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

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A wealthy man in the making?

I try to see, in my sons, the men they will one day become. I look for underlying attitudes, outlooks, beliefs, habits, and patterns that may persist through time and define the adults they will one day be. It is not something that I do with effort, but something which I do with reflexive automaticity. In gazing on them, today, I gaze, too, on the tomorrow that shall come, one day, in which our eyes are level and they are men.

Fintan, for instance, shows a particular attitude to money that foretells of richer days, for him. Fintan is not a great spender, of money, he is a saver. He gathers together the notes he is given, counts them, accumulates them, and puts them carefully away. He knows his personal wealth, to the dollar - and asks about such matters as whether he can open a local bank account, in Malaysia (he already has one in Singapore). He is not, as most children are, focussed on immediate spending and the transformation of temporary wealth into even more temporary pleasure. No. He thinks of growing his wealth, of becoming richer, by virtue of having more cash to hand. He forestalls spending and chooses instead to wait.

You might wonder why a little boy of seven is concerned with saving money. Well the other day, he gave a peep into his psychology. He mentioned that he wanted to put the money in a bank account so that "When I am bigger I can buy houses and cars..."

That is quite a surprising little plan for a little boy of seven years old. He is already planning for his lifestyle and trying to ensure his own security. He wants to make sure he has his own house to live in and his own car to drive - and he is starting NOW on the work necessary to get him there.

His mother studied him, a few nights ago, as he counted his money...and remarked: "You will be the richest of my sons, Fintan." He didn't look up from his counting, so intent was he on those numbers flashing through his mind.

Indeed, Fintan may be the richest son, one day - for he has the greatest interest in money and the most far sighted outlook towards it.

I am beginning to understand, about Fintan, that he has a very long term vision for his life. Though he is at the beginning of it all, his eyes look not on today, but on a far tomorrow, on a world that is not yet, and plans his place within it. Fintan is a man of tomorrow, living only temporarily as a boy of today. Fintan is already guiding himself through an adult world that is not yet, positioning himself for success within it and developing the attitudes and habits that will allow him to flourish.

I wonder at him, now. Why is he so intent on the future? Why does he not live, entirely, in the moment, as most little boys do? What is it about him that makes him so aware of the unseen parade of his life ahead of him?

As ever, I get the sense that Fintan may turn out to be a very surprising son, indeed. No boy who thinks so much of the man he is one day to be, can fail, at the very least, to lead an interesting life, in some way.

I look forward to whoever Fintan becomes and hope that I am around, to see it.

In the meantime, Fintan, keep on gazing on tomorrow!


(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

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.

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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

A2 Hypersonic Plane: Mach 5

A hypersonic plane, known as the A2, has been announced by Reaction Engines of Oxfordshire.

The details are quite astonishing. This plane will carry 300 passengers, up to 20,000 km, at mach 5 (a speed of 6,400 km/h). It is intended to depart from Brussels International Airport at Mach 0.9 until it is out over the North Atlantic, then it will pick up speed to Mach 5. When travelling to Australia it will apparently do so by going up over the North Pole and over the Pacific.

Not only is it fast, it is also gargantuan. The plane will be 143 metres long - twice as long as the largest existing aircraft.

The plane is the result of a project funded by the European Space Agency known as LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies). The plane will not run on conventional aircraft fuel but will, instead, use liquid hydrogen. This will create a cleaner footprint, emitting only water and creating some nitrous oxide. There will be no carbon emissions. The designers believe this will make it more greenhouse friendly.

There is one potential problem, though. The plane flies so high that it actually travels within the ozone layer. It is unknown whether this could damage the ozone layer (which prevents a dangerous level of UV (ultraviolet) light from reaching the ground).

Anyone expecting beautiful views from such a high flying, borderline spaceplane is in for a disappointment: the high temperatures created by such high speed flight preclude windows. However, the designers are considering putting tv panels where the windows should be, to give an external view (even if it is secondhand).

Reaction Engines estimates that a ticket would cost about the same as a first class ticket does presently: about 3,500 pounds sterling. Flight time from Brussels to Australia would be 4 hours and 40 minutes. This opens up the bizarre prospect of daytrips to Australia from Europe. Amazing.

So, are we all soon to be enabled to fly great distances in little time and see the world shrink to the size of a lazy afternoon? Unfortunately not. I was rather disappointed to learn of the timescale before this great leap forward in aviation would occur: Reaction Engines estimate that it could be flying in about 25 years time. That's right - hypersonic flight is about a quarter of a century away - and that is if it gets funding between now and then to allow development to move ahead.

