Monday, December 28, 2015

Why Tomorrowland Never Comes

The obvious commitment to diversity, though somewhat annoying, wasn't the worst thing ever in this Disney film because they do test people.

What is less obvious is this sort of theme about picking those 'dreamers' who haven't given up.

There is no IQ requirement for dreaming. Nor is there an IQ requirement for not giving up.

In the past decade or so, there have been many intellectual endeavors in which I gave up. One thing that readily springs to mind is Gilbert Ling and whether or not he is right and we need a new (or his) theory of cell physiology. In chasing down this and other biological ideas, I got the sense I need a biochem degree, and however long I chased this idea, I ended up stopping.

I gave up, because I am alone. I have a job, I usually have to run to the grocery store and I actually cook food, because I am mostly paleo. I have to take care of my own home- not very well- and spend too much time tinkering with my little old truck to keep it going. I manage to get to the gym every so often, and I manage to listen to a lot of podcasts and stuff.

But the necessary study to achieve anything high level is barred by the necessity to pay attention to these other things.

So, in this world, America dumps tons of money on attracting pre-teen girls to STEM, and then puberty hits, and we lose most of them because they aren't interested in STEM.

Think about what it takes for something like high level math. The time it takes to get proficient, to learn the language as it were. Then, once you are proficient, the time it takes to focus, do to the work.

Celia Green talks about needing a hotel environment. I would like, at the very least, a home environment, though I can see the appeal of a hotel environment.
As an aside, consider how many high IQ fat kids out there would have been so well served by a paleo hotel environment- and, in turn, consider how well society would have surely benefited from the innovation. We are certainly not seeing benefits from the children eating cheetohs and playing video games.

Just to drive home the point- the smarter people may be very pessimistic, but if they truly do have the capacity, they will tend to keep trying, if they have the resources to do so. The dreamers? Will they really grind through a thousand different experiments, or will they just get high, and dream? If anyone was serious, they would be looking for people who have a need to do these things. Do you suppose unmet need breeds pessimism or optimism?

Of course, it also helps if your government doesn't impede technology necessary to the project. One of the obvious directions is small, blackbox nuclear reactors, but we are still stuck with large 1970 style plants, complete with government negotiated externalized risk, as is the case with Fukushima.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A hotel environment is called having a stay-at-home wife, if you are a man, or a stay-at-home mom, if you are a child. Women in the workplace makes life much more difficult because you can't depend on a healthy diet and a clean, comfortable home.

August said...

I agree with your general assessment, though I think a stay at home wife provides tends to provide a home, for there are various home related tasks that tend to fall on the husband. A hotel environment requires more people in the employ of the household administrator.