tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41358002881973241472024-03-14T05:31:24.226-07:00Dumidu HandakumburaDumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-52342858586289246962024-02-18T00:14:00.000-08:002024-02-20T06:28:34.723-08:00Why I decided to take action to improve on my online privacyA couple of years ago I came to the personal conclusion that human rights such as the rights to privacy are fundamental for an individual to thrive. But at the same time, in order for a state to function smoothly and perform its highest function of making citizens, some encroachments of privacy must be allowed. <br /><br />However, there may be exceptions to the states need for encroachment, where in the act of making citizens, due to limitations of resources or errors in decision making by authorities, harm may fall on the societies the state is bound to protect through the unconcensual breach of privacy it may conduct on individuals. In such situations, it is the moral responsibility of the individuals in question to do what they can to improve their personal privacy. <div><br /></div><div>Having come to the <b>personal conclusion</b> that it is far too easy to violate and abuse individual privacy in a country like Sri Lanka, and due to my personal academic interests, it would be irresponsible of me to take actions that are available for me to improve my online privacy (as online privacy is an important facet of individual privacy for me). To this end I have decided to use a VPN and improve on the security of my home tech stack.</div><div><br /></div>The idea (until a better solution is found) is to make the VPN and any possible back doors built into the key software be the weak link, trusting anyone who might have access to my content would be responsible with it (e.g. 13 eyes). As the intention is to prevent abuse of my personal privacy to harm me and not allow the possibility of my personal content to unconsensually and indirectly harm others.Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-38486118319026479512024-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:002024-02-18T00:06:31.750-08:00My personal stand on religion<span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b>WARNING!!! This post may contain opinions or ideas that could be perceived as offensive to some individuals. The intention is not to cause harm or discomfort. If you feel that you may be offended or uncomfortable with differing religious opinions, I kindly advise you to refrain from reading further.</b></span><div> <br />I am of the opinion that every mature individual should make up their own minds on important social issues and express them so that if anyone cares to know about them they can. But there may be some social issues where sharing your opinion may add noise to a topic that may have been discussed at length. However, if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself in a situation where you have no other alternative but to share your opinion as a definitive source, then sharing it in a kind manner can be helpful. <br /><br /><b>1. I’m of opinion that religions are created but they are necessary </b><br /><br />I have personally come to the conclusion that reality needs creation to explain itself. But religions like Christianity and Buddhism are human constructs that were required to explain certain phenomena in a way that secured the moral requirements of the times they were thought of. Plato may have shared the same sentiment as in the Republic, it is claimed that religions are required to give the moral requirements of a community divine authority. If Plato and Aristotle had heard of the jews exodus out of Egypt and the birth of the 10 commandments, I’m of the opinion that they would say the jewish race, and it's god needed those 10 commandments to thrive in those times. <br /><br />I’m of the opinion that as different as religions like Buddhism and Christianity may appear on the surface and the stark differences in their explanations of reality, the phenomena that are discussed operate under the same principles in one reality that accommodates them. It’s just that the moral requirement of the jews at the time of the 10 commandments was different from the moral requirement of the Buddha and his followers at the time the religion was thought of.<br /><br /><b>2. I’m of the opinion that Christianity was a great achievement in human history</b><br /><br />I'm of the opinion that Christianity as we know it today was not birthed 2000 years ago but that it gradually evolved, and assimilated over the last 1000 years. As far as religions go, it has one of the lowest barriers of entry, which in my opinion is a good thing. But the growth of the practitioner depends greatly on their own comprehension of the texts, personal revelations, the maturity of the denomination and the leaders whom they belong to. <br /><br /><b>3. I’m of the opinion that fundamental versions of religions are obsolete </b><br /><br />As much as the 10 commandments were needed to keep the jewish community functioning smoothly all those thousand years ago, they are obsolete now. I’m of the opinion that if we had access to those times, and we had investigated the moral requirements of those tribes we might have come up with similar laws and explanations . Then as the religion grew, for the same reasons Plato proposed the need for a governing class (The guardians), the justifications of such commandments and explanations of phenomena were needed to be kept away from the ruling class. This separation helped the religion and its followers to thrive.<br /><br />Over the past 1000 years the society has radically changed in ways the religions can’t explain without altering the texts which can’t be done in our connected, digital world without drawing unwanted attention. So due to shortcomings of the religious community leaders, more and more of our youth lose hope in religion and fail to find alternatives elsewhere. <br /><br /><b>4. I'm of the opinion that discrimination and subjugation of people based on religion is wrong.</b><br /><br />I have witnessed outdated religious laws being used to exclude individuals and groups. How such laws are used to subjugate and keep individuals captive by deeming them guilty and deserving of punishment (specially converts and the curious). Or justifying discrimination based on non membership. I am of the opinion that it is the religious fundamentalist who discriminate against others in such blatantly obvious ways, and that non fundamentalist religious practitioners, at least for the sake of financial motives, understand how to get along with non members of their religion and their own outcasts. As such they pay the way for a better future.<br /><br /><b>5. I’m of the opinion that some of us have a moral responsibility towards practitioners of fundamental versions of religions </b><br /><br />I have personally known fundamentalist Buddhist in the past whose intentions were misguided and pushed nationalistic agendas in the gais of religious indignation. I don’t personally know any western christian fundamentalists, but through movies I’ve seen I can empathize with individuals who care for fundamentalist Christians who are not Christians in the general sense of the term. You can understand how some of these non-fundamentalists, especially those who are more humanistic and are educated, are looking out for the fundamentalist even when at times it seems they’re out to bite the hand that feeds. <br /><br />I am of the opinion that if you find you are morally responsible for a religious fundamentalist, you still need to find a way to treat them with respect and dignity. Understand how much you are willing to compromise for that individual and understand your personal limits of compromise. You should not push your beliefs on the individual. It may genuinely be a case where the individual in question is not cognitively capable of changing their beliefs or be able to cope with the complexities or responsibilities of a different belief system. Or they may be socially or financially constrained. In such a situation most would agree an individual that follows the 10 commandments is still more favorable to an animal.<br /><br />What if an individual tries pushing the 10 commandments on you? Claiming according to the first command he must object to your corrupt definition of God? What if he misunderstands your attempts to avoid discussing the matter with them out of your sense of moral responsibility? These are questions I myself have thought about at dept and if I have concluded the person who is asking me the question is not capable of handling the answer, then it would be immoral for me to answer it honestly and completely. If there was no other alternative, I would tell them of the Allegory of the cave[1]. The prisoners who see the shadows are right to a degree when they make conclusions about reality based on the shadows they see on the walls. The prisoner who breaks his chains and crawls out of the cave would see the objects that casted the shadows inside the cave. The conclusions he makes on reality based on these objects would be even closer to an objective reality than those made by the prisoners who are still chained inside. But this prisoner might understand that those truths other prisoners hold are a subset of his own truths and that they are constricted by the parameters of the cave. This realization should humble him to think that even his truths might be a subset of someone else’s truths. He would realize that the prisoner who is still inside the cave is not completely at fault for not understanding his truths. <span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I am of the opinion that if the worst comes to worse, you do your best to do justice by fundamentalist, cut ties (if this is an option) and move on yourself. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">So in closing, At 37 years of age, I am not religious, I believe religions can be a force for good so I am tolerant of them when they are not used as an excuse for abuse or discriminate. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">[1] - </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1RWOpQXTltA" width="320" youtube-src-id="1RWOpQXTltA"></iframe></div><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><br /></span></span><p></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></div>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-48259413223726006432024-01-28T18:20:00.001-08:002024-02-06T08:05:34.067-08:00The Outsider, a first impression on the book and Absurdism <p dir="ltr"><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><b>WARNING!!! This post may contain opinions or ideas that could be perceived as offensive to some individuals. The intention is not to cause harm or discomfort. If you feel that you may be offended or uncomfortable with differing religious opinions, I kindly advise you to refrain from reading further. </b> </span></p><p dir="ltr">At 37 years of age, I hold the view that reality constitutes creation and that most people if they are not being forced in some way would at least confess to agonism. Including Camus if you take the translation of Sandra Smith to be loyal to the original and that Camus meant to capitalize and uncapitalize the noun God in the final act between the Christian priest and Meursault.</p><p dir="ltr">I found 'The Outsider' extremely interesting and well written. It was short and to the point. I enjoy it when authors take a philosophical position or a question and use a story to investigate it and draw conclusions. This is probably one of the best books I have read.</p><p dir="ltr">As I see it the main concept being investigated in this story is moral responsibility and justice.