The Lost Art of Pattern Recognition

Like the builders of doomed Fukushima, we envision the future without respecting the past

A stone warning of the danger of deadly tsunamis of centuries past, one of many lining the coastline of northeast Japan, at the village of Aneyoshi, Iwate prefecture. “A house on high ground will lead to peace and happiness for posterity,” reads the inscription on the stone, which was erected after a massive tsunami in 1933. Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images

The Japanese built a nuclear power plant right down the hill from the stone tablets that their ancestors put in the ground warning, “Don’t build anything below here.” The markers, called tsunami stones, were placed centuries ago by villagers who had…