What if ...? The key to creativity

摘要

The ability to simulate provides an immensely powerful tool to drilling, reservoir, and production engineers. Try to imagine how many catastrophes could possibly have been averted had the participants been able to simulate results beforehand. Thinking about this brings to mind a comedic collection of black and white film clips depicting early attempts to develop a heavier-than-air flying machine. Seeing those contraptions plunging to earth was funny, but the entertainment was made possible by the editors who cut out the more grisly scenes, leaving theatre goers to think that our barnstorming ancestors were just a bunch of madcap inventors having harmless fun. What if it had been possible to model the behavior of those "inventions" so as to predict their feasibility or show up their shortcomings? For one thing, the Wright brothers might have been able to move up their spectacular success by months or even years.