Looking at the Stars

New Domain

2009-08-24T15:32:00.001Z

Yay, my new awesome domain is up and running. I will leave this blog here for the moment until I find something else more awesome to put here.

Freysi's Pendulum

2008-01-22T08:23:00.000Z

Information is astounding. All around us, in everything we see, everything we do, everything we touch; therein is information. We are children of cause and effect and as such view the world linearly. Information does not adhere to this view. Inferences can be made through cause and effect, through time, through space, through imagination. Inferences that lead to newer truths.

What would happen if we were able to take an infinite step back and view all information pertaining to our lives at once? Every connection; temporal and spatial, personal and professional, physical and spiritual. Every connection in front of us, as plain as this text is to you. Would some new truth emerge? Would we understand something about ourselves we could not previously fathom?

Most likely we would. Imagine simple things like behavior. With all this information you could sift through it and find patterns. Dating patterns, for example. Why did all your previous relationships fail? Searching...there it is, a pattern, something you did in every relationship which led directly to its failure. Neither party saw this while it was happening, but now that you have true 20-20 hindsight, it is clear. And you can take this to heart and attempt to change yourself in the future.

Now, if some of this information were wrong, but were presented as infallible, would that change things? Would we not simply make this information our own, as we do with our own fallible memories? The information is not quite how you remember it happening, but you still see a pattern, and it seems to be something you can learn from. So you take it to heart and attempt to change. Could wrong information have damaging effects on our future development? Could it make us into someone we are not?

Can we present ourselves with wrong information in an attempt to change ourselves? Can we trick ourselves into a different character?

And finally, what of other aspects of yourself? Your psyche, your spirituality, your self. Observing behavior is one thing, but what if some greater pattern were to appear?

I don't profess to have any answers, as these are highly metaphysical ideas. However, I firmly believe that having this type of view will change you in some profound way. I find myself yearning for a meaning, always striving towards something which is just outside my reach. Sometimes I feel if I could only arrange the blocks in the correct order; if I could only crack the code; if I could only find the true Name in my personal Koran, then I would be rewarded.

On quality and enjoyment

2008-01-08T07:44:00.000Z

When discussing matters of a scientific or empirical nature, it is natural for us to defer to those more knowledgable than ourselves. Assuming a sufficient measure of intelligence is present, one can see clearly that another's knowledge is greater, and assuming a sufficient measure of open-mindedness is present, one can then learn. When discussing matters which are not quite as clear cut, of a more esoteric nature where the science is hidden or seemingly absent, things get a little muddy. Discussing the quality of art without resorting to emotional rationalization does not come naturally, and for some is an oxymoron.

We need to know what aspects to refer to for comparison. Let me give an analogy.

I am a teacher. It does not matter what subject I teach, only that I teach in a language you do not understand. I am about to test two of my students orally and I have invited you to observe. Student A arrives. He is ugly, fat, smelly, and arrogant. I test him and he leaves with a scowl on his face. Student B arrives. He is handsome, fit, and charming. I test him and he leaves with a grin. I now turn to you and ask you your impression. In this situation, the only aspects you could possibly discuss are those mentioned above, visual aspects. You did not understand the language and thus have no idea how they really did on my test. But the fact remains, you like Student B and you don't like Student A. I readily agree with you, Student B is a movie star and Student A is a dumpy nerd. However, I tell you, Student A aced the test while Student B failed miserably.

In this example, I know something you don't. I understand some aspect of the evaluation at hand which you cannot grasp. In this situation, you must defer to me and believe me when I say Student A is the better student.

If I apply this to music then it becomes clear how such a discussion must progress. I am a musical theorist and you are a musical layperson. We compare two pieces of music. Song A is aurally unappealling and has no discernible melody nor harmonic progress. Song B immediately makes your hips move and you can hum along with the chorus. Again, I agree, Song B is fun while Song A is hard on the ears. However, I tell you that Song A is a brilliant masterpiece by Schönberg and that Song B is a trashy rehash of a pop song by Random Group.

Again, I know something you don't. And as in the example above, if the discussion is centered on quality rather than enjoyment, you must defer to me and believe me when I say Song A is the better composition.

In both examples, we agree on the enjoyment factor. That is the side of the argument which in fact cannot be argued simply because it is based on emotion. I enjoy this song and cannot say why. Indeed I should not neet to explain why for it is simply my natural response.

Everything has an artistic side and a empirical side. We need to be able to discuss either side seperately as well as in tandem. If you are only able to see the artistic side you lack control. If you are only able to see the empirical side you lack freedom. If you are only able to discuss the whole without seeing the parts you lack wisdom. Open your minds.

