THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 31

If you condensed 15 million years -- the age of the universe -- into a 365 calendar, on what day and at what time did the human species arrive?

Subject: Time - Sagan’s Cosmic Calendar

Event:  December 31

 

The construction of such tables and calendars is inevitably humbling….dinosaurs emerge on Christmas Eve; flowers arise on December 28th; and men and women originate at 10:30 P.M. on New Year's Eve. All of recorded history occupies the last ten seconds of December 31. -Carl Sagan

In his 1977 book Dragons of Eden, astronomer Carl Sagan tackles the problem of trying to illustrate how old the world is relative to how young human beings are.  To do this he constructs what he calls a Cosmic Calendar.  In this calendar, Sagan asks the reader to imagine the 15 billion years condensed and recorded on a 365-day calendar.

On the Cosmic Calendar, the key event on January 1 is the Big Bang (the beginning of the universe).  Other key events don’t occur until September, such as the formation of the earth on September 14 and the origin of life on Earth on September 25.

                                                                    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

If you represented the Cosmic Calendar as the length of a 100 yard football field, the whole of human history would represent a length no larger than the size of a hand.

The key day on the Cosmic Calendar for humankind, therefore, is today: December 31.  It should be humbling to realize how recently our species has appeared:  10:30 PM on December 31st.  Fire became an available tool minutes ago, at 11:46 PM and the first cities appeared at 11:59:35 PM.  Because the alphabet was invented just seconds ago, at 11:59:51 PM, all of recorded human history must be squeezed into a period of just ten seconds.  In Sagan’s words, “Every person we’ve ever heard of lived somewhere in there. All those kings and battles, migrations and inventions, wars and loves. Everything in the history books happens here, in the last 10 seconds of the cosmic calendar.”

The point of the Cosmic Calendar is to give us some perspective about how long our species has been on Earth relative to how long the universe has been in existence.  Although we as humans are newcomers, arriving just 90 minutes before the clock strikes twelve, beginning a new year, we still have enormous power to influence the next cosmic year.  As Sagan puts it, “We have a choice: we can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion year heritage in meaningless self destruction.  What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do.”

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  At what time on the cosmic calendar do humans first appear?

Challenge - It’s the Time of the Season:  What is the best thing anyone has ever said about time?  Do some research to find quotations.  Write down the one you like the best, and explain why you think the quotation is insightful.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 31, 1930:  On this day in the 1930s, Jay Hormel hosted a New Year's Eve party where he challenged his guests to create a name for his latest invention, a canned pork product. On that night not only was a new year born but also one of the most successful and most recognizable brand names in history came into being: Spam. The winning name was formed from the contraction of sp(iced h)am; the winner of the contest was awarded $100. Thanks to a sketch and song from the British television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, the word Spam lost its capital letter and became a lowercase common noun referring to unsolicited e-mail. In the sketch, which first appeared in 1970, a waitress recites a list of menu items, all including Spam. As the menu is being recited, a song begins where male voices chant the word Spam more than 100 times. It's this seemingly endless, repetitive chant that inspired computer users to select spam as the appropriate appellation for unwanted, disruptive email in 1994 (2).

Sources:

1-Sagan, Carl. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. New York: Ballantine Books, 1978. 

2-Steinmetz, Sol and Barbara Ann Kipfer. The Life of Language. New York: Random House, 2006.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 21

How, using a barometer, did a student give his teachers a lesson in creativity?

Subject: Creative Thinking - Functional Fixedness

Event:  The story “Angels on the Head of a Pin” appears in The Saturday Review, 1968

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think. -Margaret Mead

On this day in 1968, Alexander Calandra published a story in The Saturday Review magazine entitled “Angels on the Head of a Pin.”

In the story, Calandra recounts his interaction with a physics student who was referred to him by another instructor who requested that Calandra referee the student’s unconventional answer to a test question.

The question on the exam was “Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer.”  

                                                            Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay 

The student responded to the question as follows:  “Take a barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope.  The length of the rope is the height of the building.”

Although the student’s answer was correct, it clearly did not reflect the instructor’s expectation that a student answers the question in a way that reveals a competence in physics.  A correct answer would involve using the barometer to measure the difference between the pressure at the top of the building and the bottom.

