Buckminster Fuller - Everything I Know (42 hours of video)

http://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Abuckminsterfuller&sort=-publicdate

by ColinWright • 13 years ago

106 35 13 years ago

sp3323• 13 years ago

The department store Marshall Field's hired a wordsmith to listen to Fuller talk for two days. After playing around with syllables, he came up with "dymaxion" as a good brand name that fit the way Fuller talked. Fuller liked it so much he used it for a lot of projects: Dymaxion house, Dymaxion car, Dymaxion World Map, and Dymaxion Chronofile. The Chronofile made Buckminster Fuller the most-documented person in history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_Chronofile

phaus3• 13 years ago

After playing around with syllables, he came up with "dymaxion" as a good brand name that fit the way Fuller talked.

I wonder if the word smith facetiously chose this word because it sounds really stupid. After all, the way that Fuller makes up his own words makes him sound like a raving idiot. Don't get me wrong, he was undoubtedly a really smart guy, but his personality and mannerisms detract from that.

LeeHunter• 13 years ago

Looking through the lens of 2013 it might sound stupid. In the cultural context of the mid-20th century it was perfectly appropriate. Fifty years from now the word "iPhone" will probably sound like the dumbest name ever.

bencollier492• 13 years ago

Brilliant man, but this rambles a bit.

bencollier492• 13 years ago

Tell you what though, it gets better!

hhorsley• 13 years ago

I wish everyone did this

ape4• 13 years ago

Only smart people.

sp3323• 13 years ago

Well you won't know which people have good ideas until they tell you their ideas :)

ElliotH• 13 years ago

That was my first thought. If all great thinkers recorded long pieces like this we'd build a great treasure trove of information.

rcthompson• 13 years ago

Everyone does. It's just that only the NSA has the tapes.

JDDunn9• 13 years ago

They do. It's called YouTube. It's not that good...

recuter• 13 years ago

Why the hell isn't there some nifty interactive annotated and cross referenced transcript of this? Grrr.

avdempsey• 13 years ago

Fuller made such a file, look up the Dymaxion Chronofile. Or, check out Stanford's online collection: http://collections.stanford.edu/bucky/bin/page?forward=home

schiffern• 13 years ago

It's not interactive or cross-referenced, but a transcript is available here: http://www.bfi.org/about-bucky/resources/everything-i-know

bachback• 13 years ago

cool, but boy those formats suck. reminds me of what youtube really achieved. video that works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6yaSLipeWg

josh-wrale• 13 years ago

Fodder for Psychohistorians.

sTevo-In-VA• 13 years ago

I linked it.

calroc• 13 years ago

Bucky figured out most of the problems we would be facing about now, and many of the solutions. He pointed out that, if we used our technology to efficiently supply our needs, we would be able to work for about two years and then retire having paid for our the rest of our lives during those two years. This would be possible starting sometime in the '70s. The important thing to remember about Bucky is that he was an engineer. A real one, not a software "engineer" (like me), and he calculated what he talked about. He was not a philosopher.

ErsatzVerkehr3• 13 years ago

I'd say he was an engineer AND a philosopher.

Sundog• 13 years ago

Where would I find this theory of his?

Casseres• 13 years ago

If you're relatively successful, this isn't too far off from reality. If for example you make $75k after taxes, your living expenses is $25k, and you invest the rest with a 8% return, you can retire after 10 years and have a safe withdraw rate of 3.5% (equaling 25k) in perpetuity.

marquis• 13 years ago

I grew up hearing this man's name now and then, but it wasn't part of my culture. Is there a good explanation about why his ideas and engineering achievements are celebrated, in a particular context with his contributions to our lives today? I know about the geodesic domes obviously. His Wikipedia page is just facts that don't really help me understand his popularity.

penrod2• 13 years ago

I share some of your puzzlement. Fuller's reputation seems to far exceed his actual accomplishments: Most of his inventions were never put into practical use, and some such as the Dymaxion car were actively lethal.

It appears Fuller was very good at self-promotion, sounding inspirational, and occasionally appropriating others' ideas and attaching his own catchy name to them (see 'tensegrity'.)

cbennett• 13 years ago

Actually, in contradistinction to buzz-wordiness, most of the terms he used such as tensegrity have quite precise definitions- conceptually, as well in mechanical terms. If you want to get a true introduction to the depth and breadth of his thinking, I highly recommend his magnum opus 'Synergetics' [1]. Otherwise, at least take a glance at the meta-structure/heuristics behind his geometrical and design work [2].

[1]http://www.amazon.com/Synergetics-Explorations-Geometry-Buck...

[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergetics_(Fuller)

ErsatzVerkehr3• 13 years ago

He was a bit crazy in some ways - I tried to read his books, but they are full of too many self-invented words to be readily made sense of.

He was a visionary who saw much earlier than most that our planet has finite resources that should be used wisely, and that, through appropriate engineering, we have the ability to provide a good quality of life for everyone on earth if we so choose.

There's a superb theatrical "biography" of Bucky Fuller called "The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" -- definitely go see it if you have the opportunity. It's inspiring, informative, and entertaining.

It's playing early next year in San Jose CA (Jan 30 to Feb 23), and Cambridge MA (Jan 14 to Feb 5), and probably other places too.

CA: http://ticketing.sjrep.com/single/psDetail.aspx?psn=3026

MA: http://americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/r-buckminste...

notdrunkatall• 13 years ago

Although actively lethal seems like a bit of a stretch, I agree with the rest of your post. It seems that Bucky Fuller's greatest accomplishment was the geodesic dome, and even that was a result of his popularization of the dome, rather than its invention. A pity really, as I was somewhat excited be able to read a work entitled "everything I know" by someone whom I assumed was worth reading.

Zigurd• 13 years ago

When the idea was still nascent Fuller both coined the word and developed novel forms of tensegrity structures. It isn't as if he invented icosahedrons, either.

duopixel• 13 years ago

Read this '72 Playboy interview:

http://www.cesc.net/adobeweb/scholars/fuller/buckminsterfull...

His foresight is amazing. Just a snippet:

"Very soon we’ll have little devices on our wrists and we’ll be able to say “I like it” or “I don’t like it” as we go along"

Buckminster Fuller - Everything I Know (42 hours of video)

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