Thinking Outside the Box
Intellectual creativity can be expressed in many ways, and modern technology gives it a scope that was once impossible when print was the only practical medium. Here's a random selection of approaches to knowledge and understanding, from traditional print to the use of a social bookmarking site as a freeform search engine. Think outside your field of expertise; think outside the box.
Connections, Ambrose Video, 2007
James Burke is the ultimate connectionist. In the three seasons of this television series, he showed the winding paths of history and not always obvious ways in which one thing leads to another. It's a fascinating ramble through history, and for a 30-year-old series, still amazingly relevant to where we are today. Also in print. The DVDs are very expensive, but they can be rented from Netflix.
Copenhagen, a PBS presentation, Image Entertainment, 2002. Starring Stephen Rea, Daniel Craig, Francesca Annis
A film exploration of what may have led to the breakup of a friendship between two physicists. In 1941 Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg met, and the results of the meeting have always been a mystery. "Why did Heisenberg go to Denmark, and what did the two men say to each other? What happened during this pivotal meeting that was a defining moment of the modern nuclear age?" A fascinating film whose structure is inspired by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
The Knowledge Web, James Burke, Simon and Schuster, 1999
"Journeys through knowledge." Another of James Burke's forays into connections. "It is ... pattern-recognition capability that might prove to be the most useful attribute of a webbed knowledge system driven by the semi-intelligent interactive systems now being developed." An intriguing format invites you to jump around through the chapters and make your own connections.
Powers of Ten: a book about the relative size of things in the universe and the effect of adding another zero, Philip and Phylis Morrison, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1985
The print version of the original film by Charles and Ray Eames. Photographs help us imagine the huge leaps in space that are the result of adding one more zero, but the film is what brings the wonder alive. It's available on DVD, and you can take a 3-minute peek here: http://axiomsun.com/home/video/powers_of_10.html
Metamagical Themas: questing for the essence of mind and pattern, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Bantam Books, 1985
"An interlocked collection of literary, scientific, and artistic studies" Hofstadter explores language, artificial intelligence, genetic evolution, strange attractors, and hoaxes, among other ordinary and not so ordinary subjects. A fascinating and challenging book.
The Search for Solutions, Horace Freeland Judson, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1980
"We need people who can tell us how science is done, down to the finest detail,and also why it is done, how the new maps of knowledge are being drawn, and how to distinguish among good science, bad science, and nonsense." Examines creativity, chance, patterns, and the questions about how the world is made and the many ways we go aout the process of discovery. A good part of the book is magnificent photos that reveal the patterns of nature.
Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is a popular bookmarking site with a unique feature. If you install the toolbar in your browser, you can easily bookmark sites that you come across. It also has a "Stumble" button, which is simply a random way of finding interesting sites. You select the topics you want included in your stumbling, and then, whenever you're bored or in need of inspiration, you hit the Stumble button. By narrowing down my selection to a dozen related topics, stumbling became more useful as a research tool, and my discovery of sites that I never would have found otherwise became a daily pleasure. Google searches limit you to a few keywords, but Stumbleupon introduces the element of serendipity. Narrow your topics down further, and the search is more focused, but still an adventure.