Labels: canoeing
The Matrix
So after watching the matrix does anyone wonder why we are so averse to being controlled by machines? Without bringing any sort of religious faith into the picture; one has to wonder, if we had the capability to store our memories into a microchip, and since we are but the sum of our experiences why couldn’t the chip BE us? Or why couldn’t we BE the chip? Sooner or later, technology will find greater and greater methods to transfer information (the internet being a huge innovation). Our thoughts and brainwaves could be effectively emulated by computers as much as our present gray matter. One might argue that a microchip won’t have a soul, to link the experiences and thoughts and convert them into action, or that a microchip only allows for rational actions, thus “humans” would become like mere robots. Considering the latter, this is untrue, as quantum mechanics and quantum computers are based on probability and randomness, and who can say that humans are irrational beings? In fact I believe humans as well as animals all behave in accordance to rational laws.
So why am I thinking about this? It started with my human instinct of prolonging the human race. With the future looking bleak – lack of natural resources, war, and giant asteroids approaching earth – we might have to search for new planets to inhabit. Or why not we internalize? Convert ourselves into a thought stream, pure information. The entire human race could inhabit a database, and have robots maintain us. The amount of resources this would take up would be minimal, and the human race could be prolonged indefinitely.
This then linked on to my views on the internet. While we use it everyday how many of us actually understand how powerful a creation it is? While we in the physical world are limited by resources – land, fuel etc. – We are not so in the virtual world. The characteristic of a virtual world is virtually unlimited space! (Pun not intended). A million different earths could be stored in the land area of
On Arrogance
I started thinking about this after Wee Shu Min’s now infamous political tirade. I started to ask, why do people behave so arrogantly? According to the basic theories of Quantum mechanics, there exists an infinite amount of probabilities. No matter how good you are right now, in the past, or in the future, there will be someone better than you. To me this is an undeniable fact.
Uh-hrm. Anyway the point of that whole tirade is to show that arrogance is simply the myopic opinion that “I am better than you”. But there will always be people who are better than you! So what is the point of this temporary superiority gained with arrogance? I believe arrogance lends temporary conviction to any sort of action one may have. If I believe that I am better than you I will be able to – like wee shu min – tell you to stop whining and suck it up, even if in truth, I have not worked a single day of my life and wouldn’t know the hardships involved. See, if one believe themselves to be inferior to another person, how can we tell them off or argue against them? Thus people behave arrogantly to justify their own actions. “I'm smart, intelligent and I know more about life than all of you.” “No one understands me!” These are phrases used by the arrogant to justify their own actions.
When I am just walking on the street, I quietly observe all kinds of people. Some have dress styles or hair styles that might make the older generation shake their head. But who are we to judge them? Their life is their own to live. Every person has their own thoughts running through their head, thinking different things. Whenever we judge these people we think we know better, we show our arrogance so offhandedly. “I am better than you, therefore I am right and you are wrong.” But are they really? One can never really be sure!
Therefore, DON’T BE ARROGANT.
Life is a single player game
“No man is an island”, well everyone has heard this phrase before, and I have heard it many times by my parents asking me to get off the computer etcetera. We interact with people on a daily basis, and its nearly impossible to think of people as anything other than people. However, what if… just what if… here are my theories:
Is it not impossible that the people we interact with are not “alive”? In a simulation or game it’s not impossible that your friends are just figments of the game designer’s imagination. Sure, these characters aren’t realistic, but what if we existed in such a well wrought simulation that every person we interact with only exists whenever they fall within our perception, otherwise they just – like the characters of a computer game – disappear! But I can call them! And I can hear them! When you do these things they immediately fall into your field of perception and are suddenly “alive”. If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Same theory, different implementation. But if they don’t exist when I don’t see them then how do they go to work, achieve their goals etcetera. Well, what if… what if… they don’t? Your friends might not study, and their grades may merely be the result of a random number generator (buffered of course). Right now, I might not actually be typing this, but the “creators” of the simulation we live in could have just inserted in… You can’t be sure… and the only thing you can be sure about is yourself…Cogito Ergo Sum, I think therefore I am… life is a single player game. What if?
Okay, farfetched, I know. My second theory on this is similar but not as alien to our minds. No matter how hard we try, it might be impossible to understand or feel what another person is going through at that moment. The only emotions we feel are OUR emotions, while sympathy, hate, sadness may be triggered by the actions of others, they are OUR emotions, no one can share them, no one can feel what each and everyone of us is feeling. “The world does not revolve around you”, but MY world revolves around ME. Selfish? Maybe, but not altogether untrue.
