Undisruptable

10Here Be Dragons

Figure 10.1 Here be dragons

‘Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood’.

— Marie Curie

Centuries ago, mapmakers and cartographers didn't know the true shape of the seas and land. They worked outwards from the territories that were already explored. Back then, sailors went to sea with maps labelled with the Latin words hic sun dracones – here be dragons. Here be dragons meant we don't know much – if anything – about these uncharted lands.

In our increasingly uncertain world, we are continuously pushing the boundaries of what is known. Just as early explorers discovered the uncharted territories of the physical world, we are entering uncharted territories of the digital realm. While some of us find voyaging into the unknown exhilarating, others become paralysed by fear.

There is a reason I opened this chapter with the idea of the dragon. American writer, historian and mythologist Joseph Campbell extensively studied the presence of dragons in mythology. In the 1988 PBS series, The Power of Myth, Campbell explained how dragons guarded both gold and virgins, neither of which they could make use of. In a sense, the dragon squanders the gifts in its own possession. Campbell said, ‘There's no vitality of experience … and you're captured in your own dragon cage’. This raises questions for all of us: Are we making use of our gifts or are we ...