"The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds." Mark Twain
Probably everyone experiences some "moment of insight" when something suddenly suggests a new way to look at things. That can happen as you are reading something, or while your mind is almost empty of thoughts, or when taking a shower, or just as you are falling asleep, or in a dream, or…
Regardless of how they arrive, these sudden insights are the starting points for speculations. Speculations often lead to an interesting set of questions whose resolution will actualize the speculation, or dismiss it for lack of merit.
Speculations are always easy targets for criticism. A reasonable speculation for one person may be pure rubbish to another. I consider it important that all speculations be considered with an open mind, as they often are during brainstorming sessions.
Plausible speculations are logical extrapolations of current knowledge. These offer insightful extensions of, or challenges to, an accepted knowledge base. They suggest questions that can lead either to further understandings in the field, or to the "falsification" of the speculation. Such speculations are welcomed by those engaged in the fields of study, because they can be evaluated by reference to current doctrines, and relevant domains of knowledge.
These are those "wild speculations" that suggest possibilities which are unsupported by the current views of specialists in different fields. Such speculations take the "leap" from current knowledge, to a postulated possibility, by means of intuition, analogy and metaphor. Most wild speculations are quickly dismissed by invoking an established physical principle, e.g., dismissing perpetual motion machines by invoking the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Yet, wild speculations have an important place in advancing our knowledge. They often introduce a fresh viewpoint from which knowledgeable experts can reexamine their familiar fields from an unfamiliar viewpoint.
Perhaps you may be the one who will actualize these speculations, or find good reasons to dismiss them for lack of merit. Let me know, either way.
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