When I was in Cambridge reading mathematics, I went to Amsterdam for the International Mathematics Congress. There I saw M.C. Escher's fascinating work. That inspired me to try my hand at drawing such impossibilities.
Interpretation
Roger Penrose reflects on how M.C. Escher's artwork inspired him to explore creativity through drawing.
In this quote, Roger Penrose shares a personal experience where attending an international congress exposed him to M.C. Escher's artistic creations, which are known for their paradoxical and impossible structures. This encounter sparked Penrose's interest in the realm of art and mathematics, demonstrating how inspiration can lead to attempts at creativity and innovation in one's own work.
In practice
In a speech about innovation, one could quote Penrose to emphasize the importance of seeking inspiration from different fields.
Some people take the view that the universe is simply there, and it runs along - it's a bit as though it just sort of computes, and we happen by accident to find ourselves in this thing. I don't think that's a very fruitful or helpful way of looking at the universe.
Consciousness ... is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.
Some years ago, I wrote a book called the Emperor’s New Mind and that book was describing a point of view I had about consciousness and why it was not something that comes about from complicated calculations.
I believe there is something going on in a conscious being, which includes many animals, as well as ourselves, that is not a computational activity. And to be conscious at all is not a quality that a computer as such will ever possess - no matter how complicated, no matter how well it plays chess or any of these things.
Some people take the view that we happen by accident. I think that there is something much deeper, of which we have very little inkling at the moment.
The image of Stephen Hawking - who has died aged 76 - in his motorised wheelchair, with head contorted slightly to one side and hands crossed over to work the controls, caught the public imagination as a true symbol of the triumph of mind over matter.
Apropos, is not the Scotch phrase 'Auld Lang Syne' exceedingly expressive? I shall give you the verses on the other sheet. The words of 'Auld Lang Syne' are good, but the music is an old air, the rudiments of the modern tune of that name. ... Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ... Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure thrill the deepest notes of woe. ... Critics! Those cut-throat bandits in the paths of fame.
As an actor, there's a bit of you that's decided you want to be looked at and watched, but there's a paradoxical bit that wants to run away.
What would they say if they knew_x000D_ I sit for two months_x000D_ on six lines of poetry?
All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It's part of learning the craft.
All dress is fancy dress, is it not, except our natural skins?
I want to create a world with objects and surroundings that are human, more romantic, and less sterile.
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