The Adjacent Possible

Good morning. It would be just my luck that for the one assignment I have been looking forward to the most of the year I have to be absent. At least physically. But thanks to cyberspace and you millennials, maybe that won't be that big of deal.

(Thanks, by the way, for all of your comments and concern since the accident. I am getting better by the day and plan to be back to school by next week.)

In short, the adjacent possible, is Steven Johnson's term for the conditions that allow for innovation and creativity to occur.

Think of it this way:

You get home late and want to go to bed. But you can't do this by simply walking in the front door (unless you want to sleep in the entry way). You have to have knowledge of the house in order to find your way to your bedroom. Each room you walk in to is an example of Johnson's idea of the Adjacent Possible. Each new room you walk in to opens up new expectations and options for you. If all you ever do is stay in the entry way, well, your chances for innovation and discovery aren't very good.

Now you can’t get to the master suite upstairs until you explore the rooms leading up to it. Each room gets you closer and also opens up new opportunities (maybe you stop in the kitchen to have a snack or check your email on the computer in the office).

You cant just go from the front porch to the master suite; the house isn't designed like that. Johnson argues that the adjacent possible isn't like that either. Ideas just don't pop magically into our heads. Instead, they are the result of a series of trials and errors and discoveries over time. There is no connecting passage. You have to pass through a series of adjacent rooms and doorways in order to progress your way there.

The adjacent possible is just a series of events that allows lead us from one one new idea or experience to another new idea or experience. The more we explore and experience, the more we grow and learn. The more we grow and learn, the more we discover and innovate.

He argues that every innovation we use every day of our lives (cars, TV, iPods, cell phones, bottled water, designer clothes, Ereaders, books) all are examples of the adjacent possible.

Here is a classic example from the film Apollo 13. On their trip to the moon, Apollo 13 has a catastrophic failure. In order to survive, the astronauts head from their damaged spacecraft to the lunar module. They will use this to return to earth . . . possibly.

One of the many problems, as NASA soon discovers, is that the lunar module was not designed for so many astronauts, as CO2 levels are building up and threatening to poison the astronauts. They need 'scrubbers' to cleanse the air of the dangerous CO2 levels. The only problem is that these need to be invented from the materials aboard the lunar module.

The scientists back on earth know everything that is on the lunar module. So they know exactly what they have to work with. They just don't know if they can build the proper 'scrubbers.' So they have the adjacent possible outlined for them. They need to invent the scrubbers with nothing but spare junk on the lunar module.

Now the adjacent possible doesn't usually end up defining itself so clearly for scientists or inventors. It is usually a series of events that take a long time to develop. Still, this little clip helps illustrate what Johnson means by the adjacent possible.





Here is a modern example (I believe I shared this one in class previously) - youtube.

It had to develop the way it did because, for example, couldn’t have come into existence in the 1980’s, for example.

First, the internet was just a rudimentary concept, allowing computers to communicate. There is no platform for video.

Even when the web came into regular use (mid 1990’s), it was dial-up. Any images took minutes to download, not to mention video. As recent as when I was in grad school and we didn’t even have dial up, videos still took forever.

Another benefit - the creators of Youtube based their videos on flash. Flash came into being in 1996, but it didn’t support video until 2002.

Once flash supported video and faster internet services came into being, the adjacent possible was ready for youtube to flourish.

Now youtube has continued to expand along the adjacent possible: channels, apps, youtube for education . . . that is the real key to longevity: keep exploring the adjacent possible and keep adapting.

What I want you guys to do to explore the adjacent possible is think of a piece of technology that you use in your lives every day (other than your cell phones). See if you can chart or map or write about its innovation through various stages of the adjacent possible, (as I did with the youtube example).

Thanks and hope to see you guys soon.

Here is an example of the adjacent possible:

In any case, this recently published TED video (below) was inspiring on many levels, partly due to this context of the adjacent possible. These two guys, and I’m sure members of a team they work with, found a way (and a marketable way!) to continuously explore the adjacent possible, so that messing around with food led to making a desert that looks like nachos which led to replacing tuna with protein-cured watermelon which led to making extremely useful and tasty creations with local ingredients that are almost never used for food. One door led to another, which led to another, which led to another, and the opening of the new doors was as much the point as getting to another room, so they kept on (and presumably will keep on) innovating.