Monday - December 01, 2008

JUST WHAT MAKES THE BRAIN WORK, AND WHY IS IT DIFFERENT IN VARIOUS PEOPLE? WHAT MAKES US TICK?

This will take a bit of explaining and it’s all Drew’s fault because he got me to thinking about the subject.  In fact, this started out originally as a note to Drew
but as I wrote it I got to thinking more about THE BRAIN.

How it all started was getting tons of help with tech related things.  One or two may not have even had to do with BMEWS. Just tech in general.
So there was a flurry of emails from me to Drew asking how to do something, or else an email from me asking him to please translate into my language, just what he was talking about.  One does really need to be careful asking questions of those who are quite savvy when it comes to things tech.
They always understand exactly what they’re talking about.  People like me listen carefully and come away thinking, nah.  He’s kidding.  I know how it’s really done.  It all done with mirrors and magic and these tech folks just don’t want me to know the secret.  Cause then it wouldn’t be magic anymore.

I’m still amazed, truly I am, by what comes over that copper wire connected to our house. And now there’s some new miracle called fiber optic that’s supposed to be even better and it’s said faster.  More amazing to someone like me, there are actually people out there in the world who do really understand how it all works.  How do they do that?  Why do some take to something and suss it out, using a Brit expression, and others are left behind?
The Brain.

Well I’m glad I have that worked out now.

So, Drew dropped something in my lap for which I’m very grateful, and I feel a bit like a first grader being given an assignment at college level.

IT’S A QUESTION OF BRAINS

December 1st. ‘08

Look forward to the newest adventure in my life. BUT, ya know it really is true that the brain works in different ways with regard to subject matter.  Like, what makes some people math geniuses?  What makes some people really great wordsmiths?  There are those folks who are way, way out there and not at all in a bad way.  But they somehow comprehend the most incomprehensible to most of us mortals.

Einstein is a good example and of course there are others.  Something about how the brain works.
Why are some people chess masters and the rest of us hardly adequate?  My wife used to play chess on more then one board. And was a winner.  I was damn lucky to play on one.  I taught a cousin to play and was never able to beat her after that.  Something in the brain.  Something that works with some puzzles while others try to puzzle out the solution.  Many fail while a few succeed. 

It’s the very same with computers.  If I had another lifetime I still would never be able to do the wiz bang stuff Drew and Rancino do.  And btw, not all 13 year olds are computer whizzes.  It’s what each individual brain is easily receptive to that counts. 

When I was in the Navy we had a fellow in our division whose name I never learned because everyone just used his nickname.  Which was Moose. Really.  Very nice guy.  He was fairly big but so damned trusting and good natured that people got away with taking advantage of him.  But he was strong as an ox and if anything needed lifting and you were two men short, you’d call Moose cause he could generally pick it and you up all by himself.

Well, Moose it turns out liked Chess. Oh boy. Did he like that game.  The problem was, he didn’t really understand it.
See, Moose would read Chess books and Chess plays and then memorize the moves he read.  Moose could read a page in the phone book, hand it to you and tell you what he saw on the page.  Man what a gift.  But he could not play Chess.

What he did was memorize moves and no matter what you did to counter what he had done, he would continue to play out the moves he memorized right up to and including, CHECK MATE!  Game to you.  He just never cottoned on to the idea that unless you were playing the losing side in a book he was playing from, he didn’t stand a chance.

Ok so now you guys might think what jerk. He’s dumb.  Maybe.  But there were things he could work out that some others couldn’t.  True, Moose wasn’t a rocket scientist.  He could probably read a science book and memorize it without understanding a word.  I guess my long winded point is, there is something in one part of our brain that allows some to do things that others either find impossible or at least extremely difficult. 

OK .. enough of this.  With all that said:  Drew, I have this question.....?

-30-

Posted by peiper     on 12/01/2008 at 09:52 AM   
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