Prophecy in a child's eyes

Not infrequently, Fintan’s thoughts turn to the future. On the matter, he is always sober and ruminative. He peers forward and seeks to imagine what he will find one future day. I usually find his views reasonable and likely. He seems to have a good grasp on what may happen. Is it logic that guides him, or intuition? I rather think it is the latter, from the way he seems to feel out a picture of tomorrow.

Yesterday, Fintan, 9, asked me:

“Do you think technology will keep on getting higher?” He seemed to be holding a hidden thought in his mind, as if he were seeking to measure his own thought, against mine, but was holding it back so that I wouldn’t be influenced by his.

“I think it will get better, yes...what do you think?” I held my thought lightly on my tongue, so that it would not pressure his into conformity.

“I think we will have better technology, but will use less of it.” He almost seemed to see this diminished world, before his inner sight.

“Why? Is that because of energy supply problems?”

“Yes.” He was both matter of fact and certain.

“So, although the technology is available, most people won’t be able to afford the energy for them?”

He just gave an affirmative nod, his silence holding an opinion about this yet to be seen world.

As with many conversations with Fintan, I found his conclusions uncomfortably likely. Whatever reasoning processes he went through, the outcome is quite a convincing possible tomorrow.

It is funny to hear him speak so. He is just 9 years old – and what, one wonders , can a 9 year old know of the world? Well, it seems he knows enough of TODAY, to anticipate a far TOMORROW, by some inner projection. He can see where the world is headed. What is darkly funny, of course, is that many of our leaders, with many more than just 9 years, don’t seem to be able to anticipate outcomes, with the same proficiency. He seems to be thinking more, in this way, than many do.

Is Fintan right? Do we face a diminished tomorrow, in which, although our powers of technology are greater, we simply don’t have the energy to power them, to the ubiquity we would like? Is technology to be rationed to the rich?

If we look around us and see that fossil fuels are running out; Uranium is in short supply, and renewables are just not ready, it does seem clear that Mankind faces an energy crisis in the decades ahead. A 9 year old child can sense this...so why are the world’s leaders not making more of it: why are they not preparing more actively for such a world by investing in alternative ways to power it?

The answer seems clear, my little 9 year old son, has a longer term view than most world leaders. Now, that IS sobering.

I like these chats with Fintan, for he prompts me to reflect on times ahead, some of which I may never see. It is good, though, that he considers the future he may one day live through. I think, he will have prepared himself, mentally, for the challenges ahead, for having modelled them, in advance. There is no better preparation than forethought – and Fintan does plenty of that.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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The Fibonacci Boy

Ainan ushered me over to him, today. There was clearly something on his mind.

"Daddy, I have noticed something strange about my birthday."

My eyes attended to him, a little anticipation gleaming in them. Or, at least, I felt so - whether it showed in my eyes is another matter.

"If you write my birthday as 1123...it is the beginning of the Fibonacci sequence!"

Sure enough, the Fibonacci sequence is sometimes written without the 0 at the beginning and is seen as 1,1,2,3...which spells out my son's date of birth. He was, as many of you will know, born on November, 23rd, 1999.

Now, some people, inclined to reading meaning into such things, might see Ainan's peculiarly apt date of birth, given his scientific interests and leanings, as somewhat prophetic. They might see it as a foretelling of what was to come.

I see it differently. I see it as poetic. It is a form of mathematical poem, that his date of birth, should so reflect his nature and connect him, to another great mind of the past - and great idea, too. There seems, to me, to be a kind of conceptual beauty in that.

Ainan, too, felt some wonder that his date of birth, should be the beginning of the Fibonacci sequence. It is also the beginning of his life and all that it shall embody. It is as if one scientific idea, has given rise to a creator of scientific ideas. Fibonacci's sequence has extended itself into a new sphere, and is now found in the birth of a scientific child prodigy. There is a natural humour in that. For Fibonacci numbers are found throughout nature. Now, they signify a scientific birth, too.

Thank you for letting me know, my Fibonacci son...for I doubt that I would have noticed it, myself. Now, that I know, its elegantly apt poetry echoes in me. I don't think that a better date of birth could have been chosen for a boy, such as Ainan. It is so elegant, in fact, that had I not known it to be true, I would have thought it a fiction, chosen by an author, to reflect the character he had created. It is a funny thought. His very date of birth, suggests the intervention of an author, in his creation, so suited is it, to the boy he is and is becoming.

