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

(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.

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

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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.

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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.) 

Frank Anthony Wilczek: a childhood tale.

Today, I was at the Kuala Lumpur Innovation Forum 2011. There, I met an academic from the USA, who had an interesting tale to relate to me. The subject of my son, Ainan, came up in conversation and he, by association, told me the tale of another precocious boy, he knew as a teenager: Frank Anthony Wilczek.

Wilczek was in the American academic’s classroom in school. In fact, they sat next to each other, since the students were arranged in alphabetical order and my new acquaintance’s name began with W. Now, you may think this is not particularly remark worthy. Yet, it is for a couple of odd facts. Firstly, the classes in question were AP Physics (Advanced Placement) and AP Calculus. These were, by American standards, tough classes. Thus, one could expect that the students in those classes were the brightest in the school. So, my acquaintance had been quite bright as a child. Yet, Frank Anthony Wilczek stood out in these classes – for he was, according to my informant, just 12 years old at the time. Wilczek had been a child prodigy, of sorts.

Now, I was told, everyone in Wilczek’s class was awed by his intelligence. My acquaintance said that he knew, just KNEW, that no matter how many extra hours of work he put in to his Physics and Maths, that he would never be able to be as good or as bright as Wilczek – it just wasn’t about the work, Wilczek really had something the others did not. Indeed, the common view in his class, at the time, was that, one day, Wilczek would win the Nobel Prize. Rather uncannily, Wilczek did just that, for work he had done when he was a graduate student in 1973 – “the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction”.

The tale of Wilczek’s precocious childhood and adult success, is one that struck me as worth knowing more widely. Some people believe, really believe, that child prodigies only shine in childhood. Such people dig up cases of child prodigies who went astray as adults – such as Sufiah Yusof – and use that “evidence” to bolster their case that prodigies do not become adult geniuses. Well, the truth of course, is rather more complex. Some prodigies do, in fact, become adult geniuses – like Frank Anthony Wilczek. Many prodigies become respected experts or performers in their fields – and only a minority, I would say, a very small minority, ever go astray so magnificently as Sufiah Yusof did. In fact, she is the only example I know of her kind – so she is hardly typical of the life outcome of prodigies. On the other hand, there are rather many prodigies who became very distinguished adult geniuses...others include Norbert Wiener, the father of Cybernetics, John von Neumann and even Richard Feynmann, who had aspects of the child prodigy about him, particularly in his areas of interest – Physics and Maths.

What particularly struck me about the Wilczek story was that the other kids in his class were able to see, instantly, for themselves, that Wilczek would “win a Nobel Prize one day”. That was their assessment of their classmate – and funnily enough, he went on to do just that. So, intellectual promise is evident in childhood. It is quite possible to look at a young child’s manner of thought and make fair estimates for their future. Should that future not come to be, I rather think it has nothing to do with their quality of thought or ability, but would be due to the random obstructions that are encountered in many lives. Should such a child not live up to their promise that is not because the promise was illusory – it is because life can be hard, unfair and obstructive. Quite simply, life can get in the way of the promise of any child, prodigy or not. If, however, there is enough “luck” in life, of the young prodigy, such that their obstructions are not overwhelming, then, it is clear, that such prodigies can grow to be very special adults indeed.

I wonder what Frank Anthony Wilczek, who is still alive at just 60 years old, would think if he knew what his fellow classmates thought of him all those years ago? They saw his future before he had lived it. I wonder, did he see it himself, as clearly, or was his ultimate success a pleasant surprise?

Young prodigies should be nurtured carefully, for if looked after, they, too, can become as successful as adults, as Frank Anthony Wilczek is – and many others like him.

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/11136175

To 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/

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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 memory of childhood.

A few weeks ago, my wife, Syahidah, was reminiscing.

“One day, when I was nine years old, I came to understand something: as an adult, you have a choice. I wanted to remember this, when I grew up, so I said to myself: remember this – as an adult you have a choice.”

Her gaze was curiously inward and a little fond, as if touched by the little girl she had been.

“Well, you did remember.”

“Yes.”, she said quietly, pleased.

I was touched by this account. It was a sweet notion, that the little girl she had been, should try to communicate with the adult she was to become, by deliberately seeking to remember an insight she had had, into adulthood. It struck me as quite a mature thing to do for the little girl she had been. It meant that she understood the unfolding of life and what she would one day become. It also meant that she felt a need to speak to her older self, when she was no longer around to be able to do so. It meant she sought a sense of continuity between the present, that would one day be past, and the future that had not yet become.

Syahidah grew a little rueful beside me, as she dwelt on her younger self’s thought.

“Of course, when you become an adult, you realize that it is sometimes a little more complicated than that.”, she observed, cryptically.

“Yes. Sometimes. There are obligations.”

We agreed, in silence – but also, I think, in appreciation of the child she had been and the wisdom she had shown to understand that quintessential difference between a child’s life and an adult’s life – but also to have wished to communicate it, to her older self.

