Bucky Group 39 - A New Way to Think of Creativity

7 Mar 09 

This Saturday is Flip's last session with us before he return to Holland for good. Flip has been in Singapore for 20 years and has been a regular in the Bucky Group. We wish him well and I congratulate him for ending his 'double life' between the two countries.

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After the coffee and cakes, we proceeded to watch a TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on "A new way to think about creativity".

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Joo Hock introduced the De Bono's Six Thinking Hats to bring forward some structure to our discussion. It also minimise prejudgement of  a topic during discussions.

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From Wikipedia:

The de Bono Hats system (also known as "Six Hats" or "Six Thinking Hats") is a thinking tool for group discussion and individual thinking. Combined with the idea of parallel thinking which is associated with it, it provides a means for groups to think together more effectively, and a means to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. Read more

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I think this tool will bring about more focus and attentiveness among us during discussions.

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Notable note:

Someone shared the story of how a choreographer ( which is Twyla Tharp ) manage her creativity by getting inspiration from Billy Joel. 

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One of her ways of managing her creative process is when she has a new dance to choreograph, she start a box and:

1. Write down her objective on an index card and put it into the box.

2. Research and put materials in the box.

3. Work and put materials in the box

4. Refer to the materials for inspiration.

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Bucky Group 34 - Christmas 2008

Since it is Christmas, we have a feast this Saturday at the Salon. Everyone brought something to share.

After the usual Christmas songs, we switched to Bob Maley's "One Love" video.
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We even connected with one of our Bucky member, Rochele, her two Vietnamese friends doing PhD in Atlanta and another friend working for CNN in Atlanta to join our session. Together we danced and sang across the Internet. Perhaps this marks the start of the Bucky Group's Webcast to people elsewhere or anywhere. Isn't technology wonderful? We did this without any additional costs.
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In 2008, many of our topics pertained to "Happiness". In 2009, we will be focused on "Creativity". To start it off, we watched and listened to Ken Robinson's TED talk on "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"

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Discussion:

Our education system in the Polytechnics seem to prepare our students for fixed vocations and therefore focuses on the implementation specific technical skills rather than conceptual and fundamental skills.

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Some years ago, the government aimed to get into the IT industry in a big way, but they didn't succeed. (We are not cheaper and bigger than the Indians.) Then they tried media, which was also not successful as there were not so many employers hiring journalists in a small country like Singapore. So they went into gaming, which is also not successful. They are now aiming for technology for "Visual Effects". Bureaucrats in their present form of conditioned and constrained thinking will never catch up with the market demand in real time. If only they had focused on the fundamentals of bringing up creative minds, will they be able to adapt to changing needs of industries. Someday they will learn.

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One of my dreams is to start a Buckminster Fuller Institute/University and Cafe in the city centre as a meeting place for entrepreneurs, technologists, artists, musicians and investors. There, we will have a Bucky library, artifacts (like the geodesic dome and isocahedran), Bucky sessions and seminars. Artists can sell their wares by displaying them in the cafe and budding musicians can jam up for added exposure and to entertain. Outside the cafe in the open, we can run exercises to build some of Bucky's artifacts, like constructing the geodesic domes perhaps with bamboo sticks or to play the World Game. These sessions can be webcast via the Internet so that member cafes elsewhere can join in.

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From time to time, entrepreneurs with revolutionary and creative products can also demonstrate them at the cafe premises. Revolutionary products need good sounding boards to test their business models, and meeting other entrepreneurs and artists to debate and synergise will be invaluable.

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Such a cafe will broaden the minds of people who (sadly) have been educated in a highly industrialised, structured, narrow and specialised system; to become more comprehensive in their approaches. Bucky called this type of people, "Comprehensivists". A Comprehensivist is one who considers the Universe as one system obeying a set of generalised principles, and not many human-perceived systems obeying different principles.

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This cafe will also offer life long continuous learning to people who have missed out on education in the earlier part of their life, or are late bloomers. There isn't such a cafe in Singapore so far, so let there be one! Perhaps it is kind of a "Cafe 2.0", akin to "Web 2.0".

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Note:

The Bucky Group is one that anyone can join and there are no formal memberships nor fees to pay, but just the receptivity to life long learning and fun. The Group meets every Saturday and Sundays, and has been doing so for the last 13 years. Please send in your comments and suggestions for the Bucky Cafe above. Thanks.

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For more of what the Bucky Group does in the past meetings, click here.
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Cat's Play 2 - Up the tree

This is my silly kitten.In the dead of the night, she climbed up the tree this high! She knows how to go up, but didn't know how to come down in reverse order. So she was stuck about 11m high (5 storeys high) and was crying out for help. We were brought to the attention by the kitten's mother, who was circling around the kitchen table nervously and calling us to follow her into the garden.

