Essays

I think I might make another blog on which I will write assorted essays as the mood strikes me. Sometimes it's just good to consider some of the deeper issues of life in formal writing (or at least semi-formal). I consider these things often enough but it's difficult to get far since the mind wanders off when things get complicated, and also you end up thinking of the same thing lots of times because you forget about your previous ponderings. Plus essays would be a good record for the future and just a good read. You know, when you're old or dead then people can read back and learn from the things you've thought about. Or other people right now.
In any case I don't think such things are appropriate for this blog, they'd just take up a lot of space and be hard to find later.
Anyway I plan to discuss such things as:
- The people born blind and disabled known as "musical savants". I saw the thing they had on 60 minutes today about it and as a musician I assure you that the things these people can do are absolutely amazing, and they can't even pee by themselves. Actually it's more than just musical:
"The estimated prevalence of savant abilities in autism is 10%, whereas the prevalence in the non-autistic population, including those with mental retardation, is less than 1%." (http://www.autism.org/savant.html)
I find the mathematical case particularly amazing also, how they can multiple large numbers in their heads, figure out the day of the week of any date you give them and find prime numbers and square roots in seconds. Raises interesting questions about the untapped power of the human mind, doesn't it?
- The human soul, spirit and conciousness.
- Life, the universe and everything.
Hopefully I manage to find time to write about these things. It would be a shame not to.

edit: There are some really interesting articles on wikipedia about savants, in particular it is mentioned that at the University of Sydney researchers believe that they have stimulated savant-like abilities in test subjects by magnetically stimulating parts of the brain. (http://www.centreforthemind.com/whoweare/index.cfm)
That'd really be something amazing if they manage to prove that such abilities lie latent in all of us, but are "blocked" by our ordinary brain functions.
It may seem like now is a pretty boring time to live in, but really there are things that could happen in our lifetimes which will leave this world a very different place. Not all of these things are good, but some could shed light on the deepest mysteries of our existence.