Seeing Around Corners

Although the title of this post may seem oxymoronic, bear with me while I explain. There are in every endeavor, and especially in fast moving and frequently changeable circumstances moments when one or more individuals seem to possess the uncanny knack of seeing around corners. That is, they seem able to peer into uncertainty and intuit what will come long before the rest of us have even an inkling that change is upon us. I'm not talking about prophets, or simply smart people whose instincts and nature enable them to bet on the outcome of a future written darkly, we only celebrate those whose bets won or whose prophecies came to pass. The rest are forgotten by history.

There is another very small group of individuals over the ages who operated on the basis of an inner certainty about what must come next, people who were not guided by a willingness to take risks, or gifted intuition. Often, such individuals were considered eccentric, mad, or delusional in their day and their insights were rejected by all conventional wisdom. Only through the lens of time can we recognize just how far their vision extended and it is these few whom I refer to when I speak of the ability to see around corners.

To be precise, seeing around corners is quite different from seeing into the future. It is not a linear insight but as the phrase suggests takes a sharp turn into the realm of the not yet imagined, the unpredictable. It takes a very special kind of person to not only envision but act on knowledge that they alone possess, and it why they are so often considered fools or madmen.

Allow me to illustrate by comparing two well known geniuses of the 20th century, Thomas Alva Edison, and Nikola Tesla. They are not the same, despite the fact that they both worked toward similar ends and with a common set of technologies. That is about all that one can say united them. But what set them apart was far more important and impactful. Unquestionably Edison brought to fruition an astounding number of inventions, technologies that changed the world forever. But every single one of them built on the known world, on ideas and trials that long preceded Edison's successful solutions. All credit is due for his perspicacity and for his ability to see the larger transformative picture that together with other luminaries including George Westinghouse built an entirely new industry and transformed almost every other.

But make no mistake, what motivated Edison was quite different from the near mystical possession that gripped Tesla. Where Edison could see products and services --an empire waiting to be captured, Tesla saw centuries ahead into concepts and advancements no one else could comprehend or foresee --some of which are only now emerging. In brief, Tesla delved into the very nature of matter, and while Edison and others were attempting to harness electricity to illuminate and automate . Tesla had already made the leap to the ether, envisioning wireless communication and power --concepts that seemed so illusory that no precursors existed. Fantastical, mystic, to be sure--but often dismissed as crackpot and intentionally deceptive by some in his day, Tesla could see around corners. Who in this day, stands among the few like him?

When history looks back at this moment in time it will undoubtedly note the scientists and investigators pre-occupied with artificial intelligence--with the potential to unlock ideas and knowledge beyond human boundaries. But we must ask, what lies beyond that--what is it we who are bound by the constraints of linear thought cannot imagine ?