Srinivasa Ramanujan‘s story is so illustrative of my motivation for this project. He was a self taught mathematics prodigy from Erode, Madras born in 1887, who at 16 derived many as yet unsolved theorums from a college text book. Later, he would make an enormous impact in mathematic research. As much as any of our lives are the products of infinitudes of tenuous coincidences, imagine a world where Ramanujan wouldn’t have had access to his first text book on mathematics?
The only study I could find states 1/10,000,000 are prodigies. How many of them are of Ramanujan’s potential not just for math, but for all the human qualities we value; and may have never been given their first “text book” or foot hold to begin to develop their gifts? What a different trajectory the world might take if we were to have a system to meet their and their care givers’ needs?
Imagine how such a system, if implemented in a benign and thoughtful way, would have impacted you as a young learner? If we can connect a prodigy to their muse we can just as readily introduce anyone to whatever sparks their learning optimally. I would like to mirror a quote from Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), when he said “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access individualized learning in a safe place, regardless of social context. Free to access isn’t free of cost, but consider the return on investment for such infrastructure.
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