TED again: Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from

How does the ambience for new ideas look like? The importance of ambience in leading to the creation of new ideas. Ideas are a network (of neurons), and so are creative people. Organizations that dedicate collaborators' time to think. Prestero (from "Design That Matters"), the man who designed an incubator for developing countries: it's made of spare parts from a car, a Toyota. Easy to find, easy to repair. The concept of the "liquid network", for ideas to be born ("chance favours the connected minds") . Breakthrough ideas many times requiere long  incubation periods. Finally, a story of discovery: from Sputnik to the GPS.   


Steven Berlin Johnson is the best-selling author of six books on the intersection of science, technology and personal experience.  People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments, but history tells a different story. From the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web.