In my last posting I complained about the lack of a new Communist Manifesto that would explain the world in simple terms and show the way forward. Here is my try at such a piece (and I dedicate it to Ayn Rand.)
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The history of mankind is the history of exceptional people. They are the ones who come up with the ideas, create and invent things, become role models, and lead the others. For the exceptional men and women are like an active ingredient in any medication - little of the good thing surrounded by massa tabulettae - an inert medium acting as a carrier.
What does it mean to be exceptional? Lets just say that it means that regarding some special ability one belongs to the top one percent. Top one percent means more than 2.57 (a bit less than three) standard deviations (sigmas) away from the mean. Being exceptional is not correlated with race, gender, age, education, income and so on. While it is hard to excel in any particular thing, it is much easier to be good at something. Sadly, only very few of us make use of our abilities while the rest tries to emulate somebody else's.
While nothing of importance happens without exceptional people being involved, the forces of mediocrity are constantly conspiring against them and try to deprive them of their special properties. And of those forces the government represents the most powerful adversary, an iron fisted mindless destroyer of talent.
Consider the most common ways to be exceptional - wealth, intellectual and physical abilities - and see how government relentlessly tries to undercut them.
Wealth
Getting your first billion is hard work - many hours, a lot of risk and perhaps one or two things that you are not proud of. But now that you have made it, you want to cash in on your accomplishments. You want to be pampered and respected and you do not mind to be called a "job creator" even if the jobs you create are on a different hemisphere. But no, the big government swoops in and tries to take away your hard earned money, 15% of it or so. This is 150 mil for gods sake! who has this kind of cash to give away! Rather than requiring that everybody pitches in equally, they target you because you stand above the crowd.
Intellect
You are six years old and suddenly you notice that everybody around you is sooo slooow. They read slowly, they think slowly and they do not seem to understand basic things. You are just a kid, and you do not know much but the rubbish that people tell you cannot possibly be right! This is where the government steps in. For the next twelve years you will be locked in a high security prison known as a public school. You will be bored to death, teased without mercy and if you do not toe the line you will be repeating classes that you should not be taking in the first place.
Physical ability.
You are a runner and you dream of running a 100 meter dash under 9 seconds, or a marathon under 2 hours. Impossible? Not quite, and big pharma is here to help. All that stands in your way is the government with its lawyers and regulations. They will humiliate you and strip you of your medals if you follow your dreams and allow science to help your body to accomplish what it was meant to do.
So what can we do? How can we remain strong?
Sub-three sigmas unite!
Get out of the glass jar of your talent and seek out other sub-three sigmas. You are unique and exceptional but it comes at a price. The great ability that makes you a sub-three sigma may have pushed aside other parts of your personality. You may be lacking social skills, be an incomprehensible introvert or simply an arrogant asshole. This is where another sub-three sigma with a different skill set can help and save you. The energy coming from building synergistic connections is enormous and the power of networking is unparalleled.
Consider the following examples to see what could be accomplished. They are modeled on what in the domain of science represent the most treasured form - multidisciplinary research.
Albert Einstein and Wayne Gretzky
Instead of wasting years on trying to develop socially irrelevant grand unification theory, we would end up with better physics of ice and scads of commercial applications. In defiance of laws of thermodynamics energy-free ice creation would make frozen water available throughout the planet. Transformative aspects involve creation of hockey leagues in equatorial countries, desalinization of sea water and (possibly) staving off global warming by increasing the Earth reflectivity through multiple hockey fields. And last but not least, we would get a better Zamboni machine.
Paris Hilton and Isaac Newton
While Isaac invents calculus Paris keeps his mind off nasty Leibniz and makes sure that he is not described as "asexual" four hundred years later. More importantly she looks at the educational side of calculus and the rest of mathematics. Transformative aspects of this duo involve making mathematics a cool subject and its teachers trendy and well dressed individuals paying attention to personal hygiene. Centuries later kids would look forward to be taking math classes as places to socialize and hang out. Expect modern fashion industry and computer age to come about two hundred years earlier.
Noam Chomsky and Saint Francis of Assisi
How can we think of communicating with extra-terrestial civilizations if we cannot figure out what our cat thinks of our table manners? This team would change it all. Saint Francis' zeal to give sermons to all creatures endowed with ears will be combined with Chomsky's understanding of language formation for the efficient inter-species communication. Finally when looking at our "little brothers" we will stop wondering how to cook them and focus on their thoughts and feelings. Plague of obesity will be eradicated when animal products will disappear from our daily diet. Equal rights for all the species and participation based on genome complexity will be established.
So sub-three sigmas unite! As we enter dark days of the XXI century you are our only chance to go forward. United you stand but divided you fall as the evil forces of government are constantly conspiring against you. Hook up and multiply and let the freedom reign!
