Hydrogen Fuelcells (HFC): So You Thought Wide Spread Application is Years Away?

A demonstration of a 'General Hydrogen Inc' fuelcell powered forklift truck has proved successful. The fuelcell pack is applicable to any electric drive vehicle.

The hybrid fuelcell system consisted of proprietary components in combination with a fuelcell stack, an ultra-capacitor bank, and hydrogen storage equipment.

The demonstration proved that fuelcell technology is more practical, more efficient, more cost effective and safer than conventional electric battery or diesel systems.

Trivial? No. A key indicator that HFC technology is already diffusing.

Whoosssh.... There goes me Nan on her Granny Mobile!

Click on picture to see design.

General Hydrogen Inc's Prototype Fuelcell Service System Set Up.

A Medieval 21st Century?

Buck Rogers was way out!….

For 60 percent of the world‘s population, the 21st century is medieval.

2 billion people live in squatter cities, 2 billion more live in countries dominated by ideas over a 1000 years old!

How Near is Robbie Robot?

Robotics is already a £16 billion market.

Surprisingly, 60% of market value today is in marine robotics - not industrial automation!

By the trends:

Domestic, but expensive, humanoid robots will hit the market before 2015.

Buy 2020 they'll be ubiquitous, at a price comparable to a small second family car.

By 2025, you get 'demestibots' from Tesco. High-end robots that start to match human emotional/intellectual intelligence will be used in war theatre.

How will you feel about your Robot?

The most effective way to find and destroy a land mine is to step on it.

This has bad results, of course, if you're a human. But not so much if you're a robot and have as many legs as a centipede sticking out from your body. That's why Mark Tilden, a robotics physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, built something like that.

At the Yuma Test Grounds in Arizona, the autonomous robot, 5 feet long and modeled on a stick-insect, strutted out for a live-fire test and worked beautifully, he says.

Every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.

Finally it was down to one leg. Still, it pulled itself forward. Tilden was ecstatic. The machine was working splendidly.

The human in command of the exercise, however -- an Army colonel -- blew a fuse.

The colonel ordered the test stopped.

Why? asked Tilden. What's wrong?

The colonel just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg.

This test, he charged, was inhumane.

Fly little Fly!

A life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University. Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly.

While much work remains to be done on the mechanical insect, the researchers say that such small flying machines, in swarming 1000s, could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals, and even clean your house dust up.

An Age of Continuous Discontinuity.

Charles Handy the Author, Businessman and Philosopher said back in the 1980s that we are entering ‘The Age of Discontinuity.’

He meant that both technological and social changes will be so uncompromising and dramatic that competitive contexts and the pace at which we have to learn and adjust to will be a wrenching experience.

The evidence since the 80s is plan to see. The Internet is radically changing every kind of media: TV, Radio, Advertising, Music, Retail, Purchasing, Cost Centres, Disintermediation, etc, etc.

Hyperinnovation is transforming what we consider the car, the bank account, energy supply, the telephone, the camera, food stuff, and even high finance to be.

But I think Handy didn’t go far enough. Because what’s around the corner lies what I call The Age of Continuous Discontinuity.

There are dozens of life changing technologies now in the lab, ready for commercialisation.

1. Nanofacturing will allow you to print out domestic products in the comfort of your own home.

2. Hydrogen Fuelcells at a price point we can all afford.

3. Super efficient and cheap solar panels that will supply of you domestic energy needs.

4. Skycars and Skyways are not on the drawing board, but functional prototypes have been in test for years.

5. Dozens of different designs of domestic humanoid robots exists designed to help the infirm, elderly, and do the washing up.

6. Immersive high definition virtual reality and telepresence will enable you to visit far of places, again in the comfort of your own home.

7. Strong Artificial Intelligence that will one day soon surpass human intelligence, giving us the capability to explore ideas, science and technology that will have no conception of at present.

All of these technologies and the associated sociological ramifications will be here before 2025. Are you ready for The Age of Continuous Discontinuity?

'Knowledge is power.'

Sir Francis Bacon.

'Innovative knowledge is ultimate power.'

Chris Harris.

The Late Youth Boom.

Look at Mick Jagger and Tom Jones! Look at Raquel Welch and Jone Collins! Something’s going on! 60 (for many) is the new 40s! The over 60s are growing massively in terms of population, wealth and longevity.

More 60 years young hit the golf course than any other age. The buying power (capital and spare cash) of the over 60s is almost 3 times that of the 30 somethings in the UK. The dominate market in the USA is the mature market.

