In his book Anathem, Neal Stephenson paints a detailed picture of a futuristic other-world in which the intellectual elite confine themselves in concents. These concents are comparable to the monasteries that we know today. But instead of religious contemplation, the avouts that populate these concents spend their days studying physics, mathematics, genetics, astronomy and other heady subjects. These avouts spend their lives in the pursuit of truth without consideration of fortune or fame.
While reading this, I could not help but find myself drawn to the idea that living in such a place could be utterly fulfilling. I’ve always been discouraged by the fact that we spend so much of our lives making a living instead of making a difference. What a joy if your entire existence revolved around nothing but the pursuit of discovery in the field of knowledge that you love, for the benefit of mankind, and without the overhead that modern life imposes on us.
There is little doubt that society is running headlong into a plethora of social, scientific and ethical problems. Global warming, energy demand, emerging diseases, genetic engineering, overcrowding, famine and war seem to be ever more present on the news each night. Government certainly won’t solve these problems, and the general public seems to dismiss them as either conspiracies or problems that can be ignored for the time being.
Would a system of technology focused “monks” be able to solve these kinds of big problems? How would it be funded? Who would be chosen?
Just a thought…
Image CC BY-NC 2.0 by tranuf via flickr