Story of the Top "The Sweethearts".
Just the other day little girls were watching the "The top and the Doll" by Hans Christian Andersen, my favorite childhood happiness destroyer. It was a cartoon, and it was about a top which was first rejected by a Doll, because he was too shabby. At the end the Doll, ended up in the drain, as the time went by, and Top became popular and ended up not being able to help the Doll's doomed fate. I think this was a changed version from the original story The Top and the Ball or "The Sweethearts". And it seems like something really happened to someone.
Wisdom Level 1.
Next morning, I found a top. It was a broken wheel with an axel from a toy car. Just lying on the table, and I saw the potential in it to be used as a top. And I made it spin in front of the Little one who has never seen a top before until day before and never spun one. And she was amazed. I could see her little eyes glistening in anticipation and joy when it kept on spinning for a half a minute. Moment, it stopped she tried spinning it again and again, failing. I was also in doubt she could do that, as it wasn't a real toy top, and needed a great skill to spin it for someone who has never done it. So, I taught her how to hold the axel and do it in slow motion. And after a few tries 'Voila!' She started spinning it as good as any kid of her age.
And that was the wisdom level 1. She came from wisdom 0 about tops, to wisdom level 1 in just a couple of days. First with some information from a little cartoon, and next with some practical application by herself. The important fact is this is just the level 1 about tops. In fact, I am going to show you some more levels of wisdom about tops, before we generalize "Levels of wisdom"
Wisdom Level 2.
Let's assume my knowledge and skill about spinning a top is at level 2. I easily possess the level 1.
As far as information is concerned, I know about angular momentum which keeps the top spinning, and friction and its center of gravity. I have seen the workings of a Gyroscope, and seen how traditional dancers spin a tambourine on a tip of a lengthy pole. I know a top would spin on a hard flat surface without friction longer than on a beach.
As far as the skill is concerned, I can spin a book on my finger, for that matter any large even asymmetrical item which I can balance on my finger at the point of the center of its mass! (and I have spent good couple of days of my teenage years practicing this again and again to master)
I am sure 99% of the population on planet earth is knowledgeable about at least Level 2 top wisdom. And nobody would go beyond that, except that 0.1%. And I am going to get a peep into the other levels of wisdom just for the sake of this article and that is where Google AI comes handy.
Wisdom Level 3.
Archeology -> A top is a very old toy, invented thousands of years before the "Rubik's Cube", and found in many archeological sites across many cultures.
Sport -> International top spinners association conducts, world spinning top contests each year, and I am sure the contestants are at a different skill level in spinning a top than any one of us.
Mathematics ->
Angular Momentum:
L = Iω, where I is the moment of inertia tensor and ω is the angular velocity vector.
Torque:
τ = dL/dt, where τ is the torque vector.
Precession:
The rate of precession, Ω, can be approximated by:
Ω ≈ mgd / (Iω), where m is the mass of the top, g is the acceleration due to gravity, d is the distance from the pivot point to the center of mass, and I and ω are as defined above.
As you can see, Levels of wisdom about a spinning top is vast. And no human is ever able to master everything. A mathematician who is able to figure out the math, would never have the skill to win the world top spinners competition.
Levels of wisdom
For me as I can see this is a huge problem. There is too much information, just about a simple toy as a top. Image everything you have ever learned. You just learn a minute fraction of the total human consciousness. And if you are not mindful about the fact that there is no limit to the information you seek, you can easily get lost in this stupid streak of information and get stuck. And you will end up spinning a top all your life or struggling with an equation about solving the mystery of a spinning top.
But at some point, in your life you will come across articles, quotes or thoughts about life, which will enlighten you. And I will call this a super wisdom, if it happens to you keep it in mind to remind yourself from time to time. As an example, look at the quote from Carl Jung the philosopher.
So, the only way to achieve super wisdom is to look inside and understand the process of thinking. And then only we can understand what happens, in our own world. And fortunately, or unfortunately such information is not so popular, not so abundant and not so glamorous like being successful, or prosperity.
If you seek such information I suggest starting with a simple truth.
The top (Story)
Ironically The top (Der Kreisel) is a short story written by Franz Kafka between 1917 and 1923, in Germany. It is a story about a philosopher trying to understand a world through a spinning top. He tries to grab a spinning top and believes that it should keep on spinning. However, it stops each and every time. Only thing I can correlate with tis is the Spinning top scene in the movie Inception as forever spinning tops are only found in Dreams!
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