The Creation of New
Knowledge
The High Creative
Who are these ones who wake upon the darkest hour and
seek out the slightest glimmer in the rock that lies hidden in the dust.
They brush it tease it and bring forth the opalescent
fires that light the way along the path to knowledge and enlightenment.
They sit beneath the tree and in the lonely cauldron of
their thoughts they give birth to form amongst the chaos
Along the myriad paths they travel their footprints
glow to lead the way for those who follow
In the creation of new knowledge or art there a several factors. The first is
the database of knowledge perceptions or of skills, the second is the manner in
which atoms and the elements are brought together.
With the High IQ person the arrangement of elements in the mind tends
to rapidly follow the "line or of best fit" to come to a proposition
or conclusion. When presented with a scatter of observations a line or curve is
drawn which most closely fits the data. It takes little examination to realize
that there may be a number of lines which could fit the same data. Even more
important however is the likelihood that the observations which are outside the
normal range will be ignored or considered irrelevant. It is however these very
observations which may be the key to flaws in the proposition or even more
importantly to open new lines of inquiry.
With the High Creative the arrangement of elements will follow a
different arrangement or indeed a range of possible arrangements.
Communication between those at opposite ends of the spectrum may often have
difficulties in communication.
My concern here is with the High Creative. Most education systems are geared
towards the High IQ (HiI) rather than the High Creative (HiC). As a result of
this emphasis the creative element tends to suppressed in the educational
systems which are atomistic rather than totalistic.
Many more have creative abilities than are generally recognized and this
becomes revealed in unusual and demanding situations as in wartime and in
disasters.
The High Creative by definition is one who is creative at a high rate. Also
they differ not only from the majority of the population but vary often
significantly from each other none the less they have a number of
characteristics in common.
- In the area of neurology and hard wiring there is a tendency for HiC’s
to be very sensitive to experiences either in general or in particular areas
such as music, art, mathematics or engineering for example. So really here
it would appear that there is a genetic component
- In early childhood the ethos which fosters such creative development will
increase its frequency however a harsh ethos may cause individuals to be
creative in their rebellion and an indifferent or neglectful ethos may
result in creative escape behaviours.
- In so called advanced economies parents have been persuaded to relegate
their offspring to professional educators where most serve a six to twelve
year sentence without remission for good behaviour. The compulsory education
system is often not conducive for the development of creativity, especially
where there are large classes. This is not to say that there are not good
schools within the system or to criticize especially under resourced
teachers..
- The human brain is a wonderful instrument for imposing order on disorder.
As mentioned earlier the HiIQ will tend to impose a linear logic line of
best fit. The HiC will tend to use various types of linear and non linear
logics and chain their information molecules in unusual configurations.
Their thought patterns though unusual are still rational though that logic
may not be understood by others at the time
- Another necessary characteristic of the HiC is the internal courage to
persist in the face of possible failure and have overcome the fear of being
laughed at by others.. He or she must have come to the position where their
self evaluation is more important than the evaluation of others.
- A feature of the HiC which is common is an ongoing curiosity concerning
the world about them. A constant desire to solve problems and to seek
answers. Many never loose that sense of child like wonder that is so
efficiently suppressed in our systems.
- The HiC is dedicated to the task of solving the problem sometimes all
other things will fade into insignificance. At times will forget to eat,
will sleep on exhaustion and many will loose all sense of time. Some on
finding no solution at present will put the problem in a corner of the mind
and revisit and revisit it again and again until solved oft times in a flash
of revelation. When they do consider the clock they tend to regard it as a
servant rather than as the master of their actions.
- As is implied above one of the characteristics which will drive non-HiC’s
to distraction is the disregard for objective time as observed by others..
- Workaholism is endemic amongst HiC’s even in sleep the mind is still
working on the problem. Though sometimes outwardly indolent they will be
hard at work thinking. The creative artist is amongst the hardest workers in
the world. In the throes
- Socially they are often characterized as being inept. They will often, be
more interested in things rather than socialization. They will very
frequently be undervalued and frequently exploited by the socially and
financially oriented ones.
- It must be noted that they are almost be definition resourceful and highly
adaptable, these characteristic are what give them their survival value in
what many find a hostile ethos.
- Honesty and integrity are frequently characteristics of the Hi C and they
are often the conscience of society.
- They may come into a complacent society, into the land of the Lotus
Eaters, and there they may spread discontent. They are the agitators and the
stirrers. Without them there would be stagnation instead of progress and the
improvement of the human condition.
- Most of human society is busy living in the past, there they feel safe.
Only the high creatives live in the present and reveal the possible
futures
The creative dozen characteristics above are no exhaustive but they do give
pointers
It is only fitting that here I pay tribute to the inspiration and guidance
given by the works of Don Fabun in the compilation of this part of my work.