</p><p dir="ltr">Salamano and his dog can be a metaphor that investigates how we can fail to comprehend our commitment when we become morally responsible for another. Camus ties Salamanos narrative masterfully with that of Raymonds in the early parts of the story. </p><p dir="ltr">Meursault is the protagonist of the story. He is a young man with low affect, who seems disillusioned by society but showed an interest in life till his end. There are many references to sleep deprivation in Meursault’s narrative. Even at the point where he commits murder Camus brings this point to readers' minds. We learn that he has lost affect possibly since an incident in his youth where he was forced to abandon his educational pursuits. Although it is also a possibility that Meursault was born with low affect as this is not uncommon in some eastern cultures. Regardless of the cause of his affliction, Camus implies that Meursault is unable to rationally manage himself, his emotions and his actions when he is in the diminished capacity brought on by sleep deprivation and is at times portrayed as an observer of his own life. Camus asks the reader if it's moral to hold such a man at guilt? </p><p dir="ltr">Camus fictionaly implies external agency for the acts and situations that brings Meursault to commit murder. He nudges the reader to think Salamano who is likely an elderly ostracized Muslim, the Christian Priest and the Judge who offers him pardon if he repents his sins can understand the cause of his affliction and influence of external agency using their belief systems. </p><p dir="ltr">Camus asks the reader how just can a justice system be when the decision of guilt depends on the beliefs of those who decide on behalf of the accused? I wonder how many of our lawyers, juries and judges have read this book or agree with its message. </p><p dir="ltr">Having read this book, I can understand why in 1942 Camus may have thought life was meaningless and absurd, but if he had lived to our days, inlight of the advances we have made in understanding the human experience, I believe he would have been intelligent enough to have seen enough meaning behind the mess. Too bad automobile safety was not what it is now back then and he was born in a terbulent time in his country. </p><p dir="ltr"><br /></p><p dir="ltr"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br /><p></p>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-7342610643589051692023-10-10T01:06:00.001-07:002023-10-10T01:07:14.281-07:00Story of Philosophy by Will Durant: Plato<p> </p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3e0e0566-7fff-6d92-d286-4e6f6735c611"><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Introduction to the series</span></h2><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I have had a passing interest in philosophy for a while and with age and career progression the benefits of knowing the thought process of the great thinkers on Justice became apparent. How do you answer questions like, ‘how do I give my recommendation as a senior to one junior over another for a promotion or what really is at stake in such a decision?’ or ‘what is my moral responsibility if I find myself working with someone who doesn’t have as much autonomy as I have as a senior?’</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Since I don't have intentions of pursuing philosophy as a vocation, It doesn’t make much sense for me to study all the prominent schools of thought in philosophy by studying the body of work of the great philosophers who wore those thoughts best throughout history. So for the time being I have decided to pursue self study of the subject relying on the generalized and in most cases summarized opinions of the great philosophers and their contributions as presented by established academics. It is this intention that lead me to pick up Will Durent’s the Story of Philosophy.</span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">What I have learnt from the first chapter </span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The first chapter gives the socio-cultural context in which we find Socrates and plato. It made me realize that there were others (sophists) throughout pre-socratic history that questioned the order of things like Socrates, but they had enough wisdom in them not to find themselves in the bad books of the socio-economic system like Socrates did which left him with the end which he chose for himself. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Plato must be thought of in the context of Socrates' final decision. Some of the claims he makes in his psychological solution seemed to have been influenced by his master’s death. Will Durent captures Plato’s philosophical contributions to ethics, politics and epistemology in the 3 problems and the 3 solutions.</span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The ethical problem</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ethics, the right conduct according to Plato is a relationship among individuals and so it is the harmony of the whole. It is easier to observe it and correct it at the level of the community than at the individual. Though he hints it ultimately about ethics at the individual level. The ethical problem therefore is the unethical behavior of the individual.</span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The political problem</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Plato paints a picture of an eden-like utopia, where inhabitants live simply but in a state of just. But he claims such a simple utopia can’t come to past because of greed and luxury. (I suspect the ignorant fear of scarcity may have also been in his mind but he may have not stated it outright as it would have not been wise of him). Therefore, the political problem is the inability to control citizens' greed and luxury to a state where it is not detrimental to the whole).</span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The psychological problem</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">According to Plato man’s actions are governed by the intrinsic elements. ‘Desire’, ‘Emotion’ and ‘Knowledge’. He claims the more you are driven by either desire or emotion the more you are used by the world. And it is when you develop the element which he identify as ‘Knowledge’ that you can become the master of one’s own soul and stand unused by the world. His saying ‘know your soul’ which has penetrated the popular imagination today is a testament to the claim that this is what is meant. He goes on to say that in all of us lie desires and emotions that are harmful to the whole, but when knowledge is given front seat in one's soul one may substitute harmful desires and emotions to less harmful and live out a better life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The psychological problem and the root cause for all other problems therefore is the individual's lack of autonomy. And the evils and the offenses that may come to light through the individual due to the lack of ownership of their own lives. </span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The psychological solution </span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Plato proposes creating better archetypes he calls ‘the guardians’ who will be used to mold the youth until those who are among them who are capable may break free from the archetype to become ‘guardians’ themselves. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">He proposes a mostly self-governing social order and a program that would chisel out the ‘guardians’ and other roles such as ’auxiliaries’ and citizens. Who are as a whole cured from the greed, luxury and other ills that he may have not mentioned. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The the program consists of harvesting and producing the healthiest children, who for the first 10 years are given a physical foundation that can better stand the forces that wish to drive them through ‘Desire’ and ‘Emotion’. Then they are given an education in music to make their minds receptive to the spirits. He then speaks of the need for a religion to keep the would-be citizens in order that would give the moral requirement one has to another divine authority. He gives a description of the religion.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The growing children face two trails one harder than the other. Based on where they fail, they would become ‘Citizens’ or ‘Auxiliaries’. The moral requirements of the two classes are enforced through the newly established religion and the ‘myth of the metals’. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Those who pass the second trial, are given an education of philosophy at the age of 30. Plato’s theory of forms is discussed here.Then they are put out into the world to fend for themselves. Those who become self-sufficient at the age of 50 become the ‘guardians’ and the de facto rulers of the state. </span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The political solution</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Plato claims once the psychology of the classes of the citizens is raised up to a standard that resolves the problem. The political problem can be solved through aristocracy. A description of the ‘guardians’ lifestyle is given. The importance of avoiding war with other groups over population and trade is given. The least cured of the classes plato claims would abandon monopoly of administration as the better cured of the classes abandon monopoly of luxury. </span></p><br /><h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 18pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The ethical solution</span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Justice to Plato is doing and having one’s own. Justice is what binds society together in harmony. Similarly justice binds the different elements of an individual together in harmony so that the individual may flourish. Plato claims members of a state are members of one another and so morality is the harmony of the whole. </span></p><br /><br /><h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 4pt; margin-top: 16pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #434343; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Personal criticism and final thoughts of Plato’s theories</span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The proposed solutions seem too generic(based on Will Durent’s writing and not the actual works of Plato). Given the advent of globalization some of his arguments are still potent at the level of the species. The examples of implementation of his theories given in the book prove that over time self-governing social systems become less efficient to the point they become ineffective and fall apart. Would be Implementatiors must take into account the progress made by the human race since then and the aspects that Plato may not call progress that that the ‘brones’ class would require and so should be accommodated to be corrected in cycles. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKXJ2TJYJw8" width="320" youtube-src-id="DKXJ2TJYJw8"></iframe></div><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-20112548697156702362023-05-18T22:06:00.009-07:002024-02-06T19:41:49.640-08:00My personal stand on LGBTQ+<div><span face=""Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #666666; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>WARNING!!! This post may contain opinions or ideas that could be perceived as offensive to some individuals. The intention is not to cause harm or discomfort. If you feel that you may be offended or uncomfortable with differing opinions, I kindly advise you to refrain from reading further.</b></span></div><div><br /></div>I was born male, I am heterosexual, I identify as a male and I express myself as a male. <br />...<div><br />A couple of days ago I learnt that the percentage of people identifying as LGBTQ+ in the US is around 7% and that the global percentage may be as high as 10%. Though you don’t meet as many LGBTQ+ people in Sri Lanka or experience them in the local media as much, it’s important to be aware and to respect their decisions in life and treat them with dignity regardless of our thoughts on the subject.<br /><br />Gender identity is how you identify yourself with regards to your gender and gender expression is how you choose to express your gender to society. Mastering these two aspects of life takes time and maturity. Ideally, society must wait until individuals are mature enough to make decisions on their own. But sadly, some of our children never reach this level of maturity, and some parts of societies are built in such a way that ignorance and ambiguity in these areas may be used for harm or be used for profit (in most cases to profit a third party).<br /><br />Gender expression in essence is how we expect society to treat us. So when a person who is mature enough to know themselves but is insincere in their <b>intentional expression</b> of their gender, (e.g. a heterosexuals' man pretending to be gay for profit or promotion through clothing choices and act[1]) that person is trying to deceive society. It is my personal opinion that cases like this should be placed in the right cultural and situational context and be judged as letting such cases pass without consequence sets a bad precedent and takes away someone else's opportunity. But we must not be too harsh with the consequences and leave room for correction. <br /><br />When it comes to society's end of the agreement made by our expression, we must be patient and empathetic, not because their mistreatment based on your gender is justified, but because of factors such as culture and education. In some cultures (due to lack of education), being seen as LGBTQ+ sympathetic can have real world consequences. But the silver lining is it does look like the world is becoming more welcoming of all humankind.<div><br /></div><div>I have chosen not to cover the legal rights LGBTQ+ people should be given as I am citizen I am not in a position to make such decision. You can find the Kantian justification for this choice here [2]. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACKosv5lwsg" width="320" youtube-src-id="ACKosv5lwsg"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /> <span id="docs-internal-guid-9f8b240a-7fff-6269-bc89-7c48bdd3c79c"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div>[1] - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp99wqxLatc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp99wqxLatc</a> </div><div>[2] - <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ke9RMXlu6T7gG-Ym41GCz0usKEbqp7s-osUUZxqtOA0/edit?usp=sharing">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ke9RMXlu6T7gG-Ym41GCz0usKEbqp7s-osUUZxqtOA0/edit?usp=sharing</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div></div>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-62561030867731523062023-05-07T02:54:00.003-07:002023-05-07T06:58:18.705-07:00 My personal stand on using AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub CopilotI have been dabbling with GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT for a couple of months now and have been blown away by how easy it makes both my professional and personal life. Using Copilot, I was able to make great progress on learning a new test automation tool in a language I had little experience in. With ChatGPT, I have made improvements to many areas of my daily existence. But after some time, like most of us who have come across the latest generation of AI tools, you stop and ask yourself how ethical it is to keep using them? <br /><br />A front-end engineer in the 90s worked with HTML and maybe CSS but if you only knew those technologies now you wouldn’t be able to find work. Most testers in the early 90’s or the early 00 could have gone on without knowing how to automate test cases, but that’s not the case now. So it’s not out of the ordinary for us engineers to see job descriptions change, but the magnitude of the social change the latest generation of AI tools can bring about is so great that it can radically reshape society for the worse, because in my opinion the technologies and the governance of these technologies are not yet in place.<br /><br />According to the 5 criteria outlined in this[1] IBM’s short video on the topic a user should check to see if an AI’s responses represent,<br /><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Fairness in representing all groups in societies around the world.</li><li>Its explainability in how it arrived at a given response.</li><li>Its robustness in ensuring fairness.</li><li>Its data privacy</li></ol>Taking ChatGPT as an example, my main concern is how an average user can be sure of point 1 and point 3! The training data set of ChatGPT is proprietary, and although there may be papers published on this topic, they are not accessible for the average person. Plus it is my personal opinion that there is far too much bias and noise in some of the likely sources (like internet articles and even research papers) so going by the seemingly overnight adoption, if there’re biases and noise in its training data, they get magnified 100 fold in society faster than we all ran out and bought ourselves mobile phones. <br /><br />Apart from any damage to society AI poses because of any unfairness of its responses, It seems like there isn’t a clerical job AI can’t do better than the majority of us can (if a few of us are really hellbent on getting the AI through the hurdles like switching between tasks and processes). <br /><br />Personally, I am of the opinion that until governments and experts come up with regulation and means to control any global societal damage, we the users must exercise restraint and become responsible. How I tackled this problem is by thinking through Kantian ethics and coming up with some conclusions (which I am planning to stick to for the foreseeable future). <div><br /></div><div>That I should,<br /><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Not use code augmentation tools like GitHub Copilot when I am working with technology I am comfortable with at work and other means of information retrieval is available.</li><li>Use code augmentation tools when I am learning something completely new (like a new programming language). But the fine print being it shouldn’t be unfair on someone else’s potential to earn.</li><li>Use AI like ChatGPT for information retrieval when other means of getting the same information is not practical. But try to compensate by being smarter with my distribution of wealth to others being affected (like how some of us support small businesses).</li></ul><br />If you’re interested in the fine print. Find notes on the quick Kantian analysis I did here[2].<div><br /></div><div>[1] - <a href="https://youtu.be/aGwYtUzMQUk">https://youtu.be/aGwYtUzMQUk</a> </div><div>[2] - <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z1DR4tV1JWvAd9ME1Xflr5yLIJRQLGet75AVWZsT03M/edit?usp=sharing">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z1DR4tV1JWvAd9ME1Xflr5yLIJRQLGet75AVWZsT03M/edit?usp=sharing</a> <br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-f55907ea-7fff-0cae-18b9-417299ce6605"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Li-fCAf_SGc" width="320" youtube-src-id="Li-fCAf_SGc"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div></div>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-66225109146128661212023-02-12T05:05:00.001-08:002023-02-12T05:05:27.876-08:00What you can learn about toxic positivity from the song 'Life's a Happy Song'<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few people in my village have accused me of toxic positivity. A person’s idea of optimism and pessimism can vary greatly depending on their religious beliefs, culture and their circle of friends. Sometimes a person may even be framed to be positive to the point it’s toxic to gain support for some </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">ulterior</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> motive.</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-7231317e-7fff-a257-30f9-94c8a61c7967"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my case, I went from being a pessimist to being an optimist because I understood I was measuring life wrong. The more objective my measurements became the more optimistic I became because I could still see progress in my measurements. But what happens when you’re so optimistic that you become a burden for others?</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the song ‘Life’s a happy song’ the entire village dances with the couple and sends them off from the village, but as soon as they’re done shipping them off they collapse from the pretense saying ‘Okay they are gone!’. But what if you find yourself in such a positivity bubble and you don't know if the villages are for real? My advice is you need to gently push the villages to the point where they stop dancing so that you know without doubt what is real.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bUuh2Ku9PpQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="bUuh2Ku9PpQ"></iframe></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-25356846499713619152023-01-27T05:43:00.004-08:002023-01-27T06:18:20.473-08:00An Alternative History of Euowewin<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year was a good year to me in many ways, but it was also a year the world tried its hardest to force action out of me, as it sometimes does out of misguided good intentions. There were some closed doors, in a fairer world where there should have been ones that were wide open. And it seemed like everywhere I looked people were trying to shush me. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Making art I’ve come to realize is a good way to release some of this kind of stress in a healthy manner. So, out of this intention, over a couple of days of putting other work on hold was born my latest short story ‘An alternative history of Euowewin’. Thank you very much to all of you who consumed it.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1323a439-7fff-979b-eb26-3cfd68d7fef0"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="550" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups" src="https://read.amazon.com/kp/card?asin=B0BSXMVMRN&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_R113XFBVEZ3XTQGHKYSX" style="max-width: 100%;" type="text/html" width="336"></iframe></b></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-90907527385646382023-01-14T12:06:00.013-08:002023-01-14T19:35:57.274-08:00What’s wrong with this month's Harvard Business Review magazine's cover? Hint, Jimny Cricket.<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve been following HBR for sometime now because in my opinion they have been pushing out meaningful, and valuable content. Naturally, as the magazine is affiliated to one of the best universities in the world we should expect as much. But when I saw this month's cover art it made me stop and wonder how many of these writers and editors really stopped to think about the symbolic meaning of their creative choices.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Well, the cover[1] title implies the issue is about managing talent but what’s that puppet doing there in the corner? Are they implying that the relationship between employer and employee is similar to the relationship between a puppet and its master? Or maybe they’re implying you should give the puppet more string? Throw universal declaration of human rights out the window everyone, HBR seems to be pushing us back to slavery in between their lines.</span></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Now, I’m not saying capitalism is not the best vehicle to change the world for the good. </span><b style="font-size: 11pt;">Capitalism works, and money is something all of us agree on.</b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> To participate in Capitalism we have to allow others to use us to an extent and in an idealistic world the world would treat us as ends and dignify us with fair compensation. Win, win. </span></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a seasoned tech worker, through experience and observation I can write that this translates to at times allowing some of your liberties and rights to be encroached upon by your employer in a manner that is fair to the employer. The employee gives up these liberties because he is satisfied with the compensation that he or she gets in return. But the problem, especially in the developing world is that there’s less to go around and this assessment of what’s fair compensation is one increasingly made by corporations and private entities and normalized by media. Jimny Cricket of Harvard Business Reviews Pinocchio. What most people may not have noticed when they watched 1940's Pinocchio is that Jimny Cricket was a bum with torn socks and raggedy cloths before he got the job to be Pinocchios conscience, A metaphor 82 years old and some of us get for its implication. </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So how can we skew the needle of fairness to be well, fare. In my humble opinion, by educating corporate decision makers in ethics, <b>demanding fare compensation, and stop normalizing abuse of individuals in the capitalistic system</b>. This is where influential entities like the Harvard Business Review need to send out the right message.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkT3qy3h6uSQk8O_-9MeqXagKRdNdWJ3FyI21RqfsI76rQqpgYpu4RdxIBg1hwxxkTJxCdb0DclGGiYRjWdvU4P5f9hJz-pfFkXSvl_BNrqN-t5CyULqAo2lEJ3eGIFVhz9bEXaw_CUvJzL00Q_bC6eyb24CmN-kaK6guOdef9OIm8e-0Z7wSy5yWq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="399" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkT3qy3h6uSQk8O_-9MeqXagKRdNdWJ3FyI21RqfsI76rQqpgYpu4RdxIBg1hwxxkTJxCdb0DclGGiYRjWdvU4P5f9hJz-pfFkXSvl_BNrqN-t5CyULqAo2lEJ3eGIFVhz9bEXaw_CUvJzL00Q_bC6eyb24CmN-kaK6guOdef9OIm8e-0Z7wSy5yWq=w335-h400" width="335" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>[1] HBR Cover Jan-Feb 2023.</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGQvNzabT3sKdhbvUF1DUwcwmBk7apkq-Lo44d51S8ofqc6O986NEKRs_VgSlUP859gwN3kR7c4hNPvtkm-AKr4BuF7DORl5CIi2csRaPE1jozBu7H3gOjDEawph8d8p2NSj4bQIZBXDW229TD80JQ8vEZZ7uivoOaNsr_i19oMj2RgBbxrUd0jQIQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="257" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGQvNzabT3sKdhbvUF1DUwcwmBk7apkq-Lo44d51S8ofqc6O986NEKRs_VgSlUP859gwN3kR7c4hNPvtkm-AKr4BuF7DORl5CIi2csRaPE1jozBu7H3gOjDEawph8d8p2NSj4bQIZBXDW229TD80JQ8vEZZ7uivoOaNsr_i19oMj2RgBbxrUd0jQIQ" width="315" /></a></div><b>[2] Before Jimny got the job.</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMStBrUZy_9513F96z40fJRm8gZHVlOkAymdi-r7BpU3KjkQogQioTGWgHvL7uUnYeAwJHGNrnTHF38U3pDFEgVDR0-z-EafrNBa5WSjQPTJcJUuW6UALHxEee4GKYBnE0vnSt-QEiWIsBNYuYsxqMUcQpJZsVrGaD0uTDLYTT82kTd5RrLuQthkcr" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMStBrUZy_9513F96z40fJRm8gZHVlOkAymdi-r7BpU3KjkQogQioTGWgHvL7uUnYeAwJHGNrnTHF38U3pDFEgVDR0-z-EafrNBa5WSjQPTJcJUuW6UALHxEee4GKYBnE0vnSt-QEiWIsBNYuYsxqMUcQpJZsVrGaD0uTDLYTT82kTd5RrLuQthkcr" width="320" /></a></div><b>[3] After Jimny got the job. Is that a mansion in the background?</b><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> </span></div><span><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-84014520847697815302022-10-01T01:56:00.003-07:002022-10-01T22:22:48.774-07:00Notes on Frank Herbert's Dune<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interesting ideas - Missionaria Protectiva, Race consciousness, The struggle for self-authorship, Role others play in the fulfillment of prophecy. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-78e64120-7fff-d1f9-ae44-c0f03ef1ecdd"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First 250:</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Missionaria Protectiva and Bene Gesserit would have planted the Muadib prophecy in Arrakis for </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">political leverage </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">counting on Jessica to birth a daughter. So that she could be wed to a Harkonnen and through that marriage a son could be had. The son then could have fulfilled the prophecy if Freman loyalty was needed for their cause. [Dr. Kyne's thoughts] </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reverend Mother Giaus Helen was aware Paul showed promise of fulfilling their Kwisatz Haderach prophecy. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dialog, motivations, actions, and interplay between the characters are realistic. (Maybe this is a given for books of this caliber). </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Duke unintentionally paid the way for Freman loyalty to Paul [as evident in Dr Kynes after thoughts on the Dukes visit to the Crawler Harvester]. Jessica paid way for the same with her Bene Gesserit cunning. </span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Second 250:</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul is cold towards dukes passing.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the still-tent, Paul identifies the part of his psyche that is <span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">prescient</span> and mentat-like as a separate entity he calls 'the sleeper'. Through Paul's impulsive attempt to foil the guild banker's intention towards his house [following Jessica's insight], it can be assumed 'the sleeper' was driving him before his realization of its existence in the still-tent. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Barron's desire to employ Hawat who had served the Atreides for 3 generations as his new mentat and to think he won't figure out yueh was the traitor is unrealistic. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul's prescience shows him probable futures that may come to past [Idaho was seen to stand with them in the desert in the vision he had in Caladan but he had died in the actual future that came to past].</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Kynes and his father had worked on terraforming the planet in a way that would have seemed natural once the tipping point was reached. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Based on Jessica's confrontation with Stilga in the open desert, it can be assumed that in order to use the Bene Gesserit voice she must first read the target and then mimic the target's voice for the command to take hold. But the effectiveness may also depend on the susceptibility of the target.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul's decision to name himself Paul Muad'Dib instead of Muad'Db shows his need for authorship of his own fate. </span></p></li></ul><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Third 250:</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Race consciousness and the struggle for autonomy; Paul dreads the future he sees birthing through him but grows more and more powerless to change it as the story moves along. Because of his struggle he becomes resentful, even toward his mother. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duke's talismans, the bull's head, and the portrait of his father may have been an analogy of how he saw his father. As someone who faced the bull's horn instead of avoiding it. This may have been a driving force for him to not let his house become a renegade house and instead move to Arrakis to face danger.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bene Gesserit breeding; Bene Gesserit puts stock in both genes and the upbringing when choosing males to take children from. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A reverent mother has access to memories of other reverent Mother's in her lineage and commune with them. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Freman have some prescience abilities. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul succumbs to his fate.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's unrealistic how fast Paul was able to figure out that Sardaukar come from Salusa Secundus when Hawat with all the mentat access he has had figured that out only 2 years after the Dukes death. </span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fourth 250:</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alia can project her thoughts into Bene Gesserit and take some sort of control over their line of thought. This comes as a surprise to the reverent mother </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Giaus.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alia is also able to leave thoughts in others' minds to be unlocked when they next think of her [Paul's thoughts after Alia is captured by the Emperor]. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The spacing guild is in reality more powerful than the emperor or the great houses, but this is a fact that the Emperor seemed to have not known (contrary to how the relationship is depicted in the 1984 adaptation of the movie).</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the appendix, Frank Herbert ties the loose end of why the Bene Gesserit order didn't act on Paul and Jessica before they moved to Arrakis or before the fall of the Emperor by saying an order even higher than the Bene Gesserit that few were in on had a hand in allowing Pauls fate. </span></p></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORoEpWEfaN8G07UtFYskPuwOg3lwygMvrqcef1_V4o4mTtwbSSi4lV1G_kcgtTG16JSYjYEJPOKE0aznPu6KNu-3e6dATKyvFAKvIp0N9X7tMoRYaCaf9vKPle_nOjC6WoxeK-L2jc-yqU9ejTulIBTLX9-VkttgSWEuuvHKMmpkH7eT1AGlKuhkE/s1920/dunebook.jpeg" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiORoEpWEfaN8G07UtFYskPuwOg3lwygMvrqcef1_V4o4mTtwbSSi4lV1G_kcgtTG16JSYjYEJPOKE0aznPu6KNu-3e6dATKyvFAKvIp0N9X7tMoRYaCaf9vKPle_nOjC6WoxeK-L2jc-yqU9ejTulIBTLX9-VkttgSWEuuvHKMmpkH7eT1AGlKuhkE/w400-h225/dunebook.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-8097169026625403692022-09-04T04:59:00.005-07:002022-09-26T05:13:34.311-07:00A Meta Commentary on Dougle Adam's Hitchhikker's Guide to the Galaxy<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I read in an interview of someone had done with an author I quite like that someone had told him once that his books are popular among young adults who are not much into reading. When I first picked up the hitchhiker's guide around 10 years ago I found myself having a similar experience, I wasn’t that much into reading but I really liked the read. It was non-sensicle in a funny way most of the time, and sometimes I didn’t even know why I was laughing. But that was almost a decade ago and I have done a lot of growing in that time. So when I found myself taking a business trip and I knew I needed to pack some reading material to keep myself company I thought I’d take my guide (compilation) with me to give it a second read and this time really ponder on the meta and try and understand the author (Dougle Adams) and his motives better.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-40a8188a-7fff-597b-1694-377593e48640"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some of what I found during the second read is speculatory and some of what is influenced by what I had already read about Dougle Adams during the first read. I still haven’t made up my mind on a few questions like what does the ‘Heart of Gold’ represent or what was Zaphod’s motivation for his actions in the book. But from what I remember from the first read, these were answered in the proceeding books (which I’m planning to get to later on). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notes (taken down sequentially as I read the book)</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Parallels can be drawn between Ford Prefect and vampires found in fantasy novels. In that, both Ford and vampires are similar in character and some of their abilities (like suggestive mind control). </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fact that Arthur's house is to be demolished for a bypass on the same day the earth is to be demolished for a similar purpose may be Douglas’s way of pointing at the grand humor of metaphor between the insignificant (small) which we deem important and the significant (big) which we don't always see which is what's really important. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Douglas would have identified himself most with Zaphod Beeblebrox. He might have entertained a voice in his head when he lived that inspired him to make Zaphod have two heads. He might have tried to acquire what the 'heart of gold' represented to him. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through the paragraph where Arthur is reflecting on the demolition of the earth (while on the Vogon ship, Douglas seems to be discussing his existential worldview. He also seemed to have been a determinist. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The metaphor between sex and death: the astronomically low odds of being picked up while holding your breath and waiting to die in space is the same as the telephone number of Arthur's 'one that got away'. Since Arthur does get together with her at the end (as I remember from the first read of the series) the author may be implying the odds were the same because the two of them were fated together.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Discussing the mechanics of the improbability drive, Douglas leans on the fact that most things we rule out as impossible are in fact improbable. The bit about creating finite improbability using a 'sub meson brain' and the coffee cup would have referred to Douglas's belief that the needle in the meters Scientologist use gets moved as they believe it does, defying physics and reason. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marvin the robot may represent a time in Douglas' life when he was depressed because of his existential worldview. But he seemed to have grown past that stage to be able to identify himself with Zaphod. Taking this analogy further it may also well be that the four main male characters represent different stages of his life and how he saw the world during those periods. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Magrathea probably represents the god makers of ancient civilizations like that of Greece and Mesapothenia. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">'The whale and the bowl of petunias' segment is a plot device that can be thought of separate from the rest of the meta-story. He hints at this when talking in advance of the missile attack. The whale in the story device may have been used to explore Douglas's view on how short life is and the irony of being self-aware so close to our end. The bowl of petunias would have been used as a juxtaposition in that compared to a whale the bowl of petunias would look rigid and inanimate but met the same end. To Douglas, the bowl of petunias may have represented the mysteries of faiths and the practitioners that believe in reincarnation.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Based on the content of the chapter where Slartibartfast is introduced and the chapter before that, Slartibartfast is probably someone Douglas knew in person who had lost his real name. A kind of godly stranger you would expect to find in a cosmopolitan city like New York as depicted in fiction like the 'one above all' in the Marvel canon.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The program the mice race ran on the organic computer (earth) made me think of Hegel's model of thesis and antithesis perpetually building up to a greater synthesis to form the absolute. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vroomfondels and Majikthise's resistance to the creation of a machine that can answer the ultimate question, in general, can be a metaphor for the resistance science and reason face when inquiring about matters that traditionally fall under the realms of philosophy or theology. And in specific, it might represent the resistance Douglas Adams faced in his own existential inquiries as he tried to acquire 'the heart of gold'. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Douglas would have used the segment about Deep Thoughts' superiority over previous computers as an analogy over how great thinkers of the past generations needed to outdo each other in their search for meaning (thesis and antithesis). If Douglas did identify best with Zaphod he has used this character to brush his own ego in humorous ways. So he may have been gloating about himself through Deep Thoughts superiority at the beginning of the chapter. Later in the chapter, Deep Thoughts' inferiority to the Organic Computer may have been influenced by biblical wisdom prophets like Isaiah and John the Baptist's foretelling of the coming of Jesus Christ when they were asked the question.