Patrick M. Gunkel (1947 – 2017) was an American futurist and independent scholar best known as the originator of "ideonomy", a combinatorial "science of ideas". Although he never completed a degree, his career included positions at the Hudson Institute, MIT, and the University of Texas.
Guido Enthoven describes Gunkel's ideonomy as one of three pioneering attempts to create a science of ideas (the others being Antoine Destutt de Tracy's original notion of ideology and Genrich Altshuller’s TRIZ "system of inventive problem solving"), while Marvin Minsky described ideonomy as "perhaps the most extensive study of ways to generate ideas". An archive of his works was assembled by Whitman Richards.
References
- Stipp, David (1 June 1987). ""Patrick Gunkel Is An Idea Man Who Thinks in Lists"". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
- ""Patrick Gunkel, Ideonomy Scholar, Well-Known as The Cat Man"". The Vineyard Gazette. Martha's Vineyard. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
- Enthoven, Guido; Rudnicki, Seweryn; Sneller, Rico, eds. (2022). "Chapter 1: Towards a science of ideas". Towards a science of ideas: An inquiry into the emergence, evolution and expansion of ideas and their translation into action. Vernon Press. ISBN 978-1-64889-425-1.
- Minsky, Marvin (2006). "Chapter 7: Thinking". The Emotion Machine. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7663-9.
- "Ideonomy: The Science of Ideas". MIT website. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
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