the blind monks are running the show

There is a story, told in various forms, about the blind men, or monks, and the elephant. These men are sent away by their ruler to find out what this creature is and to report back to him. Each only feels a part of the elephant so each one reports a different description and they argue with each other. In the Buddha’s version, he concludes, “Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing…. In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”

I have often told this story, and then ask — What if a group of women was sent instead? I would wager that the women would have talked about their experiences and come through consensus to a more complete description of the elephant. Who knows, and perhaps our future really lies in being networked and more feminine.

We have a similar situation with this pandemic, the nature of the virus, and how best to address the situation. Barry Hunt is founder of Prescientx, a company that manufactures medical devices and he has been active in promoting better air filtration and exchange systems for indoor spaces. On Twitter, Barry commented, “I’ve been advocating for engineering & standards for air, water & surfaces in healthcare facilities to lower disease transmission for over 30 years. The irony of being accused by out-of-touch ID/PH/IPAC/Epi of epistemic trespassing before & during the pandemic is gobsmacking.” [ID/PH/IPAC/Epi = Infectious Disease, Public Health, Infection Prevention and Control Canada, Epidemiology]

I have mentioned the conflicts between professional disciplines in yes, it’s the system and connections trump expertise. Basically, our scientific and technological disciplines came out of the Enlightenment and fractured knowledge and understanding into many silos that do not speak to each other, communicating using their own special technical jargon. As the posts listed above show, aerosol scientists such as chemists and engineers have been systematically excluded in presenting their knowledge and findings on this virus by the medical experts and committees of the WHO. The blind monks are running the show.

As Gillian Tett has shown in The Silo Effect, there are ways to connect silos. Tett writes that, “You do not need to be an anthropologist to get that insider-outsider perspective … We can temporarily jump into a different world by changing the information and news we consume, moving our location, talking to different people, and trying to imagine how life might look through their eyes.” This is a core part of personal knowledge mastery — “we can either be mastered by our mental and structural models or we can try to master them instead”.

It’s time for all disciplines, but most importantly today the medical profession, to open their eyes and their windows and start connecting with the rest of human knowledge. Let me quote E.O. Wilson, who passed away this week at age 92.

“Scientists and scholars in the humanities, working together, will, I believe serve as the leaders of a new philosophy, one that blends the best and most relevant from these two branches of learning.” —The Origins of Creativity

Let’s hope they do — for the sake of humanity.

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[Annotated] Blind monks examining an elephant, an ukiyo-e print by Hanabusa Itchō (1652–1724).