It's Dai Time

Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

Author: Scott (Page 88 of 104)

Day 50: what to believe

April 2, 2009 / / 0 Comments

How do we decide what to believe?

For example, let’s say I told you that I’m a goat.  You wouldn’t believe that if you’ve ever seen or heard of goats before.  If you hadn’t, you might ask me what a goat was.

If I said that my uncle was Stephen Colbert, you’d be skeptical.  It would seem that I’m trying to label you as gullible, based on his celebrity status and the fact that we are different races.

If I told you that a recent study found that playing video games helped policemen make quicker and smarter decisions, you’d probably believe me.  Factually, it sounds plausible and you’d trust that I’d be more likely to hear or read about video game studies because I work in the industry.

If I said that I was born in Shanghai, you’d almost certainly believe me.  You could tell by looking at me that I was of Asian descent and if you knew me, you’d have heard me state my birthplace before.

Let’s imagine that you were told all of these things by two other sources, though.  One was a New York Times journalist.  The other was a member of a random message board on the Internet.  How does that change the believability of each statement?

I think belief boils down to two simple things: facts we can verify with our senses and the trustworthiness of the source.  That’s it.

As a baby, our only sources are our parents.  There must be an inherent trust built into our minds, because we believe everything they tell us.  Eventually, that trust must deteriorate (I don’t know any adult that trusts his parents as much as he or she must have as a newborn), but it’s a huge factor in the knowledge we acquire as we grow.

The number of sources that we have also grows as we age, including teachers, schoolmates, and eventually co-workers, friends, and spouses.  But all of it is based on the teachings of trust that our parents give us.

The most important things we can be taught is how to create and evaluate trust.  It forms our entire system of beliefs, both of academic knowledge and of things beyond the realm of academia: love, religion, elves.

None of this ground-breaking.  It’s probably nothing that you haven’t thought about before.  But I thought it was an important mental journey to take, if only to file away for when I eventually become a parent myself.

Also, focusing on trust is a integral part of being good at any job.  So, that’s something I can continue to work on right now.  That, and I am actually a goat.

goatme

Day 49: april fool’s day jokes that require excessive commitment prior to the actual day

April 1, 2009 / / 0 Comments
  • Secretly become pregnant and wear large clothing for several months or simply disappear to a writer’s retreat.  On April 1, arrive home and immediately give birth.
  • Work for a bank until you are trusted enough to handle the money that goes into stocking an ATM.  Write “There’s an ostrich behind you!” on every bill you stock in the ATM the night before April 1.  Also, raise and train an ostrich to trust you and to squawk “April Fools!”  When you go to the ATM with your friend, they’ll see the message, scoff at the ridiculousness of it, then turn around and see you riding a talking ostrich.
  • Create a fake Twitter account for your friend which, through viral means, becomes insanely popular.  Use this as a launching point for registering your friend as a candidate for city council and schedule a speech and rally on April 1 with printouts of his face.  Joke about how it’s funny that your friend shares the same name as a famous politician and convince him to go to the rally.  When he arrives, just before he gets cheered onto the stage, yell “April Fools!”
  • Plant an assortment of flowers in your friend’s front lawn that, when blooming, spell “April Fools!”
  • Have identical twins, but raise them in separate environments until they are teenagers.  Then, arrange for them go out one night to the same place and to go to adjoining bathrooms at the same time.  Install a “fake” mirror between the bathrooms and watch as they try to figure out why their reflection is being all weird.
  • Invest in the field of robotics until research has progressed to a stage where you can get a fully functioning robot hand that looks and feels like human skin.  Replace your hand with the robot hand and go to shake your friend’s hand.  When they shake, send a small shock through your hand, then use the built-in flamethrower to light their pants on fire.  Don’t forget to say “April Fools!”
  • Become the charismatic leader of a extremist group that wins popular approval and a government position through democratic means.  Ascend in power and over time, transform the country into a dystopian fascist state.  Arrange to have a friend seized and executed on April 1, but as they put on the blindfold, it says “April Fools!” on the inside of it.

Day 48: crooked fingers, or take pictures of your hands

March 31, 2009 / / 0 Comments

There’s been a video game story that’s been hitting the blogs recently, even though the actual story that it’s reporting is about a year old.  I first saw this on GamePolitics, and the gist is this: children who play video games before their bones are strong enough end up getting deformed fingers.

The main researcher behind this argument is Mike Tomich, who has an ugly website with pictures of hands where he has superimposed lines to make his point.

I’m not sure whether I buy this or not, but if you delve into the site, you’ll soon see that Mike isn’t just a video game alarmist; he’s actually against children doing most things that put repetitive strain against their bones (e.g. crayons and computers), and is even arguing that adults can deform their bones from “high effort” steering vehicles.

Regardless, this is topical for me because just a few days ago, I had mentioned to Katie while we were watching TV that I had crooked fingers.  My hands have never really hurt, I don’t have any kind of repetitive stress injury, and I’ve never had trouble doing dexterous actions (such as juggling or some coin/card manipulation for magic), but check this out:

photo photo (1)

These are my hands.  I’ve didn’t include my thumbs, as they’re pretty normal-looking.  I haven’t drawn lines on them either, but look at how crooked they are!  As I didn’t play many video games as a young kid – I only really got into them in college and after, with just dabbling in high school and before – I’m not sure what “caused” this, if anything, or if my hands were just born this way.

Still, my left pointer finger clearly veers toward the left, especially at the top knuckle, and there’s a gap between the pinky and ring finger (partially due to my wedding ring).  On the right hand, my middle finger leans left and my pointer finger leans right, making them bump into each other while leaving a gap between the middle and ring fingers.  These pictures also show that I need to cut my nails, especially on my left hand.

Katie’s finger straightness, on the other hand, is pristine compared to mine.  Which got me thinking – are there more people who have crooked fingers like me?  How unique are my deformed hands?  Or is it more rare to have perfectly straight fingers, like Katie?

If you’re reading this, take a picture of your hands and upload it!  Are your fingers straight?  Does one lean to the left or right?  Could you be a hand model?

I used to think I could be, but it appears that dream may now be dashed.

Day 47: fear of the uncommon yet mundane

March 30, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Today, I read the following headline on my news feed:

Oregon police say man’s sneezing fit caused him to lose control of car, crash into home

This is scary.  This is scary because it can happen to any of us.  We all sneeze.  Most of us drive.  By simple statistics, we will sneeze while driving probably at least, like, a thousand times in our life.

It’s just another thing to add onto the list of news stories that inspire fear, not due to the fantastical or ghastly nature of them, but because they could happen to any of us.

Even after you filter out all the stories about things we do everyday like drive, fly, and live in areas with natural disasters, there are still those uncommon stories about the most mundane activities leading to our downfall.

It’s why I always feel unjustifiably nervous when walking by a track and field event.  That’s where javelins get thrown into people’s heads.  It’s why I always make sure that when using a hair dryer or toaster, there are no pools or puddles of water nearby.  That’s how people get electrocuted.

Sure, it doesn’t happen all the time.  That’s what makes it scarier!  I can deal with the fact that fender benders and muggings and petty theft of unsecured valuables happen.

But once, a guy watching Lost had his house hit by a meteor.  I watch LOST.  Thus, this could happen to me.

I clearly don’t know how my mind works, but I think it is correct to make these connections.  I’m sure it has something to do with how I was good at chess when I was younger.

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