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My ladder is only 6m tall. She was another 5 metre above me and it was dark and cold outside. Climbing the almost branchless 5 metre section was too risky. We called the firemen, but their truck wouldn't be able to access our garden. It is also not possible to enter from the forest side. They would have to climb up the extra 5m after the ladder. Sometimes, the fireman might inadvertently frighten the kitten and she may panic and jump to her death. So they suggested that we leave her out there for a night and see what can be done the next day, but no more than a day as she will starve to death.
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Meanwhile, we cracked our heads and came up with an idea to tie something heavy to one end of a rope and throw it up over the branch where the kitten was, then lower the heavy object, and attach a basket to it. I tried that but it was too difficult. I dare not throw it too near the kitten in case I smash her face killing her, or scare her and she jumped to death. Besides, it was difficult standing at 6m on the ladder and throwing the dumbell (yes, we use a small one used by joggers!!!) almost vertically. I tried throwing up a few times - the last time it came down and landed on my chin. So now I have a bruised chin and the kitten was still up there crying in desperation.

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Next idea: we tied a basket to a fallen tree branch, but the branch was too short... haiz.

.So we extended the length, by with a few of them...

Thus, there I was at the top of the 6m ladder, in the darkness under the canopy of the night forest, straining my arms holding the bottom end of the heavy five metre long stick, moving the basket at the far end till it reaches the kitten. When the basket reached her, she looked into it, but didn't jump!!! URGH!!! My arms were now aching and wobbling, as it was heavy holding the stick with the basket at the far end. Besides, I was recovering from sciatic pains and every stretch of the leg was a stinging pain. As I persisted, my arms and legs shivered. I knew it was a point of no return. If I give up and lower the basket and the kitten happen to jump, she would jump to her death.

After ten more minutes, my persistence paid off. She finally got the hint and jumped into the basket. The sudden weight in the basket at the far end of the long stick threw me off balance momentarily, and I had to grab the tree quickly to keep still. So at last, the rescue is done. I got the basket and saw her. She looked petrified, but relieved.

A few months ago, I had another problem. I dropped my Dopod stylus in between the terrace timber floor boards. The gap is barely 1 cm wide and it is 10cm above a sandy ground below.

See picture below. We managed to rescue the stylus without taking out the floor boards or tunneling the ground. :) Do you want to think about how we did it? :)

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Bucky Group 30b - Leonardo Da Vinci

Below is an email from Clinton, a Bucky Group member after the Leonardo DaVinci documentary screening last Saturday at Hair Affair in Singapore.

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Hi,

Many thanks for your ongoing contribution, adding much variety to the topics being discussed at the Group. Leonardo da Vinci is of particular interest to me, especially in the areas of " whole brain thinking " and "sytems thinking". I marvel at the fact that more than 500 years after his time, the world is only his realising his genius, his masterpieces and discoveries. To think with just paint brush in hand, colours, canvas or wall, some egg yolk and a lot of imagination, perserverence, the rest of the world is able to have a life-like impression of ' The Last Supper '.
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To think too that LDV was already expounding the 'whole brain thinking' concept 450 years before Dr. Roger Sperry in 1953 ( inconjuction with Prof Robert Ornstein ), was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his ground breaking work in this area. Through my own work and interest in this subject in, I am totally convinced that man's genius lies in making greater use of both the left and right brain for learning, thinking and creating, thus turning one's brain into a multiplication machine, not an adding tool.
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Man is wired to be a genius. It was Bucky who once said that " Man wasborn a genius. It is living that degeniuses him". And if I may add, using more of just one side of his brain through sheer habit, and becoming left or right brain DOMINANT! I think the genius of Bucky would probably not be fully realised for another 100-200 years.
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As for 'systems thinking', it all began with the universe itself, I would think. Everything else is a sub, sub, sub.... system. PeterSenge's " Fifth Discipline' is an excellent read on this.
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See you guys around.
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Cheers,
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Clinton

Read also Clinton's Mind Games

Bucky Group 30a - Leonardo Da Vinci

Below is an email from the previous Bucky Session about Leonardo DaVinci.

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Hi Bucky Fellows
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Leonardo da Vinci was different from conventional people. Let's explore what was different about him versus conventional people. He had the following 9 characteristics that creative people have. I feel Bucky had these characteristics too.
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Sense from: You and Creativity Don Fabun Kaiser Aluminum News 25
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Sensitivity
A propensity for greater awareness which makes a person more readily attuned to the subtleties of various sensations and impressions. Eric Fromm writes, "Creativity is the ability to see (or be aware) and to respond".
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Questioning Attitude
An inquisitiveness, probably imprinted in early home training that encourages seeking new and original answers.
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Broad Education
An approach to learning instilled from a liberal education that puts a premium on questions rather than answers and rewards curiosity rather than rote learning and conformity.
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Asymmetrical Thinking
The ability to find an original kind of order in disorder as opposed to symmetrical thinking that balances everything out in some logical way."The creative personality is unique in that during the initial stage she prefers the chaotic and disorderly and tends to reject what has already been systematized". Ralph J. Hallman
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Personal Courage
A disregard for failure derived from a concern, not for what others think, but what one thinks of oneself. "They seemed to be less afraid of what other people would say or demand or laugh at ... Perhaps more important, however, was their lack of fear of their own insides, of their own impulses, emotions, thoughts". Abraham Maslow
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Sustained Curiosity
A capacity for childlike wonder carried into adult life that generates a style of endless questioning, even of the most personally cherished ideas. Eric Fromm: "Children still have the capacity to be puzzled...But once they are through the process of education, most people lose the capacity of wondering, of being surprised. They feel that they ought to know everything, and hence that it is a sign of ignorance to be surprised or puzzled by anything".
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Time Control
Instead of being bound by time, deadlines and schedules, creative individuals use time as a resource - morning, noon and night - years, decades - whatever it takes, unbound by the clock.
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Dedication
The unswerving desire to do something, whatever it may be and whatever the obstacles to doing it.
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Willingness to work
The willingness to continue to pursue a project endlessly, in working hours and so - called free hours, over whatever time might be required. Roger Sessions said, "Inspiration, then, is the impulse which sets creation in movement; it is also the energy which keeps itgoing".
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I got the list of these characteristics from reading the design thinking article in the Design Research Quarterly 2006 Dec. It was written by Charles Owen of Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design. He quoted Don Fabun for creating the list. I amnot able to locate Kaiser Aluminum News 25 ( published in 1968 ). If there is any one who has a copy, please let me know.
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Regards :)
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WhatIDiscover
What is the meaningful connection I can make between what you are curious about and what I know?