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The answer 42 seemed to have no meaning at the surface level. In the chapters leading up to the answer, Douglas probably used the two philosophers Vroomfondel and Majikthise to discuss his own reservations about such an answer. He might have thought of the ethical consequences of such an answer (responsibility of knowledge) or he may have decided to go with an answer like 42 out of his need for self-preservation (if he did identify himself as Deep Thought). But I think it was in his nature to need to leave some trace of what he truly thought. Being a determinist and an existentialist who also entertained the surreal. And thinking of the astronomical odds that needed to be beat for Arthur and Trillion to happen. When he wrote 'so once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means' he might have held the belief that we're born with some innate capacity to predict our end (answer) and that we are able to make these predictions by knowing ourselves (question). For Douglas Adams, this question may have been love (or sex, depending on how you see it). </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The mice believe they manipulated Trillion off of earth as they needed a holiday, but as Douglas uses the deterministic thread of her needing to meet Arthur at the center of the story. He is implying the mice themselves were used and were not the causative agents in the matter. </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Douglas seemed to have used the mice in chapters 31 and 32 to discuss his own thought process of coming up with a meaning to the grand question. 'How about What's yellow and dangerous' may have represented a meaning that can be understood through reason or philosophy. 'What do you get if you multiply six by seven' may have represented a mathematically or scientifically decipherable meaning and 'how many roads must a man walk down' may have represented a meaning that can be understood through the humanities (art).</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">'R the velocity measure' in chapter 34 and Slartibartfast's lifestyle trouble which he mentions to Arthur may have been a hint at Douglas's own struggles to avoid some perceived undesirable end he wanted to avoid which may have looked as procrastination to the outside (which he was renowned for). The end he feared may have been the loss of his agency to a deterministic world (as this is likely how Douglas perceived it). This view is expressed in sentences like 'it's all planned out' and 'don't panic'. </span></p></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbYHrYfW61E7TCRcmCq9v4GP-D-PUT0OYMmxt7VYyj2nYg8St0bEuUqbV5-wugl_HvrcBQtVI2FMdGXh0G7nilB5cqPm98pENhqe-jgcs8Nf2HVLOQ0eY9HmsO5o6yhixMiOWyWMluX1UPu-WYZaj9LcO0u9dD-tEncTVhYxFtWb0LIxJFABb2phy1/s1024/Douglas%20Adams.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="729" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbYHrYfW61E7TCRcmCq9v4GP-D-PUT0OYMmxt7VYyj2nYg8St0bEuUqbV5-wugl_HvrcBQtVI2FMdGXh0G7nilB5cqPm98pENhqe-jgcs8Nf2HVLOQ0eY9HmsO5o6yhixMiOWyWMluX1UPu-WYZaj9LcO0u9dD-tEncTVhYxFtWb0LIxJFABb2phy1/w285-h400/Douglas%20Adams.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-22031681246233812682022-06-18T02:26:00.006-07:002022-06-18T02:58:08.264-07:00What's meant by 'Dog' when it's used symbolically?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some months ago I posted my opinion on how symbols like ‘dog’ and ‘horse’ and a few others are misunderstood and misused in society. Later I realized that some of my friends had no idea about what I was talking about and that it confused some of them and possibly frighted a few others. Because I shared my opinion through Facebook I didn’t really want to write anything too long, but since this is my blog I think it's time I set the record straight.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-14baecdf-7fff-cc6b-b88d-bfabb2520c21"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘Dog’ as a symbol has been used at least since the times of the greek to refer to a person who we consider a friend and sympathize with who has fallen below the ethical standards of society. A few examples of this definition can be found in stories and interpretations in greek tragics such as Medea and Hecuba. In the case of Hecuba, she is literally beastified with a dog-like face at the end of the play. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In eastern wisdom cultures such as that of ancient Sri Lanka, a similar meaning of degradation of morality in a person is associated with the symbol of the dog. There are examples of ancient kings calling emissaries of the Dutch dogs based on the ethical standards and cultural values of the country. There are also proverbs such as ‘balo biruwata kadhu kada paath wenna’ which translates to ‘mountains don’t crumble just because dogs bark at them’ this proverb analogically refers to how just because an unethical person makes accusations at an ethical person, doesn’t mean that the ethical person's value grows less.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Needless to mention, culture is something that is in flux and is relative; meaning it changes as times change and it depends on the country or the general area of the world the culture belongs to. Ethics still depend on culture to a great extent in today’s world. So something that is unethical in one part of the world may be ethical in another. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Getting back to the topic of discussion, this subjective symbolistic definition of ‘Dog’ which used to be known in the high culture (especially by academics) crossed into popular culture during the past century through Hollywood movies and tv shows. It is used in many ways, sometimes to depict the foreigner from a faraway land who is a friend, but has much to learn in the ways of the host's culture such as Worf from Star Trek. Or sometimes it’s used in the paternity relationship, where a father wants to bring up his son to be a good man usually referring to the son as ‘buddy’. The symbol is used in some other ways as well, but the common denominator is the subjective ethical assessment that depends on the cultural values of the person making the assessment. The general western popular culture definition of this symbol is one of friendship and a gentle form of guidance. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sadly this symbol which is one of care sometimes gets used in malicious and culturally insensitive ways. Partly because people don’t understand its origin and partly because people are insensitive to other cultures. As we have been getting to know each other better, becoming more cosmopolitan societies, and understanding each other's cultures better, the misuse of this symbol would become less common. </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is what I was building up from in what I said in my Facebook post and I hope this blog post helped drive the point (took me a whole 45 minutes I could have spent watching celebrity gossip on youtube wording this).</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfB6DFnMM2hZprHj_FQCfEidUmEJ8bnrfUqp9Ob7iMrvLW6Yhzg7FxSyZ8p7UMgH0uOQEiWxwugEibv_meGNOC70l1IglZXZG9NXHTcRUKjTbO-kiAmzyykb_8FkW_WrvDzUeKHJ91jhp2DOGE8wTDNv4JYNazDT9eX-chFF6JuyVBfhbpnb2GYfI/s612/father%20and%20son.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="612" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfB6DFnMM2hZprHj_FQCfEidUmEJ8bnrfUqp9Ob7iMrvLW6Yhzg7FxSyZ8p7UMgH0uOQEiWxwugEibv_meGNOC70l1IglZXZG9NXHTcRUKjTbO-kiAmzyykb_8FkW_WrvDzUeKHJ91jhp2DOGE8wTDNv4JYNazDT9eX-chFF6JuyVBfhbpnb2GYfI/w640-h426/father%20and%20son.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-76932972088763999852022-01-01T03:04:00.004-08:002022-01-01T03:12:10.911-08:00A happy new year<div style="text-align: left;">Maybe for the first time in our recorded history, the whole world
came together as a conscious unanimous response to stop this pandemic. Sure,
the response wasn’t ideal and we’re not entirely out of the woods, but can I be
brave enough to say that the response was a whole lot better than what we have
been able to muster in the last 10000 years. I for one am glad I was part of
that effort in my own insignificant way by wearing a mask, sanitizing my hands,
and getting jabbed a few times. I can’t help but feel just a little proud as a human
being of the global response.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />As we’re beginning to loosen the grip of fear the pandemic had
on us and start building back our homes, our enterprises and our countries, I
hope we remember that with adversity there is also opportunity. The opportunity
to be better than what we were. The opportunity we tasted the last couple of
years as we worked together to combat the virus while keeping our civility and
sanity.<br /> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As Sri Lankans we can choose to grab the opportunity by
honoring our duty, with optimism based on reason (which I am hoping to write
about later on), with tolerance for one another and cooperation. Or we can
choose to let the loss and hurt define us and let it send us back even further
down the chain. The river that flows finds a way. Around the obstacles or
through them. So let the river flow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rBrd_3VMC3c" width="320" youtube-src-id="rBrd_3VMC3c"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-25112506478368393602018-09-09T22:34:00.002-07:002019-01-04T21:36:27.357-08:00Believe in God not in spite of science but because of it<br />
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I believe in God and the gospel. As a kid who grew up on
sci-fi and documentaries, I also believe in science as a force for good. At
first glance, Science and God may seem at odds but the more you start
looking at the facts the more you will understand how science actually points
towards God rather than point away from him. Once you make this realization,
you will start to look at science in a new light and see it as a tool in your
spiritual life. You will also become better equipped to avoid the pit falls the
enemy would want to see you fall in to.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The first step in bringing about the correct perspective on
science is to understand the most sensible way in which we prove something as
valid. In simple mathematics we can prove without a shred of doubt, an answer
is correct. As the complexity of the math increases(say to the level used by physicist),
the answers become probabilistic, where you can only say an answer is
correct to an X degree of accuracy or probability. Although these answers are
not 100% correct we still use them and for most purposes in life they work just
fine. Similarly, the most sensible way in which to prove creationism lies in a
line of reasoning called ‘inference to the best explanation’[1]. In simple,
this is a practical means of explanation, where we take into consideration all the
hypotheses that explain an event and conclude the hypotheses that best explains
the event to be true. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For example, let us take into consideration the two events,
the origin of the universe and the origin of life. Considering the former, science
points to a definite beginning of the universe (the big bang), when time,
energy, matter and even the laws of physics came into existence. If we consider
what caused the big bang(as causality is the scientific way) the answer, whatever it may be must be something that
transcends everything that came to be as a consequence of the event, meaning an
entity that is above time, energy and the laws of physics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Considering the later event, there’re evidence
that point to a deliberate tuning of the laws of the universe [2] that make it
hospitable to life. Moreover, if we look at the actual origin of life. There
doesn’t seem to be a scientific explanation to how chemicals went from
being just that to being living cells. If you break down even the most
simple living cell into individual chemicals and molecules, then calculate the
odds of all those individual elements existing and then arranging in that exact
combination to create life in a completely natural process, the odds are astronomically
small. So what can we deduce if we use inference to the best explanation on all
of these facts? It points to a creator who created the universe out of nothing,
who is omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence, a creator who isn’t idle but
interferes. Alternatively, if you look to deductive proof to explain these two
events, the reality is you will not get any answers either way in your lifetime
(or never). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Once you have adopted ‘inference to the best explanation’
mindset, you will not get stuck on deductive ambiguity of science on questions
