Imagineering: The Business of Inventing the Future

Last Updated 12 years ago by Kenya Engineer

By Professor Michael Ogembo Kachieng’a

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Albert Einstein

The two major disciplines which add direct value to engineering training and practice are mathematics and physics. Of course, other disciplines contribute to the engineering practice and applications. Mathematics is a digitally honest discipline – you either know it or you don’t. Mathematics helps you discover your personal stupidity almost immediately. It gives the true value of your brain-power beyond any logical doubt. The power of mathematics resides in its simplicity. Mathematical truth is like the Ten Commandments – there is no imitation or substitute. There seems to be some strange human characteristics that like to make easy things difficult. Mathematics brings simplicity and order in our lives.

Mathematics is not like greed-induced disciplines such as politics or law where people pretend to know what they don’t know. With mathematics the results are instant and revealing. You cannot camouflage your ignorance with some dubious philosophical arguments. Mathematics is a discipline of numbers and numbers tell the plain truth without any judicial or spiritual bias. The genius of mathematical faith resides in the purity of numbers. One needs the mathematical purity to tease out the value of technological innovations in the modern economy.

Physics is a rather intimidating discipline because it forces you to imagine that which is neither visible nor tangible. There are no units to measure imagination, therefore you cannot figure out how smart you are. Where there are no units anything can be right or wrong in relative terms. Think of the theory of relativity with its double logic reality. Physics forces you to stretch your imaginations indefinitely, with a possibility of landing you into a mental hospital if you overstretch your thinking capacity. Physics defines processes and processes are defined by environment and final outputs. In physics, the usual order of events is that an experiment will reveal a result. Theoretical physicists will then generate an explanation, if at all.  The right answers in the labs might turn-out to be wrong in the real world. 

A separation between lab results and real world results is very critical when the prototypes of new engineered products developed from technological innovations. Prototypes of new products do not become market products automatically. Normally, prototypes need to be re-configured to meet manufacturability and marketable requirements.

In engineering practice, mathematics helps in measuring the technological value; while physics assists in understanding of the engineering processes in manufacturing. Manufacturing processes influence the cost of production, and eventually product pricing. The practical convergence of mathematics and physics is the aesthetic signature of excellence in engineering practice. Competitive knowledge of mathematics and physics gives the edge in the engineering practice and technique applications. But engineering is not the total sum or product of mathematics and physics. The intrinsic value of engineering resides in the integrated application of the two disciplines concurrently. The practical convergence of advanced engineering-mathematics and engineering-physics in processing the future technological values is the core of new discipline called Imagineering – which is the epicentre of technological innovations.

The main challenge to Imagineering is how to define the problems which will occur in an imaginary future. Theoretically, common problems require common solutions and complex problems require complex solutions. Since solutions are rarely pre-determined before-hand, complexity and simplicity generally trade places in the process of solving such Imagineering problems.

Imagineering derives its power from scientific inventions, discoveries and technological innovations. The objective of Imagineering is to make economic and social sense of innovations in science and technology. The purpose of Imagineering research is to provide premium solutions to societal problems today as well as tomorrow using scientific and technological techniques. 

There are two major types of technological innovations – incremental and radical. Incremental innovation tends to add value to the cost-effectiveness of the performance or functionality of an already existing product or process. Radical innovation is geared towards the creation of new products, new industries and new markets.

Imagineering research is a creative occupation based on the continuous extension of applied imagination. Fundamentally, there are two types of imagination – synthesis and creative imagination. Applied imagination is the generator of incremental and radical innovations. Incremental innovation tends to find solutions to technological problems “inside the box”, while radical innovation provide solutions “outside the box”. Radical innovation is a process with unpredictable outcomes, but more often than not, it produces economically rewarding outcomes. The creation of new products and services for the broader benefit of society is what radical innovation is all about. The deeper purpose of radical innovation is to open new technological and economic frontiers for the benefit of the humanity.

Synthesis imagination is based on a comparative analysis of facts with the focus on any ambiguities or dissonance of a specific logical sequence or mathematical algorithm. The logic is that if any dissonance is corrected or reduced, the performance of the system will be enhanced or its efficiency will be increased. The aim is to increase the economic value of a product / service and enhance its competitiveness. The economic value of the product determines its price in the market place. Incremental innovation is the cash cow of many established businesses. It is based on refining manufacturing processes, product features and functionality in order to satisfy market requirements.

In simple terms, creative imagination encompasses “thinking out of the box”. It is the source of radical innovations. In commercial terms radical innovation redefines the rules of the game at both industry and market levels. A good example of radical innovation is the paradigm shift from landline telephony to cellular telephony. Both systems provide communication from differentiated technological platforms with differentiated industrial infrastructure and differentiated market structures and customers. Conceptually, radical innovation means new products or services, new industries, new market offerings and new economies. That is why entrepreneurial governments invest in innovation research. The goal of innovation is to facilitate the future sustainability of humanity in both social and economic terms. Imagineering is a creation of the future using the current engineering knowledge-platforms plus extension of futuristic applied imaginations.

Applied imagination is the beginning of creation. It is the workshop of the mind where the future is visualised, designed and virtually manufactured.  As American Scientist, Alan Kay once stated, “The best way to create the future is to invent it”. Imagineering is the engineering of inventing the future.

About the Author

Professor Michael Ogembo Kachieng’a an Electrical Engineer and Biomedical Engineering Scientist based at The Technical University of Kenya. He is the Deputy Vice Chancellor in-charge of Research, Innovation and Enterprise Development. (ogembok@gmail.com)