1 REALITY OF THE UNSEEN
2MAN, in unending pursuit of a more complete understanding of the universe, has developed the fabric of his thought mainly by searching out particular truths and then endeavoring to fit these together. In this piecemeal fashion, he has striven for better understanding of the whole. Out of the infinite number of ways in which the fragments of truth can be put together, through eons of patient thought he one day produces—quite by accident—the discovery of some more comprehensive whole, and understanding grows concerning the real meaning of the beginning fragments. This kind of breakthrough he is accustomed to think of as ‘‘discovery’’ or ‘‘invention.’’
3 Richard Buckminster Fuller, born1 to test every preconceived notion, and to reject every ‘‘can’t do’’ of man, possesses the rare faculty of being able to subjugate the truth fragments of old knowledge while he gains wider perspective through contemplation of what he calls ‘‘the totality of a problem.’’ He, pursuing this less tramelled approach, has been the tutor and mentor of the excited imaginations of student, scholar and thinker among all peoples, bringing to them the surging power of fresh, unimpeded thought patterns.
4 The inspiration of Fuller’s teaching has brought personal tribute in the form of widespread comment in the public prints round the world. During four decades, 1928--1968, the 1 number of original published items concerning his discoveries and teaching probably transcends that relating to any other leader of thought, heads of state excepted.2 The notices and accolades have been written. Fuller’s biographers have furnished more critical appraisal of the man’s life, inventions and philosophy. It is more the purpose of the work at hand to examine analytically the characteristics of Fuller’s mind as it has driven its creative distances into new regions of mathematics and invention. We will do this through consideration of the fundamentals of Fuller’s new geometry and of his patented inventions.3
9 Now in the last third of century twenty, man’s intellect has grown increasingly aware of the unseen. From early school days we have understood the reality of electricity unseen and invisible although clearly visible in its effects. The light it makes can be seen, the heat felt and the muscle power of the electric motor in lightening physical burdens appreciated. Awareness of the unseen, heightened by what have long since become the commonplaces of radio and television, has been translated in our minds to realization that unseen phenomena are a part of reality, and the fact that we cannot see energy flowing through space detracts nothing from our understanding that the flow is real.
10 Thus we begin firmly to grasp in comprehension the truth that our minds oftentimes can see what our eyes cannot. And so we progress even to the point of understanding that what the eye sees may be less real than that which it fails to see. The ‘‘real’’ is understood to be unreality, and the invisible at times to be the true reality.
11 One step more, and mind sees that total reality consists far more of energy as electromagnetism and gravity than of energy as substance—as ‘‘substance’’ was thought of before. Astronomically more, we have learned to say in our minds, hard as it still may be to grasp such an elusive concept?
12 The mind of genius, accepting such a concept more readily, instinctively probes deeper into the unseen world of force. Richard Buckminster Fuller in sincerest modesty is insistent upon his belief that his discoveries have always come to him ‘‘intuitively.’’ Certain it is that in reaching his most fundamental breakthrough points he has hurdled swiftly past many walls of prior scientific thought. The primary modus operandi of his mind causes him to see the whole of anything before he begins to analyze its parts. This is strikingly illustrated by his new geometry which, in full revelation of his personal dynamism, he has aptly entitled, Energetic and Synergetic Geometry. It is a geometry which has been found helpful to advanced thinkers in diverse fields, particularly so in that of nuclear physics.
13 Now comes the problem of how best to explain Fuller’s discoveries when we understand that the most fundamental of them probe so deeply into the unseen dynamics of force and precession. The biographers and journalists as a rule have sought to explain Fuller’s works against a backdrop of profuse illustration. The inventor himself is an exponent of the use of models and pictures and uses these with telling effect in teaching his university students. This is all very well when the presentation is given life and meaning by Professor Fuller’s unique teaching in which a strong tide of ideas rapidly submerges first of all the pictures, then the language of ordinary speech, and finally even the shorthand of the teacher’s own special language invented to supply a deficiency in dictionary terms. Fuller has needed, used and successfully communicated ideas with self-contrived semantics which often convey his expanding meanings by a process which the student himself may not be able to analyze. He knows only that he understands, not how.
14 The present effort to furnish a comprehensive explanation of the fundamental nature of Fullers inventions and discoveries is partly an experiment. Can words convey the scope of inventive breakthrough with deeper insight than pictures? Perhaps even than pictures explained? An example which quickly comes to mind is the pictorial representation of the Fuller geodesic dome. The mind of the viewer, more often than not, is distracted by the picture so that he is not piqued into asking, ‘‘Why geodesic, what does that mean?’’ The more usual questions are, ‘‘How big is it?,’’ and ‘‘What is it made of?’’ Big enough to cover a football field or even a city; And a geodesic dome can be made of just about anything—steel, aluminum, plastics, wood, even paper. It has in fact been built of all these materials. But a more truly revealing answer, once explained, is that a geodesic dome really is made of ‘‘geometry.’’ It is in a sense a mathematical discovery which enables the builder to use with far greater effectiveness the inherent tensile strength of whatever material he may employ, so that ‘‘less material makes more dome.’’ So the core of understanding must be created by subjoined explanation of how this comes to pass.
15 Dante portrayed the dynamic ‘‘flowing’’ mathematics of his poetic vision of God with words unaided, thinking of himself ‘‘as the geometer, intent to scan the measure of the circle.’’® It seems certain that the poet could not have succeeded so well had graphic representation been allowed to intrude. The reader, upon viewing an illustration, at first sees in it whatever his own education and experience permits him to find there. What he sees may well set him off the trail of the knowledge he pursues. Especially so when a geodesic dome cannot possibly self-explain its unseen mathematical virtues to the uninitiated. Bucky Fuller on occasion used to disclose to us, by transcontinental or transoceanic telephone, the concept of some new idea, using only the illustrations his words made visible to the mind, unhampered by visual concreteness.
16 With that much encouragement by Fuller’s own example, let us now embark upon our adventure into the largely invisible but very real world of Buckminster Fuller as revealed through his discoveries and inventions.