Between now and 2012 the 18-44 age group will decline by 1%. 55+ will increase by 21%. 55-64 will increase by 47%.

The mean natural mortality rate age in the developed west for males is 76, and 78 for females. Only, the overall stat is skewed, as nearly 30% now make into their 90s. For the first time in human history the are more over 60s than under 16s.

Implications?: Design and market for youthful 60+ year olds with bad backs (et al). Rolling Stones concerts 2010, even 2020! Yes, even more golf courses.

Interview (Part 2) with Cathy Lewis, CEO Desktop Factory: Will the Final Frontier soon be in your Kitchen?

CH. Let’s talk about the future..... Do you foresee the day when a $1000 3D printers will hit the market?

CL. Not only do we see a day when 3D printers are available to the mass market for under $1K – we intend to lead the revolution and insure the democratization of 3D.

CH. Does that prospect excite you? For example, what do you think the total annual market volume/value for such a low cost 3D Printer will be?

CL. We have already seen massive pent up demand for a $5K 3D printer - so the potential in the consumer market will be significant, well into the billions of dollars. The best way to think of this opportunity is as being roughly analogous to the impact low cost laser printers have had on us over the past 15 years.

CH. What about the market, the kind of custom? What will be its impact here?

CL. This is the 3D printer for the rest of us – read – all of us! At under $1K you will see a 3D printer in every home and one day we will creatively disrupt the manufacturing value chain – enabling the consumer to buy a design, a part or tool from the web and print it at home. Just imagine the positive impact that will have on green house gas emissions, etc., etc. And, in terms of innovation - the heart beat of our global competitive advantage – this 3D spark will absolutely ignite a new era of innovation and creativity.

CH. What opportunities lay ahead for material feedstock providers?

CL. Clearly the consumables for this market are every bit as important as the STL file and the printer. We will provide a low cost, safe nylon based powder as our first material which results in a very robust, durable part. However, we know that additional types of consumable materials will help grow the market and the applications potential for 3D. I think the various manufacturers of these types of materials have an excellent opportunity to work with companies like Desktop Factory in developing the next generation of exciting 3D output materials.

CH. Is there anything else that you think the reader should know about DF?

CL. We are a small but dedicated team of professionals from two major domains – 2D and 3D printing – who have a powerful and compelling vision to deliver 3D printing to the masses – after all it is a 3D world – we should be enabled to print that way!

How can we Manage 21st Century Complexity with 16th Century Thinking?

Sill far to many executives I meet use thought morphologies a kin to Newtonian Mechanics and Cartesian Logic. But that kind of linear - A-to-B-to-C- to-D - thinking cannot possible cope in an age of interconnections, where counterintuitive, paradoxical, and down right surprising outcomes occur.

Execs spend months on quantitative business analysis, months on developing five year plans, months on organisational planning; yet at the end of the day the numbers don’t meet the market realities of double gate exponential technological innovation acceleration, the industry actuality of Hyperinnovation, of pip squeak outfits creating disruptive innovations that knock the corporate skyscrapers bandy.

How can the big manufacturing corporations compete when single mums begin to print out 3D objects (spoons, cups, teapots and babies bottle) in the kitchen at home, for near next to nothing?

In fact this counterintuitive, paradoxical and surprising, soon to be reality, is so alien to linear-logic that it either scares the living daylights out of many an executive or is so off the chart that they don‘t (can’t) even perceive it.

Tight order and control is their mantra. Mention phrases like emergent teams, swarms systems, open culture, and you get that ‘evil gaze.’

If corporate executives are to see the future first, create competitive visions that create new billion dollar markets, mobilise the workforce as a dynamic self-organising system, then they need new and up to date ways of thinking.

Systems thinking is a good start. Multidimensional thinking is better. But will they convert to 21st century thinking? I don’t know.

Insult to Tom Brown's scholastic injury.

‘Education, Education, Education,’ is an insult to intelligence.

Can’t wait to hear Mr Gordon (Tom) Brown's take on cerebral input.

As Learning, Learning, Learning everywhere, wihout coersion, is now the norm.

Armageddon?

September 11 was essentially a collision of early 20th-century technology: the aeroplane and the skyscraper.

What do we do to prevent a collision of 21st-century technology: nanoweapons and earth?

I'm thinking.

The Girl Power Boom.

In the USA, Women’s collective spending power is larger than the whole of the German Economy. Worldwide its is $$$Trillions.

Look at the shopping mall. Count men Vs Women!

