Archive for year: 2016

“Visionary Creativity,” a lecture by John Lobell at Pratt Institute, School of Architecture, September 29, 2016.

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WHERE: Pratt Institute, School of Architecture, Higgins Hall, 61 St. James Place, Brooklyn, NY 11238

What is Creativity? Everything we do at Pratt is based on Creativity, but are we sure we know what it is? Lobell writes: “These are times of turmoil. But times of turmoil can also be times of creativity as we become aware of new possibilities in our arts, sciences, and industries, and of new directions for our lives. Today’s challenges all have one thing in common: they call out for Visionary Creativity.” Lobell will explore creativity’s role in our culture and in who we are.

Following a brief presentation, Lobell will be interviewed by Meredith TenHoor, and will then answer audience questions. The lecture will be followed by a reception with snacks at which Lobell will sign his book, “Visionary Creativity: How New Worlds are Born.” Find out about the book at VisionaryCreativity.com.

 

With some summer time on my hands, I am belatedly reading Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age, the story of the computer technology developed at Xerox PARC — the personal computer, the mouse, the graphical user interface, the laser printer, Ethernet, computer graphics and video, etc. (Xerox could have owned the whole thing, but gave it away to Apple, and then brought in executives from Detroit to kill what they had.)

Carver Mead shows up in the story — recalling for me his role in the book Microcosm, which describes how, at various times when the computer industry was stuck, Mead would come down from the mountains, gather a group of grad students at Cal Tech, and produce the next needed revolution. He is responsible for:

– VLSI (the modern computer chip)
– Silicon compilers (tell the terminal what you want a chip to do and it designs the circutry)
– CMOS (the sensor in cameras) Read more

Everything you have heard about self-driving cars misses the point. (They are sometimes called autonomous cars, but that term definitely misses the point.)

Self-driving cars are coming quicker than we thought. We have long been hearing about Google’s self-driving cars in California, but now every major car company is working on them, and the New York Times recently reported on their rapid advancement in China, which, as we will see, is significant in more ways than we might think. Read more

In college I read a lot of Andre Gide. The Immoralist — wow! I still look at it occasionally, although these days I am more likely to rewatch Jack Nicholson in Wolf. (Same idea.)

One of my favorite Gide quotes is, “You have to lose your reputation to save your life.” It came to mind when I read an article in the New York Times:

“How to Raise a Creative Child. Step One: Back Off”
Adam Grant January. 30, 2016 Read more