On being predictable

Yesterday, my eldest son, Ainan, 13, sidled up to me, with an intent unreadable expression in his eyes.

I was busy with something on the computer, so my attention wasn't fully available to attend to his forthcoming words.

“Daddy, I know what you are going to say next.”

“What am I going to say next?”, I said, half-turning around in my chair, to him.

“See.”, he said, with a little smile that said it all.

For a moment, I felt very dumb.

I had to laugh. It was the only answer to properly defuse the sense of imminent idiocy, that threatened to submerge me.

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 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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

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/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Ainan and the logic gates.

Ainan is a most logical boy, so it was with some interest that I noted him drawing diagrams of logic circuits, a couple of weeks ago.

I asked him what he was doing and he explained that he was seeing what results he could obtain from different arrangements of logic devices. It turned out that he had read a website on computer circuits and so immediately turned his hand to designing his own gate arrangements, to explore the possibilities of the outcomes.

What was characteristic of him was that, although he had only just read of logic gates, he had immediately advanced to developing something with them. The possibilities inherent in their properties, excited him and he had immediately to examine them.

Once he had designed his circuits, he mentally entered inputs into them...and announced the outputs to me. He seemed quite charmed by the whole process.

I think this is an important characteristic of Ainan: that he finds pleasure in intellectual play - indeed, for him, what for another child would be dry learning, is the greatest of fun. He just likes to understand and explore and come to insights of his own.

I worry, though, about conventional education: would the strait-jacket of the classroom, knock this inherent enthusiasm for learning new things, out of him? I know that he has often complained of the school regime. It seems a pity to put his ability and interest in acquiring new knowledge at risk, by enforcing too rigid a regime on him. It is for this reason that we seek to homeschool him - yet still we struggle against a bureaucracy that seems to have a vested interest in not allowing him to be so schooled. Perhaps they fear to lose control of one they should not attempt to control in any way at all. They don't, however, understand that (just as they don't understand so many other things: that is the way of bureaucrats everywhere - they think the world is as they have made it to be - but it is not, the world remains unchanged, it is simply the way they view it that has fossilized.)

I was quite happy to let Ainan play with his logic gates even if I was not equipped to read his circuit diagrams myself, at that moment. My happiness was that he was happy in what he was doing - and that he was opening up yet another new area for himself, by himself, as always.

(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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Little Master Mischief.

Today, we took a bus with Tiarnan, twenty-five months. He rather liked this, being immune, from his childish perspective, to all those irritations which adults might have with the mode of transport.

He observed that, to stop the bus, you must push the bell. It is good that he understands this. What was not so good, however, was the use to which he put this knowledge.

At one point, he stood up on the seat and reached up to the bell and pressed it. The "bus stopping" sign duly lit up. He was fully aware of the mischief behind such an action for he then turned towards us and, rather comically, placed his tiny index finger against his lips and went: "Shh!", to us. Quite clearly, he was telling us not to tell anyone what he had done.

Of course, the bus came to a halt - whether or not anyone actually wanted to get out, or get on.

It was funny to see that he was aware of what he should do and should not do - and chose, out of perhaps a sense of curiosity, to do what he should not. He wanted to see the bus stop, at his command. That no-one might want the bus to stop was something he seemed to understand - hence his urging of us not to tell on him.

Though he was clearly being mischievous, he did so in such an endearing way, that all we could was laugh at his antics.

I can see many mischief filled days ahead, with our little Tiarnan.

(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.)