The third course of the specialization CREATING INNOVATION will teach you what is at the core of all innovations that solve complex problems and how to foster methods to make big breakthroughs possible. It advances your knowledge of your own field by teaching you to look at it in new ways. CREATING INNOVATION is constructed in the following way: Week I. “What is Innovation?” – What lies at the core of all innovations. Week II. “The Evolution of Human Creativity” – How humans developed the ability to innovate and think creatively. Week III. “Innovation in a Complex Global Network” – How innovations emerge from human networks. Week IV. “Planning Innovation” – How organisations seek out and create the right conditions for new breakthroughs. Week V. “Market Innovation” – What makes innovations more likely to emerge in a market setting. Week VI. “Innovation in the Anthropocene” – How innovations are crucial to meet the problems of the 21st century.
Innovation in the Ancient World
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Creating Innovation
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从本节课中
Planning Innovation
This module will deal with top-down innovations, where large organisations shape their infrastructures to maximize the chances of discovering an innovative solution to a problem.
与讲师见面
David BakerAssociate Lecturer
Big History Institute
David ChristianProfessor
Big History Institute
Shawn RossAssociate Professor
Big History Institute
The big question for this segment is, how did ancient empires innovate?
[MUSIC]
Modern observers often view the archaeological remains of ancient
societies, particularly grand and
large scale monuments with a sense of awe, wonder, and fascination.
The search for arcane wisdom, mystical experiences, spiritual values, and
treasures has led many to the same subjects and places.
The mystery of the building of Stonehenge,
the legend of the Terracotta army of the first emperor of the Qin dynasty in China.
Or across the pyramid of Khufu and the Sphinx of Khafre at Giza.
The chief reason for this fascination may be the impressive size and quality of many
ancient monuments and their durability in apparent defiance of time.
An impressive contrast to the fast-moving world of modern society.
It is tempting to look at ancient civilizations like Egypt, for example,
where one of the hallmarks is its cultural longevity, spanning some 5,000 years.
Characterized by continuity of thought, habits and
interhuman relations, and make broad generalizations.
Namely that Egypt is unchanged and to this day represents an endless, static and
perpetual culture.
Each cultural historical phase of domestic Egypt is characterized by specific
modes of monumental display.
Religious ideals, varying degree of social mobility, and distinct political and
economic agendas.
Which cannot be compressed into broad categories of one people,
the Egyptians, or one era, Ancient Egypt.
So how do you or I address the question of innovation within such an ever-changing
and unique landscape?
That sees dynamic, cultural, social, and
political forces continually acting to reshape Egyptian civilization.
Can change innovation be linked to a very specific driver?
Is it a more linear progression or a multi-linear process, showing a continuing
accumulation of changes or a punctuated mode that exhibits extended periods of
stasis that are later punctuated by sudden shifts in radical change.
If we tend to a key cultural icon that exemplifies Ancient Egypt, the pyramid,
we may be able to answer some of these questions.
The three pyramids of Giza, were built as funerary monuments for
the kings of the fourth dynasty, in the old kingdom.
Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure.
And at first glance seem to be isolated feats of engineering and design.
This has lead to the popular idea that such monument were not conceived
by the ancient Egyptians themselves, but rather another alien race.
The great pyramid of Khufu located at Giza on the highest plateau is one of the most
impressive structures of the ancient world.
The pyramid itself has a base of 230 meters.
Originally, 146 meters high.
It's estimated to have originally contained about 2.3 million blocks
of stone.
In weight these blocks averaged about 2.5 tons.
The pyramids is by far the largest completed funerary monument attested from
ancient Egypt and includes many unique elements.
For example, the interior of Khufu's pyramid is more complex than
any other pyramid with numerous spanning systems employed in an extraordinary tomb.
Juxtaposed in chamber three or the King's Chamber, a cobbled ceiling in
the area where the closing blocks were stored, the grand gallery.
The pointed saddle vault used above the entrance in chamber two, the so
called Queen's Chamber.
The last, which shows a growing understanding of the dynamics of
load bearing.
However, many of these features, and more,
are the result of more than 500 years of experience and experimentation.
The architects drew inspiration from earlier templates,
learnt from past mistakes, try out different forms,
developed necessary skills, encouraged advances in technology.
All of which was enabled by state control or marshaling of resources, both material
and human to produce a grand eternal resting place for the ruling monarch.
A pyramid which became an inseparable part of the local topography.
A feature sometimes reflected in their names, Horizon of Khufu.
As it was located in the highest places on the western horizon.
Architecture as a political statement emphasizing the manifestation of power,
status and supremacy over the territory and population.
Symbolizing connection with the sacred world and
unlimited authority of the rulers.
The transition from a Mastaba, a tomb in the form of a flat-roofed rectangular
structure with inward sloping sides.
To a Step Mastaba, composed of a series of successively smaller platforms or
steps, one on top of another.
To a Bent Pyramid, a transitional form between Step Mastaba and
smooth sided pyramid.
To a True Pyramid, a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular, and
converge to a single point at the top.
Occurred within a very restricted timeframe, around 80 years.
During the successive reigns of Josa, Sahimhit, Haba, Huni, Sneferu, and
ultimately Khufu, the builder of the great pyramid at Giza.
This particular period is characterized by an established and
well defined state ideology.
Mediating and expressing divine kingship through monumental architecture.
And the context interplay between specialized craft production including
access to resources, demand and expertise.
Social organisation, structure that ministry patriarchy determining
differential access to control and of distribution of economic, productive and
symbolic resources.
Evidence for long-distance trade and exchange,
as well as a centralized political economy.
Add to this mixed technological advances, such as the ability to quarry and
dress stone.
The development of construction ramps and rows to move building materials and
heavy monuments of the land, from local or distant quarries to the pyramid plateau.
And the impact and intervention of the individual, such as Imhotep,
the architect credited as being the designer and
builder of the Step Mastaba in Djoser, who was deified long after his death.
In this context, innovation and monumental architecture and
display was not the result of a clear and genuine plan realized over centuries.
Rather, it was the result of several simultaneously applied strategies of
preferences, and
differing dichronic priorities interacting at one particular point in time.
[MUSIC]
