Here’s where you get your #brilliantideas from | 4BC
How did they come up with that? That seems so obvious, why didn’t I think of that? I could have done that! or to quote that great 21st century philosopher Homer Simpson “Doh!”
Inspiration is truly all around us and one of my favourite sources is science fiction and that thing that we saw someone do in a movie, or read in a book, and for years without even knowing it have searched for how to turn it into a reality.
These science fiction seeds that turned into usable realities was our topic this week as I caught up with Clare Blake of 4BC and pondered about where does inspiration come from and what did we see in our movies, or read in books, that have already come true.
Here’s my list of sci-fi dreams turned into today’s reality:
- The hoverboard – Back to The Future 1989
- Google Glass – Back to The Future 1989
- Bionic Eyes / Ears / Limbs – Million Dollar Man 1974
- Gesture Controlled Computer – Minority Report 2012
- 3D Home Printing – Bugs Bunny Cartoon 1954
- 3D Printing – Star Trek 1966
- Androids – Star Trek 1966
- Tricorder – Star Trek 1966
- Mobile Phones – Star Trek 1966
- Handheld Computers – Star Trek 1966
- Flying Cars – Jetsons 1962
- Space Rocket Launch – Women in the Moon 1929
- Robots – R.U.R. play by Karel Capek 1924
and callers added to this list, including Richard who told us about this 1928 Charlie Chaplin movie poster apparently showing a women walking in the background using a mobile phone.
Who said TV was bad for you?!
Have a listen to the segment now (19 minutes) to hear what today’s versions of these sci-fi inspired tech are and then share or like this to add to the list of what technology you’re waiting to come true from a movie or book you’ve read.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What does the neuroscience and psychology of creativity actually reveal about where ideas come from?
The research on creativity and insight reveals patterns that are at odds with the cultural mythology of the solitary genius: the ‘aha moment’ of sudden insight typically follows a period of intensive conscious work on a problem, a period of incubation (where conscious attention shifts away), and then a trigger that allows the unconsciously processed solution to surface — the insight feels sudden but is the product of extensive prior work; diverse input (exposure to ideas from different domains, interactions with people who think differently, reading and experience outside your primary field) consistently improves the quality and novelty of creative output; and the conditions most conducive to insight — relaxed attention, physical movement, reduced cognitive load from unrelated demands — are the opposite of the conditions most modern knowledge workers spend most of their time in. The implication is that most organisations are systematically investing in the wrong conditions for the creative output they claim to need.
Q: What specific practices and environments actually improve creative output?
The evidence-based practices for improving creative output include: deliberate cognitive rest — time away from focused work that allows unconscious processing, which explains why insights often arrive in the shower, on walks, or in the hypnagogic state before sleep; diverse intellectual input — reading, conversations, and experiences outside your primary domain that give your pattern-matching brain more raw material to work with; structured problem formulation — the quality of the question you take into the incubation period significantly affects the quality of the insight that emerges, so investing in problem definition rather than rushing to solution is not procrastination but preparation; and psychological safety in team contexts — the social conditions that allow people to share half-formed ideas without premature evaluation are as important as individual creative capacity for collective creative output.
Q: How does the HUMAND™ framework apply to the question of where creativity sits in an AI-augmented world?
The HUMAND™ framework applied to creativity reveals an important distinction: the aspects of creativity that involve recombining existing patterns in known domains — generating variations on established themes, producing technically competent content in established formats — are increasingly within AI capability; the aspects that involve genuine novelty, the synthesis of disparate domains in ways that produce genuinely new framings, and the recognition of the significance of unexpected connections still require the human cognitive architecture of embodied experience, emotional resonance, and domain-crossing pattern recognition. The practical implication is that the creative work worth developing in humans is the work that starts from genuine insight and authentic experience rather than the production of technically competent variations on existing patterns — which AI can now do more efficiently.
Q: How can I book Morris Misel for a creativity, innovation culture, or leadership keynote?
Contact the booking team at morrismisel.com/event-organisers.
How did they come up with that? That seems so obvious, why didn’t I think of that? I could have done that! or to quote that great 21st century philosopher Homer Simpson "Doh!" Inspiration is truly all around us and one of my favourite sources is science fiction and that thing tha.
When signals like Here’s where you get your #brilliantideas from emerge, organisations that engage early have the advantage of choosing their response rather than reacting to events. That gap between those who prepared and those who did not is where competitive positioning is actually made or lost.
The most important question is not whether Here’s where you get your #brilliantideas from will matter, but how quickly it will matter in your specific context. Leaders benefit most from mapping the ripple effects early — not just the direct impact but the second and third-order consequences that arrive later and hit harder. That is the practical work of foresight.
