For centuries, intelligence has been narrowly defined as cognitive — the ability to think logically, solve problems, and recall information. However, this definition has always been incomplete. By focusing only on cognitive intelligence, society has confined us to a limited framework that stifles creativity and prevents us from imagining a healthier, more sustainable future. Our systems reward those who fit within this narrow view and marginalize those who do not, resulting in widespread emotional, social, and ecological unhealthiness.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to take over cognitive tasks, we face unprecedented changes. Somatic intelligence — the intelligence of the body, of building and making — will soon be its next target for replication. The only form of intelligence AI cannot replicate is creative intelligence, which holds the capacity to adapt, innovate, and foresee the future. AI, built on a 2D understanding that focuses only on the present and past, cannot predict the future. Our economic, ecological, and technological systems are similarly built on flawed assumptions about intelligence and progress, which is why our forecasts keep failing.
Marginalization of Creatives
Throughout history, creatives have been marginalized because they have the greatest ability to change society. Cognitive and somatic intelligence are valued because they lack the ability to see the whole picture, making it easier for those with these forms of intelligence to accept and function within the system without questioning it. This is the part of the story most people recognize. What they don’t see is that the system is not just designed to prevent creatives from changing it but also to exploit their unique abilities. By marginalizing creatives, the system ensures their outside-the-box thinking can be harnessed to serve the interests of those at the top.
Creatives are oppressed in every aspect of life — education, society, and medicine. In education, creative thinkers are labeled and suppressed, forced into rigid structures designed to stifle their innovation and reduce their potential. Society perpetuates this by devaluing creative careers, treating creatives as impractical or eccentric, while rewarding those who fit into the cognitive-driven framework. In medicine, creatives are often pathologized, with their sensitivity and unique modes of thinking misdiagnosed as disorders rather than being recognized as profound intelligence.
This deliberate marginalization ensures that creatives’ abilities are used to sustain the very system that oppresses them. Their innovative thinking is exploited to design new ways of control and oppression, benefiting the elite. The value generated by creatives is then funneled to the top of the hierarchy, where it deepens inequality and reinforces existing power structures rather than serving the broader societal good.
Most people do not realize that the system devalues everyone involved, not just the creatives. Cognitive and somatic intelligence are valued because they cannot see the whole picture well enough to question the system, and by keeping them focused on their limited roles, the system prevents them from recognizing this exploitation.
The Pattern in Societal Collapse
This pattern is seen in every societal collapse. First, the creatives are silenced and suppressed in education. Then they are funneled into areas the wealthy select to exploit their abilities. Once creatives deliver what the elite need, they are discarded and replaced by those the system can easily control. This process is intentional, not accidental. The entire system is set up to devalue creatives and direct them toward places where they can be most exploited by the wealthy.
Through this system, creatives are pathologized, labeled, and broken, with their sensitivity weaponized against them. By suppressing creativity, the system not only maintains control over the sensitive and gifted but also prevents meaningful change, keeping society from breaking free and creating a healthier, more sustainable world. The result is a society where the potential for innovation and fairness is systematically crushed, maintaining a hierarchy that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
A Warning from Nature
Recent events like Hurricane Helene’s unexpected intensification after landfall illustrate the convergence of economic, ecological, and technological systems in unpredictable ways. Our current forecasting methods — whether in climate, the economy, or technology — fail because they are based on an incomplete understanding of intelligence and system interactions. We are trapped in a 2D world that serves those in power, focused on short-term gains, and refusing to think beyond immediate needs. As resources dwindle and ecosystems destabilize, the cracks in the system reveal the deep structural decay.
The Necessity of Full Intelligence
What everyone needs now is full intelligence — a 3D integration of cognitive, somatic, and creative thinking. For most people, this integration helps them navigate their own paths. For outliers, it provides the insight needed to guide the group through an unpredictable future. However, many don’t understand this concept because society conditions us to believe intelligence is fixed and linear. As an extreme creative, a savant, I could not be conditioned out of my creative and somatic intelligence. This allowed me to see the patterns that have broken creative outliers for generations.
Societal-Wide Conditioning
Society’s devaluation of creatives is most evident in media, where they are portrayed as outcasts or tragic figures who never receive recognition due to their supposed “weaknesses.” These so-called weaknesses are often framed as their inability to conform to conditioning. Meanwhile, society is taught to value those who exploit solutions, not those who create them.
The stories told in media offer glimpses into how we are conditioned to value different forms of intelligence. Films like Rudy glorify the physical resilience of somatic intelligence, but the reward is minimal. Movies about “geeks” at their high school reunions celebrate their financial or professional success, reinforcing the idea that cognitive intelligence is the key to winning in life. Creatives, on the other hand, are often portrayed as misunderstood geniuses or tragic figures who never quite fit in. Even films like Dead Poets Society, which reveres creativity, still end on a tragic note. These stories reflect a truth society has always known but refused to articulate: intelligence is not one-dimensional.