Who, on the whole, picks the family car (60%), home furnishing (94%), holidays (92%), long term new friends (80%), and even instigates home DIY projects (80%).

Who does the most communicating?: Emails (67%), SMS texts (88%), Christmas cards (93%).

Who holds the domestic purse (91%)?

Who works the longest hours (68%)?

And finally a painful one: who files for divorce (men a tiny 16%). Ouch?

Implications?: Design and market for women. Be really romantic to your wife!

Is the UK going through a new baby boom?

I live in Eastbourne, the once bone yard of the UK, where people went to retire (and die).

Not any more!

As I walk round Eastbourne I’m witnessing a baby boom. Thousands of little kids and babies swinging on mum's arm, swarming the place. I mean everywhere!

So I started to think why is this?

First: why did the baby boom, from the post war period up until the mid(ish) sixties, happen?

The experts tell that it was the new, post war, affluence. It gave people confidence to plan long term, so families boomed too.

Second: But aren’t we told that affluence is the biggest contraceptive of all?

Doesn’t look like it. Because Eastbourne has become a reasonably affluent town.

But third: The UK has (is) experiencing a long boom economy.

Well I'm dazed, because the baby boom is happen throughout the UK.

Women are choosing to have more babies than at any time since 1980, according to official figures which hint at the first baby boom of the 21st century.

And the fertility rate - the number of births per woman - rose from 1.8 babies per woman in 2005 to 1.87 in 2006, the fifth annual rise in a row and the most babies born in a single year since 1993, the Office for National Statistics say.

Or is it due to the fact that Cool Britania is more cosmopolitan, and thus more randy?

Making the impossible, possible!

By Kim S Cameron.

The most contaminated nuclear plant in the USA, Rocky Flats was an environmental disaster and the site of rampant worker unrest. Although it was estimated that it would take 70 years and $36 billion to clean up and close the facility, something stunning happened.

Now on its way to becoming a wildlife refuge, the project is running 60 years ahead of schedule and $30 billion under budget.

In Making the Impossible Possible, Kim Cameron explains how this remarkable performance was achieved — and how it can be replicated. Using numerous first-hand accounts and public records, Cameron draws a number of leadership guidelines that can be applied to any business.

This fascinating and thoroughly researched case study concludes by revealing the ten leadership principles responsible for the Rocky Flats turnaround — and in doing so, provides a means for other organizations to harness the lessons of this astonishing success.

Somebody has just asked me 'What on earth is a Hypermovie?'

Lethal Die Hard Weapon: Mel Gibson and Bruce Willes joins forces to combat the Terminator!

The Long Good Friday with Bob Hoskins and Pierce Brosann escape the Jag, and combine?

Batman Vs Predator Vs the Joker Vs the Alien, all in one film!

Dr Who's TARDIS lands on the Star Trek Enterprise, both join forces to prevent the Darleks invading Romula!

Basically a Hypermovie criss-crosses conceptual story and character boundaries.

The Hypermovie meme is yet to take off. But it will.

Would you like to see Lethal Die Hard Weapon?

Again, watch Batman Dead End.

Watch 'Batman Dead End' on Chris TV8 (8 mins). It's a home brew Hypermovie with dramatic surprises.

Watch 'The Cat Came Back' on Chris TV7 (7 mins). It's one of the funniest cartoons ever made (far to good for kids).

First to the World 3D Micro Scale Multiplicative Printer.

Fuji's world’s first MEMS-based piezo cartridge printer
enables low-cost high-precision jetting of complex
organic, inorganic and metallic fluids.

Micron scale products and sub-assemblies such as flexible multilayer PCBs or flexible flat screen displays can now be produced in one hit, layer-by-layer at a significantly lower cost and higher quality.

Interview (Part 1) with Cathy Lewis, CEO Desktop Factory: Will the Final Frontier soon be in your Kitchen?

I’ve been waiting for nearly 30 years for it. A low cost, easy maintenance 3D printer. Picture this. Your washing machine door handle cracks and breaks ‘damb;’ your mobile’s battery cover gets lost ‘blast!’ No problem. Just print it out a new one via your home ‘Desktop Factory,’ right on the spot, instantly for a few pence. And this isn’t some far off Star Trek vision. It’s happening right now.

I’ve just had a eye opening chat with Cathy Lewis, CEO of Desktop Factory (DF) Inc (yet another breakthrough tech start-up from California based IdeaLab). Cathy told me about an amazing new gadget DF are about to bring to market - the gadget of all gadgets in fact - that everyone will want to have in their homes: a kitchen/desktop size 3D printer, for a mere £495. Want one? (http://www.desktopfactory.com).

