I've read more books in the last 1.5 months than I have in the last 3 years, so I figured that I would mention them and my opinions of them, since they have been on my mind a lot as I travel.
In order of reading:
"Does Anything Eat Wasps?" Mick O'Hare
This is an interesting book for those who like to say "Did you know that blah blah blah...". I often like to do that, and its alienated me with strangers (especially girls) many many times. Anyway, the book is full of obscure scientific trivia and I enjoyed it.
"A Short History of Nearly Everything", Bill Bryson
This is another good book for trivia, and follows a brief history of scientific development, paying particular attention to the egos who developed the theories. A good book but a bit too biographical for me. I wanted more on the theories, but didn't need quite as much biographical and historical context. Still good book though.
"Permutation City", Greg Egan
A book about "mind downloading" and the nature of consciousness and reality. Very good book, though the last bits were less interesting than the first parts for me and seemed to have a couple of incoherent ideas (I won't include spoilers). It maybe bit off more than it can chew by including too many grand themes. Great writing and contains an almost intimidating amount of hard science and philosophy (typical of Greg Egan's work). In any case, an fascinating book I would recommend to almost all of my friends.
"The End of Faith", Sam Harris
A very well argued book, and I find it hard to disagree with almost all of his points (though there's a few bits in consciousness and his hard consequentialist ethics I find difficult to accept). Also, though he clearly acknowledges that there may be faith based secular societies that can have disastrous effects, he focuses much more narrowly on specific religions. In my mind a few short pages are not enough to describe historical disastors of faith based secular societies such as Pol Pot's, Kim Jung Il's, Hitler's, Stalin's, etc... It would have made him more immune to criticism I think to include more writing on this. However, his points are no less true or resounding, despite his focus on religion.
"1984", George Orwell
I've finally got around to reading it. What hasn't been said about this book already? Great book, and shows a sobering picture of society where big brother has completely overridden civil liberties. Recently reading that Fox News edits their own transcripts to correct mistakes that were actually made sickened me all the more, as it was one of the most horrifying aspects of 1984 (for example, when O'Reilly reverses the account of the Malmandy Massacre on TV twice, but the transcript doesn't reflect this, or their repeated attempts to manipulate Wikipedia on a variety of issues). It takes some serious "doublethink" to support those kinds of things.
"Blood Music", Greg Bear
Amazing book, one of my favorites. I can't believe it was written in 1984. Its one of the first "Grey Goo" sci-fi books that were written regarding nanites. Great writing and a great exploration of biotechnology and physics. I've made a mental note to read more Greg Bear books.
"Fairyland", Paul J. McAuley
This book has some very cool ideas. Its plot centers on the creation of bioengineered humans that end up resembling the mythical fae of European ilk in a variety of ways. Its an idea book, but I found the character's to be lacking depth and for that reason I can't say its an excellent book. Though after reading George R. Martin, most other author's characters seem a little less defined.
"The Electric Church", Jeff Somers
A pretty cool cyberpunk book involving a lot of action and gritty descriptions. A nice change of pace from the "hard sci-fi" I have been reading, but I have to say it was a little pulpy. An enjoyable read, but not one of my favs, and doesn't delve too deep.
"50 Philosophy Ideas you Really Need to Know", Ben Dupre
After not reading any philosophy for a while, I needed a relatively light and comprehensive fix. Its a great run down on many of the major ideas and problems out there in philosophy and a good reference or spring board to look up more specific or in depth books on topics and questions that interest you. Its all available online of course, but having a paper book in your hands is easier. Good stuff.
"Metaphysics: The Big Questions" Van Inwagen & Zimmerman
A metaphysics anthology used in university classes. Its the first time in my life I've been reading a university textbook outside of university. It takes much longer to read this than other books, as it involves a lot of re-reading and underlining, etc... Philosophers love their jargon. Seems like a great anthology and I've finished one section (personal identity/mind-body relationship). Here are the essays Ive read so far:
-"Holes", Lewis
-"On What there is", Quine
-"Beyond Being and Non-Being", Chisholm
-"Universals", Russell
-"Universals as Attributes", Armstrong
-"Which Physical Thing am I?", Chisholm
-"Personal Identity: A Materialist Account", Shoemaker
-"An Argument for Animalism", Olson
-"Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons", Parfit
-"Personal Identity: The Dualist Theory", Swinburne
-"The Causal Theory of Mind", Armstrong
-"The Puzzle of Conscious Experience", Chalmers
-"Neutral Monism", Russell
They were all good reads, and all seemed to make pretty good points, but without going into too much detail, there were always some thought experiment or other that made most of them problematic.
The most entertaining one, "Which Physical Thing am I?" by Chisholm, claims our identity lies in an indivisible subatomic particle. Hehe. And yep, its at least logically possible, and escapes some of the problems other accounts for identity have. I think its partially tongue in cheek.
To me, the exception is Parfit's account, which seems unassailable, but has a much weaker account of personal identity by espousing the materialist "bundles of thought" account, similar to Hume, and near identical to a central idea in Buddhism, the "empty self". However, this is not a desireable account of personal identity for many, as it tries to eliminate ego from the picture.
