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Saturday, 08 March 2008

I love my life.

Saturday, 02 February 2008

Talent

When people are born, you hear of piano prodigies and people who have talent. Even on shows like American Idol they mention the "X-factor". People call these things natural gifts or talents.

Are people's excelling talents decided at birth / or come naturally? or is it something we must develop and put effort into achieving in life?

"If you believe in your dreams, you can achieve them!" To me, that statement sounds like a big load of bull. I will never be as good a player as Michael Jordan, no matter how hard I try. But then again, I could be wrong?

Can anyone can be good at anything they put their mind to? Or is their mind already set on what they are naturally better at?

You always hear of cases where people with autism are often "gifted" though the cannot truly communicate with people. They somehow excel in math or music yet can barely hold a conversation with another human being. The also have no formal training in math or music yet somehow they can do things beyond the "norm".

Friday, 01 February 2008

The Basics of Selfishness:

Selfishness is a very natural and ever present feeling we all share. I am sure that within the next few seconds, you will surely witness some act of selfishness (whether you can recognize it or not). The question is: Why do we (as a society) seem so against this emotion? Why do we always seems to be resisting it? I think its because people generally have a lack of knowledge on the subject and are unaware that it is completely possible to embrace this emotion and live a perfectly happy life with those around you.

The Mutually Selfish Relationship:

A very important point to note in Selfishness is the consequence your actions and what they will have on the people around you. Remember that it is in YOUR best interest to keep the people around you relatively happy. This is a selfish motive: "If mom and dad are happy, my life is more comfortable". The comfort of the people around you will DIRECTLY effect your comfort.

You also need to think of this from the reverse perspective. A mother tells her son(you) not to go to said party and get sloshed. Remember that she A: Will not appreciate dealing with a staggering drunk in the middle of the night B: Will not care to take care of a hung over teen the next day and C: Have her schedule completely disrupted because of your irresponsibility. In the end, your well being is actually in her best interest from a selfish perspective. She will live a much more comfortable life in this regard and it really isn't out of your way to keep a good head about you when you go to the party.

These two examples demonstrate a very delicate balance between the selfishness and compromise of two parties that ultimately leads to the overall happiness of both parties. Believe it or not, but most people actually (without really thinking about it) will continue a mutually selfish relationship with you WITHOUT overstepping boundaries resulting in a continuing cycle of selfish action that leads said persons to a generally happier place then most people.

After observing people on this subject, I noticed that if someone initiates an attempted mutually selfish relationship - others tend to follow suit and engage in a mutually selfish relationship without really thinking about it. Though when two completely selfish people butt heads, the outcome is usually disastrous.

Also, I feel it important to mention: Someone who is completely selfish while you try to engage in a mutually selfish relationship is generally going to attempt to sap you for all you are worth. This is when it's in your best interest to forget about the happiness of that person as it will ultimately cost you your own and that is not the point of a mutually selfish relationship.

The Outcome:

While everyone in a household/workplace/classroom engages in this sort of relationship, its quite obvious the positive effects it has on the group as a whole. Everyone seems to have more 'good days' and generally interacts with each other in a much more pleasant manner. The funny thing to note, however, is that every person is trying to further their own personal goal and selfish tendencies at the exact same time. This, of course, is a completely ideal situation (though not uncommon, surprisingly) and it should be noted that it directly relates to the effort put forth by all parties and not just one.

Thursday, 31 January 2008

Pinnacle of Evolution/Devolution

I've always thought about random things, and one of them was the course of human evolution. Assuming that the idea of evolution is true, how can we gauge how much humans have evolved? Supposedly, other animals and plants have evolved over millions of years, yet the evidence for human evolution is rare and filled with "missing links."

Are we still evolving? Have we already reached the top evolution-wise? Our technology is "evolving" extremely fast compared to natural processes. Is our technology evolving in our place?

It's hard to tell if we'll be the same or even here at all five hundred thousand years from now. Will we have evolved? Or are we changing our environment and controlling it, in essence making it evolve to us instead of us to it, that we will be forever locked into this "stage" which we are at?

Think about all the "new" technology: Transportation: Cars, bicycles, airplanes. Automated processes: Mass factory production, assembly lines, etc. Communication: Television, radio, computer, telephone.

All these new things are requiring humans to less and less for themselves. Need to get to school? Drive, take the bus, etc. So many things are automated now; a whole factory might just need a handful of people monitoring it.

Will we continue to develop new technologies and machines, and eventually replace every human job with a machine that doesn't complain, doesn't get hungry, doesn't require a wage?

Will humans "devolve" as our technology evolves? Will we eventually become a sentient blob of flesh? Our arms and legs have shriveled because we no longer need to move for ourselves. Our eyes have been replaced with direct input into a computer, bones have disappeared from lack of use. We don't need to do anything for ourselves; every process has a machine to do it.