Google

I decide to google "Robert Caigan". It is a surprise to find that Bob has entered the web again with new information.

There is a new article, with a brief interview asking him about his (then) recently patented furniture.
I have to wonder why it was never mass produced?
It sounds as if that was his desire and it predates IKEA.
Perhaps because he was too ill?
A new piece for the puzzle.
ADULT FURNITURE
from The Telegraph - Sep 22, 1971

It's an interesting label, "Adult Furniture". It sounds... you know what it sounds like...

What will the world be like when Google has finished documenting and indexing what it can find? Will we actually know more?  Can a search engine provide a narrative? Not a list, but a thoughtful, analyzed, reflective narrative?

Safe travels,
Bob's Daughter

Linked

I am not against search engines
that reunite or introduce people.
I merely think that it is prudent that the service tell you if the person is living or deceased. It is a matter of good manners. Or best business practices.

Facebook has set up memorial pages for people who have died.
This seems wise, though I wonder how long a time they maintain the page?

I have done something strange.
Some of you may be laughing because this entire blog and topic is strange...
something strange - even for me...

I googled "Linda Caigan", discovered that my mother is on LinkedIn, tried her usual password, and visited her page as Linda. She has one contact and one invitation to connect.

I considered taking it down, just canceling the account.
Then I had another idea.
We have already paid over $5,000 in death notice fees, perhaps this is another way to let people know that Linda has died?

I added a summary to her page regretting to inform people of her death.
I have no idea if anyone has read it.
LINDA CAIGAN at LinkedIn


xoxo,
Bob's Daughter

I open my laptop to check my email
and Google comes up on my home page as it always does,
but today I type in Robert Allen Caigan.
This blog comes up and the engagement announcement to Grace Gabe.
For no obvious reason I then Google Robert A. Caigan
and there is a new patent listed.

I visit the site BOLIVEN Patents.

Outboard Marine Corporation
has a seat based partially on one of my father's patents.
Google just matched it with his name.
Filing Information

* Patent Number: US5913571
* Application Number: US8937686
* Filing date: 09/29/1997
* Issue date: 06/22/1999
* Predicted expiration date: 09/29/2017


* Inventor(s): Daniel R. Dystra · David W. Windstein ·
* Assignee(s): Outboard Marine Corporation · View assignee updates
* Attorney/Agent(s): Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue ·
* Primary Examiner: Nelson, Jr.; Milton ·

It's very unlikely that any of these people knew Robert A. Caigan.
They have looked at his work.

In order to create a patent and be approved
one must PROVE that there is something unique in an invention.
Therefore, at least one of these people had to step into my father's
design process and determine that the the designs are comparable,
but individually unique.

Intellectual process, not just the product of the seat,
is what I am curious about.
How does one inhabit, save, frame that process?
How do I learn about the ways in which my dead father THOUGHT
about design/ problem solving/ ideas?

I keep thinking about the beauty of a firefly in a jar.
It cannot be contained or it will die.
Perhaps mental process, intellectual ideas are momentary
because they are based in time formulated through variables?
Maybe his designs are how he contained ideas?

Here's a good example of real time variables...

I just interrupted myself by realizing
that I have to start the laundry.
I can't pull this thought back.
Company is coming. The kitchen is a mess.
My own design aesthetic cannot bare it.
I am a feminist and yet I cannot shake my spacial concepts.
I suspect there will be more pondering on this topic.

Until then,
Bob's Daughter