The entire western world, from the age of 5 is indoctrinated into the institutionalized society which is the education system. From there, a child will spend the next 13 years in grade school, jumping academic hoops and pleasing their teachers by doing what they want to get good grades. From institution from institution these children progress through, but yet, it is still more of the same-- children are told what to do and are graded on how well they execute their commands. Children, in this light might look like glorified biological computers.
We are told in that point of our lives that we need to get good grades so we can get a good job to live a prosperous and happy life. Such is the dream that we are told and we believe it throughout the majority of our lives. We hear the same comment from everyone, from teachers, parents, adults and friends. It becomes a universal truth, almost like a fundamental one like 1+1=2-- irrefutable, because we know no better. And so, we carry on through grade school, jumping through the hoops, like a circus act, where our biggest performance is a test for entry in to a much larger and extravagant institution otherwise known as University.
We finally get into university and realize a sense of freedom-- we choose our own departments, our own courses and even when to take them from a scheduled list. What incredible freedom, nothing like we had before in our grade school years. But still, it is still more of the same-- marching orders from our professors and academic hoop jumping.
"But this time," as most of us think, "we are going to be free. Freedom, finally."
Anxiety sets in, the year before graduating. "I'm going to graduate! What next!?" We wonder. Obviously our next problem to deal with is getting a job and making money out of the necessity to survive. With little a thought, resumes and cover letters are fired off left right and center to whatever company with an opening. Sooner or later, we find ourselves with a job, following orders and getting evaluated by our bosses.
From cradle to grave, this is how most of us will live, everyday being told what to do and being evaluated. Most of us will probably not realize it because we are probably comfortable with it because it is the only life we know. Most of us will end up taking up a few hobbies along the way and perhaps do some traveling from time to time.
And from time to time you will be asked by new friends, "what do you like doing?" For which most of us will stumble through looking for something to say to make ourselves not look entirely lame; it becomes like a traditional greeting, something that everyone does and not think twice about.
And that is what I think is the biggest travesty of our time.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wasted Time
It is unimaginable, the amount of time that is squandered in a day doing useless things. Time is often spent watching TV, reading useless things on the internet and just bumming around doing nothing. Sometimes I wonder on the magnitude of time just spent, "killing time." I do believe that in a single day, that amount could easily be in the ball park of 3~4 hours, or perhaps at least 1/4 of your waking hours (if you spend 8 hours sleeping per day).
There ought to be better ways of spending time instead blowing it away like this. Sometimes I think of this of a terrible waste considering the number of things a person could be doing or learning using this time. I never did say that you had to spend this time for work or anything, but just for something productive and life would be much more enriching.
Over the course of the last 2 years, I have prided myself on my ability to work effectively, sometimes operating at double the efficiency of my peers, just because of good management or finding some new tricks to fit more work into the same amount of time. Sometimes I come up with a neat little computer program that get things done nice and faster and while I am writing these little programs or whatever, I end up learning a little more about programming at the same time!
I do believe that there are enriching ways of living instead of just finding ways of simply killing time. It would be a terrible waste to do so. There are so many people out there working boring jobs, like at a till, a code (programming) monkey, quality assurance testers and such. I am pretty sure that that there are many that work these jobs just do it to get by. To me, a monotonous existence like that is terribly boring and people should be striving to have a far more interesting existence instead.
In the case for me, I am quite confident that I will not be doing boring things for a job in the future. Sometimes, I have these ideas that take me from something boring to something more interesting. "How can I do this better?" is quite a common question that I ask myself (technically it's "Oh my god! This is so stupid!", but it's the equivalent) then I go on a tirade trying to find a better way of doing it (whatever that is) or start fishing for interesting problems to solve.
Now that is the interesting thing, however. I am quite happy that I can be innovative sometimes and my ideas take me to interesting places, making me want to extend my knowledge and skill as I face different challenges as I dream them up and it is often that success is a result of a person flowing from one problem to another, solving them each step along the way. Once you start of like this, finding success seems like a natural progression. But the real interesting problem is where does a person get started?
That is the interesting problem isn't it?
For most people that spend most of their time just killing time, I it would be hard for them to get started. What I have found out so far is that in order for people to be inspired to do something, they need to be introduced to an interesting problem and start from there. It is only then, when people start looking at all sorts of practical problems that they themselves face and realize that others might be facing them too, it is then that people start understanding the bigger picture of how things work and what are the interesting problems that people face.
In terms of children, which many people refer to as "our future," I believe that the most important resource is squandered because we don't introduce them to real life problems. The mathematics, language, history, science and art is all taught without context, because without context, either the idea becomes confused or we lose it's meaning.
