The Adjacent Possible and Liquid Networks

Where Do Good Ideas Come From

By Steven Johnson

      1.  The adjacent possible captures both the limits and the creative potential of change and innovation. It is a shadow future hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself. It tells us that at any moment the world is capable of extraordinary change, but only certain changes can happen.
2. Boundaries grow as you explore the boundaries.
3. All of us live inside our own private versions of the adjacent possible. In our work lives, in our creative pursuits, in the organizations that employs us, in the communities we inhabit – in all these different environments we are surrounded by potential new configurations, new ways of breaking out the standard routines.

      4.     What kind of environment creates good ideas?  Innovative environments are better at helping their inhabitants explore the adjacent possible, because they expose a wide and diverse sample of square parts – mechanical or conceptual – and they encourage novel ways of recombining those parts. Environments that block or limit those new combinations – by punishing experimentation, by obscuring certain branches of possibility, by making the current state so satisfying that no one bothers to the explore the edges – will, on average, generate and circulate fewer innovations than environments that encourage exploration.

      5.     Apollo 13 – The trick to having good ideas in not to sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts, the trick is to get more parts on the table.

Liquid Networks

      1.     A good idea is a network – a new idea is a network of cells exploring the adjacent possible of connections that they can make in your mind.

      2.     An idea is not a single thing – it is a swarm.

      3.     When you think of ideas in their native state of nueral networks, two preconditions become clear:

-the sheer size of the network – you can’t have an epiphany with only three neurons firing, the network needs to be densely populated.

-the network needs to be plastic, capable of adopting new configurations. A dense network becomes incapable of change, forming new patterns and incapable of probing at the edges of the adjacent possible.

      4.     To make your mind more innovative, you have to place it inside environments that share with same network signature; networks of ideas or people that mimic the nueral networks of a mind exploring the boundaries of the adjacent possible. Certain environments enhance the brain’s natural capacity to make new links of association.

      5.     When we look back to the original innovation engine on earth, we find two essential properties:

-a capacity to make new connections with as many other elements as possible.

-a randomizing environment that encourages collisions between all the elements in the system.
6.     Think of the behavior of molecules as each of three conditions:

      -In a gas, chaos rules, new configurations are possible, they  are constantly being disrupted and torn by the volatile nature of the environment.

      -In a solid, the opposite happens, the patterns have stability, but are incapable of change.

      -But a liquid network creates a more promising environment for the system to explore the adjacent possible.

            7. Large collectives are rarely capable of true creativity or innovation. They simply widened the pool of minds that could come up with and share good ideas. This is not the wisdom of the crowd, but the wisdom of someone in the crowd. It is not that the network itself is smart; it is that the individual gets smarter because they’re connected to the network.

            8. Important ideas emerged during regular lab meetings, where a dozen or so researchers would gather and informally present and discuss their latest work. The ground zero of these researchers was not the microscope, but the conference table.

            9. The group environment helped recontextualize problems, as questions form colleagues forced researchers to think about he experiments on a different scale or level. Group interactions challenged researchers assumptions about their more surprising findings, making them less likely to dismiss them as experimental error.  The results of one person’s reasoning became the input to another person’s reasoning…resulting in significant changes in all aspects of the way the research was conducted.

            10. The most productive tool for generating good ideas remains a circle of humans at a table, talking shop. The lab meeting creates an environment where new combinations can occur, where information can spill over from one project to another. The social flow of the conversation turns that private solid state into a liquid network.

            11. Walls are to write on/wipe off, so if inspiration his on the way to the restroom, you can quickly sketch out an idea for you colleagues to see.

            12. Exploring the adjacent possible can be as simple as opening a door, but sometimes you need to remove a wall.

Discussion:

1.     What are the indicators of too much chaos?

2.     Informal meetings would be helpful.

3.     What are the characteristics of effective liquid networks?  Is there a pattern? How do we need to know when these ideas take hold?

4.     Check out Kevin Dunbar on the net.

5.     What is the nature of the Palin women’s group prior to the starting the womens action groups?

6.     Can we connect with Penguin Books, Riverhead Books for a contribution of 10 books for our global partners?

7.     How do we connect with various global partners?