Ideas are
like transplant organs. No, hear me out. I think I’m on to something, here. So
we all know about Inception as a way
to inspire someone to create an idea, but what about giving a fully formed idea
to someone else, and having it take?
I’m not
talking about ideas like making something or anything like that. I’m talking
about persuading them through argument. That’s the usual method. But what I’ve
really come to realize is that there’s no easy way to do this. I can’t copy the
idea to a flash drive, then upload it into someone else’s head. This process is
much more like organ transplant.
See, I can
explain an idea, and someone can even entertain that idea, but then the brain’s
immune response kicks in declaring “INTRUDER ALERT! WE HAVE A FOREIGN IDEA IN
THE FRONTAL LOBE! BATTLE STATIONS! FIRE PHASERS! Okay, I might have gone a
little Star Trek, there, but I think the idea still holds. The brain goes
through an immune system-like response. Sometimes the idea is compatible, and
sometimes not. If compatible, the brain can at least tolerate it. If not, the
brain destroys it.
And I think
that a lot of this has to do with existing ideas. If the new idea is fundamentally
skewed from what is normal and expected (according to the ideas already in the
brain), it’s rejected. It can’t be valid since it goes against existing ideas.
So it’s a
giant pain in the brain to try and get people to even give new ideas a try.
Unfortunately there aren’t any anti-rejection meds for ideas. Someone should
get to work on that, though.