Swinburne's argument for dualism almost left me angry, for it seems to leave out some very important justifications that I think he needs to make in order for his premises to be true. In the end, unless I'm missing something, he seems to say that the logical possibility of dualism entails the reality of dualism, which seems pretty fucking dumbass to me for a variety of reasons (the most obvious of which are that the logical possibility for materialism or idealism are also true). Also, he completely misunderstands Parfit's account of personal identity as far as I understand Parfit. He makes good points along the way, but his conclusion seems to come out of no where. I'll have to read it again, I must have missed something (or he is a christian and NEEDS dualism to be true, so he argues from his conclusion backwards....).
"Axiomatic", Greg Egan
An amazing collection of his short stories, each exploring on perplexing problem or implication in science or philosophy. One of the best short stories I have ever read is contained within, called "Learning to be Me". Truly inspirational and I highly recommend anyone to read it.
"Good Omens", Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Very funny and entertaining book that takes the piss out of the revelations section of the bible. Its about the apocalypse, angels, demons, and humans. Good book.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Malaysia
We entered Malaysia via bus from Singapore and were surprised at how fast the trip was. After spending over 24 hours aboard buses and vans in Indonesia it was pleasant to find we could go from one country to the next in a mere 5 hours. The bus company we took made much publicity that Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) took the bus at some point in history, and they had photos to prove it.
Kuala Lumpur is a great city, and out of all of the "big cities" i've visited so far, its right up at the top. It has an even more multi-cultural feel than Singapore and despite being a Muslim nation, there appeared to be no harsh judgement towards any type of behavior or style of dress. On the same street you'd see a woman in a ninja-style black burkha walking a few feet from a Chinese woman in Daisy Dukes, heels and a tight belly shirt, an Indian Siek with a turban and a business suit, followed by an emo kid wearing the latest fashions, sporting a lip ring and hair combed over one eye. Those are merely a few of many customes and styles you could see walking down the street. Also, their Hindu and Buddhist roots were celebrated (as they were in Indonesia as well) , a practice not exactly encouraged by literal Islam. It was refreshing to get a dose of such tolerant Muslim culture.
The food there was fantastic, and we ate at a great restaurant that was close to our hostel nearly every day. It served up huge portions of tasty Malaysian, Indian and Chinese food (we mostly got Indian food) for around 2.50$ a plate. One of my favorite restaurants of all time for sure.
In the city we checked out the butterfly park (very cool, and got to see a praying mantis devour a huge butterfly), the petronas towers (buildings formerly known as the biggest), the Batu Caves (home to Hindu temples and statues), and a couple of very very large shopping malls.
After a few days in KL we set off the the Cameron highlands, an area sporting wonderful natural scenery and freaky insect wildlife. After a swervy high speed bus ride we arrived and checked into our hotel. The climate in the highlands was very different than any other place we had been to in Asia, it was much coller. It was very nice to finally have some cool weather, as I was beggining to regret packing my long sleeve shirt and jeans.
In the highlands we went to a tea plantation and factory. The plantation looked rather breath taking, the rolling hills of the highlands looked tucked in by a gigantic green blanket of tea trees. I have never seen inanimate earth look so cozy. We also went to a strawberry farm and enjoyed some nice tarts and a strawberry lassi. Another fun place was an insect and reptile zoo that displayed some of the local flora and fauna. The highlands have those cool walking-stick and leaf insects that blend in so well, so we spent some enjoyable minutes trying to spot all of them in a glass encased habitat. I also got a cool pic with a snake stretching quite vertically atop my head. We went for a short trek into the jungle as well, but could see any of the giant millipedes or tarantulas, so Anita was happy about that. After a quiet and comfortable few days in the highlands, we set off for Thailand, Bangkok.
Kuala Lumpur is a great city, and out of all of the "big cities" i've visited so far, its right up at the top. It has an even more multi-cultural feel than Singapore and despite being a Muslim nation, there appeared to be no harsh judgement towards any type of behavior or style of dress. On the same street you'd see a woman in a ninja-style black burkha walking a few feet from a Chinese woman in Daisy Dukes, heels and a tight belly shirt, an Indian Siek with a turban and a business suit, followed by an emo kid wearing the latest fashions, sporting a lip ring and hair combed over one eye. Those are merely a few of many customes and styles you could see walking down the street. Also, their Hindu and Buddhist roots were celebrated (as they were in Indonesia as well) , a practice not exactly encouraged by literal Islam. It was refreshing to get a dose of such tolerant Muslim culture.
The food there was fantastic, and we ate at a great restaurant that was close to our hostel nearly every day. It served up huge portions of tasty Malaysian, Indian and Chinese food (we mostly got Indian food) for around 2.50$ a plate. One of my favorite restaurants of all time for sure.
In the city we checked out the butterfly park (very cool, and got to see a praying mantis devour a huge butterfly), the petronas towers (buildings formerly known as the biggest), the Batu Caves (home to Hindu temples and statues), and a couple of very very large shopping malls.
After a few days in KL we set off the the Cameron highlands, an area sporting wonderful natural scenery and freaky insect wildlife. After a swervy high speed bus ride we arrived and checked into our hotel. The climate in the highlands was very different than any other place we had been to in Asia, it was much coller. It was very nice to finally have some cool weather, as I was beggining to regret packing my long sleeve shirt and jeans.
