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
>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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'.)
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].
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.
>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.
This seems like something that should be self-evident to pretty much every high-school educated adult on the planet.
Is it not also obvious that given some agreed upon voluntary form of population control, there would be enough for everyone if the entire planet made adopting a global minimum standard of living a priority?
I guess its easier to down-vote than it is to actually dispute ideas.
It may be obvious to someone who bothers to think about it. I get the feeling most people never give it a thought, which is why we're in the predicament that we are.
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.
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.
