Sunday, August 21, 2011

Find the reef

I read Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson earlier this year.

At one point, Johnson talked about the amazing abundance of different lifeforms that are present only at the reef in an ocean. The vastness of the ocean notwithstanding, and the beach being a virtual desert - but at the particular position that we refer to as the reef is where the magic happens.

I just listened to The Creative Mind (TTBOOK).

A section included an interview with a writer who described parts of the scientific understanding of the manifestation of the universe. To paraphrase: he said that for hundreds of thousands of years, the universe was a soup of subatomic particles. Then, with amazement, he said, some of these particles coalesced into the simplest atoms, H, He, Li. And then my mind made connections: these changes were made possible by a change in temperature - the universe cooled at a certain distance as these particles streamed away from the central heat source of the infant universe. And I envisioned an imperfect spherical explosion shockwave, and my mind labeled this as a reef. Then the apparently perfect position of the Earth which gives rise to life, stood out in my mind as a reef. And possibly a beltline around a city, with it's exits hosting a ring of significant economic and socially significant areas.

So this I say unto you: if you wish to find the position in a system where significant change takes place, find the reef - it's where the magic happens.

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