Hi all,
I would suggest that design may happen before CONSCIOUS analysis.
That is, in the case of the English cow farmer, the analysis occurred
sub-consciously in the farmer's mind, over time. There are plenty of
exemplars in the world from which he could have analogized his device -
again unconsciously - such as mechanical bulls, artificial 'mothers' for
orphaned chimpanzees, the way animals can imprint on people.... Each of
these could have served as a data point that combined one day to form the
idea of the cow-like mechanical calf-feeder.
There is good evidence that we do most of our "thinking" unconsciously and
that moments of revelation/inspiration are really just the end of a long
chain of un/sub-conscious computation/cognition. Because we're not
conscious of the work our brains are doing, the result seems to pop out of
nowhere, fully formed.
So, the farmer was immersed in a problematic situation for, apparently, a
long time. It was constantly being reinforced in his mind. He was also,
naturally and unconsciously, picking up the occasional data point of things
coming from other situations. This seems an ideal condition for the mind to
spawn the concept of the mechanical calf-feeder un/sub-consciously.
Now, to immerse oneself in a situation for long enough to have this kind of
cognition happen is, in my experience, neither efficient nor robust. So
Rosan's suggestion that design may "preferably" come before analysis is
needing a lot more study.
However, we all of us are *constantly* living the conditions by which this
kind of unconscious analysis can occur. Since the conditions occur whether
we want them to or not, it seems sensible that we take advantage of any
results of that process.
Cheers.
Fil
On 9 July 2011 03:13, Johann van der Merwe <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> As an observer of students' thinking development (i.e., their ability to
> think inclusively and systemically about design problems), may I offer
> two
> thoughts:
> [...]
>
--
\V/_
Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON
M5B 2K3, Canada
Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
Fax: 416/979-5265
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
|