Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Awe of a Young Mind

When I was young I often made predictions, mostly with technology, based on what I had seen. Usually they became true in some way, but one in particular only recently came true, and I was more accurate than I had thought I was back then.

I had this old solid state drive computer, the memory and the storage were essentially the same thing, so you could run something, suspend it and switch to another app, then switch back and everything would be right where you left off. I thought it was the coolest thing and predicted it would replace conventional hard drives.

Then I was disappointed, as I never saw the technology used again. At least, I didn't see it in use again until recently. Now it is literally everywhere, smart phones and tablets are the primary devices we now see this same technology in, with some improvements. It's faster and smaller now, so we have much more memory than when I was young.

I thought about this recently and pondered why it is we remember these kind of predictions so well, and why do we make them more when we're young yet not so much as we get older. My inner scientist began working on this inquiry, recalling all pertinent information.

The conclusion offered another very important reason we need to keep pushing our youth to learn as much as they can. Also why we need to expose them to as many aspects of science as possible at a young age. The simple awe we see in new things wears off, eventually life loses that luster, that new car smell.

But during those glorious years of youth our minds are more open to possibilities, some seemingly impossible things to an adult will be nothing more than challenges for the young minds. We lose our sense of wonder and awe as we grow because our brains are only capable of holding so much information, until that limit is reached they are like sponges for everything.

But once we reach that limit things begin to be compacted, and our desires to fill our brains lessens. Some of us renew our desire for knowledge by trying new things, mixing it up a bit, so our brain doesn't feel like it's just rehashing the same things over and over again. This is not a flaw in our species, ironically, it is a huge benefit.

Once you get older you want to talk about your life and share your experiences as a result of losing most of your desire to learn, you become the teacher for the next generation, sharing what you have learned so they don't have to relearn it. As humans this has become the most valuable method of advancing our society and culture, yet it is something we are failing to do.

In my blog I share what amounts to my life, the things I experience, in the hopes that it will help others in some way, specifically younger people. Let them know of my mistakes and my lessons so that they can progress without having to relearn what I did. That is what all blogs should be, a massive collaboration of ideas, lessons, and general life knowledge, wisdom of the elders.

We have been failing to do this in other ways, mostly because our species has grown too massive in population, but also because there are people who prefer to brainwash or indoctrinate the young, rather than teach or allow them to learn. But they can't stop the youth from seeking out the wisdom online, so this is our chance to correct the mistakes made by society, let's make humanity perfect together.

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