It's a terrible shame to have children all the way to university students insulated from the real workings of the world. Mainly, the reason why it probably ends up this way is that we worry about them screwing things up if people gave them real responsibility, but still, it is a very important process of learning which most of our youths are robbed of during their years of education.
Perhaps now, I would much rather be playing with a computer program, an electronic circuit or something instead of a video game. Either one of which I would consider as entertainment, but only one is actually nurturing. Perhaps instead of finding ways of killing time, a more interesting problem is finding ways of "playing productively."
There ought to be better ways of spending time instead blowing it away like this. Sometimes I think of this of a terrible waste considering the number of things a person could be doing or learning using this time. I never did say that you had to spend this time for work or anything, but just for something productive and life would be much more enriching.
Over the course of the last 2 years, I have prided myself on my ability to work effectively, sometimes operating at double the efficiency of my peers, just because of good management or finding some new tricks to fit more work into the same amount of time. Sometimes I come up with a neat little computer program that get things done nice and faster and while I am writing these little programs or whatever, I end up learning a little more about programming at the same time!
I do believe that there are enriching ways of living instead of just finding ways of simply killing time. It would be a terrible waste to do so. There are so many people out there working boring jobs, like at a till, a code (programming) monkey, quality assurance testers and such. I am pretty sure that that there are many that work these jobs just do it to get by. To me, a monotonous existence like that is terribly boring and people should be striving to have a far more interesting existence instead.
In the case for me, I am quite confident that I will not be doing boring things for a job in the future. Sometimes, I have these ideas that take me from something boring to something more interesting. "How can I do this better?" is quite a common question that I ask myself (technically it's "Oh my god! This is so stupid!", but it's the equivalent) then I go on a tirade trying to find a better way of doing it (whatever that is) or start fishing for interesting problems to solve.
Now that is the interesting thing, however. I am quite happy that I can be innovative sometimes and my ideas take me to interesting places, making me want to extend my knowledge and skill as I face different challenges as I dream them up and it is often that success is a result of a person flowing from one problem to another, solving them each step along the way. Once you start of like this, finding success seems like a natural progression. But the real interesting problem is where does a person get started?
That is the interesting problem isn't it?
For most people that spend most of their time just killing time, I it would be hard for them to get started. What I have found out so far is that in order for people to be inspired to do something, they need to be introduced to an interesting problem and start from there. It is only then, when people start looking at all sorts of practical problems that they themselves face and realize that others might be facing them too, it is then that people start understanding the bigger picture of how things work and what are the interesting problems that people face.
In terms of children, which many people refer to as "our future," I believe that the most important resource is squandered because we don't introduce them to real life problems. The mathematics, language, history, science and art is all taught without context, because without context, either the idea becomes confused or we lose it's meaning.
It's a terrible shame to have children all the way to university students insulated from the real workings of the world. Mainly, the reason why it probably ends up this way is that we worry about them screwing things up if people gave them real responsibility, but still, it is a very important process of learning which most of our youths are robbed of during their years of education.
Perhaps now, I would much rather be playing with a computer program, an electronic circuit or something instead of a video game. Either one of which I would consider as entertainment, but only one is actually nurturing. Perhaps instead of finding ways of killing time, a more interesting problem is finding ways of "playing productively."
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Further Minaturization of Computers
Computers and even laptops right now are still pretty large and bulky compared to what they could actually be in the future. I have been following Apple's iPhone for the last while and I do believe that Apple is going in the right direction when it comes to the future of computing.
Though Apple has been able to create a music player, phone and internet communications device, the real beauty of the device is that they are able to incorporate a PC level operating system, a stripped down version of the one used in the Mac computers to operate these devices. The interesting thing here about the iPhone is that we are starting to see the emergence of hand held computing devices. Complete with memory, video display, data storage and networking capabilities. In the future I expect to see far more powerful hand held devices that may one day change the way we think of portable computers.
The main hold up of computer miniaturization is the integration of discrete integrated chips. Integrated chips are a made of thin silicon wafers with patterns of transistors and logic circuits which are currently being fabricated on the nano-scale level; for example Intel is currently able to fabricate feature sizes of about 65 nm with is on the order of 1/200th of the diameter of your hair. On chips, less than 1 cm square, they are able to fit in 200-300 million transistors. That is an incredible number for such a small chip.
