An inordinate amount of my life has been spent staring into the abyss of the future, trying to peer around it’s fluid corners so I can be prepared for whatever comes next.

Something always comes next.

For the most part, I’ve been pretty good at it. I’ve hedged bets and maybe at times been too conservative, choosing less risk as the present cut to the bone.

We are predictive by nature. When I went down the rabbit hole about artificial intelligence and hallucinations, I’d was fortunate enough to read The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality as part of the process and it broadened my understanding of the little worlds in our heads. We ‘fill in the blanks’.

Lately, on a global level, we have some blanks that are difficult to fill in. Ken’s post, “A Future That Worries Me“, covers quite a bit of these things and is worth the read. In some ways I have written about some of the things, in others not as much (which is one reason why you should read other people).

In a way, it centers around a distrust in who we are as a species, I think, always playing it fast and loose. Sure, it got us here, but what if here is a dead end? Do we have a plan? Even a thought?

Here’s a twist. Here’s where I think we may, as a species, may be getting things wrong.

Silos. Not just specialized knowledge in this regard, but also different siloed perspectives of the same knowledge.

The “Be Inspired” blog’s post, What Are You Reading, makes the point about balanced reading – something, too, I haven’t always been good at because I have a tendency to stick with a lot of the latest non-fiction. What she doesn’t get at is to read broadly, to take on new perspectives on the same things. Many people will read a book and only have the perspective of that book, which isn’t always a good thing. Being able to appreciate different perspectives is an important thing and it helps break down the other silos of perspective.

We don’t do that enough. Educational institutions are about specialization. Where there were once books, there are specialized YouTube channels and TikToks. How mundane.

On that note I’ll end with my favorite Heinlein quote.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love.