Of Renaissance Badasses and the Consilience of Knowledge
While my professional career has
been steeped in the hard sciences of engineering, physics, chemistry, and
cancer biology, I’ve always needed more outlets to keep life interesting. Sports, politics, music, and creative writing
have all been passions of mine throughout my life. As I came to realize this drive within myself,
I gravitated toward the idea of the Renaissance man, or one who seeks to
develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment, including intellectual,
artistic, social, and physical spheres. The
term goes back to the Renaissance period when such giants as Leonardo da Vinci
and Galileo were able to excel at art, astronomy, and engineering, and
basically knew almost all there was to know in their time and place. The Greek Odysseus is one of the first
literary examples of a Renaissance man, since he had the military virtues of
strength, aggression, and stamina, but he was also cunning and a master poet
and storyteller. While these dudes were
obviously geniuses, the world was a little different back then. One central difference between their time and
ours is the sheer accumulation of knowledge between the Renaissance period and
now. There is just WAY more things to
know nowadays. Is it even possible to be
a Renaissance man these days? It’s
certainly harder than it used to be.
Being a Renaissance man in this
day and age, however, may be more important than just being a fulfilling way to
live. The biologist Edward O. Wilson has
written on consilience, or the synthesis of knowledge from different
specialized fields of human endeavor for the betterment of humanity. He explicitly sought to synthesize all of the
sciences that have veered off into specified islands, including physics,
chemistry, and biology into a cohesive discipline, but he also argued similar
concepts could be applied to all human endeavor including the arts. More than anything it is a way of thinking,
making new connections where once there were none. Sounds trivial, right? So who in the Sam Hell is gonna put in that
work? Renaissance badasses, that’s who, those that can bridge the gaps between
the arts, sciences, and social spheres. This
type of person by no means must be a man, and it will be necessary for the
multitalented women among us to play a key role in this process if it is to
make a difference. Therefore, I prefer
to use the term Renaissance badass instead.
The world needs Renaissance
badasses to synthesize the massive amount of data and disparate facts out there
and transform it into new and true knowledge for the betterment of humanity, or
at least cross disciplines in creative ways to make life more interesting. This is no small task but one worth
struggling to attain, in my humble opinion.
So here is my 2017 New Year’s resolution: every day of this year, I will
aspire to become more of a Renaissance Badass.
Whether this is designing experiments to overcome drug resistant
cancers, playing the blues to put emotion to words and notes, fighting for the
love of a lady, or engaging with others politically, I will be there in the
arena. Being a spectator is so damn
boring. There will be days I fail, but
it is a proactive never-ending life-time quest, one in which I will dare greatly.
Who’s coming with me? It might be fun.