How do great ideas evolve?

“It is true that widely accepted ideas are never the personal property of their so-called author; on the contrary, he is the bond servant of his ideas. Impressive ideas which are hailed as truths have something peculiar about themselves. Although they come into being at definite time, they are and have always been timeless; they arise from that realm of procreative, psychic life out of which the ephemeral mind of the single human being grows like a plant that blossoms, bears fruit and seed, then withers and dies. Ideas spring from a source that is not contained within one man’s personal life. We do not create ideas; ideas create us.“

Carl Jung

How can a physics teacher capture the attention of exuberant school kids, who can’t wait for the lecture to end? Newton, sitting under an apple tree, was pondering over the workings of the universe. His reverie was broken by a juicy red apple which fell on his head. Thus, gravity was discovered.

The idea of a lone genius struck by a eureka moment appeals to us. Our extravagant imagination plays a reel in our mind. We imagine ourselves, working away at our dreams. Backed by nothing else but our own efforts and intelligence, we accomplish our goals. However, the reality behind great ideas is more nuanced than popular culture makes you believe.

Consider these examples,

• Before Newton, Robert Hooke suggested the principle of universal gravity, Johannes Kepler suggested that the sun exerted some force because of which planets moved & Christiaan Huygens proved that a centrifugal force is generated during circular motion. Newton, a great synthesiser of ideas, converted these fragmented thoughts into a complete framework. This story is, however, harder to explain than the one involving the falling apple.
• Common knowledge suggests that Steve Jobs is responsible for making personal computers easily usable for a layman. However, it was Jef Raskin, a 24-year-old computer engineer who first realised that graphics and usability of a PC are much more important than its efficiency. Raskin in fact worked on the Macintosh project with Steve Jobs. Bill Gates in one of his interviews says,

“Steve and I will always get more credit than we deserve, because otherwise the story is too complicated.”

These are just a few examples amongst many. William F. Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas in their paper on social evolution suggest a mechanism for how ideas are generated in our minds. The process depends on two factors,

• Mental Ability: Mental ability involves IQ & innate ability of inventiveness. IQ has been increasing with time. Innate mental ability changes via genetic mutation and natural selection. These forces being slow mean that over time this ability has remained mostly unchanged for an average homo sapien.
• Collective knowledge of society: For an idea to come to fruition, its constituent elements need to exist. For example, once the boat and the steam engine were invented, the steamboat was just a matter of time.

While this explains, how individuals come up with ideas, it doesn’t say much about how ideas propagate. For this Richard Dawkins (the slightly controversial) evolutionary biologist suggests that the way organisms evolve via “genes”, ideas evolve via “memes”. (Yes, the ones on social media find their etymology here). 

A meme is the structural unit of an idea. Just like genes, memes propagate and replicate themselves for survival. For instance, if a scientist comes up with an idea, he spreads it around by writing papers, articles, and presentations about it. As the idea transfers from the lone scientist’s brain to other brains, it becomes a meme. The meme propagates itself from one brain to another almost as a strategy of survival. Its survival largely depends on how well it engages your brain.

What does this mean for us? If good ideas are indeed not very deterministic in their origin and rather seem to occur by chance, it places a great value on the kind of ideas that we entertain. An idea or a meme strikes a chord with you only if complementary ideas already exist in your mind. For instance, even an ordinary song can captivate you if the lyrics elicit a strong memory.

This is both good news and bad news. The memes already in your mind decide the memes you pay attention to and retain. Once the mind has a heap of these memes, over time, your mind connects them, and a new meme or an idea is formed. And the process continues. 

Dampened social life because of the pandemic has given many of us additional free time. One can’t help but spend a significant amount of time on screen. While reducing screen time is essential, more important is the content you are consuming. Easily digestible bite-sized content is hovering in the world wide web. As evolved apes, it is not very difficult to get hooked to enticing yet mindless content.

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Carl Sagan

Absorb and assimilate quality content, and you might just become the next Isaac Newton!