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What Do You Do With an Idea?,
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Beth
Even the word 'universe' can be a metaphor. With this book, I think is about any ideas, that can in a sense grow. It can be any idea to me. That is what I would tell children. One purpose of book is to raise child's self-esteem... No idea is poor.
Adam
It rather depends on how you define "rapidly," "change," and "universe." Throughout history ideas have spread across cultures and civilizations. Discoveries like nuclear power rewrote history in a few years. Einstein's paper on relativity radically altered our understanding of how the universe functions. Kurt Gödel, with a single proof, redefined the future of mathematics. None of these ideas directly altered the material structure of the world (well, aside from some extra radiation and a few craters), but all have changed the course of human history. Moreover, ideas like the #metoo movement have worked to completely change people's (well, mostly men's) perceptions of the world around them.
Change can happen rapidly - and that is especially true now that ideas can be transmitted more rapidly than even the most virulent diseases can spread. If a change can include a paradigm or worldview, sometimes a simple fact can profoundly alter how you experience reality. And as for the universe... if you look at stars differently after learning that every atom in your body was once part of a supernova, does that change the universe?
Change can happen rapidly - and that is especially true now that ideas can be transmitted more rapidly than even the most virulent diseases can spread. If a change can include a paradigm or worldview, sometimes a simple fact can profoundly alter how you experience reality. And as for the universe... if you look at stars differently after learning that every atom in your body was once part of a supernova, does that change the universe?
Alexandria
Personally, I don't think it can. Minds take a long time to change, the universe would take even longer. An idea can change the world. The progress of that change, however, will be anything but rapid.
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