Latent Turbulent Flows: Travelling in Thought Space

Sometimes it feels like when I tune in with the universe I happen to hear the same song, sung in many different ways. As if all the bridges ultimately cross the same river. Very often I ask myself, where do these roads lead?

I was asked what my dreams are and told I should follow them, though it seems like it was not the exact whereabouts of my wishes that I would name but rather some deep wishes that I moved towards every day that have lead me where I am right now. As if the particular things were not meant to be, and others that I have not even been able to imagine at the time have materialized instead.

Last weekend, I had the privilige to attend the ARC-AGI-3 conference in Boston. There, I got the chance to talk to Kenneth Stanley, whose book I have read about year earlier. His view stands that the best way to achieve great things is to abandon the goals altogether. He mentioned the quote of Laozi stating “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”. Somehow this struck a chord within me, as if this was something that I needed to hear there and then. Having booked the ticket less than a week ago with no idea what I was doing lead initially to a lot of stress. These words gave the much needed peace and the turbulent journey a meaning.

The next day as if by chance I stambled upon a poster about Claude Shannon in the MIT Museum, where he states how much time he spent doing useless things. One would not expect that from the founder of Information Theory, and contributor of many brilliant ideas to the world of science. But maybe that is what true science and philosophy is: travelling in the latent space of thought. Every stroke you write on a piece of paper without a clear intent leads you down a path you have not imagined before, and to arrive to new place you have to take those roads.