h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Its just a thought. I met this auther once and she said that ideas are floating about in the air and your brain picks them up. Personally i think she had a bit to much of the green stuff.
Answers dont have to be scientific. Suprise me...

'The bottom of a beer glass' ? Walmart?
Tescos?

after a curry and a six pack of carling

After a Carling and a six pack of curry

sitting on the lav after a six pack of curry and a carling

On the bed in accident and emergency after a six pack of vodka and a curry

spewing your load in the worst toilet in scotland after a 8 pack of guiness.

swimming in the North sea whilst high on drugs and booze at 5 in the morning

I've heard similar. Some folk reckons there's a kind of universal omniscience that anyone can access. But as that character used to say on the Fast Show "It's all a load of old b****x"

Dont they sell them in that Swdesh shop? Whatsit - IKEA?

De's richer than Bill Gates now, you know.

Well, when a mummy idea and a daddy idea love eachother very much...

just lost that message.

ideas come from the combining of seperate ideas and concepts. or sometimes related ones. Or indeed the combining of knowledge with situations. Or with experience.
For example, the knowledge that wood floats in water combined with a situation where one is by a large body of water one needs to cross and there are lots of trees around may give rise to the idea of a raft.
The concept/experience of a raft combined with knowledge of woodworking may well give rise to the idea of a boat. Etc.

oh and:
Well, when a mummy idea and a daddy idea love eachother very much...then Daddy will get an "Idea".

sorry, typing too fast cos annoyed I lost the previous version.

Line one should be
"ideas come from the combining of knowledge, situations, experience and concepts"

Or in the case of PCR (polymerase chain reaction), which has revolutioised the study of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, rather than Douglas Adams), it come from this chap:

Kary B Mullis, Nobel prize winner.

http://www.cufos.org/IUR_spring99_addendum.html



G

I often get ideas when I am asleep, or semi-conscious. Other people also get ideas during or after meditating. There is quite alot of info on people like Einstein getting ideas 'quantumly' i.e. their minds jump further than logic would allow. Intuitive knowledge usually arrives without logic too. So the idea that ideas are floating around in the air definitely works metaphorically.

There is some study that the electrical activity in the brain generates an electro magnetic field around the brain. The interesting bit about this is that the electromagnetic field can induce an electric charge in the brain. So thoughts and activity in one part alter the magnetic field which alters the activity in another part of the brain.
Very limited research so far tho'.
But anyway, that is one way one idea can trigger another unrelated one.

I reckon the brain has to be in the right 'receptive' state as well. Hence ideas cropping up when you least expect them rather than when you're trying your hardest!

But it's worth remember that the subconscious continues working on problems and ideas *because* you've worked so hard. The Edison '99 percent perspiration 1 percent inspiration' is still true.

But it's worth remember that the subconscious continues working on problems and ideas *because* you've worked so hard. The Edison '99 percent perspiration 1 percent inspiration' is still true. The books on creativity often say 'take a walk/bath/relax' but this is pretty useless advice if you're not sweating away lots at the desk.

I remember an interview with SF author Chris Priest, where he said that once he started working on a book, load of other little related ideas would, strangely, pop up and work their way into the book. He didn't offer any light on where the central idea came from though.


Geggs