Schrödinger’s Cat & Fate
If you aren’t familiar with Schrödinger’s cat, it is basically a problem based on quantum physics which has a cat, stuck inside a room with a deadly substance inside a sealed bottle. 50% of the time, a mechanism will cause the bottle to break, and 50% of the time the mechanism will fail. We cannot see what is inside the box. Thus it is safe to say that there is a 50% chance of a live cat inside and a 50% of a dead cat inside. Since this is a problem with probabilities, according to the theories of Quantum mechanics, we cannot be sure which cat is inside the box at any time until we open the box. Thus, before the box is open, there actually exists two cats, one alive and one dead, and only when we open the box will probability play out and remove one of the cats. The question then is when does a quantum system stop existing as a mixture of states and become one or the other? Before the box is opened, inside consists of a mixture of cats, 50% dead and 50% alive. Only once we open the box and see the cat, observing its state can we be sure which it is.
How does this relate to us then? Humans tend to like control, as I have mentioned before, I believe they are rational creatures. We want to know that we have control over our lives, that we can make choices that define US. Indeed, I wouldn’t want to be pigeonholed in a set path. But just imagine this. We are at a fork in the road with an infinite number of possibilities set before us. There is no coming back once we’ve chosen one of these paths. So imagine yourself, stepping onto one of these infinite roads. The moment we step on it, and make the decision to choose it, all other possibilities disappear! Because at that instant, at that IMMEDIATE point in time, we cannot make any other choices regarding that decision, and thus, those other choices might not have existed at all! They merely disappear. One could argue that, after we make a decision and we dislike it we can come back and choose something else! Somewhat true, but flawed, because there is no coming back, the only thing we can do is move forward in time, the path we are on will definitely have other forks where we can make other decisions, and we can leapfrog from one path to another, but we can never go back to the same crossroad, It would never have existed. Every time we make a decision, all other possibilities would be as if they had never existed in the first place. Like Schrödinger's cat, there exist a mixture of states in the choices we can make, but once we make the decision, the rest, like the other cat, disappear, leaving only one. So while we may have the ability to choose, without the ability to backtrack in time, our lives are fated! Like the characters in a novel, they are presented with choices at the point in time when you are reading about it, but on the next page, the choice has been made, and no matter how you flip back and forth, the same choice will be made every time. Except for us, there is no flipping back and forth, we can only go forward.
There is a God
Suddenly I believe that there could be a god. As Neal Stephenson so eloquently put into Robert Hooke’s mouth: (paraphrased) “When I look at a nail under the microscope, one expects an object of surpassing sharpness at the end, but in actuality it is an ugly and blunt amalgam of metal, beaten together and filled with impurities. On the other hand, when I look at a flea under the microscope, what may disgust us from the outside is in actual fact a creature of perfection and grace, which to me can only be designed by an omnipotent being” Both Newton and Leibniz, prominent scientists and natural philosophers, were Christians, and their scientific philosophies were the attempt to explain the system of the world. Mathematicians throughout the ages believe that the world when viewed through the lens of the rational world of Math can only be created by one who knew all the rules, God. “God does not play dice”. Now one could but only think of Galileo to portray the fascist attitude the church has towards science. Which merely leads on to my next argument…
I do not feel that the God in which I have referred to before has to be exclusive to the Christian faith, nor exclusive to any faith in particular, but somehow I do believe there is a power lending its hand to the rational order the universe, and we only need to open our eyes and see what is before us to know that.
Faith
Regarding religion, something that has been spouted by many several times is the subject of faith. Since we are imperfect beings, it is not our place to know or to question, and we must have faith, must believe, for only through the son shall we meet the father. Etc. But what exactly is faith? In my opinion I believe faith to be a very irrational emotion. To have faith is to believe in something in something which you do not know for sure. To have faith in God (the one who is the father of Jesus in this case), requires NOT KNOWING WHETHER GOD REALLY EXISTS! If I were knew you got full marks on a test, and I said to you, I have faith that you got a perfect score, it would mean nothing! Thus the requirement of having faith is NOT KNOWING; if I knew for certain God existed, how then can I have faith in his existence? Of course there are other types of faith applicable for Christians such as the faith IN God rather than faith at his existence. Thus, Christians, don’t worry even if you do know that God exists, because you still can believe in him.
The question then is, isn’t faith even greater when you do not know? So many religions give “undeniable” facts saying “look here, this evidence DEFINITELY shows my God exists and is with us at this very moment” But don’t these actions merely serve to diminish their faith? Doesn’t the bible or the Koran or the churches, which supposedly gives us greater understanding of God, lessen the faith we have in him? Does it not lessen ourselves in his eyes? And for anyone who searches for the truth; scientists and philosophers, how can they truly subscribe to a faith then?
Okay that’s It! Phew! Most of these is just my inane thoughts and ramblings so don’t be offended, many of my thoughts here don’t necessarily reflect my beliefs.
