Friday, December 12, 2008
true genius
Yay! I'm glad we got more info on Galileo because I found him to be so interesting in last week's reading. I really didn't know much about him before. I didn't even know there wasn't an accurate measure of time until he came along. Something that we take for granted like a watch (which we pretty much are slaves to now) actually is quite complicated when you really think about it. I'm also amazed that he invented his own telescope where he viewed even the rings of Saturn. And to figure out that the light from the moon is in fact reflection... wow. I also liked getting a more personal look at the man who was Isaac Newton. He looks kinda scary in his picture. I felt really bad for him that he lived such a miserable life, being all secluded and grouchy and tense. Maybe I'm just being stereotypical here, but it seems to me that the more a human looks into their own mind, the more they draw away from those around them. It's like a tipping scale... you take time, effort, and contemplation from having a healthy social life and give it to the broadening of your mind. I've yet to meet a mathematical or scientific genius who isn't a bit awkward socially.
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2 comments:
No doubt, introspection is a double edged sword. Without it, we may never unlock our creativity, truly know ourselves or analyze our thoughts to make sense of how we interpret the world, but if we retreat too far inside, we will almost always exclude others from our lives. Isaac Newton was certainly out of balance in this respect anyway, but he did manage to share those things that were in his mind at least. This was largely due to those who tried to pull it out of him, knowing that inside he had something great. If he had spent that time looking into himself, analyzing the world and never at least shared the scientific side of himself, it may have been much longer before we finally understood what gravity was.
It always seeems people of true genius had trouble interacting with other people socially or sometimes even communicating their amazing ideas. Too bad Freud wasn't born for another 100 or so years to help old Isaac out! It is so benificial to the world that Isaac and the other phenominal minds of that time were not so completely socially inept... Or maybe some were and we have never hear of them, so sad...
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