Sometimes a confluence of reading different books gets me
thinking about strange ideas. Besides finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows last week, I also worked my way through Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier, and this past weekend I started
on Explorations in Giftedness by
Robert Sternberg.
Schneier’s book is subtitled “The Hidden Battles to Capture
Your Data and Control Your World”. Readers are introduced to the world of
clandestine and not-so-clandestine surveillance, made increasingly more
powerful as we share more of our personal information through a vastly
interconnected Internet. The significant price reduction in storage space means
that it is now cheap for governments to collect data, and potentially sift
through it later. Some of the things that corporations and governments do are
problematic and antithetical to liberty and freedom. Schneier issues a clarion
call to the public towards political pressure to change the way things are
headed. The book is easy to read, contains many vignettes related to the NSA
documents leaked by Snowden, and one is introduced to the world of hackers.
Schneier argues that privacy and security are not mutually exclusive and in
fact should go hand-in-hand, and that the public has easily given up privacy
because of government fear-mongering.
Sternberg’s book goes through a history of studying
“giftedness” starting with the well-known longitudinal study carried out by
Terman. Since then there have been many formulations of what giftedness means,
how it is measured, and how the gifted should be educated. I’m partway through
the book so I haven’t gotten to the suggested educational approaches yet. The
book is more academic in nature, and therefore is slower reading. Besides
comparing and contrasting the models of giftedness provided by others in the
field, Sternberg also elaborates on his model that goes by the acronym WICS –
Wisdom, Intelligence, Creativity, Synthesized. While intelligence and
creativity are often emphasized in many models, wisdom isn’t typically a word
that comes up. Sternberg’s model of giftedness is dynamic as individuals change
over time, and the environment also plays an important role in the development
of giftedness, i.e., Sternberg (like many others) does not think that IQ tests
tell the whole story. There is an interesting chapter on how intelligence is
defined or emphasized differently in different cultures. I will soon be getting
to the chapters on identifying the gifted and educating the gifted.
All this made me think about how youngsters are identified
so that they can be invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry. How does the school know who to invite? In the case of a magical
family where everyone is capable of wielding magic, then it’s probably pretty
straightforward in a small tight-knit Wizarding community. What about the cases
where the parents are magic-users but the child is a Squib? Maybe word gets
around in the Wizarding community so that the school knows who not to invite.
But is this person truly a Squib or simply a very late bloomer? Is there a
difference? The most interesting cases however have to do with Muggle-borns.
How were Dean Thomas and Hermione Granger identified? One might ask how Tom
Riddle Junior (a.k.a. Lord Voldemort) was identified given that the Gaunts
lived like outcasts from the magical world and their affairs were not widely
known. (Here's an earlier post speculating on how magic is related to genetics and environment.)
One possible way this could take place is if there was
someone like Professor X of the X-Men, who when connected to Cerebro, can
identify mutants through his telepathic powers. In this case there is some
“signature” in the thought pattern of mutants that is distinguishable from
non-mutants. No such person has been identified in the world of Harry Potter.
Or perhaps there is a device in the Ministry of Magic that does something like
this? How might it work? In analogy to the Big Data world of the internet we
live in, one could piece together a lot of data (and the more we share the more
there will be) to really get at the habits of a person. Tell-tale signs might
identify someone’s habits, interests, activities, and more. In the same way,
maybe by monitoring the “airwaves” (EM radiation rears its head again!), the
magic community can read “magic” signatures.
These signatures aren’t completely accurate though. For
example when Dobby casts a spell in Privet Drive in Book 2, Harry is blamed for
performing under-aged magic. So it seems
there is a magic detection mechanism, but it cannot be pinpointed to a
particular individual. In this particular case it could not distinguish human
and elf magic. So is the Ministry of Magic listening around for signs of magic?
They must do so to keep the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. They
seem to operate somewhat like the Men In Black. When there is a big mess-up
that reveals the existence of aliens on the planet, the Men In Black have to
use memory wipes and plant a false memory or story to keep the alien world
secret.
But if there are signatures of Magic that can be read
through the “airwaves”, shouldn’t Muggles with their satellites start to be
able to pick this up? There should be a tell-tale sign. As we collect more and
more data about EVERYTHING, maybe a strange signature will come up. Maybe it
already has but we haven’t recognized it yet – or perhaps we have come up with
an alternative explanation that is “scientific”. Now I don’t think there really
is a magic-using community (or aliens and men-in-black hiding in plain sight),
nor do I think that we’re all hooked up to the Matrix, but I can’t conclusively
prove otherwise simply based on sensory data. Should we analyze the data to
check anyway? This reminds me of what SETI does – we’re listening to the outer
space airwaves for signs of alien life? Maybe we should listen on our own
planet. Or maybe it’s already there and there’s a big government cover-up – the
plot for many a story!
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