chosen because it is not where an Americans like us, think of when we see the globe. There's more to it than our own little corner, no matter how powerful we may be. And think of how many of us have fought and died on this face of the Earth for whatever reasons making it important on the most personal level. Earth Cubed is a concept that might help to expand our consciousness of the Earth, to help realize how our presence affects the Earth and in turn to understand how the unknown expanse of space can affect the Earth. It can't be denied that this face of the Earth is only seconds away when we call via our cell phones, computers or the internet.
Earth’s Brain
Ever wondered if the Earth had a brain or mind that could think like a human’s? Every once in a while the thought arises. Think about it for a while and then ponder the difficulties of conceiving the possibility. We’ve come to the conclusion that the Earth does not yet have a brain or mind but that it will have one relatively soon and that humans are creating it. Realizing that the relationship between human time on Earth and cosmic time – compared to cosmic time, human time is not even an instant – freed thinking of the concept of mortality and of life being limited to that of individuals. From this position it’s possible to begin seeing human time over the decades, centuries and more as a continuum that's manifested in the works of humankind.
With the increasing development of the internet we’ve become more conscious of networks and how they encircle the Earth and relate globally. Images of the Earth at night from outer space and the visibility of human works from larger spatial distances reinforce the perceptions of these networks and the rapidity of their growth. A brain for the Earth is being created.
When we use the computer, tablet or phone these objects become connections to communication, knowledge and information and all that that implies. But if this is the beginning of an Earth brain, how does it initiate action? The human’s brain can do so and cause a result. How would the Earth initiate action via its new brain? The answer seems obvious. If the agent, the cell, of the brain/mind creation is humankind, then the agent of the Earth’s action is also humankind. The question, "What's going on here?" takes on a new dimension.