Buckminster Fuller, the late scientist/philosopher, in his book from 1969, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, presented a thesis for the origin of specialization. He accredited the phenomenon to the first pirate-merchants of ages past, the equivalent of the scientists and economic heads of our time. The pirate-merchants, Fuller said, were the first to apply pressure on local leaders and governments, whom they supplied with much desired merchandise from far away places, in order to instill specialization for the insidious motive of limiting education. Specialization, the pirate-merchants believed, made it difficult for anyone to attain the vast range of knowledge which they gained as seafarers.

In considering the state of our own educational systems today, it is disturbingly evident that specialization has contributed to hindering creative thinking in the academic world, the primary ingredient for scientific research and discovery. This is why scientific regard in the educational system is first based on evaluating one's area of specialization, wherein researchers who cover wide areas of research are considered less expertise in any specific field. A competitive approach to research within the fields between geology, cosmology and particle physics, for example, which is a necessary discipline for a comprehensive understanding of these fields, is not encouraged by the academic community doing the bid of the merchant masters of our own civilization today. The merchant masters of a free economy hoping no one will notice the course they've charted to enslaving all of humanity, mind and body, through what has become our culture's primary driving force, mass consumerism. The sciences, part and parcel of the education system that the merchant masters have constructed for this purpose, have unwittingly played into the hands of this great deception.

This competitive attitude within the myriad divided fields of scientific research, fueled by a misconstrued priority attributed to specialization, is perhaps a primary obstacle to advancing scientific discovery in our time. The human mind itself, is a vast vehicle for comprehension, which extends far beyond acquired knowledge into creative reasoning and deduction. Decades of specialized studies cannot compete with the simple ability to comprehend the general thrust of any idea or theory in the sciences. If we are to advance our understanding and discovery of how our universe functions and how it came into being, we must first bring this misplaced notion of specialization into its proper perspective. We must learn how to learn all over again and apply attentive consideration for the essential theories and ideas which science is researching, and not immerse ourselves only in their endless details. The debatable details of any theory in the making, important as they may be, should be dwarfed when first considering the thrust of the idea and the overall essential merit it may hold. While specialization closes off areas of research that are vital to any specific field in science, an educational prerogative of comprehensive knowledge of all the sciences will open up reservoirs of ideas and possibilities vital to our next evolutionary leap as a species.

It is imperative that we encourage creative thinking, support bold and fearless presentation of new ideas, though they may rub the grain of convention - and most of all, to understand that discovery is an ongoing process and that the achievements of our predecessors are building blocks, upon which more new blocks need to be placed in order to arrive at a complete structure.

Can we truly climb upwards upon the ladder of discovery, if we are to continue clinging to the rungs of specialized knowledge which we stand upon today?