Living in a one-dimensional world.

The world is not what it used to be. Or, more specifically, PEOPLE are not what they used to be. It doesn't take much reading of history to note something odd about the people recorded there: many of them seem so much more diverse and capable than the typical modern human. Today, the world is peopled by one dimensional beings, able to do one thing, if that. Yesteryear, on the other hand, was made up of people of multiplicitous talents. They lived very diverse lives, excelling at many different things.

Perhaps I should remind you of the likes of the men of the past, that we no longer have. Copernicus, for instance, of the Heliocentric theory of the solar system, was, according to Wikipedia, a mathematician, astronomer, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Wikipedia notes that Leonardo da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist and writer. Benjamin Franklin is remembered as a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, publisher and diplomat. Thomas Jefferson was a philosopher, author, lawyer, architect, musician, naturalist, botanist, inventor, engineer, statesman, diplomat, and political theorist - oh, and President of the United States.

Modern eminences, on the other hand, are, generally, one dimensional people. They are pop stars, who often don't write their own songs, but specialize in performing them. They are academics, so specialized that the readership of their target journals is measured in hundreds and their articles are only of relevance to a dozen people. They focus their entire lives on the tiniest corners of human knowledge and make the merest increments of progress. They are writers who, typically, cultivate one type of story line - the horror writer, the science fiction author, the vampire tale spinner, and so on - and do nothing else. They are actors, many of whom do only one type of role: the action hero, the bumbling oaf, the person with a dark secret etc. They are lawyers, who spend their lives dealing with one kind of argument on behalf of one type of client, all their lives long. They are TV presenters whose highest skill is insincerity and an easy smile. This is the world we live in. A world dominated by what would once have been seen as slivers of people, with mere suggestions of ability. Diversity of careers are not only absent, but discouraged. It is frowned upon to step outside of the domain for which one initially becomes known. An actor may not write without being viewed with some amusement; a scientist may not paint without eliciting smirks and frowns; a businessman may not be a poet, without people talking behind his back, in unflattering terms. Nowadays, everyone must safely be placed in a box with but a single label - clear, readily understood, almost stereotypical. People who wish to step outside of such constraints find that the modern world really resists them. The academic known in one field, who wishes to publish in another, may find a cool reception - or even open hostility that he should dare to speak of matters on which he is "unqualified" (as if a particular piece of paper is needed to allow anyone to think). The pop star who acts, is just not taken seriously, even if his or her performances are decent. Indeed, to stray into any field outside of the one in which one has become initially established is to evoke anything from coldness, to hostility, to being shunned, ignored or just met with amusement. There is the feeling that only those who have devoted their entire lives to a particular pursuit have a rightful place in it. Yet, this is absurdly not true. Any creative and intelligent person may be able to contribute to any area of human life, given the chance to do so. It is just that in the modern world, few are given such a chance because of the dominant belief that one must specialize in one thing and one thing alone.

Given the narrowness of modern life, in the sense that diversity of activity is difficult to achieve and is actively resisted by the society, I would say that few modern people are as interesting as the most interesting people of the past. Modern men are shallow and narrow, in experience, outlook and understanding. They each carry the smallest piece of the world around with them and that, perhaps, explains much that is wrong with this world. There are many things which become more difficult to achieve, when everyone is so narrow in their views and understandings.

I would like to see an end to the one dimensional world we live in, and a return to more plural, multi-dimensional times. Unfortunately, I do wonder if modern people have the intellectual substance to be able to do such a thing. It may be that such people are too uncommon, nowadays, for such a diverse culture to ever prevail again. We can, however, but live in hope.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

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The failure of the Copernican Revolution.

The Earth goes round the Sun...right? Everyone knows this don't they? That's where the concept of "year", comes from, doesn't it?

Well, not everyone knows this. In fact, in a recent survey ONE FIFTH OF AMERICANS THOUGHT THAT THE SUN GOES AROUND THE EARTH. I read it with less shock than others might feel. Why? Because I have met this particular form of ignorance, before.

When I was at Cambridge, there was this girl. She had rather a pleasant personality and was the kind of person who seemed to mean well to all. I shan't name her, here, lest she be embarrassed, however. One day, we had an argument - a celestial one. Somehow the subject of the Earth's motion through space had come up. I detected in her what I thought was a misunderstanding, so I pointed out that the Earth goes around the Sun. She laughed at me. "No it doesn't...the Sun goes around the Earth! You can see that it does."

I could see that she thought me rather stupid. I insisted that the Earth went around the Sun...but she would have none of it. Her naive observations that the Sun rose and set in its motion through the sky, were levelled at me, again and again as proof that the Sun, indeed, went around the Earth. There was nothing I could do to persuade her otherwise. The life work of Nicolaus (or Nicolas) Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) had been in vain. Almost four hundred and fifty years after he had demonstrated, conclusively, that the Earth orbited the Sun (that the Solar system is "heliocentric", or Sun-centred), this Cambridge Undergraduate still hadn't got the message.

Do you know what is really funny? She went on to get a first class degree in Modern Languages. She was, by this measure, the "brightest of the bright"...yet still she did not know that the centre of the Solar system was the Sun, and that the Earth, like all the other planets, orbited it.

She was, I suppose, a perfect example of the problems of the "two cultures", written of by C.P. Snow. She knew her languages, but she knew nothing of science.

Yet, I should thank her, really. You see, I never fail to be flabbergasted when I think of her lack of understanding of such a basic issue. She has, therefore, given me permanent access to the emotion known as "flabbergast".

So, it was most evocative when I read that one fifth of Americans are ignorant of the same issue as my first class Cambridge degree holding friend.

It is sobering to realize that the Copernican revolution is still not over. Copernicus has yet to win over even the developed world to his view that the Solar System is heliocentric. Sixty million Americans would react as my Cambridge friend did - by laughing at anyone who suggested that the Earth orbits the Sun.

Copernicus' seminal book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), was published in the year of his death. Legend has it that he was given a copy of it, on his death-bed, while in a stroke induced coma. He is reputed to have awoken from his coma, noted the presence of his book - and passed away peacefully.

Would he rest so easily if he knew that almost half a millenia later there are still people, in the developed world, who do not believe that the Earth goes around the Sun?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)