Years back my 7-year old son came rushing up to me with a model that he'd built out of Lego bricks. He was excited and started explaining, "Daddy, here's where the pilot gets in; and here's where the laser shoots out..."
Suddenly I saw life from a new perspective: I realized that my son, the creator, had a perfect understanding of how his creation was meant to work. I began to think about those Lego bricks:
- The bricks have no intelligence, self-awareness or understanding, by comparison with the creator.
- Each brick on its own is fairly unexciting. They only really become useful in combination with others.
- It's not the job of the Lego model to get going, or decide where to go.
- Once sent scooting across the floor it will keep going until it either hits something or runs out of momentum. Then it's the creator's job to get it moving again, wherever he wants it.
- The bricks can be taken apart and put back together in a different way to achieve something new.
