You guys familiar with Anaximander? The 5th century BC pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, often called the "Father of Cosmology" and the founder of astronomy?

WELL HAVE I GOT A THREAD FOR YOU

1/ Most people think of Einstein as the quintessential creative genius, whose insight and imagination revealed a truth that nobody else was able to see.

But for me it's Anaximander.

2/ Anaximander was the first (we know of) not to use mythology to demystify reality and the universe, but instead invoked a "mechanical" model of existence.

It's the model we still use today. One of physical properties, not deities with whims, wills, and wishes.

3/ Anaximander understood the universe to be governed by laws. By properties and values and axioms.

In other words, reality is the interaction of different things with properties in accordance to a set of indifferent "rules."

4/ You have to understand that before Anaximander, everyone--EVERYONE ON THE PLANET--thought about reality in up/down terms.

Heaven is above us, Earth is below.

Sky is up, ground is down.

Things fall *down*

This was deemed too obvious for question.

5/ Anaximander said No, that's not what I think is going on here.

Instead, extending ideas from Babylonian astrologers by employing rational thought and logic rather than belief, he said that the cosmic order of the universe was actually *geometric*

6/ Anaximander's insight was massive:

He said that Earth is a finite mass floating in space. It does not fall, but is rather the center of things.

And so the sky is not above us, but *all around us*

7/ As a result, celestial objects could pass *under* or *around* Earth.

He also conceived of the Sun as having mass, and therefore conclude7 that it was, in fact, tremendously far away from us.

These ideas paved the way for Greek astronomical thinking to progress.

8/ Karl Popper calls this idea that the Earth is not resting on anything, but instead floats free and does not fall, to be "one of the boldest, most revolutionary, and most portentous ideas in the whole history of human thinking."

9/ Anaximander was the first to coin the term "apeiron" meaning infinite, boundless, indefinite.

He used this notion of "infinity" to describe the simultaneous idea of Nothing and Forever.

Reality comes from nothing and is forever. Things don't end, they merely change.

10/ Anaximander said that Apeiron is not an element, like water, because elements cannot embrace all of reality's opposites.

There is no such thing as dry water.

11/ I think about Anaximander because it's a reminder that revolutionary progress occurs when renegade thinkers call into question something fundamental, and use rational thinking to advance and test their intuition or concept.

12/ Einstein was certainly "Anaximanderian" in his imaginative genius, but I'm always on the lookout for another who may be in our midst today.

To be in the running you can't just think an idea, but think out loud for society to engage with.

13/ Revolutionary thinkers have mattered because they were not content to just think.

Thinking can only become revolutionary when it is articulated.

When it is no longer just a thought but a description.

14/ And then I think: what idea today are we holding to be too obvious or self evident to even question?

What can I start to Anaximander?

What can you?

/end