The Synapse Vision:

People are separated into various silos according to geography, education, race, socio-economic levels, and even by career specialization. I once witnessed two physicists meeting for the first time. After mentioning the names of their universities, they asked each other about their areas of research. Once said, “Cold temperature.” The other said, “Sub-atomic.” And then they just stared at each other, for they had nothing else to say.

I think that symbolizes a problem we have today in America. We are so segmented that most people have nothing to say to those people who are outside their narrow social networks. Even worse, many fear, disrespect or hate those outside their bubble.

Synapse takes the opposite view. We look for inspiration to the old Silk Road from China to the Middle East. At those towns along the route people would exchange goods, but they would also exchange ideas. This type of cross-fertilization of ideas allowed great civilized cities to arise.

Synapse is creating intersections along the isolated silos and closed networks across the Twin Cities to get a cross-fertilization of ideas from diverse perspectives. In this we we hope to spark a new level of civilization in our region.