energy’, and form is the ‘order’. Orderis relationship—the pattern, organization and
form of that ‘matter-energy’.
explained in 1908:
no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”
science; and the order, pattern, organization, form and relationship of the stones that
make a house.
relationship; and its compliment concept disorder—patternlessness, disorganization,
formlessness; and relationshiplessness that is essential to a full understanding
Universe.
Understanding order begins with understanding pattern. R. Buckminster Fuller has
added greatly to our understanding of pattern. His most comprehensive explanation of
pattern is found in Synergetics1.
works, fortunately a student of Fuller’s has come to our aid.
R. Buckminster Fuller, SYNERGETICS—Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, Volumes I & II,
New York, Macmillan Publishing Co, 1975, 1979
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to Fuller's Synergeticswith
the specific purpose of making Fuller’s science more accessable to new readers. When
she uses quotations from Synergetics,it is with careful reference to the specific
sections and paragraphs within Fuller's text.
explains:
vocabulary suitable for describing Scenario Universe. He explains,
conceptuality gleaned sensorially from a plurality of special-case pattern
experiences... . In a comprehensive view of nature, the physical world is seen
as a patterning of patternings... (505.01-4)
rope. An "overhand knot," as the simplest possible knot, is a good starting
point. Hold both ends of the rope and make a loop by crossing one end over the
other, tracing a full circle (360 degrees). Then pick up the end that lies
underneath, and go in through the opening to link a second loop with the first
(another 360-degree turn). The procedure applies a set of instructions to a
piece of material, and a pattern thereby becomes visible.
instead? Or a shoelace? Or even a piece of cooked spaghetti? We would still
create an overhand knot. The procedure does not need to specify material. "A
pattern has an integrity independent of the medium by virtue of which you
have received the information that it exists" (505.201). The knot isn't that
little bundle that we can see and touch, it's a weightless design, made visible
by the rope.
consider directions that specify going around once (360 degrees), simply
making a loop. This pattern quickly disappears with the slightest provocation;
Amy C. Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller, Van
Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1987
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friction to maintain its existence, a single loop will not be a stable pattern no
matter how smooth or coarse the rope.) Notice that it requires a minimum of
two full circles to create a pattern integrity. 2 ¥ 360 = 720 degrees, the same as
the sum of the surface angles of the tetrahedron (four triangles yield 4 ¥ 180
degrees). Minimum system, minimum knot, 720 degrees. A curious
coincidence? Synergetics is full of such coincidences.
does not penetrate the water molecules," Fuller explains in Synergetics, but
rather "jostles the molecules," which in turn "jostle their neighboring
molecules" and so on. The scattered jostling, appearing chaotic in any one spot,
produces a precisely organized cumulative reaction: perfect waves emanating
in concentric circles.
kerosene (or any liquid of similar viscosity). A wave is not liquid; it is an event,
reliably predicted by initial conditions. The water will not surprise us and
suddenly break out into triangular craters. As the liquid's molecular array is
rearranged by an outside disturbance, all-embracing space permeates the
experience. Because liquids are by definition almost incompressible, they
cannot react to an applied force by contracting and expanding; rather, the
water must move around. In short, the impact of any force is quickly
distributed, creating the specific pattern shaped by the interaction of space's
inherent constraints with the characteristics of liquid.
misunderstood of all pattern integrities: life. "What is really important... about
you or me is the thinkable you or the thinkable me, the abstract metaphysical
you or me, ... what communications we have made with one another" (801.23).
Every human being is a unique pattern integrity, temporarily given shape by
flesh, as is the knot by rope.
and you can't see me, which is entirely the thinking, abstract, metaphysical
me. It becomes shocking to think that we recognize one another only as the
touchable, nonthinking biological organism and its clothed ensemble. (801.23)
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arrangement of energy as cells, life is a pattern integrity far more complex
than the knot or the wave. Remember that all the material present in the cells
of your body seven years ago has been completely replaced today, somehow
showing up with the same arrangement, color, and function. It doesn't matter
whether you ate bananas or tuna fish for lunch. A human being processes
thousands of tons of food, air, and water in a lifetime. Just as a slip knot tied in
a segment of cotton rope, which is spliced to a piece of nylon rope, in turn
spliced to manila rope, then to Dacron rope (and so on) can be slid along the
rope from material to material without changing its "pattern integrity," we too
slide along the diverse strands supplied by Universe—as "self-rebuilding,
beautifully designed pattern integrities." No weight is lost at the moment of
death. Whatever "life" is, it's not physical.
music." Likewise, "when we say 'atom' or think 'atom' we are... with livingly
thinkable Democritus who first conceived and named the invisible
phenomenon 'atom'" (801.23). Life is made of awareness and thought, not flesh
and blood. Each human being embodies a unique pattern integrity, evolving
with every experience and thought. The total pattern of an individual's life is
inconceivably complex and ultimately eternal. No human being could ever
completely describe such a pattern, as he can the overhand knot; that
capability is relegated to the "Greater Intellectual Integrity of Eternally
Regenerative Universe." (2)
categorize rigidly. Synergetics does not stop with geometry. Fuller was deeply
impressed by a definition in a 1951 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
catalog, which read "Mathematics is the science of structure and pattern in
general" (606.01): not games with numbers and equations, but the tools for
systematic analysis of reality. To Fuller this meant that mathematics ought to
enable the "comprehensivist" to see the underlying similarities between
superficially disparate phenomena, which might be missed by the specialist.
