NAVIGATING IGNORANCE

With Naiveté'

For a split second, this upside down sign tricked my eye into thinking the speed limit was 52. A split second is all it takes for a catastrophe. Whether it’s running a red light or removing the wrong organ in surgery, we all slip up. Even worse, the more experienced we are at something, the more likely we are to make mistakes. We get so used to doing it that we don’t even think about what we’re doing. It’s called “expert blindness.”

In 1709, Alexander Pope wrote, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Apparently, so is alot of knowledge. It’s a reminder to stop ourselves from thinking we know what we don’t. Science and technology simply change too fast. When cruise control became popular in cars, I never used it for fear I would get complacent. I don’t want my car driving me, any more than I want a robot companion. It’s one thing if a person goes off the rails and quite another if a machine does, as it did here.

These three historical events share one, common thread:

1. The…