What Benyus shares are not specific solutions toward some engineering problems, but rather a mindset that accompanies all designers. This mindset reflects a habit of contemplation, of absorbing information and then reusing it in some new way. What Benyus argues for is a freer degree of association between two distinct fields, allowing for newer and more improved solutions. Without this freedom of association, bias might sever building and growing relationships which could lead to more innovative ways of either perceiving or transforming a certain process. This bias furthermore prevents the spatial transposition of one process from its current area to a novel location. For example, in attempting to improve the health of certain reactions, most will be biased against changing the solvent such a reaction from an organic setting to an aqueous setting. Contemplation allows one to see this process completely re-imagined in a new form, one which involves water as a solvent, for example.
I loved this link more so than a lot of the other ones because it integrated design with engineering. What most "engineers" today don't realize is that design is much more than just the implementation of what one has learned. Design is learning a process and being able to create something new, better, or overall more efficient. Benyus' talk of spatial transposition is basically this idea of taking an idea from one place to a new location (or new implementation of that idea).
My main thought after watching this was, "if all these things exist and can in some form or fashion assist in making our world a better place to live for people, why are these things not widely used and readily available on the market?" All I can say is that as a society, I do not believe we are as advanced as we think we are, we may have the capacity to create and mimic nature and use technology to what we believe is our advantage, but if we are so focused on the economics of life that we do not allow people access to these advances, then where does that leave us? We tend to make things more complicated than necessary and it seems that we believe technology is the end all be all. It's not. We do not need to innovate at every turn. Often we are innovating to correct problems we created through an earlier and just as highly praised innovation. Yes, interdisciplinary integration can help in more holistic problem solving, but maybe the most holistic approach is to stop thinking we always need to be efficient and find ways to be faster or stronger and to look to what has proved to be reliable for thousands of years and trust that those things know best.
I do think that there is a lot of crossover between different fields including engineering and biology; however, I disagree with some of what Janine Benyus is saying. It seems like she thinks that every problem that we have has a biological solution but I don't think that is necessarily the case (or at least that the best solution will be biological in nature). A lot of the examples that she pointed out were hypothetical solutions or just the realization that humans and other life forms have similar problems. This is great but there is a lot that has to be done before we can even think about using these solutions in real world applications, especially on a massive scale. That being said, I think she is onto something and I really hope that our society takes advantage of realizations like that.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of biomimicry and it just makes so much sense to me. Organisms that are present on Earth now are ones that have gone through billions of years of evolution to create the most "fit", sustainable and stable organisms. Using their structures, then, makes complete sense to utilize in creating new solutions. I completely agree and support this concept of "taking the genius of nature" and "learning from the natural world". I do agree as Zach points out though, that not every problem necessarily has a natural solution and that this works better as more hypothetical solutions. I think that using the natural solutions as a basis and improving upon them using modern technology and human thought is the way to truly solve problems and improve society.
I really love how baffled the engineers were by the fact that so many of the problems they couldn't figure out were already solved by nature! There are some engineers out there that think they know absolutely everything and it's funny to see some of them bested by nature! There was a line in her speech that said something about how they just had to change the lens through which they saw the world. This clearly relates to our class because HELLO we use lens! We know from experience now that changing the lens totally changes the photo that we take. This in the real world can be how we change the way we look at things!
What Benyus shares are not specific solutions toward some engineering problems, but rather a mindset that accompanies all designers. This mindset reflects a habit of contemplation, of absorbing information and then reusing it in some new way. What Benyus argues for is a freer degree of association between two distinct fields, allowing for newer and more improved solutions. Without this freedom of association, bias might sever building and growing relationships which could lead to more innovative ways of either perceiving or transforming a certain process. This bias furthermore prevents the spatial transposition of one process from its current area to a novel location. For example, in attempting to improve the health of certain reactions, most will be biased against changing the solvent such a reaction from an organic setting to an aqueous setting. Contemplation allows one to see this process completely re-imagined in a new form, one which involves water as a solvent, for example.
ReplyDeleteI loved this link more so than a lot of the other ones because it integrated design with engineering. What most "engineers" today don't realize is that design is much more than just the implementation of what one has learned. Design is learning a process and being able to create something new, better, or overall more efficient. Benyus' talk of spatial transposition is basically this idea of taking an idea from one place to a new location (or new implementation of that idea).
DeleteMy main thought after watching this was, "if all these things exist and can in some form or fashion assist in making our world a better place to live for people, why are these things not widely used and readily available on the market?" All I can say is that as a society, I do not believe we are as advanced as we think we are, we may have the capacity to create and mimic nature and use technology to what we believe is our advantage, but if we are so focused on the economics of life that we do not allow people access to these advances, then where does that leave us? We tend to make things more complicated than necessary and it seems that we believe technology is the end all be all. It's not. We do not need to innovate at every turn. Often we are innovating to correct problems we created through an earlier and just as highly praised innovation. Yes, interdisciplinary integration can help in more holistic problem solving, but maybe the most holistic approach is to stop thinking we always need to be efficient and find ways to be faster or stronger and to look to what has proved to be reliable for thousands of years and trust that those things know best.
ReplyDeleteI do think that there is a lot of crossover between different fields including engineering and biology; however, I disagree with some of what Janine Benyus is saying. It seems like she thinks that every problem that we have has a biological solution but I don't think that is necessarily the case (or at least that the best solution will be biological in nature). A lot of the examples that she pointed out were hypothetical solutions or just the realization that humans and other life forms have similar problems. This is great but there is a lot that has to be done before we can even think about using these solutions in real world applications, especially on a massive scale. That being said, I think she is onto something and I really hope that our society takes advantage of realizations like that.
ReplyDeleteI have always been fascinated by the idea of biomimicry and it just makes so much sense to me. Organisms that are present on Earth now are ones that have gone through billions of years of evolution to create the most "fit", sustainable and stable organisms. Using their structures, then, makes complete sense to utilize in creating new solutions. I completely agree and support this concept of "taking the genius of nature" and "learning from the natural world". I do agree as Zach points out though, that not every problem necessarily has a natural solution and that this works better as more hypothetical solutions. I think that using the natural solutions as a basis and improving upon them using modern technology and human thought is the way to truly solve problems and improve society.
DeleteI really love how baffled the engineers were by the fact that so many of the problems they couldn't figure out were already solved by nature! There are some engineers out there that think they know absolutely everything and it's funny to see some of them bested by nature! There was a line in her speech that said something about how they just had to change the lens through which they saw the world. This clearly relates to our class because HELLO we use lens! We know from experience now that changing the lens totally changes the photo that we take. This in the real world can be how we change the way we look at things!
ReplyDelete