Here’s how the talk went.

CH. ‘Cathy, let’ talk about the present…. Desktop Factory Inc’ is yet another exciting venture out of IdeaLab. I would not be the first to say that there seems to be an acute, even magical sensibility toward future markets at IdeaLab. Would you like to kick off by describing IdeaLab’s culture, what is the magic, what’s the secret?’

CL. The IdeaLab secret is multi-faceted and not always easy to describe. But I will, after knowing them for a year, posit my best explanation.

The first facet is the founder – Bill Gross. He is an amazing person – genius – visionary – optimist – inventor - environmentalist, father, husband, leader – who sleeps about 2-3 hours a night and then brings all of his talent and energy to the lab each day. He traditionally comes up with the ‘idea’ from which a new company is formed.

The next facet is the environment – new companies and smaller existing companies share space in a converted, rambling, brick warehouse with exposed ceiling / and ventilation with only half walls – no offices - to separate people. Mix this with free coffee, beverages, espresso, fresh fruit, Monday bagels and highly subsidized lunches 3 days a week served up from strategically located ‘bars’ around the building. This combination stimulates the continuous exchange of new ideas and acts as a magnet to brainy young engineers from the likes of CalTech, Harvey Mudd and MIT who just want to be associated with Idealab at some point in their careers.

I consider another facet of Idealab magic to be the high caliber board members who represent Idealab and their various companies, the CEOs and the tremendous support organizations available to each of the companies. From IT and legal to HR and Marketing Communications functions – early stage companies receive full or partial support from all of these groups enabling the entrepreneur to focus on what matters most – delivering their product and/ or service to the market.

And a final facet – but equally important is ownership. People want to chase the dream – to be a part of something new and novel that will be disruptive and eventually provide them with a financial reward commensurate with the effort expended. And given the high success rate of Idealab progeny – we have no problem enlisting leadership talent!
This is the Idealab mystique!

CH. You are about to launch a new product called the ’Desktop Factory.’ How would you describe the technology, process, materials, part sizes, and print speed?

CL. This product is perhaps the most aptly named I have been associated with in my career. We have a simplified 3D printer with a totally intuitive Graphical Under Interface (GUI) that is both home and office friendly. Whether you want to ‘print’ a physical object from a CAD STL file, a file you download from the web or an object created with a 3D scanner – just send the file to your Desktop Factory and within a few hours we will render the object for your use. BTW, even the most expensive machines take a few hours to print an object.

Our process leverages heat and pressure, similar to a laser printer. We coat a roller with a thin layer of powder and ‘draw’ the image onto the roller with a halogen lamp. The image is then rolled off onto a build platform and the roller returns to begin the process again. In between layers the build platform is raised up against a heated platen to insure that each layer if fully fused and adheres one to the other. At the conclusion you simply reach into the front windowed door on the printer and remove your part.

Support structures are calculated and the provided automatically by our highly intuitive front end software and then can easily be removed by hand when you part requires them.

Our build envelope is smaller than some at 5X5X5 but supports about 75% of the objects built today based upon market research. Finished parts are quite robust – they can be drilled, tapped, milled, etc. and we have painted a few just to show how great they look fully finished.

CH. Can you give me an idea of the total cost of ownership of DF, say, for a small design house/household.

CL. We know that DF will have the lowest available TCO on the market. Besides the purchase price I have noted the only additional costs are up in the earlier portion of this document. We know that current consumables range from $2.50 - $6.00 per cubic inch and we continue to target $1.00 per ci.

CH. When is the first shipment of the DF expected?

CL. Late 2007 – we have over 275 units on order right now!

CH. Who will be your customers?

CL. We have received orders and requests to place orders from every possible customer type – hobbyist, self employed artists/designers, aerospace firms, Art Institutions, major medical centers, jewelry designers, junior high schools, 3D Service Bureaus, Trade Tech Schools, fortune 500 companies, game companies and 1 or 2 home users . . . .

CH. How are you going to roll the product out geographically? Will you be setting up overseas divisions.

CL. We will launch initially in the US late this year. We hope to go international by the end of 2008 though various partners and distributors.

CH. Are there any plans to float Desktop Factory Inc. on the stock exchange?

CL. We are privately held today which provides a great deal of flexibility and allows us to move quickly but plan for the long term. There will be pressure undoubtedly in the future for an IPO - but having been a corporate officer in a public company both pre and post Enron - I must admit that I am enjoying the strategic advantage of private enterprise.

