Being Point

Tag: science

  • “We Now Know 1,000 Ways Not To Invent A Light Bulb” ~ Thomas Edison

    One of my long-time clients and friends arranged a presentation of a new venture for five people last night, and tenacity was on my mind. It’s not every day that one is sufficiently fortunate and honored to have dinner with a world-class scientist and inventor. This man has invented a technology that was heretofore considered completely unattainable.

    Think about the persistence and drive that is required to solve problems that had been considered unsolvable. Inventing the impossible: how does that come about? Most obviously, one suspends disbelief about the impossibility – and simultaneously cultivates elements which could be part of a solution.

    Thomas Edison famously said, “We now know 1000 ways not to invent a light bulb” – a statement of extreme tenacity.

    Are you inclined to be tenacious in the face of conventional wisdom and / or being told that you can’t do something? What are the emotional drivers of your tenacity? Conversely, who are the role models who have taught you to go along with the status quo?

  • Who Decides On Issues Affecting Technology And Ethics?

    Technology and ethics: an increasingly troubling set of concerns. We have expanding abilities to challenge the status quo of human beings in ways that can be amazing, but also frightening and horrific. Cloning, stem cell therapy, genetic engineering are ready examples.

    Who decides? On what basis are decisions made? What kind of accountability and oversight is needed to assure ethical outcomes? Whose ethics form the basis for the answers to these questions?

    It’s clear that technology can be used for good or ill. How do you propose to address this paradox? What kinds of guidelines would you suggest if you were suddenly charged with running things?

    Please let me hear from you on this so that I can share the answers.

  • What Happens If No One Understands The Technology That We Use?

    Have human beings kept up with the technology that we have invented? I must admit that I couldn’t successfully detail for you how most things work besides a general description. Carl Sagan said:

    “We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”

    Many of us learn enough about a given technology to use the features that we most want, but never learning how to use many other features. My new iMac is a great example of available technology that I’m confident that I have not learned. I want to spend time on the tutorials, but I never seem to make that time.

    How do we develop a working relationship with technology so that we can feel comfortable understanding what we are using? Does this problem have a solution – or are we doomed to experience what Sagan predicts?