In the highlands we went to a tea plantation and factory. The plantation looked rather breath taking, the rolling hills of the highlands looked tucked in by a gigantic green blanket of tea trees. I have never seen inanimate earth look so cozy. We also went to a strawberry farm and enjoyed some nice tarts and a strawberry lassi. Another fun place was an insect and reptile zoo that displayed some of the local flora and fauna. The highlands have those cool walking-stick and leaf insects that blend in so well, so we spent some enjoyable minutes trying to spot all of them in a glass encased habitat. I also got a cool pic with a snake stretching quite vertically atop my head. We went for a short trek into the jungle as well, but could see any of the giant millipedes or tarantulas, so Anita was happy about that. After a quiet and comfortable few days in the highlands, we set off for Thailand, Bangkok.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
ATM scammers
During our stop over in Singapore on the way to Malaysia I phoned it in that my bank card had been lost (see Bali entry) and needed to be issued a new card. I told them the date that I had lost the card (August 19th) and where I had lost it.
I was a little shocked to find out that the card was used twice more after I had used it, at the same terminal, mere minutes after I had left. Thank god for daily limits.... I lost around 300$ due to this. the man on the Royal Bank Service line was friendly, and told me to report it when I get back to Canada and I may get my money back, but I'm not sure.
Now, I had known about ATM machine scams, and from what I had read about them they involved devices protruding from the ATM. I had been warned not to use such ATMs and to only stick with ATMs associated with actual banks. Well, the bank machine that I was at in Bali had no visible device, and it was an ATM linked to a particular bank.
The machine asked me for my PIN, gave me the money, a receipt, and the window said "Thank You - Have a nice day!"
I was conditioned by every other bank machine our there to think that it gives you money, receipt, says thank you, that's the end of the transaction. The card is always spit back to you before that, even beeping if you don't pick it up right away. However, this one had somehow been hacked to say thank you and keep the card in....
I know this is the case because the same thing happened to Anita in Yogyakarta at a mall ATM except we noticed it kept the card. We actually had to hit the "cancel" button to make the "Thank you, have a nice day" message go away. When we did, it brought us to the "would you like to make another transaction?" screen.... Scammers.
They must camp out by the ATMs waiting for people to leave and then immediately go to the machine before anyone else does. Mine was hit up mere minutes after I left according the the Royal Bank phone service.
Well, now I know to be extra careful at ATMs. That guy better have needed the money bad...
I was a little shocked to find out that the card was used twice more after I had used it, at the same terminal, mere minutes after I had left. Thank god for daily limits.... I lost around 300$ due to this. the man on the Royal Bank Service line was friendly, and told me to report it when I get back to Canada and I may get my money back, but I'm not sure.
Now, I had known about ATM machine scams, and from what I had read about them they involved devices protruding from the ATM. I had been warned not to use such ATMs and to only stick with ATMs associated with actual banks. Well, the bank machine that I was at in Bali had no visible device, and it was an ATM linked to a particular bank.
The machine asked me for my PIN, gave me the money, a receipt, and the window said "Thank You - Have a nice day!"
I was conditioned by every other bank machine our there to think that it gives you money, receipt, says thank you, that's the end of the transaction. The card is always spit back to you before that, even beeping if you don't pick it up right away. However, this one had somehow been hacked to say thank you and keep the card in....
I know this is the case because the same thing happened to Anita in Yogyakarta at a mall ATM except we noticed it kept the card. We actually had to hit the "cancel" button to make the "Thank you, have a nice day" message go away. When we did, it brought us to the "would you like to make another transaction?" screen.... Scammers.
They must camp out by the ATMs waiting for people to leave and then immediately go to the machine before anyone else does. Mine was hit up mere minutes after I left according the the Royal Bank phone service.
Well, now I know to be extra careful at ATMs. That guy better have needed the money bad...
Indonesia part III - Yoyakarta
After the nightmare of Probo Lingo, things could only get better. We took a 10 hour minivan ride to Yoyakarta, it was unremarkable. We found our hotel at around 5:00 a.m. and settled in. It had aircon, as was sealed from mosquitos. It was divine. The next few days we spent in a much needed relaxing fashion. We ate good food, had coffee, read some fiction, and generally took it easy.
During this time I reflected on how much focus was placed on the idea of "transport" in Indonesia. Every single Indonesian related to tourism asks you "Hello! Where are you going? Transport?"
I have heard "where are you going?" enough times to last a lifetime. The food vendors are for some reason passive, but anyone related to transportation are very enthused about getting your business.
We went on a tour to see some famous Hindu ruins and a very large buddhist temple one day. To describe them whould take too many words, but we took pictures worth tens of thousands. It was a good experience. It was the first tour I had been on, and it was pretty good. It saved on stress for finding our own transportation. I don't think tours are always the right way to go, but in that case it was.
Our last day there we went to a government school of artwork to pick up some "batik" art. It is a very complex dying process and the end result are elaborate pictures on thin fabric. When put on a window to catch sunlight some of them are quite pretty. We picked up a few of them, and Anita got an expensive one. Our last night we saw the Hindu opera "Ramayana", a heroic romance play. It was okay but didn't hold a candle to the one we saw in Ubud on Bali. Its interesting to see how dated the ethics are in the play. In the last scene, the "princess" was rescued from her captors, however our fair prince Rama was not sure of her purity. He thought she might had got it on with her captor and didn't want used goods. So, she threw herself into a fire. Luckily, the god Brahma knew she was pure, so put out the fire. And they lived happily ever after. Hehe.
After Indonesia we spent a day in Singapore, then took a bus to Kuala Lumpur.
During this time I reflected on how much focus was placed on the idea of "transport" in Indonesia. Every single Indonesian related to tourism asks you "Hello! Where are you going? Transport?"