Rope may not be much like water, but the knot is like the wave—is like the
tetrahedron.”3
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explains:
moving pictures run backwards, where people undive out of the swimming
pool back onto the board. I’m going to run a moving picture of you backwards.
You’ve just had breakfast; now, I’m going to run the picture backwards, and
all the food comes out of your mouth onto the plate; and the plates go back up
onto the serving tray and things go back into the stove, back into the icebox;
they come out of the icebox and into the cans, and they go back to the store;
and then, from the store they go back to the wholesaler; then they go back to
the factories where they’ve been put together; then they go back to the trucks
and ships; and they finally get back to pineapples in Hawaii. Then the
pineapples separate out, go back into the air; the raindrops go back into the
sky, and so forth.
come together that you now have on board you, gradually becoming your hair
and your skin and so forth, whereas a month ago, it was some air coming over
the mountains. In other words, you get completely deployed. I want you to
begin to think of yourselves in an interesting way as each one of these.
elements gradually getting closer and closer together, and, finally, getting into
those various vegetable places and into roasts and, tighter and tighter, into
cans, into the store, finally getting to just being you or me—temporarily,
becoming my hair, my ear, some part of my skin—and then that breaks up and
goes off and gets blown around as dust.
with which we were born.”4
is the result of what Fuller calls the pattern integrity. The design for this pattern
integrity is contained within our DNA. Our DNA holds the blueprint for the
Amy C. Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller, Van
Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1987
R. Buckminster FullerBUCKMINSTER FULLER—An Autobiographical Monologue/Scenario, St.
Martin’s Press, New York, 1980
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that never stops from conception until death. It is processthat allows for growth and
repair of injuries as well as recovery from illnesses.
syntropy, Or, within in any ‘whole-part’ order can be decreasing—decreasing order is
called entropy. Or, within in any ‘whole-part’ order can be stagnant—order that is
not changing is called atropy. Syntropy, entropy, and atropy are encountered in
Universe as the result of synergy, adversity, and neutrality.
stages of process—light, particles, atoms, and small molecules
introduced the concept of
the heat-engine cycle and the principle of reversibility, both of which greatly
influenced the development of the science of thermodynamics. Carnot’s work
concerned the limitations on the maximum amount of work that can be
obtained from a steam engine operating with a high-temperature heat
transfer as its driving force. Later that century, his ideas were developed by
Rudolf Clausius1850, a German mathematician and physicist, into the
Second Law of Thermodynamics, which introduced the concept of
Entropy. Ultimately, the second law states that every process that occurs in
nature is irreversible and unidirectional, with that direction being dictated by
an overall increase in entropy. It, together with the first law, forms the basis
of the science of classical thermodynamics.”5
system, no process can
occur that increases the net order (or decreases the net entropy) of the system. The
Second Law of Thermodynamics assumes that the universe in its entirety is a closed
system. The universe is heterogeneous—some regions within the universe are very
hot (stars), and some regions within the universe are very cold (open space). The
Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us the hot regions are steadily cooling down, and
the cold regions are steadily warming up. The universe as a whole will reach a state of
thermodynamic equilibrium when everything in the universe is the same
temperature. At this point, all physical-chemical reactions will stop. This is the state
Thermodynamics, ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, www.brittannica.com, 2000
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any order, structure, or pattern is known as the heat death of the universe.
system is isolated from the rest of the environment and exchanges neither matter-
energy or information with its surroundings. An open system is one in which
exchanges do occur, exchanges of matter-energy and information. Living systems are
open systems. Living systems are clearly ordered. Living systems can be seen as
localized regions in ‘space-time’ where there is a continuous increase in order.
Thermodynamics in his monograph, “What is Life?”, published in 1945. Erwin
Schrödingerstates:
can only keep…alive by continually drawing from its
environment negative entropy(syntropy)…What an organism feeds upon is
negative entropy (syntropy).”
violation so concerned the earlier scientists, that they were quick to explain away this
apparent violation. While they were willing to acknowledge that living systems did
increase their internal order, this insisted this was only possible at the cost of
decreasing order externally elsewhere in universe.
states that:
even though
entropic changes occur in them as they do everywhere else. They accomplish
this by taking in inputs of foods or fuels, matter-energy higher in complexity
or organization or negentropy (i.e.,lower in entropy) than their outputs.”6
energy’ of higher order than that which they excreted. This is of course true. Living
systems do take in ‘matter-energy’ of higher order than that which they excrete. And,
while this phenomena does to some extent helplifeescape the Second Law of
Thermodynamics locally, there is something more going on here.
James G. Miller, Living Systems, McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1978
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