Ainan on the ethics of knowledge.

On July 19^th 2013, Ainan posed one of his often mischievous questions.

“Daddy, why is it ethical to destroy the unknown?”, he posed, with a little smile peeking from the corners of his lips.

I knew, at once, what he was saying. To come to know something, is to destroy the mystery that existed before that knowledge was acquired. Ainan was playing with our ideas of ethics, and extending them in ways they were never intended to be.

Yet, there was also something else in what he was saying, I think. Man has a long history of not dealing very well with that which is Unknown in other societies. When “modern” man has come upon less developed societies, those “unknown” societies, usually end up being extinguished, not by knowledge but by the sword, or gun.

There is something of the philosopher, at times, in the questions asked by Ainan. He likes to play with meanings, expectations and paradox. In so doing, he points out interpretations which others have usually not noticed were implicit in the words themselves. Thus, it is, he examines words at a deeper level than their conventional meaning. This tack has promise, if applied in more serious circumstances, for noting matters which have been long overlooked, not just in philosophical thinking but in other areas too. Besides, it can often be simply funny – which is more than enough justification in my book.

I think Ainan is likely to destroy a lot which is unknown, in his life, by coming to know it. That, of course, is the aim of every scientific thinker. I look forward to that “destructive” enlightenment.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Making history, in the eyes of a child prodigy.

Sometimes, what seems a little cynical, can also seem funny.

Yesterday, Ainan remarked: “It is easy to write history...the difficulty comes in not writing fiction.”

I thought it summed up, quite pithily, the situation in not a few countries, where history and fiction were, to some degree, intertwined, depending on the political motivations of the day. It also, of course, embodies a certain cynicism of Ainan, towards the whole process of recording the past, the influences that impinge upon it, and the quality of the result.

Then again, I believe he was trying to make a valid point that expressing the full truth of something is an eminently difficult task and that, even if well-meaning, falsehood could creep in, unbeknownst to even the most careful chronicler. In Ainan’s eyes, it may be rare indeed, for the absolute truth to be written, but more common, instead, for attractive fictions to be penned – ones that fit the needs of the time.

I wonder what the future will tell, if anything, of Ainan: will it be the truth, or a fiction written by people who don’t know him, understand him, or perhaps even judge him, truly, as he is, rather than as they suppose him to be. Funny as Ainan’s remark is, he, too, might one day, become a victim of this tendency that he notes. However, if it happens in his lifetime, I am sure he will make an effort to correct those who so chronicle – as will I, in the time I have.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

The most portable piano in the world.

Ainan, my 13 year old son, owns the most portable piano in the world. It is in his head. I shall explain.

Ainan has the habit of playing an imaginary piano with his fingers, whilst he sits at the dinner table, or even stands up in mid conversation. His fingers tap out “tunes” in the air, not aimlessly, but with perfect, most careful choice of movement and depression of finger. He has been doing this for some time, now.

Today, I asked him: “Ainan: do you hear the music when you do that?”

“Yes.” He said and carried on playing on his invisible piano.

He had confirmed what I had come to intuit: Ainan actually hears the music he plays on his imaginary piano. For him, the music is as real as if he had played it on an actual piano. So, it is, in this way, that Ainan composes music, even when a piano is not near: he will simply tap out the music to himself, on his inner piano. For him, that is enough, to allow him to appreciate it. Most often, later, he will play it on a real piano and, of course, record it – but the first creation is often of him simply tapping the music out on the table or in the air.

For Ainan, musical composition has become very much an instinct and a reflex. Ainan is often seen to be tapping out music on his imaginary piano, whilst holding a conversation. He particularly likes to do this in the kitchen. Either his brothers, or his parents, will be talking to him – and he will be responding – but throughout the conversation, he will quite clearly be seen to be composing music, on his invisible piano. He is so used to composing, now, that not even the distraction of a conversation can stop him from doing so...it just carries on in the background, bubbling up from within him.

It is quietly pleasing to see how much this creative activity has become a part of Ainan since the beginning of his 12^th year, when he resumed composition, after a six year break (he had started to do so as a six year old, before being put off music for a long time). I do hope that he continues with this momentum and grows musically by the day, week, month, year. Already, of course, he is a very accomplished composer, producing new works all the time. I look forward to all the music, yet to be heard in this house, to come. I hope he plays more of it on the piano in the corner of the house, rather than on the one in the corner of his mind – for only he can hear that one!

Happy composing Ainan – piano or not.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Does the world care about genius, anymore?