I have heard "where are you going?" enough times to last a lifetime. The food vendors are for some reason passive, but anyone related to transportation are very enthused about getting your business.
We went on a tour to see some famous Hindu ruins and a very large buddhist temple one day. To describe them whould take too many words, but we took pictures worth tens of thousands. It was a good experience. It was the first tour I had been on, and it was pretty good. It saved on stress for finding our own transportation. I don't think tours are always the right way to go, but in that case it was.
Our last day there we went to a government school of artwork to pick up some "batik" art. It is a very complex dying process and the end result are elaborate pictures on thin fabric. When put on a window to catch sunlight some of them are quite pretty. We picked up a few of them, and Anita got an expensive one. Our last night we saw the Hindu opera "Ramayana", a heroic romance play. It was okay but didn't hold a candle to the one we saw in Ubud on Bali. Its interesting to see how dated the ethics are in the play. In the last scene, the "princess" was rescued from her captors, however our fair prince Rama was not sure of her purity. He thought she might had got it on with her captor and didn't want used goods. So, she threw herself into a fire. Luckily, the god Brahma knew she was pure, so put out the fire. And they lived happily ever after. Hehe.
After Indonesia we spent a day in Singapore, then took a bus to Kuala Lumpur.
Indonesia part II - Probo Lingo Sucks
From Ubud we started off to Probo Lingo to see the famous Mt. Bromo. I won't lie, it was a shitty trip. We took a 1.5 hour mini-van ride full of high speed swerves to Kuta. For the first time in my life I actually got motion sickness (at least I think that is what it was). While we waited for the bus to depart to Probo Lingo I mostly closed my eyes and rested my head on the table, feeling nauseated.
The bus ride itself sucked. We were positioned at the very back of the bus, next to a very well behaved rooster in what appeared to be a bowling ball bag. His tail stuck out and he gave an occasional cluck but that was all. We were also next to the lavatory, sadly, and occasionally smells eminating from it made it our way. It was an 8 hour journey, my longest bus ride ever. Lukily the seats reclined and we had blankets. At least for the first couple of hours. After that we picked up a family that stayed behind us (yes, we had the back seats, and the family was behind us). It must have been an unofficial pay bump for the driver, and seemed like a common practice. Sadly, we were unable to recline as we had to make room for the vagrants. So the remaing hours were rather uncomfortable, except for the delightful tickle I received from the occasional cockroach crawling on my lower back. At least they were relatively small ones.
We got to Probo Lingo around 2:00 a.m., were hustled into an office who wanted us to book an overpriced tour to mt. Bromo at 5:00 a.m. We did the math and figured waiting for 3 hours to take a 2 hour hike after being on a bus for 8 hours didn't seem like fun, so we skipped the whole volcano sunrise idea. Of course the travel agent assured us there were not any hotels nearby. No hotels near a bus station... We later found out he was lying (suprise). We found a cheap hotel, slept for a few hours, and woke up. ANOTHER tour guide greeted us at the hotel, told us many many lies, but seemed to offer a decent price for a ride to Yogyakarta, our next destination. So we bought a ticket from him. However because of his lies, and our willingness to believe a couple of them out of the many, we didn't go see Bromo that day either. We had a miserable day in a shitty town. The hotel lacked windows, so mosquitos butchered me, there were no restaurants or bars for many km any direction, and it had no air con. The town sucked. Sucked more than any town I have ever been in EVER. So, after 2 nights at this shitty hotel in a shitty town we were even more exhausted than when we first came off the 8 hour bus ride 1.5 days earlier. I was covered in mosquito bites, tired, sick (I had a cold) and annoyed at being lied to by what seemed to be every person we met over the last couple of days. With that attitude, we set of for Bromo.
It was nice. We walked through an hours worth of volcanic silt and climbed the 250 steps, and reached the sulphur smelling summit. It was a nice view and I got to see the first active volcano of my life (it killed some people in 2004). However, in the end, I'm just not a mountain kind of guy. Maybe its the Saskatchewan in me. I am much more impressed by living nature than by inanimate rock. The size of it doesn't make that much of an impact either, 1 beautiful tree is better than the view enourmous mountain as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, despite that it did look cool. I was told the practice was to buy some flowers and throw them into the volcano and make a wish. I bought some flowers, threw them into the caldera, and made a wish: A pox on Probo Lingo.
The bus ride itself sucked. We were positioned at the very back of the bus, next to a very well behaved rooster in what appeared to be a bowling ball bag. His tail stuck out and he gave an occasional cluck but that was all. We were also next to the lavatory, sadly, and occasionally smells eminating from it made it our way. It was an 8 hour journey, my longest bus ride ever. Lukily the seats reclined and we had blankets. At least for the first couple of hours. After that we picked up a family that stayed behind us (yes, we had the back seats, and the family was behind us). It must have been an unofficial pay bump for the driver, and seemed like a common practice. Sadly, we were unable to recline as we had to make room for the vagrants. So the remaing hours were rather uncomfortable, except for the delightful tickle I received from the occasional cockroach crawling on my lower back. At least they were relatively small ones.