Moller Skycar.

Using a principle similar to that of the British Harrier jump jet, the Moller Skycar volantor incorporates a patented thrust deflection vane system that redirects thrust, enabling it to hover or to takeoff and land vertically from almost any surface.

This capability plus the added safety of ducted fans makes it ideal for a wide variety of commercial pplications.

These include private and charter air travel, express delivery, news gathering, border patrol, police and fire work, and search and rescue, to name just a few.

See Chris TV1 for latest demos!

Sony's humanoid robot QRIO is getting access to a Tera-Flop Computer Cluster.

Sony is supposedly working on a project to connect the QRIO via high-speed network to a 250 Computer Cluster. The company aims to enable QRIO to make its own decisions.

See him and his pals dance on Chris TV6 below!

ASIMO continues to grow up.

ASIMO has come a long way since Honda started development almost 2 decades ago. There are several videos demonstrations on the Web (two are shown on CHIRS TV2).

The videos show how ASIMO can walk and run while turning as well as dynamically balance itself in response to external forces, i.e., a person pushing or pulling ASIMO. ASIMO is also shown kicking a ball and walking up and down a flight of stairs.

Honda’s future plans for this technology include developing it as a helper robot for the elderly including the ability to hand objects such as medication to them

An innovative graphics driven web search engine.

Snap.com is a new generation of search engine, out from IdeaLab, that delivers superior relavance and rich interactive listings to broadband users, and offering risk-free, flexible Cost-Per-Action advertising with unmatched ROI to advertisers.

Snap's Ultra Search toolbar lets users view multiple search results at once and allows easy access to multiple search engines, popular sites, browser favourites and even e-mail, contacts and files.

I think this is winner. I use SNAP now instead of Google.

See snap.com, download, and try. It's as simple as that.

It's here!

The first low cost 3D visual display.




Provision's display systems represent a revolutionary technology that provides the projection of high resolution holographic like 3D aerial images into space detached from any screen, without any glasses. The ‘HoloVision’ line of display systems are being used in many market channels including Electronic Transaction Terminals and Point of Sale Advertising Networks.

The Next Competitive Advantage: ‘Radical Belief!’

Your competitors are more than likely NOT to believe the radical breakthroughs in technological innovation I talk about. Especially the ones that will be here within 20 years.

Here’s a bunch:

Radical life extension technologies that rewire the human body’s metabolism will enable the average 50 year old today (2007) to have the physic and mental stamina of a 35 year old (of today) within 20 years.

The average individual will print-out/synthesize many kinds of consumer gadgets in the comfort of their own home. That’s mobile phones, TV remote controls, motor bike spare parts, and a new out fit for a Saturday night out: tie, shirt, jacket, kilt, sporran, jockstrap and shinny boots.

Most families will be putting their name down for a second Skycar. It will be customisable, most parts will also be instantly produced at home.

Domestic robots will go on strike, as a result of their civil liberties being undermined. The word ‘Slave’ rears its ugly head again. ‘Oh dear’ we shout, as our gardens, houses and washing-up piles up.

DO YOU BELIEVE ANY OF THIS?

But that’s the point. Most of your competitors don’t or wont either!

So it comes down to belief - ‘RADICAL BELIEF.’

If you are ready to both embrace and make these radical ideas work (and zillions of others) then you have one hell of a competitive advantage.

Q.E.D: Radical Belief is the new form of competitive advantage.

‘Sir, stop making those preposterous and fraudulent claims at your investors… If you continue I’ll throw you in Jail.’

Supreme Court Judge, 1913, when Lee D Forest told his shareholders that his company (RCA) would soon be able to transmit voice across the Atlantic.

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‘Bollocks! It’s not even science fiction. It’s fucking madness.’

The UK’s Chief Scientist retort when I told him that an average US Marine core will be able to swarm and run at Olympic sprint speeds for 15 minutes at a time by 2025.

Is Right First Time Innovation a False Economy?

Think about it?

You put all that effort rooting through a design with a fine toothed and conscientious comb (weeks, even months on end), then you make the physical prototype and find a dozen errors: five tolerance clashes, the embeded code makes the LCD flicker, a PCB lug doesn’t align, a catastrophe component failure, and so on.

And don’t any of you seasoned engineers (manager and non-manger) tell me this hasn’t happened to you.

But this is a mere surface issue, underneath belies much deeper consequences.

