Lightbulb Moments

I don't know if it was enlightment, Boidy, but I remember being around 6 to 8 and for some reason contemplating how big the universe is, and then imagining that it must end somewhere and imaging a big brick wall at the end then thinking 'what's on the other side of the brick wall' and my brain doing loops thinking about the possibility of infinity.

Was I a weird kid?

Not lately. I've had mostly disappointment. Hopefully that is about to change.

Once in second grade I won the spelling bee with the word "business".

One time in college I was struggling on a midterm and finally went up and asked the geekfessor what the hell that ugly blob on his mimeograph was supposed to be. Once he explained it, I aced the exam. To this day I think he did that on purpose because he couldn't think up a better question.

I was skiing and took a jump, tried to do a flip, realized I wasn't gonna make it...

oh God I did that too!!!

I didn't see a brick wall, but I thought as far out as I could, then went that much further, then that much further....All of a sudden I had to grip the sides of my bed.

Scary ****, that "forever" stuff.

Hingehead and Chai Tea, Contemplating the universe at such a tender age. I'm impressed. And, yes, the concept of infinite could scare the doody out of a person. Even now when I think about the universe I have to hold onto something.

cj, Hope you don't mind my calling you cj. Congrats on the spelling bee. And big ouch on the ski jump.

I'm talking about a light in my head. An actual real elecrically charged light that actually really lights up the inside of my head. What you guys are describing is enlightenment, but was there a light? Maybe I should get my head examined. Not psychiatrically, although that wouldn't be a bad idea. But physically. Why are lights going off in my head? Granted, these days the bulb is a lot dimmer, but it's still there.

That's funny, I had a realizing-the-hugeness-of-the-universe moment as a kid too. Must be the age for it.

I was on my back on a lawn, looking at the sky, and thinking of the fact that the earth was rotating-- and suddenly I got that it really was spinning, the other planets really were out there, the universe really just stretches on and on and on-- it was the first time stuff I'd read in science books actually seemed believable and true. I literally felt pressed down into the ground, as though I could feel the centrifugal force of the earth's motion. I think I've read that you have those sudden "I've got it" moments more as a kid.

cyphercat, cyphercat! I'm having a lightbulb moment right now!

I can break any two people up!
Isn't that cool!!??

(don't mind me Roberta, I'm just drunk on the power)


But really, maybe we can form some kinda club...Former Kids Who Considered the Universe.

FKWCU

I'll only join if we rearrange the words.

cyphercat, I don't know whether lights went off in your head, but that was one doozy of a lightbulb moment. I got a chill thinking of you thinking of the universe and feeling centrifugal force holding you down.

Chai Tea, Thanks for the laugh outloud. Had to spell that one out. LOL just wouldn't cut it.

I can't recall contemplating the universe when I was a child. Maybe I didn't get to see much of the night sky, so nothing triggered my mind to it. But I do recall thinking about the infiniteness of time. My father took me to the Museum of Natural History. One look at those dinosaur bones, and I was hooked. Went from the museum to the library and got a bunch of books on dinosaurs. I remember thinking about how much a million years must be. How much time was there before the dinosaurs? How much time would there be after? Mind-boggling.

Infinity is mind-boggling.

I was about ten, and reading an article about a neolithic burial site in northern Iraq, in which the pollen of flowers had been found in a ring around the corpse, and careful examination revealed that flowers had been placed around the corpse at the time of burial.

It was at that point that it dawned on me that people tens of thousands of years ago were just as intelligent (or stupid) and just as perceptive (or dull-witted) as people are today--they simply had not yet accumulated as much knowledge as we now possess. I had a less glimmering "lightbulb moment" a few years later when i realized that so many people, educated adults included, continue to cherish a belief that people in the past were somehow "stupider" than we are now.

Set, Definitely a lightbulb moment. Once we humans became humans, we had the same capacity for learning--regardless of when we were alive. The difference now is that we have more knowledge, not more smarts.

Don't think you're gonna get away scot free with that "reading about neolithic burial sites in Iran" when you were ten comment. Holy moley! Was it a school assignment, or just something that interested you?

I sometimes think about that first human who figured out how to capture fire and use it productively. Someone had to be the first. That moment of great and startling realization. We can control this and use it. I think that cooking happened by accident. Something fell into the fire. Came out cooked, but still edible.

I wonder about a lot of firsts--going back to our beginnings. Who was the first to draw a painting on a cave wall? How did it come about? I wonder about how language evolved. I assume from simple nouns for the names of things. Then some verbs to express action. How the whole shmear got strung together, though, amazes me.

National Geographic is kid's access to naked titties....

um...how about Considering the Universe? Who? Former Kids!



CUWFK

Former Universe-Considering Kids Who Initiate Topics

Former Universe Considsering Kids Highly Educated And Drunk

I remember the time I was whittling a piece of wood and random thoughts were bouncing around in my head when suddenly, and with absolute clarity, I realized I knew the cure for cancer.

I haven't thought about that for a long time. I still have the cure written down somewhere around here.

I'll see if I can find it.

You take the piece of sharp wood and commit hari kari. I'm surprised you forgot.

Homo-erectus. They were also the first ones to invent tools that they could use to chop things and to shovel.

It pays to watch the Discovery Channel!!

It's too personal to describe. <smiles>