It’s endlessly frustrating, being a big picture thinker. This runs in families, so there may be something genetic about it. Those who say, “Let’s step back a minute and think about this” are considered drags on progress (from both left and right), but would, perhaps, help avoid disaster. In my working life of nearly half-a-century I’ve never had an employer who appreciated this. That’s because small-picture thinkers often control the wealth and therefore have greater influence. They can do what they want, consequences be damned. These thoughts came to me reading Martin Tropp’s Mary Shelley’s Monster: The Story of Frankenstein. I picked this up at a book sale once upon a time and reading it, have discovered that he was doing what I’m trying with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in my most recent book. Tropp traces some of the history and characters, but then the afterlives of Frankenstein’s monster. (He had a publisher with more influence, so his book will be more widely known.)
This book, although dated, has a great deal of insight into the story of Frankenstein and his creature. But also, insight into Mary Shelley. Her tale has an organic connection to its creator as well. Tropp quite frequently points out the warning of those who have more confidence than real intelligence, and how they forge ahead even when they know failure can have catastrophic consequences for all. I couldn’t help but to think how the current development of AI is the telling of a story we’ve all heard before. And how those who insist on running for office to stoke their egos also play into this same sad tale. Perhaps a bit too Freudian for some, Tropp nevertheless anticipates much of what I’ve read in other books about Frankenstein, written in more recent days.
Some scientists are now at last admitting that there are limits to human knowledge. (That should’ve been obvious.) Meanwhile those with the smaller picture in mind forge ahead with AI, not really caring about the very real dangers it poses to a world happily wedded to its screens. Cozying up to politicians who think only of themselves, well, we need a big picture thinker like Mary Shelley to guide us. I can’t help but think big picture thinking has something to do with neurodivergence. Those who think this way recognize, often from childhood, that other people don’t think like they do. And that, lest they end up like Frankenstein’s monster, hounded to death by angry mobs, it’s better simply to address the smaller picture. Or at least pretend to.