Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Reinventing the Wheel

This is another small data point perhaps indicating that, as a population, we have so much Cognitive Surplus available, and are seemingly so collectively bored, that we literally turn to finding all manner of new ways to reinvent the wheel.

The old cliche says, "don't waste time reinventing the wheel," it's all about worshipping ever greater commodity efficiency. But the new reality is, "don't waste mind rolling around on wooden wheels." Keep innovating. Keep incrementing. Keep adapting. Keep accelerating.

Efficiency for it's own sake is great, it has taken us so very far. Yet, to move forward, we must increasingly encourage Ingenuity, Inspiration, Inventiveness and find the resource circulation models that foster development and reward the outputs of the best of these human characteristics, which are notorious in their inability to generate rapid profits, yet are also undeniably the source of the greatest stores of enduring and sustainable human value.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Homeless? Just Hit Print.

NYTimes: 3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution

"A California start-up is even working on building houses. Its printer, which would fit on a tractor-trailer, would use patterns delivered by computer, squirt out layers of special concrete and build entire walls that could be connected to form the basis of a house. It is manufacturing with a mouse click instead of hammers, nails and, well, workers. Advocates of the technology say that by doing away with manual labor, 3-D printing could revamp the economics of manufacturing and revive American industry as creativity and ingenuity replace labor costs as the main concern around a variety of goods."

"Contour Crafting, based in Los Angeles, has pushed its limits. Based on research done by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, the University of Southern California, Contour Craftin printing device for building houses. The start-up com commercialize a machine capable of building an enti machine that fits on the back of a tractor-trailer."