[extropy-chat] Wordplay

[Adrian Tymes]

--- David Lubkin <extropy at unreasonable.com> wrote:
> At 10:07 AM 1/6/2004 -0800, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> >General trick: when someone seems to spout nonsense
> or
> >impossibilities, see if there are alternate
> meanings
> >of certain terms which, when used instead, would
> make
> >what is said make sense.  If so, then it is most
> >likely the case that this alternate was what was
> >meant.
> 
> But it's not as much fun.

True.  This appears to be one of those unfortunate
cases where business and pleasure conflict.  Both are,
of course, important: one should know how to have fun
as well as how to accomplish serious tasks, else both
abilities will be impaired.  (The effect of fun and
sociability on improved business relations has long
been documented, and then there's the reduced
potential for pleasure when one's practical resources
are severely constrained.)

> Besides its recreational side, it can be an
> effective source of story or 
> product ideas.  Also, if you are writing something
> you want to be taken 
> seriously -- a product name, a campaign slogan, a
> soundbite for the evening 
> news -- it's useful to consider how your opposition
> (or Jay Leno) can 
> misconstrue what you wrote.

Quite true.

> And I think it has nootropic benefits.

It's been proven that minds in happy states tend to
positively influence all manner of generic health
measures, especially ability of the immune system.
Also, developing minds in situations where they are
happy - for instance, children with lots of things to
play with, rather than subjected to repetitive and
dull tasks - tend to correlate to minds that will
develop more extensively.

> Similar exercise: choose two words at random.
> 
> (a) Come up with a real-world linkage between them;
> or
> (b) Come up with a fantasy or sf interpretation of
> their combination.

Casimir tap: a cylinder of mirrored wires and
non-mirrored insulation arranged so the Casimir effect
will draw the wires together in such a way that the
wires keep spinning around each other.  Inside a
magnetic field, this would be a perpetual electricity
generator...so long as the energy had somewhere to go,
rather than arcing between the wires and eventually
melting the device.

Of course, in reality, this would probably just be
another perpetual motion device.  (See the long
history of such.)

> Or, take a random noun.  Put a technology buzzword,
> like "virtual," 
> "remote," "collaborative," or "nano" in front of it.
>  See if the 
> combination is new, interesting, and useful.

Nanogoogle.  (Okay, "google" - without the G - is more
of a verb than a noun...but, any takes?)

> Any other techniques y'all use to limber up your
> creativity and imagination?

I tend to think of my imagination as trained since
childhood.  I am a dreamer by profession.  I
occasionally write (usually but not always short)
stories and invent gadgets (sometimes in fantasy/sf
settings, using what's known about the capabilities
available; sometimes in reality, as an excuse to
research and learn what capabilities are available) to
keep that training up.