Patrick Gunkel

Patrick M. Gunkel (1947 – 2017) was an American futurist and independent scholar best known as the originator of "ideonomy", a combinatorial "science of ideas". Although he never completed a degree, his career included positions at the Hudson Institute, MIT, and the University of Texas. [1] [2]

Guido Enthoven describes Gunkel's ideonomy as one of three pioneering attempts to create a science of ideas (the others being Antoine Destutt de Tracy's original notion of ideology and Genrich Altshuller’s TRIZ "system of inventive problem solving"),[3] while Marvin Minsky described ideonomy as "perhaps the most extensive study of ways to generate ideas".[4] An archive of his works was assembled by Whitman Richards.[5]

References

  1. ^ Stipp, David (1 June 1987). ""Patrick Gunkel Is An Idea Man Who Thinks in Lists"". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  2. ^ ""Patrick Gunkel, Ideonomy Scholar, Well-Known as The Cat Man"". The Vineyard Gazette. Martha's Vineyard. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  3. ^ Enthoven, Guido; Rudnicki, Seweryn; Sneller, Rico, eds. (2022). "Chapter 1: Towards a science of ideas". Towards a science of ideas: An inquiry into the emergence, evolution and expansion of ideas and their translation into action. Vernon Press. ISBN 978-1-64889-425-1.
  4. ^ Minsky, Marvin (2006). "Chapter 7: Thinking". The Emotion Machine. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7663-9.
  5. ^ "Ideonomy: The Science of Ideas". MIT website. Retrieved July 10, 2023.


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