Silo had a curious affinity for controversial art.  If a certain book, a piece of music or some other element in a creative world caused such a problem that it was banned or discouraged in a cognitive (albeit a semi-cognitive) setting, then there was a phenomenon in that art worth exploring and investigating.  This attitude was the finger that felt the pulse of organized intolerance.

Catcher in the Rye.  Marilyn Manson.  Harry Potter.  All things that were perceived as a threat to some ideal, some way of life.  Entire periods of time ignored these challenging statements on the world - even if the statements were well-informed - to a point that intellectual growth was handicapped and the cognitive fruits of philosophically stagnant generations rotted under the corrosive effects of passing time.  Sadly, their fate was shared with him, for nobody in the city would meet him at his level.  When all you do is question the world and nobody questions either you or that world with you, you yourself become stagnant, incapable of cognitive reproduction.  You and your ideas rot away as fast as the world around you does.