On Friday, my Facebook status: “I designed an app that helps people familiarize themselves with the boarding process of an educational non-profit spacecraft that gives its riders two minutes of zero-gravity and a view of the moon… in my dream last night. This morning I felt productive, but I wasn’t.”

I had an urge to design some kind of app or something. Just for fun. Based on a facebook chat I was having, I made a sketch of a handheld electronic device with a program on it designed to keep track of different kinds of “scores.” This sketch represents three scores being tracked: puns, usefulness and compliments. The interface is a combination of a touch screen, voice, and a companion device, a bluetooth brainwave monitor that is worn by the participating users. It has been discovered that right before a creative moment, there’s a readable spike in your brainwave patterns (I read about it in Imagine, by Jonah Leher- Why Jonah Lehrer’s ‘Imagine’ is worth reading, despite the problems | Poynter..). It was noted by some people I explained the device to that this mechanism was unnecessary as the device could simply record everything and delete the unwanted later. In all practical uses, that would be the approach, but I love the idea of a smart device that is efficient, a device that activates right as the device becomes needed. The best joke of the weekend made by a friend, to whom I was explaining the invention paraphrased here:

<person 1>Did you have brain surgery? (pointing to the shaved spot where the bluetooth brainwave monitor device is adhered to the scalp)

<person 2> No, that’s my pun-tracker!