How Specialized Can A Generalist Get? Poem by Denis Mair

New paradigms of cutting edge knowledge have brought us to a bottleneck...

No more steam metaphors coming out our ears.

In the age of ironic science, you need to be adept with the fudge factor...

I'm telling you, we're going to need a new generation of generalists.

Even neuroscience will need synthesizers to grapple with splintering sub-specialties, forging a narrative of cold margins calling to each other.

If only I could hire out MY head to tunnel through a pile of research papers, like a worm through compost.

It will take a new language that analyzes impulse patterns umpteen different ways...then makes a generalizing leap.

Look at A. Damasio's valiant effort, turning homeostasis into the human future's launching pad...

Trying to synthesize the latest findings, he reached philosophical heights.

This will become a code with liberal arts intent, in a library bristling with technical precision.

And the spearhead of this journey will be the original humanists, who left soft wool on every thorn they passed.