This leads me to wonder whether, in the very distant future, whether Ainan might be thought, not of as a real person, who lived, but as a legendary figure, of whom they don't know whether he lived or not. This can easily happen with the passage of too much time and the poverty of records. Might future scholars not spot such oddities as his date of birth and use that as "evidence" that his life story was a fiction? There are so many oddities in his life and the lives of his parents that led up to him, that he might easily, one day, be thought of, as an unreal, mythical figure.

In a way, that is sad. For it would be to say, that those future people doubted whether he had ever lived. Though Ainan's life may be filled with interesting coincidences, oddities, and serendipities, it is very real. Yet, I do wonder, at how his wondrously strange life might one day be viewed, by people too far from us in time, to be sure that he ever truly was. Will he become, one day, just a story told and retold for its inherent fascination and symmetries? Will it be a story for children or adults? What will people think of the story?

Of course, I will never know. I can only wonder. For now, I can enjoy being a father to my Fibonacci son, and his not so numerical brothers (in terms of their dates of birth) and a husband to my wife, who has her own kind of uncanny figures. It seems I live in a most mathematical world!

Have a numerical day, all.

(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.htmlI 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.

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The Mayans, 2012 and the "end of the world".

Long ago, a people called the Mayans drafted a calendar. The only problem is that the last day is, I understand, December 21st 2012. It is a problem because, rather oddly, quite a few "modern" people seem to believe that because an ancient calendar had an end date in 2012 that also means the world must end with it. I find this rather bizarre.



Think about it. The idea that an ancient calendar somehow foretells the end of the world, simply because the calendar itself runs out of dates on a particular day is really quite mad. It has no more validity than if I make up a calendar, now, that suddenly stops on March 3rd, 3003. I then proceed to place many copies of this calendar in strategic locations around the world, likely to be found, but also likely to survive. Then, a thousand years later, all the world lives in fear of death, because of the "ancient" objects they discover that inexplicably end on a particular day. It is really quite bonkers.



That many people in the world are apparently concerned about the ancient Mayan "prophecy", is yet another sign that we do not live in rational times. Yes, there are some who are rational, but many of the "masses" are not. They persist in a non-scientific, somewhat "magical" view of the world, in which things can happen in ways that have no rational explanation, yet are accepted. This is, perhaps, a failing of education systems, around the world, for there is no better cure to "magical thinking" than a good scientific education. Once a person understands the fundamentals of science, a whole raft of superstitions, outlooks and world views seem ridiculous. Among them, of course, is the idea that the Mayans had privileged information about the future.



Now, it must be understood that my position does not come from a closed mind. I am open to all possibilities, however, I do like to see that they can be understood and explained - or at least have evidence for them. There is no evidence, that I am aware of, for Mayan prophetic abilities. If there were a consistent record of Mayan prophecies, recorded before the events they describe, which then took place as foretold, then I would worry about what might unfold in 2012. However, I have not heard of anyone speak of such things, nor have I read of it. Such a prophetic record would be a truly marvellous thing and would soon be known by all, were it found. I can therefore assume that it doesn't exist. In the absence of such a record, the idea that the ending of a calendar signifies the end of the world, can safely be ignored. It is of no more import than that the calendars, in every shop in the world, have 365 days in them, the 365th being the last.

So, relax about 2012 and "the end of the world". There is no RATIONAL reason to worry about it. That being said, of course, that does not mean that it won't be the end of the world - just that there is no reason to believe that the Mayans had any advance information on the issue.

The world will end one day. Yes. However, it is unlikely to be 2012. It will occur eventually, no matter what we do, when the Sun expands (unless we move the Earth..., which is quite a good idea, but also quite an engineering project).

Oh, and don't worry about the sun expanding to engulf the Earth. That would take 5 billion years. Though in a billion years or so, the Earth's oceans will boil away, making a day at the beach, a bit meaningless.

In all probability 2012 will be just like any other recent year. The only difference is that the Mayans will lose a certain cachet - and all those, too, who believed in their "prophetic calendar."

(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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Fintan the "Prophet" speaks

About two weeks ago, Fintan was playing with a little girl.

After a time, he turned to her and said: "Do you have any brothers?" perhaps because young boys like Fintan, three, generally prefer the company of boys to girls - until they hit their teens of course.

She said no.

He looked at her and nodded in the presence of the girl's mother: "A brother is coming.", he prophesied.

Oddly, that evening, we got a call from England. The wife of one of my brothers had just given birth to a baby boy. Fintan hadn't known of the pregnancy so the timing of his remark and the subsequent birth were an interesting coincidence.

The new boy may not have been a "brother", but he was a boy cousin. That would have to do.

What was most amusing about it is that he made his prophesy with such assurance - and sure enough a new life did begin, though not quite the one required by the letter of his remark. Funny.