The lottery of intelligence

Above is a Victorian picture of my first home. I was born in the house behind the horse and cart in 1961. Few changes had been made sinc it was built. It had no hot water or bathroom and an outside toilet. It was a four roomed house. The living room and Kitchen formed the ground floor and two bedrooms the upstairs. My father worked in the local paper mill and I remember little of him. He died in 1973. I do remember that this mill worker loved building electric motors using copper wire, knitting needles and a wooden base. They worked too! I never really knew him but I am sure he had other interests you wouldn't expect from a working class person. At that time the pools, the Pub and the Saturday football results were the main interests of the working classes. reading matter included the Daily Mirror, the News of the World and whatever books came your way.

So along I came, a child of a very working class, fairly poor family. I too had interests you wouldn't expect. Classical Greek and Roman mythology fascinate me. I love working out what makes people tick and I find myself comfortable with Latin and the words deriving from Latin. This in turn helps with another interest, Trivia. I have crammed my mind with all kinds of nonsense, none of which is genuinely useful in life. I never pass up a chance to learn something new and am a voracious reader. I try reading Shakespeare and enjoy history both ancient and modern. You know, dear reader, of my love of superstitions and the paranormal. Crime is another passion, the grislier the better. All this from a poor lad who never made it past 'O' Level. Then when the rise of the Computer and the Internet began I found I not only had an interest in it but the technology and techniques involved came naturally to me. I did not suffer from the Technofear common to most of my friends and family. Now I couldn't be without at least 1 internet connected device.

Oh yes, I hate football and most other sports, though the occasional Rugby match is enjoyable. I don't drink or do small talk so Pub visits are rare.

 

This Guy was not from a super intelligent family. His Father had a failed company behind him and Einstein was working in a Patent office when he began his Thought Experiments which eventually led to the physics breakthroughs that dominate the subject today.

 

 

So my question is Why? How is intelligence doled out in the great Lottery. We all know of the idea of the Throwback, the son of a rich and well educated family who turns out to be totally useless. Obviously intelligence runs in some families who have no real use for it, given that they are only expected to work, raise a family and die. Some are lucky and break out of the cycle, others don't.

 

 

I like to believe that I came from a family of great scholars who fell on hard times but my Genealogy research proves that, at least back to the 1700's the family are all from the lower echelons of society. So where does all this thirst for knowledge  come from?

 

I suppose that, if you have a predisposition to reading and open yourself up to all sources of knowledge, you will eventually find that you have interests in all kinds of things you never expected. Maybe if my Father had lived beyond 1973 and discovered the Internet he would have sucked up knowledge as I do.

 

Or maybe just having a receptive and fast brain with good information matching skills is enough to ensure that you will fill it.

 

 

One more thing though, I am intelligent but I am basically unable to use that to my advantage. When I try to do so it inevitably fails. Maybe you can have intelligence or Money making skills, but not both.

Why we need a little mystery.

 

The above pictures are fairly well known. Crop circles have been a part of our lives for a few decades. Nessie (Or the Loch Ness Monster.) even longer. The one with the Leg is a case of Spontaneous Human Combustion, whereby a human body is almost totally consumed by burning (Which would require extremely high temperatures.) yet there is little or no damage to the surroundings.

 

The rise of the internet has proved one thing. We love our mysteries. The more inexplicable the better. While researching this I typed 'Unexplained' into Google and clicked images. The hundreds of results included a time travelling man, a 1940's girl with a suited astronaut behind her, a man with two faces, various supposed Ghost images, Ditto UFO images. The list went on. Many sites collate these things. There is a crossover with conspiracy theories here because all are covered by the title unexplained. Allow me to present you with a uniquely British example.

 

Spring Heeled Jack

 

This was a diabolical figure with fiery red eyes and clawed hands and was reported fro 1837 till 1877 and in various parts of the U.K. He was scary enough but his true terror for Victorian witnesses was that, from a standing start, he could leap 9 feet or more in order to escape. Various explanations were put forward, mainly upper class pranksters. Phosphorous and metal claws accounted for the physical aspects. Even the 1888 Jack the Ripper case was briefly attributed to this British bogey man. More often his appearances were put down to superstition or mass hysteria. More information can be found HERE.

 

 

Time slips.

 



This is another unexplained phenomena. One of the best known is two ladies who went to Versaille, France in 1901. They got lost on their homeward journey but noticed many anachronisms. The clothing was different. The atmosphere changed. Everything seemed flat and lifeless and they observed phenomena strongly suggesting they were in the 16th century. The full story is HERE

There are many other stories of unexplained events. Some point to modern watches found in Ming dynasty graves. Others maintain that the JFK story in 1963 involved time travellers and/or the Illuminati. The British at the battle of Mons in early ww1 swore that Angels had appeared and protected them from the German guns. The Irish Banshee appears on the roof of a house only when a member of the family's death is imminent. The Nazca Lines in Mexico are designed to be seen from the air despite being made in a time before flight.

Now I am a sceptic, I try to debunk Ghost images and it isn't difficult. I like to think we possess innate telepathic or telekinetic abilities but have never been convinced by stories of these abilities. I believe in Alien life but do not believe they would bother travelling all this way just to examine our bodies. I think the Illuminati died out in the far past. I really don't believe in a lot outside our own knowledge as a race.

BUT I get a thrill at the idea of a high jumping monster, banshees scare me, I get shivers at the idea of witches and hags. I like a good Ghost story provided research has given it at least a fighting chance of being based in fact. I would love to slip in time. I want a convincing story of a telepath. The man with two faces- Edward Mordake- would seem feasible as a conjoined twin but is just creepy enough for me.

I think this is the point. Our lives are full of the known and explained that we are desperate for something we can't explain and if it is slightly creepy so much the better. I have given myself some shivery moments looking at pictures for this post and I am oh so rational. If no one has ever managed to explain something with all our modern science and the facts cannot be put down to fakery then it might just BE supernatural. Personally I need something that can't be explained.