The Unknown Unknown

Random fact: we are 22 times more likely to remember a story than a fact.

So here is a story:

Somewhere out in the far reaches of our solar system is a very large lump of rock with our names on it.

Its destiny is to fall towards the sun and have its journey interrupted by hitting a bigger lump of rock, that we call home.

We know it is out there, we have seen its companions, more and more clearly, as they zip past us in the dark, sometimes hitting a neighbour.

Like some clip from a film, we have somehow managed to survive the assault wave and made it to the brief shelter of the dunes.

But there are only two types of people here. Those who have died, and those who will die.

We can sit and wait for obliteration, or we can do what we can to prevent it.

Stopping a rock that is moving at thousands of miles per hour is not like stopping a car. For a start it is a lot bigger, massive, and faster, and there is nothing to brake against, think of it as being on a sheet of black ice.

Add to that we don't know which direction it is coming from, or where it is at the moment.

Finding it and nudging it away in time will take a lot of power, skill and technology, and we cannot rely on superheroes, or even heroes to somehow pull it off.

This is real life, not the movies.

So is it "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" or "refuse to go quietly into the night".

We are an inventive species, but careless and wasteful.

We solve problems, and satisfy our curiosity, but we neglect to build on everything that we have learnt, and re-invent what we have failed to remember, or just were not aware of, or told about, or understood.

We need to get better at getting better at things.

With the 'invention' of the internet we found a way to share things faster.

With the development of the World Wide Web we got better at it and built a foundation that has exponentially increased our abilities, both to do good and harm.

But we still throw away a lot of what we have learnt, be it "ways not to solve problem x" or "this solves problem x".

We are a wasteful species.

We play dice with our futures, roll a six to start, up the ladders, down the snakes, lets see who gets to the top first.

So we throw away the lessons of 5/6 of our university research. It never sees the light of implementation, so it never gets seen by all of the other curious and inventive individuals who may suddenly use the 'solution for problem x' as 'a solution for any problem that has an x in it'.

Getting into space in the first place used a lot of technology that had been developed for other purposes. It required inventing and re-inventing things that were needed to make it happen. Sometimes it went wrong, mainly it just cost a lot more than it could have.

And we know that the failure of just one small part can bring the entire mission to a tragic conclusion.

The ignorance of one small contributory solution can stop things in their tracks.

And we are not smart enough, even with AI help, to know which of the unknown unknowns, is the one that we need to know.

We need to look under every rock, just in case that is the problem that needed solving first.

You could say that civilisation begins, and ends, with the banging together of rocks.

A call to action. At LabToIPO we look carefully under each rock or idea that is disclosed to us. We evaluate it for its potential and help it to develop.

We cannot get it all right on our own, but with help from others, we can improve the odds.

Currently, only 17% (about 1 in 6) of research outputs from universities get implemented and get a chance to act as the foundation of a business that will expose the solution to the curious and inventive minds who may take it further.

Mobile phones became possible because of the internet.

Front facing cameras on mobile phones, were developed for webinars, but are now used for 'selfies'.

Selfies are used for identity and authorisation from governments to games.

Sometimes there is just dirt behind a rock, sometimes it is an Aladdin's cave.

Back to the story ...

As the rock gathers speed pulled towards the distant pinprick of our sun, the cold fresh water run-off of a melting ice sheet reaches the volume that tips the balance in an undersea waterfall, and it stops. The engine that powers the great oceanic currents falters and unseen the patterns of millennia start to rearrange themselves. The atmosphere above the rearranging currents grows turbulent and sudden violent storms spring up in unexpected quarters, and established patterns become meaningless.

Meanwhile in a back garden of a suburban city sprawl, a bird has died and a scavenging fox has found the carcass.

Eating the scrawny body, the fox has just completed another step in the evolution of what killed the bird.

Not all planet killers come from the outer darkness.

Some are sleeping here already and just need to be awakened.

(to be continued ... )

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