Monday, October 16, 2006

Unique Idea

I just turned on my MP3 player and listened to the Stone Roses to I want to be adore and I was overcome by this compulsion to write to create to put down something unique that has never been committed to paper before. And so this is it my piece of originality that I am inflicting on the world. I know that this sentiment is in itself nothing original, the quest to create something original has been written about so many times. But never has it been put in these exact words. That is the uniqueness of it.

Now I do not have the writing talent, nor do I have the musical talent to create something like the Stone roses could, in fact my abilities are probably pretty average. But I still have that desire to create something original. I am currently doing a PhD in physics because simply put I love physics and it influences they way I think on pretty much everything. Not to sound totally ponce but it sometimes lets me see the beauty in things that in them selves pose no traditional beauty. One of these things is lights in a night club. I can just stare at them transfixed by them. Marvelling at all the physical processes that is needed to create them and allow me to see them. Just watching the simplicity of such an un-simplistic system. Thinking of all the great minds through out history that were needed for me to be able to stand there and know how it works. The way the light changes, the equations that govern this. The simplicity of its genius. I could wax lyrically about those lights for hours and after a few drinks possibly longer.

But physics lets me see in levels that many people cannot. Simply listening to my music (I am the resurrection Stone Roses now.) Just thinking of the physical process’s, my ear vibrating, the ear phone vibrating, the electrons moving in the circuits in seemingly random motion but governed and indeed the idea at on point in time a guy moved his arm up and down and struck a drum, which caused a sound wave to move through the air from the drum to a microphone where it was recorded for eternity. In my minds eye I can see the drum the cover of the drum changing morifing, due to the pressure excreted by the drum stick. The drum releasing some of the energy in the form of a sound wave. That same sound wave that now over 15 years later is causing my ear to vibrate.

Just seeing the world in all that complexity and also seeing it in its simplicity is awe inspiring. And I guess that is why I am doing a PhD in Physics. The idea that me little old me Simon from Tipp can place into the world one unique idea something that explains something or creates something new however trivial. That is the beauty of research, that is the beauty of an Unique idea.

1 comment:

CK said...

Simon, truly a post that deserves a reply. Even as more of a naturalist or humanist (or so I like to lable myself) there is no end to the fascination I find in every permutation of the world. I've travelled 11 time zones and felt I could only enjoy what I've been seeing and doing if others were with me or appreciated it in the same way.

I realise it can't happen because I will be the only person to ever look on something the way I do, whether it be an argument, a life experience or a rock. So now I know I have original experiences 100% of the time and if be, there will be the extra bits of perfection where others appreciate it too. They will be joining me there.