[MD] William Sidis

[118]

Hi All,

Sidis is an example of something, the question is what.  Occasionally
there are those who rise in public scrutiny for reasons of being
outside the norm.  There are of course the scientists such as Kepler
or Gauss, then the musicians, and so forth.  There seems to be a
personal ability that we find noteworthy.  Much of this appears to be
the ability to manipulate concepts.  There are those too with the
astounding and debilitating memories, some join circuses.  And, there
are also those that appear to have perceptions of things outside the
norm, many try to make a living at fortune telling and such.  These
are abilities which seem to be of another sort, such as the intuitive
detectives.

Perhaps this points to man's propensity to break outside current
restrictions.  Of course evolution works mainly though pressure
towards the mean.  Outliers are typically brought back into the fold.
This seems to be a function of societal survival.  The question would
be whether there is a niche where such deviants would be better
suited.  Such a thing is directed by the consciousness of society,
which we cannot understand and only point to through personal
extrapolations.  However, if such a thing does make a society more
suitable for survival it is eventually adopted.

Within our individual consciousness we cannot predict where the next
evolutionary step will be.  We cannot guide it or impede it.  There
seem to be attempts at jumps in this age in man, some which could be
conceptualized within the autistic community.  However, most of these
seem to decrease function rather than improve it.  At some point,
there may be the rise of a species which encompasses all the positive
traits which we see only sporadic incomplete expression of.  Evolution
proceeds in such jumps where a single mutation makes use of many
benign or even debilitating mutations.  This may come from the human
species or from other species.  Humans could be at a dead end; that
is, overspecialized.

It is interesting to try to group outliers (as we see them) of our
race, and try to encompass that into some kind of understanding of
where we are headed.  I read a fictional book recently on this subject
called Darwin's Children that dealt with a race changing mutation
similar to the formation of the homo sapiens (which is of course a
minor change if one looks at the genetic differences between us and
other animals).  The author dealt with it from the viewpoint of fear
from the existing human race.  We fear abnormality in general.  Such
is an instinctual effort at survival.  We see this in all forms in our
society, from fear of new ideas, to fear of those who look different.

There are of course countless predictions of change, the upcoming 2012
being an example.  Perhaps the transition will be one of harmonious
understanding.  Perhaps MOQ is one such effort.  One can only hope.

Cheers,
Mark

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 1:48 AM, Ian Glendinning
<ian.glendinning at gmail.com> wrote:
> Many thanks for posting Peter,
>
> I guess you knew, Sidis is well know to Pirsig scholars.
>
> Ian
>
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Peter O'Neil <peter at brownbear.us> wrote:
>> http://www.bookride.com/2010/12/most-intelligent-man-in-world.html
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