We got to Probo Lingo around 2:00 a.m., were hustled into an office who wanted us to book an overpriced tour to mt. Bromo at 5:00 a.m. We did the math and figured waiting for 3 hours to take a 2 hour hike after being on a bus for 8 hours didn't seem like fun, so we skipped the whole volcano sunrise idea. Of course the travel agent assured us there were not any hotels nearby. No hotels near a bus station... We later found out he was lying (suprise). We found a cheap hotel, slept for a few hours, and woke up. ANOTHER tour guide greeted us at the hotel, told us many many lies, but seemed to offer a decent price for a ride to Yogyakarta, our next destination. So we bought a ticket from him. However because of his lies, and our willingness to believe a couple of them out of the many, we didn't go see Bromo that day either. We had a miserable day in a shitty town. The hotel lacked windows, so mosquitos butchered me, there were no restaurants or bars for many km any direction, and it had no air con. The town sucked. Sucked more than any town I have ever been in EVER. So, after 2 nights at this shitty hotel in a shitty town we were even more exhausted than when we first came off the 8 hour bus ride 1.5 days earlier. I was covered in mosquito bites, tired, sick (I had a cold) and annoyed at being lied to by what seemed to be every person we met over the last couple of days. With that attitude, we set of for Bromo.
It was nice. We walked through an hours worth of volcanic silt and climbed the 250 steps, and reached the sulphur smelling summit. It was a nice view and I got to see the first active volcano of my life (it killed some people in 2004). However, in the end, I'm just not a mountain kind of guy. Maybe its the Saskatchewan in me. I am much more impressed by living nature than by inanimate rock. The size of it doesn't make that much of an impact either, 1 beautiful tree is better than the view enourmous mountain as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, despite that it did look cool. I was told the practice was to buy some flowers and throw them into the volcano and make a wish. I bought some flowers, threw them into the caldera, and made a wish: A pox on Probo Lingo.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Indonesia part I - Bali
As we exited the airport in Bali, Indonesia (after doggedly and stupidly sticking to the slowest immigration line out of the 6 offered) we set out to find a hotel. We were immediately bombarded with offers of taxis and hotels by a variety of people. We settled on a 20$ hotel for the first night. It looked like it had formerly been lavish and sported basic rooms with balconies and entrances facing the indoor pool, but it also looked like it was sorely in need of some maintenance.
The main street in Kuta was lined with hotels, restaurants and bars and had a lively touristy kind of energy. Every now and then a local would whisper in your ear, offering you illegal drugs, but since its an drug offense= execution kind of country, very bad idea. The same is true of Philippines and signs at the airport reminded you of this surreal fact (though not as surreal as Afghanistan current government's execution punishment for distribution of women's rights materials. Thank god we got rid of that nasty taliban.
The next day we got an even cheaper room, 7$ a night, very good bargain. Even though we decided not to go into the water, we went for a walk along the beach. It wasn't nearly as nice as boracays beach, and more crowded, but it was nicer than Jeju do's. I was amazed at how many buff bodies were there. It made me feel like a Pillsbury Dough Geek. Yes there were the normal people as well, but a disproportionate number of "tv land" mutants. I was also amazed to remember how many more "S" line (Korean slang for curvy) women there are from European descent, likely creating for a completely different bra industry across continents. Epitomes of mammals.
The next day I awoke and we went to go withdraw some money for our next stop. I discovered my bank card was disturbingly absent. Anita and I spent the next day retracing our steps to see where I could have lost it. We completely accounted for our whereabouts the entire day and no place seemed like a place where I would have had it out of my wallet. Nevertheless we went to each of these locations asking if they had found a derelict bank card. None of them had. Our best theory was that I had only put it in my pocket, not my wallet, and when I later reached to pull my wallet out the card had been pulled out with it and fallen to the ground. It sucked... More on that later.
After Kuta we went to Ubud, definitely my favorite city of Indonesia. It was beautiful surroundings, in the middle of forest. Our guest house was on the second floor and had an attractive garden to look at from the two chairs outside of our door, where we enjoyed sipping coffee or a beer.
While there we took in what I consider to be the best live performance I have ever seen in my life. It was a traditional Balinese dance show, with three different stories in it. It took place at a former royal palace so the ambiance was quite traditional and apt. Although it was raining, when the performance began I was entranced. A huge chorus of gambang (Balinese xylophones) chimed in strange harmonies, complete saturating the air with sound and making my hairs stand on end. The music made my senses dance, and that was impressive enough even without the dance. Then, a dancer appeared in the royal archway atop of some steps. She was dressed in an elaborate costume and make-up and began a hypnotic dance in unison with the music. The dance, for those who have never seen it, places a great emphasis on eyes and hands. The legs and body move very little but the movements of the eyes and hands together is very beautiful. Unfortunately the rain REALLY picked up at that point and the performance had to be moved, shattering the moment of zen I was in. The rest of the show, while very impressive, didn't have the same mystique as the first dance. I thought the aspect of the show I would be most impressed by was the Barong (weird dog/dragon beast thing) costume dance, but it didn't compare to the first part.
The next day we went to the monkey sanctuary, a forested area full of Hindu statues and temples. And wow, were there a lot of monkeys. At any given time we could see about 10 of them. They had free access to yams, but seemed to vastly prefer the bananas given by the tourists (purchased for a moderate price). Unfortunately most tourists were unprepared for the monkey thieves that stole whole bunches from them rather than the one offered, and people were generally afraid to attempt to get them back. It was a beautiful area, and as always the Hindu architecture didn't disappoint. For some reason I've always loved mossy stones, statues in particular and Ubud is full of them.
