Casually driving into work, the compact disc player loudly emitted Pink Floyd’s the “Dark Side of The Moon” the vibrations adding inspiration to my thoughts as I contemplated how to write the many disparate ideas I have for this week’s blog entry. In reviewing this first sentence how many ideas can you glean as to where I am going? I suggest picking a range because while there is a specific number other influences may impact just how many get documented, so I will begin where I left off on week 1.
The Innovator’s DNA, by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen & Clayton M. Christensen is my least favorite of the 2 textbooks being read in the class. In what is now a common teaching technique & ice breaker, the class introduced themselves during the first week. A criterion of the exercise was to share something knew about oneself. I said, “I am Amish,” when it comes to technology & how I recently retired my television (TV) of 22 plus years & a digital converter to purchase a flat panel Google TV & a cable service that also allows me to surf the internet. The textbook speaks of how various innovators combined or merged ideas into new concepts. Technically & scientifically for me it stems from my being “Amish.” More on this topic later.
I think best when not encumbered early in the morning, by which I mean 0330 to 0430 hrs EST. Enjoying cable TV at this time, I came upon Morgan Freeman’s “Through the Wormhole” series on the Discovery Channel. In a particular episode on God & Science there is a clip on Antony Garrett Lisi & the “Theory of Everything.” Advancing technology in my home enabled me to enjoy such thought provoking shows as well as improvements in picture quality; gone are the analog black & white and color TV days of watching Lon Chaney in “The Wolf Man.” Now TVs can portray technically graphic images made by companies like Pixar which is referenced in the text book. While I found all of this interesting, I’m not a physicist or mathematician. I am working toward mastering information management systems. And the course assignment is to write on emerging technology. Lisi’s theory didn’t meet my criteria for being able to write a research paper in a short time period.
In week 2 I briefly voiced my concerns about the science of Chimera’s. I also, shared a new MIT link http://www.technologyreview.com/ . Exploring this link for research paper ideas I came across http://www.technologyreview.com/business/20248/ . Marin Soljacic at MIT proposes using magnetic resonance to recharge electronic devices. The diagram displays a typical image of magnetic waves with an innovative use! The more I read over the article the more I thought of Lisi’s diagram on the theory of everything - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xHw9zcCvRQ . But is there more than visual similarities between the two?
Certainly Lisi’s theory includes magnetism as one of the forces. As I began to link this with the text book & other thoughts – such as Nikola Tesla’s concept to transmit electricity (an unproven death ray) -I began to speculate whether Soljacic’s wireless technology could be enhanced by Lisi’s theory. According to the “Theory of Everything” science has yet to identify & catalogue several forces within the E8 geometric model. Once identified and understood is there the potential of improving wireless electricity, or the emergence of unidentified power sources?
The text book mentions good innovators ask plenty of questions. While endeavoring to imagine the potential possibilities of merging this theory with technology I began to ask other questions. Why is this a part of the curriculum? Is it to instruct everyone on how to be innovative? To identify those who are innovative? What is the purpose of being innovative? The innovators described in the book are all making a profit from their efforts. The course as a whole is part of the business school where we are also learning about return on investment (ROI). Is it for some altruistic benefit for mankind? Why create chimeras? Is there a need to eventually create ware wolves from fantasy stories because the technological means exists? The ethics of creating chimeras have yet to be fully debated in the world. World War I utilized new methods of fighting incorporating new technologies & was dubbed the war to end all wars. But did it? Science often touts its benefits to human kind. The atomic bomb helped end World War II but hasn’t prevented wars from occurring like the Iraqi war prompted by the events of 911. Have the benefits of modern science to humanity been demonstrated to outweigh the negative impacts? Even though nations have the ability to use nuclear weapons with lethal affect, we as a race have been fortunate to have world leaders mature enough to not be goaded into irrationally using this technology.
As mentioned earlier I’m technically “Amish.” The Amish live in the state of Pennsylvania and have chosen to live without many of the rest of the world’s modern technologies. Is either group at a disadvantage? When it comes to technology it can be used to make life easier but to what end? The Amish appear to be very content with life without societies’ advances. As for me, I am enjoying my recent TV upgrades. While watching my new TV I coincidentally watched Morgan Freeman in a 1974 movie where he plays Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. Dr. Carter was wrongfully accused of murder in the 1960’s & subsequently released due to some altruistic individuals uncovering hidden information by those representing the law. See the following link for greater details: http://www.rubinthehurricanecarter.com/ .
Dr. Carter’s experiences sparked my curiosity to explore the following web site http://www.garynorth.com/public/3821.cfm. Both an attorney & an officer of the law explain why if you are innocent of a crime one shouldn’t speak to the police without a lawyer present. I then began to question the use of technology in law enforcement. Certainly there are cases where someone previously accused of a crime was set free based upon new scientific technology – usually biological – to demonstrate a person’s innocence. But what if technology is misused by people? Looking at Business Intelligence (BI) tools, can type casting & overconfidence in technology lead to its misuse or misunderstanding of data leading to adverse impacts to society? Do people place too much emphasis on technology & if so why?
Returning to the Theory of Everything, is there more than just a mathematical formula explaining the forces of nature? And why as humans do we wish to advance? Lisi provides a simplistic explanation of the Theory of Everything at http://www.ted.com/talks/garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything.html. But more than his explanation of his theory is his perspective on life. He lives a simplistic life in Hawaii doing 3 things: 1) being with the person he loves, 2) enjoying the outdoors – surfing, & 3) exploring theories in physics. As is sometimes mentioned in various forums, maintaining a balance of all things in this world is beneficial. I think advances in technology are good for mankind as long as mankind displays a certain disposition to using the technology in a responsible manner. As for me I am looking forward to watching the next Discovery Channel presentation of “Shark Week.” I mention it here because I intended to include sharks, aquariums, zoos, zoology, astronomy, the medical sciences, education & movies about the triumph of good over evil in this blog but time is one of the outside influences I mentioned earlier preventing me from going further. I will end this week’s blog with a question to any reader curious enough to make it this far. Based on the first sentence & the beginning paragraph, what range of topics did you estimate & how many do you think are actually here? I look forward to your comments. Very Respectfully (v/r) – CDamian (09-26-2011)
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