I May Be Mentally Disordered

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

What's the next big thing thinking about?

I think of myself as a pretty boring guy. Sure, I have my hobbies, but I'm not curing cancer, writing the next Bible or anything of that nature. And the things I spend most of my time thinking about are not going to shake the Earth. Hell, in reality almost everything that cycles through my grey matter is an old or even ancient concept. Not that there's anything wrong with it all per se, but it's not new and bleeding edge. I'm not holding the next intellectual killer app and I'm OK with it.

But there are people out there on the razor's edge of thought. Granted, most of those people are in technological or scientific fields, but they are out there. A modern Galileo or Newton could be amongst us even now. He or she is probably nondescript and relatively anonymous, but that makes their existence all the more interesting to me. They won't recognize themselves as the next big thing until "it" has already happened. Some may hope for it, some may dream of it, but anyone of reasonable mental health doesn't know it until "it" is already reality.

So this world changer gets up every day groggy as Hell and starts the morning the same way you or I might. Maybe they pick their nose on the way to the bathroom or have some cereal while watching what passes for the morning news. Perhaps they scratch their ass before doing that gut-suck-in thing as they pass a mirror in their whitey-tighty underwear, the way people in movies seem to do in order to appear more "real". Who knows! The point is, the people who will one day change the world are very likely as mundane in appearance and stature as the rest of us, so that guy at Taco Bell who looks man-pregnant and is covered in body hair could be our generation's Thomas Edison!

We make gods of our athletes and prophets our celebrities, but in reality very few of them will have a direct impact on the world the way someone like Einstein or Newton did. They make their millions, do their charity drives, etc, but I'm fairly certain none of them are currently seeking a mathematical means of overcoming the limitations of our current space-time continuum.

Of course, in this culture, the next world changer or group of world changers will become overnight celebrities, though given the nature of science and research, that fame might arise years after their initial breakthrough. And I wonder, do they sit around thinking about that?

I mean, is there someone amongst us who is holding the next big thing in the palm of their hands, but currently find themselves stuck doing the necessary verification, detail and publishing work? Maybe the next big thing has already arrived, but none of us know it yet. We're all sitting here, thinking our vision of the world is more or less settled, when in reality this one person or group of people is sitting on something that will turn our understanding on its head.

Funny as it sounds, I can't help thinking how cool it would be to have that sort of knowledge in your hand long enough for it to become mundane. As the world sits ignorantly waiting to have it thrust upon them, you've already moved on to bigger and better things. Personally, I'd like to be a part of that, just so I could be more concerned with something else entirely. Imagine being so far out on the edge that even the edge is old hat...I mean, how fucking cool would that be!!

I should have been a world changer...or maybe I already am! Oh my Jebus it could be me! Nay, it IS me. You there, yes you reading this, bow down before me. You may now consider yourself enlightened...go out into the world and do my bidding! Move! NOW! Hyahh mule, HYAHH!