Giftedness and Talent in the 21st Century

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the Life Trajectories of the Gifted and Talented Bradley (Weiss & Bradley, 2014); philosopher Bruce Edmonds (2015); businessmanagement scholar Jorgen Randers (2012); systems scientist Safa Motesharrei, political scientist Jorge Rivas, and environmental scientist Eugenia Kalnay (Motesharrei, Rivas, & Kalnay, 2014); and biologists Paul and Ann Ehrlich (2013). While holding out some hope that we might avoid large-scale collapse through unprecedented, collaborative creative problem-solving they point out the likelihood that we will not be able to overcome the gap between our current cognitive abilities, in a collective sense, and the enormous problems we face. Homer-Dixon (2000) termed this the ingenuity gap, arguing that a civilization like ours facing huge resource shortages and environmental devastation will need unprecedented levels and forms of ingenuity to avoid synchronous failure – the simultaneous disintegration and implosion of life-sustaining systems on a very large scale. Synchronous failure in collapsing societies usually leads to widespread, violence-saturated anarchy. Nielsen and Diamond made similar arguments about the mismatch between collapsing societies’ cognitive abilities and the enormous problems they confront. In order to connect this analysis with research in creative studies and gifted education I use the term creative intelligence gap to stand for Homer-Dixon’s notion of the ingenuity gap. The creative intelligence gap shows up on the model as the daunting space between the lower surface, where a society is poised to wander ahead blindly and dogmatically into the dimly lit future of the Hobbes trap, and the much higher, optimism-generating surface on top of the globalization wave. In stark contrast, and fortunately for us, the macro-opportunities show up on the top of the wave because they promise to lift populations that are well prepared for the 21st century to a very high level of success. A society that is well aware of 21stcentury problems and opportunities and generates the ethically guided creative and critical thought capacities necessary for addressing those problems and opportunities will be able to make the quantum leap to the crest of the wave and follow an exciting, unpredictable developmental path. The unpredictability is signified on the model by the multiple, interweaving arrows on the top of the wave. The quantum leap on the model plays a gatekeeping role for a society aspiring to success in the 21st century. It represents a society’s discontinuous jump from the lower level to the top of the wave. This jump is based on an analogous phenomenon in theoretical physics in which a subatomic particle instantaneously moves from one energy level to another with no apparent “in between” transition status (see d’Espagnat, 2006; Omnès, 1999). Similarly but on a much larger scale, a society aspiring to reach the top of the globalization wave must make a discontinuous leap in terms of its collective creative and critical thought processes and problemsolving actions. The analogy of discontinuity applies here because continuing past practices, for example, following established thought paradigms and socioeconomic and cultural procedures, which often are habit bound and saturated with dogmatism (see Ambrose, 2012a, 2012b), will be insufficient at best and devastatingly counterproductive at worst. 19
D. AMBROSE In order to understand the need for the quantum leap to the crest of the globalization wave we must analyze some examples of the macroproblems and macro-opportunities that make up the underside and topside of the wave. The examples listed in the subsections below are potentially high-impact, or already so; however, different or additional examples could have been included. I encourage readers to suggest others. Examples of Macro-Opportunities Exponential knowledge growth. Advancements in information technology and scientific networking are spurring knowledge growth in many academic disciplines and professional fields, some of which feature enormous additions to their knowledge bases (see Arbesman, 2012; Motta, 2013; Zander & Mosterman, 2014). It will tax our collective minds to master and use all of this knowledge; however, rapidly expanding knowledge bases in many fields present us with a macroopportunity – arming us with unprecedented volumes of scientific and technical knowledge as well as better understanding of the human condition. This expanded knowledge provides raw material that gives us the potential for strengthening our creative intelligence. In turn, if we are sufficiently wise we can apply the enhanced cognitive skills to the solution of our most pressing macroproblems. Cognitive diversity. Subra Suresh (2013, October), former director of the National Science Foundation and chair of the Global Research Council, argues that international, transdisciplinary collaboration among scientists is becoming the new norm in scientific work, largely because innovation accelerates when research teams include diverse ideas and perspectives. Along similar lines, in a large-scale analysis of group problem-solving outcomes in a wide variety of organizational contexts, economist and complexity theorist Scott Page (2007, 2010) revealed that cognitive diversity provides significant advantages when it comes to grappling with complex problems (also see West & Dellana, 2009). A cognitively diverse problem-solving team encompasses diverse theories, and/or problem-solving heuristics, and/or belief systems. For example, such a team might include individuals trained in counseling psychology, economics, biology, engineering, philosophy, and the visual arts. One individual on this team might have expertise in quantitative-empirical research methods while another might be a natural ethnographer. Yet another individual might be a strong group facilitator. Some members of the team might adhere to liberal-progressive ideology while others might be more conservative. In contrast, another team might consist of intelligent, highly skilled individuals but all of them are economists who adhere to the rational-actor theory of the individual, possess the same highly refined quantitative model building skills, and strongly believe in laissez-faire, neoliberal ideology. 20
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Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS 10. Clearing the
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