Students using astrophysical textbooks remain essentially ignorant of even the existence of plasma concepts, despite the fact that some of them have been known for half a century. The conclusion is that astrophysics is too important to be left in the hands of astrophysicists who have gotten their main knowledge from these textbooks. Earthbound and space telescope data must be treated by scientists who are familiar with laboratory and magnetospheric physics and circuit theory, and of course with modern plasma theory.
[Lamenting the traditional neglect of plasma physics]

Wheeler hopes that we can discover, within the context of physics, a principle that will enable the universe to come into existence 'of its own accord'. In his search for such a theory, he remarks: 'No guiding principle would seem more powerful than the requirement that it should provide the universe with a way to come into being.'. Wheeler likened this 'self-causing' universe to a self-excited circuit in electronics.