Inside Out | World in crisis must leave room for serendipity to right its ship
- At a time when climate change, pandemic threats and technological changes are compounding the disruptive force of more conventional risks such as demographic change and political turmoil, there is good reason to marshal the serendipitous forces that surround us
From an early age, I have been convinced the force of serendipity that lies behind those sideswipes is one of life’s strongest but least-recognised forces. My life has been shaped not by any vision consciously forged either by myself or my parents but a handful of serendipitous moments that came out of nowhere, forced a choice and forever altered the course of my life.
Neither do I mean just happy or lucky developments, though this was certainly implied by the creator of the concept, the “genial dilettante” Horace Walpole. He recalled the ancient tale of the inventive travels of the Three Princes of Serendip, an ancient Persian term referring to Sri Lanka.
Most of the discussion around serendipity sees it as a lucky and positive force inspiring dramatic innovation, such as Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of penicillin after finding that a green fungus growing in accidentally untended Petri dishes had stifled growth of the staphylococcus bacterium.
