The Renaissance Cyborg

Specialization Is for Insects, Part 2

This is a follow-up to our discussion on Realizing Possibilities ...Fast back in December. 

What kind of knowledge and skills will we need to thrive in a world where everything is a coffee shop? 

Rationally it would seem that there are advantages to possessing specialized knowledge and general knowledge. But are we becoming too focused on the former?

Rather than letting technology make us ever more specialized, we should use it to broaden our horizons. At one time, the Renaissance Man was the model of the widely adept human being. Maybe now it's time for the Renaissance Cyborg.

R. Buckminster Fuller was a fierce advocate of human beings as generalists.

Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual’s leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others. Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which in turn leads to war. 

Bucky explained why he thought U. S. Navy officer training was the perfect generalist education in his book Utopia or Oblivion? 

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Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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