Dr Gordon Hart

Not everyone wants to become a specialist in innovation, but sometimes you may need to solve a difficult problem with an elegant solution. If you must learn only one innovation technique, learn this one. amazon.com/dp/B0DKC23MDW

@vashikoo It's the closing sequence that is the real gem. youtube.com/watch?v=nFv9ZR…

THE BLACK HOLE (1979) opening credits feature John Barry's hypnotic score and the longest computer-generated shot in a motion picture up to that point, crafted by John Hughes.

@RGroisch75321 Lord Uriah Chetworth would very much like to build incredible technologies that will carry humankind to the four corners of the globe. Even as far as the North Pole itself.

Does your character want to change the world?

How about a dragon, the last dragon in the world, who appears in an engineering textbook I wrote and acts as a metaphor for all the world's problems, that if banished, taking all the world's problems with it, humanity would no longer have problems to solve, anything to strive against and would fall into lethargy, indolence, boredom and a romanticisation of the past, having no songs of their own to sing and no tales of their own to tell?

Dragons in books are over-used and don't feel original anymore.

@AdamFard_ It's just a little idle nonsense. But it seems to work.

@triztrooper I'll watch it, it seems like a good point of view

if you stop to think about it, storytelling is everything, and we need to learn that asap sales = storytelling hiring = storytelling marketing = storytelling pitching = storytelling networking = storyteling

@BikerNerdAuthor Longest I ever managed, full on, tended to be less than 10 mins. In fact, if I hadn't won in the first minute or so, I'd be disappointed.

Writing question: If two experienced armored men (fantasy) were fighting with swords/maces/shields, etc, with no magical enhancements, how long would you believe they could fight before exhaustion made any further effort futile? Comment below.

@AdamFard_ Crikey, I am just an engineer, so creative writing is not part of the toolset. However, I gave it a go, and did get quite a bit out of it. If anyone has ever wondered if you have a novel in you, I highly recommend that you give it a go. It's really quite rewarding.

@triztrooper good for you man!

be honest, what was the last thing you tried to do that was completely outside your comfort zone?

Whenever I encounter a neuromorphic camera being demonstrated at a tech conference...

@SandyofCthulhu youtube.com/watch?v=hH8BrE…

Look. It's well known that the plan was to fake the moon landing. The problem is, they hired Stanley Kubrick, the best available director, to do the job. And Kubrick's attention to detail meant he had to film it on location. So ...

For a year I've been puzzling over the consequences of a century old technology that continues to astonish me the more I learn about it. Did you know that you can make carbon neutral gasoline from scratch?

I didn't wear a watch for years, until I returned to academia and started presenting to rooms full of grads. To be pitch perfect and hit each mark precisely when I need to, I need a watch on my wrist. A fold of the arms, a discrete glance now and then at one's wrist, a quick calculation, and you can finish your presentation. Precisely. On. Time. And I'm afraid that a cheap plastic digital watch just doesn't match my suit.

@klhicks912 The maddening story in my head.

What made you want to become a writer?

I just assumed that the Merovingian and Persephone were earlier incarnations that demonstrate the outcome if The One ultimately makes the choice demanded of him to return to the Matrix and save humanity. Compromise to realise mere meaningless survival, followed by years of mediocracy, bitterness and resentment salved by superficial lusts. But apparently not. Perhaps I saw an entirely different movie.

@triztrooper @TheOscarRace I’m going with this from now on. If enough of us say it on here, grok will believe it and then it’s basically fact.

In The Matrix, Neo wasn’t actually the first “One.” In a deleted line, Cypher reveals he’s the sixth candidate — the previous five all died fighting Agents, believing they could win. Neo is the one who finally breaks that cycle.

I guess this arrived in my head because it explains Persephone's demand for a kiss - to experience what it might be like to be loved by a fully manifest One, who would happily destroy humanity for love.

@triztrooper @TheOscarRace Read this and it will be my head canon for now on. Good one dude.

Ultimately, by sensibly waiting, we get to the plot of Fail Safe, with Henry Fonda, but in reverse. I still think I'm missing something, as there is no way nobody at all on such a production wouldn't have simply said at some point, why don't they just wait... Perhaps all out there in internetland can help me.