Another amazing thing we noticed there was that the monkey society didn't seem homogeneous. There were the monkeys at the entrance level, but up a flight of stairs seemed to be a different monkey clan. When ones from the lower area tried to climb up, all of the monkeys in the higher area seemed to stop what they were doing to chase off the lower ones. At least so we observed a couple of times. Another interesting thing we noticed about the upper level monkeys is that they seemed to be the "scientists" of the monkey sanctuary. I took videos and pictures of this one monkey who had found two stones that were roughly square shaped. He took these stones and banged them together, rolled them both into a banana leaf and the hit them, rolled them into dirt, banged one of them on a bottle, tried to fit one of them in a bottle or into a water spout, etc... Without trying to anthropomorphize them it really looked like experimentation with objects, and numerous studies show how monkey's and other primates teach learned behavior from one to another, so its not that far a stretch. I think Anita posted one of the videos, but this little guy and the rest on the upper part of the sanctuary seemed to be doing all sorts of solitary behaviors with objects that didn't seem to relate to food gathering, socializing or mating.
After Bali we went on to the island of Java, and the nightmare of Probo Lingo...
The main street in Kuta was lined with hotels, restaurants and bars and had a lively touristy kind of energy. Every now and then a local would whisper in your ear, offering you illegal drugs, but since its an drug offense= execution kind of country, very bad idea. The same is true of Philippines and signs at the airport reminded you of this surreal fact (though not as surreal as Afghanistan current government's execution punishment for distribution of women's rights materials. Thank god we got rid of that nasty taliban.
The next day we got an even cheaper room, 7$ a night, very good bargain. Even though we decided not to go into the water, we went for a walk along the beach. It wasn't nearly as nice as boracays beach, and more crowded, but it was nicer than Jeju do's. I was amazed at how many buff bodies were there. It made me feel like a Pillsbury Dough Geek. Yes there were the normal people as well, but a disproportionate number of "tv land" mutants. I was also amazed to remember how many more "S" line (Korean slang for curvy) women there are from European descent, likely creating for a completely different bra industry across continents. Epitomes of mammals.
The next day I awoke and we went to go withdraw some money for our next stop. I discovered my bank card was disturbingly absent. Anita and I spent the next day retracing our steps to see where I could have lost it. We completely accounted for our whereabouts the entire day and no place seemed like a place where I would have had it out of my wallet. Nevertheless we went to each of these locations asking if they had found a derelict bank card. None of them had. Our best theory was that I had only put it in my pocket, not my wallet, and when I later reached to pull my wallet out the card had been pulled out with it and fallen to the ground. It sucked... More on that later.
After Kuta we went to Ubud, definitely my favorite city of Indonesia. It was beautiful surroundings, in the middle of forest. Our guest house was on the second floor and had an attractive garden to look at from the two chairs outside of our door, where we enjoyed sipping coffee or a beer.
While there we took in what I consider to be the best live performance I have ever seen in my life. It was a traditional Balinese dance show, with three different stories in it. It took place at a former royal palace so the ambiance was quite traditional and apt. Although it was raining, when the performance began I was entranced. A huge chorus of gambang (Balinese xylophones) chimed in strange harmonies, complete saturating the air with sound and making my hairs stand on end. The music made my senses dance, and that was impressive enough even without the dance. Then, a dancer appeared in the royal archway atop of some steps. She was dressed in an elaborate costume and make-up and began a hypnotic dance in unison with the music. The dance, for those who have never seen it, places a great emphasis on eyes and hands. The legs and body move very little but the movements of the eyes and hands together is very beautiful. Unfortunately the rain REALLY picked up at that point and the performance had to be moved, shattering the moment of zen I was in. The rest of the show, while very impressive, didn't have the same mystique as the first dance. I thought the aspect of the show I would be most impressed by was the Barong (weird dog/dragon beast thing) costume dance, but it didn't compare to the first part.
The next day we went to the monkey sanctuary, a forested area full of Hindu statues and temples. And wow, were there a lot of monkeys. At any given time we could see about 10 of them. They had free access to yams, but seemed to vastly prefer the bananas given by the tourists (purchased for a moderate price). Unfortunately most tourists were unprepared for the monkey thieves that stole whole bunches from them rather than the one offered, and people were generally afraid to attempt to get them back. It was a beautiful area, and as always the Hindu architecture didn't disappoint. For some reason I've always loved mossy stones, statues in particular and Ubud is full of them.
Another amazing thing we noticed there was that the monkey society didn't seem homogeneous. There were the monkeys at the entrance level, but up a flight of stairs seemed to be a different monkey clan. When ones from the lower area tried to climb up, all of the monkeys in the higher area seemed to stop what they were doing to chase off the lower ones. At least so we observed a couple of times. Another interesting thing we noticed about the upper level monkeys is that they seemed to be the "scientists" of the monkey sanctuary. I took videos and pictures of this one monkey who had found two stones that were roughly square shaped. He took these stones and banged them together, rolled them both into a banana leaf and the hit them, rolled them into dirt, banged one of them on a bottle, tried to fit one of them in a bottle or into a water spout, etc... Without trying to anthropomorphize them it really looked like experimentation with objects, and numerous studies show how monkey's and other primates teach learned behavior from one to another, so its not that far a stretch. I think Anita posted one of the videos, but this little guy and the rest on the upper part of the sanctuary seemed to be doing all sorts of solitary behaviors with objects that didn't seem to relate to food gathering, socializing or mating.
