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Dymaxion Car
- frank_bb 2y ago[dead]
- geordee 2y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1yxFDvqALI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1yxFDvqALI
- Zecc 2y agoVideo title: "Dan Neil: Dymaxion Car-Cool, How Does It Drive?" Duration: 3:24 Description: "Buckminster Fuller's 1933 foray into automobiles gave us the Dymaxion Car, and enthusiast Jeff Lane has one of the only working replicas in the world. WSJ's Rumble Seat columnist Dan Neil takes the road zeppelin for a spin...or should we say wobble?"
- andrewp123 2y agoThe word dynamic was popular in naming around that time - dynamic programming is another example (1950s). Somehow just by internalizing the old meaning of the world “dynamic”, I feel I have a better idea of what the world felt like back then.
- noduerme 2y agoI learned to program in dynamically typed languages and all I got was an undefined t-shirt
- pfdietz 2y agoT is a perfectly cromulent type.
- sp332 2y agoFuller hired a wordsmith, who hung around for a few days listening to the way he spoke and then invented the word Dymaxion for him.
- sidewndr46 2y agoIt is no different than someone saying their product has "AI" nowadays
- surfingdino 2y agoI miss that style of design a bit. A bit mad, futuristic in that old fashioned way, but most importantly--optimistic about the future.
- oersted 2y agoThat's what I like about the Cybertruck, it's bold and outrageous in a new way that doesn't yet have the "asshole / mid-life crisis" connotation of "Hot-Wheels-like" sports cars (although it might be quickly gaining that connotation). Is it beautiful? Is it well-built? This is orthogonal, I'm not making a judgement on that (although: no and no). But it's undeniable that it's fresh. Is it optimistic? Well, it's clearly inspired by Cyberpunk, pessimism is a defining aspect of it. It has dystopian "prepper" airs to it with that ridiculous (and dangerous) armouring. It is definitely retrofuturistic. But it does have a certain positive energy of just having some fun with progress and boldly making cool new things happen. It is a champion for demonstrating that electric can also be powerful, it challenges gas at its own game, and has self-driving ambitions.
- lobochrome 2y agoIt’s a publicity stunt. It shocks for shock‘s sake. It‘s going to look dated and stupid soon. It‘ll never get to Europe or China. It might have a positive effect in the U.S. it might not. It‘s the yoke. It’s an idea to be played with - but then best to discarded and learned from. It‘s not the Model S 2.0 they would have needed four years ago. It’s the reason the Dymaxion Car never got built.
- chuckSu 2y ago[dead]
- twobitshifter 2y agoOne nitpick - I don’t think it will look dated, looking dated comes from something becoming a common place design seen everywhere. The Delorean doesn’t look dated 40 years later. Cybertruck could end up a delorean.
- 0xEF 2y agoFor those interested, there is a matching Dymaxion House on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house
- giraffe_lady 2y agoFuller just named everything dymaxion. He had a strange idiolect full of self-made neologisms but a particular fixation on that one in particular. Called polyphasic sleep dymaxion sleep even.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- doubloon 2y ago“Turner was wearing a seatbelt but was killed when the canvas-covered roof framing collapsed.“ The person who invented safe car roofs is completely anonymous but i had to hear all my life what a genius Buckminster Fuller is. For doing what im not exactly sure but im supposed to admire him.
- JackFr 2y agoFuller is probably one of the more overrated intellectuals of the 20th century. His greatest talent lay in self-promotion. He was not a competent engineer, architect or scientist. His one good idea wasn't really his (geodesic domes had been patented in Germany decades earlier) and he required the services of an actual architect to get anything done with them.
- blastro 2y agoHe provided one very important thing (at least to me): an optimistic view of the future and our ability to support ourselves.
- projektfu 2y agoTucker is probably a pioneer in safe car design. It had a roll bar and reinforced sides. The windshield was designed to give way when struck from the inside, lessening the impact on the occupant in forward collisions.
- andrewla 2y agoOne of the things that this highlights is how seemingly trivial design decisions are motivated by very deep concerns. The rear-wheel steering, specifically, is noted as being very problematic in terms of making the car able to maneuver. It is not obvious to me that this is the case, just as it was not obvious to Buckminster Fuller, and it shows how much trial and error went into the design of the modern automobile. Even simple things oft taken for granted represent a huge amount of attempts to get things right and to work through the implications of alternate designs.
- Isamu 2y agoAgreed, I think Fuller liked being an idea man, and wasn’t interested in the engineering iteration that is necessary to bring something truly new to market. Maybe most people aren’t interested in that kind of work? It’s a long slog of working through the problems, and it can seem like a series of failures before you get close to a good product.
- Swizec 2y ago> Maybe most people aren’t interested in that kind of work? It’s a long slog of working through the problems, My SO always says she could never be an engineer because she doesn’t like failure enough.
- perrygeo 2y agoWhich is exactly why Bucky's ideas are as widely adopted as they are today - which is basically zero. He had an amazing ability to identify future problems and design prototype solutions, but that's a very small percentage of the work it takes to bring something to reality and make an impact. I honestly think Bucky was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 20th century but his legacy will mainly be his thoughts (and designs and writings) alone. Even the best ideas fade into irrelevance unless acted upon. "Idea people" should take note.
- meindnoch 2y agoBuckminster Fuller would be a great crypto/AI grifter today.