Customer Reviews

Buckminster Fuller's Universe

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I love to read books that I don't completely understand the first time through. This is certainly one of those books.

Part biography, part scientific dissertation, the author enlightens us on the wonderful and extraordinary life of R. Buckminster Fuller, a true renaissance man.

Many people have never even heard of Buckminster Fuller... but his ideas, inventions and philosophy have touched the lives of everyone on here on 'Spaceship Earth' as he liked to call it.

Just take a trip down to Epcot in Orlando, FL and see a geodesic sphere in real life, one that engineers and construction types said would not stand... its been standing there for almost 20 years now. Or, look down the street to the Contemporary Resort at the Magic Kingdom. Built entirely with modular construction and finished in record time.. a la "Bucky" Fuller.

Certainly this man was a great innovator... but what I was most impressed with was his 'comprensivist' point of view. He always strove to see the big picture of what is happening on Earth as well as the entire Universe around us.

Get this book if you want to open you mind to new ideas and paradigms. It has changed the way I look at many different things now.

I've tried to dive into some of the books actually written by Buckminster Fuller without success. His ideas have always intrigued me, but I found his writing style to be rambling and confusing. This book, however, is an excellent introduction to Fuller's life and ideas, without the confusing detritus. I don't have a strong math or science background, so I appreciated the fact that the author was able to explain Fuller's ideas without resorting to complex equations or formulas. The biographical aspects of this book are also quite interesting. It is chronologically arranged so that the reader can track the evolution of Fuller's thoughts as he progressed through life.

This was the first book I read about Buckminster Fuller. It was a great introduction to the man because a lot of people go right to his written works which can be hard to digest at first because he's just a very intense human being.

Reading this book first enabled me to understand Bucky so when I did move on the Critical Path and Synergetics I knew what I was getting in to. And boy if your ready to go through the mirror to see the truth, you're in for the ride of your life!

Enjoy!

If you've never read any of Bucky's books, this would be a great place to start. It summarizes alot of his ideas in the context of his life story. Many of his books are very difficult to read due to his very unique style of communication, but this one puts most of his thoughts into more standard literary form...without losing the gist of his ideas. Start here, and if you get intrigued move on to 'Critical Path'. If you make it through that and are still interested, there's plenty more!

"Buckminster Fuller's Universe" is full of information that is very pertinent to current problems in our world today, e.g., providing all people on Space Ship Earth with affordable and environmentally sound food, housing, and transportation. Sieden's passionate but not sentimental description of the obstacles Bucky faced from Corporate America lends to the compelling nature of this book. "Galileo's Daughter" depicted Galileo's genius colliding with the monolithic Church of the sixteenth century, Sieden shows Bucky's genius colliding with plumbers, architects, auto manufacturers, bureaucrats as well as ideals of the capitalist economic system. I was filled with hope by Bucky's continued enthusiasm and creativity even in the face of such huge obstacles. Sieden states that Bucky believed that Earth's problems will be solved by individual thinking and efforts and not by bureaucratic leaders or endeavors. Although, Bucky states governments can thwart or support the education and thinking of its citizens. Sieden's writing is easy to digest even when the subject matter is very complex. Seattle's Intiman Theatre will stage a production of "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" June 8 to July 7, 2001. Which goes to show how relevant Bucky is to today's world. I strongly recommend this book for folks concerned about Earth's problems and to hear solutions from one of Earth's geniuses.

All I can say is thank you to Mr. Sieden for finally helping me to understand the great Buckminster Fuller.

I first became interested in Bucky when I was in college and over the years have tried repeatedly to read Bucky's books but was never quite able to finish them. I am not an engineer or even a techie just someone interested in brilliant minds. A brilliant mind Buckminster was but he was not so great at explaining his ideas in a way that most people can understand.

So when a co-worker and I got on the subject of the great inventors of our time we naturally came around to Bucky. I told him about my great interest in Bucky and about the trouble I had finishing any of his books. He told me a Fuller "must read" is Lloyd Sieden's Buckminster Fuller's Universe.

Finally, I understand more of the great man Fuller was, the huge impact he had on humanity and still does years after his death. Thank you Mr. Sieden!

Lloyd Sieden has delivered to us a way to get to know "Bucky." You will get to know the life, theories and motivation for one on the most significant people in history.

"Buckminster Fuller's Universe : An Appreciation" is a philosophical/biographical journey that is as readable as those many novels we've devoured on the beach. I can't believe it hasn't been made into a movie.

I was originally introduced to R. Buckminster Fuller by reading "Critical Path." This would have been a much better first step!

On the plus side, this book is written in clear English and gives a good overview of Bucky's inventions and ideas. It helps those of us who didn't live through it, understand what all the fuss about Buckminster Fuller is about. And Bucky's ideas are in fact quite relevant to the present time.

However, on the negative side, there is a bit too much pro-Bucky "cheerleading" in this book for my taste. Although, I have zero desire to hear any "dirty laundry" or negative personal anecdotes about Bucky, I really would have liked to have learned just a bit about what Bucky's intellectual critics thought as well. There are always other resources for that though. This book is unabashedly about Bucky "worship", and considering that Bucky was probably indeed a genius, perhaps it's excusable.

Another complaint I have about this book is that it doesn't give as complete a picture of Bucky's life as it pertains to his intellectual development, as I'd like. For instance it almost seems from this book that Bucky quits his job in his early 30's and becomes a genius based on a bit of naval experience and personal studying and little more. I can't help think that there is much much more to the intellectual development of Buckminster Fuller than we are shown in this book.

Still this is a good introduction to Buckminster Fuller. It doesn't delve deeply into Bucky's views on math, but I suspect that is because even the author of this book doesn't understand them! There are still a few parts of Bucky's philosophy as explained in this book, that I don't understand at all, but I suspect they may be very difficult concepts to explain and grasp, and that I'd probably have to pick up a much more difficult book than this one to understand them, assuming they are indeed understandable.

Buckminster Fuller is one of the most expansive and insightful humans of all time. His life became his message to humanity. He offered profound solutions to many of today's issues. Many of Bucky's ideas were quite scientifically complex and therein lies the beauty of Lloyd Sieden's masterful work: "Buckminister Fuller's Universe" which provides a bridge into this intricate world of a mastermind. This book provides a model for what one person can do through conscious contribution to Family Earth.

An excellent book that reveals much of the enigmatic Mr. Fuller. This book makes the "experiment" that was Buckminster Fuller's life easy to grasp. I enjoyed learning so many things about perhaps the most visionary human of the modern era.