Dolphin Address 14
June 13th 2006
The opposable thumb is generally thought as vestigial for human development. It does indeed aptly illustrate that alleviation of physical constraint issues into the development of intelligence. An obvious exception to this is the money counting flick-through to the bottom line by Shannon Development sinking a winter of hard patience into a waste of time. In spite of all the intelligence we can muster it seems like the human race is simply not ready to make the return to the water a feasible option. Again no industrial multiplication of the WaterWing, no shared development in learning how to cope with the wet element as a fully equipped participant, just another wreck on the reef of bureaucracy.
I have stopped holding my breath on it. Just can't afford to let my R&D be dragged down by the inertia of wilful ignorance. Rather ponder the question as to why we do not have an opposable big toe.
Sometimes a new insight only seems to be a single step, too insignificant to whip up its entire history. But on rare occasions it can be a missing link, connecting crossroads of thought into understanding. That physical ability generates intelligence from practical necessity comes alive in the examination of differences. When I compare the major difference in physical constraints between man and dolphin it would be gravity versus water resistance. In water gravity for man and dolphin is practically counteracted by buoyancy. One would therefore not expect any fine tune expertise like the management of balance when a dolphin jumps out of the water (See '
Dolphin Address 32', 2005).
But also the dolphins awareness of balance in terms of water resistance is intriguingly demonstrated by Dusty pushing a plank through the water (Foto's dept.:
Dusty 2006). We may be the vertical experts in coping with gravity like dolphins are horizontally superior in handling water resistance but scaled into balance it looks like a draw.
Photo: Willem Verhulst
One of my favourite remarks is that if we were as good in handling gravity as dolphins are in availing water resistance we would be able to jump over houses. I have been working out by running rocks for two months now. After initial massive muscle pains this has resulted in a powerful build up of my leg muscles, an agility reminiscent of ballet dancing and an astuteness in finding foothold comparable with the intuitive finding of my fingertips on the computer keyboard. In short, a major top-up in the wizardry of balance.
Only in my dreams I can jump over houses, but the fine tuned, instant decision and ever-growing arsenal of ruses&tricks in treading the third dimension is going foot in hand with the virtual development of an opposable big toe.
This supports the notion that our brain does not necessarily have to lead our body and that a physical development can lead to the acquisition of intelligence.
And this is also precisely what the WaterWing/monofin combination does. It opens up the wet dimension and gives hands and feet to a brand new creative intelligence.
Unless of course it swims up the Shannon and is mercilessly trapped on the corporate stupidity banks of red tape enterprise.
Jan Ploeg, Meadow Fanore, June 13th 2006
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