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Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking Hardcover – January 1, 1975

by R. Buckminster Fuller (Author), E.J. Applewhite (Author), Arthur L. Loeb (Preface)

13 customer reviews

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Product Details

Hardcover: 876 pages
Publisher: Macmillan (January 1, 1975)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 002541870X
ISBN-13: 978-0025418707
Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #940 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Modern

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Universe is Finite

By John G. Dzwonczyk on December 23, 2011

Format: Paperback

Bucky Fuller's Synergetics is like nothing I have ever read. In fact, it is so dense and challenging that I couldn't handle it when I bought it over thirty years ago. But now, armed with a pencil for sketching my interpretations of some of Fuller's more obscure formulations, a highlighter for some of his key declarations, and the patience I lacked previously, the past several months have yielded some remarkable insights into a vision of the universe (or "Universe," as Fuller conjures it) that is quite unique and subtle. Not bashful to conflate physics and metaphysics, the author extends his vision of a world based on an equilateral tetrahedron unit to every known experience. I am unaware of a comparable attempt.

To say that Synergetics is not for everyone is to do it an injustice, but frankly, I have never spoken to another who has read it thoroughly. My personal decision to ponder the nature of gravity led me rewardingly back to this book, and though it remains patently unsolved, the new tools I gained will, I expect, be useful. Indeed, Fuller argues that Universe is tensile in its basic tendency, and compression is merely a localized phenomenon that actually results in tension (to give the reader a quick mental picture, imagine a short column of putty that is compressed: its midsection reacts to axial compression by widening against the tension that would maintain its cross section). As for gravity, it is the direct-acting, non wave-like tension that pervades Universe. The planets revolve around themselves and their center of mass due to their inherent motion being pitted against gravity's tension. Fuller does not give short shrift to waves, just the same.Read more ›

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The key to the structure of the universe

By Larry Benjamin on June 5, 2014

Format: Paperback

"Synergetics" was the summation of Fuller's philosophy; the foundation underlaying his other, practical works. As such, the book contains little in the way of immediately applicable information, such as how to design a car, a building, or a society. Fuller instead concentrates on the abstract quality of structure, based on the tetrahedron, the simplest possible three-dimensional form. He takes nothing for granted: properties of objects are not assumed to automatically exist unless they are explicitly stated. Fuller has great contempt for the cube, an inefficient structure that is unstable without redundant triangulation to support it. His reverence for the tetrahedron, however, obscures the fact that on the human scale, cubes are far more efficient in containing space, the ultimate function of any structure. Cubes are stackable without wasted space or material. This is the reason why houses, boxes and other containers are based on the cube, in many different cultures, while tetrahedron-based structures are limited to geodesic domes and camping tents.

In recent years, "tensegrity" structures have become more common, primarily as sculpture. These are composed of rods that do not touch each other, but are held in place by a continuous lattice of wires. Fuller explains that the rods themselves could be composed of "tensegrity masts," that is, smaller rod-and-cable structures that duplicate solid rods in shape and function. The rods in these masts could themselves be composed of yet smaller tensegrity masts, and so on until we arrive at the atom. The problem here is that going the other direction, to larger ("practical") scale, even the most efficient tensegrity structure must eventually rest, as we all do, on the redundant, wasteful, solid ground.Read more ›

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

I'm a big Fuller fan, but unless you're a ...

By charles Bugni on August 27, 2014

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

I'm a big Fuller fan, but unless you're a budding genius at shapes, mathematics, spatial understandings... this will be a bit much.

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70 of 71 people found the following review helpful

A Work of Genius

By Kenneth James Michael MacLean on February 10, 2002

Format: Paperback

...Synergetics is the clearest, most comprehensive attempt to explain the universe, and universal phenomena, that I have ever read. It is one man's attempt to link the language of science to the common layman.
Fuller defines synergy as follows "behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately." (Synergetics, p. 3)
Fuller suggests that breaking down a subject and studying its parts separately, as is done in science today, can never lead to a comprehensive understanding of the whole. He writes "nature has only one department and one language." (Synergetics II, p 234). Fuller on PI: "To how many places does nature carry out PI when she makes each successive bubble in the white-cresting surf of each successive wave before nature finds out that PI can never be resolved?... And at what moment in the making of each separate bubble in Universe does nature decide to terminate her eternally frustrated calculating and instead turn out a fake sphere? I answered myself that I don't think nature is using PI or any of the irrational fraction constants of physics." (Synergetics II, p. 233).
Fuller explains the universe through geometry. Geometry is the study of structure, and the relationship between objects (and points of perception) within space. The topics covered range from numerology to architecture to the nature and structure of the universe itself. Fuller explains scientific concepts in terms that anyone can understand. His insights are often astonishing.
Fuiller understands the universe throught the geometric form called the tetrahedron.Read more ›

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Geometric Thinking

This book challenges your thinking from the scope of the universe to the mathematical realm of geometrical analysis. Read more

Published 22 days ago by Amazon Customer

It's Bucky.

I would like to say that this book cleared everything up for me. It did not. The companion book, A Fuller explanation helps.

Published 9 months ago by Douglas E. Graham

Five Stars

Great Book

Published 9 months ago by Martha

great find.

great book. came with a very nice hand written note form the senders and in great condition.

Published 10 months ago by alex

great service!

It came quickly and was received in good shape and there was an invoice enclosed with the owners info and signature!

Published on December 26, 2012 by Anne K. Clark

Fanatic Buckminster Fuller Lover

My brother loves this guy. If he says it's good, I'm happy. I'll let him have his pleasure with Bucky and I'll read the easy stuff.

Published on December 21, 2012 by azcrazy

A Beautiful Mind of Extraordinary Scope

Few people know that Buckminster Fuller had a transforming experience when he was about 35 years old. Read more

Published on January 24, 2009 by Larry Mullins

like spinach to a child, so good for you, so hard to read

The most comprehensive system to understanding the physical world, from kindergarteners who are able to understand nuclear level inter-transformations, to adults who barely know... Read more

Published on November 2, 2005 by Jeremy Bang

An A + that he wouldn't have given to himself

I am, by trade, a contemporary philosopher, with strong interests in the works of the Ancient Greeks, esp. Pythagoras, and of course, the great architect, Plato. Read more

Published on December 13, 2004 by Mark A. Daniels