I went back to school in my late 20s, and started at trig and pre-calc. Painstaking plank by plank, I've made my little boat bigger. Calculus, discrete math, probability... My latest conquest is the trig functions: Seeing them as fundamental, as simple. Geometry, probability, information all related. Understanding why the normal distribution used by stats guys includes pi. Euler, DeMoivre, Guass, Fourier, all these great mathematicians, lonely souls who took the time to the time to learn the language of the universe while 99% of the population didn't care. And I myself am unashamed to be a quiet student of that same truth, while the world moves on, esteeming things less fundamental and more illusory. I have nothing to offer, except for what I turned away from life to know.
The fundamental message I'm sharing is that if you actually do take that acid, if you do move through intuitive leaps in your appreciation and understanding of the universe, than you really are dealing with the fundamentals of truth. You really are seeing the universe. If you have the math chops (which is rare) to turn those big concepts into fish fillet: equations that empower people like e=mc^2 or Shannon entropy, than you have in those moments of meditation the power to absolutely change and transform the world. That's really something. If you take a look at 20th century history you can discard the nonsense, and look at these leaps in knowledge which warped the whole world in their new direction.
and its beautiful and fun and good to look at these things. Its beautiful and fun to gain knowledge as to the nature of self, which is what we're always ultimately dealing with when we inquire as to the nature of the universe.
We should all:
Just take a pen, or a pencil, and write it down. Keep working with the new concepts as they come. Until they build a temple worthy of living in.
PEace, and thanks again for inspiring great thoughts, Glider!
Nir
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