Knowledge: The Playground of Progress

If you've ever felt curious enough to have a browse through my collection of artwork, you may begin to notice that my mind likes to wander into some vaguely philosophical and existential territory.

Don't get me wrong, it may well be a bit easier to be simply concerned with the upcoming weekend's football fixtures and perhaps what is for dinner tonight, but for some reason my brain often insists on diving deep into rabbit holes of mystery.

And that's the way I like it.

One such mystery which has recently been finding a home in my head, is how and where ideas originate within the mind.

Could there be any plausibility to the lofty claim that ideas already exist ephemerally, in some sort of dream-like subconscious realm - simply floating around, waiting to be captured?

Or do they arise spontaneously without any degree of forewarning as a result of the unpredictability of nature?

Perhaps there is a deeper philosophical debate to be had here regarding determinism, fate and the existence of free-will, but I think I’ll leave that to the experts and philosophers.

Having given this a modest degree of thought myself, I've arrived at the opinion that ideas are like un-lockable gems.

Without the correct tools to mine for these precious stones of inspiration, it's unlikely they will be uncovered.

That being said, it's also unlikely that a pick axe is going to provide much benefit here.

So what are the tools?

Knowledge

I believe the accumulation of knowledge and experience is the foundation of progress and the key to the discovery of new ideas and inspiration.

As humans, each and every one of us are all very unique in our own interests, experience, creative thought and perspective.

It's this application of our own unique perspective, combined with the learning of pre-existing knowledge, that enables the unlocking of new ideas - ultimately leading to new knowledge, and inspiration for that matter.

Although we most likely take it for granted, I'd suggest that we are pretty blessed to live in a technological era which grants us the ability to write, record and communicate our thoughts and ideas for the benefit of posterity - lasting long into the years after we are dead and gone (speaking of which, I think I might have a few excruciatingly ball cringing tweets I should probably go back and and delete).

But I digress.

Fortunately for us, a reasonably sized handful of our historic forefathers (& foremothers...) also had this ability to record their thoughts - although perhaps not on Twitter.

It's this wealth of a pre-existing library of knowledge that provides the foundation for progress.

As the old adage goes - we are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Many a great mind has pondered deep and hard on some of the most complex questions involving humanity and our place in the universe - improving our understanding of the world and developing cutting edge technology throughout the generations.

Here in 2023, we are lucky to be able to utilise this trove of battle tested information and technological innovation for our own benefit.

There are no shortcuts

With progress, I think it's safe to say that this occurs in a sort of Darwinian type evolution of ideas.

Over time, good ideas will be built on top of the previous and the bad ones will gradually die off.

In other words, there are no short cuts.

Similar to building a road, bridge or house, the groundwork must be in place prior to moving on to the foundations, and then finally on to the superstructure.

If you skip a step, the laws of nature are are sure to stop you in your tracks and send you, head spinning, back to the beginning.

For Albert Einstein to develop the Theory of General Relativity, he critically considered the thoughts, science and philosophies of a previous era's great minds: Newton; Maxwell; Faraday; Galileo; and Democritus, to name but a few, and in doing so, took inspiration and applied his own unique experience and creative genius to solve problems - improving upon the fidelity, understanding and precision of existing ideas.

Would Einstein have come to his same revelations but for the foundation of knowledge granted by his predecessors? I don't think so.

Those great thinkers who came before him will have undoubtably applied a similar process.

And as a sentient beings, we continue on this journey of discovery today and into the future applying the same methods and building upon the discoveries which have come before us.

Application to the future of the internet.

This is where my thoughts drift into the benefits of blockchain technology allowing for everlasting immutable information and provenance of digital assets and IP.

That being said, Web3 is currently a very niche section of current popular culture.

A lot of great thinkers and smart people are operating in this space.

At this early stage, however, these are the stalwarts, early adopters and money chasers.

With the percolation of the fundamental possibilities of this technology filtering into the minds of thought leaders in different industries, it becomes pretty mind-boggling to conceive of the large scale benefits and capabilities which may unfold with this technology as the decades pass by.

For me, this is both fascinating and exciting and one of the main reasons for my interest the Web3 space.

But as with anything worth building, greatness takes time, and every marathon must begin with a single step.

The time horizon is uncertain, but the quantum leaps of progres in our digital culture are inevitable.

We live in an age of technological innovation that develops at a near exponential rate.

To think just over 20 years ago there was no such thing as an iPod never mind a touch screen or iPhone.

The state of play in 20 years to come would be breathtaking if we had a crystal ball to peer into the future.

But the reality is, we don’t.

There are no short cuts.

There are wrong turns, difficult terrain an dead ends.

But with a strong will and perseverance - progress is inevitable.

Curate your consumption

To provide yourself with the best opportunity to uncover new and innovative ideas I pose the following...

We have a wealth of available knowledge at our finger tips.

Dedicate your time resourcefully to the curation and gathering of valuable knowledge.

This information could be the catalyst that unlocks the next big idea in your mind.

This might be via: books; audiobooks; podcasts; people; art; music; or any other forms of inspiration.

Spend your time wisely and surround yourself with those who provide you with: engaging; intellectual; philosophical; and comedic value to expand your world view in a well-rounded and playful way.

These ingredients are a magic recipe that are likely to harvest a healthy and inspired mind.

Your next big idea may be only a thought away...

Recommendations

To finish off I figured I'd share a bit of a list of some of the sources of inspiration that have played a part in my palette of thought recently:

- The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch (book)

- The Tao of Seneca - Seneca (audiobook)

- Reality is Not What it Seems - Carlo Rovelli (book)

- Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder (audiobook)

If you feel inclined to have a browse through my 'Deeper Meaning' art collection on Foundation (https://foundation.app/@WTVR_STUDIOS) you may notice some themes in my recent work which have taken inspiration from the above.

And that's that.

Well, that dragged on a bit didn't it?

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for spending your valuable time reading through my fairly unstructured ramblings.

Hopefully they have provided you with some things to think about. Or who knows, maybe you were thinking about what's for dinner tonight...

If you took any value from it, a little retweet on Twitter wouldn't go a miss. Perhaps you will inspire someone else to bore themselves to tears reading my brain fart of a monologue.

Much love

WTVR x