Personal Connections

2007-12-27T14:52:00.000Z

As I travelled from Victoria to Reykjavík, I was struck again by an overwhelming feeling of vastness and amazement. I was sitting on the ferry dock, waiting to go to Vancouver, doing what I always do when I'm alone in a crowd; watch.

I watch as a couple across from me exchange whispers. The girl climbs into his lap and they snuggle and giggle. I watch as a black man sits down next to me with his two young daughters, not more than 2 or 3 years old. He looks over to the couple and greets the girl, ignoring the guy. I watch as an older man sits alone, sending a text message with his cellphone, looking down through reading glasses. I watch as a father banters with his teenage daughter. He comments on my Calgary cap, asking if I was in the Navy. His demeanor becomes dismissive when I answer that no, it was a gift.

My senses overload as the ferry docks and hundreds of people stream through the waiting room and I think to myself, my god, all these people have connections to other people. I bring this into context with my own relationships and get a slight glimpse of the full expanse of personal connection. I have hundreds of people I call friends. I have hundreds of people I call family. I know several hundred more people through association. There is overlapping, but regardless, if every person in that room had connections on my scale, the picture brought up in my mind was staggering. I attempted to imagine the connections as physical; connect the dots; fill in the blanks. I nearly missed my ferry and I had only just scratched the surface.

This was a room of several hundred people. The world has 6 billion.

Then I realize that I was merely thinking in one dimension; relationships. Every single one of those people has a personality, desires, foibles, views, dreams, and loves. And each of those aspects are unique and can relate to people in their lives in different manners. Even in a small group of 5 friends, the magnitude of the connections is astounding.

And connections change over time.

Thoughts like these remind me how astonishing it is that we can actually achieve some of our dreams. They make me thankful. And hopeful.

Polyliber

2007-12-08T22:12:00.000Z

Over the last several years, I have spent a great deal of quality time alone with myself and my thoughts. During this time, I have developed an aversion to wasting time. I increasingly find myself doing many things at once, and when I only partake in one action at a time, I feel uneasy, as if I were squandering precious resources that could never be regained.

My typical evening would see me sitting in my chair at my desk with my acoustic guitar in my lap. On the desk in front of me are 2 flat screen monitors connected to 2 computers. On the left one is(was, I'll get to that later) an MMO which I have been playing for a while now. On the right one (due to the intermittent nature of MMOs) I do any assortment of things which also only require intermittent attention; read news/comics/blogs, do research into things that interest me, play other stupid games to pass my time, or find tabs to play on the guitar. On the TV across the room, there would be some movie or TV show that I am interested in seeing, but not too worried about seeing every detail. Everytime my hands were free from typing, I'd switch to the guitar and strum/pick away. Sometimes I would also burst into song, and maybe practice my vocal technique. In other words, the motto was "waste not". Which is incredibly ironic since almost everything I was doing could be considered a complete waste of time.

Now that I don't play that MMO anymore (and thankfully am not inclined to just replace that void with another one, or a multitude of other games), I find myself gravitating back towards my true passion; books. Here however, I encounter the same problem with not wanting to waste time. I am faced with the following conundrum:

I have precious few hours left to live, something in the vicinity of five hundred thousand hours left. At my current speed of reading I generally read really good novels at about 60 pages per hour, decent ones at 90, and bad ones at 120-200. Difficult text, textbooks, philosophy, time is relative in that respect. I could spend hours on one page, debating with myself and the author. I could read at normal speed. It all depends on the material. I am also afflicted with not being able to just quit on a book. If I begin, I must finish, regardless of quality (there have been few but notable exceptions). Now, add to this the incessant reminder that time is a-wasting, and I find that I cannot enjoy books as I used to; cannot sit down and read a 700 page novel and stand up after 8 hours. There simply is just too much out there to read.

So I have begun approaching books differently. I read something until my mind begins to wander. Then I switch to a new book. This is nothing new really, however it is on a different scale than one might imagine. And my problem is that after about 15 books, I begin to lose cohesion. I can no longer pick up the first book and regain the thread.

So I was thinking that this might be a new need for a certain software solution. I couldn't possibly be the only person in the world with this issue.

It could be quite simple. While reading any specific book, I tend to want to take notes, but I often don't because I can't be bothered to stand up and find a notebook while I am reading. So a simple database of current books, where I last left off, and all my notes in my last session. I always have a computer up and running in my apartment, so this would be within my grasp in seconds. And no flow of papers and scribbles. Then the next time I get around to reading a particular book, I look it up, find where I was, and read my notes to get back into the correct frame of mind.

