Saturday Evening Post

FlatWhiteCoffeeHow is it the first week of the year, albeit one of the shortest, could be so long? Grab a blanket and a cuppa since it is frigid. Clyde’s goose bumps are all lined up. Let’s talk.

While M3 returns to the pace which was the norm, many goings on are in the background. Books are coming together nicely. There are five which are due out in the upcoming weeks. No, they are not all mine. Only one is mine. Two new authors are entering the final stages of their debut books. Flash is returning to its rightful place and pace, with two books hitting the stands.

Right Turn, Clyde!

Our contrary orang was watching something we humans often overlook. With striking regularity, we dismiss it, discount it and utterly fail to believe it is possible. What is perplexing the primate? Being first.

copernicus

We have alluded to a number of firsts in our travels down A to Z paths. From Copernicus to Yerkes-Dodson, we have discussed some eye-opening discoveries which have stood the test of time, regardless of how much they were fish-eyed in their day.

We live in a busy world which is behind the scenes researching and ciphering and experimenting and discovering every day. Whether we are finding out about a species which has gone extinct or pinning a disease on a particular microbe, we are learning. Whether it is a new way to collect energy or understanding why a comet passes through our sky, we are learning.

Rambutan Wiki Image

Compliments of Wiki

Amidst all of this discovery and betterment, humans have a nasty habit of not believing. Clyde wants to know why. Surely, if humans came up with a new way to peel rambutan, Clyde would be all over it. Why do humans put their heads in the sand when something new comes along?

Once bitten…

Snake oil salesman take the edge off most of our excitement for new things. Either we have already bought something which was a scam or we watched someone fall for the marketing pitch. Every once in a while we hear of or know someone who dies as a result of false claims for benefits.

Is that really what makes us skeptics?

Don’t fix what’s not broken.

The famed status quo. Recipe:

2 parts habit
1 part complacency
1 part resignation
1 part gratitude
1 part capitulation
1/2 part disinterest
1/2 part laziness

Stir all ingredients with a spatula of “better than what we had”. Spread over psyche until coated to match all others.

Isn’t that the same recipe for group hysteria? We do what everyone else does because it is the way everyone has always done it and lived.

Fear

Who really wants to be a crash test dummy? What if the new way does not work? Risk tolerance, willingness to gamble and view of failure all affect how we accept new processes, products and theories.

teardropFear of grief is a big player. The loss of the autopilot performances we stage everyday can be frightening. If we change one thing in our day, how does that impact all the other things we do? How much more upsetting is it to learn something we have always believed is not true? Change is a revolution, and all revolutions have casualties.

Many subscribe grief to the loss of life. Frankly, we grieve at any loss. Some is a quickly passing disappointment. Some is a lingering discomfort whilst we acclimate to new axioms and methods. Some is a nostalgic longing for what we perceive as better times.

Disqualified

Most often, we are being honest in our own abilities. We do not have the education or training or knowledge to either support our current view or challenge the new. We do not have the self-confidence to ask the questions we are willing to murmur in our heads or outrageously, albeit rhetorically, blast at (Mate, Quaint, Parent, Partner).

Clyde wants to point out at this juncture: It takes no special training to ask a question.

Enter Ape

Which of these discoveries would you herald?

  • A way to kill metastisizing cancer cells in the bloodstream before they reach their destination
  • 715 new planets
  • Generation of energy by using mirrors to reflect sunlight
  • Observation of gravitational waves which support the Big Bang Theory
  • Genome editing which successfully cured present cancer
  • Light therapy which stops pain at a cellular level
  • Gene therapy to stop blindness
  • A new planet which is equidistant to its sun as Earth is to Sol
  • Teleportation
  • Suspended animation
  • The ability to erase and restore memory
  • Generation of stem cells from adults who remain living
  • The cause of autism
  • The ability to grow organs to test drugs and diseases without risking human life
  • Reversal of stroke-induced brain damage
  • Proof our skin cells have the ability to “think” the way we have only subscribed to the brain
  • Transplantation of organs beyond our current “safe” and “living” standards
  • Reducing particle accelerators to the size of a desktop printer
  • DNA can survive space travel and still hold all its information

Clyde heard the “Wow!” and “Hmm” and “I would!” from the back. The question is simple: Do you believe any of this is possible?

Right turn, Clyde.

Right turn, Clyde.

Would you be more shocked to know these are a few of the top discoveries of 2014? As little as five years ago, some of these discoveries were merely the purview of dreams and science fiction. They are budding realities and proofs the way we looked at things was wrong.

Today, we get to choose to embrace the questions and seek the answers. Some of what is happening in our research communities is changing the way life has been explained for time immemorial, changing the way we live, changing the way we die.

A word of caution to this tale: In order to make these discoveries truly valuable, they must be available to all humanity. Is it time for another recipe of status quo or is it time to embrace the present?

It is enough to make an ape wonder.

Until the next time the ape takes the reins, I am quietly

Red Signature

Would you be willing to advocate for one of the discoveries? Which one would cause the most change in your life?

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11 Comments

  1. Autism.

    I discovered that my child can voluntarily walk with me to the store, and delight in it as she gets her boots muddy. Though we must control that shopping gene of hers, I do not care to carry as much as she would like to purchase.
    Laurie recently posted..Saturday Evening PostMy Profile

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  2. You always leave me breathless with the information you casually deliver. No, it doesn’t shock me at all these are the discoveries this year, what shocks me is any of them were made public.

    Drinks on the house if they ever ‘serve man’.
    Valentine Logar recently posted..You LivedMy Profile

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  3. Humanity continues onward and upward!!! 🙂

    I am looking forward to buying my FIRST robot!!!

    It has no arms, no legs or wheels, but has voice and image recognition, speaks and does a variety of tasks.

    It is also the beginning of a loooong story that has seen it already gain over $2,000,000 in sponsorship and 5,000 advance orders before they closed the offer!!! 🙂

    Isaac Asimov eat your heart out!!! 🙂
    Prenin recently posted..Saturday – Quiet Day.My Profile

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  4. All these promises in medical field are so full of possibilities. But I think I will have kicked the bucket a dozen years or so before they become realities. On the other hand, in our present times we have such amazing medical applications that people just a century ago would be astonished.

    Reply
  5. So many medical discovers never seem to be implemented on a wide scale. I hope all of these ones will end up helping us in the near future.
    Binky recently posted..SnowflakeryMy Profile

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  6. It is amazing what we the public
    never seem to learn of, as in new
    breakthroughs in science and the
    like (luckily we have you to offer
    these awesome discoveries, yaaay)
    but now that I have read about them
    here I can say how awesome our
    world is and is becoming. Yes there
    are many flaws in society, but with
    hope and a clear vision towards a
    new era we can embrace everything
    new and exciting and take it all to
    the next level. Thank you for always
    keeping us on our toes and refreshing
    our thoughts with your amazing
    knowledge my sweet and dear friend.

    Have an awesome Monday Red 🙂

    Andro xxxx

    Reply

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