Are prodigies in competition with others?

Today, someone from Arlington, Virginia arrived on my blog with a curious search: “Cannot become a theoretical physicist because of prodigies”. I thought this a most odd search in what it said about the searcher’s understanding of prodigies.

Firstly, let us look at the situation with regards to prodigies. Many researchers put the number of true prodigies, of all types lumped together, at one in five million people. That means that the rarer types of prodigy, such  as omnibus prodigy (the type Ainan has now demonstrated himself to be – a prodigy with a multitude of talents), are much rarer still. There are, therefore, very few prodigies. How many in Physics have there been in recorded history? Well, Wikipedia’s list of child prodigies musters only 8 names. Thus, the entire competition from child prodigy physicists amounts to just 8 people.

It takes little imagination to see, therefore, that prodigies are not, truly, in competition with the masses of others, who are not prodigious. There are too few prodigies for it to be a truly competitive situation – prodigies are simply overwhelmed numerically by the non-prodigious.

So, to my searcher in Arlington, Virginia – you need not worry about the presence of prodigies in theoretical physics...no matter how talented they are, they will be numerically too small a number, to worry about, in any real competitive sense. This applies to all categories of prodigy...no-one need worry about prodigies out competing them, because there will always be too few of them to take up all the spots at the top, as it were: there will always be space for a bright individual who took more time to develop to their fullest.

There is only one way prodigies could become real competition at the top, in all fields: and that is if they were, perhaps, a thousand times more prevalent. In such a situation, they would tend to dominate – but that situation is unlikely to happen and, in fact, would be impossible without major intervention in human evolution and population genetics. This is not likely to happen in the foreseeable future, though it is conceivable that it might happen one day – probably beginning in a state that has less scruples than others, over possible ethical issues, most likely in Asia. I doubt, however, whether that is going to be something present adults will have to face, because the relevant technologies will take a significant time to mature and may, of course, never be implemented in humans at all.

Prodigies are not anyone’s competition. What they are, is human colour: they add to the spectrum of interesting humans out there in the world and should be welcomed, not feared, or shunned. What prodigies bring to the table is so rare that it is not, truly, in competition with anyone. Each prodigy should be treasured and valued, for the human rarity they are. Then again, if people fear their competition, people will tend to hamper the prodigy’s development...they will attempt to stymie them in every way they can. That, would be a truly sad loss of the prodigy’s talents. A prodigy should be aided, in every way, to become what they may – for though they add to life and society, they don’t take away opportunity from others, because they are simply too few.

Celebrate the prodigies in your midst...and don’t worry about competing with them. It is not about competition, it is about making the best of life, for us all.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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