Overcoming Architectural Limitations With New Technology
The February issue of Technology Review has an interesting note by William J. Mitchell on architecture, entitled "Build from Scratch." Innovation in architecture is really possible! What we presently live in and with are building and environmental designs that with resemble hideous ideological concoctions of the worse art forms.
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Modelling the Diffusion of Technology by TNCs
It has been some time since I even thought about work on technology diffusion and competitive responses of firms moving plant and research from the US to the UK that I undertook in the early 1970s.
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Renovation or Innovation
The February "Technology Review" a magazine published by MIT since 1899 has an editorial by Jason Pontin, who some will remember for his writing in the "Red Herring." Jason's editorial focuses on the geography of innovation and he correctly points to locations of culture and methodology and innovative hubs where there has been difficulty with the innovative process. He mentions the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development as a think tank on innovation. As a former consultant to that think tank and a researcher of knowledge creation and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, Jason's ideas caught my attention.
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Being Specific About Process and Why Things Fail
We are all guilty of taking shortcuts. It is economy to think that there may be a cheaper way to accomplish something and much to gain if we find that alternative. In our thinking we do the same, we follow a heuristical approach to problem solving using a subset of what we intuitively know is the full process. These acts of economy may have the appearance of being successful, yet at the crucial time fail to satisify all the criteria originally established as the formula for consistent success. Thus, our search for economy can lead to failure. It may mean that we are never successful even though we could be.
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Michio Kaku Makes a Timely Impression on BBC Time
My three favourite authors at this very moment are Michio Kaku, MJ Harper, and Ronald Brech. Kaku appeared on BBC 4 to tell us all about how the future of technology was going to shape the directions of change looking forward. Harper recently (2006) wrote a book entitled 'The History of Britain Revealed - The shocking truth about the English language'. Paperback or Hardcopy Ronald Brech in the 1960's wrote a book entitled 'Britain 1984 - The History of the Future' I tried to find a copy of it on Amazon, but could not find one. It would appear that the history of the future 1984 is now known and no book need predict it.
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I Lost Yesterday But Not Millions of Records
If you were like me, yesterday went by in a blur. So fast did it happen that it was over almost before it began. I was lost, yes lost! I cannot remember when I was more lost. Lost that is in disbelief, total disbelief. No I could not be hearing and seeing what I was hearing and seeing. The world had become almost surreal as though all those standards one has been given for most of one's life were thrown to the wind.
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The Religion in the Science of Energy Creation
Do you imagine that scientists all follow the scientific method? Think again. Sometimes scientists are unwilling to give up their failed ideas even though evidence shows that these ideas are somewhat inadequate.
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