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Note 2 - Darwin Templature |
The principle underlying Darwin Templature is seen in the old joke wherein a citydweller, lost in the
countryside, asks a yokel how to get back to the city. “Well Sir”,
replies the yokel, “I wouldn't start from here”.
Human
mental processes capitalise on what we know to be so and on what we
have already done. Thus the natural "start point" for new
ideas,
projects, products, and procedures is “here and now”, making use of parameters
that already exist. This can be seen underway in almost every
human activity: from playing sport, seeking a mate, running
a country, founding a business, driving a car, waging a war - and
engaging in scientific research.
There
are well-understood survival advantages in using "here and now" as the
default start point. Animals (and plants too, for that matter) do
it instinctively and probably wouldn't last long if they didn't. In our
more sophisticated human society, however, the instinct doesn't always
serve us well. Using "here and now" offers a restricted
field of view and, consequently, a restricted range of options.
Over the last century or so, there has been a growing
awareness of the limitations of "here and now" resulting in a number of
informal methodologies aimed at widening the field of view:
"lateral thinking", "thinktanking", "blueskying",
"brainstorming", and
so on. Darwin Templature is the first of the methodologies to
tackle
the problem at a fundamental level and to formalise its
methodology.
In
a Darwin Template, the start point is deliberately moved
from "here and now" to "somewhere else" and the subject to hand is then
rebuilt. What results is akin to looking at a valley
from the top of hill B rather than hill A so that it can be
seen from a different angle, in a different light, and in
different circumstances. Sometimes there is nothing new to be
learned
but that can't be known until after the effort has been made. More
often than not, however, there is something new to be learned
and sometimes a great deal.
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The
Darwin Templature methodology can be applied to almost any subject but
that doesn't mean it should be. Like any methodology it has its
strengths and weaknesses. This one is at its best when dealing
with the general rather than the specific - not least because its
remarkable accuracy comes at a cost. The accuracy implies research
and research implies a combination of people and time. The greater the
accuracy required, the greater the measure of time and the greater the
skills of the people required. Darwin Templature requires, as far
as is humanly possible, one hundred percent accuracy.
Here is
an example. Suppose that a new general hospital is required. Using
Darwin Templature, a design for a new hospital can be prepared that
will be the finest, most efficient, most patient-friendly, most
eco-friendly, and most staff-friendly hospital on the planet.
Unfortunately, it will also be the most expensive hospital on the
planet. Notwithstanding it will get to as near to a zero death rate as
it is possible to get, it will almost certainly be politically and
economically unacceptable.
Just seeing the unacceptability of
the design, however, misses the point. The clue to the strengths and
weakness of the methodology lies it its title. What the methodology
produces is a "template" and not a "blueprint". In this example,
the methodology will produce a template for the perfect hospital,
a design that cannot be bettered, a hospital that can be slotted down
onto any appropriate piece of ground anywhere in the world. That in
practice, the template will have to be cut down to fit the needs of
local politicians and accountants, doesn't affect the value of the
template. Creating a template for the perfect hospital may be
expensive but it can be used again and again, cut down by
politicians and accountants again and again, adapted to local
conditions again and again. Once created, the template only needs
to be kept up to date for its value to be maintained.
An ideal
application for a Darwin Template is in knowlegebases, especially
those which are constantly expanding as new facts come to hand. Over
time, almost inevitably, knowledgebases bloat as new ideas become
fashionable. Beyond a very young age, it is often difficult to separate
the facts from the good ideas and the current practice and the status
quo and the sacred cows. Compiling a Darwin Template out of a
knowledgebase cuts away all the bloat to leave the leanest, the most
real, and the most logical description of the subject to hand. And
because a template is easy to navigate around and easy to update,
it becomes by default the first-call teaching instrument and the
best possible launchpad for new research. For a fine example
of this, look no further than the Malta Cosmology Template.
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