>>Gavin Pretor-Pinney: Does anybody in the audience know what type of cloud this is?
Are there any pilots in the audience?
It's a cumulus cloud, absolutely right.
So this is the fair-weather cloud, forms on a sunny day, borne up on invisible thermals
of air rising off the sun-warmed ground.
It's the Simpson's cloud, all right?
It's the generic one.
You close your eyes, think of a cloud, this is the one that comes to mind.
And with its crisp, well-defined edges, it's also the best type of cloud for finding shapes
in.
So it's usually a cumulus that you're looking up at when you glance up and you go, wait
a second, it's a goldfish.
[ Laughter ] It's usually cumulus there on the other side
of the river when you go, it kind of looks like a giant taking a stroll.
They're like nature's version of those ink blot images, aren't they?
You know, like you say, like shrinks used to show their patients.
"What would it mean, Dan, if you look up and you see up above the shopping mall there's
the abominable snowman with a gun going to rob a bank?
What would that mean?"
[ Laughter ] >>> Probably to do with your mother.
>>Gavin Pretor-Pinney: Probably to do with your mother.
Exactly.
Usually is, isn't it?
They're the natural stimulants, aren't they?
And who here hasn't at one time or another sat back and looked for shapes in the clouds?
But perhaps you don't do it so much now that you're adults.
Perhaps it feels a bit frivolous to -- a bit aimless, a bit frivolous to look up and go,
wait a second, it's an angel with a camcorder.
[ Laughter ] Perhaps it's -- feels a bit kind of, well,
whatever when you go over and mention to your neighbors that there's an Ostrich pecking
on their roof.
It may be aimless, but that doesn't mean it's pointless.
Because when you have your head in the clouds like this, when your brain is in coasting
mode, that's a chance, that's a space for your subconscious to speak.
And that's when you give yourself the space to make connections, you know, make novel
connections, come up with new ideas.