[HN Gopher] Buckminster Fuller's Hall of Mirrors
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Buckminster Fuller's Hall of Mirrors
Author : Hooke
Score : 24 points
Date : 2023-02-08 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.thenation.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.thenation.com)
| jollyllama wrote:
| Heads up: there's not an actual hall of mirrors in this article.
| jcrawfordor wrote:
| Buckminster Fuller has always reminded me a great deal of Ted
| Nelson. His "Dymaxion Chronofile" even invites the comparison to
| Xanadu. Both had some interesting ideas, but both were far better
| at talking about them than implementing them... and seem like
| they kept secrets principally to avoid having to clearly
| articulate their plans.
| _aleph2c_ wrote:
| I was surprised by how the author called out Fuller's race at the
| end of the article as if that had to do with anything. The
| article read well up to that point, I was being convinced of his
| thesis. But after seeing his race comment tagged on at the end, I
| have to discount Martinez's whole presentation; there is a high
| probability it's just another woke hit-piece. I wish he would
| have put the racial stuff at the beginning of his writing so I
| could have ignored him sooner.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Lets quit talking about this bunkum artist who's only talent was
| self-promotion. Folks eulogizing him often mention this, and
| never explain why they go on to repeat his hoaxes and bragging.
|
| Let him go. He did nothing of note.
| causi wrote:
| Careful there. Buckminster Fuller is on the list of "people HN
| readers irrationally worship, any criticism of whom will make
| your comment hit -4 in about ten minutes." Fuller had a lot of
| brilliant ideas but like any human he also had some idiotic
| ones, but around here people will bend over backwards and tie
| his words into knots trying to justify all of his opinions.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| > _criticism_
|
| Though in this case no criticism seems detectable. I would
| not confuse that with sentencing.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| Clifford A. Pickover, for example, seems to be of a different
| opinion, as he includes Buckminster Fuller's tensegrity systems
| in the milestones of Physics.
|
| Edit: I will make the comment clearer:
|
| these should not be polls. It is bewildering that one can think
| of just sharing "I have a bad opinion of Tamerlan". Then you
| find somebody who declared having a good opinion of Tamerlan.
| And no progress is made. It does not matter that for the
| specific point Clifford Pickover was ill informed - that is not
| the point. There is no sense in making this a "Ok, all those
| who have a good idea of Tamerlan raise your hand... Ok, now all
| of those who have a _bad opinion_, of Tamerlan... Good. Back to
| business now. We meet tomorrow for Gengis Khan".
| zokier wrote:
| Regarding tensegrity:
|
| > He shamelessly stole ideas from talented students too:
| Fuller claimed for decades that he invented the principles of
| "tensegrity," which was another specialized term he coined to
| describe structural systems of isolated components under
| compression held within a matrix of continuous tension. In
| reality, he observed and copied this idea from the work of
| then-student Kenneth Snelson, who went on to have a
| successful career in his own right as a sculptor. Yet Snelson
| never fully forgave his mentor for claiming authorship of his
| discovery
| yborg wrote:
| FTA: "He shamelessly stole ideas from talented students too:
| Fuller claimed for decades that he invented the principles of
| "tensegrity," which was another specialized term he coined to
| describe structural systems of isolated components under
| compression held within a matrix of continuous tension. In
| reality, he observed and copied this idea from the work of
| then-student Kenneth Snelson, who went on to have a
| successful career in his own right as a sculptor."
| zokier wrote:
| Some choice quotes from the article:
|
| > This gave him a reputation early on for being a jack of all
| trades but master of none. The notable exception, perhaps, was
| his knack for self-promotion
|
| > Fuller claimed it was the first streamlined automobile in
| history, which the author points out is simply not true
|
| > Hubris is a constant theme in Nevala-Lee's portrait of Fuller
|
| > Nonetheless, Inventor of the Future is a welcome reassessment
| of Fuller's contributions to design, science, and mathematics
| eutropia wrote:
| Fiction is often more inspiring than reality. There are many
| ideas he swept into his personal reputation that inspired me
| when I was younger, and Fuller operating as a locus lead me
| from one popular idea (the architectural geodesic dome) to
| others, including things like sustainable architecture, the
| optimistic marriage of industrial efficiency with social good,
| the so-called "dymaxion projection" in cartography and on. I
| might not have been exposed to those ideas at that time -
| perhaps I still could have found those ideas if Fuller was
| generous with credit, and that would have been the more
| virtuous thing, but here I am nonetheless.
|
| So as an adult I can sit here and stoically accept that
| cynicism has (rightly) claimed another public figure, but
| simpler stories worked well when I was younger. Fuller's
| reputation inspired me to be multifaceted/multidisciplinary and
| creative within the realms of STEM, and made it seem possible
| in our ever more complicated era.
| njharman wrote:
| Other relentless self-promoters, Edison, Jobs, Musk. If you
| don't have the talent to get many people to listen to you, then
| you can't change the world (Or, at least have no control over
| how you change the world which is kind of worse).
| mdp2021 wrote:
| Worrisome example: you mentioned there a guy who died around
| the same day of Dennis Ritchie. Changed the world. Measured
| self-promoter.
| leashless wrote:
| A friend of mine figured out a _much_ better way of building
| medium-sized domes (28 ' across) using whole and half sheets of
| standard 4x8 building materials.
|
| https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecological_Building/Hex...
|
| Fuller is an inspiration, not a terminus. We can build on and
| improve his work.
| mcdonje wrote:
| >Fuller is an inspiration, not a terminus. We can build on and
| improve his work.
|
| He would agree. "Call me Trim Tab" - Fuller
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