[ExI] ep again

[spike at rainier66.com]

On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] ep again

 

re odd behaviors - there was an Italian law professor who was sitting in on a colleague's class in torts and I was there.  He never said anything - he just sat there and ran his little finger across his lips over and over and again and again.  Never saw the like of it.  But I do know what FReud would say.  Did you have anything in mind for odd behaviors that might be genetic? bill w

 

 

 

 

 

Obsessive compulsive would be my best guess.

 

I have a treasured memory.  My alma mater, CalTech, invited me to speak at their annual alumni reunion.

 

Not.  My alma mater, CalTech, invited me to attend the annual alumni meeting.

 

Well, OK the real truth: my good friend was an actual CalTech alum, PhD, 1979, physics.  Mike invited me to join him as his guest at his 25th reunion in 2004, an invitation I cheerfully jumped on, with both hands, both feet, hair, eyes and teeth.

 

We were listening to a marvelous collection of talks about astronomy, physics, geology, chemistry, oh what a marvelous time.  He allowed me to choose the meetings, but he wanted to catch this one, on the topic of OCD.  Mike freely admitted he had a lot of that going on, which I already knew, so of course we went, but when we arrived we were told that lecture had been moved to the big auditorium, so we went over.

 

The big auditorium was packed to the rafters, every seat filled and with geeks standing.  This professor gave a lecture on the topic, introducing a new collection of theories.  At the conclusion, he opened it up for questions.  Immediately an audience member asked “Professor, does your theory offer us any insights on why it is that so many of us sitting in this auditorium right now have OCD?”

 

The place broke out in wild applause.

 

The professor offered:  Although correlations are still poorly understood, and the condition can be socially debilitating, it is generally agreed that OCD confers some academic advantages.

 

The room was filled with laughter and another round of thunderous applause.

 

spike

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