After Bali we went on to the island of Java, and the nightmare of Probo Lingo...
Time in Singapore
After an tiresome and uncomfortable wait in the Cebu airport, we took flight and entered Singapore. Our hostel was clean, air conditioned, included hot water, but had a shared bathroom. However, since it was called the "Dragon Inn" it made up for any shortcomings.
Upon walking around Singapore I was immediately struck by how much safer it seemed than the Philippines. No gun toting guards at every business (such as the pizzeria guard we encountered the day earlier in Philippines) or bag checks at malls. We started off the day going into the Muslim district, passing by a block entirely dedicated to beautiful textiles. Later in the day we checked out little India and ate some fantastic Indian food for 5$ each. Its about the cheapest option there is for eating over there. The outward structures of Hindu temples were also quite amazing, incorporating countless statues and carvings of deities and heroes in the polished and dyed exterior.
I also noticed that jaywalking is the norm there. Now I've always said this about my hometown, P.A., but Singapore beats P.A. hands down in the jaywalking department. Walk lights are completely and utterly a convenience, the exception for walking not the norm.
It was pretty cool seeing the fusion of Arab, Indian and Chinese cultures mix in Singapore, and the next day we also saw where all the whities hang. We went to Orchard road, a very long street lined with shopping malls, coffee shops and department stores. It was clear that we had entered "expensive land" and brands that I would never conceive of purchasing in a million years were presented to us at every angle. Named like Gucci, Loui Vitton, Dolche and Gabana, etc... are just "tv land" words to me. There is a diminishing gains effect that happens in clothes, and I don't need to pay ten times as much money for an extra 10% gain in quality. Those kind of stores literally boggle my mind when I think of how much better the money could be spent than there...
While in Singapore I woke up one day and felt the usual semi-hardened lump of mucous from Asian air in the back of my throat. I applied the proper suction from swallowing but it didn't budge. That happens sometimes when the phlegm is particularly bonded with the flesh, so I swallowed again, creating more suction... Hm..., no dice. I tried again and this time it hurt. Something was up. I started to believe that this "mucous" was not mucous at all. I looked in the mirror and said "ahhh". My uvula had became intensely swollen and elongated to the point where it rested on the back of my tongue. This became highly annoying as it constantly triggered my swallow response throughout the following days.
Later in Singapore there was some unknown event among little India, since as we were walking around we noticed something strange. The streets were completely filled with swarms and swarms of Indians. Not just Indians, only Indian men. Not just Indian men, only Indian men with mustaches. Now we had always noticed a prevalence for mustaches among Indian men but I was awestruck by the sheer mustache-fest among the men there. The choked sidewalks and streets were teeming with mustache more than any 70s porno could ever dream of. Anyway, it was a weird vibe. About 90% or more of the people sported them.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable and polished kind of city, but a tad expensive.
Upon walking around Singapore I was immediately struck by how much safer it seemed than the Philippines. No gun toting guards at every business (such as the pizzeria guard we encountered the day earlier in Philippines) or bag checks at malls. We started off the day going into the Muslim district, passing by a block entirely dedicated to beautiful textiles. Later in the day we checked out little India and ate some fantastic Indian food for 5$ each. Its about the cheapest option there is for eating over there. The outward structures of Hindu temples were also quite amazing, incorporating countless statues and carvings of deities and heroes in the polished and dyed exterior.
I also noticed that jaywalking is the norm there. Now I've always said this about my hometown, P.A., but Singapore beats P.A. hands down in the jaywalking department. Walk lights are completely and utterly a convenience, the exception for walking not the norm.
It was pretty cool seeing the fusion of Arab, Indian and Chinese cultures mix in Singapore, and the next day we also saw where all the whities hang. We went to Orchard road, a very long street lined with shopping malls, coffee shops and department stores. It was clear that we had entered "expensive land" and brands that I would never conceive of purchasing in a million years were presented to us at every angle. Named like Gucci, Loui Vitton, Dolche and Gabana, etc... are just "tv land" words to me. There is a diminishing gains effect that happens in clothes, and I don't need to pay ten times as much money for an extra 10% gain in quality. Those kind of stores literally boggle my mind when I think of how much better the money could be spent than there...
While in Singapore I woke up one day and felt the usual semi-hardened lump of mucous from Asian air in the back of my throat. I applied the proper suction from swallowing but it didn't budge. That happens sometimes when the phlegm is particularly bonded with the flesh, so I swallowed again, creating more suction... Hm..., no dice. I tried again and this time it hurt. Something was up. I started to believe that this "mucous" was not mucous at all. I looked in the mirror and said "ahhh". My uvula had became intensely swollen and elongated to the point where it rested on the back of my tongue. This became highly annoying as it constantly triggered my swallow response throughout the following days.
Later in Singapore there was some unknown event among little India, since as we were walking around we noticed something strange. The streets were completely filled with swarms and swarms of Indians. Not just Indians, only Indian men. Not just Indian men, only Indian men with mustaches. Now we had always noticed a prevalence for mustaches among Indian men but I was awestruck by the sheer mustache-fest among the men there. The choked sidewalks and streets were teeming with mustache more than any 70s porno could ever dream of. Anyway, it was a weird vibe. About 90% or more of the people sported them.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable and polished kind of city, but a tad expensive.
