Once upon a time, so I’m given to understand, it was popular in business to leave a ‘dead space for the unexpected’, an opening where time could be given to something unforeseen which might come up. Great idea, you might think. Very progressive. Cogitating outside the container: well done that (wo)man. But I couldn’t help thinking that it’s in the nature of the unexpected to be, well, unexpected. You can no more schedule a space for it than the dinosaurs could pencil in the time of their own extinction. The unexpected, when it comes, can be a tiny thing that fits into a margin or a tsunami-like event that overturns your entire schedule, your company and even your world. It will almost certainly be something you never imagined, which is why no dead space could ever accommodate it.
I had a memory twingling away at the back of my head, that there was a short story I’d read years ago called Dead Space for the Unexpected. I googled it and lo! one of the first things I found was this blog post, in reading which I learned…
…today’s new word, Novum, which means a plausible scientific invention in a work of SF; like Ray Bradbury’s hand-held communication devices or – well, anything in Black Mirror.
So that’s me done for today. I can go back to bed now
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 