What a way to die
History seems to be filled with examples of discovery due to serendipity, error, and exaptation. In an earlier post, I wrote about the accidental discovery of the penicillin group of antibiotics. This was both error, the scientist did not properly clean, and serendipity, in that instead of thinking “Shoot, that’s corrupted, let’s start over.”, and instead thought, “That’s interesting, I wonder why.”
In a way, the pirate, author, and long-distance sailing enthusiast Christopher Columbus found the new world, aka the British West Indies, through error. Not the best at math. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great error, but an error non-the-less.
While the common story of Isaac Newton getting assaulted by an apple is an exaggeration (Gefter, 2010), it was a falling apple that provided his moment of clarity, serendipity if you would, that led to the development of the field of Newtonian Physics. Now that’s something to strive for, having something named after you. Hopefully, something that is named after me due to it causing my death, like The Scraper Theory on Explosive Diarrhea.
I often wish I would have a moment of serendipity or the Eureka! moment that will let me live without financial worries for the rest of my life. Sadly, when looking through Four Lenses, I’m a green, and we are not really known for those events. Though greens can take an idea and run with it, or do some amazing research. So, as the great Bill Murray once said, I’ve got that goin’ for me, which is nice. (IMDb, N.D.)
And then you have exaptation, I word so commonly used that it is boring to say. Exaptation is taking something that is preexisting, such as rocket engines, and discovering ways to use it that it was never intended for, such as boosting Batman’s car.
I real occurrence of exaptation is the use of the Xbox One Elite controller being used by disabled gamers. The paddle connections on the back server as terrific mounting points for special hardware that allows people who may otherwise not be able to use a controller to do just that. The development team wanted to give a better controller to those that needed that competitive advantage, and instead brought in a portion of the population that couldn’t game to begin with (Kaminsky, 20116).
As that small final paper for my Ph.D. nears, you know, the dissertation, I find myself hoping more often that I will have a moment of serendipity that would push my paper along. It seems lately that I have the creativity equaling that of a potato in my garden (PO-TA-TOES! Boil 'Em, Mash 'Em, Stick 'Em in a Stew!) (Movie QuoteDB, N.D.). I have reached my peak; it’s all downhill from here, I have referenced Lord of the Rings.
While we go through life, we all of those small moments that are one of the three. A better way to paint a room, a faster way through LA traffic, a new way to smuggle fireworks into LA, that help us personally but maybe not the LACSD. These minor, to the greater world, events can sometimes greatly benefit ourselves. When we can bring that to others, that makes them so much better.
References
Gefter, A. (2010, Jan 18). Newton's apple: The real story. Retrieved from New Scientest: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2170052-newtons-apple-the-real-story/
IMDb. (N.D.). Bill Murray: Carl Spackler. Retrieved from IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080487/characters/nm0000195
Kaminsky, H. (20116, Oct 16). Xbox One Elite controller provides a better option for gamers with disabilities. Retrieved from Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-one-elite-controller-disability-affordable-accessible/
Movie QuoteDB. (N.D.). Retrieved from Movie QuoteDB: https://www.moviequotedb.com/movies/lord-of-the-rings-the-two-towers-the/quote_14105.html
In a way, the pirate, author, and long-distance sailing enthusiast Christopher Columbus found the new world, aka the British West Indies, through error. Not the best at math. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great error, but an error non-the-less.
While the common story of Isaac Newton getting assaulted by an apple is an exaggeration (Gefter, 2010), it was a falling apple that provided his moment of clarity, serendipity if you would, that led to the development of the field of Newtonian Physics. Now that’s something to strive for, having something named after you. Hopefully, something that is named after me due to it causing my death, like The Scraper Theory on Explosive Diarrhea.
I often wish I would have a moment of serendipity or the Eureka! moment that will let me live without financial worries for the rest of my life. Sadly, when looking through Four Lenses, I’m a green, and we are not really known for those events. Though greens can take an idea and run with it, or do some amazing research. So, as the great Bill Murray once said, I’ve got that goin’ for me, which is nice. (IMDb, N.D.)
And then you have exaptation, I word so commonly used that it is boring to say. Exaptation is taking something that is preexisting, such as rocket engines, and discovering ways to use it that it was never intended for, such as boosting Batman’s car.
I real occurrence of exaptation is the use of the Xbox One Elite controller being used by disabled gamers. The paddle connections on the back server as terrific mounting points for special hardware that allows people who may otherwise not be able to use a controller to do just that. The development team wanted to give a better controller to those that needed that competitive advantage, and instead brought in a portion of the population that couldn’t game to begin with (Kaminsky, 20116).
As that small final paper for my Ph.D. nears, you know, the dissertation, I find myself hoping more often that I will have a moment of serendipity that would push my paper along. It seems lately that I have the creativity equaling that of a potato in my garden (PO-TA-TOES! Boil 'Em, Mash 'Em, Stick 'Em in a Stew!) (Movie QuoteDB, N.D.). I have reached my peak; it’s all downhill from here, I have referenced Lord of the Rings.
While we go through life, we all of those small moments that are one of the three. A better way to paint a room, a faster way through LA traffic, a new way to smuggle fireworks into LA, that help us personally but maybe not the LACSD. These minor, to the greater world, events can sometimes greatly benefit ourselves. When we can bring that to others, that makes them so much better.
References
Gefter, A. (2010, Jan 18). Newton's apple: The real story. Retrieved from New Scientest: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2170052-newtons-apple-the-real-story/
IMDb. (N.D.). Bill Murray: Carl Spackler. Retrieved from IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080487/characters/nm0000195
Kaminsky, H. (20116, Oct 16). Xbox One Elite controller provides a better option for gamers with disabilities. Retrieved from Digital Trends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-one-elite-controller-disability-affordable-accessible/
Movie QuoteDB. (N.D.). Retrieved from Movie QuoteDB: https://www.moviequotedb.com/movies/lord-of-the-rings-the-two-towers-the/quote_14105.html
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