This is part 2 in an arc based on a news item, In The Courts, in Science magazine about a man of supposed superior intelligence who did an unwise thing; he molested a young girl. Now he'll spend 14 years in prison, most likely in solitary because he'll be at risk from the other inmates. He's seventy years old and a pioneer in gene-therapy research.
Part 1 shared a bit more about the news items and my memory of Dr. Edwin Teller, someone whom I once aspired to.
Of course, anybody with qualities to which I aspire must be much like me. Peaceful, caring, loving, giving (if, indeed, those are qualities I possess). This concept -- our heroes must be just like us -- is something I touched on in Not So Social Networks.Imagine my chagrin when, hearing him lecture, I heard a warlike, hawkish man. Someone I considered fearful yet unaware of what he was afraid of.
It was a shock to me.
Many years later I learned to separate the elements I admired from the individual containing them.
Lots of people are awestruck (and some made nervous, as documented in Conversations with the Past, Part 2) at my ability to know what and how people are thinking. If I make some nervous, one of my mentors would downright terrify them. I use to joke with him that not long ago he would be burned at the stake for his skills. Not only did he teach me how to observe and how to document my observations, he also taught me that people of great ability are, in the end, still people.
(more to follow)
Links for this post:
I'll be speaking at the Society for New Communications Research Annual Awards Gala Summit on 1-2 Nov 07 in Boston. Come on by and say hello.
Comment Preview