Computer Game Strips

2007-12-05T16:17:00.001Z

In this day and age, anyone can become a successful comic artist. One only needs to be the owner of wit; any type will do, and it can even be a woefully specific wit, designed only to make a handful of people chuckle and harumph, as a handful in the world of the internet can mean tens of thousands.

Add to this the ease of creating one's own website and people's tolerance for poor drawing, and it becomes apparent that you do not have to be an artist, per se.

All this is thanks to internet technology of course. Websites were notoriously difficult to manage a decade ago. And it was impossible to successfully target such a large niche group with conventional printing.

This is now also true about videos, especially in this age of Youtube.

I await the advent of Yougame.

We have tools which enable functionally retarded people to create comics and vidoes and become famous within a 'small' group of people. Why do we not have tools to do the same with interactive media? Why can I not log onto a website - Yougame perchance - and spend 10 minutes creating a little game, say a stick-figure fps with 5 randomly generated levels and 2 weapons? Games are complicated for sure. However, consider the context. If a blockbuster movie (say Spiderman) is to a youtube video... then a blockbuster game (say MGS) is to ... what? Exactly, a stick-figure fps made in 10 minutes.

Maybe I'll create Yougame.com and sell it to Microsoft for $250m.

Immersion

2007-12-05T14:13:00.000Z

Imagine being able to see history rather than read about it; to stand in a space where information floating around you changes intuitively based on where you are currently focused.

For example, you are floating above a 3D map of Europe, the time dial by your right hand is set to somewhere in the 17th century. You can see little blobs of information all spread out, literally covering the map. There are connections everywhere, confusing, so you filter out everything except what you want to focus on; music. Your time dial settles on a the year 1647 as you float closer to the map, zeroing in on Germany at the height of the Baroque era. You see all the musicians alive at the time and their connections to other musicians. As you close in on one musician in particular you begin to see other globules of information pop, the musician's life, his family, his compositions, his influences, his locations. And as you focus on each of them in turn, they expand and create new globules of related information. As you listen to a composition, the score is displayed for you, along with all sorts of tidbits relating to origin, influence, politics, etc. regarding both musical style and lyrics.

This is my image of informational structure. Physically swimming through a virtual world of information, absorbing everything as you go, being able to experience all aspects of an event simultanously, and having full control over direction, both physical and temporal.

This is the true definition of time travel.

Positive Outlook

2007-12-04T14:47:00.000Z

In the near perpetual gloom of a subarctic city, depression is a real danger. How weak is one's resolve, that the mere lack of light can cause such an enormous switch in mood? I wonder if there is not a possible solution to this. We have a solution for excess brightness, why not for darkness?

The nature of sunglasses are simply to prevent damage to our peepers. The proposed nature of gloomgoggles would be to prevent damage to our psyche. Keep out the darkness, as sunglasses keep out the sun, or at least reduce its effect on us. Actual implementation eludes me, although a couple of ideas are floating around, some more practical than others:

- Maybe it is enough to simply wear glass tinted in a bright color. One cannot underestimate the power of tricking oneself.
- A transparent computer screen which displays an ambient light only visible to yourself.

In any case, if I want to take this further I need to do some research into what actually causes this seasonal depression. Is it simply the change in the ambient light, or is it something in our genes telling us to hibernate? Perhaps it is the cold, or maybe even the lack of a glowing yellow orb in the sky.

History, information, and structure

2007-12-04T13:28:00.000Z

I recently began reading Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, and it has reignited my passion for history. The book is interesting and quirky, although it still feels a little unfocused, more of a string of amusing encounters with quick, intelligent wit and a medly of fascinating characters. Granted I have only reached page 217, but I am wanting for some cohesion.

As I mentioned, my old urge for knowledge has been awakened after lying dormant in an MMO game for over 4 years. When I think back and realize that at a leisurely reading speed, I could have read five hundred thousand pages in the time I spent in hibernation, I feel a tad bit queasy. However, I have never allowed myself to dwell on regret, and I have no intention of beginning now. Although I am not completely rid of that distraction I feel now able to focus my efforts elsewhere.

I have always had an obsession with completion. If I like an author, I will buy and read everything he has ever written, no matter the quality. I suspect that this is one of the driving factors behind my fascination with history. Although infinite inferences may be made, and endless stories be told, the actual facts contained in history are finite. The structuring of the information these facts contain is something which attracts my logical mind. How can all that infomation be organized so as to provide both the layperson and the expert the access they need? How can it be structured so that all possible connections are in place and can be viewed contextually and intelligibly? How can we provide a way to see connections between disjoint domains of information?

Perhaps it is impossible to solve this once and for all. Perhaps the only way to study such history is piece by piece, and hope that the greater picture will assemble itself gradually in one's own mind.