On the shoulders of giants

Albert Einstein wrote

From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others... for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.

This is not original - in 1159, John of Salisbury wrote:

Bernard of Chartres used to say that we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.

Most often, this has been interpreted in almost a physical-determinist sense - that we benefit from the discoveries and recorded knowledge of those who have gone before.

Whilst this is true, perhaps there is more than this. Is it possible that what we, individually and collectively, do leaves behind traces that influence the present and the future. Rupert Sheldrake has developed a theory of morphic fields and morphic resonance, which leads to a vision of a living, developing universe with its own inherent memory - and has backed it up with scientific experiments. His books, including A New Science of Life and The Presence of the Past are well worth reading and should at least give food for thought that what we do has consequences that we will never be aware of.

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