Though the semi-conducting industry is able to accomplish such feats of miniaturization, the biggest problem (in more ways than one) outstanding is the integration of these chips to create a single computing system. Computers are manufactured out of a considerable number integrated circuit parts including a CPU, memory controller, I/O controller, BIOS chip, video chips, sound chips and etc. Though these integrated circuits, comprised of nano-sized circuitry are incredibly small for the functionality they provide, the problem remains that these chips require external circuitry and signals to operate properly. Some of these chips use external parts like resistors and capacitors to configure how they operate or just need external parts to ensure that they work properly. The problem is that these additional resistors and capacitors are quite large compared to these chips which take up a considerable amount of space, resulting in very large circuit boards to interface and operate these chips.
A picture of a small part of the inside of my laptop
Looking at the picture above, the black blocks are the integrated circuit chips and the much smaller bumps seen on the circuit board are the external components such as capacitors, resistors and diodes. which are used to run these chips. The green region on the circuit board consists of tracks of metal that connect each chip together and these tracks also take up a considerable amount of space.
What is needed in the future to reduce the amount of space to assemble a computer is to reduce the number of external components and reduce the amount of wiring needed to connect these chips together. The black chips you see in the picture contain a silicon wafer with circuity encased with an outer shell to protect it from dust particles and contaminants that might prevent the chip from operating properly.
What I would propose to further miniaturize computer, is to do away with the circuit board and find a way to integrate the silicon chips directly, probably on a silicon backed wafer where these chips can be mounted onto directly and closer together. The components that are needed to run these chips could possibly be fabricated directly onto the silicon wafter and can be inherently smaller than the discrete parts used. Finally with the silicon wafers assembled together the whole wafer with mounted chips can be packaged. The biggest challenge with integration like this is quality control as the silicon wafers are vulnerable to failure during the integration process and since the parts are small and fragile and susceptible to shorting and defects just from dust particles in air, even in a high level clean room.
Main board manufacturers are moving towards miniaturizing circuit boards by better design and parts integration. Taiwanese computer motherboard manufacturer has demonstrated that they are able to make a computer system smaller than a 3" hard drive.
Motherboard with integrated memory, CPU, hard drive I/O and video
If this is the direction that computers are going in the future, expect to find even more portable computers in the future. Eventually, we will deal away with the hard drive to make way for solid state memory (think flash memory) and CDs will go the way of the dinosaur, leaving your computer being more compact and all you may need is a touch screen to interact with your computing device on the go and hook it up to a large monitor, mouse and keyboard when you get to a desk somewhere.
If there is something that is going to get big in the future, I believe that it is going to be portable computing.
Though Apple has been able to create a music player, phone and internet communications device, the real beauty of the device is that they are able to incorporate a PC level operating system, a stripped down version of the one used in the Mac computers to operate these devices. The interesting thing here about the iPhone is that we are starting to see the emergence of hand held computing devices. Complete with memory, video display, data storage and networking capabilities. In the future I expect to see far more powerful hand held devices that may one day change the way we think of portable computers.
The main hold up of computer miniaturization is the integration of discrete integrated chips. Integrated chips are a made of thin silicon wafers with patterns of transistors and logic circuits which are currently being fabricated on the nano-scale level; for example Intel is currently able to fabricate feature sizes of about 65 nm with is on the order of 1/200th of the diameter of your hair. On chips, less than 1 cm square, they are able to fit in 200-300 million transistors. That is an incredible number for such a small chip.
Though the semi-conducting industry is able to accomplish such feats of miniaturization, the biggest problem (in more ways than one) outstanding is the integration of these chips to create a single computing system. Computers are manufactured out of a considerable number integrated circuit parts including a CPU, memory controller, I/O controller, BIOS chip, video chips, sound chips and etc. Though these integrated circuits, comprised of nano-sized circuitry are incredibly small for the functionality they provide, the problem remains that these chips require external circuitry and signals to operate properly. Some of these chips use external parts like resistors and capacitors to configure how they operate or just need external parts to ensure that they work properly. The problem is that these additional resistors and capacitors are quite large compared to these chips which take up a considerable amount of space, resulting in very large circuit boards to interface and operate these chips.
A picture of a small part of the inside of my laptop
Looking at the picture above, the black blocks are the integrated circuit chips and the much smaller bumps seen on the circuit board are the external components such as capacitors, resistors and diodes. which are used to run these chips. The green region on the circuit board consists of tracks of metal that connect each chip together and these tracks also take up a considerable amount of space.
What is needed in the future to reduce the amount of space to assemble a computer is to reduce the number of external components and reduce the amount of wiring needed to connect these chips together. The black chips you see in the picture contain a silicon wafer with circuity encased with an outer shell to protect it from dust particles and contaminants that might prevent the chip from operating properly.
