Farsighted

Just finishing up Steven Johnson’s Farsighted and though it is a book about decision making, it makes a great point about the role and power of storytelling.

Johnson talks about stories breeding ways that humans have developed to run simulations of a multi variate world. While they don’t always provide direct, stories (with novels given primacy) give insights into the mind of another. So those who can collect the most stories and with the most variety become the most able to see into the future.

Seeing into the future is important for teachers who want to empower their students with tools to succeed in an unknown world. Simple memorization freezes the learner in time. Understanding and creating narrative allows the student to learn from the actions of others. This makes sense. “Well read” individuals have been almost universally considered to be “smart” or educated within the theme of the stories they read.

Johnson also points out that the Default State is where we day dream and run our own simulations and create our own stories. This Default State seems to be uniquely human. If this is the case (I don’t think it is, but it seems limited to a few species for sure), it certainly makes sense to use it as a core tool for teaching. As posted in the post the remix of stories of valuable and in this context, an alternate run of a simulation. So the question is… are we in a simulation?