REVIEW OF THE SOLUTION MACHINE
IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
THE NEW YORK TIMES
SCIENCE TIMES
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1993
PERIPHERALS
By L. R. Shannon
A Modest Solution
Here is a program that doesn't require an industrial-strength computer.
The Solution Machine runs on practically any DOS-based machine, or on any
Macintosh from the Plus on.
The Solution Machine automates a brainstorming session for either an individual
or work group. First, it prompts you to state the problem in a how-to form,
with alternatives. The example given in the short manual is expressed variously
as
"How to make Mello-Pops sell better?"
"How to package Mello-Pops more attractively for the customer?"
"How to increase interest in Mello-Pops?" and
"How to make Mello-Pops exciting?"
All these are typed into the computer.
Then the team decides which sentence best describes what is to be accomplished
and refines it into a so-called action statement by filling in the blanks
for:
1. The thing to do
2. The thing or person to change
3. The kind of change desired AND
4. The expected result.
The resulting statement is then rated for difficulty of accomplishment, on a scale of I to 10.
Then the fun begins, and the real work.
The computer tosses out a sentence that has nothing to do with the problem. In the example used here, it was:
"A musical robot analyzing a house with a piece of rope."
The
team kicks this nonsense around for a while, trying to form a clear mental
image. This leads to a stage of attempting to make connections between the
computer's phrase and the action statement:
Adding music to Mello-Pops displays,
Packaging the candy in robot boxes or little houses
Designing a robot dispenser
and anything else that pops into the mind.
Finally, after more computer prompts, the team picks one of the promising ideas, rates it for pluses and minuses, saves a summary on disk and prints it out. The team may go back to the computer to try out one of the other ideas, or use one of several other techniques the program offers.
The Solution Machine is $10, in either DOS or Macintosh versions, from
The Gemini Group of Bedford, N.Y.
Telephone (914) 764-4938
E-Mail : kennethfinn@worldnet.att.net