The Moonwalking Computer Game.

The other day, I saw something very odd. My son, Ainan, was playing an online computer game in which the "soldiers" were acting rather bizarrely. They were walking backwards into the field of fire, then moonwalking on the spot (still backwards). Now, not being completely unfamiliar with computer games, I knew that this was not normal.

"How did you do that?", I asked Ainan, somewhat stupefied.

"Oh, it's easy, I just hacked the game...", he trailed off, not explaining exactly what "hacking the game" involved.

Ainan is just nine years old. I remember being nine years old - and at that age, I don't think anyone around me was equipped to be hacking online computer games and making them do bizarre things. (Not that there were such things...but you know what I mean.) Yet, here Ainan was, playing with the computer code of online games, like a typical child might play with a football.

The mystery of this is two-fold: firstly, how does he do it? Secondly, and more to the point - how did he LEARN to do it? You see, Ainan has not been taught programming in class - this is something he has taught himself, something he has worked out, on his own, through experimentation. Somehow, it is something he instinctively understands. He looks at a computer and sees a playground, that he can make do pretty much what he wants. He is not following the instructions of another, or techniques learnt formally - he is just guided by his own intuitions and insights into how computers work.

Though I have chosen to comment on his Moonwalking computer game, it is not an infrequent occurrence that a computer should behave bizarrely in his presence. Indeed, I have almost come to expect unusual behaviour from computers, once he has been near them. What amazes me, though, is the ease with which he accomplishes these things; the speed with which he does so, and the sureness with which he does so. Yet, he does so, on his own instruction.

He is yet at the beginning of his mental growth, for he is but nine. Yet, I do wonder where and how far he will go in his development and what he will become. He has acquired some degree of skill in quite a few intellectual disciplines, from physics, chemistry, computing, indeed, in anything scientific and mathematical. It is difficult, therefore, to see where this will end up, since there are so many directions he could choose to take.

In the meantime, I shall just enjoy his playfulness in all that he does - and watch that he doesn't play too much havoc on my computer!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

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