
Tensegrity (1961) - codetrotter
http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/rbfnotes/fpapers/tensegrity/tenseg01.html
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utexaspunk
I love Buckminster Fuller, but doesn't a lot of this sound like
pseudointellectual bullshit? I mean

"The entire regenerative hierarchy of major, intermediate, and minor
constellations of component patterns-within-component-patterns of universe are
continual processes of synchronous, yet independent and unique, transformative
patternings. That is, all components of universe are in continually
accommodative, associative-disassociative motion reciprocity, and all the
moving components of universe continuously affect all the other moving
components--in varying degrees, ranging between high and low tide
reciprocities of critically intense to critically negligible. All of these
inter-effects of all the motional components upon one another are
precessional, and precession always produces transformative resultants in
vectorial patterns which always articulate angular accelerations in directions
other than the 'straight' lines of directions between the inter-effective
components"

Really?

~~~
wl
That's my impression of everything I've seen from Buckminster Fuller. As
someone who loves his work, what would you suggest I read that isn't?

~~~
utexaspunk
To be honest I'm not all that familiar with his writing, actually- I just
liked seeing the Dymaxion house at the Ford museum, and geodesic domes. Mostly
I like that he had an hopeful vision of a global, sustainable, prosperous,
_futuristic_ future, where efficient use of technology and materials could
provide prosperity for all. I just like that optimism that seems to have died
in the mid-20th century.

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FiatLuxDave
I had the pleasure of meeting Vytas SunSpiral a few years ago. For anyone who
is interested in how tensegrity is being applied in modern robotics, here are
a few links:

[https://inzaneresearch.com/2016/08/22/what-is-tensegrity-
rob...](https://inzaneresearch.com/2016/08/22/what-is-tensegrity-robotics/)

[http://best.berkeley.edu/best-research/best-berkeley-
emergen...](http://best.berkeley.edu/best-research/best-berkeley-emergent-
space-tensegrities-robotics/)

[https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/asr/groups/intelligent-
robotics...](https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/asr/groups/intelligent-
robotics/tensegrity/superballbot/)

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triangleman
Worth noting: Kenneth Snelson wrote a letter in 1990 claiming he
invented/discovered "tensegrity" and Bucky had taken credit for it.

[http://www.grunch.net/snelson/rmoto.html](http://www.grunch.net/snelson/rmoto.html)

~~~
sitkack
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_Tower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle_Tower)
outside of the Hirshhorn.

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chrisbennet
Buckminster Fuller stole the idea from his student. When the student asked why
he never game him credit...

 _" Bucky's warm and uplifting letter arrived about six months after I first
showed him my small sculpture. In that it was dated three days before
Christmas, I suppose he was in a festive, generous, mood. A year later,
January 1951 he published a picture of the structure in Architectural Forum
magazine and, surprisingly, I was not mentioned. When I posed the question
some years later why he accredited me, as he said, in his public lectures and
never in print, he replied, "Ken, old man, you can afford to remain anonymous
for a while." _

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carapace
I've been building and playing with Tensegrity models for years. One
interesting thing about Tensegrity is that it is unnecessary at human scales.
For example, do an image search for "bamboo scaffold". At human scale, bamboo
and rope are enough to build pretty amazing structures.

When you want to make _large_ structures then you can use this Tensegrity
design principle to full effect. By making self-similar cellular systems you
can build larger structures out of fractal arrangements of smaller units (cf.
Alexander G. Bell's cellular kites.)

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abetusk
For anyone interested, there's an online JavaScript application categorizing
some highly symmetric tensegrity structures:

[https://robertconnelly.github.io/symmetric-
tensegrity/](https://robertconnelly.github.io/symmetric-tensegrity/)

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ribs
These folks make Tensegrity structures. I bought one of their dome kits years
ago, used it at several events.

[https://www.shelter-systems.com](https://www.shelter-systems.com)

~~~
jfk13
When my eldest was much younger (10-ish, maybe?) he ran across the concept of
tensegrity structures somewhere, and after a few small-scale trials with
chopsticks, we ended up building a tensegrity tower out of garden canes and
twine. For being quite rough-and-ready, it seemed surprisingly stable. Fun
times!

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EamonnMR
Does anyone have a decent markov chain setup that would emit text like this?

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ironchief
Does anyone have a printable version of this with the figures?

~~~
eesmith
I do not. While looking for it on archive.org I found a lecture series by him.
Quoting from the description:

> During the last two weeks of January 1975 Buckminster Fuller gave an
> extraordinary series of lectures concerning his entire life's work. These
> thinking out loud lectures span 42 hours and examine in depth all of
> Fuller's major inventions and discoveries from the 1927 Dymaxion house, car
> and bathroom, through the Wichita House, geodesic domes, and tensegrity
> structures, as well as the contents of Synergetics.

[https://archive.org/details/buckminsterfuller](https://archive.org/details/buckminsterfuller)

