THE USE OF
ON
THOUGHTS
ANALOGIES
IN UNDERSTANDING AND SOLVING
COMPLEX
PROBLEMS,
MUTHAFUCKAZ Lucas Rizoli • 2008-08-13

ANALOGY

Colour : Spectrum :: Tone : _____

Colour : Spectrum :: Tone : Scale

Worship : Sacrifice :: Prediction : ______

Worship : Sacrifice :: Prediction : Augury

KINDA
metaphor
simile
allegory
parable

analogy
fundamental
mechanism
of thought

COMPLEX

NOT
REALLY execution time
space requirements
compressability
state probability

COMPLICATED

COMPLEX SYSTEMS

disorganized
lots of parts
organized
emergence

COMPLEX PROBLEMS

connections
nothing simple
large scale
great benefit
and risk

mo’ problems
e.g. environment
need ingenuity
smart solutions

Quantity →
Ingenuity
available
Time →

Quantity →
Ingenuity
required
Ingenuity
available
Time →

Ingenuity gap
Quantity →
Ingenuity
required
Ingenuity
available
Time →

USE OF ANALOGIES TO
UNDERSTAND AND SOLVE
PROBLEMS

“IT’S LIKE…”

NOW YOU TRY IT

n !
le
s to
: t!
le hi
p s
m h
a O
Ex

Tumour

Radioactive
Ray Gun

IT’S
intuitive
intelligible
inexpensive
interdisciplinary

ANALOGY IS MISLEADING

SERIES
OF TUBES

“If you can’t say it
clearly, you don’t
understand it
yourself.”

info ain’t physical
why the shelves?
new interaction
search, tags…

INTANGIBLES

limits of mind
generalization
is weakness

embodied
abstract notions
in concrete terms

IMAGE CREDITS
ALL IMAGES USED WITHOUT PERMISSION [Karl Duncker]
MANY AVAILABLE UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS http://www.yuanlizhuang.com/pic/duncker.jpg
[Screenshot of \"Starcraft\"]
http://planetstarcraft.gamespy.com/screenshots/full_res.php?ss=100
[Douglas Hofstadter] Bike Wheel by Will Pate
http://www.nndb.com/people/990/000023921/Hofstadter2.jpg http://flickr.com/photos/willpate/19968404/
Clock- Simplicity vs. Complexity by Aaron Geller Magic Greenhouse by Ian-S
http://flickr.com/photos/aarongeller/360135019/ http://flickr.com/photos/ian-s/1093732536/
My Blood by Mussels Netting by oberazzi (Tim O'Brien)
http://flickr.com/photos/mussels/1445354267/ http://flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/2044470902/
Mecca Visit June 2008 - 10 by Ammar Abd Rabbo Senator Ted Stevens
http://flickr.com/photos/21499556@N04/2568932694/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ted_Stevens.jpg
Super Typhoon Cimaron Image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Classic Mickey Mouse Wallpaper
Center (NASA) [via pingnews.com] http://www.disneyexperience.com/downloads/wallpapers/mickeystar_1600.jpg
http://flickr.com/photos/pingnews/298165549/
[John Searle]
[Warren Weaver] http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Searle/images/Searle3.jpg
http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/blood/pictures/people/people-weaver.jpg
Apple Macintosh Desktop
AIDS is Burning Up Africa by A L E M U S H http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Apple_Macintosh_Desktop.png
http://flickr.com/photos/zerihoun/230182039/
[David Weinberger]
Time to Fill Up by JoshMcConnell http://yuiblog.com/assets/weinberger.jpg
http://flickr.com/photos/joshmcconnell/423630499/
Deep Space (courtesy of NASA) by John Griffiths
Jökulsárlón [Glacier] by Pétur Gauti http://flickr.com/photos/indieflickr/568374062/
http://flickr.com/photos/peturgauti/1642076217/
E8 Detail by jared
[James Burke] http://flickr.com/photos/generated/2056145757/
http://www.oswego.edu/news/images/large/jamesburkeweb.jpg
Dice Another Day by topher76
[Thomas Homer-Dixon] http://flickr.com/photos/topher76/293277608/
http://www.wordsworthbooks.com/homerdixon_thomas.-newjpg.jpg
Hourglasses by Shannon Hosmer
[UA232 Post-crash] http://flickr.com/photos/51955798@N00/1462117687/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UA232postcrash.jpg
[Alexis de Tocqueville]
[Geordi La Forge and Wesley Crusher investigate a mysterious radiation burn of unknown origin. (TNG: \"A http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Alexis_de_tocqueville.jpg
Matter of Perspective\")]
http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:Deck39RadiationBurn.jpg System X - Xserve G5 supercomputing cluster by CipherSwarm
http://flickr.com/photos/cipherswarm/2414578731/
[Geordi La Forge with Engineering scanner (TNG: \"Tin Man\") (screen capture by Jörg)]
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/props/scanner1-scanner-tinman.jpg Airline Tele-Dial Radio by The Rocketeer
http://flickr.com/photos/kt/249301268/
[Brian Butler]
http://psyc.queensu.ca/faculty/butler/brian.jpg Adam Resurrected [Jeff Goldblum] by Howie_Berlin
http://flickr.com/photos/howie_berlin/385039799/

MORE CREDITS
ALL GOOD IDEAS WERE SOMEONE ELSE’S
ALL BAD IDEAS TOO
Analogies taken from the ETS GRE Sample Analogies
http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/
Apologies to Jeff Goldblum. I love your work, man.
Apologies to y'all muthafukaz too. You know you're not.