of faith and begin to trust it as a tool in strengthening your spiritual life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm5OLDH0Ko8TH0e8kTm2gV7BYPgoJurfLd1DYgKtfCv8qqZk1ViBHme7xgk3BbObDRDGGziJ3U2o5ym-IVD2Wu0VtwaculGt38CzdR8syAHAHMrkZNIlLFxnWlLc6I6qDl3tVBk0V_k2k/s1600/galaxy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1001" data-original-width="1280" height="499" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm5OLDH0Ko8TH0e8kTm2gV7BYPgoJurfLd1DYgKtfCv8qqZk1ViBHme7xgk3BbObDRDGGziJ3U2o5ym-IVD2Wu0VtwaculGt38CzdR8syAHAHMrkZNIlLFxnWlLc6I6qDl3tVBk0V_k2k/s640/galaxy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Genesis 1:3</td></tr>
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[1] – <a href="http://www.informationphilosopher.com/knowledge/best_explanation.html">http://www.informationphilosopher.com/knowledge/best_explanation.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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[2] - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fine-tuning/">https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fine-tuning/</a>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-55768850516152863582018-07-16T01:24:00.001-07:002018-07-16T02:00:10.997-07:00Find the Sun<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
Will you live to see ten thousand sunsets?</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you let your feet carry you to strange and wonderful lands?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you stand tall and hold on to your dreams when the ground around you fall away?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you fight the good fight and rise above it all to find the sun?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you stay humble and seek the riches of the heart?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you find the keeper of your dreams?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you live to spend ten thousand nights with her?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you share with her all the secrets of your soul?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you laugh and cry, overcome and let it overpower?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you anger and get angered, compromise and confront?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Will you touch, smell, see and hear all that there is<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then move on without a second glance, will you live?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF4h2Xu3uUYf2d0kUhahgfzI9VE3bj5TFH09IlwEiF__Xgc6P6_8fOkzfEeo0f3PzZM6vb965H036o-ia2zydHlpTohP2O20ynCTBB47ZA0REXGskz-AVbQxRVvmCY1dOw6xoqXBQDLfs/s1600/beach-sea-waves-colorful-sunset-160654.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1201" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF4h2Xu3uUYf2d0kUhahgfzI9VE3bj5TFH09IlwEiF__Xgc6P6_8fOkzfEeo0f3PzZM6vb965H036o-ia2zydHlpTohP2O20ynCTBB47ZA0REXGskz-AVbQxRVvmCY1dOw6xoqXBQDLfs/s640/beach-sea-waves-colorful-sunset-160654.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rise above to find the sun.</td></tr>
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Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-63484671779281582752018-04-30T22:40:00.000-07:002018-05-01T22:07:08.215-07:00The Nautilus Shell<style type="text/css">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The scientist willed himself to open his eyes one last time. Through the window in his rickety old room He could see the beauty of Gods creation, he could understand its intricacy as much as a human mind would allow. He gave thanks to the creator one last time, he understood it was through him all things were made. He remembered Jesus, the begotten son who payed for the sins of the world with his life so that mankind may stand once more victorious. As his breath left him, he felt the cold winter brewing outside his cabin enter his withered old body, darkness surrounded him. On December 13th of the year 2047 at 4.56 PM Melachai died.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As suddenly as a light bulb fills a darkened room with light at the flick of a switch, the darkness that surrounded Melachai left him, taking the pins of cold he felt with it. He was now basked in a warm light that hide every other detail that may or may not be about him. Malachai realized though he existed in this light, he had no body to sense, he had no eyes to see, no ears to hear nor did he have a nose to smell. Yet, surprisingly he felt whole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His thoughts raced back to a memory of his youth. He was a 16 year old boy, he was on vacation in Sri Lanka, an island country he slowly fell in love with and had spent quite a number of his years calling it home. He had left the hotel his family was staying at on one early morning and found himself walking along a quiet stretch of beach. His feet landed on something hard, as he removed his feet to take a better look he saw it. A nautilus shell half jotting out of the sand. He picked up the shell to admire its beauty. It was pearl white in color and was perfectly created mimicking the golden ratio us humans intuitively find pleasing. A thought occurred in him, the eyes that were singing to him the beauty of the shell he held in his hand were not entirely truthful. There was no color or sight outside the mind that was perceiving it. Here was a electro-magnatic wave, a slice of the full spectrum emitted by the sun that had traveled 150 million KM to reach earth. It fell on the calcium rich exterior of the nautilus shell, the protons found in the wave interacted with the atoms of the shell, loosing energy at various intensities based on the composition of the shell. It is these fluctuations of energy that our eyes detected as color and shape. He understood that similarly There was no sound, there were air compression waves. He wondered if humans are even capable of recognizing reality as it truly is. He thought that even if what our ears, eyes, nose and touch were telling us was not completely true the streams of thought that arose in our mind as a result of the input from our senses was still meaningful because all that one felt and all that one thought was all that one was, it was one’s soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So was it his soul that was here basked in light? Malachai didn’t know but he thought it so. He had no body to sense, he had no eyes to see, no ears to hear nor did he have a nose to smell. Yet, he felt whole.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A figure materialized in front of him, he struggled to focus on the figure but there were no features for his mind to cling onto. He felt uneasy, then suddenly the features collapsed into the figure filling it to be his father.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">His father who he had not seen in many years stood clothed in a 3 piece suit holding a brown brief case in his left hand. It was a suit his father wore often when Melachie was a child. He wore a face that was radiating in youthfulness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Father, where am I? Am I dead?” Malechie opened the dialog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Death is but a step in the Journey my son, an important step but a step nevertheless. You are safe here and you have done good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Your father is proud of the life of faith you have lived. You were able to fulfill the life I had destined for you, in doing so you were able to grow wise and achieve all your hearts desires. You loved your kin and above all you loved me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Your time on earth has come to past. Are you satisfied with the life you’ve lived?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Moments of Melachies life ran through his consciousness, Memories of triumph and lose, joy and pain, love and anger. As these moments ran through him at blinding speed he could understand as clearly as the first rays of the sun christen a new day, that these moments both pleasing and displeasing shaped him to be the man he was meant to be. The man who could fulfill the promises he had made to his heart. He saw how these moments chipped away the unneeded parts, straightened the crooked places and added what was needed to the mix so that he was that exact man who would be able to win over the love of his life, so that he was that exact man who would have the internal fortitude and drive to succeed where others failed, so that he was that exact man who would go on to provide a safe and nourishing home for his children and see them grow up to be realized and without want. As this realization took root in him, the stream of memories subsided and Melachie became once more aware of his father standing in front of him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“I was always fascinated with the connectedness of everything, naturally I wanted to pursue science. As scientists we were taught to explain the world we live in with causative and correlative relationships, cause and effect. Too often in my life I saw others get caught up in trying to explain every aspect of their life and existence using the crude tools of science.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Pure reductionist and determinists believe the parts make up the whole and that if one understands the parts one can predict and alter the whole. It is these people I have seen who find it hardest to grasp creation. I found it ironic that those who are waist deep in evidence of creation are the very ones who are unable to follow the bread crumbs all the way back home. Human knowledge continued to expand during my life time and every so often we were be able to peal away another layer of ambiguity. Newtonian physics at the time was thought absolute yet it was expanded by Einsteins theories, physics was incomplete. one day human mind may even fathom a grand unifying theory that will tie the severed parts of physics together. Even if humans do live to see this day there will always be questions science will struggle to answer about reality. Therefore, instead of coming to conclusions based on philosophies, ideologies theories and sciences that are incomplete, I often wished they would recognize the discoveries of science as proof of Gods grand design for that is what it was. But it was not for me to guide them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I often wondered about the purpose of this this life that was given to me. As I grew old I thought it to be to have experience love, in all its forms. To be loved for what you mean to another. To love oneself for what one truly was, to find another to love and to be loved for who you are by that person. To love mankind and to love creation. By experiencing all these forms of love we learn to love God above all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Father, basked in this comfortable warm light, having seen you, heard you, felt you I now know we are, all that we are is you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am satisfied.”</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSxXM3IWqf0dubAsrfCvaiNqn6sbTKzoC2DOw5T_m_c8geri0NS9LOd2V1kGaBIqx_tGmyxpcpV7T3vxgqBiPsrpQp0t7fyEkZCrpOGyJvJa8ZEVLBVzlt8UM0B1HSRvuUgzQEu32Ehqk/s1600/nautilus-shell-shimmer-silver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSxXM3IWqf0dubAsrfCvaiNqn6sbTKzoC2DOw5T_m_c8geri0NS9LOd2V1kGaBIqx_tGmyxpcpV7T3vxgqBiPsrpQp0t7fyEkZCrpOGyJvJa8ZEVLBVzlt8UM0B1HSRvuUgzQEu32Ehqk/s400/nautilus-shell-shimmer-silver.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me. Proverbs 8:17</td></tr>
