1/5/08
Acceptance Speech for Honorary Doctorate from Charles University
Acceptance Speech for Honorary Doctorate from Charles University, Frederick Jelinek
1/2/08
12/22/07
A Birthday Card for You!
What is life? A journey through a series of seemingly random events,
and formation of mental images aimed at making sense of them?
Maybe, fulfillment of a vision delineated meticulously down to its most subtle nuances.
Or perhaps, something in between!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!
12/21/07
Communicaton Bridge
The following is a passage from an e-book distributed by the IEEE, titled "Engineering a Communication Bridge":
"In the end, the bridge over the communication gap will not be built through crafty legislation. The bridge will not be engineered through advanced communication technologies.... The bridge can only be constructed of one material: humans. Anyone can serve as the bridge by taking action, by ensuring a diverse education. Get involved. And get talking!"
Although, the e-book was concerned primarily with the communication gap between engineers and policy makers the overall message is widely applicable to many other areas of human endeavor: boys meet girls and there is often a communication gap that can only be bridged by developing a diverse set of interests (sport, dance, music, food, cinema, ...), emphasizing on humanity (respecting each others wants, ignoring occasional human follies), and getting involved and talking (spending time).
12/12/07
Time (by firstcomet)
In a fight to make right
One wrong, a million wrong
I found self distressed
I felt heart weary
I grieved bygone youth
I glimpsed a dimmed horizon
Time, the greatest exposé
In the battle of self-indulgence
Comforting convictions posed
The hubris of man shows
The voyeurism of time satisfied
That's the end of most fights!
One wrong, a million wrong
I found self distressed
I felt heart weary
I grieved bygone youth
I glimpsed a dimmed horizon
Time, the greatest exposé
In the battle of self-indulgence
Comforting convictions posed
The hubris of man shows
The voyeurism of time satisfied
That's the end of most fights!
12/3/07
Lost (a poem by firstcomet)
It was a flower, perished
It was a desire, demised
It was a chance, missed
It was a take, lost
It was a desire, demised
It was a chance, missed
It was a take, lost
If the moment was cherished
If the words were spoken
If he had his ego accost
If she had her passion gust
Maybe their path could have crossed!
12/2/07
Rachmaninoff Piano concerto No.3
The more I think about it the more I'm convinced that Game theory should be the natural language of Contradictionism and that people should be more educated about game theory:
It's very simple; contradictions are the cause of all the conflicts in the world. But, people don't realize it. I can think of two reasons for this:
1) Euphemism: we try to resolve contradictions in the linguistic stage by adopting euphemism.
2) Evolutionary psychology: we are so much conditioned by our extended histories that do not realize our inherent biases.
To be more concrete, let's take an example of Euphemism: "Patriotism is a virtue." Here, Patriotism is a euphemism for acting in accordance with the unilateral interest of your country. However, if every country follows the same maxim then conflict is inevitable.
Here is an example of how evolution biases our point of view and results in contradiction: "One has to be truthful unconditionally." However, the following dynamics results in contradiction:
i) Factuality: A necessary condition to stay truthful is to keep track of facts and stay faithful to them.
ii) Fallibility: human beings make mistakes. Furthermore, they often find it more convenient to hide their fallibility from others, or rationalize their mistakes, or to blame others for their own wrong doings.
iii) Friendliness: social life requires collaborating with others to achieve common goals or to compromise over incompatible objectives. Friendship by definition requires being biased with respect to certain individuals, thus, manipulating facts to their advantage.
Thus, there is a fundamental contradiction between Factuality and Friendliness as a byproduct of Fallibility. Looking at the state of affairs, it seems like Friendliness takes precedence over Factuality. This quality (friendliness) equipped our ancestors to cope with the complications of living in groups.
Another closely related example: "Rationality commands that our primary moral and social concerns must not be directed towards those with whom we are bound by the common ties of kinship, rather to those who strive to improve the condition of their lives through conscious decisions and ceaseless struggles."
Above is an example of a principle one might arrive at via sensible reasoning, but is not supported by our common sentiments. In particular, we fail to realize the above due to our emotional engagement with the members of our kinship group.
It is proposed that educating individuals about the principles of "proof by contradiction", might be a viable mean to help them see the contradiction of life and to deal with its complications. However, I remain skeptical! Since, resolving many contradictions of life demands a "disconnect" from our very natural dispositions that are not psychologically viable or otherwise painful. At the very least, it requires a great deal of courage and intellectual honesty.
