Buckminster Fuller
Architect, engineer, inventor, philosopher, author, cartographer, geomatrician,
futurist, teacher, and poet -- established a reputation as one of the most
original thinkers of the second half of the 20th century. He was perhaps
the first to attempt to develop, on a global basis, comprehensive, long-range
technological and economic plans designed 'to make man a success in Universe'.
He conceived of man as a passenger in a cosmic spaceship -- a passenger
whose only wealth consists in energy and information. Energy has two phases
-- associative (as atomic and molecule structures) and disassociative (as
radiation)--and, according to the first law of thermodynamics, the energy
of the universe cannot be decreased. Information, on the other hand, is
negatively entropic; as knowledge, technology, 'know-how,' it constantly
increases. Research engenders research, and each technological advance multiplies
the productive wealth of the world community. Consequently, 'Spaceship Earth,'
is a regenerative system whose energy is progressively turned to human advantage
and whose wealth increases by geometric increments."
Fuller developed a vectorial system of geometry that he called "Energetic-Synergetic
geometry." The basic unit of this system is the tetrahedron (a pyramid
shape with four sides, including the base), which in combination with octahedrons
(eight-sided shapes), forms the most economic space-filling structures.
The architectural consequence of the use of this geometry by Fuller was
the geodesic dome, a frame the total strength of which increases in logarithmic
ratio to its size.
-quote from Encyclopedia Britannica
