April 3, 2009 (12:17 PM) by Frank EE Grubich
Let’s play a game!
But first…let’s think.
Innovation doesn’t just exist. You don’t innovate in a vacuum. And innovation won’t thrive in there either. Innovation is like a parasite. It needs to feed off of others to live. It influences. It changes things. Innovation creates opportunities. It generates discussions. It changes behaviors. And in rare cases, alters reality.
Flashback to my college years. During my first year of Fiction Workshop, my professor singled me out as someone who possessed “a gift for plot.” Frustrated with the lack of creativity in the latest batch of stories handed in, she asked me to explain to the class my technique for developing storylines. It was simple (at least it was to me). I start with the basic question “What if?” What if you lived in a world where if you sinned, you spontaneously combusted? What if two very different, desperate people tried to rob a bar at the same time? What if Major Tom was not just crazy, but homicidal? These were the beginnings of just a few of my tales.
Nowadays, I use that same technique when thinking about innovation — or more specifically, what the innovation affects. For my money, it’s wiser to think not of what your innovation does but what it changes. If you just focus on the list of features or functions, your ideas are sure to die. Despite what the PowerPoint generation may want you to think, no one was ever sold solely on the basis of a few well-chosen bullet points. But if you explain to people how their lives will be improved, made easier—brighter, shinier, snappier—your ideas stand a chance of becoming stickier. Maybe even profitable. Oh, and a little enthusiasm never hurt either.
So let’s play a game.
It’s a game of twisted logic. An informal exercise of mental masturbation that’s great to do over a few pitchers of beer and loaded nachos. I call this exercise, DOMINOES. And the object of the game is to take a seemingly impossible idea and imagine that it now exists. How would people be affected? What new opportunities will arise because of it? Where will this take us? How will our futures be changed?
Here’s an example:
What if…teleportation was invented?
• Cars, buses, trains and airplanes would no longer be needed. Of course.
• Depending on how the telepods were powered, fossil fuels would not be needed as much. Hence our air and environment would improve.
• With no vehicles, we wouldn’t need roads (maybe just for bikes). Think of all the land we would open up. (What would we do with all that excess concrete and asphalt?)
• There would be no traffic jams, but there could be lines at these telepods like the ones at theme parks.
• FedEx would not be needed because I could hand deliver the message. Or FedEx would change from delivering packages to a global messenger service.
• Would we still need the Postal Service? UPS? Santa Claus?
• Farmer’s markets would be global.
• The town/city paradigm would be dead. Now people can live and work anywhere in the world.
• Would there still be office buildings or just meeting rooms?
• Would there still be nations? Would there be a global currency?
• Would there be world peace?
• How does teleportation work? The idea of breaking down matter and transferring it elsewhere to be reassembled suggests that the device works thru cables or thru microwaves. Either way, the process of teleportation means that our bodies are reduced to some pattern of computer code. This opens up all sorts of opportunities—not all of them good. What happens in the event of a power outage? What happens to the code?
• Early in the teleportation development life cycle, hi-tech criminals and terrorists could “kill” corporate leaders, dignitaries and officials by simply turning off the machine. There would be suspicion and fear. A new form of crime would arise. One where there is no body. How would you prove that a crime was even committed?
• Security around telepods would be intense. Possibly even militant. Until they invent the transporter room (like in Star Trek). But someone will still need to guard those stations as well.
• Eventually, scientists would invent back-ups to prevent such dangers. (Imagine the ad campaigns for THAT). But these safety measures imply that there is some kind of hard drive where our “code” is parked before it is transferred. What is this hard drive? More importantly, while we are parked there, are we conscious? And what is this reality like? Is this the matrix?
• Is this ‘parking lot’ a solution for cryogenics? We no longer freeze people; we upload them until a cure is found?
• If we are able to upload people, then are we able to alter their code? Can we “fix” people by rewriting their programming? If so, would this change medicine? Would hospitals be necessary?
• If this “rewriting” happens, who gets to play with the code?
• If we can “rewrite” code, can we build a real life Superman?
• And if we are conscious while within this “parking lot,” then a whole new virtual real estate market opens up. These Second Life REALTORs will offer exciting new worlds where you can upload your loved ones (even yourself).
• If we ‘live’ in these virtual worlds as code, will we age? Is this immortality?
• There would be two classes of people—those who can afford to be uploaded, and those who have to ‘stay behind’ and care for the equipment. Those who maintain the stuff will age and die.
• And what if…while in this Second Life world, someone invented teleportation?
See how this works? Neat, huh?! Actually, you could go on and on—for as long as the beer (and your brain) holds out.
But do this exercise enough, and you’ll be surprised at how your own ideas start to evolve. Because it’s not just about what it is, but what it changes.
So let’s try another topic. I’ll start, you build. Let’s see how the dominoes fall this time. If you have ideas that you’d like us to play with, send them me at frank.g@maddockdouglas.com. I’ll buy the beer.
What if… someone invented a true love potion— one that’s 99.8% effective?
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