The Plenitude

Created: 2020-11-07T17:39:22-06:00

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We should be careful to make the world we actually want to live in. - Stu Card.

• Rich combined art and science; writing "art exhibits" with computer science.
• Algorithmic composing.
• Creativity is highly prized in American society.
• Addition to the plenitude necessitates the creation of new stuff: [mickey mouse head] it is illegal to tell the same story again.
• The plenitude consumes resources at alarming rates.

Creative elements

• Necessity is the mother of invention: find a problem and solve it.
• It's a thing of genius: i had a vision and just had to do it.
• The Big Kahuna: derivation from first principles.
• Colonization: find the unowned; package and sell it back.
• Stuff desires to be better stuff: how popular dolls become talking dolls.
• Change the definition: language and metaphors.
• Stuff creates new objects of desire: creating a thing creates new problems; now the thing needs accessories.

Rejections (choose one.)

• Try to stem the tide; a law to limit new creations.
• Reject the plenitude and live in the woods.
• Value quality over quantity.
• Zero-growth economics: GDP remaining constant is not a disaster.
• Reduce the population.
• Cope.

Creative hats

• Four creative hats: artist, scientist, designer, engineer.
• The scientist envisions futures and constructs means of testing them.
• The artists envisions art and paints them.
• The designer accepts a list of constraints and produces art.
• The engineer accepts a list of constraints and constructs a good/machine.
• Engineers "engineer out" the exceptions.
• The walls: artist+scientist vs designer+engineer; one "looks inward" and the other "looks outward."

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