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An idea isn't just one thing, it's two

or more things and the connections formed
between them.
In other words, a network.
And when you're talking about fostering
creativity and generating
a lot of ideas, you need to satisfy two
requirements.
You want a densely populated network;
whether that population is made of
people or computers, or amino acids;
whatever it is, the bigger the better.
The second requirement is the capability
of adopting new configurations or
plasticity.
By a big networks Steven Johnson actually
mean
something more like this, this is a map of
the internet or part of it really; circa
2005
There are roughly 40 billion pages on the
Internet.
Our brains, by comparison have about 100
billion neurons.
But just like a single webpage can't do a
whole lot if no one can find
it, a single neuron doesn't do you a
whole lot of good unless it's connected to
others.
Fortunately, the average neuron connects
to about 1,000 other neurons,
so we have about 100 trillion connections
in our brain.
So the question is how do you create
networks inside you
head or outside of it that promote the
creation of ideas?
Johnson describes such networks as liquid,
which is metaphorical, of course.
There are three kinds of matter: solid,
liquid and gas.
In a gas environment, there aren't enough
possible interactions
for ideas or chemical reactions to grow or
spread.
They can happen, but they're often too
volatile or unstable to bring about
lasting impact.
The solid environment is too stable and
fixed.
New reactions don't happen as easily.
A liquid environment is just right.
It's a dense network where lots of
reactions can occur.
In biology, the liquid network is often
literal.
Blood efficiently transports nutrients and
oxygen around
the body, precisely because it is a

liquid.
But the archetypal liquid network that
Johnson's talking about is the primordial
soup,
a sort of blanket term for the conditions
on early earth where life.
For at least the building blocks of life,
were first formed.
Darwin speculated it might be in some warm
little pond
with all sorts of ammonia, phosphoric
salts, light, heat, electricity.
University of Chicago researchers Stanley
Miller and Harold Yuri conducted
a series of experiments modeled after the
environment around undersea volcanoes.
They isolated methane, ammonia, hydrogen
and water, all of which existed
on prebiotic Earth and exposed them to a
series of quick sparks.
In these experiments they found that the
spark
caused all 22 amino acids to form
spontaneously.
20 of the 22 protagenic amino acids are
known as
standard amino acids, those found in
humans and other eukaryotes.
All of these rely heavily on carbon, which
Johnson describes as a talented connector,
and also water to form the bonds
between the various molecules within the
amino acids.
Theories of where the first life formed
vary and aren't really important for our
purposes.
But the crucial ingredients in all of them
are carbon, the
connector, and water, the medium within
which the connections are formed.
Metaphorically, a liquid network is just
what Johnson means by
a dense network where lots of new
connections can be made.
Places like the 18th Century coffeehouse,
for instance.
Or a well-designed office building, as in
the case of MIT's Building 20.
Or a little bigger in scope, a university,
even in an online class.
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