The Fear and Benefit of the Unknown
I was asked to lead a session on Fear of the Unknown this past week for an organization experiencing the aftermath of layoffs. This post includes some of my notes in case they might be helpful for others. The unknown gives us a chance to question what we think we know. As terrifying as it can be, the unknown also makes progress and transformation possible. Almost everything is unknown to us all the time but we get used to what we know. So are we facing fear of the unknown, or fear of giving up what we think we know? And, equally importantly, are we embracing the benefit of the new?
When I was preparing for the session I serendipitously encountered a couple of insights, one about art and the other, science, both related to the unknown.
In Rick Rubin’s book, THE CREATIVE ACT: A WAY OF BEING, the author explores every stage of the creative process. At the beginning, an artist might be inspired by anything. The world and the smallest details within it present an open blue canvas of possibilities. But as a path is chosen, the subject matter and process present constraints. All decisions moving forward are made from within those necessary limits. The unknown at the beginning, while it seems thrilling in theory, can be overwhelming and prevent an artist from making a choice. But later, the constraints are frustrating for different reasons. Rubin’s exploration is helpful for putting any creative process into context, and seeing the value of ongoing discovery and questioning assumptions in what’s unknown and known.
While wandering at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, I noticed a sign accompanying a science exhibit that was closed during my visit.
“Science, which is beautiful in various and sometimes unexpected ways, has an unsurpassed power to bring about change.”
At times, this change is catalyzed by sudden leaps in understanding after years of painstaking work. Other times, a mix of creativity and logic leads to solutions for age-old problems.
“It is vital for us to remember that we are on an unknown arc toward an unknown future. There is still a great deal to be discovered and perhaps a number of current understandings to be overturned. We find beauty in the unknown realm of science as well as the known.”
During the session, the topic of machine learning and AI came up. Are layoffs the result of companies knowing they won’t need as many people because technology can do their jobs? Since 2006, I have been on a mission to get us all to stop calling AI artificial intelligence and see it instead as Applied Imagination. We don’t understand enough about intelligence — human or machine — to assume we will be able to predict the full destructive or beneficial power of our own creations. Applied Imagination is a way of seeing the spectrum of human and machine capabilities with fresh eyes, to approach the unknown with some degree of caution, of course, but also with limitless curiosity. This is the Imagination Age for that reason. A time between the Industrial Era and the Intelligence Era where we have a window to accept that the unknown brings fear but also possibility, and what we do with it ultimately tells us a lot about what it means to be human.