Life is the peace of contraries,
And Death is the proof of this war. --Rumi
It's very simple; contradictions are the cause of all the conflicts in the world. But, people don't realize it. I can think of two reasons for this:
1) Euphemism: we try to resolve contradictions in the linguistic stage by adopting euphemism.
2) Evolutionary psychology: we are so much conditioned by our extended histories that do not realize our inherent biases.
To be more concrete, let's take an example of Euphemism: "Patriotism is a virtue." Here, Patriotism is a euphemism for acting in accordance with the unilateral interest of your country. However, if every country follows the same maxim then conflict is inevitable.
Here is an example of how evolution biases our point of view and results in contradiction: "One has to be truthful unconditionally." However, the following dynamics results in contradiction:
i) Factuality: A necessary condition to stay truthful is to keep track of facts and stay faithful to them.
ii) Fallibility: human beings make mistakes. Furthermore, they often find it more convenient to hide their fallibility from others, or rationalize their mistakes, or to blame others for their own wrong doings.
iii) Friendliness: social life requires collaborating with others to achieve common goals or to compromise over incompatible objectives. Friendship by definition requires being biased with respect to certain individuals, thus, manipulating facts to their advantage.
Thus, there is a fundamental contradiction between Factuality and Friendliness as a byproduct of Fallibility. Looking at the state of affairs, it seems like Friendliness takes precedence over Factuality. This quality (friendliness) equipped our ancestors to cope with the complications of living in groups.
Another closely related example: "Rationality commands that our primary moral and social concerns must not be directed towards those with whom we are bound by the common ties of kinship, rather to those who strive to improve the condition of their lives through conscious decisions and ceaseless struggles."
Above is an example of a principle one might arrive at via sensible reasoning, but is not supported by our common sentiments. In particular, we fail to realize the above due to our emotional engagement with the members of our kinship group.
It is proposed that educating individuals about the principles of "proof by contradiction", might be a viable mean to help them see the contradiction of life and to deal with its complications. However, I remain skeptical! Since, resolving many contradictions of life demands a "disconnect" from our very natural dispositions that are not psychologically viable or otherwise painful. At the very least, it requires a great deal of courage and intellectual honesty.
Life is the peace of contraries,
And Death is the proof of this war. --Rumi
The Gap
I wonder how it feels to grow up in a middle-class family in US.
I wonder how it feels like to be Peter; the son of an engineer (or was his dad a businessman) who has been making a six figure income for the past 20 years, while Peter was going through different stages of his life.
I wonder how it feels like to be Peter; the son of an engineer (or was his dad a businessman) who has been making a six figure income for the past 20 years, while Peter was going through different stages of his life.
What did Peter do while he was 5 years old?
How did his pre-school years look?
How were his middle school days?
What does Peter think about life?
Peter's dreams?
Peter's ideals?
What does it take to make Peter?
What does it take to break Peter?
11/28/07
The Walnut Creek Theater
Today the Walnut Creek Theater showcased one of the masterpieces of French existentialism; namely "the hackneyed butterfly ascent" (or was it a descent?). The only creative component of the play was the overwhelming dramatization of the scene by spectators, who interpreted the extreme apathy of the antihero as a butterfly ascend (or was it a descent?). It turns out a more thru interpretation of the play may result in a butterfly effect that was not the original intent of the screenwriter.
11/26/07
Games of social life
Observations pertaining to an anthropological case-study:
This game is called "who looks better". This particular game turns out to be a dangerous game; since in the real life it actually matters "who looks better". Here is a typical strategy people use:
1) Players A and B start by standing face-to-face, and telling each other anything they can think-of that can make the other person look bad. This can happen in a park or over a kitchen table.
2) Then they depart from each other and start advertising to others that they "look better" than their opponent. As such, the objective is to convince as many spectators as possible that your opponent is uglier than what they think he or she is:
3) Player A proceed by coming-up with fictitious stories (may originate from reality, but is sufficiently distorted to qualify as fiction) and propagates them among his acquaintances.
4) Player B replies by trying to discredit player A calling him crazy. The idea is that if player A is discredited then all of his statements will be interpreted by others as false.
A funny consequence of this move by player B is that for her to win the game, it has to become a self-fulfilling prophesy, i.e., player A has to become crazy.
5) Once in a while, one of the spectators decides to believe player B over player A. In such cases, player B seizes the opportunity by calling player A and bringing that to his attention. She also calls the acquaintances of Player A at 2:00am in their local time to win their votes. And there are those spectators who mediate the game through public media, the worse of them being smart aleck theorist and e-mailers!
