Refreshed openness to new ideas is one of the promises of balanced intelligence.
First, we'll consider what "openness to new ideas means". I expect that it will not be what you think.
Then, we'll consider how to be open to new ideas. Here's a little clue: it takes the same kind of receptivity as for receptivity to imagination -- and I'll explain why, in case it isn't already obvious.
I suspect that for most people, "openness to new ideas" allows for filtering new ideas according to what we know. That's precisely not openness to new ideas; it's openness to familiar ideas!
Here's a familiar phrase: "thinking outside the box".
"The box" is everything we believe we know.
So, openness to new ideas means allowing for all ideas -- not necessarily to act upon them or even to accept them, but to release the grip of mind that screens out anything not already ringing the bell of familiarity. The operative word, here, is allowing.
Why?
Because memory -- everything we think we know -- tends to drown out new ideas. Pre-emptive rejection.
Here's an example of pre-emptive rejection. It concerns actress Hedy Lamarr, who was in films of the 1940s.
It turns out that Hedy Lamarr was brilliant as well as beautiful. She had a mind open to new ideas beyond those of the movie industry. Actresses and actors must have focussed, coherent attention -- and imagination -- to perform. She was practiced, in them.
On one occasion, she was in the studio of a musician who had a player piano. In case you don't know, a player piano is an automatic piano; it has the music encoded in punch marks on a large roll of paper that feeds through a mechanism that activates the keys of the piano -- punch marks similar to those used in vintage 1970s computers to enter data from large stacks of punched cards. We still hear of those used in voting machines.
She was aware of the use of radio controlled torpedos in the war effort (WW II) -- probably from news reports -- and that those radio signals were being intercepted by the enemy to evade or misdirect torpedos. She was also aware of coding efforts (famous name: Enigma) used to encrypt communications -- and that the enemy was getting better at decoding encrypted messages.
When she saw how a player piano worked, she had an insight into the radio control problem: the one-to-one correspondence between the locations of the holes and the keys being activated on a player piano. She recognized how torpedos' control signals could be made to switch to different radio frequencies (corresponding to different keys) while a torpedo was in transit, analogous to the way a player piano roll controls the piano, while the music was playing -- in a programmed way -- to defeat attempts to intercept the radio control signals.
She went through the effort of contacting officials at the Pentagon to present her idea -- called Frequency Hopping, in a meeting. They had the meeting, and they rejected Frequency Hopping.
Officials at the Pentagon demonstrated pre-emptive rejection. They wouldn't think outside the box, but stuck with what they thought they "knew". They may even have failed to give proper attention to the idea because it came from an actress.
Nonetheless, she patented the technology.
Decades later, the exact same scheme has become part of the system that routes phone calls through the cellular network and which is in use, today -- a switching scheme for efficient wi-fi. That was Hedy Lamarr's invention -- and now she gets credit, for it.
Hedy Lamarr's insight depended upon her focus (ability to see details) and coherence (ability to stay on-subject and to see more deeply). She wasn't actively searching for a solution to the torpedo guidance vulnerability; it came to her, spontaneously. That's how it works -- inspiration when we're not looking.
Coherence allowed her to focus steadily enough for her to see the details -- and for an idea "outside the box" to come. She had the presence of mind to recognize its potential and the tenacity to arrange a presentation to Pentagon officials. Coherent Focusing.
Focusing and coherence are attributes of free attention.
Free your attention, and focus and coherence are available, to you.
That's all, for today.
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