Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
who walks into the centre of the screen amongst the people passing the ball.' In a controlled experiment
around 42 per cent saw the gorilla. This was later developed into a SAP business marketing video clip.
3
Herman Kahn's work was useful in searching for serious and workable alternatives to military difficulties,
including the problems of annihilation and surrender. Kahn was reportedly one of the models for Stanley
Kubrick's
Dr Strangelove
(1964). His ideas provided the genesis for the concept of Mutual Assured
Destruction (MAD), the central tenet of US foreign policy with Russia in the Cold War era and still
important today. Kahn's work developed over the years to cover the rise of Japan as a major power, the
growth of the economy and capitalism, and into corporate fields. Kahn saw scenarios as fictional and
playful, and certainly not rigorous forecasts.He developed the technique of 'future now' thinking - writing
a report in the present tense, but representing some time in the future (Frommelt, 2008).
4
The 'nonsense on stilts' phrase was borrowed from Jeremy Bentham, originally used concerning the
concept of 'natural law' and 'natural rights'.
5
'What baffles me is that men, while they can look indefinitely backward, are not allowed to look one
whit forward [. . .] tomorrow morning is much closer to us than the crossing of the Red Sea by the
Hebrews, which, nevertheless we remember. The witch-doctors of the Yahoos however are [. . .] endowed
with the facility of foresight and can state with quiet confidence what will happen ten or fifteen minutes
hence [. . .] that “a fly will graze the nape of my neck” or “in a moment we shall hear the song of a
bird”' (Borges, 1976).
