Past-Present-Future: Widening Our Focus

Leonardo da Vinci, whose 573 birthday was on April 15, has a thing or two to teach us today

Leonardo da Vinci’s home, Château de Clos Lucé, Amboise, France Credit: Robin Stevens Payes

One in an occasional series of posts inspired by my work with GenZ youth based on my Edge of Yesterday books. In addition to the series, I’ve created an immersive, interactive “learning through story” platform to go beyond the page.

Many of the stories in the Time Travelers portal at the Edge have been contributed by my interns and workshop participants—young people who engage in our Leonardo da Vinci-inspired mission to “examine the past through the lens of the present to build a better future.”

As a science fiction writer at the Edge of Yesterday, I have been fascinated by the legacy of Leonardo, ever since the series’ STEMinista protagonist, Charley, stumbled on Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for a time machine, and made it her business to build a model for the middle school science fair. [Spoiler alert: whoops! It works.]

Now, what’s a modern girl with a smart tablet supposed to do in a world where witch hunts are common, and burning at the stake, punishment for the crime. Danger lurks at every moment.

In an interview with Leonardo himself, Charley interrogates the Renaissance master’s capacity to envision the future. A world of curiosity, creativity, inspiration and innovation—to master the world around him through observation, experimentation and discovery.

Scientific method, meet human ingenuity.

Ever since that “aha” moment where Leonardo spills the tea, and with Charley’s help, I have been on a quest to infuse young people with that vision.

This mission feels especially critical today: rather than focusing on expanding opportunity, access and innovation through broadening our pursuit of greater understanding—knowing anything is possible—our world today feels intent on narrowing and constricting that dream.

In the story, Charley, a modern-day Renaissance-girl wannabe has been pursuing her big dreams. In a world where specialization is rewarded, Charley wants to do everything.

Widening our focus from STEM to STEAM to MASTERY, the young people I engage with are equally motivated to “do it all.”

To build a better future, together.

In what seems critical to evolving our collective future, how can we encourage and support them?

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MASTERY: Da Vinci's Secret to Inventing the Future

Could you “see” the possibility of air travel if birds and butterflies were the only objects flying in the skies? Imagine how Leonardo da Vinci might have thought that stuff up— hundreds of years ahead of his time.

Think about the world back in the day, before the Internet, before TV, before phones and texts, before electricity: it was very difficult to get information. And it took forever. There were books, but most people were illiterate. Schooling didn't become public and universal until the 1800s in the United States, and much later elsewhere.

So how could Leonardo da Vinci, a self-taught man who lived during the 15th and early 16th centuries, discover, design and invent innovations from a model for the airplane, to a submarine, to bridges whose designs are currently being engineered around the world?

Charley says it's because she ended up teaching Leonardo—about gravity, the internet, Einstein's Theory of Relativity—all the things! Check out her up-close-and-personal interview with the Maestro himself, in which he reveals how, “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”

But history shows that the Maestro's real secret was his obsession to master—through observation, experimentation, and discovery—the designs and workings in the world around him.

Da Vinci’s Key to Universal Learning

MATH + ARTS + SCIENCES + TECHNOLOGY + ENGINEERING + REFLECTION SKILLS x new ways to see and tell the STORY = MASTERY

However it happened, it seems without question that da Vinci was bent on inventing the future. How he understood so much more about the workings of the world than anyone else at the time could even imagine—and how it has all since come into being— is, perhaps, the ultimate mystery.

Perhaps one clue comes in response to a question Charley asks him at the end of their conversation: For teens like me, what is your legacy?

Leonardo da Vinci: It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

Perhaps you’re a maestro of modern MASTERY. How can we build a better future together?

“Do not sit back and let things happen to you. Go out and happen to things.”

~Leonardo da Vinci

Find more like this in the Time Traveler’s portal at the Edge of Yesterday, including a deeper dive to resources, readings, videos, quizzes, games and more in support of MASTERY: https://edgeofyesterday.com/time-travelers

Combine with this modern conception of Leonardo’s MASTERY: What can Leonardo da Vinci teach us about our world today?