From Geodesic to Tensegrity: The Invisible Made Visible

“A geodesic is the most economical relationship between any two events” (702.01). Fuller’s definition immediately calls to mind great circles, which provide the shortest routes between two events on a spherical system. Actually, clarifies Fuller, the general case of “most economical relationship” is necessarily a great circle. “It is a special case in geodesics which finds that a seemingly straight line is the shortest distance between any two points in a plane.” In other words, a given area may be such a small portion of a spherical system that it appears flat; however, because all identifiable experiences belong to systems, “great-circle segment” and “geodesic” are interchangeable in synergetics.