It is never easy to prove a negative. "Imbecile", that means mentally deficient. You could have said many things -- that I was credulous, a fool, misinformed, immoderately vain of my rough-hewn, masculine visage (IMO Carlie actually wrote that song about me), proud of my noble and miscegenated ancestry, vast self-won wealth, puffed up by my friendships with famous scientists like Al Einstein. John Bardeen, and Niels Bohr, my horsemanship, my marksmanship, my fencing, my martial arts, my youthful discoveries (I preceded Keynes by at least a year in discovering macro-economics and a special case of a solution to the Great Depression), my cure for cocaine and heroine addiction, and management of the design of the protem world's largest and most powerful computer, my contributions to world peace, my brilliant paintings and sculptures, poetry, and music. disdainful of my inferiors, argumentative, obscenely overhung, my overwhelming sexuality, my huge and powerful frame ("giant" is the word most often used , ridiculous, desperately ill, insane, cruel, incapable of suffering fools gladly, revolutionary spirit, paranoia about the ruling class's manipulation of politics, my near mastery of 14 languages and six fields of mathematics and mathematical logic, my contributions to physical epistemology, my disproof of the fundamental theorem of economics, ... indeed I could go on and on, but all of this was long ago before my leucotomy, before the heart-lung machines filled my brain with ground up tissue and destroyed what I have once been told (by a lover) was one of the greatest brains of the century. All of that is dust, and to tell the truth, I do not like people of at most modest intellectual attainments making fun of that brain. I no longer own it, of course. It has been degraded and butchered by time and neurosurgeons. It is bronzed and lacquered and sits proudly on my mantle-piece. I make do with the fragments that are left in my head and my Palm VII.
Yet something else before the end. Some work of noble note may yet be done, not unbefitting men that strove with gods far on the ringing plains of windy troy.
Perhaps a challenge to you -- what shall it be to prove my old tattered brain is far above imbecility -- perhaps IQ tests at 5000 miles. (I warn you, I have recently passed the law school admissions test with flying colours. I've lost several Std. Dev.'s but I believe I can still outshine you (and Michael), even if I spot you 2 std deviations (only one for Michael).
Do you want to play a Game? (I'll play this with anybody in the world, and guarantee to win not less than half of any even number of the games played).
I'll teach you a game called Nim. There are three columns of pips, with 3, 4, 5 in each. The prime mover may take as many pips as he wishes from one single column and must take at least one. In one move he may not choose pips from two or more columns. The object is to leave your opponent with the last pip to pick up. Players alternate in making the first move. For ease of play, we will use a tableau like this:
xxx
xxx
xxx
xx
x.
Each move is done by replacing x's with m's (me) and u's (you).
xxx
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m
Do you want to play a game?
You go first (you are more likely to win if you go first). |
