Personal heroes: an essay

www.wiman.us	Topic Index A-Z Index	“Think Different” Heroism in original thought
	Topic Index A-Z Index	“Think Different” Heroism in original thought

Who is a Hero?
After U.S. Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch was rescued in Iraq, a flurry of controversy erupted over who deserves the label of ‘Hero.’ Some people said Jessica was a hero because she was in harm’s way for her country, others that she was a side-figure and that only combat soldiers were heroes. Almost everyone agreed that firemen and policemen were heroes.

Letters poured into newspapers and calls into talk shows decrying the labelling of sports figures as Heroes, while others proudly displayed Dale Ernhart bumper stickers on their pickups.

The fuss reveals a flaw in public discourse: the inability to grasp that terms may have more than one meaning. The abortion debate has long been buried in this flaw, as has the gun-control debate. We seem unable to discuss an issue without first forcing the other person to agree to our definitions.

Granted discourse would be simplified if everyone meant the same thing by “X” but that is not going to happen. The next best thing is a stable solution: make an effort to figure out what the other person means by “X” and build a bridge to their meaning of the term. Then meet on that bridge and talk about the issue with the understanding of terms in plain view.

Traditionally the word “hero” denotes a rescuer - someone who saves another from danger, like firemen or soldiers. For many people, “hero” has other meanings as well. Sports figures are heroes to some people: these are ”entertainment heroes” and that’s fine. Revered figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. may be “political heroes” (or use a different term if you like). The choice of hero is personal.

I find heroism in original thought. Here is a list of some of my heroes in no particular order.
- George Wiman, 2003

Arthur C. Clarke, author. An electronics technician in the super-secret RADAR program that helped win WWII, he went on to be a celebrated science fiction author and advocate of human values. He also can be credited with originating the idea of communication satellites: his scientific paper Extra Terrestrial Relays inspired the industry we all depend on for communication.

Carl Sagan, science celebrity. Sagan was a driven visionary who opened a sense of wonder and excitement about the human experience in science for millions of people. A regular on the Johnny Carson Show as well as a project director for NASA, the Cornell University professor wrote many books and starred in the inspirational TV series Cosmos, opening the wonder of science to readers and viewers. He was an indefategatable opponant of superstition and supporter of human genius. He made some enemies for his political views including antinuclear activism and civil rights.

Dean Kamen, inventor. Kamen created the insulin pump, and his revolutionary wheelchair (which allows the user to rise to full standing height and to go up stairs) was just approved by the FDA. He sometimes thinks a bit too far ahead of the curve: his Segway personal transporter is brilliant but society just wasn’t ready for it. He’s just getting started - no telling how our future will be influenced by this man.

Fred Rogers: he respected children. This is something all of us try and sometimes fail to do. He has done more to help people grow up and live happy lives, be productive, value themselves and others, than anyone else I can think of.

Robert Heinlein, author. A ship’s navigator in WWI, he got into writing to pay off a car, then found “it was easier than honest work.” Heinlein’s science fiction is full of characters who won’t be stopped by adversity - intelligent, tenacious, pilosophically tough, not afraid of complexity. He advocated a culture of personal responsibility - no one should hide behind cultural norms or even government rules to explain their actions. He opposed fuzzy thinking and feel-good values in favor of the tough-minded, do-the-right-thing approach. Despite his disclaimer of hard work, his books reflect the demands he made on himself as an author - his stories are as scientifically correct as he could make them. One story published in a pulp magazine actually got the attention of federal agents who went to his apartment to find out “how he knew so much” about “the bomb.” Turns out he had simply deduced how it had to be.

Don Norman, design guru. A design consumer’s advocate, Norman pokes holes in the designer’s conceit that only dumb consumers have trouble using systems. Author of The Design of Everyday Things and The Invisible Computer, Norman has done design consulting for Apple Computer and the Federal Aviation Administration. His work has made air and auto travel safer and computer use easier, among scores of other improvements.

Richard Feynman, scientist. Notable as a founding figure in quantum electrodynamics, Feynman worked on the atomic bomb during WWII and taught celebrated lectures in physics at Cal Tech. He was the life of any party and made friends among bar owners and university professors alike. His memoirs Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, and What Do You Care What Other People Think are must-reading for those who want to discover the humanity in science culture.

Isaac Asimov, author. Few writers become known for both fiction and non-fiction works, but among Asimov’s more than 500 books can be found such diverse works as The Foundation Trilogy and The Story of Carbon. He devised principles of robotics that may one day become actual design priorities, yet wrote on a range of non-fiction topics of staggering width from Shakespeare to the Bible, physics to technology history - all interesting. He was one of the last great synthesist authors, interested in anything and everything.

Ansel Adams, artist. He believed that technical mastery is the key to creative freedom, and to that end, pushed the limits of photographic perfection farther than anyone before him. The depth of his scientific understanding of photography drew him into collaborative development projects with Edwin Land of the Land Polaroid company - when they were talking, no one else could keep up. Artistically, he had friends as diverse as Georgia O’Keefe and Ed Weston. A powerful environmentalist, his photographs reprised the role of earlier photographers to raise consciousness of the importance of unique wilderness areas. He once met Ronald Reagan, and described him as “Opaque - that is, a substance that passes light in only one direction.

Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader. A living challenge to the idea of inequality, King advocated non-violent resistance to injustice. He was a follower of Ghandi in believing that love could overcome hate and that violence would make reconciliation impossible. King showed the importance of inspiration in raising consciouness: where some called to anger, he reached out to draw support to justice from all sides.

Stanley Kubrick, film maker.Storytelling is one of the most distinguishing aspects of the human animal, and film making is a unique realm of storytelling. Kubrick made engaging, believable stories that have stood the test of time. His movies are the most realistic ever made, obsessive in detail so the viewer is not reminded that ‘it’s just a story.’ None of his movies are for the faint-of-heart; nearly all have ironic endings to dark themes.
Arthur C. Clarke wrote: [Kubrick] “. . . appears to be interested in practically everything; the fact that he never came near entering college, and had a less-than-distinguished high school career, is a sad comment on the American educational system.”

Edward Tufte, information design guru. If we’re living in a so-called “information age,” then the design of information is crucial. Tufte has spent a lifetime beating the drum for clarity over clutter, advocating an end to chartjunk and “too much ink chasing too little data.” In his books and seminars, he says “Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.” Tufte cites real-world consequences to poor information design, resulting in deaths, destruction, misplaced elections, lost productivity, even misplaced elections.

Yes, hero selection is personal, for not all heroes are well known. But I take this as evidence that the human race is host to many, many amazing people who in aggregate make our species something really unique and special.

Raymond V. Wiman, my father. Pioneer of classroom instructional technology, he taught at several universities and authored a number of books, but his whole story is much broader. I have read biographies of most of the other men in this list and none even come close to the versatility of this man: He was a polymath who could design a house and build it, research a book and write it, ride a horse or drive a truck, operate heavy machinery or a precision lathe, restore an antique gun and hit his target with it. He restored antique clocks. He was an expert photographer who believed in graphic communication long before it was fashionable. He was endlessly creative, always fixing something in a novel way, building and inventing. His best friend was an engineer from Moccasin, Calif. and he was more likely to spend time with the projectionist or janitor than at a faculty party. He was a religious man without the comfort of a working religion and he was most comfortable outdoors in “God’s country.” He was not widely known outside educational media circles but was a most remarkable human being.