Right first time enforces an anti-risk culture. If the edict is right first time and you get something wrong, you are going get beaten up not only by the boss, but by your peers as well (it reflects on them, you are now the risk).

So what happens?

You make sure you get it right first time.

And how do you do that?

You don’t take any risks, don’t try anything new, don’t push the envelop.

And what does that mean?

It means nothing new, zero innovation, zero learning, and zero competitive advantage.

And what does that mean?

.

'The gulf between what engineers are actually creating today and what ordinary people will believe is significant.'

Joel Gerreau, in Radical Evolution.

‘The Origins of Hyper.’

The original ancient Greek definition of Hyper is a prefix meaning ‘above and beyond.’ However, things have evolved (above and beyond). In physics it can now stand for many (multiple) dimensions. The Internet has also moved the idea on, meaning many interconnections. Some examples:

Hypercube is a cube with more than three planar. It’s possible to catch a glimpse of a hypercube’s geometry in a computer simulation showing its four-dimensional rotating shadow. The shadow is 3D - weird!.

Hyperinnovation in the business context means the multidimensional interconnection and successful introduction of novel ideas (my definition).

Hyperlearning refers not merely to the extraordinary speed, scope and magnitude of learning, but the unprecedented degree of interconnectivity across minds, knowledge, media, experience and technology (you are engaged in n-learning right now!).

Hyperlink is a reference/navigation element in HTML documents that takes the user to another section in the document, or another document on the WWW.

Hyperspace is ten-dimensional space-time based on superstring theory.

Hypertext overcomes some of the limitations of written text, making possible a dynamic organization of information through multiple links and multiple interconnections via hyperlinks.

Five Things You Didn't Know I'm Bad At:

1. Remembering names and long numbers.
2. Singing.
3. Getting up really early.
4. Hiting the target when I pee.
5. Telling jokes.

Five Things You Didn't Know I'm Good At:

1. Dancing, bodypoping and spinning on my head.
2. Cookery.
3. My take on painting modern art.
4. Off the cuff funny quips.
5. Carpentry.

Now don't you o'l feel better for knowing all this!

Churn, baby, churn.

Lower cost Rapid Prototyping (RP) kit is enablng a new design strategy of high-frequency testing and redesign.

Rather than wasting time trying to perfect a design and produce a single prototype to show customers, product designers are using rapid prototyping technology to create simple 'first-concept' models of their ideas.

If the customer wants to change something, they can easily go back to churn out a new one without having lost much time or money in the process.

While this cycle of repetitive failure may be both tiring and demoralizing for both the customer and product designers, it certainly now seems necessary to embrace it and very helpful to be successful in either field.

Beam me up Scotty!

Desktop Factory Price-Performance Breakthrough.

IdeaLab's Desktop Factory (DF) Inc. is launching a 3D Printer at a breakthrough price point of £2,500.

Cathy Lewis, CEO of DF, told me that by 2012 the 3D printer will be in the shops at a price point of £495.

The 3D printer will produce low cost, non-toxic, composite nylon prototypes the size of today' mobile cellphones in just under an hour.

Testimonials for: Hyperinnovation.

Rudi Ruggles, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young: ‘Wonderful… combining cutting edge science and management practices to produce a new management model, one that not only take advantage of, but celebrates the richness of connectivity.’

John Mans, Fellow, Chartered Management Institute: 'Organisational structures developed to meet the stable environmental conditions of the past may well not be able to cope fully with the demands now being made....a clear warning to both individuals and organisations to the complexities of the moder business world....the mix of approaches is well tailored to today’s new circumstances and provide an excellent starting point for managers needing to develop strategies in an interconnected world.’

Imagination is not only more powerful than knowledge, it cannot be measured by the yard.

'In a prosperous long boom, anything is possible, but nothing is certain!'

Kevin Kelly (see blog friends).

What is Hyperinnovation (example 1)?

Think of the latest Nokia cellphone, the N95 (See picture). Is it a video camera or personal assistant; a music centre or communications tool; a games consol or dictaphone; a book or television; a musical instrument or credit card; a remote controller or word processor; a front door key or portal to the world?

Ask Nokia....In fact ask Sony… Ask Apple... Ask Virgin. And they will give you the a similar muse:
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'As bandwidth grows and technology shrinks toward the invisible, both concept and functionality increasingly interconnects and expands toward the multidimensional.'

Boeing's Collaborative Dreamliner.

Boeing Corporation is working with 60 partners at a total of 72 sites around the world to design and build its new '787 Dreamliner.' Boeing’s partners are scattered in what Boeing calls a 'global virtual collaborative environment.'

