Invention

The boys pedal power a sky ride

Last weekend my family and I went to the NYC "Maker Faire," which I'm having a hard time describing to people.  The closest I've gotten is that it's a fair of people who enjoy tinkering with the latest technology and who care about solving problems with innovation.  There were some people who shared some very serious and innovative models for green agriculture and energy.  There were other people shared some pretty quirky inventions like human powered carnival rides made entirely of recycled bikes.  There was some guy that spent 13 years building a life sized Mousetrap game (remember the plastic board game with the marble?) with scrap metal and bowling balls.  At the end, instead of a cage falling down on the mouse, a 10 ton safe that was suspended on a crane fell on a taxi cab.  And I also have to mention the two guys in lab coats who put on a Diet Coke and Mentos demonstation with 108 liter bottles of coke spewing soda into the air all at once.  

Two of the fantastical chariots created for the chariot race.

 There were also a whole bunch of computer geeks there.  These were people deeply engaged in "Hackerspace," who talked so matter of factly about robotics that I felt I'd stepped out of the world I know and found myself in another dimension.  They were speaking another language I had never heard (including words unfamiliar to me, like "hackerspace" and "arduino").  The thing that most amazed me were the people there demonstrating their 3D printers.  These things actually take a CAD image from your computer and create a three dimensional object, either solid or hollow - right in front of your eyes.  You can already buy a simple 3D printer, called a "Makerbot," for under $700.  Honestly, it made me feel I had actually walked into the future already.  Imagine what life will be like soon: "Oh, darn, the handle broke off of the toaster.  Wait, I'll just print a new one on my makerbot..."    I can't remember ever being around so many people who knew so much about something I'd never even knew existed before.  I was completely out of my own element, which, as a person who can usually feel at home just about anywhere, was a unique sensation.  Kind of scary.  Kind of exciting.  Certainly intriguing. 

Steve pointed out that many of the people there were probably MIT grads who hold down serious tech jobs by day, but who enjoy serious tinkering in their spare time.  Obviously many of them were brilliant.  And some of them were also, well, a bit odd.  I mean, how many people do you know that rig up a recycled bike to look like a golden trojan horse and ride it around for fun - or, for that matter, spend 13 years constructing a life sized Moustrap game?  But what was so wonderful about this event was that everyone there was full of unusual ideas - some recycled from the past to be expressed anew for today - some new ideas based on new technologies and understandings.  They were curious people, engaged people - inventive people!  These were not people who sit around for hours just passively watching  other people's ideas on TV.  These people were fully alive with invention - fully engaged with creation!  They were not consumers, but co-creators of the future.



Bo powers a kinetic sculpture made of old toys and recycled objects



The Maker Faire would not be everyone's cup of tea, I suppose.  I imagine my mother's reaction would be to look slightly uncomfortable and say something like, "Well, those people are just way out."  But I enjoyed being among them, even when I couldn't understand them, because it felt exciting to be on the edge of the new - on the edge of change - in the presence of people who are actively engaged with major paradigms right as they are shifting.  Most of us spend our time well back from that edge, watching it (or judging it) from a distance.  But I thought it was wonderful to be able to spend the day with a group of mad inventors not only willing to look out over the edge, but willing to participate in God's ongoing process of creation.

So since last weekend, I've added something new to my prayers:  God, take me out of my own element today and open my eyes and my heart and my mind to something new and unfamiliar.  Show me the wonder of your creation, and make me inventive enough to engage it with enthusiasm as your co-creator.  Amen. 

Bo co-pilots this inventor's RC plane made from recycled insulation