This story made me think of how slowly technology is actually changing. So many visions are scattered before us of how, in no time at all, the world is going to be such a different place. Yet, almost always their timescales are either omitted or seriously in error. Barring the internet, most of what we have today was available a quarter of a century ago - even if not in such a polished form. Relatively little is truly new. (Even the internet was present in a nascent form as an academic network).

It seems to me that 25 years is an awfully long timescale compared to an average human lifetime, for this development to be brought to market. No doubt it is the same with many other futuristic projects. It all just takes so long.

I remember reading predictions, as a child, that, by now we would have permanent colonies on the moon and holidays there would be within the grasp of many. It was all wonderfully inspiring stuff. Sadly, as anyone now knows - it was hopelessly over-optimistic. In truth, no human being has left Earth orbit in the last three decades. We haven't gone forward, in space, but in this aspect, at least, we have stepped back, from what could have been.

I would like to take a hypersonic trip from Europe to Australia one day - but that day is a long way off. By then, I will be a much older man - and perhaps not given to too much travel.

Despite what futurists tend to say, all the time, we are not on a fast forward to the future - it seems, in fact, we are going slow ahead to the future. Change is coming, yes - but nowhere near as fast as we are led to believe. At least, it seems so, from just looking at my own lifetime (which no doubt overlaps considerably with your own). You don't have to take my own lifetime as an example: just look at the A2 hypersonic plane - a full 25 years away, for the next big step in aviation. Another date should be noted to understand the significance of this: the last flight of Concorde, the first - and so far only - supersonic passenger jet, was on October 24th 2003. Thus, we will have had 30 years without supersonic (or hypersonic) passenger flight before the first A2 jets take to the air. That, to me, is one big step backwards, before our next step forwards.

(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.)

The infinity of chemical knowledge

I have, at times, wondered about the future of my sons. What, for instance, shall Ainan become? What will he do? Will there be anything left for him to do, in his discipline, once he takes his place in it?

Presently, Ainan, 7, looks set to be a chemist. Yet, he is also showing signs of interest in other physical sciences, too: in Physics, Maths, Material Sciences, Geology, Astronomy and Nanotechnology. However, it is true to say that almost all his attention, thus far, has been given to Chemistry, among the sciences. I thought it important, however, to mention the other nascent interests, lest they, one day, become central ones, to him. One never knows on these matters.

So, then my thoughts turned to Chemistry. It is a mature science. It's basic principles are well known - so what is there left to do, for a young chemist, in such an arena? Well, it doesn't take much thought to realize something very, very different about Chemistry, compared to the other sciences. Chemistry is infinite. I mean this in a very real sense. Just think about it. There necessarily must be an infinite variety of possible molecules, since most atoms can, in some way, combine with many others, in structures of unlimited designs. Chemistry is a never-ending subject.

Other sciences, like Physics, have, one supposes, a limited set of possible information. The physical world is describable by physics - but that description is most probably not infinite. I would be very surprised if it was. The physical world is, it appears, reducible to a finite set of laws, applied in a wide, but not infinite variety of circumstances. One day, if Mankind is smart enough (or at least if one genius in the whole of history, male or female, is smart enough - the rest of us can play catch up), then Physics will one day be a fully known subject. We will, at that time, be able to describe the world and its workings in a set of physical laws which, no doubt, would not fill too many pages of too many books. All of physics will then be known. It is possible to conceive of this for physics - and even for biology (there not being an infinite variety of principles at work in life, either - or instances of it (though artificial life might change this to a great degree) and the other sciences - but, for Chemistry, such complete knowledge is, in principle, impossible. No matter how many chemicals are known and understood, there will always be others that can by synthesized, with new properties and possibilities. Chemistry can never be fully known.

Thus, although Chemistry is a mature science, although we think we understand it well - it cannot be said to be complete. It is only just beginning. I recently read one estimate that 19 million chemicals have been synthesized and defined, in Chemistry, so far. Furthermore, the rate at which new chemicals is being synthesized and defined is doubling every 13 years or so. Thus by the end of this century we will know of billions of chemicals. Yet, even then, Chemistry will just be beginning. Set against an infinity of possible chemicals and structures, a knowledge of billions is nothing. The fact is, Mankind, even if it endures for the entire Universe, will never know the fullness of Chemistry. Sure, we will know a lot. The possible things we can do with all these chemicals will be forever increasing, but we will never get to a point where there is nothing more to be done.

I find this heartening. Yes, my son, Ainan, is becoming a Chemist at a time when Chemistry appears mature - but there remains an infinite amount to be done - and this will always be the case.

So, I find myself relaxing on the issue of Ainan's future. There is still, yet, a need for Chemists in this world - and there always will be, for Ainan has chosen one of the few infinite subjects, for his attention - and that is a bit of a relief.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, and Tiarnan, eighteen 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, genetics, left-handedness, chemistry, science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)