ideas

Consider a specific kind of new idea: one which illuminates an unnoticed relationship between two familiar concepts, for the first time. Humans refer to this as lateral thinking; and humans pride themselves on the ability to think laterally. Consider that the simplest explanation for this kind of “ability” is as a side-effect of neuronal mechanisms which really must have appeared very early on in the evolution of cognition – in order to distinguish and recognise external phenomena, with minimal evolutionary and operational footprint 1....