:: rare book ::Today is Superbowl Sunday again, which for a lot of viewers is all about advertising.
I just fired off another rant to buckaneers about how even a single geometry-savvy commercial would help us turn the corner in communicating the more 60-degree based aesthetic of contemporary biology, nanotechnology. And I quote:
At the nano scale, you have the lattices (CCP, BCC, SCP etc), lots of icosahedra, all the stuff Synergetics conceptualizes about in a prose form geared to humanities types, people who don't digest mathematical notations.TV advertising is a primary outlet for "the Grunch" (to use Bucky's pirate talk), which may want to signal having a head on its shoulders, a way of inspiring investor confidence. We see some of that locally, but we're talking about a gigantic budget for reaching a gigantic audience. Where's the beef there?
That's how Fuller aimed to bridge the C.P Snow chasm, by packing lots of geometry into a not-mathematics (kind of an oxymoron to see it that way, changes the landscape to put in a chasm-spanning bridge, not seeing much tourist traffic -- a vicious circle of malign neglect that could turn the other way were TV advertisers to catch on (given it's Superbowl Sunday, which is all about TV advertising for some viewers, I suppose my message is apropos -- a single geometrically aware commercial could help turn the tide, not that I'm expecting to see any today)).
Speaking of 60-degree based aesthetics, I was privileged to capture some video from the Pauling Campus workshop yesterday. GS is preparing to weld three plastic components of Flextegrity V4 (version four) into another sculpture for the upcoming book and web site. The audio track from the workshop is all about 60 and 120 degree rotations, with the camera zooming in and out (not "too busy" I hope -- not like Blair Witch Project, which left Russ feeling nauseous -- I wasn't using a tripod).
Two new v3 "sculptures" have just been completed, with one of them heavy enough to require a hand truck to get out the door. V2s are in inventory, v5s are in the works. I'll say more about the book later.
I was also invited to visit another Pauling Campus ISEPP fellow, our resident energy guru and psychometrician. I got my mug shot taken against a "UN blue" background, for possible inclusion on the web site.
The company president is no slouch, has continued hacking on a LAMP stack (= Linux Apache MySQL Python). He let me svn some of the source for the company buzzbot, that which crawls the web to build up a picture of the average energy consumer.
Speaking of energy consumption, I showed Patrick a picture from earlier that afternoon (busy day), when I got to briefly test drive one of the newest energy saving devices for short trips. No, not a Segway: a motorized two-wheeler with an engine too small to qualify as a motorcycle -- more a motorized bicycle.
The idea of an "energy consumer" fails to adequately describe what one finds in many zip code areas: intelligent and articulate world game players (more shoptalk) who want to internalize realistic models, just like the energy providers need to do. Wasting energy is simply not economical, while doing more with less is economical. The same ethics spill over into food.
Developing a sense of partnership with stakeholders is not a new idea. My preferred solution is to showcase a lot of energy-saving ideas all at once in some kind of prototype community of tomorrow (Walt Disney's vision as well). Make it a school or retreat center. This goes back to my Brainstorming on BuckyWorks essay, and is a cultural dream waiting to happen.
The Zeitgeist is a real enough phenomenon I think, especially now that cyberspace has given it more of an electronic footprint. Per Humans in Universe, we need not stoke fears about Persian culture. Freeman Dyson shared much the same message. Lets nip that paranoia in the bud. Students of the world unite!
The new 60-degree aesthetics has its promulgators in all corners of the Global U. TV commercials happen everywhere. This was a theme at our last Pauling House meeting, where the focus was Jewish mysticism against a background of inclusiveness. The Zeitgeist is not at war with itself at the core, only superficially, is how I interpreted Milt's slide.