I ask this question for a very specific reason. It is the experience of my life, with regards to my child prodigy son, that is not easy to secure adequate and fair coverage of his creative and intellectual achievements. This abstemiousness in the coverage of genius, is not particular to Ainan. In fact, I have written many more articles  on giftedness and its issues, than have ever been published. So many of my best articles on giftedness are not allowed to be seen and read by the world, because of unfortunate media mindsets. It is very strange to watch the media’s priorities, in which, too often very, very trivial matters (David Beckham’s new haircut, anyone?) receive massive global coverage, whereas much more significant, indeed, historic achievements, such as Ainan making a scientific discovery and co-authoring a research paper at the age of 8, receive relatively modest coverage, considering their importance. It is very strange to watch. It seems that the modern world celebrates ordinariness and sidelines the truly exceptional. Once, it was not so. There was a time when, to become famous, one had to be truly an exceptional being. Now, it is the other way around – the very ordinary (such as reality TV stars), manage to achieve great fame, on the back of seemingly no achievements whatsoever, whereas the world’s greatest scientists, for instance, are essentially unheard of, outside of their own discipline. We have an inversion of the age old relationship between merit and fame.

It seems that in our time, too often, the unworthy become known and the worthy remain unknown. At least, it is not difficult to think of talentless, famous people and even easier to think of very talented, unknown ones (we all know one or two such people). Public regard now seems to be accorded on those most like the public – ie. unexceptional – and least like the giants of old – ie. geniuses. This is a tragedy,  not only for the geniuses concerned, but for Mankind and human society as a whole. I shall explain why.

A genius has the power to transform the human world – be it culturally, technologically, scientifically or societally. Yet, to effect such transformation, the genius needs to influence the world. The ability to influence that world and effect the positive changes they could make, depends directly on how well known they are. The better known they are, the more the world will listen to their ideas. Thus, it can be readily seen that, to reach their maximum potential for positive change in the world, a genius needs to be famous, in a very real sense. An unknown genius is an uninfluential genius. An unknown genius will not be able to change the world, to any significant degree. It is only when their work becomes well known, that it can have a chance of affecting the world. Thus, it can be seen that the media, by starving the general public of information on geniuses, by preferentially covering the Top 100 Celebrity Haircuts/nose clippings/shopping sprees, are directly impeding the progress of humanity.

Humanity cannot progress unless the work of its creators becomes widely known. That creative work cannot become widely known, unless the creators themselves are also widely known. Thus, it can be seen that creative work cannot change the world, in any real way, unless its creators are themselves well known. Fame can be used for trivial or profound purposes. In the hands of a genius, it can be used to truly transform the world, in a positive way.

It is time to silence the tumult of unremarkable “celebrities” and put in their place, the truly remarkable among us. By empowering such individuals of genius, with the influence that comes with fame, the world will progress with greater rapidity, to the benefit of all.

So, it is up to the media, to make a point of giving people of genius – and their creative works – an appropriate level of coverage, in proportion to the significance, rarity and potential of the achievements. A book, an artwork, a musical composition, a scientific paper, an architectural design, a poem, a film and any other creative achievement are all INFINITELY more worthy of global coverage, than a celebrity’s latest “hook up”.

Let us usher in a world of significance – and let the trivial be silenced. Banish celebrity haircuts, relationships, and trashy behaviour from the world’s newspapers and put in their place achievements and achievers of significance.  Were this done, we would soon all be living in a much better world than this one.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Mathematical serendipity and the Apollonian Gasket.

Maths is vast. Sometimes, looking at how much has been done, I wonder at the mathematical Universe that has been created by the collective endeavour of all Man’s generations of mathematical thinkers. Now, this vastness has consequences which Ainan discovered recently.

Some time ago, Ainan drew what seemed to him a very interesting shape of tangential circles within a circle, echoing fractally on. He drew it because the form of it appealed to him, aesthetically. He liked its mathematical beauty.

Some time later, Ainan stumbled on something on Wikipedia: the Apollonian Gasket. It was the figure Ainan had drawn...the fractal shape of tangential circles. Ainan had rediscovered something invented, initially, by Apollonius of Perga, the Greek Mathematician. How odd...and how revealing of the vastness of mathematical creation, that a random creation of a child, playing with mathematical ideas, should, itself, have already been the random creation of an adult, long ago, in Greece.

Ainan is inventing much mathematics these days. He invents mathematical problems, schemas, conjectures, propositions and theories, for himself to play with. No doubt, on occasion, they will be something that has been done before – like the Apollonian Gasket – yet, at other times, I am sure, they are something that has never been done before. The problem with that is that I am not a mathematician and so I am not in a position to advise Ainan as to the merit, utility or value of anything he does. So, he just creates in mathematical isolation, playing with maths, as other children might play with the sand, at the beach: happily, joyfully, for the very purpose of immersing oneself in the environment – in his case, an abstract one – in the other’s, the beach.

Ainan is presently alone in his mathematical pursuits. There is no-one to share them with – though I listen to him and watch, with a sprinkling of wonder, at what he does. Yet, I cannot be the perfect audience to his mathematical work, because my primary domains are elsewhere, other than this.

Ainan spins on, growing, becoming, morphing, each passing year, into a being, ever more rarified, ever more unexpected. My role is to do what I can to foster that growth – even if it be in areas that are not my primary strengths. I enjoy it, but I wish, for his sake that I could be all the differing intellects he requires to be properly supported. I can be most of them – and am – but I cannot be all of them. Yet, what I can be, is appreciative of his intellectual growth, in whichever direction it meanders, no matter how far it wanders...I can appreciate it...and I do.

