When you travel to cities to undertake a review one of the Top 7
Intelligent Communities of the Year, you just never know what you can
expect. My fellow Co-Founders Robert Bell and Lou Zacharilla can
probably tell you other stories, but in the process of reviewing these
applications for ICF's Intelligent Community of the Year, we get to see a
lot about a community: the highs of their political, economic and
cultural excellence, as well as possibly the lows.
For instance in Eindhoven (Brainport), Holland recently, I discovered that the region was the home of Vincent van Gogh and his family. I had just seen an exciting exhibit of rare paintings and personal letters by Vincent to his brother Theo at the Royal Academy the week before in London and now I was going to actually see the shed where he painted his famous Potato Eaters painting. If that wasn't enough, I was given the opportunity to stay in The Netherland's famous Smart Home for three nights in Eindhoven. Although challenged with the language, I was able to master the various buttons and levers to work everything in the Smart Home. It was quite an intuitive experience and an extraordinary opportunity, but it was not the most surprising while in Eindhoven. I was a bit surprised to learn that I would be looking at the underbelly of their society. I thought that was what I had heard, but actually what I wound up looking at was a very pregnant belly of a woman going into labour and here I was, moments later, being encouraged to deliver a baby, no less.
Now how does a guy who sits most days in front of a computer or in a boardroom find himself in an operating room about to deliver a new born baby? Were my recent honorary degrees somehow interpreted as actually being a doctor? Was something lost in translation? I was in Eindhoven to undertake an examination of the vitals of the community, not the vitals of a woman about to deliver a baby. Well, I guess anything goes in the world of ICF.
So let me explain a bit more. I was about to observe the digital monitoring rooms of a health simulation centre where doctors and their team of nurses practice on simulation, observed by other doctors in remote locations. This was supposed to be all about high-speed broadband and its applications. But the program shifted gears and that day's scenario revolved around a woman driving her car at high-speed and has an accident. She is brought to the operating room that we are observing over dozens of monitors.
Our facility shifts into panic mode when it is discovered that she is pregnant and needs an emergency C section or else lose the baby. I was prepared to monitor this in my comfortable chair sipping a latte. Instead I was given a white doctor's uniform and quickly shepherded into the bright and busy operating room. Others around me were busy with their tasks and one nurse was calming the woman down. The patient was going into shock and there was a new sense of panic as the monitors around me buzz, bleep and whiz. All foreign sounds to me. What am I doing here?
Slipping on rubber gloves, I am handed a scalpel and instructed
with a sense of urgency to slice the belly where marked. I do this as
instructed. I am then given scissors to complete the job. The
gynecologist instructs me to now finish the job by pulling the baby out
of the woman's womb through the incision I had just made. I do as I'm
told and there is great excitement around us. All this excitement in the
span of about 60 seconds. The woman's vital signs improve and the nurse
announces that the baby's vital signs are good as well. Apparently
there was a photographer imbedded in the delivery room, hence the
photograph in the newspaper the next day.
I wonder how many people looking at the picture realize that the woman was a very sophisticated wifi-enabled simulator and while she moves her head and eyes and mouth as if she were real, she wasn't. The belly looked quite realistic; but believe me, I sliced into a rubber doll and nothing else.
After that excitement I continued on to witness a driverless bus by a local firm called Phelia in Brainport's Automotive Campus that uses sensors and magnets to remember its driving track, speed and docking capabilities. Eindhoven purchased a fleet of these buses and developed a 10km route with magnets imbedded into the road between Eindhoven's train station and the airport that could be used by the driverless bus. I wonder if that is where the woman had her accident? Wait a minute, it's all simulation.
For instance in Eindhoven (Brainport), Holland recently, I discovered that the region was the home of Vincent van Gogh and his family. I had just seen an exciting exhibit of rare paintings and personal letters by Vincent to his brother Theo at the Royal Academy the week before in London and now I was going to actually see the shed where he painted his famous Potato Eaters painting. If that wasn't enough, I was given the opportunity to stay in The Netherland's famous Smart Home for three nights in Eindhoven. Although challenged with the language, I was able to master the various buttons and levers to work everything in the Smart Home. It was quite an intuitive experience and an extraordinary opportunity, but it was not the most surprising while in Eindhoven. I was a bit surprised to learn that I would be looking at the underbelly of their society. I thought that was what I had heard, but actually what I wound up looking at was a very pregnant belly of a woman going into labour and here I was, moments later, being encouraged to deliver a baby, no less.
Now how does a guy who sits most days in front of a computer or in a boardroom find himself in an operating room about to deliver a new born baby? Were my recent honorary degrees somehow interpreted as actually being a doctor? Was something lost in translation? I was in Eindhoven to undertake an examination of the vitals of the community, not the vitals of a woman about to deliver a baby. Well, I guess anything goes in the world of ICF.
So let me explain a bit more. I was about to observe the digital monitoring rooms of a health simulation centre where doctors and their team of nurses practice on simulation, observed by other doctors in remote locations. This was supposed to be all about high-speed broadband and its applications. But the program shifted gears and that day's scenario revolved around a woman driving her car at high-speed and has an accident. She is brought to the operating room that we are observing over dozens of monitors.
Our facility shifts into panic mode when it is discovered that she is pregnant and needs an emergency C section or else lose the baby. I was prepared to monitor this in my comfortable chair sipping a latte. Instead I was given a white doctor's uniform and quickly shepherded into the bright and busy operating room. Others around me were busy with their tasks and one nurse was calming the woman down. The patient was going into shock and there was a new sense of panic as the monitors around me buzz, bleep and whiz. All foreign sounds to me. What am I doing here?
Slipping on rubber gloves, I am handed a scalpel and instructed
with a sense of urgency to slice the belly where marked. I do this as
instructed. I am then given scissors to complete the job. The
gynecologist instructs me to now finish the job by pulling the baby out
of the woman's womb through the incision I had just made. I do as I'm
told and there is great excitement around us. All this excitement in the
span of about 60 seconds. The woman's vital signs improve and the nurse
announces that the baby's vital signs are good as well. Apparently
there was a photographer imbedded in the delivery room, hence the
photograph in the newspaper the next day. I wonder how many people looking at the picture realize that the woman was a very sophisticated wifi-enabled simulator and while she moves her head and eyes and mouth as if she were real, she wasn't. The belly looked quite realistic; but believe me, I sliced into a rubber doll and nothing else.
After that excitement I continued on to witness a driverless bus by a local firm called Phelia in Brainport's Automotive Campus that uses sensors and magnets to remember its driving track, speed and docking capabilities. Eindhoven purchased a fleet of these buses and developed a 10km route with magnets imbedded into the road between Eindhoven's train station and the airport that could be used by the driverless bus. I wonder if that is where the woman had her accident? Wait a minute, it's all simulation.
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