Imagining Disenthralled Imagination

From antiquity, humans imagined to fly like birds, only a few believed that they can truly do it one day. Imagination thrusts upon us to innovate. Wright brothers made Ohio and North Carolina proud (just look at these states' license plates) by constructing the first flying machine. We take this discovery for granted like many other ones, for example, telephone, cars, electricity and so on. Imagine a world without modern technologies; eliminate just electricity from our lives, we will immediately be back to agrarian society with life expectancy less than forty. This will also bring about collateral repercussions on myriad aspects of human life such as socio-economics, politics, ethics etc. Our claim of being rational human will have to readjust.

It is still debatable if imagination can be installed through training. Every child's imagination is amazing because he/she is free from prejudices and inclinations. As he gets older, only a few of them are "crazy" enough to cultivate and reap rich dividends from it. Most parents, teachers and a large sections of society kill the imagination in children ruthlessly through rigid pedagogy. Most of us want others to image this world through our eyes, not through respective eyes of beholder. This is a cardinal sin and prime impediment to human progress. Structured course works of schools where we need to recite a few theories and believe them blindly are deserved to be hated. Arts (though I am convinced that science is a creative art) is more flexible in the sense that we can imagine whatever we want. Thinking out of the box in science is frowned upon in authoritarian cultures as if you are challenging the ten commandments of Bible. A large section of university professors design courses and research to create clones who will spread authoritarian imagination. Our scientific achievements in the last fifty years are less exemplary than first five decades of 20th century though we, now, have state of art laboratories. Have our imaginations become less fertile? Has grant writing crushed our creativity? It is important to nurture the students with diet of theories and evidences and then, encourage them to ask questions. Asking questions and challenging conformity should be rewarded, even better if students ask question and frame possible answers . In fact, asking questions and devising possible answers should be part of curriculum. Some of these questions can change the way we live: a) Can we build a machine which travels at almost speed of light? b) How will we detect earthquake before catastrophe arrives? c) Is there a mathematical equation which rules our life events? d) Can we attempt to build a live cell using cholesterol, fatty acids, only 20 amino acids and 16 pyranose sugars?

My personal experiences in research labs have shown that majority of us tend to be captivated by the lure of own creativity or theory. Wave of students nurture one dimensional hypotheses and hence, Professor's narcissism without questioning as if building a blind religion. This attachment gets stronger and stronger as we age since we spend most of our energy and time in developing a theory. At times, love affair gets so strong that some of us tend to disregard any contradictory evidences and prefer to put them under the rug. Just for the sack of beauty of individual creativity! Just for the glory of ephemeral fame! How hard it may be we must detach ourselves while working on an experiment passionately and innovation will follow the cautious skepticism. I am concluding this piece by quoting sixteenth American President, Abraham Lincoln, "The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." Let us disentrall ourselves from our one dimensional imagination and we will reconstruct a world of creative genius!