I had never met the child she had been – but I felt then, that she had been an impressive one, in a way, for she was, even when so young, seeking to understand what life was and how it is lived, at different ages. My wife would have been an interesting child to speak to, I think. Then, again, no doubt that is why she became an interesting adult to speak to!

It is funny to consider it but I feel this tale of my wife’s brought her younger self into the room with us, as if she did, in fact, manage to speak to the future: I felt her presence, on my wife’s tongue, in my wife’s eyes and in the expression on her face. My wife’s nine year old self had succeeded in bridging time, to speak with us, across all those years. She had, in fact, spoken to the husband she could never have guessed she would one day meet. How strange -and how touching. There was a depth to that moment, that reached back across the decades to a little girl, who no longer was, and a thought that had endured.

Thank you, Syahidah, for sharing that moment. It brought your childhood alive, for me. I glimpsed who you had been and sensed the wisdom you had, even then. Thanks.

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/11136175

To 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.)

Ainan on technological advance.

Yesterday, I was speaking to Ainan about a predicted technological advance.

“Ainan, I have read that, in a few years time, scientists will be able to create an event cloak, to hide an event from observation.”

“In a few years time…”, he scoffed.

I appraised his distinctly unimpressed features.

“If someone says, “In a few years time”, they haven’t done it, and have no idea what to do – but just expect it to happen.”, he elaborated.

It became clear that Ainan wasn’t a great believer in technological predictions – and, it was reasonable for him to be so, since he had history on his side. Most predictions of the technological future, in the past, have turned out to be wrong.

It was interesting that he should be such a sceptic, for most children are much more accepting of what they are told about the future: they believe it, usually without much question. Ainan doesn’t. His stance is more a case of “show me your evidence and a working prototype please”.

Ainan is cautious in his expectations for the near technological future. His view is moderated by his understanding that the pace of technological change has slowed in recent years and is nowhere near as fast as mythology would have us suppose. His view is more of a realist, than a pessimist: he expects change and development, but a much more measured change than some commentators expect. He is not, for instance, a great believer in Kurzweill’s imminent “Singularity” and all its attendant technological wonders. Such things may come, in Ainan’s universe – but they will come at a much more leisurely pace.

He has spoken of the likely future he will live in, before. He expects an incremental, evolutionary period of change, rather than a revolutionary one. All the techno-dreams that fervent futurists write are things Ainan does not expect to see, in his lifetime. He believes that those soothsayers are overestimating the pace of change and, in some areas, underestimating the problems that would have to be overcome to make real, their dreams of tomorrow.

Sadly, Ainan is more likely to be right than any of the more famed futurists: their rosy view of times to come, is ever optimistic and overlooks, to a great degree, the magnitude of the tasks to be undertaken.

I hope, Ainan that the future you see, and which I may not, is one that does not disappoint you: may it be interesting enough to sustain you and rich enough to be worth the wait.

(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.htmland 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/11136175

To 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.)

Terminal Cognitive Decline and Death.

However long a life one might live, at some point, it comes to an end. Yet, what happens in those twilight years? Do people generally maintain their mental function to the end - or does cognitive function give some indication of the future to come?

A phenomenon has been observed: that of terminal cognitive decline. This means that aged people often undergo a sudden rapid increase in their rate of cognitive decline shortly before death. This can, therefore, be used as a signal for when the "time is near".

A paper, "Terminal decline in cognitive function" by R. S. Wilson, PhD, L. A. Beckett, PhD, J. L. Bienias, ScD, D. A. Evans, MD and D. A. Bennett, MD addresses this issue.

763 Roman Catholic nuns, priests and brothers participated in the study. They were given an array of 19 different tests of cognitive function an average of 5.6 times a year, to track changes in their mental state. At the start of the study, none of them were demented. The data set obtained was used to find the point at which the rate of decline of mental function suddenly accelerated.

The shocking (for me) observation was that there was a SIX-FOLD increase in the rate of mental decline, an average of 43 months prior to death. 122 of the participants died in the period of the study and their mental function in the years leading up to their deaths informs the conclusions.

The ones who died had lower cognitive function at the outset than those who survived. The survivors, interestingly, showed almost NO DECLINE in mental function. (Thus giving us hope that such a loss of mind is not inevitable). Almost all of those who died showed the accelerated cognitive decline prior to death.

Declines in a very wide range of mental functions were observed in the 3 to 6 years leading up to the deaths. These included degradation of episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and visuospatial ability.

So, if you have an elderly relative who is showing signs of rapid mental decline, it is, probably, wise to spend more time with them - for there is likely to be little time left. Remember the mean time to death from the onset of rapid mental decline, in this study, was only 43 months.

Sadly, the same, of course, applies to ourselves. If we begin to show rapid mental decline it is time to set our affairs in order, as best may be. The loss of mind is a sign of a greater loss to come, in the near future.

Take care all.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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)