Full Video: Ariel Waldman's Hacker's Guide to the Galaxy

At the heart of something good there should be a kernel of something undefinable. And if you can define it, or claim to be able to define it, then in a sense you have missed the point. John Peel

This is perhaps my favorite quote from IdeaFestival 2013 because it goes to the beating heart of discovery: it will always be the work of amateurs, individuals for whom the "something good" is never complete.

While Ariel Waldman spoke at length of her love of space, the loosely drawn inner connections from her work with Science Hack Day also resonated with me because every discovery springs from an openness to experience, a willingness and capacity to feel things anew. It's what the IdeaFestival is all about. This is what I wrote last year, live-blogging her talk:

Segueing into Science Hack Day, an event for which she is probably more well known, she says that its mission is to regain a bit of the old excitement, of sheer possibility. The people who show up at one of those events are amateurs. They don't HAVE to know where their idea or project is going. She describes several hacks - building a wind tunnel to test a series of letters that will make a new typeface; or a lamp that lights up each time an asteroid passes the Earth; or a mask that would simulate synesthesia, aptly named, given the creepy image she display, 'syneseizure;' or a cocktail made with DNA. On the latter she issues a warning - 'it tastes disgusting.'

What if, she continues, one could listen to mapped sounds of high energy particle collisions? And in fact, she points out, one such instrument has been created, 'particle wind chimes.' There's more: given license to roam freely, to make new and maybe unorthodox connections, the creator of the particle wind chimes may have created something with real diagnostic potential in the hands of physicists. Formerly abstract concepts have been made available to the senses of researchers.

Find some time today to watch the video, which includes a terrific Q&A with MIT Technology Review editor Jason Pontin. You won't be disappointed.

Stay curious.

Wayne

"IdeaFestival Uncut:" Watch Full-Length Speaker Videos

Because it goes to the beating heart of online media, I found "Manipuated for the Greater Good," a post on Andrew Sullivan's blog about the meteoric rise of the web site Upworthy, utterly fascinating.

For those of you who don't know, the site monitors, culls and publishes hugely popular content about "topics that matter," what Sullivan describes skeptically as "evergreen ideas," nothing but "standards like 'Human rights are a good thing' and 'Children should be taken care of.'" Along the way, Upworthy has honed a writing process that churns out headlines that are both attention-grabbing and widely mimicked.

If, like me, your work involves writing for the online world, chances are you've read some of the hundreds of articles on writing clickworthy headlines. XKCD brilliantly parodies the practice by rewriting several famous - and infamous - 20th Century moments in a manner that will be instantly recognizable to virtually anyone that reads anything on the web.

Since the click-through became the measure of relevance because of its easily monetized relationship to advertising, I've often wondered about the gimmicks used to attract online attention. Some, like Sullivan, are asking serious questions about this development: does sharing really equal engagement? Has interestingness become a substitute for depth? Have we become hooked on distraction?

I don't have good answers to those questions. But I do know that we find what we measure, that interesting things come from people interested in things, that intelligence is marked by an openness to experience, and that meaningful creativity often takes time and always needs a well-stocked attic.

The IdeaFestival recently released its first full-length speaker videos. Called "IdeaFestival Uncut," I think you'll find them worth your time. In the video posted here, ecologist, writer, artist, and expert on adaptation, Rafe Sagarin, discusses adaptability and its power in an unpredictable world at IdeaFestival 2013.

I invite you to be still.

Wayne

Research: Intelligence an "Openness to Experience"

New research demonstrates that one of the key attributes of intelligence is "an openness to experience," one of the so-called Big Five personality traits, the others being conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

Scott Barry Kaufman, who has documented his on unorthodox learning style and is skeptical about the ways in which intelligence has been traditionally assessed in his book Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined, is also well placed as a cognitive psychologist to offer new ways to think about the subject.

In his article at Scientific American, he suggests that intelligence can be viewed as an aspect of personality rather than a wholly separate domain of human functioning, and reviews the data from a group of individuals who took both personality and intelligence tests. Kaufman:

Given this data, where does IQ fit into the personality puzzle? While this is just a single data set, it is consistent with other studies suggesting that the most relevant personality domain is openness to experience, particularly the dimensions that reflect the ability and drive for conscious exploration of inner mental experience.

Well, far be it from the IdeaFestival to question the benefits of new experiences.

Because of his interest in cognitive working and creative expression, Kaufman's linking of intelligence to "openness to experience" rather than "extroversion," for example, suggests one explanation for creative achievement across the divide between art and science. Individuals who go on to make novel contributions in both domains must first consider the stimuli before engaging it.

I'd be very interested in hearing Kaufman's views of to what extent this openness can be acquired.

Stay curious.

Please remember, discounted Early Bird Festival Passes are on sale now through April 27 only!

Wayne

Image of Daniel Roth: Geoff Oliver Bugbee

"Goldilocks" Earth-Sized ExoPlanet Found

This is remarkable. Exoplanet hunters appear to have found the closest Earth analog yet, a slightly larger and similarly rocky version of our world 490 light years away orbiting its sun at a range that makes it possible for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface.

Space.com

'This is the first definitive Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone around another star,' Elisa Quintana, of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author of a new study detailing the findings, said in a statement.

Other planets of various sizes have been found in the habitable zones of their stars. However, Kepler-186f is the first alien planet this close to Earth in size found orbiting in that potentially life-supporting area of an extrasolar system, according to exoplanet scientists.

Before losing its ability hold a steady gaze on a field of hundreds of thousands of stars while looking for the telltale dips in light that would indicate that a body is passing regularly in front of the star, Kepler logged tens of thousands of potential planetary candidates that scientists will be analyzing for years to come. Kepler-186f is the most promising exoplanet yet in the search for life beyond our own solar system.

In what is now looking like incredible timing, Lee Billings, the author of a book about the search for life beyond our home world, "Five Billion Years of Solitude," will speak at IdeaFestival 2014. Even better: the lowest priced Festival Passes of the year are now on sale, but only through April 27! You don't want to miss Lee and other announced speakers like Debbie Millman, Claudia Hammond, Jason Felts and Steve Pemberton.

Many more speakers will be announced very soon!

Stay curious.

Wayne

Credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-CalTech

Michael Wolff on Design: Empathy is Your Superpower

In this video from 99U, designer Michael Wolff talks about how "past experience" is not his friend, quotes Maya Angelou about what makes for lasting impressions, and dishes on about how "design can be an agreement system among designers."

In my judgement, the last point was much on the mind of architect Lance Hosey last September when he spoke at the IdeaFestival.

Because designers tend to know a "great deal about very little and very little about a great deal," Wolff believes empathy - the capacity to feel something toward the object of one's thinking - is the key to great design. I was particularly interested in his comments about corporate and business expression. In what struck me as honest bewilderment, he says "he's never understood any boardroom he's ever been in." And written corporate communication isn't meant, in his view, to be expressive or to be read.

"It's meant to be approved." That's hardly the way to connect emotionally with buyers.

Give the video a look. You won't want to miss designer and visual essayist Debbie Millman, who will be one of the IdeaFestival 2014 speakers! Festival Passes at the Early Bird rate of $350 will be available only through April 27.

Stay curious.

Wayne