How the Same Brain Composes Symphonies & Founds Startups

What innovations might be possible if we increased the flow of information between the humanities and sciences?
Serial entrepreneur Brian Sager, currently the Founder and CEO of Omnity, composes symphonies and has been to Burning Man, the annual festival in the Nevada desert, 14 times. Sager sees no difference between his obsession with technology and the sciences on one hand, and his love of humanities on the other. It’s the same brain, Sager says. Sager believes that arts and the sciences operate in very similar ways: Both involve juxtaposing smaller components within a larger framework to create something novel. Deepening the respect between the two disciplines is mutually beneficial, especially in situations that might not lend themselves to obvious connections, like dealing with climate change. Sager is confident that the humanities should play a vital role in tackling climate change, particularly by providing historical context of how populations have dealt with resource scarcity and changes in average temperature in the past.

Improving the resonance of science and the humanities will require shaking up many of the traditional limitations of academia, like restrictions that constrain academics to publishing and researching within their own narrow fields. “People who are willing to cross their own boundaries and transcend these knowledge domains are creating incredible progress,” Sager said. He believes that this synergy should be further developed through exploratory grants and cross-disciplinary journals. What we need, Sager, says, is “a framework for interaction between the sciences and the humanities that’s not antagonistic but is actually synergistic, allowing exploration without stigma, allowing funding, allowing knowledge interconnection. Fueling that ferment in a judgment-free environment.”