Buckminster Fuller's Universe: An Appreciation - Hardcover

Sieden, Lloyd

4.06

189 ratings by Goodreads

9780306431784: Buckminster Fuller's Universe: An Appreciation

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306431785 ISBN 13: 9780306431784

Publisher: Perseus Books, 1989

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A fascinating and authoritative look at the enduring legacy of a singular philosopher.. Buckminster Fuller, the brilliant and eccentric futurist philosopher best known as the inventor of the Geodesic Dome, was one of the most creative contributors to innovative thought and technology in the twentieth century. Incomparable designer, engineer, and architect, he proved that a lone genius, through sheer initiative, can have an astounding impact on the world. In this inspiring account of Fuller's life and legacy, Lloyd Steven Sieden brings new light to Fuller's belief system and recognizes his many contributions to humanity.

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Review:

" Everybody concerned about the planet should read this book. It fully illustrates that a great man walked among us." -- Larry King

" Lloyd Sieden's interpretations of Fuller's creative genius should greatly enhance public acknowledgement of the intellectual wisdom of this diminutive giant." -- Dr. Buzz Aldrin - Former astronaut

"Buckminster Fuller's Universe is a very necessary and useful book. It relates the development of Fuller's ideas, which could initiate intelligent global action without politics, to the events of his life. The book is not written in Fuller's language. It is written in yours. You will understand it." -- John Cage

"Buckminster Fuller's Universe is a vivid, personal and revealing work which brings Fuller home to today's people. The Design Science Revolution which he called for is now at its time of greatest social relevance. Bucky's legacy is needed now. This book is a real contribution to our collective purpose of a social agenda for the next century." -- Barbara Marx Hubbard - futurist

"Buckminster Fuller's Universe is an interpretative work of astounding clarity. The author has succeeded in absorbing Dr. Fuller, with all his intricacies, and bringing him back to us as vibrant and thought provoking as ever, in a way that we can understand. When you were with Bucky Fuller, you could sense that his tremendous energy and feeling of excitement permeated his surrounding. Lloyd Sieden's book conveys this wondrous excitement as he so clearly sets forth Fuller's significant underlying principles. This book is an excursion into Buckminster Fuller's universe that the reader will wish to return to again and again." -- Allan Ray Putnam - Former Director, American Society for Metals

"A sympathetic, even advocatory, account of the life and work of the designer, engineer, and architect, interpreting his creations as visible models of his philosophy. Well illustrated, including diagrams showing the principles of his designs." -- Book News

"Buckminster Fuller's life stands as a brilliant model for those who would strive to be original thinkers. Bucky showed us that imagination is the key to the future. Lloyd Sieden's biography is a tribute to a great man." -- Marilyn Ferguson - author of The Aquarian Conspiracy

"Fuller is brought down to earth in this absorbing biographical study. Sieden succeeds in demonstrating how Fuller's search for Nature's underlying rules of harmony and efficiency is relevant to fields ranging from aviation and manufacturing technology to environmentalism, housing, parapsychology and extraterrestrial anthropology." -- Publishers Weekly

"How do you capture a multi-faceted man who had as many angles as his Geodesic Dome? Seek no farther; Lloyd Sieden has done it. He has created a well-painted portrait of a genius." -- Richard D. Lamm, Former Governor of Colorado

"In Buckminster Fuller's Universe, Lloyd Sieden provides a lucid, insightful, and significant exploration of the man behind the public figure. Buckminster Fuller, designer/philosopher extraordinary, was one of the first to take a comprehensive look at using the world's resources efficiently for the benefit of all humanity. Now Sieden probes beyond Fuller's famous inventions to offer a unique psychological perspective on the roots of his successes and failures." -- Amory B. Lovins - Director of Research, Rocky Mountain Institute

From the Author:

My goal is making Fuller�s wisdom & ideas more accessible.
Hello to those of you who find an interest in what Bucky Fuller had to say and how he lived his life as a demonstration of what one individual could accomplish. Fuller is one of the most recognized geniuses of the twentieth century, yet he remains a mystery to most people because he was a great thinker not a great communicator. My book is a translation of Fuller’s wisdom into words that can be understood and applied by those of us who have yet to reach the level of Fuller’s genius.

My interest in Fuller began in the late 1970’s, and I was part of the team producing his final lecture series Integrity Days - when he passed on in 1983. Since Bucky had consciously maintained a record of almost everything he ever wrote or said including photographs of inventions, video recordings, audio recordings, we continued producing educational programs using that enormous resource.

At those events, I was often asked, "What should I read next." My answer was to warn people that Bucky wrote as he spoke in very long, convoluted paragraph-sentences and created words to fit his needs when he could find no word to describe something. In other words, his books were best studied with an interested group not read alone.

To help people understand Fuller’s wisdom and to better appreciate it myself, I began transcribing some of his audio recordings. A few of those transcriptions were revised into articles for publication, and eventually I had so much material, I found myself with a book. Actually, I have much more material than was included in this book, but it was edited down to the most important essence. When this book was originally published in hardcover in 1989, it made a major impact on the lives of people who were able to contact me. I am hopeful that this new version will continue in that tradition.

Bucky Fuller is important to me primarily because of his fifty-six year experiment using himself as "Guinea Pig B" (for Bucky) to discover what one individual could accomplish on behalf of all humankind that could not be achieved by any organization, institution, government or corporation no matter how large or powerful. He began in 1927 with no money, powerful allies or influence and only a high school education. When he passed on in 1983, he had the largest listing in Who’s Who In America and had had an income in excess of $1,000,000 per year in the 1950’s while maintaining his vow not to work for a living. He was also a recognized genius still making 150 plus lectures each year around the world at the age of 87. Among his inventions, in 1933, he had produced a prototype vehicle which would attain speed of 120 m.p.h., averaged 30 miles per gallon, comfortably seated eleven passengers and could be parallel parked in a space only six inches longer than the vehicle itself.

Much of what Fuller learned during those fifty-six years is contained in my book. More important, I have lived my life following his principles for twenty plus years and found his guidelines to be viable and valuable. Key among the many ideas you will find covered in the book are intuition, imagination, intention, inclusion, synergy, initiative and the one concept Bucky felt was most important - integrity. You will read what I consider to be a very interesting real life adventure biography and see how this man of great imagination and integrity could live a life filled with love and joy while making an enormous contribution to all his fellow crewmembers aboard the vessel he named Spaceship Earth.

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