The Dreamliner is an ultracomplex Hyperinnovation which promises 20 percent better fuel efficiency, 40 percent more cargo capacity, a fuselage with a composite structure, and advanced flight deck and better performance engines. There will be innovative systems technologies, with an open systems approach, a new passenger cabin, advanced wing design, and an enhanced passenger and crew experience.

However, collaborative innovation has a legacy of failure. Complex systems innovation and integration projects are fraught with politcs, miscommunication, and lost information that gets lost in the sheer complexity of the project.

By putting the issue of ‘collaboration’ at the heart of the project, and by supporting this effort with new project protocols, supporting infrastructures, and collaborative communication/information technologies, Boeing are achieving a step change in project performance.

This is driving Boeing towards a new kind of project management model that will enable the design and delivery of evermore adventurous, innovative and super performance airliners... Go Boeing!

There’s plenty of value at the bottom.

Molecular manufacturing (MM) will account for much of the world’s economy by 2025. But an economy like none we have experienced before.

When full blown MM arrives the marginal cost of creating any possible physical product would be on the order of pennies per kilo: basically the cost of the raw material. Eric Drexler (see side bar) estimates total manufacturing cost for MM process in the range of 2 pence and 10 pence per kilogram, regardless of whether the products are clothing, massively parallel supercomputers, tomato soup, or additional MM systems (or Nanofactory).

The value-added, however, will be in the information expressing each product. That is, the software that selects the atomic weight, and defines the geometry and molecular assembly process. In other words, the market value of all manufactured material objects will be based on information content.

As this happens the ratio of value added per bit will rise significantly. This is obviously a trajectory we have today. More value-added comes from information-added products and services, because the order of information embedded within a new product or service is increasing over time. Thus the technological innovations of the future will (1) mostly be information added, (2) exceedingly more complex than today. These will be key economic metrics of the future.

Hyperinnovation Quotation.

'Breakthrough innovations rarely occur within a technical discipline, or within a market, but almost always where you create a novel intersections.'

Prof. Clayton Christensen, Harvard University.

Concurrent Engineering and Hyperinnovation.

Concurrent Engineering (CE) has moved on leaps and bounds since my first CE project back in 1984. Some of the most progressive stances today are looking at the Complexity Sciences and how thay can be applied to help understand the dynamics and improve the control of CE projects.

Hyperinnovation does just this: it moves on from multifunctional team based CE, to self-organising swarm systems based on the dynamics of complex adaptive systems.

The First Principle of Hyperinnovation.

Many moons ago, a tutor of mine gave up the fact that a student studying science at high school has the opportunity to learn more about the laws of physics than Sir Isaac Newton ever did, or could have known in his time.

Since that day, I’ve long wondered how knowledge develops, how ignorance can blossom to enlightenment, how seemingly mystical breakthroughs in understanding come from simpler, less structured understandings; but more, how complex innovations, such as the SpaceLab, originate from much lesser innovations?

After much thought and deliberation over the years, it became clear that the answer may lay in the ‘synergy’ that emerges from the many interconnections amongst ideas. In fact, we find that the output or whole activity is greater than the sum of individual agents: 1+1+1+1=6?

The secret: 4 agents in a network have 6 possible interconnections.

In math terms, for every agent that joins a network, so the number of new interconnection possibilities, and thus innovations, goes up geometrically. There is in fact a principle of innovation at work here. I call it the First Principle Of Hyperinnovation:

The potential for Hyperinnovation is proportional to the number of meaningful interconnections between agents. Meaningful as in those interconnections that hold a level of perceived or authentic value.

As an indication of the potential for Hyperinnovation, the number of possible (meaningful or otherwise) interconnections, is toward one half the square of the sum of agents in a network.

Thus, 10 agents in a network would have 45 possible interconnections. 100 would have 4,950 possible interconnections. 1000 would have 499,500 possible interconnections. 1,000,000 agents would have over 499 billion possible interconnections.

The payoff: for every new scientific discovery, consequent technology, every new idea, every piece of knowledge coupled to a network, so the number of innovation possibilities increase dramatically, so driving the synergy among ideas further and faster up-hill.

Hyperinnovation (Example 6): Multidimensional Learning:

In this rapidly interconnecting world, more and different problems need a network-knowledge approach. As processes and outcome become more interrelated with other processes and outcome, we need people that can break down the lines and borders of knowledge into broad interconnected wholes.