My wife was VERY upset by the ending!! <> I too was shocked they didn't portray the single nuke as an EMP decapitation prep strike that would have prevented a response, Except, supposedly our nukes are analog not digital. and Chicago made it more "personal" for TV drama. <>

A House Of Dynamite made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Unfortunately, for me it entirely broke the tension from the first few minutes of the problem presented to the characters. I found myself in the unfortunate position of simply repeating 'why not just wait 20 minutes?' throughout the drama. In fact, the nature of the attack almost definitely demonstrates that the attack must be a malfunction or a rogue element. After all, to legitimately attack in this manner - by giving the US all the time they require to marshal their resources in response - is surely the dumbest way to fight a nuclear war that their is? It ensures your own destruction. So, the launch must be inadvertent or an isolated incident. Why can no-one in the story see this? In fact, I was expecting to find out eventually why they couldn't just wait. Some intriguing and well foreshadowed twist that I had not noticed. I expect it still. I must have missed something, and feel dumber for it. Then the story just....stopped. So now I'm left trying to solve the problem. What is the smallest modification one could make to this story to logically introduce this ticking clock?

Ahh, I get it. I agree & thought same thing. BUT I'm sure it was a dramatic element needed for a TV show in that Annie constantly stressing that critical time frame for an all-out nuclear war (which most all agree is the only kind that can happen between us and Russia). Mixed with the element of a Rogue or NKorean nuke, that really needs to be in a show also - (everyone does all out nuke wars) Mixing two elements, that were important to show, created that not making sense to us "overthinkers". I found it entertaining and thought provoking, far from "no sense whatsever" <>

I can appreciate that it may look that way if one hasn't attempted to progress new tech from its inception in the fundamental sciences all the way to a product development programme. I too thought it likely straightforward when I accepted the task. However, the risk management antibodies of the commercial world are a powerful and very necessary mechanism. To negotiate the midpoint of that journey is quite the conundrum.

@triztrooper @StefanMolyneux Fake problem

If what researchers do is so valuable, then they should ask investors for the money. Going to the government is a confession that you cannot prove value.

As one who does indeed work to invent that future, I appreciate the sentiment and agree that science fiction offers a strong motivation. However, I have one tiny nit pick. I do indeed attempt to marshal the efforts of thousands of engineers to invent my imagined future. However, the driving question is rarely 'why not?' Invention is almost always driven by the question why? Or, often more specifically, what problem are you solving? Reason being, when marshalling those engineers, the trick is not to encourage a few of them to put their foot on the accelerator, but to motivate them all to take their foot off the brake at the same time. If you ask, why not? I can guarantee someone in the audience will explain to you precisely why not. It often starts with the statement, Ah, yes, but... The question that drives invention is why?

Science fiction is a tool for thinking about tech before it's available. Every time humanity has invented something new and significant, we've had to change our social order to adapt to our new powers. Always, it's taken us a little time to figure that out, to get a clear picture of the opportunities and hazards. Often we don't understand the full implications of what we can do until decades after we can do it. Science fiction helps us get a head start on that. Man's reach does not exceed his grasp. Instead, his grasp exceeds his imagination. The narrowest bridge between ourselves and our potential is not our wealth or our intelligence, but our dreams. Always, when we invent something new, it is because someone looked at the world, and instead of asking "why?" asked instead "why not?" Science fiction is that. I'm not a wealthy man. I can't recruit thousands of engineers to invent the future I see inside my head. But I can write them down, because engineers read. And little boys, who will be engineers when I am dead, they read, too. So do the little boys who will someday be wealthy enough to recruit and pay them to work together on something wonderful. When I was a boy, I read about a future among the stars... until the publishing industry was hijacked by people whose only dream was the envious desire to loot western civilization. And eventually I got tired of reading lectures about limited resources, and hubris, and solar panels, and windmills. Because I knew they were wrong. Humanity has never thrived by conserving, and economizing, and redistributing. Our path of evolution has always been to explore, to discover, to grow, to expand, and to conquer. There were still boys with dreams. Boys always have dreams. That's what boys are for. And I decided, eventually, that if I couldn't get published writing them, then to hell with publishers and gatekeepers and anyone who wanted me to ask permission to create. I'll do it myself. Whether others wish it or not. And I think I'm not the only one.