Friday, September 12, 2008
A Change to a Fictional World
In the fictional world I'm working on, I have a devastating plague that kills roughly 10% of the world's population. Also in this world is a proliferation of "braincomputer" technology a fusion of computer abilities immediately accessible directly through consciousness. I think a more interesting turn would be to combine these two elements, and make braincomputers a near universal phenomenon by making them an endogenous retrovirus DNA computer.
DNA computing works on the concept that its better to have millions of brains than one brain. Rather than one computer doing the problem, billions of different DNA stands compute different parts of the problem simultaneously and then a CPU reports the finished product. In reality people have working models of DNA computers that can solve the "burnt pancake problem" right now, but only with 2 pancakes. I figure around 50 years or so this technology will see some serious improvement, as it is only 15 years old or so as a theory.
Anyway, in this fictional world I want to have such a technology really take off and see mass production. As this technology proliferates a researcher wants to incorporate the idea with another emerging technology, braincomputers. The researcher envisions running an OS within the human body by introducing a tailored ERV. Billions of cells would circulate throughout the body, and would communicate with each other and use the human brain and nervous system as the CPU. The effect would be having a dispersed internal computer. You could interact with hardware and the internet in your field of vision or your mind's eye. I haven't worked out the details of the origin yet, as such a technology would likely be met with stiff opposition. I may pull a "Frankenstein" and have a researcher obsessed with the idea finish the project himself. In any case, the end result would be that the virus becomes airborne and infects nearly everyone in the world over then next couple of decades, providing everyone with an internal computer.
Since I already have a killer plague born from a mistake in biotechnology in my game, fusing these two ideas to make the viral computer kill loads of people seems like a decent idea. Alternatively, I thought of naturalists who hate the idea of being infected with a computer (though it does no harm) concoct vaccine to kill the viral computer to return to a natural state of humanity, however it ends up mutating and constitutes the plague. I kinda like the poetic irony of the latter, though it is more convoluted.
Regardless of the origins, between two individuals with such computers inside them, programs like Skype and MSN messenger could function like telepathy, using wireless networks to communicate. Unfortunately, computer hacking tacks on a far more dangerous form in such a world. Since the computer's OS has essentially become an aspect of your consciousness, your mind could be hacked. Spyware would become tracking 0r voyeur programs. Even more serious is that puppeteer hacks, memory implants or wipes, or even brain damage could be effects of malignant hacks. These effects are essentially psychic powers, since everyone on the planet has one of these internal computers, so hackers become psionicists. In any case, by 2080 nearly everyone on the planet could be considered a post human because of this.
A second change I will be making will change the date of the world from 2060 to 2080 to allow for a more realistic time line, specifically regarding the spread of this braincomputer virus and to allow technology and cultural sensibilities changed enough for transgenic humans to occur. I'd always felt it was a little tight to squeeze transgenic soldiers, and their children, by 2060.
As usual, just recording some thoughts to make em easier to collect later.
DNA computing works on the concept that its better to have millions of brains than one brain. Rather than one computer doing the problem, billions of different DNA stands compute different parts of the problem simultaneously and then a CPU reports the finished product. In reality people have working models of DNA computers that can solve the "burnt pancake problem" right now, but only with 2 pancakes. I figure around 50 years or so this technology will see some serious improvement, as it is only 15 years old or so as a theory.
Anyway, in this fictional world I want to have such a technology really take off and see mass production. As this technology proliferates a researcher wants to incorporate the idea with another emerging technology, braincomputers. The researcher envisions running an OS within the human body by introducing a tailored ERV. Billions of cells would circulate throughout the body, and would communicate with each other and use the human brain and nervous system as the CPU. The effect would be having a dispersed internal computer. You could interact with hardware and the internet in your field of vision or your mind's eye. I haven't worked out the details of the origin yet, as such a technology would likely be met with stiff opposition. I may pull a "Frankenstein" and have a researcher obsessed with the idea finish the project himself. In any case, the end result would be that the virus becomes airborne and infects nearly everyone in the world over then next couple of decades, providing everyone with an internal computer.
Since I already have a killer plague born from a mistake in biotechnology in my game, fusing these two ideas to make the viral computer kill loads of people seems like a decent idea. Alternatively, I thought of naturalists who hate the idea of being infected with a computer (though it does no harm) concoct vaccine to kill the viral computer to return to a natural state of humanity, however it ends up mutating and constitutes the plague. I kinda like the poetic irony of the latter, though it is more convoluted.
Regardless of the origins, between two individuals with such computers inside them, programs like Skype and MSN messenger could function like telepathy, using wireless networks to communicate. Unfortunately, computer hacking tacks on a far more dangerous form in such a world. Since the computer's OS has essentially become an aspect of your consciousness, your mind could be hacked. Spyware would become tracking 0r voyeur programs. Even more serious is that puppeteer hacks, memory implants or wipes, or even brain damage could be effects of malignant hacks. These effects are essentially psychic powers, since everyone on the planet has one of these internal computers, so hackers become psionicists. In any case, by 2080 nearly everyone on the planet could be considered a post human because of this.
A second change I will be making will change the date of the world from 2060 to 2080 to allow for a more realistic time line, specifically regarding the spread of this braincomputer virus and to allow technology and cultural sensibilities changed enough for transgenic humans to occur. I'd always felt it was a little tight to squeeze transgenic soldiers, and their children, by 2060.
As usual, just recording some thoughts to make em easier to collect later.
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