A field of wheat may not be the typical space to find a modern dancer. But inspiration can come from anywhere if we are open to experiencing the world with fresh eyes.
Parris Goebel is the choreographer of the moment. As dancers go she’s a polymath, drawing on references and techniques from as disparate sources as traditional Polynesian styles and hip-hop. One of her dances draws from the Siva Tau, a traditional Samoan war dance.
Hold that thought.
Multiple Nobel science prizes awarded last year went to researchers who required multi-disciplinary backgrounds to do what they did. The chemistry prize went to chemists who were really computer scientists. Stepping back from their achievement, we see that the three award winners relied on databases previously amassed by thousands of other chemists.
And…hold that thought, too.
In creative expressions of all sorts, we have always experienced news works inspired by unexpected sources, or at least sources that may not have captured mainstream attention yet. But in the era of instantaneous information distribution, we have finally arrived at a moment where a profoundly deeper ocean of ideas have the potential to be influential. The truism that artists should create based on what they know still holds true. To wit, Van Gogh painted a wheat field in motion because he saw wheat fields in motion in real life. It’s not a stretch to imagine a choreographer similarly inspired by similar sights. It’s also not a stretch to think that medical researchers might be inspired by what were once impossible inventions of science fiction. The point here is that ideas are no longer bound by time and space and opportunity. In fact, since you’re likely reading this on a hand-held device, you’re intimately aware of just how many ideas are pulling at your attention right now. Too many, most likely.
In the original Star Trek (shout out to fellow Trekkers!), the founder Gene Roddenberry floated an idealistic concept that largely shaped the moral center of the show. He called it “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations”. As a physical object, presented in an episode called “In Truth is there no Beauty?” , the IDIC medal implied something that our future culture would value enough to serve as the basis for a high honor. As a story element the award never really caught on—we don’t see it again in the series (it was kind of a hokey clunker, if we’re being honest)—but as a narrative concept, it became the soul of something that continues to resonate for those who care to listen.
As a concept it’s also a surprisingly concise way of capturing the whole point. In fact, it’s prescient. Expertise in any discipline or skill demands focus and repetition and insight. Innovation requires expertise that has the wisdom to draw lessons from other disciplines. That requires not only an openness to otherness, but a curiosity and respect for otherness—infinite diversity in infinite combinations, in other words. This is, ironically, something that’s been happening automatically through genetic mixing for about two billions years. Genes, which are essentially just information coded into molecules, recombine. That recombination enables evolution, which is effectively the process where something new emerges from the stuff that already exists.
Taken as a weather vane for the future of innovation, the forecast looks exciting. With essentially limitless combinations, one can imagine untold discoveries in science, art, culture, and even political thought. But endless opportunity does not always enable endless innovation. More tools do not make a better artists. Let’s also not pretend that the advent of Artificial Generalized Intelligence presents serious risks to this process. (Next month’s blog discusses a key aspect of cultural transformation due to AGI. Mark your calendars!) The challenge is in being both selective and disciplined about how to approach creative work. Ideas by themselves will not generate great work. Everyone has a great idea for a movie, but most people never figure out how to do the monstrously hard work of making one. Simultaneously, we are now all capable of encountering the most esoteric information at all times, in just about any format and at just about any level of depth and complexity that we may want to pursue. We must make choices. Not everything possible is worth pursuing, but figuring out which unexpected pursuits might deliver something moving and meaningful is now a fundamental part of the process of making anything.