What I would propose to further miniaturize computer, is to do away with the circuit board and find a way to integrate the silicon chips directly, probably on a silicon backed wafer where these chips can be mounted onto directly and closer together. The components that are needed to run these chips could possibly be fabricated directly onto the silicon wafter and can be inherently smaller than the discrete parts used. Finally with the silicon wafers assembled together the whole wafer with mounted chips can be packaged. The biggest challenge with integration like this is quality control as the silicon wafers are vulnerable to failure during the integration process and since the parts are small and fragile and susceptible to shorting and defects just from dust particles in air, even in a high level clean room.
Main board manufacturers are moving towards miniaturizing circuit boards by better design and parts integration. Taiwanese computer motherboard manufacturer has demonstrated that they are able to make a computer system smaller than a 3" hard drive.
Motherboard with integrated memory, CPU, hard drive I/O and video
If this is the direction that computers are going in the future, expect to find even more portable computers in the future. Eventually, we will deal away with the hard drive to make way for solid state memory (think flash memory) and CDs will go the way of the dinosaur, leaving your computer being more compact and all you may need is a touch screen to interact with your computing device on the go and hook it up to a large monitor, mouse and keyboard when you get to a desk somewhere.
If there is something that is going to get big in the future, I believe that it is going to be portable computing.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Average IQ of people that voted
I came across this interesting chart just today which tabulates the average IQ of the states that voted for either Bush or Kerry in the 2004 election. The results are rather telling as seen below:
Click for a larger view.
As seen from this chart here, states with lower IQs favored Bush while states with higher IQs favored Kerry. To put it bluntly, a good democracy only works when the general public is well educated... else you get what have you now in the US.
Click for a larger view.
As seen from this chart here, states with lower IQs favored Bush while states with higher IQs favored Kerry. To put it bluntly, a good democracy only works when the general public is well educated... else you get what have you now in the US.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Been busy...
Been busy and a little out of it. After handing in my thesis and taking some time off to pursue other projects, I have obviously left this blog in neglect. I have had some interesting ideas in the past and I am currently working on them.
FYI, my predictions of a US stock market slump are on the ball and have resulted in a drop in the stock market in all sectors. I would have never believed that I would be on the ball on this one... the only problem was that I didn't have the guts to make the right moves before all of this tumbling occurred, but I will have to learn to trust myself a little more.
In other news, the Sy's have come to Japan and I had the honor of hosting them for a few days in Sendai and then traveling with them to Aomori to attend to the Nebuta festival. Pictures and details are to follow later on.
Finally, I have been doing some reading on the net and came across this quote which I found interesting:
"Why, of course, the people don't want war, why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars." "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." --Herman Georing,
For those not in the know, Herman Goering was a military leader and a politician in the Nazi Party. The interview was taken during the trials at Nuremberg after being captured. He brings up a very good point on how countries are dragged into conflicts by their leaders. In the case of the US, we see that history repeats itself with rhetoric that "you're with us or against us" mentality.
Why would a person want to risk their life to join an army? You're risking your life to fight someone else's battle. If you're going to pick a fight, fight it yourself. Only cowards send goons to fight in their place. If a politician chooses to go to war, they should have the obligation to serve on the front lines, perhaps only then might they act responsibly.
FYI, my predictions of a US stock market slump are on the ball and have resulted in a drop in the stock market in all sectors. I would have never believed that I would be on the ball on this one... the only problem was that I didn't have the guts to make the right moves before all of this tumbling occurred, but I will have to learn to trust myself a little more.
In other news, the Sy's have come to Japan and I had the honor of hosting them for a few days in Sendai and then traveling with them to Aomori to attend to the Nebuta festival. Pictures and details are to follow later on.
Finally, I have been doing some reading on the net and came across this quote which I found interesting:
"Why, of course, the people don't want war, why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars." "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." --Herman Georing,
For those not in the know, Herman Goering was a military leader and a politician in the Nazi Party. The interview was taken during the trials at Nuremberg after being captured. He brings up a very good point on how countries are dragged into conflicts by their leaders. In the case of the US, we see that history repeats itself with rhetoric that "you're with us or against us" mentality.
Why would a person want to risk their life to join an army? You're risking your life to fight someone else's battle. If you're going to pick a fight, fight it yourself. Only cowards send goons to fight in their place. If a politician chooses to go to war, they should have the obligation to serve on the front lines, perhaps only then might they act responsibly.
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