Sunday, May 6, 2007

Bucky Group & University of the Universe?

1. An Introduction

A Warning. The Thinking, Ideas and Perspectives shared here may not go well with certain Mindsets. Enter at your own risk.
Advice and suggestion: Take it with an open mind. You do not have to believe or agree with the Thoughts shared here by JooHock. And please feel free to share you comments. Thank you.

Bucky Group?
Huh? What's that?
Sounds cultish!

A friend of mine once pointed out that the way I shared about Buckminster Fuller and his works, it sounded like the Bucky Group had become a cult.

The Bucky Gp. is named after the nickname "Bucky" of Dr. R. Buckminster Fuller.

Okay now you are asking: Hmmm....What is this Bucky Gp?

The Bucky Gp comprised about 20 like minded individuals who meets weekly to share and discuss the Works of Buckminster Fuller. Initially members were keen to study and understand Bucky's book, "Critical Path," which was reputed to be the most difficult to read. We couldn't resist the challenge! Hah! These people come from all diverse background, from engineers to lawyers, to entrepreneurs and even educationists etc. Then I took on the role of championing his (Bucky's) Thinking and Ideas, his Perceptions and Works. The Gp have been meeting since about June 1994. It's most important Value, is it's love for Learning.

(Btw, our Bucky Gp on Facebook boast a membership of more than 550 members)

So Buckminster Fuller? Who is he?
What is Bucky known for? Why should I accord him such an honour? True!
Afterall, Bucky said, "I'm just an ordinary healthy human being who chose to use his option to do his own Thinking, please don't make me out to be some kind of a Messiah. You can do this to Krishnamurti."
What is it then, that I have admired about Bucky, that made me give him such high regard?
What is it that makes me want to shout out to the World and say: "Hey you might want to listen to this man, this phenomenon called Buckminster Fuller!"?

I need to answer this, otherwise I might be misunderstood for according him almost cult status, which even he would have frowned upon.

I'll share 3 major reasons here, but of course there's more which you will learn as you read into my blog-book

1. New lease on life.
Well in my opinion, my life didn't make much sense, till Bucky came along. In my own small World, life was a work, work work, and make money kind of world. Not much meaning to it. My life changed, it was enriched by the new learnings and doings as a results of studying and sharing Bucky, I found quality of life.

2. Generalized Principles operating in Universe
As I studied deeper into "Bucky" I felt he was the one and so far only one whom I've come across, as a first class scientist, whom ironically the perspectives of life that he shared was a breath of fresh air that I could relate to. He was a non-conformist maverick thinker and many in the educational establishments would want to acknowledge him, because they may feel threatened in terms of their status by this iconoclast, who had conceptualized the idea of Generalized Principles and thus identified some of the many Generalized Principles Operating in Universe, and named them so.
Examples are Principle of Leverage, Principle of Synergy, Principle of Precession.
These terms, these concepts of course soon became popular, as many writer and business gurus soon learnt about them and used them.

Bucky felt that if we could re-apply the Generalized Principles of Universe, uncovered through trial and error aka experience, in new ways, we could up the performance of our physical resources, that we could take care of all of humanity, at higher standard of living without disadvantage to anyone and without ecological offense to our environment. He was probably the first proponent of Sustainable Development. Also he received 28 patents for his inventions, and was noted for his famous Geodesic Domes, his Dymaxion Houses, and Dymaxion Cars, etc.

In the process Bucky had also uncovered Nature's operating system, developed a mathematical system, which he termed Synergetic Geometry, aka Nature's Coordinate System.
(See his book Synergetic Geometry, an Exploration into the Geometry of Thinking. I will have to give you the link.)

However more significantly, and importantly to my mind is the fact HE LIVED HIS LIFE BY THE GENERALIZED PRINCIPLES, ESPECIALLY THE GENERALIZED PRINCIPLE OF PRECESSION. I will explain Precession in a chapter by itself.

Now one could share about these Principles like the way theories, formulas, ideas and concepts are generally taught in formal education, dry as bone and boring stuff.

However I've learnt, generally that when we are present with bare TRUTHS, we tend to reject them. However when Truths are delivered to us by way of a Story, we open our hearts and mind to them, that's why Great Teachers like Jesus and Buddha used parables to share the Truths we needed to learn.

So?
I intend to share the life stories of Bucky behind these Principles. By sharing the personality and the stories of the persons behind the Principles, they help us CONNECT with these principles. Principles become alive for us. This is VERY IMPORTANT.

Just like the way Eliyahu M. Goldratt of renown for his TOC, taught his Theory of Constraints, with the story of Alex Rogo.

As someone once said: The Universe is not made up of atoms and molecules, the world is made up of stories

3. Making Sense At the Global level.
Going by what's happening..... Global Warming, De-forestation, Poverty and Hunger, etc etc....despite the many Technological breakthroughs mankind has been making.....this is a senseless world.........again the voice of Bucky made a lot of sense. Wow, it look like I've some more explaining to do.
How so?
The World today is caught up in a Make Money as the be all and end all of the world. The economic imperative is first and foremost. Whereas Bucky said: You either make money or make sense, they are mutually exclusive. Bucky chose to rather Make the world work for total humanity especially for the future generation to come


So what are my Intentions here?

In Section 1, What I've learned from Bucky? In this section I will share some of The Generalized Principles of Universe which Bucky uncovered with stories and anecdotes about Bucky. This process will help make the principles come alive. As someone once said, the Universe is not made up of atoms and molecules, the universe is made up of stories. In sharing I will also gain deeper understanding of the Principles

In section 2, The Mount Everest I've decided to climb. "Doing Bucky" is like climbing Mount Everest, a challenge............I like to share my personal journey and reflection as a results of "doing Bucky" of how this has changed my perceptions, impacted and enriched my life. It's what I

In section 3, Other Thoughts to share...................I like to share with you about the Bucky Gp. a group of life-long learners who decided to join me in this journey to learn about the Generalized Principles that Bucky lived and worked with.

I'm sure there will be over-laps among the sections. I guess that's because we can see the same situation, the same event from several different perspectives.

But one thing is sure "Bucky" is not a cult! Not to worry.

So welcome to the Bucky Group & the University of the Universe

3 comments:

stella said...

Congratulations Joo Hock. You will reach out to more people with this blog. Suggest you give a more detailed background on Bucky, and define some of the cool terms coined by Bucky, e.g Precession, spaceship earth.
Best wishes .... Stella

Joo Hock (JooHock) said...

Thanks Stella. I'm very much appreciative of your encouragement. Please feel free to put questions to me, which would then allow me to expand on some of the threads of my blog.
I'll work on your suggestions too.
You made my day. High 5 to you.
Joohock

Anonymous said...

hi, new to the site, thanks.