Editor | On 01, Jan 2020

Darrell Mann

We’ve had occasion to examine the power of Inventive Principle 5, Merging, several times in the past. The trick with using this Principle is to find combinations that are non-obvious, but at the same time where the elements being combined are not so distant that no-one understands why they should ever be brought together. In other words, there’s a contradiction to be solved – one centred around the size of the difference between whatever things we’re thinking about merging. Somewhere in there is the contradiction-solving sweetspot we’d love to be able to hit.

Saying the words, of course, is never as easy as coming up with the perfect combination. Much evidence suggests that the world’s entrepreneurs and innovators get things wrong more often than they get it right. Our desire to dig deeper was provoked by this recent attempt at helping the electric vehicle market to deliver the much-promised environmental benefits being touted by the environmentistas. Enter the remote vehicle charging point…

… how to achieve the remote solution? Answer – naturally – merge the charge-point with a diesel generator. I suppose there’s a certain logic to it – you live in a remote area, but are determined to ‘do your bit’ and procure an electric vehicle. Then, to overcome your inevitable range anxiety, you carry around a can of diesel in the boot (pity they removed your tank!) so that when you reach the remote charge-point, all you need to do is whip out your can of diesel, start up the generator, plug-in, and wait for it to charge your batteries. If you didn’t laugh you’d cry…

…as it happens a fairly common theme when it comes to merging things together…

…like, yes, electricity and water… surely the perfect combination.
Or is it…

Or, if you prefer something a little more abstract…

Personally, putting nipple tassels onto bovine dancers made me feel a little uncomfortable, but, hey, that’s just the British prude in me.
So back to the pragmatic reality of merged urban transport infrastructure solutions:

I’ve also got a soft spot for this merger between the moving and the static…
Escalator operator: ‘Boss, there’s a problem with the escalator. The supplier says it will cost $100k to fix.’
Boss: ‘you got to be kidding me. We can’t have them holding us to ransom like that. Find another solution…’

Finally, the merge operation is a little more subtle here. I think the original intention was to underline the core values of the Police Force…

Amazing what difference a few millimetres can make.