Finding ways that don't work

"I have not failed. I have just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.", Thomas Edison...

May be the Professor who had designed our B.Sc, Geology course, had heard this quote and it is why he had included many hypotheses about origin of Earth that didn't work. It was really annoying as we had to cover a lot of materials in an introductory course to a subject that was new for us and studying "hypotheses that didn't work" were not really making sense...

Usually the proverb, "A picture is better than thousand words" is used for urging on importance of illustrations however, it has another meaning also and that is, " A picture could be interpreted or speculated about in thousand ways"... Pictures are not alone on this as evidences are also usually get the same kind of treatment. While a piece of evidence may be just a ruin of an ancient building, a fossil or an artifact, there could be thousand of interpretations and speculation about them.

We usually tend to speculate about past (even if it comes out of very carefully and systematically documented observations still by coming from very small and scattered samples, there are more chances of speculations) and as past is passed and speculations are not going to harm (except when it is taken very seriously). We tend to speculate because there are chances that some speculation might come close to fact and get support from other evidences. So what matters mostly is the intentions. If intention is to unravel facts one gets results as either a way worked or way that didn't work or not sure... Just like gambling there are many possibilities but unlike gambling it is an honorable practice. In short, neutrality matters in investigations (Facts are neutral) and the rest depends mostly on luck... A set of good evidences may lead to good luck and a set of scattered evidences may just end up to voids..

One area that is based on wild speculations are Astrobiology. Technological advances, increasing population rapidly depleting resources make it really desirable to have other neighbors but since there haven't been any big breakthrough on our side so some started looking to our supposed neighbors. May be we have neighbors that are much advanced than us and had already visited us. So archaeological sites are becoming the focal areas of speculations for these groups... It is interesting to watch how they link these very small and scattered archaeological relics for their "wild" hypotheses ...



While the above video is about speculations on past visits of ancient aliens still there are others who speculate on alternatives to currently well developed scientific theories (motivations?;I am not sure)... Whatever, what I found interested in following video is the hypothesis of Charles Hutchins Hapgood about sudden shift of earth's crust. It reminded me of those annoying hypotheses that didn't work but we had to study..heheheh.. Frankly, it is first time that I have heard the name of Hapgood so I thought it might be interesting to include his hypothesis to my list of hypotheses in Geology that didn't work. The reason for my interest is because his hypothesis came at the time that continental drift(ancestor of plate tectonics) was evolving to become Plate Tectonics. Thanks to works of many geologists that it is now very easy for us to quickly point out that even it is happen that this wild speculation (...that earth crust shift in very small amount of time...) true , it would be unimaginably catastrophic with widespread earth quakes, tsunamis and super volcanisms. The main reason is the deeps roots of mountain chains (also their brittle nature especially above ground part), subduction zones and unequal density of crust layers that make it quite unlikely for large shifts in short amount of time. To me, most part of this video was not convincing but still I enjoyed its wild speculations...

Low-Cost Multi-touch Whiteboard using the Wiimote

Drifter

Intellectually and “spiritually”, I was always looking to myself as a “drifter”. The main reason is that I believe, “nothing starts perfect and nothing is going to end perfect” so the expressions like, “Perfect”, “Complete”, “Right”, “Good”, “rationale”, “Scientific” smells to me as “efforts to control things”… To me, that is desirable but at the end one has to define an optimal level to make sense of these expressions. I am not sure, if I have really measuring sticks to determine the optimal levels so rather, I tend to like to look at things as becoming good, right, perfect, rationale, scientific and so on and seeing this process always growing. As they say, “Either one is growing or dying” that is, I think, closer to reality.

Having said that, I like to hear what others say… As time passes and people tend more to have access to alternative opinions, to avoid living like a “frog in the well”, we hear some new perspectives about what we usually think as not so positive… Today, I come across Susan Cain’s article at Time Magazine about “Introverts” and some qualities that she has listed really interested me. Since my school time, I knew that creative people like to have more time with themselves but knowing that introverts reacts to very small stimuli is a great addition to that “knowledge” (Frankly, though this observation was really helpful in past, it is becoming more blurred by coming of personal devices. When I see most of the people are busy either with their cellphone, ipods, and recently tablets, it becomes really hard to say which ones are busy with themselves and which ones are with happy with others). So, it means that if it happens that a creative person is introvert, it just adds the urge for seeking “less stimulant environments”. Sensitivity to stimuli though increases the concentration levels and power of observations but it also lead to “Perfectionism” and that becomes problematic if one is not aware of the process.
So in nutshell, while introverts are caring and compassionate persons that tends to be morally strong persons yet the sensitivity and perfectionism can push them in trouble.

It is just my guess that if one is not sure where he/she stands in all these then becoming a “drifter” makes things go easier…. It is just my guess as it works for me so I am not suggesting anything…

Why do we Dream - BBC Horizon

What Makes a Genius? - BBC Horizon