Editorial Series on Unusual Sources of Inspiration for International Dispute Settlement

Abstract

‘Innovation needs space to dream. And maybe more importantly, space to make mistakes. Detours and complications create a deeper knowledge and understanding of your topic. If you only repeat what was successful before, you will probably never create something truly unique.’ These were the words of Joachim Sauter sometime before he died, one of the founders of a company that brought together technology and art to create a world accessible to all; a world that wouldn’t discriminate, divide or intimidate; a world in which one could fly in seconds from one continent to another and discover things as equals. It was something like an early, romantic version of Google Earth—this was in post-Wall Berlin in the early 1990s, when computers were still wondrous, magical, and rare and expensive things that could elicit idealized views of reality. In the process, Sauter and his friends created (according to certain sources because this eventually involved some very old-world litigation) the algorithm on which so much of today’s navigation systems are based. It may be thanks to him, to them, to this way of thinking that you made your way home from your trip last weekend.