Thus the coalescing a variety of knowledge-bases and concepts from narrow subjects and disciplines, into synthesised arenas and cross-interrelated pools becomes preminant.

Core-subject are still abound, but they are evolving at warp speed. The goal is to become Hyperskilled, Hyperknowledged: So an Engineer need not only be studious in electronics, software and mechanics, but also become a Businessman, an Ecologist, a Behavioural Psychologist, a Biologist, a Chemist and Physicist, all at once. A Nurse, a competent Medical Technician, a Counsellor, a Social Worker, a Communication Specialist, a Computer Technician, at one and the same time.

One organisation enabling the emergence of Hyperleanng is Rice University's 'Connexions' (see Blog Friends Sidebar) an open source environment for rapid collaborative development, free sharing, and rapid publishing of scholarly content on the Web.

Most textbooks are a mass of information in linear format: one topic follows after another. However, our brains are not linear - we learn by making connections between new concepts and things we already know.

Connexions mimics this by breaking down content into smaller chunks, called modules, that can be linked together and arranged in different ways. This lets students see the relationships both within and between topics and helps demonstrate that knowledge is naturally interconnected, not isolated into separate classes or books.

One consequnce here? We will see the narrow specialist begin to disapear, and the rise of the multidimensionalist rapidly emerge.... Go figure! Go Hyperinnovation!!

Understanding the question gives the answer!

I have a friend that keeps asking ME the same question over and over.

'Chris,' he says 'how do you do it. How do you know all this stuff. How comes you know what I know, even though it's not your field?'

Well, I'm - ME - fed up with him asking this question (which has been going on for 15 years and more now!).

The answer is this:

If you keep asking the same question over and over, you simply don't understand the question in the first place.

Learning and innovation are two sides of the same coin:

A really acute definition of innovation is learning beyond knowledge, learning beyond what we currently know or understand. Thus, without rapid and continuous learning, we'll never achieve any breakthroughs in ideas.

Further, successful innovation requires learning before output. That is, understanding the behaviors of a particular innovation in all its dimensions before its launched into market. If we don't learn before output, then there may be trouble ahead.

To accelerate learning before output, one must accelerate feedback from both tests in the lab and trials in the market. To do that, one must accelerate the design-prototype-test (DPT) feedback-cycle by investing in DPT productivity tools and processes.

As the DPT productivity increases and the cycle-time shrinks, so feedback is amplified and learning before output accelerated. Thus innovation cannot exist without learning, and learning cannot exist without eventually yielding innovation. In other words, innovation and learning are two sides of the same coin.

What is Hyperinnovation
(example 5)?

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Now, what about hybrid fruit?

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The ‘Grapple’ (grape+apple).

The ‘Peacotum’ (peach+apricot+plum).

The ‘Necaplum’ (nectarine+plum).

And such Hyperfood is in the laboratories of C&O Nursery and Monsanto right now. Fruit and vegetables with surprising, but pleasing shapes and colour, which incorporate all manner of health enhancing vitamins and minerals
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The message here: as genetic engineering and information technology continue to combine with agriculture and pharmaceuticals, n-food production will be the most multidimensional of all.

What is Hyperinnovation (example 4)?

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Hyperinnovation refers not merely to the incredible speed and magnitude of innovation, but the enormous interconnectivity of new ideas, technology, markets, even whole industries.

What is Hyperinnovation (example 3)?

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‘Hyper’ in the context of innovation, means 'many interconnected dimensions (not unlike Hypertext or Hyperlinks).' One good definition of 'Innovation' is 'The successful introduction of novel ideas.' So 'Hyperinnovation' means the 'Multidimensional interconnection and successful introduction of novel ideas.'

What is Hyperinnovation (example 2)?

Worldwide sales of so-called 'Hyperphones' accounted for 48 percent of total worldwide mobile phone sales in 2006, growing to 81 percent by 2010, according to new forecasts from Gartner Inc. This trend is set to continue, leading to sales of one billion Hyperphones by 2010.

What is Hyperinnovation (example 1)?

Think of the latest Nokia cellphone, the N95 (See picture). Is it a video camera or personal assistant; a music centre or communications tool; a games consol or dictaphone; a book or television; a musical instrument or credit card; a remote controller or word processor; a front door key or portal to the world?

Ask Nokia....In fact ask Sony… Ask Apple... Ask Virgin. And they will give you the a similar muse:

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'As bandwidth grows and technology shrinks toward the invisible, both concept and functionality increasingly interconnects and expands toward the multidimensional.