Saturday, May 8, 2010

THERE'S NO TURNING BACK NOW, DOCTOR

On these fresh spring mornings, optimists and pessimists wake up with different expectations. The first with enthusiasm -- I haven't lived this day before! The second with dread -- what new crisis took place while I was sleeping! There's a third group -- those who prefer to roll over, and get back under the soft safe covers.

Eventually all three of us will be stepping out our front door. Out here are at least four changes we'll face. How we do it is up to us, but we will have to face them:

* First, spring proms have now and forever changed. Once a college campus promenade, they have trickled down to high schools and elementary schools where girls are outfitted with some of the same flair and finances of a bride, and guys chip in for sleek white limousines and midnight boat rides. Style was once the standard; now it's splash. The bigger and richer the better!

* Second, telephone pages are about to disappear. Who needs a ten pound lump of book cluttering up your closets, when you can look up numbers on the Net. No more curious let-your-fingers-do-the-walking. Soon it will be, let your keypad profile whoever you're tracking down!

* Third, post offices are about to diminish in size, hours and especially bravado. Whoever's left isn't guaranteeing anything anymore. Oh, maybe except for longer lines at stations staffed by fewer people!

Fourth...well, this change is a little off the charts. The wonderful world of research has been sifting through our brain circuitry and genetic cell pools for years, coming up with the most extraordinary solutions to some of our most intimidating problems. But then again, when you unleash the tiger of scientific inquiry, you can't limit where it will take you. Right now, laboratories like Mind Research Network in Albuquerque is taking us into the mysterious realm of human creativity itself. The realm of Plato, Dante, Newton, Einstein and Lady Ga Ga.

According to team leader Dr. Rex Jung, "Creativity is kind of like pornography -- you know it when you see it." Now his team is trying to know it even better by figuring out precisely which biochemicals, electrical impulses and brain regions are being used during those special Eureka! moments of discovery and creation.

Those first three changes are something we can all learn to live with. But this last one...! Every instinct and historic experience in you just knows what comes next. If we can understand creativity, then we will soon be able to unleash it. Hmm, exactly why and how and who would we slip this creativity chip into...?

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