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Firestorm 2034, by Christos Jonathan Seth Hayward

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Part of the collection:
Firestorm 2034

Hardcover, $40 • Kindle eBook, $2.99

There are many kinds of giftedness, and to be human is to be given a gift. The term "gifted" in psychology is narrow next to such variety, and does not refer at all to the most significant kinds of giftedness: those that are moral and spiritual. But the "giftedness" spoken of in psychology does exist, and it can be interesting.

The terrain of "profound giftedness" is a terrain that is almost unexplored even within gifted psychology. Search the ERIC database for academic articles matching "gifted", and like many, many other topics, the results are far, far too many to read: over 20,000. By contrast, search the same database for "profoundly gifted" and little beyond a dozen results will be found. The subject is obscure, to say the least. If another subject were so unexplored—say, computer laptops—then it would be fair to say that we know laptops need to be plugged in periodically and can effectively warm one's lap, but it there is fierce debate whether the keyboard exists originally to play a "Guitar Hero"-style game called "Typing Tutor" or sound musical notes—with none of the articles attaching any importance to clues that laptops could be used to connect with computer networks and ultimately communicate with others. "Profound giftedness" is an obscure experience, even to someone who's seen the literature.

Firestorm 2034 is a glimpse into a world people live in, and a life. It is meant to share an experience that is at once obscure and very human, providing a glimpse into experience, or rather different glimpses from different angles. It is not the only human kind of experience, but it is one such experience, and it is behind much of the communication in the book.

A quote:

Before I get further, I'd like to say a few words about what I drive.

I drive an Oldsmobile F-85 station wagon. What's the color? When people are being nice, they talk about a classic, subdued camouflage color. Sometimes the more candid remarks end up saying something like, "The Seventies called. They want their paint job back," although my station wagon is a 1964 model. All in all, I think I had the worst car of anyone I knew. Or at least that's what I used to think.

Then I changed my mind. Or maybe it would be better to say that I had my mind changed for me.

Suggested starting point:

The Wagon, the Blackbird, and the Saab

Procedures for the Adjustment and Repair of Televisions, a technical procedure for dealing with televisions.
A Glimpse Through a Crystal, a glimpse, of the world beyond.
Game Review: Meatspace, a game review for real life.
The Monastery, a story of a business traveler seeing something more than money.
Seven-Sided Gem, a well-received lecture on giftedness.
An Abstract Art of Memory, a rethinking of classical mnemotechnics to provide a tool to work more gracefully with abstractions.
The Mindstorm, a Socratic dialogue about education and giftedness.
The Wagon, the Blackbird, and the Saab, a story that tells of vehicles that are coveted and vehicles that are completely taken for granted.
Firestorm 2034, a novella in which a brilliant traveler is brought to our future and causes some slight chaos.

About the author:

Christos Jonathan Seth Hayward wears many hats: author, philosopher, theologian, artist, poet, wayfarer, philologist, inventor, social commentator, satirist, novelist, web guru, teacher. He is an Eastern Orthodox Christian, has lived in the U.S., Malaysia, England, and France, and holds master's degrees bridging math and computers (UIUC), and philosophy and theology (Cambridge). He has an official website at JonathansCorner.com.