Spore's User Generated Universe

This "Creativity" article explores how Electronic Arts' new game "Spore" puts creativity in the hands of gamers.

"Spore is essentially a series of editors, the first of which, Creature Creator, was released in June on the Spore website. With these editors, gamers can create organisms and direct their evolution from single cell to full-on creatures. But that's just the beginning. Once a species has been born, players can help them evolve from primitive beginnings, all the way to space explorers. If someone wants to dominate the universe, he can build a space armada and blow up planets. But peaceful exploration is also possible. Gamers can also just spend all of their time making creatures, which are then uploaded into the Spore universe. Players can use their creations, or ready-made designs that ship with the game, or browse the myriad community-created entities in an online database, Sporepedia."

To read the entire article which includes an interview with Spore's creator, Will Wright, who also developed the popular Sims, go to Creativity Online by clicking below:

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=131036

2008 MacArthur "Genius Award" Fellows

Read and meet the 25 researchers, artists and doctors honored for exceptional creativity with 

MacArthur Genius" Award for 2008. 

Chimamanda Adichie is one of this year's winners.

Fiction Writer exploring the circumstances that lead to ethnic conflict in richly imagined novels and stories inspired by events in her native Nigeria.

To read about all of the award winners, go to:

http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4536877/

To meet the winners through video, go to:

http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4513915/apps/nl/newsletter3.asp

Creativity is the US edge and it comes from a burning desire to be engaged

"...we have to find our niche, what are our niches, what our students can do, and the US has traditionally been excelling in creativity that means if you look at today's economy, the information age, a lot of our new technology were actually, in fact invented in the US, and we have more patents than any other countries so far, and that comes from a level of creativity, which many other countries, even like countries we admire in terms of the test score, Singapore, Japan, Korea and China, they all want creativity. They are actually reforming their schools in an opposite direction. They want to relax; they want more flexibility for students, for schools and they want to expand the definition of success to include the ability in other areas as music, as arts...

Creativity comes from really a strong interest, a burning desire to be engaged in something and through those engagements you will learn, you will find out...

So, I am hoping that the fact of the local control of scoring the tradition in the US gives more diversity in how we treat different talents, how we value different talents in different communities."

Interview with Dr. Yong Zhao, Michigan State University
University Distinguished Professor of the College of Education
Director of the Center of Technology and Teaching
Director of the US-China for Research on Educational Excellence
Executive Director of the Confucius Institute

Thomas L. Friedman on Michigan and Innovation

I was just in Michigan to give a talk on energy. I can’t tell you how many business cards I collected from innovators who had either started renewable-energy companies or were working for big firms, like the Dow Chemical Company, on clean energy solutions.

It just reminded me how much innovative prowess and entrepreneurial energy is exploding from below in this country.

Thomas L. Friedman, No Laughing Matter, NY Times, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008

Thomas L. Friedman, NYTimes, Sept. 7, 2008

As Chuck Vest, the former president of M.I.T., said to me: 

"...innovation is the only mechanism that can actually change things in substantive ways. Innovation is where creative thinking and practical know-how meet to do new things in new ways, and old things in new ways.

"The irony of ignoring innovation as a theme for our times is that the U.S. is still the most innovative nation on the planet," Vest added. "But we can only maintain that lead if we invest in the people, the research that enable it and produce a policy environment in which it can thrive rather than being squelched. Our strong science and technology base built by past investments, our free market economy built on a base of democracy and a diverse population are unmatched to date; but we are taking it for granted."

A developed country's competitiveness now comes primarily from its capacity to innovate — the ability to create the new products and services that people want, adds Curtis Carlson, chief executive of SRI International, a Silicon Valley research company. As such, "innovation is now the only path to growth, prosperity, environmental sustainability and national security for America. But it is also an incredibly competitive world. Many information industries require that products be improved by 100 percent every 12 to 36 months, just for the company to stay in business."

Our competitiveness, though, he added, is based on having a broadly educated work force, superb research universities, innovation-supportive taxes, immigration and regulatory policies, a productive physical and virtual infrastructure, and a culture that embraces hard work and the creation of new opportunities.

"America is still the best place for innovation," said Carlson. However, we are falling behind in K-12 education, infrastructure and in tax, regulatory and immigration policies that no longer welcome the world's most talented minds. "These issues must be at the top of the national agenda because they determine our ability to provide health care, clean energy and economic opportunity for our citizens."

(For a good plan, read the new "Closing the Innovation Gap" by the technologist Judy Estrin.)