The vision popped into my head of a virus that helped people, that rather than debilitating them made them smarter, stronger, wiser.
What does a virus do? It has the capacity to remain motionless for long periods of time, and go into frantic motion when the conditions are right. It has the ability, in effect, to put its life on hold, and to accellerate it.
Can some sorts of ideas not do this, such that the are dormant for long periods of time, then resurrect and furiously reproduce? How much life is in an idea, that can potentially be expressed? This is a measure of its quality.