Ask Naive Questions to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats | Big Think.

Ask Naive Questions to Shift Perspective,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathon Keats says growing out of childhood was "probably the worst thing that ever happened to us, certainly the most traumatic." Even we re-enter states of naivete and wonder, our impulse as adults is to hide that precociousness from the outside work lest our peers interpreted it as immaturity or denseness. In this video, Keats explains why asking questions from this perspective helps us gain a new approach in solving the problems in our lives.

For example, Keats walks us through one of his most famous experiments, the Honeybee Ballet, which began as a simple naive question: "Could I choreograph a ballet for another species?" Keats then built from his absurd starting point, eventually exploring the not-so-absurd topic of "how we live within a world that is as complex as ours in harmony with other species."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JONATHON KEATS:

Jonathon Keats is a San Francisco-based experimental philosopher who has, over the years, sold real estate in the extra dimensions of space-time proposed by string theory (he sold a hundred and seventy-two extra-dimensional lots in the Bay Area in a single day); made an attempt to genetically engineer God (God turns out to be related to the cyanobacterium); and copyrighted his own mind (in order to get a seventy-year post-life extension.

Keats's bold experiments raise serious questions and put into practice his conviction that the world needs more "curious amateurs," willing to explore publicly whatever intrigues them, in defiance of a culture that increasingly forecloses on wonder and siloes knowledge into narrowly defined areas of expertise.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:

Jonathon Keats: Happily we all have at least one thing in common. We were all once children. We grew out of it probably the worst thing that ever happened to us, certainly the most traumatic. But I think that we can all find our way back into that space. In fact I think that we all every now and then have that guilty pleasure of thinking like a child, which we do our best not to mention in public, not to get too much credence to. But I think that we can give credence to that even if we don't want to admit it necessarily to our superiors or some of our friends probably would think twice about associating with us if they knew that we were as naïve as we really are. But we can still, for own sake, the back of our mind ask those sorts of questions and let them play out. We can fully develop them. And even if it's only in our own minds that we are fully developing them that process can take us to something that is more concrete, something that is more actionable in an adult responsible world that we don't really need to say we came to it through that naïve question. We only have to then take up where it got us and make use of that in terms of solving the problems within our lives. Whether they be personal or whether they be at the level of making the most of the world in which we work.
Several years ago I got to be very interested in honeybees and the extraordinary talent that they have for dancing. They're better dancers than us, they've been doing it a lot longer and they certainly seem to have dance as their culture to a greater extent than probably any other species. So I got to thinking about whether there was a way to work with honeybees collaboratively, making use of their dance in a way that would choreograph it is we do amongst ourselves for human audiences. The way in which they dance is determined by where flowers are to be found. And that information can be used as a way of marking a dance that they might be able to perform. So what I did was I studied extensively the language of bees, the language by which they indicate to others where flowers are to be found so that others can then go and find those flowers and, in the process of pollinating them, bring back more nectar or more pollen for the hive. And having decided on some basic geometric arrangements for my dance that I was going to provide for the bees, I worked out where hives were in the city of San Francisco relative to places that I might plant flowers. And then mapped out specifically where the flowers should be planted as a way of choreographing, of marking in their own language according to their own way of ...

[Jessx]

Some of you are so shallow, commenting more about his appearance and the way he speaks more than the actual message. I thought he communicated it quite effectively though the bee anecdote seemed like a bit of a digression at first. The point, it is good to embrace your naïveté in order to gain a broader understanding for a certain subject. A lot of the time, we rely on our own assumptions or what we've learned from other people to sum up an entire subject when there is so much more to learn about it. Sometimes we're to prideful to ask questions in fear of looking stupid even though we're only perpetuating our ignorance when we do that. This man made discoveries in bee behavior because of his naïveté which led to his pursuit of knowledge and I find that commendable. I appreciate this message. 

[Frogasmol]

Tiny glasses and a bow tie don't give an insane rant any more credibility.

[T]

2:36

Sorry but this guy it just creepy.

[sanninjiraiya]

Does anyone know what is the process behind how BigThink picks who will present in its videos? Is there a community voting on what they want, or is it a select group seeking out thinkers/scientists etc? Or do these people seek out BT? 

[rrek]

stop making a simple explanation so difficult.

[DarthDefiler]

This watches like a supervillian origin story.

[Drago]

okay i get some of you guys think his ways are weird and all, but pay attention to what he has to say, it seriously gave me chills

[quintessenceSL]

Would have been more interesting if he had planted the flowers in such a way to get the bees to perfectly mimic The Rites of Spring, and perhaps gotten an orchestra to perform the piece outside of the hive.

Perhaps the bees could intuit the association, and adopted their wing flaps for perfect frequency modulation and developed music. Perhaps they could reach into the psyche of the piece and made honey sacrifices to the pagan gods, proclaiming their independence from the queen, and at least artistic colony collapse. Or perhaps gotten confirmation as to whether Stravinsky has cross species appeal.

I would have sold tickets to the event regardless.

[caterpillarnana]

Thanks for the flowers Jonathan. Keep up the good work and we'll keep dancing.

[RealCarrera]

This is a brilliant perspective! The message delivered in this video opened up an incredible amount of possibilities for me. It describes an incredibly profound and remarkable concept that requires one’s ability to listen without judgement. I agree with some viewers that the man in the video seems uneasy, but that is irrelevant to the message. I would be uneasy too if I had to sit in front of a camera to explain a concept so revolutionary. I invite you to move past appearances and really listen to what this man is saying, otherwise you may just miss out on one of the most significant pieces of life-transforming advice that you may ever get in your adult life. This message is at the core of the solution for making beneficial change in the world. All by just asking a naïve question...wow!

[DesiD]

Watching this guy talk, made me realize that Radagast the Brown was a caricature of the eccentric intellect in Tolkien's LOTR. 

[JustOneAsbesto]

Oh, right, it's that insane bee guy again. I like him.

Thumbs plus.

[annabellebarr]

I wish he would have given more examples of how naive questions can change our perspective instead of focusing on the one about the bees. That one didn't really resonate with me, but I like the concept of naive questions. I'm always up to widen my perspective, but not in a way that involves manipulating a species in a way that is meaningless to them. To bees, dance is a communication of information, not an expression of feeling. Trying to choreograph bees is only good for the bees in that they get more food.

[aeari]

It feels good to hear a conversation about asking naive questions to shift perspective, but it's even a bigger picture to just throw in everywhere, I think shifting perspectives is always a good thing. Since the more of the thing you know the closer you are to the "truth" of the thing.

[JoeBlue]

Seriously? This is broadcast worthy to you guys?

[soup_music]

This man's expression. It looks like they're holding a gun to his head forcing him to talk.

[Hemotept]

The title and the description prove more thought provoking than the entire video. Going so deep in to this Bee scenario is alienating to the purpose of the initial statement. I think it's unintentionally relative given that most people don't ask naive questions because it's considered a waste of time much like it felt like a waste of time to hear all the steps he went through just to get a perspective on bee dancing. The point at which this topic made me lose interest was when I started picturing a college classroom in the middle of a lesson and is interrupted by a man in the back yelling "Yes, but why is water wet?".

[yuda]

Wow, this guy is profound, highly intelligent and kind...Truly an inspiring individual.

[AidanOKeefe]

He's being serious.... a ballet for really.... I can imagine this guy in a bee suit wearing a tutu prancing around like "come to me my pets...."

[TheBackwoodLink]

Big Think has reached the end of the internet today.