Sid, Tim, Klaus and All,

In the current absence of a decent cup of coffee, I have decided to use
computer designed means, of which I have no in-depth knowledge but some
scattered understanding and plenty of experience in using to design, I
hope, an explicit thought on knowing without necessarily having done it
personally.

I believe nobody can ride a bicycle to the moon. To my knowledge nobody has
tried, and nobody has succeeded. If you all agree, this personal piece of
knowledge - my current reality - is accepted as an established fact, at
least by this knowledgable group of phd-in-design mail list readers. I am,
so to speak able to have some knowledge, faulty or correct (what is a bike
anyway? - ever heard about the moonraker bike?) about the nature of bikes
given the currently established cultural notions of what a bike is and is
not. This is because others have defined "bike" for me, and I have through
early and later socialization accepted the canon of what constitutes a
bike.

Now, a bike isn't what it used to be. I have seen some old pictures of
velopeds (is that how it is spelled?), have owned and ridden two- and
three-wheel bikes without much knowledge or understanding of their design,
but plenty of understanding of how they work in practice. Later I learned
about and bought a moped, a scooter and finally a motorbike - what a kick!
By holly - on mediterranian trips I even rode waterbikes, but have not had
the environmentally destructive experience of riding a water scooter. Nor
have I used a scubabike, but I know how it works, some of the priciples of
its design, and believe beyond a shadow of doubt that I would be able to
use it without training thanks to some clever user-oriented designers. I
believe that I once saw a flying bike in a movie clip from the early days
of flying.....and my Phys. Ed. teacher was flying his bike quite
unintentionally 40 years ago. I will never forget, and have since done my
utmost to avoid sharing his experience.....

As you see, my notion of a bike is rich and has changed with all those
experiences, inventions and extentions of the bike concept, partly because
I have seen, touched and used, partly because I have seen pictures and
words about them. and have notions of the not yet constructed moonraker
bike, because somebody had the fantacy to construct a Science fiction
version in a cartoon I read while having my hair cut......

Could I construct a bike today from scratch? I believe I could, but I don't
think you would want to buy it......designing bikes isn't really among my
strong skills. To build that kind of knowledge (skills) I would have to
practice. Am I getting closer to the current debate on education - the
difference between programs for mastering the act of design versus the
knowing how to use what others have designed, to knowing the principles
used in a design (if you don't understand the principles, it becomes rather
hard to improve on the current solutions), to learning what others value in
the current solutions and communicable concepts of future solutions.
Actually one of the latest bikes on the market looks exactly like an
automobile. Being a driver of a proper automobile I have already learned to
hate those snail-like contraptions......

If I tried to explain to you how I was able to draw on my various sources
of historical learning to write this crap to you, I would need a ton of
coffee cups and at least a dozen shrinks to help me get in contact with my
unconcious superego and ID.

Conciously yours,

Brynjulf

(This time I will leave out further ID on who I am, and get myself a cup of
strong coffe)



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