coordinates: Writing this from my perch in my cozy bed, but by the time you read this I’ll be at the Dent the Future conference in Santa Fe.
But first, we formally open the invitation to apply to the Dragonfly cohort, a group of men and non-binary who are slicing through the Gordian knot of overwork to find out what wants to be born in them.
And now back to our regularly-scheduled Tuesday essay…
The most common descriptor for the subject of today’s essay, Thomas Young, is polyglot, but I oppose this term based solely on how gross it sounds in the mouth. Plus, it implies one must be a linguist when such a thing isn’t required for the sense of it which I mean. The other term, polymath, is specific to mathematics. He is both and even much more.
I hereby coin multidimensionalist, noun. “one who exists at the center of many apparently (but not actually) disparate paths of mastery” with the following examples of what one such life looked like:
quantum physicist – inventor of the double-slit experiment which proved superposition via the wave-particle behavior of electrons
mathematician – created a formula for the wave speed of the pulse and for dosages of drugs for children
linguist – learned to read at two and had read the Bible twice by the time he was four and “compared the grammar and vocabulary of 400 languages” via Wikipedia
musician – invented an alternate tuning scale for instruments
medicine – described the way the eye focuses the lens and the red-green-blue method of color perception
Egyptology – published the first partially correct translation of the Rosetta Stone (!!!)
writer – His articles for the Encyclopaedia Britannica covered 20 fields of knowledge.
After he published his results of the Double Slit Experiment, he received massive criticism for disagreeing with Newton. He conceded a defeat, unfortunately, that wasn’t his to concede stating “I have resolved to confine my studies and my pen to medical subjects only.”
I surely hope that confinement didn’t last long. It makes me sad to hear the hurt contained in that small line. It can be overwhelming to shine with such brilliance that others can’t see.
We make waves (and particles).
Sigh… multidimensionalists make waves bigger than even we can make sense of at the time. As much as I dislike the following line, there’s some truth in the trite observation that haters gonna hate.
Console yourself if you also are such a being who others can’t make sense of. I consider myself one such character even though my prodigies aren’t nearly as prodigious as his. We are in good company and have all the legitimacy we could ever need not to fit nicely into a title on a business card or LinkedIn bio.
Despite the decryers, Thomas was known at his funeral as “The Phenomenon” and a 2005 biography described him as “The Last Man Who Knew Everything.” Consider just what’s possible when we allow ourselves to replenish ourselves in such a vast terrain as our seemingly disparate desires lead us through.
Everything he did was required to do all that he did.
The early linguistic ability no doubt structured his brain to give him a phenomenal capacity to compare like with like and unlike with unlike between 400 languages. His mathematical formulas described the concerns his education as a doctor surfaced. His knowledge gained by dissecting the eyeballs of oxen no doubt inspired the Double Slit Experiment which shook physics. If you removed a field of his curiosity you’d unwittingly undermine his groundbreaking insight into a seemingly unrelated realm.
P.S. My essential question about science is this – where do hypotheses come from? Where does one get the idea to build such a specific box as Thomas built? It came from a hunch and enough gumption to even get out the tools to go on and make such a thing. The experimental apparatus itself isn’t so complicated to build once you have the ideal to build it. It was the brilliance of the mind plus instinctual gut hunch awareness that created that hypothesis that changed everything about our models of the most fundamental aspects of physics.
P.P.S. I can’t resist this juicy factoid tangent… despite the Encyclopedia Brittanica’s dismissal that what’s written on the Rosetta Stone is boring, I find it fascinating.
“If you were hoping for some profound wisdom reaching across the centuries, prepare to be slightly disappointed. The text of the Rosetta Stone actually deals with a fairly banal piece of administrative business.”
Why else would they have made multiple stone copies and distributed them around the country in all of the sizeable temples of the land, lolz?
“The text begins by cataloging some of the king’s noble deeds and accomplishments, such as the giving of gifts to the temple, the granting of a variety of tax reductions, and the restoration of peace to Egypt after a rebellion”
I dunno, a massive tax cut, debt forgiveness, and restoration of peace seem like a lot more than a crumpled-up piece of tax paperwork in the King’s pocket. The Rosetta Stone was a big ole’ Jubilee. If you got all your debt to the government canceled and your taxes cut in half you’d think it was a big deal, too. Am I lying?
Ok, that’s enough! More profiles of multidimensionalists to come... Make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already.
Ta’ from Santa Fe,
Cris and Team Dragon