Offering the student a second chance to answer the question, Calandra gave the student six minutes.  This time the student-generated the following answer: 

"Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop that barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then using the formula S = ½ a t2, one could easily calculate the height of the building.”

Intrigued by the student’s thinking, Calandra asked him what other solutions he had to the problem.  The student then proceeds to give four more possible methods.  One, involving a comparison of the shadows cast by the barometer and the building; two, using the barometer as a ruler and marking off the length of the barometer on the wall while climbing the stairs; three, using the barometer on the end of a string to make a pendulum; and four, knocking on the janitor’s door and asking him the following: "I have a fine barometer which will be yours if you tell me the height of this building.”

The truly fascinating thing about Calandra’s parable is that it is the student who is being tested who becomes the teacher, supplying Calandra and the reader with a powerful lesson in flexible thinking.  Too often students are taught one, supposedly acceptable way to solve a problem, rather than being encouraged to use their creativity to explore multiple correct possibilities.  

The student was courageously resisting functional fixedness, the type of thinking that limits solutions to conventional, acceptable answers and discourages new ideas and innovative thinking.  

For example, try the following brain teaser:

What is the capital of Antarctica?

If you Google the question, searching for a city, you’ll discover that Antarctica has no cities, let alone a capital city.  However, if you look at the question with a bit more of a flexible mindset, you might realize that the word “capital” can also refer to letters; therefore, the answer is capital A.

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is functional fixedness, and how does it limit creative thinking?

Challenge - Defenestrate The Box:  As the student illustrated in the story, functional fixedness can hinder creative thinking.  Do a bit of research on creative problem solving, and write a public service announcement that encourages people to think outside of the box.  What are important characteristics and habits of creative thinking, and how can people apply these habits to think more creatively?

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 21, 2002:  On this day, President George W. Bush was meeting with his closest advisors in the Oval Office to review the evidence for the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.  Determining whether or not Iraq had such weapons was crucial in the president’s decision on whether or not to commit U.S. forces to the invasion of Iraq.  At one point in the meeting, President Bush turned to CIA Director George Tenet, asking him how confident he was that Iraq had WMDs.  His reply was, “Don’t worry, it’s a slam dunk!” In using a basketball metaphor, Tenet was expressing his belief that the presence of WMDs was a sure thing.  History tells us that Tenet might have been better served by selecting a different metaphor considering the fact that the eventual absence of WMDs became a huge embarrassment for the Bush administration after the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Sources:

1-Calandra, Alexander. “Angels on a Pin.” Saturday Review 21 Dec. 1968.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 16

Subject: Epistemology - Russell’s New Decalogue

Event:  Bertrand Russell’s essay “The Best Answer to Fanaticism - Liberalism,”1951

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell

On this day in 1951, British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an essay in The New York Times entitled “The Best Answer to Fanaticism - Liberalism.”

Liberalism, according to Russell, is not a belief; instead, it is a disposition or attitude toward belief.  He credits John Locke as liberalism’s “great apostle” because he argued that all people should be capable of living at peace and that it was not necessary for everyone to agree.  Instead, Locke argued that all opinions should be treated as fallible and any belief should be open to question.  

Russell called into question those who argue that the truth is already known.  These people hold the opposite view of liberalism because their purpose “is not to discover truth but to strengthen belief in truths already known.”

At the core of Russell’s argument is how to approach old ideas versus new ideas.  His conclusion is that all ideas should be welcomed, but at the same time, all ideas, whether old or new, should be subject to scrutiny and debate.  To help facilitate the liberal outlook, the correct epistemological attitude, Russell ends his article with what he calls a “new decalogue,” a kind of ten commandments of epistemology, in other words, ten rules that will help bring all of us closer to the truth:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worthwhile to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Challenge - The Best of the Ten: Read through Russell’s ten rules.  Pick the one rule that you like the best, and write a paragraph explaining why you feel that the rule is important for people who are trying to find the truth.

 

Sources:

1-Russell, Bertrand.  “The Best Answer to Fanaticism -- Liberalism.”  The New York Times 16 Dec. 1951.