Shelly made an alarm clock that one had to physically wrestle in order for it to turn off. The result: one is fully awake by the time the noise is turned off! Inventions such as these were inspired by individuals who were driven to use their own creativity to fill a personalized void.
Louis Kahn’s article was about silence and light. Kahn commented that, “To the silence of humanity’s innate urge to create comes the suns life-supporting power, giving to silence the ability to act.� One quote that really resonated with me was this: “The beautiful in the material is transformed from wonder to knowing which in turn is transformed to the expression of beauty that lies in the desire to express.� There is something inside every human being that urges them to create and express something about them. In Gershenfeld’s article, people were expressing their creativity by creating something they felt necessary. In Kahn’s article, expression is defined in a sense of nature. “Man through his consciousness feels this record sparking his desire to learn that which Nature has given him and what choices he made to protect his desires and self-preservation in the Odyssey of his emergence.�
I would like to have faith with out question. I believe there is something deep inside each individual that begs them to express whether it be learning and discovering something new or creating a new invention or showing how they feel through artwork. Kahn said, “To me, when I see a plan I must see the plan as though it were a symphony…� The language of man is art; we must express our own uniqueness. “Tremendous discoveries of expression lie in such a great man, as it did in other great men.� Man has a natural desire to live, create and learn.

Those who believe that these new inventions are the key to solving society’s dilemmas are most comfortable with Technopoly. In Neil Postman’s article about Technopoly he wrote about how in today’s society we are being accustomed to new inventions and technologies. He said, “If it makes sense to us, that is because our minds have been conditioned by the technology of numbers so that we see the world differently than they did. Our understanding of what is real is different.� This understanding of “real� is now different than it was only one hundred years ago. Technopolies make us change the way we think about and view religion, family, politics, history, the actual truth and intelligence itself. It does not add or subtract something, it changes everything. This is how Postman defines Technopoly.
Somehow, these technologies and Technopoly is linked to an order of nature. Lance LaVine said something in the beginning of his lecture and for some reason, it stuck with me. He said, “Gravity is the only thing in your entire life that will be constant and never changing.� This is true and it’s nice to know there’s at least one stable thing in my life! We depend on gravity to function. We build houses according to the earth’s gravity. There is a certain balance between push and pull on the earth. A long time ago, one of the greatest technologies was the column. Columns were a rooted order of the earth and were a great invention for building a strong structure for massive buildings.

www.cwrl.utexas.edu

The Christian sense of order says that from one comes everything. One column holds up the ceiling. Flying buttresses were also a new technology back in the day and were used to support extremely tall buildings.

peregrinations.kenyon.edu/vol2-1/photobank/10.jpg

Technologies have always been advancing and today it seems like the speed of new inventions is faster than ever!

Axes of symmetry can be traced in the petals of a flower and patterns such as a star are known to stand out.

Bees phenomenally store their eggs and larvae in hexagonal wax cells. Hexagons fit closely together, avoiding wasted space in the beehive.

People use geometry to divide up their land. Property lines can be seen in the shapes of squares and rectangles when viewed from above.

A perfect circle and be seen during an eclipse where the relationship of its circumference divided by its diameter equals pi.

Fractal shapes are form repeated at every scale. Frost covered branches are a beautiful example of this relationship.

The chambers of a nautilus shell are an example of the Fibonacci spiral.

A golden ratio is often found in human architecture and plant life. A Golden Spiral, something similar to the Fibonacci spiral can be found in the golden seeds of a sunflower – starting from the center and working its way outwards.

And finally – infinity - something that is almost incomprehensible for the human mind.

The findings of math among nature are endless; the possibilities for future innovations prove to be the same!
http://www.abc.net.au/science/photos/mathsinnature/

Clockworks:
The life-cycle of a butterfly is truly amazing. It starts out as an egg which is often laid on a leaf. The larva, which is a caterpillar, hatches from an egg. Feeding off of leaves or flowers, the caterpillar grows and loses its old skin. After gaining size, a caterpillar will turn into a pupa or chrysalis which is a term to identify the resting stage. When this stage ends, a butterfly emerges and can fly away. Once an adult, the butterfly continues the life-cycle. Sadly, as butterflies age, the wings become ragged and their color fades.

Lantana, Zinnias, Bee balm, and Purple coneflowers are examples of food that will attract many butterflies.

Phenomena:
A phenomenon about butterflies is that there are about 28,000 butterfly species worldwide and many of them migrate thousands of miles. Even though it is not well understood, it is known that butterflies migrate to avoid environmental conditions. Another strange phenomenon is the fact that butterflies can hear sounds through their wings. Most butterflies protect themselves from predators by using camouflage. They blend in with their environment and become impossible to spy while resting on a branch. Some of these insects have the ability to resemble dead leaves or even the bark of a tree.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/

I visited the Midtown Market on Lake St. for the first time today. Two girls and I got up very early this Saturday morning and made the tip across town. The city was calm, not many people were out - the only surrounding noise was that of the early morning traffic. Not knowing what to expect, I kept an open mind as we got off the bus and continued to walk down Lake St. to our destination.
I was surprised at the size of the building in which the world market is located. I half expected scattered white tents to be covering wooden tables which displayed every eclectic good you could think of. But nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised and was excited to explore the things which lied beneath the handsome Midtown Market sign that rose high above the roof of the building.
As I followed the two girls through the main doors, my surroundings were almost overwhelming. There was immediately so much to take in. The three of us just stood in the main entrance for a bit, examining the booths and displays around us. There were colors everywhere - in the decorations, the food, the crafts, and clothing, and even the lights. Strings of multicolored lights hung from the ceiling, each lantern glowing calmly. Because we had arrived so early, the vendors had not opened their booths yet. Black netting hung from the ceiling around their things. Even though we were disappointed in the fact that we had come too early, we continued to slowly walk around the market, observing the landscape before us.
There were some early morning customers - buying coffee and reading the paper, but other than those few people, only employees were setting up for the day.
It's strange to think that there can be energy from such little commotion. I was surrounded by a few busy workers, moving things from here to there, but other than that, there was little movement - as if everything was still sleeping. But oddly enough, there was a vibe about this Midtown Market, an energy, which seemed to be present, despite the absence of people. I could feel energy in the movement of colors throughout the building; every display seemed to portray a certain life. The market felt fresh and alive, and I tried to imagine what the atmosphere would be like when the place was bustling with people.
The girls and I continued to explore the building - the space outside the market entrance. There was a completely different feel to the building - it almost felt dead. The colors changed immediately from bright, happy and vibrant, to dull, still and lifeless. There were more people in the walkways, but still the energy was vanished.
So in this sense, I believe energy is something that can be felt and aroused by your surroundings. The colorful and busy atmosphere of the Midtown Market created a sense of alertness and joyfulness. I think the energy can be transferred by people, giving a friendly hello or a simple smile. When someone takes a piece of the market home with them, they take a part of the energy with them.
The energy I observed at the Midtown Global Market was purely emotional. I'm fascinated by the way people interact in this sort of setting with the eclectic surroundings. I enjoyed my visit to the market on Lake St. and I intend to go back and bring more people when there are exciting events and many people to observe this idea of energy more closely.