Wouldn't it be great if dentists could implant tooth buds into your jaw when they do a crown or make a filling? That way, when the filling reaches the end of its lifespan several years later, the matured tooth will wiggle it loose and shoulder in, white and shining, to take the filling's place. No need for repeated fillings which get progressively more invasive. I've got a vested interest in this, as my teeth are particularly susceptible to decay; since my extended coma occurred in early childhood, I have weakened enamel in my adult teeth.

Turns out some folks are working on this. (see the first abstract, "tissue-engineered odontogenesis in dog mandibles.")

And another random thought from a long-ago conversation with Eric Munsing. Is design a western variant of meditation, a sort of commercialist Zen? It emphasizes awareness, attention to details both large and small, the connections between things, subtle meanings. Its practitioners spend hours in contemplation and creation. It uses both sides of the mind (often denying there are two sides at all), leaps across cultures, transcends classes. It's about being here, awake. I recognize I'm mangling terms and possibly clutching at straws here, but what are the connections between the burgeoning field of "design thinking" and traditional notions of cultivating awareness?