29
Mar
2014
0

The adjacent possible—the shadow futures around us

Lego-CarImagine, if you will, a simple 9-piece set of Legos that forms a small car—4 wheels, a chassis, a windshield, two axels, and a steering wheel. Try as you might to re-arrange these parts, its hard to form anything but a car. But what could you create if you had 20 pieces…a hundred pieces…a thousand pieces? With the addition of each piece there are new possibilities of connection and innovation…if we are paying attention. With the addition of each new piece there is a new “adjacent possible.” Stephen Johnson (Where Good Ideas Come From) describes the adjacent possible as “a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself.” The fewer the ingredients, the narrower the options of what a shadow future might take. But with each added feature, ingredient, person, or piece the adjacent possible expands and multiplies.

Think of cooking. If you have eggs and butter you can make fried or scrambled eggs. Add cheese and the adjacent possible becomes an omelet. Add cream and  and the Cheese_Omeletteadjacent possible expands to having quiche for breakfast. Add sugar, baking soda, and cocoa and you could be having chocolate cake for dessert. What works with food ingredients also works with ideas, spaces, and people. With each new person, idea, or technology that is introduced into your life, a new multitude of shadow futures are possible. If you are married think about the moment you met your spouse…your future dramatically changed. For singles, who find themselves thinking, “Of all the people I know, I can’t picture myself being married to any of them,” you are just one person away from an adjacent possibility.

amish-fatherssConversely, if you want to preserve the present then never add any new ideas, people or technology to your current situations. The Amish, for instance, like preserving a very traditional way of life so they are cautious about what new thing is introduced into their culture. Yes, a phone is good for business, so they’ll have it on the porch. Bring a phone in the house and the teenage girl takes it into the bedroom. Tractors might be more efficient to harvest but they know that it is sons working with their fathers in the field where values are transmitted.

The beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that it possible futures grow as you explore them. Each new combination opens up the possibility of other new combinations…if we are paying attention. If you think of the best things that have happened to you many of them happened because we met a new person, or read a different book, saw a connection between two seemingly disparate ideas, traveled to a place that was out of the ordinary or took a different path home.

No matter how good or bad our lives are, the one thing that creates the adjacent possible is having God in our lives.  There is a reason Jesus is described as “life,” “light,” “living water,” “love,” etc. because he really does change every value, every relationship, every ambition, and every part of our future…if we let him. By consciously asking, “How should having Jesus in my life affect this situation, relationship, decision, etc.” we create the very best future for ourselves and for those around us.

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