What Mr. Spock has to teach you about creativity

Lateral Saturdays: A lesser known nerd-fact that I think will be of interest to you

My self-image is not as explicitly nerdy as it was in grade school.

That being said, I have never shaken my love of Star Trek — though, let’s face it: the new Star Trek shows certainly have tried.

Ultimately though, I just feel like rewatching TNG and DS9 again and ignoring the existence of all the discordant characters and show-stylings featured on Paramount+ and going back to the stuff that I’ve loved for years.

I’m a curmudgeon about some things; it’s gotta be that way.

But before I lose my point, let’s retrace our steps.

In the olden days, the logicalness of Spock and Data appealed to a precocious but deeply, reserved young lad.

Nowadays, it’s something else about our pointy-eared friend that speaks to me

The Vulcan concept of IDIC is an idea that I have not seen followed through to its complete end.

Though, I suppose, it’s fairly self-explanatory.

The acronym stands for “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination”

What’s interesting about this though is that the Vulcans are not thought of as particularly artistic people.

They have their own cultural furnishings though.

They have statues, instruments, songs, traditions, and the like.

This principle, though, may apply to something else.

Creativity in its broadest sense is problem-solving.

Identifying an issue and presenting a solution — this is the foundation of business, politics, engineering, and much more.

All that being said, the main emblem of their art is the IDIC symbol, which represents the mountain on which Surak found the path that would lead the people: logic.

What should we make of IDIC then?

Well, consider the story concept of alternate realities that is so often used in sci-fi (and in Star Trek too).

There are as many worlds out there as there are variables to change in reality.

Which is to say, all of them.

You travel to another world, and — BAM — you find that Abraham Lincoln lived.

You go to another world and you find that you have an evil doppelganger sporting facial hair (I’m mostly alluding to Evil Spock here, but if you’re a lady reading this, this alternate universe self is now 10x more sinister).

Another world is overrun by the Roman Empire.

Another world has a Statue of Liberty that never oxidized.

I think you get the picture.

Let’s say you’ve got a business problem to solve.

Identify the variable that’s causing the issue.

Identify a slew of possible fixes.

Perhaps you’ve not identified your customer base.

Maybe you need to tweak your product.

Looking at these as variables to be isolated and identified are the key.

Maybe you want to apply this “infinite combination” as an artist.

What if you want to tell a story in a whole new way?

What if this narrative you’re hoping to weave inspires you as a photographer and as a musician?

Perhaps you identify a gallery space or you set up one of your own.

You exhibit the photographs in order of narrative while playing a soundtrack in the background.

From Silicon Valley to New Deal politics to immersive theatre, we live in a world of infinite components.

They’re infinite because of an array of qualities and particulars that we cannot even begin to count.

There are categories upon categories and concepts upon concepts.

And the power of lateral thinking takes dissimilar things — or things thought to be unrelated — and mashes it all together.

If I’m painting my canvas on the ground in a freshly mown lawn and the cut grass gets mixed in the paint, it becomes part of the art.

If I find that the coldness of Twitter ostracizes people, I might try and invented a warmer, more personal audio-based social media site.

Let that imagination of yours run wild.

Thanks for geeking out with me.

-Clayton