Creatives have always known there’s more to understanding the world than logic or physical skill. They’ve understood this through their bodies and emotions, but our systems haven’t allowed them to fully express it.
Body Wisdom and Extreme Intelligence
Creatives possess a profound body wisdom — an exceptional pattern recognition intelligence driven by the immersive learning of holistic genius. This body wisdom allows sensitive creatives to find the patterns and cues that generate the solutions humanity needs to survive. Schools suppress somatic intelligence by making students quiet and obedient — traits that serve cognitive intelligence but stifle somatic and creative genius. Yet, the most sensitive and gifted individuals somehow retain this body wisdom, and in times of crisis, somatic intelligence is tested, and true genius emerges.
AI’s takeover of cognitive tasks creates space for creatives to reconnect with their body wisdom. AI’s inability to feel or intuit leaves the most human parts of intelligence untouched, allowing creatives to thrive. This presents an opportunity for creatives to explore and reclaim the body wisdom society has long devalued. AI can assist in unlocking the full potential of somatic and creative intelligence.
Creatives as Future Navigators
Creatives will be essential in navigating the complexities of the future because they have always seen beyond the surface. Their body wisdom and intuition allow them to adapt in ways that 2D thinkers cannot. AI’s reshaping of the world will create an environment where creatives can finally thrive. However, this will not be led by the current system, which has always oppressed creatives to maintain an unnatural hierarchy. Based on historical patterns, we have reason to fear what the system has planned for the most creative.
Teachers, AI, and the Limits of Our Systems
The oppression of creatives is intentional. The current system places the highest value on cognitive intelligence, the smallest of our intelligences, which should serve as a tool for the other two. Those with high cognitive intelligence resist any suggestion that their intelligence is not supreme. I’ve experienced this firsthand in conversations with teachers about AI in classrooms. They focused on using AI to teach students how to replicate existing ideas, but when I suggested that AI should foster creative thinking — helping students innovate and solve new problems — they refused to engage with the idea.
I explained that what they were teaching would soon hold little value. AI will take over rote learning and repetitive cognitive tasks. The real value lies in teaching students to create with AI, using it as a tool for new thinking rather than rehashing the old. Their response? They dismissed the idea, claiming they needed “actionable advice” for the current system, not challenges to the framework they relied on.
When I proposed a shift toward integrated, hands-on learning environments, they devalued my perspective, stating they didn’t serve “outliers” like me. They implied that the students I represented weren’t like “normal” children. But they were wrong. Most outliers are in our public education systems. The growing number of labeled children is evidence that the system was never created to adapt to students’ needs but to condition students to fit the system.
The teachers missed a critical reality: what works for the most sensitive and gifted students works for everyone. When systems nurture the creativity and emotional intelligence of sensitive individuals, they create environments where all students thrive. But these teachers, entrenched in their cognitive framework, defended the system because it served their worldview. They didn’t want to hear that their methods were failing children or that AI would soon render their approach obsolete.
Their refusal to embrace broader, more holistic learning doesn’t just hold back outliers — it holds back everyone. This resistance will only hasten the collapse of a system that was never designed to nurture creativity.
The Collapse of a Broken System
Our educational system is designed to maintain the status quo. It prizes cognitive intelligence because it fits neatly into a system focused on productivity and order. Creativity, the intelligence that could help us navigate an uncertain future, has always been marginalized. Now, the system is collapsing because it cannot adapt quickly enough to the changes AI and other forces bring. When it collapses, it won’t just take down those already struggling — it will take down everyone.
A Future That Demands Creativity
To navigate the massive changes ahead, we must teach children to integrate cognitive, somatic, and creative intelligence. The future will not be shaped by those who memorize facts or follow rules — it will be shaped by those who see beyond the present, who innovate and navigate uncertainty. Sensitive, gifted individuals live this reality daily, and systems designed for them benefit everyone.
The Most Creative Must Lead
In times of collapse, creatives — those with body wisdom, intuition, and holistic intelligence — are vital. The cognitive elites running the current system cannot see beyond their 2D thinking. They have forgotten that the system was designed to give them all the advantages. Even as the system collapses around them, they will cling to it.
Creatives, however, can sense the future and adapt. Our role is to find each other, cultivate our gifts, and prepare for the chaos ahead. Creativity is not a luxury — it’s a necessity for survival.
The system’s collapse is inevitable, but creatives are equipped to navigate what comes next. We must create something new, something that thrives in the complex, unpredictable future. I am already doing this and inviting you to join me.
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