USEM 171

Invention and Innovation
(Spring '98)

Section 0021
Schedule # 74363

Room 313, Jesse W. Beams Laboratory (Physics bld'g) Thursdays 14:00-15:50

• Room 312D
• tel: 924-6788,
• e-mail jvn@virginia.edu

Office Hours: Wednesday, 14:30-16:30

• White, Medieval Technology and Social Change
• Perrin, Giving up the Gun
• DeCamp, The Ancient Engineers
• Stoll, Silicon snake oil : second thoughts on the information highway

• George Orwell, Revising History. Read this before the class meeting on 1/22/98.
  Also try to find answers to the following questions:
  1. How can you connect nine dots in a 3x3 square array with four continuous lines, without lifting the pencil from the paper?
  2. What is the statutory (legal) authority for the US Patent System?
  
  
• George Orwell, Preventing Literature. Please read this before the class meeting on 1/29/98.
  Also try to solve the following puzzle:
  
  Fill in the blanks in the poem below. Five of the blanks are anagrams of a single word. The sixth blank is not an anagram of that word.
  
  Landlord fill the flowing     
     until their      run over.
  Tonight we'll      upon this      ,
     tomorrow      for       .
  
• On 5 February we shall discuss guns, as well as Giving Up the Gun by Perrin.
  
  
• For 12 February 1998: Read The Hidden Cost of Saying NO by F. Dyson. (Xeroxed copies handed out in class 5 February.)
  
  
• For 26 February, read the attached excerpt, Chariots of the Gods, and be prepared to comment on the numerical arguments contained in it, as well as on the author's method of presentation, the types of arguments he uses, etc. etc.
  
  Also estimate how many trucks would be required to move $20,000,000,000 in gold bullion (at current prices). Assume one truck can transport 20 tons of gold.
  
  
• For 5 March, read "Just Ask for It" [New Yorker article handed out in class--if you weren't there, pick up a copy from the shelf outside my office, Rm 312 Physics. The shelf has a sign with a hand pointing to it (sign labelled PHYS 524, but so what? Be innovative!)]
  
  Also, the puzzler of the week is to rearrange the letters in the words "NEW DOOR" to make one word.

• Explore the history of technology
• Discuss the distinction between invention and innovation
• Attempt to understand why some innovations succeed and others fail
• Practice methodologies for critical thinking

• Term paper outline. Due: 19 Mar. '98
• Term paper. Due: 23 Apr. '98
• Attendance
• Participation

Your comments, questions, suggestions, and inquiries about this course are welcomed.