#buckybook

He began crafting a version of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" retold to explain the mysteries of the universe and the possibilities for mankind's future. "I know that we have the option to make it. That's different than being optimistic. It's touch and go. Goldy is very concerned. That's what this is all about. I'm interested in making artifacts that give us options."

As was the case with many of Fuller's deeply held convictions, he could trace the origins of this approach [his philosophy of experientially gained information] back to childhood. As a severely cross-eyed toddler, Fuller could see only large patterns and colors, and his earliest understanding of the world was based upon his imagination and physical intuition. When he was in kindergarten, his teacher gave his class toothpicks and peas and asked them to build houses. "All the other children, none of whom had eye trouble, put together rectilinear box houses," he recalled. "Not having visualized the rectilinearity about me, I used only my tactile sense. My finger muscles found that only the triangle had a natural shape-holding capability. I therefore felt my way into producing an octahedron-tetrahedron truss assembly... It was this experience which undoubtedly started me off at fifteen to look for nature's own structural coordinate system."