You might wonder why spectators bother to take a side. It's because any spectator automatically becomes part of the game "who looks better". Among the many ways a spectator can look better is by making right judgments. After all, if you can call-out the guilty party you're smarter than both player A and B, and consequently, you look better than both of them. Furthermore, certain spectators seize the opportunity to compensate for their “old losses” on the game of "who looks better". After all, this game can go on for lifetimes! As you might have guessed, spectators are an essential part of this game. Without them the game is simply absurd!
6) Rules regarding types of money accepted by the dealer (the devil) for purchasing your chips are very flexible:
Your respect, your honor, your honesty, your genuine concerns, your quiet evening times, your emotions, your tears, your health, your sanity, your rationality, your family ties ... you name it.
7) There is no shame in changing strategy or using the same strategy as that of your opponent. Even though, from time to time you might find certain strategies of your opponents very hurtful, reducing the pain is not one of the objectives of the game. The only objective is "who looks better" at the end of the day.
8) Players and spectators can take breaks from the game and return back as many times as they wish; the only requirement being that the game must go on. In fact, certain players get sick of the game and decide to quite.
As such, the game of "who looks better" can be a very painful experience. But, the sweet taste of wining, au contraire, makes the game worthy of eternal recurrence. In practice, the overall number of the players and spectators remains steady throughout the game, and there are always plenty of exchangeable goods to purchase your chips with.
9) It turns out you do not need to make time for playing this game. You don’t even need to learn the rules of the game. It comes naturally to almost everybody. And you’re most likely so good at this game that you don’t even notice you’re playing it.
Happy playing kids!
This game is called "who looks better". This particular game turns out to be a dangerous game; since in the real life it actually matters "who looks better". Here is a typical strategy people use:
1) Players A and B start by standing face-to-face, and telling each other anything they can think-of that can make the other person look bad. This can happen in a park or over a kitchen table.
2) Then they depart from each other and start advertising to others that they "look better" than their opponent. As such, the objective is to convince as many spectators as possible that your opponent is uglier than what they think he or she is:
3) Player A proceed by coming-up with fictitious stories (may originate from reality, but is sufficiently distorted to qualify as fiction) and propagates them among his acquaintances.
4) Player B replies by trying to discredit player A calling him crazy. The idea is that if player A is discredited then all of his statements will be interpreted by others as false.
A funny consequence of this move by player B is that for her to win the game, it has to become a self-fulfilling prophesy, i.e., player A has to become crazy.
5) Once in a while, one of the spectators decides to believe player B over player A. In such cases, player B seizes the opportunity by calling player A and bringing that to his attention. She also calls the acquaintances of Player A at 2:00am in their local time to win their votes. And there are those spectators who mediate the game through public media, the worse of them being smart aleck theorist and e-mailers!
You might wonder why spectators bother to take a side. It's because any spectator automatically becomes part of the game "who looks better". Among the many ways a spectator can look better is by making right judgments. After all, if you can call-out the guilty party you're smarter than both player A and B, and consequently, you look better than both of them. Furthermore, certain spectators seize the opportunity to compensate for their “old losses” on the game of "who looks better". After all, this game can go on for lifetimes! As you might have guessed, spectators are an essential part of this game. Without them the game is simply absurd!
6) Rules regarding types of money accepted by the dealer (the devil) for purchasing your chips are very flexible:
Your respect, your honor, your honesty, your genuine concerns, your quiet evening times, your emotions, your tears, your health, your sanity, your rationality, your family ties ... you name it.
7) There is no shame in changing strategy or using the same strategy as that of your opponent. Even though, from time to time you might find certain strategies of your opponents very hurtful, reducing the pain is not one of the objectives of the game. The only objective is "who looks better" at the end of the day.
8) Players and spectators can take breaks from the game and return back as many times as they wish; the only requirement being that the game must go on. In fact, certain players get sick of the game and decide to quite.
As such, the game of "who looks better" can be a very painful experience. But, the sweet taste of wining, au contraire, makes the game worthy of eternal recurrence. In practice, the overall number of the players and spectators remains steady throughout the game, and there are always plenty of exchangeable goods to purchase your chips with.
9) It turns out you do not need to make time for playing this game. You don’t even need to learn the rules of the game. It comes naturally to almost everybody. And you’re most likely so good at this game that you don’t even notice you’re playing it.
Happy playing kids!
11/24/07
Pandora!
He placed all his memories in a box, sealed it tightly, and buried it in the most unreachable recesses of his mind. The Pandora radio reached deep into his psych and astounded him by the Golden autumn (Fariborz Lachini) and Instrumental imagery (Mehdi).
11/23/07
East, East, East
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Star_in_the_East
Sounds familiar!
