Back in the '80s for a few weeks I attended a weekly meeting of a writer's group in Westwood run by sci fi writer/bearded guru George Clayton Johnson (Twilights Zone, Logans Run, Oceans 11, etc.). I admired the way he would start with a thread of an idea with a group of about 10 to 12 and everybody would throw in suggestions and he would, on a pad, keep extending the story line, like a spine, writing little balloons filled with words, and draw arrows linking one balloon with another and after 10 minutes or so, the result was a very intricate plot laid out, enough to guide a writer.
I since found only yesterday a description of where he would hand out cards with just one word like "Jealousy" and each member of the audience would advance a twist based on the card they drew. I don't remember cards but if anyone else remembers seeing George in action brainstorming, let me know his method because my experience with him was 30-35 years ago. I am writing a book on robot cars
and while the first part of the book will summarize the state of the art, the last part will be free form--just speculating on what will happen, and I am offering a couple local college clubs the chance to brainstorm on this subject to see what they think of, using this method. No one has returned my offer yet, I wrote a writer's club and a engineer's club.
I am an older fellow so I am wondering in the age of the iPhone whether they can come up with new directions without benefit of their electronics.
For instance, there is a long standing discussion in the sci fi world of robots being sworn to "do no harm" to humans but if I get a chance to make my presentation, I am going to lay out some scenarios to see what the students counter them with, i.e. a robot car has its path forward suddenly blocked, should it take out the toddlers on the left or the old lady on the right? I am afraid that robot cars are being tested right now all over America and all the scenarios that could happen have not been thought out yet...some brainstorming has to be done to figure out what is the worst thing that could happen...?
Don't forget Hal locked that astronaut out of the capsule...
I since found only yesterday a description of where he would hand out cards with just one word like "Jealousy" and each member of the audience would advance a twist based on the card they drew. I don't remember cards but if anyone else remembers seeing George in action brainstorming, let me know his method because my experience with him was 30-35 years ago. I am writing a book on robot cars
and while the first part of the book will summarize the state of the art, the last part will be free form--just speculating on what will happen, and I am offering a couple local college clubs the chance to brainstorm on this subject to see what they think of, using this method. No one has returned my offer yet, I wrote a writer's club and a engineer's club.
I am an older fellow so I am wondering in the age of the iPhone whether they can come up with new directions without benefit of their electronics.
For instance, there is a long standing discussion in the sci fi world of robots being sworn to "do no harm" to humans but if I get a chance to make my presentation, I am going to lay out some scenarios to see what the students counter them with, i.e. a robot car has its path forward suddenly blocked, should it take out the toddlers on the left or the old lady on the right? I am afraid that robot cars are being tested right now all over America and all the scenarios that could happen have not been thought out yet...some brainstorming has to be done to figure out what is the worst thing that could happen...?
Don't forget Hal locked that astronaut out of the capsule...