Bucky Group 7 - Thinking out of the Box

From: Joo Hock
Date: 8/27/2007 10:49:20 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:,

Subject: Bucky Gp - Can man ever design a computer .....

Dear Fullerenes,

Can humans ever invent a computer, that can think outside the box? This was the challenging question posed by Chia Siew in our discussion on Sunday at MacRitchie, as we were reading Bucky's "Utopia or Oblivion" Bucky said possibly never, or at least not for a long long time.

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It seemed impossible, however Bucky also said: "Only the impossible happens" It was a very stimulating discussion, as Chia Siew maintained her position that one day it would possible for the computer to be cleverer, than man.

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Hmmmm........

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What do you think?

From: Michael
To: Joo Hock
Subject: Re: Bucky Gp - Can man ever design a computer .....

Dear Fullerenes

Conventional computers are single processor and are purely logic based. Multi-processors 'think' faster but only logically.

However, there is AI (Artificial Intelligence).

AI can be applied in hardware or in software.

In AI, there is an INPUT, a Rules Engine, and an Inference Engine. These three operate fairly independently.
Some conventional computers apply this. The difference is that AI operates with 'back-chaining'.

We all have experienced 'back-chaining' reasoning processes when we visit our doctors.
When the doctor sees us, he will listen to what symptoms we have and suspect that we have caught (say) flu. Then he will ask questions pertinent to flu. If most of the questions are right, then we have flu. This is back-chaining.

In forward chain reasoning, the doctor will academically have to take an infinite number of bio-data about you. E.g.. Height, blood samples, color or eye, temperature, blood pressure, what you ate for the day, ...etc., then conclude that you have (say) flu.

With back-chaining, the computer does its own reasoning. For those who are technical, it is basically performing a search in a knowledge tree. After the whole process, the computer will also learn from its mistakes/successes and update its knowledge tree.

Now the million dollar question - Can future computers think out of the box?

Well based on back-chaining reasoning and knowledge trees or neural networks (another way of storing information and traversing information) then probably not. This is because the computer cannot think outside the information tree, even though the knowledge has been learned by the computer itself.

To think out-of-the-box, the computer needs to be inspired.

To be in-spired, the computer needs to be "in spirit". Does a computer have a spirit?

In theosophy, we learn that all things have life, albeit some of the commonly called non-living things are mere lower life forms.
For instance, sand grains have life forms, otherwise the silica in it would not be able to help the computer to store information.

Taking this further, we also learn in theosophy that all objects in the Universe stores information. This is the Law of Archarsha, one of the 105 Universal Laws that governs the Universe. This universal record is called the Archarshic Records. Those who are in One with All, can access these Records and know ALL.

Psychics can go into a room and touch the walls and know the room's history of events. But this is still based on the psychic's ability and not the walls (lower life form).

So, I guess my answer would be no.

Besides, do we want or need a computer to think out-of-the-box. It will be good enough if we can get humans to do it.

Mic

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Past Posts:
Bucky Group 5 - Independent Thinking,
Bucky Group 4 - Local, Global and Universal-Penang Hill,
Bucky Group 2,
Bucky Group,
Usury 2b - World Game,
Usury 2a - World Game,
Usury 2 - World Game,
Usury,

Mind Games

Podcasting by East Coast Park, Singapore

Just recorded another podcast with my friend Clinton about a board game that he has invented that trains people to be creative and improve their learning abilities.

Here is the gist of what was discussed:

1. That we are smarter than we think.




2. Size of brain does not matter. More importantly, it is the number of connections we have in our brain. Number of connections are unlimited.




3. That it is a mistake to think that if we are creative we are a 'right brain person'. Creativity requires the use of both the right and left hemisphere. ie. the whole brain.




4. The more we learn to do more sophisticated tasks, we become smarter, as we exercise the brain.

podcast: click here.

Backstage comment:

You may have noticed that we sounded a little edgy and serious in the podcast! :) That was because we were fighting off those uninvited creepy crawlies joining us whilst we were recording! arghh!! :)