William James -> Annie Besant-> Krishnamurti -> David Bohm -> Karl Pribram:
"You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, 'What did that man pick up?' 'He picked up a piece of the truth,' said the devil. 'That is a very bad business for you, then,' said his friend. 'Oh, not at all,' the devil replied, 'I am going to help him organize it.' I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path."
11/20/07
You (by firstcomet)
You are just like
that orange blossom-scented breath
I so ravenously want to hold on to,
while I know ...
Soon, I'll have to let go of!
Being with you is just like indulging in chocolate; you just can't have enough of it. Even though chocolates are not the most nutritional food items, they are undoubtedly some of the sweetest and most addictive ones. The rest is like spending time at a salad bar and having to have lots of asparagus and broccolis. So is being with you; it might distract me from enriching my mind with all that society and history cares for. And I also care for them in the same logical basis that I consume asparagus and broccolis. But chocolate ... I ravenously desire chocolate!
that orange blossom-scented breath
I so ravenously want to hold on to,
while I know ...
Soon, I'll have to let go of!
Being with you is just like indulging in chocolate; you just can't have enough of it. Even though chocolates are not the most nutritional food items, they are undoubtedly some of the sweetest and most addictive ones. The rest is like spending time at a salad bar and having to have lots of asparagus and broccolis. So is being with you; it might distract me from enriching my mind with all that society and history cares for. And I also care for them in the same logical basis that I consume asparagus and broccolis. But chocolate ... I ravenously desire chocolate!
11/19/07
Privilege of Being
Robert Hass
Many are making love. Up above, the angels in the unshaken ether and crystal of human longing are braiding one another's hair, which is strawberry blond and the texture of cold rivers. They glance down from time to time at the awkward ecstasy--it must look to them like featherless birds splashing in the spring puddle of a bed--and then one woman, she is about to come, peelsback the man's shut eyelids and says, look at me, and he does. Or is it the man tugging the curtain rope in that dark theater? Anyway, they do, they look at each other; two beings with evolved eyes, rapacious, startled, connected at the belly in an unbelievably sweet lubricious glue, stare at each other, and the angels are desolate. They hate it. They shudder pathetically like lithographs of Victorian beggars with perfect features and alabaster skin hawking rags in the lewd alleys of the novel.All of creation is offended by this distress. It is like the keening sound the moon makes sometimes, rising. The lovers especially cannot bear it, it fills them with unspeakable sadness, so that they close their eyes again and hold each other, each feeling the mortal singularity of the body they have enchanted out of death for an hour so, and one day, running at sunset, the woman says to the man, I woke up feeling so sad this morning because I realized that you could not, as much as I love you, dear heart, cure my loneliness, wherewith she touched his cheek to reassure him that she did not mean to hurt him with this truth. And the man is not hurt exactly,he understands that life has limits, that people die young, fail at love, fail of their ambitions. He runs beside her, he thinks of the sadness they have gasped and crooned their way out of coming, clutching each other with old invented forms of grace and clumsy gratitude, ready to be alone again, or dissatisfied, or merely companionable like the couples on the summer beach reading magazine articles about intimacy between the sexes to themselves, and to each other, and to the immense, illiterate, consoling angels.
Sons of the Monkeys
Men need money to impress women. Women look for rich men to secure their babies' survival.
"Yesterday we were, and today we are! This is the will of the goddess among the sons of the goddess; what is your will, oh sons of the monkeys?"
"Yesterday we were, and today we are! This is the will of the goddess among the sons of the goddess; what is your will, oh sons of the monkeys?"
11/18/07
The economy of action
"Plenty of people wish well to any good cause, but very few care to exert themselves to help it, and still fewer will risk anything in its support. 'Someone ought to do it, but why should I?' is the ever reechoed phrase of the weak-kneed amiability. 'Someone ought to do it, so why not I?' is the cry of some earnest servants of man, eagerly forward springing to face some perilous duty. Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution." -- Annie Besant
"weak-kneed amiability" or economical thinking? Doesn't it all come down to cost benefit analysis. How does the economy of "risking everything" work?
"weak-kneed amiability" or economical thinking? Doesn't it all come down to cost benefit analysis. How does the economy of "risking everything" work?
Chocolate Rain!
“There are few enough people with sufficient independence to see the weakness and follies of their contemporaries and remain themselves untouched by them. And these isolated few usually soon lose their zeal for putting things to rights when they have come face to face with human obduracy. Only to a tiny minority is it given to fascinate their generation by subtle humor and grace and to hold the mirror up to it by impersonal agency of art." –The World As I See It, Albert Einstein.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_Rain
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)