A Bit Of Magic

Yesterday I had an inspiring talk with my brother, who is my Mycroft Holmes - only, less lazy - in the sense that, working he in the University environment, our debates on technology are often based on a less pragmatic and more theoretical level, and it causes in me insights that I wouldn’t have in the usual company environment.

Stefano had an mind-opening intuition considering the ways we have to imagine new technologies before they get available.

In the past, science fiction was the playground for the invention of future possible and impossible technologies, some naïve, such as mechanics imagined instead of electronics, or overestimating the power and the possibilities of electric or radioactive, some astonishingly close to reality.

For a list for science fiction inventions, here.

Our days, technology has grown mature to follow faster and faster the possible solutions we can imagine for our life; Stefano says that science fiction is now commonly in our house (remote controlling, domotics, videoconference…)

So where’s the way to keep on being creative, innovative and inspired in imagining new interfaces or technologies?

Try a little magic, says Stefano. If building science fiction technology has become the common practice, the way left to imagine future interactions is magic. Fairy tales, fantasy and sorcery stories are the new repertory of next deliverable technologies, because the usual thinking based upon logic consequences of practical problem is not enough fast-forward.

Some examples? A science fiction writer like Jules Verne imagined the rocket to the moon that was later built (or almost), but it took Grimm brothers to imagine the answering bot in Snow white. Or this enhanced version of the eBook.

The unleashed fantasy of magic can help the brain figure out what technology is not yet able to build.