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Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-54226043767583966552017-09-03T06:41:00.002-07:002017-09-04T00:49:12.848-07:00Making sense of "Like Tears in Rain" monologue in Blade Runner<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Okay so everyone is like blade runner is an amazing movie, you’ve watched it and yeah it was decent enough for an 80s movie but what’s the big deal with that “Like tears in rain” speech at the end?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The point of this post is to try and make sense of this one sided gibberish jabber that takes place at the climax of the movie between its protagonist and antagonist. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched the movie or understood the premise and philosophical questions the movie is discussing don’t bother with this read. Some of it is not great dinner time conversation topics, so I will not touch them, not even with a ten-foot pole.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Let’s first watch this scene in question,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br class="gmail-kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In short, leading up to this point in the movie, the androids that have stolen away to earth seeking to extend their </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4-year lifespan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, have learned that it’s not something that can be done. Rick Deckard who has pursued these criminals, comes face to face with their leader Roy Batty at the climax of the movie and finds himself in a bit of a tricky situation, dangling away from his end. To his surprise he finds Batty saving his life. Batty goes onto give a short final speech before meeting his end.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’ve seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost, in time, like tears in rain. Time to die”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To the untrained mind, the first three sentences of this speech may seem like nonsensical gibberish, with no plot value or merit. These three sentences are then followed by the key piece of information that allows one to decipher the gibber. This key piece of information being, the memories Batty recounts at his time of death are to him his most significant memories, as it would be for any one of us. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These most significant memories of Batty, who has lived a life of a fruit fly(supposedly having a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">lifespan of 4-6 weeks</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">) are immature and insignificant. They’re not the type of memories you or I would like to recall when death comes knocking on our door. The memories of merry made with friends and loved ones, memories of passion, memories of good we have done for others. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Batty who has lived a mere 4 years, engrossed in trying to break the chains that bound him to his fate has not truly lived, he was not allowed to, he never had the time to. Yet, as the central premise of the movie is to present the viewer the moral question “is a dog’s life as significant as its master's”, which the movie allows the viewer to draw up their own conclusions to, the monologue works. It works as effectively as a sledgehammer in motion coming to a sudden violent stop, with the purpose of crushing a watermelon placed between it and solid ground. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now watch this scene again, but this time with this new realization and see the utter bewilderment and inability of Deckard to process what he is experiencing(to digest what he has been struggling to accept throughout the story). See the sheer conviction with which Batty delivers his most sacred of memories and the validity he attaches to them, as in his mind they truly are valid and real as the rain falling down on both him and Deckard. Pay attention to the symbolism, feel the score and appreciate the color palette because they all work to deliver this central message. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do android's dream of electric sheep? If they are, and you are to deny them of its validity what will you do? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I can't give you an answer to the question just like the movie never gave us one, but I will say that with some matters in life staying on the fence is not an option everyone can afford, we must get down to one side or the other. </span></div>
Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-42239886199343725632017-06-09T20:33:00.000-07:002017-09-03T04:43:59.989-07:00Hevel<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-152cb9d7-460b-9f8b-6d4a-ed0ddebb075d" style="line-height: 1.44; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The traveler had finally come face to face with the man he had been looking for. The quest he had been on looking for this mysterious man had finally come to a sudden end, there he was few yards in front of him, plowing earth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was a tall, slim man with a long head of hair neatly tied up in a bun, it was beginning to gray. He wore a white shirt haphazardly tucked into a pair of blue denim jeans, on his feet were working stocks. From the stories the traveler had heard about this man, he should be at least 60 years old yet the man that stood in front of him radiated with a youthfulness which even his 38 year old self did not possess.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was finally time to ask the question he had failed to answer himself, the question that haunted him throughout his adolescence until it became the all important quest of his life. A question he was sure this man could answer, With trepidation, he strung together the words that formed the question.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“They say you’re the wisest of all the seekers that have walked among us... They say your grasp of sciences is not short the best of academics back at home. Are you Malachai? Melachai from old sussex, son of Ruth and Dave?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The traveler's words hung in the air for what seemed like an age.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Melachai who wrote two brilliant papers on quantum uncertainty before dropping out of a doctorate at Cambridge?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There was no answer, yet the traveler continued with his inquiry. This time the words came out in a steady flow. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“They say you’ve lived up here for the last 25 years in contemplation, You must surely know the meaning of this existence? Is the glass half empty or half full? Is there a purpose or is everything we’ve known, felt, been and understood just a statistical anomaly, something that was bound to happen because the numbers are so unfathomably big?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The traveler found this man's gaze resting on him now. He felt he was being gauged, dissected and analyzed. Seconds flew by, yet no answer came. The traveler thought he may not even get a response from this man he had searched for a better part of a year. He was going to go back empty handed just like every other time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then suddenly the man spoke,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It can be whichever one you want it to be, you choose. Just don’t spend too much time making up your mind.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hearing this, the traveler felt anger bubbling up in him, did I climb up this god forsaken mountain to hear that crap, he thought. He held back the anger and responded with the calmest voice he could muster.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“What’s that suppose to mean?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“hmm.. I see you need a few more words to understand but I have nothing more to say than what I’ve already said. Follow me.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The man got to his feet and started making his way up a rocky path that lead to a small hut few yards up the mountain. After a moment of reluctance the traveler pursued. As they moved up the mountain, the man started explaining,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It can be whichever you want it to be, the glass I mean, but that is irrelevant because that’s not the question you want me to answer, the answer you want me to make you understand. You want to know what is the meaning of life? especially of the one that belongs to you. You want to understand the singular, objective reality”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The answer to your question is as incomprehensible to us as feeling the curvature of the earth through the soles of our shoes. There is a meaning but it eludes us everytime we get close with our instruments and theories. The greatest of all the fools is he who waits on a singular all encompassing meaning when it’s unattainable in a 100 lifetimes. This, my friend, is the only truth you should know about what you seek.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“It’s a truth that can be understood with multi-million dollar machinery, in the solitude of a clear mind or on a mindful walk down a coastline. A destination that can be reached in many ways.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Look at the greatest of your sciences, Newton came along and brought to our understanding some characteristics of gravity. With this new found knowledge we could accurately predict movements of our celestial relatives using his equation <img border="0" data-original-height="25" data-original-width="94" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFFos26hrGepRtHgckhcfindjckvm3fXEU9lycx9hOY8KPwcuNdf3LF0Fs_OEwxrq_s0UNnEJcd7sZnrkik5Amp-jXKZqT6OSpzlofyj8BwA8J3p32BnCGBU4mTJk1KetSRfYqGc_wDXA/s1600/g.jpg" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, but this new understanding brought with it new mysteries, we could now explain why the earth goes around the sun the way it does but we didn’t know how gravity could instantaneously work on the two celestial bodies separated by 150 million kilometers. It took another scientist to bring to our understanding that gravity was bending the fabric of our 3 dimensional reality, spacetime. What we were seeing as the effect of gravity was the movement of objects through this curved space in a straight line. With the resolution to Newton’s question, yet again more mysteries were served on a silver platter for the scientist to bend their heads around. Maybe one day someone would bring to our understanding why us; 3 dimensional beings cannot fathom a 4 dimensional reality and how it can be done if need be but even then there will still be new mysteries to be unraveled. So has it been, so it ever will be.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Let’s continue our exploration through an allegory, take two individuals let’s name them Smith and Jo, they are as identical as they can be in physique, socioeconomic standing and other aspects, all that separate them is the manner in which they make sense of their reality. Imagine both of them are being ridiculed by society in a subtle manner because of some characteristic they both possess, or lack. They are both made aware of this fact, Smith decides to cope with this sudden turn of events with denial and continues on as if nothing had happened. Jo, decides to understand why this is so and then rectify the situation, this decision takes Jo through a decade-long bitter journey of discovery, Jo finally comes to understand why, but finds the power to rectify the situation is beyond his abilities. Ironically, Jo finds that all he can do is to deny and continue on as if nothing had happened just as Smith did decades ago, the price he had paid for understanding was decades of his life he could have spent elsewhere.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“This is the truth we must understand when we pursue answers to the unknown, sometimes it is within our capabilities to find the answers to our questions, sometimes the questions are much too great for mere mortals, we can only chisel out a piece of the answer, never the whole. Either way, the price of knowing is paid in time.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“When we have so few meaningful divisions of time to give away, what we should be doing is finding where it can be best spent. Let the meaning of existence elude you, instead look for that someone who perfectly distracts you from this thirst, find her. Find work that best engage you, spend the time that’s given to you as wisely. Be grateful for all that you receive and never forget that however way you wish to look at it, life is a still a gift.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The two men had made their way to the hut.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Take a seat, my friend, I am the Melachai you seek. Let me make you a cup of tea”, said the man pointing to a rickety old wooden chair as he disappeared into the hut. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The traveler wearily sat down on the chair and waited for Melachai’s return.. </span></div>
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<b>Download the story in PDF: </b> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9oVIeyHJKBXbHRUT2hXTkFKZXc/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9oVIeyHJKBXbHRUT2hXTkFKZXc/view?usp=sharing</a></div>
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Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-80174185008543510462017-02-19T08:24:00.000-08:002017-03-25T23:03:05.396-07:00The Drift<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">With arms stretched wide open, we cross the threshold of shelter to the bitterness of the unknown. Hoping and wishing, we drift out. Holding onto our dreams we struggle and at times we stray. Maybe some find all that they ever dreamt of but most of us would settle for meaning instead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some find it in the embrace of another. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some find it in gold, failing to see the error in their way till it’s too late. For few the meaning comes much too late, having nothing to hold onto they get carried further into the abyss, having only the ghosts of their pasts to reconcile, they burn, they disintegrate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: #cccccc;">“The price of getting what you want is getting what you once wanted.” - Neil Gaiman</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-11312227355342507002016-12-28T00:57:00.001-08:002017-09-03T01:02:10.739-07:00Two Kinds of People<div style="text-align: justify;">