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The history of mankind is the history of exceptional people. They are the ones who come up with the ideas, create and invent things, become role models, and lead the others. For the exceptional men and women are like an active ingredient in any medication - little of the good thing surrounded by massa tabulettae - an inert medium acting as a carrier.
What does it mean to be exceptional? Lets just say that it means that regarding some special ability one belongs to the top one percent. Top one percent means more than 2.57 (a bit less than three) standard deviations (sigmas) away from the mean. Being exceptional is not correlated with race, gender, age, education, income and so on. While it is hard to excel in any particular thing, it is much easier to be good at something. Sadly, only very few of us make use of our abilities while the rest tries to emulate somebody else's.
While nothing of importance happens without exceptional people being involved, the forces of mediocrity are constantly conspiring against them and try to deprive them of their special properties. And of those forces the government represents the most powerful adversary, an iron fisted mindless destroyer of talent.
Consider the most common ways to be exceptional - wealth, intellectual and physical abilities - and see how government relentlessly tries to undercut them.
Wealth
Getting your first billion is hard work - many hours, a lot of risk and perhaps one or two things that you are not proud of. But now that you have made it, you want to cash in on your accomplishments. You want to be pampered and respected and you do not mind to be called a "job creator" even if the jobs you create are on a different hemisphere. But no, the big government swoops in and tries to take away your hard earned money, 15% of it or so. This is 150 mil for gods sake! who has this kind of cash to give away! Rather than requiring that everybody pitches in equally, they target you because you stand above the crowd.
Intellect
You are six years old and suddenly you notice that everybody around you is sooo slooow. They read slowly, they think slowly and they do not seem to understand basic things. You are just a kid, and you do not know much but the rubbish that people tell you cannot possibly be right! This is where the government steps in. For the next twelve years you will be locked in a high security prison known as a public school. You will be bored to death, teased without mercy and if you do not toe the line you will be repeating classes that you should not be taking in the first place.
Physical ability.
You are a runner and you dream of running a 100 meter dash under 9 seconds, or a marathon under 2 hours. Impossible? Not quite, and big pharma is here to help. All that stands in your way is the government with its lawyers and regulations. They will humiliate you and strip you of your medals if you follow your dreams and allow science to help your body to accomplish what it was meant to do.
So what can we do? How can we remain strong?
Sub-three sigmas unite!
Get out of the glass jar of your talent and seek out other sub-three sigmas. You are unique and exceptional but it comes at a price. The great ability that makes you a sub-three sigma may have pushed aside other parts of your personality. You may be lacking social skills, be an incomprehensible introvert or simply an arrogant asshole. This is where another sub-three sigma with a different skill set can help and save you. The energy coming from building synergistic connections is enormous and the power of networking is unparalleled.
Consider the following examples to see what could be accomplished. They are modeled on what in the domain of science represent the most treasured form - multidisciplinary research.
Albert Einstein and Wayne Gretzky
Instead of wasting years on trying to develop socially irrelevant grand unification theory, we would end up with better physics of ice and scads of commercial applications. In defiance of laws of thermodynamics energy-free ice creation would make frozen water available throughout the planet. Transformative aspects involve creation of hockey leagues in equatorial countries, desalinization of sea water and (possibly) staving off global warming by increasing the Earth reflectivity through multiple hockey fields. And last but not least, we would get a better Zamboni machine.
Paris Hilton and Isaac Newton
While Isaac invents calculus Paris keeps his mind off nasty Leibniz and makes sure that he is not described as "asexual" four hundred years later. More importantly she looks at the educational side of calculus and the rest of mathematics. Transformative aspects of this duo involve making mathematics a cool subject and its teachers trendy and well dressed individuals paying attention to personal hygiene. Centuries later kids would look forward to be taking math classes as places to socialize and hang out. Expect modern fashion industry and computer age to come about two hundred years earlier.
Noam Chomsky and Saint Francis of Assisi
How can we think of communicating with extra-terrestial civilizations if we cannot figure out what our cat thinks of our table manners? This team would change it all. Saint Francis' zeal to give sermons to all creatures endowed with ears will be combined with Chomsky's understanding of language formation for the efficient inter-species communication. Finally when looking at our "little brothers" we will stop wondering how to cook them and focus on their thoughts and feelings. Plague of obesity will be eradicated when animal products will disappear from our daily diet. Equal rights for all the species and participation based on genome complexity will be established.
So sub-three sigmas unite! As we enter dark days of the XXI century you are our only chance to go forward. United you stand but divided you fall as the evil forces of government are constantly conspiring against you. Hook up and multiply and let the freedom reign!
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