I hope that is enough.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

A perspective on mathematics

On the 5th February 2013, Ainan confided: "The reason I like the Ackermann function is because it is so simple."

Some might not agree. The Wikipedia article on the Ackermann function states: "In computability theory the Ackermann function, named after Wilhelm Ackermann is one of the simplest and earliest-discovered examples of a total computable function that is not primitive recursive. All primitive recursive functions are total and computable, but the Ackermann function illustrates that not all total computable functions are primitive recursive."

As maths goes, the Ackermann function is simple enough - but the point is that this is the view of a boy who has just turned 13. I suspect this is not a common view therefore.

Ainan is growing into a young mathematician, along with his other attributes. He studies maths every semester at Taylor's University and is steadily growing in knowledge, skill, competence and confidence. He even makes up his own maths.

The other day, he was trying to explain to me a mathematical system he had designed. He was very enthusiastic about it. What struck me more than his enthusiasm was his repetition of: "It is so simple Daddy."

I looked at the page he was writing on, densely scrawled with mathematical notation and thought that most people would disagree. 

Ainan is still growing intellectually. Each year sees him becoming more complex, more adept and that bit more beyond the expected. He is only 13, now...near the beginning of that year of his life. Thus, he still has quite a few years of intellectual growth left to him. It is becoming clear that he has already journeyed further, intellectually, than most ever do - yet he is still quite early on in his journey. I am left to wonder: how far will he go? 

I look forward to being witness to his growth - and an assistant to it, when I can be.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

The value of the unexpected.

For me, one of the most interesting qualities in a conversationalist, is the ability to surprise. It is what really grabbed my interest about my wife, when I first met her: she was constantly saying unexpected, unpredictable things, which I had never heard anyone say before. Until then, I had been accustomed to being able to predict basically what people were going to say next from the context of what they had already said: people were eminently predictable. My wife changed all that, by being eminently not so.

Ainan, too, has this quality of being unpredictable, though his unforeseeability has much more logic about it than my wife’s. I note that my spell checker doesn’t like the word “unforeseeability” – but I do, so it shall remain.

On Monday, 28^th January, Ainan observed: “There is a point at which buildings are too tall to be dangerous. That is when it takes so long to reach the ground that scientists would have invented teleportation by then.”

I laughed. I liked the playfulness of this comment – and its unexpectedness. It is a quality of mind of much merit, to entertain thoughts that no-one else has had – and to do so, in good humour.

Ainan’s mind appears to be an interesting blend of my wife’s and my own. From me, he has his scientific intellect, and a tendency to entertain big ideas; from his mother he has a seasoning of artistic license. Ainan commingles the two, never failing to be logical but, at the same time, often succeeding in being absurd. I cannot decide whether he will become a great scientist or a humourist! Probably both...one who crafts darkly humourous scientific jokes!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

A child prodigy on the secret of the afterlife.

Computers influence us in many ways. Today, Ainan posed a question that deliberately played with that influence on our lives.

“What if when you die,” he began, with whimsy in his eyes, “you see a high score screen?”

I laughed uproariously...so loudly I no doubt worried our neighbours. He joined me in laughter, though his lungs couldn’t muster the same volume.

Then, I sobered up.

“In a way, you do. At least other people do.”

Ainan’s gaze tightened on me, in curiosity.

“You see when a celebrity or a rich person dies, newspapers tend to report the net worth of their estate at the moment of death. This is a kind of high score that summarizes your life achievements.”

“How do they know that?”

“There are people who track the wealth of celebrities and rich people.”

“Why do they do it?”

“Because some people find that interesting.”

He looked perplexed. Clearly, Ainan didn’t find this a meaningful datum about a person – and that perplexity was encouraging, for it bespoke of a deeper way of looking at the meaning of people and their lives.

There are other “high scores” they could focus on, but usually don’t so much. Were they married? (That is a life achievement.) How long was that marriage? Did it endure lifelong (a testament to stability)? How many children did the deceased have? How many grandchildren and great-grandchildren? How long did they live? What were their greatest achievements? What made them happiest? What would they most like to be remembered for? How many books did they write? How many did they sell? How many patents and papers did they have to their name? How about music compositions or works of art? Or articles in newspapers? How many and how important were their life works? Whom did their life touch? What effect did they have in the world, or on their family and friends? Did they make a positive contribution to life, society and the environment overall? Were they honest? Were they warm, loving and kind? Did they help others or predate upon them?

I could go on forever. There are so many more meaningful ways to assess a life than to declare a person’s net worth. Sadly, we live in a world that values wealth more than all the other indicators of a worthy life put together.

As for Ainan’s question: “What if when you die, you see a high score screen?”

I could have answered, but didn’t, until now.

“They are called biographers.”

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)