Koby’s Kaos

There’s Intellectual Property, and then there’s intellectual property. When I was growing up in the starch mill town of Argo, Illinois, there were two places I really wanted to see—the just created Disneyland, and the fabled Argonne National Laboratory which, to my imagination, had to be the “Fantasyland” of Science. Both seemed impossibly far away, on other planets really. In my imagination white-coated, bespectacled researchers mixed easily with robots, wizards, spells, spacecraft, time travelers, and dragons (though I resembled Herbie Popnecker more than Harry Potter). All were to be wondered at. All were impossible.

Not only can blocks of IP add interfaces to budding SoCs, they can describe the complex balls of assumptions and biases that are the building nodules of our personalities. We use them to interpret (and misinterpret) our social environments. Vision itself, after all, is an illusion.

When I came across a press release on an Open House at Argonne (see Something Different ) I recalled my childhood wonder and Googled the center, only to discover this far away place was only 15 miles away from the town of my birth. Geography is misleading, so thoroughly did they belong to two different universes, societies, realms of existence when I was growing up. I suppose not even having a bicycle helped my world view, nor did I ever see a Cubs or a White Sox game, but I could have walked to the Labs! (And made a big hit with site security!) I simply assumed it couldn’t be, therefore it wasn’t.

In those days my life began and ended in a few square miles radiating out from the mill. There was good, and there was bad, but the horizons, skies and sidewalks all faded into grey an hour’s walk away. The blinking star of discovery called Sputnik had not yet risen in the sky.

For all of our moans about lack of science in the schools, we live in an age of Nova, soccer/piano/French/karate class minivans, civic Discovery Centers, and My Mad Scientist toys. Distances continue to shrink, except in human relationships. Our mental IP can still be as self-deceiving and self-defeating as the Darkest of Ages.

I would have loved to have a nerd break between the universes by walking into my classroom, waving a slide rule, and explaining his pocket protector (I suspect I would have loved to have a geek come in and talk about biting the heads off of chickens too, but that’s another story). Yes, I would have liked anybody to have walked in, other than the bullies shoving us around on the playground, and link our lessons to real life and “D’uh,” actual careers. But just as kids growing up in our cities and towns still lack plausible role models, we grownup geeks lack the concept that we might be actually be one.

Now I have given a tour or two, and I will admit that little kids can seemingly miss the point of everything. So what? If Little Jimmy had been trailing in the back of the pack, afraid to raise his hand, or even look me in the eye, I know he still would have been grateful for the glimpse into a wider world. But he would never have thought enough of himself to guess that I, or anyone up front, would appreciate his interest and approval too. I guess I’m just saying to get involved at church, temple, school, shelter or community center in lives other than your own. You have more to give, and receive, than you can guess. It’s a cycle, people. Whether we break it, or ride it to perdition, is our choice.