Labels: life, philosophy
Remember this time well, this night that will never return. Feelings will be forgotten; emotions will be lost. Memories do no justice in the face of cynicism. As I listen to the sound of the blues, the words uttered echo in my mind: a fleeting reminder of the past. Forgotten emotions, waiting, silent, patient at the back of my conscious re-emerge furiously, a symphony of sadness.
What happens when that which that means the most to you must end?
As I sit here, thinking, the seconds and minutes of our lives slowly fade, like an avalanche, it leads on to hours and days, months and years. When will it end? How can we stem the tide? Nothing is forever, the story must end. "Forever is such an overused word, that we never understand its full connotations. It has merely c"ome to represent an illusion of comfort and safety. The very cynicism and melancholy that i have repressed becomes my muse. As I sit here, the lie is slowly revealed, the truth is understood. Life is the great deceiver. And worst yet, time looks on, without mercy, without compassion.
"...and the truth shall make you free"
What do we have?
Friendships, relationships, and bonds unbreakable, at once unique and at once irreplaceable, forged under stresses, tempered under time, only its maker can unmake it. Strong as they are, they are unable to withstand time. And the stronger they are, the longer they are, the greater the hurt. The illusion that these bonds offer; the comfort and security of an ideal is shattered. For better or for worse, inevitably it must end. It always does. We can no longer replace them in our hearts, our minds, and our souls. We are only left with their memory. It lingers on, bittersweet. No longer will we sit and talk in the same way. No longer can we meet and eat in the same way. No longer will we be same again, except in our memories. Optimism endures as I imagine friendships holding strong. Images of reunions. Cynicism reigns as I look into the past, showing portents of the future.
Another Illusion
We hope to capture the moments, to store each precious memory in our brains, accessible at our fingertips. Is it so powerful then that it can replace the physical? Does the metaphorical triumph? Can the sublime hold sway, supreme? Or are they merely illusions upon illusions that we create to comfort ourselves? We believe what we want to believe, our memories are merely cheap copies. Intangible. Everything is forever in our minds, and there, everything is forever defined by our minds.
"Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust"
The more you love the more it hurts, when you look back at what you've lost, there are times when the pain just seems unbearable. I mourn not for what has gone, for it makes no difference, but I mourn now for what is to come. While the past can never be relived except in our memories, we can endeavour to give purpose to our lives through hope. Mark Twain once wrote: "Let us endeavour so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." The passing of loved ones shall ever be mourned.
Women's liberation or why it'll never work
A few days ago I at junction 8 was with Alex and Cheryl, after walking around for awhile trying to find a place to eat; we eventually narrowed it down to two choices. Expounding the virtues of delifrance, I eloquently put across my argument as to how we should eat healthy and be pampered by the comfortable seats and service of delifrance staff. On the other hand, the two girls hit back with their most powerful weapon immediately; no - not their sex appeal (or lack thereof), but rather the shrill sound that has even toppled some of the most powerful men in the world. Yes it was none other than "The Whine". As the klaxons of my whine detector started to wail, my instinctive defenses came up and I adopted the tried and true defense (others suggest a more radical approach such as a "tactical withdrawal", but i prefer to stick to textbook examples):
" Women’s liberation! We'll decide using RPS*"
Stunned that their ultimate weapon had seemingly no effect on me, they proceeded to increase the intensity of their assault.
"(Whine) But...Mos burger is cheaper, and its nicer! (Whine) "
Nevertheless, once i had my defenses up, anyone would have been hard pressed to break me. (Furthermore, my exposure to "The Whine" from one Shivana has given me a greater Whine endurance, a Cheese quotient if you will) Undaunted, the challenge was reiterated, and fearing a loss of face and pride amongst the increasing number of bystanders, they were left with no choice but to comply. As for the result?
Feng 1 Girls 0
I had successfully upheld the nature of male pride! I had won the battle...but unbeknownst to me the war was far from over. The male pride which I supposedly defended was to be my downfall. As the losers marched sullenly toward delifrance, it occurred to them that this setback would be their ticket to victory. They pretended to be compliant by picking up the menus and perusing the myriad selection of delicacies, but it was merely a ruse. They were just waiting for me to drop my defences, and the moment that happened, they striked.
I have to admit, it was a well planned strategy. Flanked by both Alex and Cheryl, I was subject to a war on two fronts; thus having to divide my defences, I was outmanned and outmanoeuvred. And I lost miserably; it was a massacre.
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."
- George Orwell
(In the end, i ended up spending as much in mos burger as i would have in delifrance.
Moral of the story? Women's liberation - they don't even need it, give a woman an even break, and they'll take it and rip out your balls as they snatch it from you. )
*Rock, paper, scissors