Distinguished Lecture Series, UiTM Engineering, Malaysia, 2nd December 2020 https://alandix.com/academic/talks/UTM-breaking-rules-2020/ In this talk, through a number of vignettes, I explore different times when we need to break rules in order to foster more creative and innovative thinking, but also know the times when we need to reign in the chaos, and keep to the rules. I discuss examples including bad ideas for technical creativity, Tiree Tech Wave, walking a thousand miles around Wales and how to understand Covid-19 and climate change.

1. breaking the rules?
Alan Dix
Computational Foundry
Swansea, Wales, UK
http://alandix.com/

2. Computational Foundry
Swansea University
Tiree
Tiree Tech Wave

3. the foundry
building
mission
community

5. today I am not talking about …
• physicality and product design
• intelligent internet interfaces
• long tail of small data
• deep digitality
• digital thinking
• now
• digital light
• digital humanities
• virtual crackers and slow time
• modeling dreams, regret and the emergence of self

6. breaking the rules
… and when not to

7. bad ideas
an exercise in madness

8. find it hard to think of a good idea?
think of an idea … any idea
… but make it a
bad / silly idea

9. Heath Robinson
or oxymoron
Rev Stan CC-by-2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/revstan/3805288148

10. prompts …
THE BAD
1 what is bad about this idea?
2 why is this a bad thing?
3 are there any other things that
share this feature but are not
bad?
4 if so what is the difference?
try different contexts
used car salesman – how would
you sell it to someone?
THE GOOD
1 what is good about this idea?
2 why is this a good thing?
3 anything that shares this
feature but is not good?
4 if so what is the difference?

11. make it a good idea
what is good - keep it
what is bad - change it
change context
learn from aspects

12. https://www.flickr.com/photos/funkdooby/9269246310
Funky Dooby CC-by-2.0

13. why bad ideas
commitment and understanding

14. training
brainstorming …
they always say no judgement … but really?
critique …
that’s my pet idea, no way!
bad ideas …
judgement no problem – it’s meant to be bad!
low commitment => easier to critique

15. Good Ideas
design
‘good ideas’ encourage conservatism
(ant steps)
?
?

16. design
bad ideas…
large jumps through the design space
explore new parts
Bad Ideas

17. understanding
critique exposes structure of the design space
Bad Ideas
Meta-level
dimensions
criteria
properties

19. Tiree Tech Wave

20. About Tiree
650 residents
24,000 summer visitors

21. Tiree Tech Wave

22. no
fixed
outcomes

23. because there are
no fixed outcomes …

24. island projects – slow research
Frasan - mobile heritage app
OnSupply – renewable energy awareness
Projected touch-table
TireeConnect – island communication
gossip is not enough!
TireeDashboard
General pattern
understand – act – reflect
… takes time

25. On Supply

27. Alan Walks Wales

28. Welsh Coast Path
opened May 2012
linking existing paths
a single way marked route
with Offa’s Dyke encircles Wales
three full traversals in 2012 (one running)

29. vision
personal
encircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,
practical
IT for the walker & IT for local communities
philosophical
reflections on walking and space, locality and identity
research
personal agenda and living lab

30. no hard boundaries
research – practice
personal – philosophical
19th century science or Mediaeval?

31. outcomes?
seeking
questions

32. community and cohesion
abandonment and dissolution:
Rhyl – dustbin of Liverpool
Dee estuary – even the pubs closed
internal strength
Penmaenmawr – in the face of adversity
community enterprise: shops, pubs, arts

33. while walking
active
camera, recorder
passive
GPS, ECG, EDA
when stopped
iPad, blog, flickr,
social media,
uploading data
before/after
web for planning
new contacts on
Twitter, email
reporting, analysis
while walking
other walkers
occasional
friends/family
meeting
when stopped
shop keepers,
B&B proprietors,
chance meetings
talks, visits
before/after
family and friends,
readers,
researchers,
future walkers
social
sphere
technical
sphere

34. data
location
GPX ... batteries ... sporadic signals ....
bio-sensing
ECG (heart), EDA (skin) and accelerometers
audio and images
in the moment
text
after the event
implicit
explicit

36. why pandemics and
climate change are
hard to understand,
and can we help?

37. a University Vice-Chancellor
on Radio 4 Today programme
just after announcement that
A’ level exams were cancelled
“if it is safe to keep schools open for children of
key workers, then surely it is safe for students to
gather spread out in an exam hall.” (paraphrase)

38. WASH your hands religiously for
20 seconds, sneeze into your
elbow, avoid touching your face,
stay 1 metre away from all other people
and, as a last resort, self-quarantine for a
week with only your emergency rations for
company. If you want to avoid getting the
new coronavirus, all of these are a good
idea. But ultimately, one of the most
important things standing between you and
a deadly bout of covid-19 is your immune
system.”
New Scientist, 28 March 2020
https://www.newscientist.com/issue/3275/

39. a relative in the US
“I don’t understand,
first it was one or two
and then it was thousands”

40. What’s wrong?
if it is safe to …
– essentialism and dichotomous reasoning
– levels of risk, cost/benefit trade-off
if you want to avoid getting the new coronavirus
– diffuse responsibility & communal benefits
– reducing spread, individual actions insignificant
first it was one or two and then it was thousands
– numerosity, exponential growth

41. By NASA ICE - A close look at the shelf, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24450299
By CDC/ Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86444014
By ChiralJon - https://www.flickr.com/photos/69057297@N04/45554136424/, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75011663
not just coronavirus
climate change
Brexit

42. human reasoning
essentialism & dichotomous reasoning
– risk vs safety
fixed condition assumptions
– models of the economy, individual behaviour
diffuse responsibility & communal benefits
– prisoners’ dilemma, vaccination, social distancing

43. numerosity
Qualitative–Quantitative reasoning
between arithmetic and mathematics
• exponential growth
• understanding of large numbers
• dependencies and networks
• feedback effects
• hidden state
• time
wages
jobs
tax

44. challenge for us
understand, design, build
advice, tools, visualisations
to help
politicians
scientists
journalists
general public

45. lessons
embrace chaos
… but know when to control it
learn to understand it
… and help others to do so too