Playful, Creative Engineering...

...Is where you start getting into something for the sheer joy of discovering an unexpected, new way of doing things. And I'd be willing to bet that, though he certainly wouldn't turn entrepreneur money down if it were suddenly to appear because of his idea, that was the farthest thing from his mind when he first began toying with his approach here.

You see this all over the web of course, and it is a beautiful thing. Ordinary folks, learning on their own for the most part, and becoming practical engineers in one area of endeavor after another. People making beautiful musical instruments out of the damndest things. People modding existing games to such depth and width of variation that they create virtually new game experiences. Other people tearing apart old appliances for parts to make wonderfully absurd ray guns, super light flashlights, personal mass drivers, or some crazy Rube Goldberg device that does a whole lot of movement for no particular purpose, other than to be quite amazing to see, and feel, in operation.

This is what happens when you jump into something simply for the joy of exploring what you can find in your unique blend of seeing things, combined with what the material, or items, you are working with, resonate within you. Slapping things together, trial and error wise, until creative magic happens.

And if you weren't worried about money so much, or worried about whether you had value at all simply because abstract markets say your work potential isn't cost effective, despite the fact that, given half a chance you could learn a lot of whatever was needed. But when learning costs money too, well, something happens to the whole process of curiosity, wonder, and the desire to explore new things. It gets shackled to ledger books, arbitrary numbers of input and output, and those who can't help but become fixated on accounting to rule life (as opposed to the other way around), and the cold logic of net gain.

These are also some of the issues you should be thinking about when you consider where we are now with a fragile economy, and an ever more fragile mix of social needs, compromised government, and a planet that has had enough of the situation where prices seldom reflect true costs. Don't let these others, though, intimidate you into thinking they are more important than playful, creative exploration is. This is just as important because this is what helps make you a self actualizing, self motivated, successfully content individual; individuals without which would leave us with only the emotionally walking wounded. People who are confused, disaffected, quite often very angry, and way too often the most easily manipulated. A population that would be problematic even within a very healthy planet.

The question you have to ask yourself is this: Does the current economic operating system serve to mostly encourage, or mostly thwart, playful, creative exploration? If it is the latter than you really ought to start serious consideration as to what an alternative might be. I have tried to articulate a starting point where we could begin the discussion of what that alternative might be. I need you. I need everybody you know, and everybody they know to start asking the same question. And all you have to do is pass the idea along, and encourage them to do the same thing.

We don't have a lot of time here so I implore you. Put some urgency into this. It is most assuredly that important.

A MARVEL OF ENGINEERING

Englishman Is Developing His Own Functional 'Iron Man'-Like Suit

22 diggs Technology

Richard Browning has been working in secret for the past ten months, attaching what are effectively small jet engines onto his limbs.