Think like a Heretic
Our experience of reality is neatly split in two.
Everything we can conceive of is either an object or a concept.
- Object — that with shape
- Concept — describes a relation between objects and/or other concepts
Understand this deeply to give your bullshit detector a massive upgrade. Much of popular physics is built upon confusing concepts (e.g. space or time) with objects (e.g. can bend).[1]
This is the fallacy of reification — literally "thing-making".[2]
The old heretic realized creation of objects is a myth.
Nature does not know creation. Everything is a synthesis. Deriving a thing from nothing is magical thinking.
Even a baby in the womb is synthesized from preexisting cells. This needn't strip away any romance. It's incredible that you and every thing around you is synthesized from other objects!
Does the same apply to concepts?
The new heretic realizes creative thought is a myth.
Nobody has ever been hit with a thought out of the clear blue sky. It can't happen. Thoughts are only ever synthesized. There is no creativity as such.
Fine, this is decidedly unromantic. But the heretic has always chosen the facts of the matter over a nice story. Now, what do we do with it?
Sharing a toolbox means that anybody can have an original thought. That is to say, anybody can be the first to synthesize a new configuration of concepts!
Even you.
Especially you — when you're one of the handful who deeply understand everything is a remix.[3]