WHAT A THOUGHT LOOKS LIKE

Bucky Fuller believed that the tetrahedron was the most efficient enclosure that humans can create in the Newtonian world. A tetrahedron has four points which then create enclosures with four sides. These four points in a tetrahedron creates a system.

Fuller then extrapolated this tetrahedron system concept to thoughts. It was his reasoning that thoughts are systems. And since any system has a minimum of four items, then any thought needs to have at minimum four experiences.

What is fun about this theory is that it is the introduction of the fourth point which then gives three dimensionality to the form. With only three points, you have a simple triangle which is planar. The fourth point is what triggers a system. Systems must be three dimensional. Therefore thoughts, as systems, must have four points, four inputs, four components, four experiences.

In Fuller’s thinking, these four inputs very likely will not be simultaneous. Rather, the individual will continually search their thoughts for relationships. And once four experiences are related, those four points then have the capacity to become a thought.

A thought evolves as the individual searches these four experiences for relationships. We touched on the importance of relational thinking here, a few pages ago.

The above drawing is a fun attempt to combine Transparent Drawing with Bucky’s Tetrahedron. I used an Ellsworth Kelly painting as a form generator. And then I constructed four similar three dimensional forms, all arranged in the shape of a tetrahedron.

So, in a way, this is what one of your thoughts look like