“There is nothing in the chemistry of a toenail that predicts the existence of a human being. “–R. Buckminster Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
okay… that went down easy . . .are you ready for more?
“Thinking itself consists of self-disciplined dismissal of both the macrocosmic and microcosmic irrelevancies which leaves only the lucidly-relevant considerations. The macrocosmic irrelevancies are all the events too large and too infrequent to be synchronizably tuneable in any possible way with our consideration (a beautiful word meaning putting stars together). The microcosmic irrelevancies are all the events which are obviously too small and too frequent to be differentially resolved in any way or to be sychronizably-tunable within the lucidly-relevant wave-frequency limits of the system we are considering.”
I love BF. I once built a geodesic dome out of tooth picks and rubber tubing.
First, let me rush right over to the language arts section and admire the latin roots of the word consideration: “putting stars together.”
As for what the rest of it means . . . I did read (some of) the rest of the chapter, though I don’t feel obligated to do that with a book like this. My translation: he’s saying that when we are thinking, we have to filter out the concepts and thoughts that are too huge for us to process, and simultaneously ignore the tiny, moment-to-moment details that would paralyze us if we tried to pay attention to them. (Is there a parasitic bacteria on my fingernail that I can’t see? Did my husband use my toothbrush by accident? etc . . .)
The thoughts that remain are circular in nature. I don’t need to understand general systems theory to tell you that. I live it.
Bucky (BTW I wish there were more Bucky’s around today but that is an aside) loved his circles. In fact, it says on the cover of the book that he was the “world famous inventor of the geodesic dome.” The very first geodesic dome built in the United States was in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I grew up. It was pale green, similar in color to the creepy gene chart attached to this post. Squeeze played a show there, in fact. It was my first concert without a parent. I didn’t even notice that I was inside a huge sphere. Apologies to Mr. Fuller.