While reading up for a paper I have the good fortune(sigh) of having to write, tucked away in a comfortable little inn on a corner of galle fort, I stumbled upon this quote,</div>
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“There are two kinds of people in the world, an old joke goes: those who believe that everything can be divided into two categories – and the rest of you.” - Daniel Pink</div>
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I'm not sure how original a quote it is but it sums up one big problem I see in soft sciences' like psychology(another post on the topic). That is, It's insatiable need to define, categories and label things atomic. When I was reading up some of the papers and such that I had to read I couldn't help but think what a mess some of these people have made? Do they really believe all of what they have written or are they just like most of us who are doing the best we can do? I choose to believe the later, that they know that "everything" cant be made sense with a one size fits all mentality, that they are just doing the best they can with whats in hand.</div>
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Many truths have an "if" attached to them at the end. It's apparent, at least to me that the best of scientists are those who know this nature of science at heart.</div>
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<i>the scientist</i> </div>
Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-80392969885567530612016-11-06T00:04:00.002-07:002017-03-25T23:08:48.060-07:00Merovingian and the question of free will<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The matrix trilogy is one of my favorites. Sure, it might have ripped off a few others like ghost in the shell and some comics that are not well known but at least in my mind there is no doubt that it was with the release of the matrix in 1999 that these elements/sentiments were brought to the limelight, to the consciousness of the popular culture. The movies played around with quite a few philosophical questions, one recurring</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> question being do we have free will? Check this,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>"Causality. There is no escape from it, we are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it, to understand the why." merovingian</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It turns out most of those who are interested in this question are either in camp “free will” or camp “determinism”. Both camps have their fair share of spokesman and enough literature to keep an army of scholars busy for a long while. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Camp free will tells us that the trajectory of a ball released by the hand of a cricketer(baller) is determined, determined by the laws of physics but the cricketer's decision to release the ball to send it hurdling at the batsman in a particular way was one made of free will. In a very generalized sense, free will states that if an action was performed with mind it was done so with free will as the mind could have chosen to do otherwise. Camp determinism is opposed to this categorization based on the existence/non-existence of mind. They believe that every action is determined by some underlying law, even those made with mind, that it is not as simple as “hey man... I got pepperoni pizza instead of deviled chicken because i felt like it.. you know”. Yes, some of the residents of camp determinism tend to be mean spirited and seem to be looking for stones to throw at the other camp. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back to the matrix and the merovingian, It's clear that he is a determinist, a hard determinist at that. In a hypothetical scenario where computation has progressed so far(like in the movie) I could maybe entertain the possibility that an intellect could exist that could fathom the insane amount of knowledge/understanding that would be needed and then to actually gather it to be able to say without a doubt why a mind decided to make one choice and not another. Now I know that we have a pretty good idea of how our brains work, we can predict correctly what a mind will chooses to do sometimes but till we can predict correctly every single time without any constraints, it's still guesswork. The debate of <b>free will vs determinism</b> is one that will not be settled till another debate that is between holism and reductionism is resolved(<a href="http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2005/11/the_big_fight_r.html" target="_blank">onlyagame</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> makes an interesting case for holism which I think makes sense</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">) and it's foolish to think that it will happen in our lifetime. Meanwhile this armchair philosopher is just going to wait around for a kick ass reboot of the matrix without wasting too much time on questions that no one has found answers to. </span></div>
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Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-1926448828974374962016-10-22T05:32:00.000-07:002016-10-22T06:55:32.033-07:00Psychology, a science with growing pains<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Psychology is a
science that can help us understand the drivers of human behavior(one
more tool to help you examine a life, if you agree with Plato) but
like any other science it should be taken with a grain of salt, after
all didn't the greatest scientific minds at one time think the
Newtonian physics were absolute and concise?
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Psychology is a
young multi faceted science with many inconsistencies and gray areas
waiting to be colored in. A science with multiple varied answers to
the same questions. Like the way a wise tech enthusiast waits for the
hiccups of a new consumer technology to be worked on, before he/she
goes out and splurge a pile of cash, it is this writers opinion that
its best to wait for psychology to mature as a science, for its
varied facets to blend into one clear surface before accepting all of
it as truth.
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>nature vs
nurture</b>;</i> a debate in psychology between biological psychologists and
behavioral psychologists is a good example of how different schools
of psychology are now converging to form a complete picture.
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past,
biological psychologists who believe behavior is attributed to
underlying biological processes and factors, would explain the case of
the fairer sex being comparatively more empathetic to biological
processes/phenomena such as structural differences between the male
and female brain, genetic characteristics passed on from prehistoric
times, hormonal differences between the sexes, so on and so forth.
Where as a behavioral psychologist would attribute the same to
factors such as social learning; where a women learned to be more
empathetic by observing how other women behave in their childhood and
operant conditioning; where empathetic behavior in women were
reinforced and disdain behavior punished, habituating a more
empathetic world view. Of recent times psychologists have come to
understand that rather than nature vs nurture it is nature and
nurture where biological and behavioral factors work hand in hand to
explain the full picture. In this case social learning and operant
conditioning working to establish empathetic behavior heightened by
predispositions(found to be a more attractive behavior from an
evolutionary point of view and so passed on genetically).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aside its inconsistencies, psychology is a powerful science with implications to all aspects of our life and so it is something we should all know a little more of. </span></div>
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Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-90916679063592716362016-02-27T23:55:00.000-08:002016-10-22T06:55:59.099-07:00The Cave Man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you see you have fallen into a ditch and you don't want to get out you are a fool. If you want to get out but accept every piece of advice given to you by those who are outside, you might find your self to have clawed out only to fall in again. Accept advice with caution, not all who supply it want to see you out or know what it takes to get out. No one is better equipped than your self to see why you fell in, whats keeping you there and how when you are ready to come out. Maybe one day you might see that you have already won that the only person who needed proving was your own. So tell me friend whats next? </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirJdrO7pMl_-KA6z1dPVq3Dz1dOW3-_nYHvJzLQs9f5So-gRDuvqSwx1unobUezj_dAbJXRMhmgZo8OM1sr5aHe5vsTdrDBwCJtPFk-JhW6vnN8iz3PHjSALIqdNPWeVWS11NRy-9M7OU/s1600/plato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirJdrO7pMl_-KA6z1dPVq3Dz1dOW3-_nYHvJzLQs9f5So-gRDuvqSwx1unobUezj_dAbJXRMhmgZo8OM1sr5aHe5vsTdrDBwCJtPFk-JhW6vnN8iz3PHjSALIqdNPWeVWS11NRy-9M7OU/s640/plato.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snapped from one of my
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favorites, Flowers For Algernon.
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<br />Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-69852286420151207082016-01-30T04:48:00.000-08:002016-01-30T05:02:06.096-08:00My beef with the proposed ETCA<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120%; }</style>
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Economic and
Technological Cooperation Agreement(ETCA) is a hot topic in Colombo
these days(specially so if your employed in the IT sector). As
someone who is not too interested in happenings outside his immediate
bubble ETCA reached my ear only a few weeks back. So during these
last two weeks I looked into what how ETCA would impact the IT
industry and the country as a whole so that I could make up my own
mind about it.</div>
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As I
understand(please do take into consideration that I have next to no
education in economics, legislation or sociology) ETCA would benefit
the economy. Companies who operate by volume could bid for larger
projects and companies who are willing to pay the price of “real
experts” (beef no .3) could do so with ease and these workers would
increase these companies revenue. In the long run ETCA should
increase the pay of the average IT employee as well(as a bigger IT
workforce would build a bigger IT sector with more revenue driving
the GDP higher)
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So then whats my
beef with ETCA?</div>
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From all
information I've been able to gather professional bodies
representing IT such as CSSL, SLASSCOM upto date were not included in
making of it.</div>
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Have we looked
into the social impact of the ETCA. Such as what would happen to
those who might loose their jobs due to it.(Is there a safety net of
sorts for these people?)</div>
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How
do we ensure that the workers who come in are actually experts?
Would a filtering mechanism be implemented? at least similar to that
of Singapore where employees must have 2 or 3 years of work
experience and have had a salary higher than a specific amount. </div>
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How
do we increase IT graduate production so that one day we wont have
such a need to bring workers down.</div>
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ETCA can be good if
its done right. Seriously Sri Lanka get your shit together, its
affecting my bubble!
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Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4135800288197324147.post-35787091580279155552015-06-01T23:33:00.001-07:002016-10-22T07:00:43.227-07:00Stop This TrainNo way off the train, you have to ride it through. The further you travel the more<br />
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you see, you realize that somethings are not what they seem<br />
to be while others truly are. Even the strongest of convictions are<br />
no match for the river of time. Calm down, look out the window and<br />
smile, know that only love you've shown to others will remain when<br />
you arrive. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5BTzNX5OMN4" width="459"></iframe>Dumidu Handakumburahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500809568075381054noreply@blogger.com0