Stuart Evans

The Midwit Meme turns out to have a useful purpose, to remind us in a concise, memorable way that we cannot accept complicated solutions or explanations only because they feel smarter than a simple solution.

Historically, this role of abyss gazing, of peering over the edge of the unknown and bringing something useful back, was held by shamans. To our ancestors, who relied on this knowledge for their survival, the shamans played an essential role in society.

When the unknown starts to overshadow the known, we are forced to abandon our habituated ways of thinking and doing things, and look to new ways. If we don’t, we risk descending into chaos, authoritarianims, or worse - extinction.