A few things today. I was thinking about theoretical physics. I'm trying to get some real heroes, people who have influenced me throughout the years. I already made a list of artists (elsewhere) but I noticed quite a few scientists who have also influenced the field of visualization, and/or are personally inspiring to me:
Erwin Schrödinger - I studied him in high school, drew a picture of him too.
Max Planck - one of the founders of Quantum Mechanics, always cool. It turns out I agree with a lot of his philosophy.
Hendrik Lorentz - Lorentz transformations, space and time.
Pierre-Simon Laplace - inventor of our well known Laplace transforms.
Joseph Fourier - Fourier transforms.
Joseph Louis Lagrange - more related to calculus, but anyhow...some of you might recognize the "Lagrange point" idea from sci-fi/aerospace.
Nikola Tesla - because he's awesome.
Roger Penrose - Penrose steps, other impossible geometry, really cool tiling methods. Geometry. Yes.
I feel like I'm like two people, a split consciousness... the technical side and the artistic side. Am I a complete person, since I have the two parts? Is a complete person made of only two parts? We like to divide things up into dualities...but I'm not quite sure it is so.
So I came up with a list of parts that people require to be full people. You can debate these or not. It is not exhaustive. It is only my random thoughts for now.
Physical - lots of parts.. skeleton, flesh, blood. Flesh is divided into muscles (things that move the skeleton) and organs (things that do stuff).
Mental - creativity (artistic), reasoning (technical), senses, memory
Spiritual - Moral, Mystical (6th sense?)
Then I was listening to something about the sense of Curiosity/Interest/Anticipation ... which is apparently what's caused by Dopamine! It's not the "pleasure" sense, it's more the "seeking" sense. Listen here: [link]
I was struck by how I am always seeking things. It's why I play video games. It's why I joined Civil Air Patrol. It's what I'm always doing in my dreams. And it's the most fun thing in the world. I love exploring. I love seeking knowledge, and sharing it so other people can become interested and start seeking for themselves! I realized I always try to understand the way the world works, because I haven't quite figured it all out yet. It's the realm of all the sciences, the arts, and philosophy. And I love exploring realms of fiction too: new universes, vast and amazing. So, here's to seeking! Video games really are drugs.
