When Ideas Have Sex...(It's a Great Orgasm!)

I love sex. Don't you? Sex is one of those things that brings two (or more) people together in a particularly intimate way, exchanging tactile, olfactory, aural and oral pleasure. Sometimes the result is another living organism.

So what happens when ideas have sex? This was food for thought as I watched Matt Ridley's talk on TED.com. He posited that throughout history, the acceleration of development has been fueled by the coming together of different ideas and perspectives, resulting in a new and better idea.

Harsh Sethia a nanotechnology blogger, seems to share this idea on his blog To The Power Minus 9. He describes how when you share an idea with others, you can get variety of sperm ideas to fertilize your ova of an idea that could result in the next big thing. Maybe the next Barak Obama or the next Sarah Palin. What is exciting is that it is not the first sperm idea that does the honors, but the most attractive sperm idea. Sometimes multiple sex acts with multiple people is needed to develop that idea.

Looking back on my own experiences, I realize my ideas have been so polyamorous it's laughable. My ideas and my outlook on life has been shaped by interacting with so many different people and ideas. My ideas have not only gotten better by sharing or bouncing them off of others, but I have evolved in the process as well! In that sense, I have had thousands of orgasms with just as many ideas, and conceived and birthed almost as many. Of course, sometimes the sex isn't that good, but other times it's earth-shattering, gobsmacking terrific! Sometimes blanks are fired, or there's a miscarriage, or even a stillbirth; but sometimes you conceive an adonis of an idea it makes you want to slap yo' mama!

I encourage you to let your ideas have sex. Lots of it. See what happens when your ideas copulate with others'. The result might blow your mind, or maybe not. Either way, enjoy the process while you're at it. Keep an open mind and explore anything and everything. As Matt Ridley puts it: “It is our habit of trade, idea-sharing and specialization that has created the collective brain which set human living standards on a rising trend." And it's all because "ideas are having sex with each other as never before."

Go ahead. Have some sex.