CONCEPTUAL COLLISIONS
Where do new scientific ideas come from?
- Scientific research is a highly creative process that increasingly depends on conceptual collisions across disciplines.
- Conceptual collisions are about bringing disparate ideas together in ways that achieve a novel outcome.
- There is evidence that the most impactful scientific discoveries depend on Conceptual Collisions that occur in a specific way: knowledge that combines a large degree of conventionality together with a small degree of noveltly (1).
(1) Uzzi, B., Mukherjee S., Stringer, M. & Jones, B. Atypical Combinations and Scientific Impact. Science 25, Vol 342 (2013)
WHY Conceptual collisions?
If you’ve done scientific research, the idea of Conceptual Collisions being integral for innovation makes sense intuitively. As scientists, we build off an existing framework of knowledge and the work of others. In the pursuit of a novel scientific discovery, we add new insight (novelty) within the bounds of an existing framework (conventionality). This is different from randomly combining ideas together.
Conceptual Collisions can come from any discipline.
Novel combinations can occur from any (or multiple) disciplines being brought together. For this project, we examine the conceptual collisions that arise by bringing the disciplines of design together with science. We think this intersection has promise and is not only underdeveloped but also underappreciated and not well understood.
How might we encourage and intentionally create conceptual collisions to spur scientific discovery and innovation?
what about "disruption" and paradigm shifts?
Scientific innovation that occurs through Conceptual Collisions may sound rather modest or merely incremental.
In fact, it runs counter to the notion of “disruption” that has been popularized here in Silicon Valley (more on that in a separate post).
Which type of innovation models are best for science to advance? We will be exploring these "creative tensions" in this project, and will capture them along the way in this website.