How to Use AI to Discover Interdisciplinary Connections: An Alternative Approach to Learning
- Samuel Fernández Lorenzo
- Sep 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 10
Did you know that Albert Einstein played the violin and attributed part of his creative thinking to music? He once mentioned: "If I was not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music."
From an early age, we are pushed to choose a path, a discipline, a career. Specialization thus becomes the norm. And, although specialization has undeniable advantages, there is an inherent risk in limiting our vision of knowledge to isolated compartments.
The Fallacy of Isolated Compartments
It is common to find people who, having studied a specific discipline such as philology or law, consider subjects like physics or programming as alien or irrelevant to them. This mindset, although understandable, represents a self-imposed limitation to intellectual and professional growth.
The reality is that knowledge is inherently interconnected. Each new thing we learn has the potential to illuminate and enrich our understanding of other fields, even those apparently unrelated. Learning one thing is, unintentionally, learning about another.
The Concept of the Polymath
A polymath, a term that comes from the Greek πολυμαθής (polymathēs, "one who has learned much"), refers to a person whose knowledge spans various fields, but who especially stands out for the ability to establish connections between different disciplines; to transcend specialization in order to develop a holistic understanding of knowledge.
This doesn't mean that polymaths are "experts in everything," but rather people who have developed the ability to transfer concepts and methodologies from one field to another, finding patterns and establishing innovative connections. This allows them to approach complex problems from multiple perspectives.
Historically, some of the most significant contributions to human knowledge have been brought to light by polymaths. Besides Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps the epitome of the Renaissance polymath, we can think of other notable examples such as Aristotle, who made fundamental contributions in fields as diverse as logic, biology, ethics, and politics; or Benjamin Franklin, who besides being a prominent politician and diplomat, was an inventor, writer, and scientist.
In today's world, and although specialization is to some degree inevitable, I have the feeling that cultivating a polymathic mindset will become increasingly pressing for innovation and solving complex problems. And why? Because if there's something in which humans excel, it's our global thinking, which goes beyond the local. And it is within this global framework that we distill essences, essences that allow us to establish interdisciplinary connections, and which we commonly use to ingeniously face the most important challenges.
The Power of Unexpected Connections
A fascinating example of these interdisciplinary connections can be found in the Black-Scholes equation, used in finance for the valuation of derivatives, and its surprising relationship with Schrödinger's equation from quantum mechanics. Who would have imagined that the mathematics describing the behavior of subatomic particles would have such a direct application in financial markets?
Another excellent example of this type of interdisciplinary connections can be found in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, such as the Madrid Codices which I invite you to take a look at. Da Vinci was not only an extraordinary artist, but his studies of anatomy allowed him to improve his paintings, while his knowledge of optics influenced his sfumato technique. His observations of birds and bats led him to design flying machines, and his botanical studies influenced his architectural designs.
Da Vinci did not see these disciplines as separate fields, but as different manifestations of the same fundamental principles of nature. His notebooks are full of drawings where engineering, art, and science intertwine ingeniously, demonstrating how knowledge in one area can enrich understanding in others that are apparently unrelated.
AI as a Catalyst for Interdisciplinarity
Currently, we have a tool that greatly facilitates the exploration of these interdisciplinary connections: artificial intelligence, more specifically, Large Language Models (LLMs). These systems are interesting insofar as they have been trained with vast amounts of information from diverse fields, and contain within their architecture latent connections waiting to be discovered by us.
LLMs harbor bridges between different disciplines, allowing us to discover relationships and patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. However, the true value of these tools is revealed when there is a curious human being predisposed to ask the right questions.
Surprisingly to me, I recently realized that students, for the most part, are not really aware of this latent capability in this new technology. They continue to use it in a way similar to how we would use a Google search engine, asking for direct information on a topic that allows them to progress toward obtaining their degree. What a waste!
Here I suggest some alternative prompts to explore interdisciplinary connections through an LLM (which would probably lead to a dead end in a conventional search engine):
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The Path to Deeper Understanding
The thesis I am trying to defend could be summarized as follows: to truly understand our environment and enhance our capacity for innovation, we need to adopt a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. It's not simply about accumulating knowledge from different areas, but about developing the ability to establish meaningful connections between them (as in "The Four Seasons" by Giuseppe Arcimboldo)
Therefore, I always invite cultivating an attitude of openness and curiosity towards areas of knowledge that might initially seem distant from our main interests. Each new learning, however far it may seem from our specialty, has the potential to enrich our understanding and open new perspectives.
In an increasingly complex and automated world, the ability to weave understanding knots between different disciplines will predictably become more differential. Interdisciplinarity may be called upon to stop being an academic luxury and establish itself as a fundamental tool for innovation and the resolution of complex problems.
Conclusion
Learning about one thing is, inevitably, learning about another. The barriers between disciplines are, in many cases, the result of a phenomenological appreciation, and the most valuable connections often arise at the intersections between different fields of knowledge, but at their essential level. In the era of artificial intelligence, we have an unprecedented opportunity to explore and leverage these connections.
The next time you find yourself hesitating about venturing into a field apparently far from your specialty, remember: each new piece of knowledge is one more piece in the great puzzle of understanding. And sometimes, the pieces that seem most disparate are precisely those that complete the picture.
If you identify with the polymathic spirit, I invite you to share and connect. And don't miss the second part of Everything I Can Imagine: The Algorithm of Understanding, where I explore knowledge through polymathic lenses.
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