Messages

I've always wanted to write something beautiful. Something that resonates with the reader on a fundamental and visceral level, something so profound and moving that it leaves people in a stunned, contemplative silence for a few minutes. I want to write something so charged and powerful that people are awed and amazed. I want to send a message that holds so much truth that weight that people don't know how to respond.

You know who knows how to send a message like that? The Buddhists. On June 10th, 1963, Thich Quang Duc performed his self-immolation in front of the Cambodian embassy in protest of the Diem government's oppression of the Buddhist people. Burning yourself alive is a hell of a message to send. Photographer Malcolm Brown took a picture of the event which later won a Pulitzer prize and the 1963 World Journalism Photo of the Year. The monk remained motionless and stoic while he burned alive. It even ended up as the cover art for Rage Against The Machine's first album.

This picture always awes me. The incredible ability of this monk to remain motionless in searing agony, it puts me in a grisly silence, and it makes me wonder, what went through his head during his final moments? I have a profound respect for Buddhists, the lives they lead, the control they have over their bodies, the absolute dedication they have to their cause, their philosophies of life, everything. And man, what a way to send a message. There's a kind of juxtaposition between the act itself and the words he spoke beforehand. He respectfully asked the Diem government to allow and respect religious equality, calmly and colloquially. Then he burned himself alive. There's a a subtle, yet undeniable hostility in the act, and I'm hesitant to even call it a nonviolent protest because of the intense way it conveyed that the Buddhists are not fucking around with this one. In no way could anyone possibly take this lightly. This was a calculated, savage message saying one thing: we will not live like this.

That is one hell of a message.

That's the kind of message I want to be able to send. I want to be able to put the same effect of Thich Quang Duc's, message into words. I find the concept of literature fascinating. Through the right combination of words, you can invoke any emotion, any feeling, any concept (though some would disagree), you can communicate nearly everything and anything.

Well, nearly.

As a construct of humanity, language is as fallible as its creators. I was faced with this problem a few days ago when I tried to argue that not all revolutions, not all changes need "hate" as a catalyst. There are many revolutions, driven by hate, but I used the example of Gandhi's revolution of civil disobedience. I know the concept, the feeling that Gandhi likely felt to lead this revolution, but I struggled to find the right word. I tried "discontent", but it's too mild, and it it's a bit off to the side of the concept I was looking for. This was about a week ago, and right now the best word I can think of is "righteousness", which is much closer than "discontent", but it still doesn't seem to quite capture the idea, the essence of Gandhi's message. No, it's more comforting, more embracing than righteousness, it's similar to love, but, more righteous. A defiant love if you will. I simply cannot think of a word for that and I'm convinced it doesn't exist. But I can still convey the idea I want through a combination of similar words.

Right now my question is; is there a message that no combination of words can possibly communicate? Is there something that we can feel that we are powerless to share?

Modular Madness

A while ago I ran into an idea called Phonebloks, and thought it was clever, that it might work, and that I really, really want one. As someone who has built their own computer, I have an appreciation for the power and price of a custom built computer  (Protip: it's cheaper and better). I love the freedom of being able to choose the hardware that goes into my computer. When I saw the opportunity for that to happen with a phone as well, I was ecstatic. At the time, realistically I considered it not very feasible. From a design and technology perspective, phones are able to be small because the hardware is arranged on top of each other, intertwined with each other, there is zero wasted space. When you separate and isolate the parts, and put room between them, the phone takes up a lot more space. Unlike PCs, phones (obviously) need to be compact to fit in pockets as such. This article explains a bunch of reasons an idea like Phonebloks probably wouldn't work. After reading it, I was mildly pessimistic about the possibility of such a phone until very recently.

On October 28th, Motorola announced Project Ara, essentially the exact same thing as Phonebloks, and I have to say, I'm excited to see them prove Colin Lecher wrong. I've even signed up for the Project Ara Dscout, the app that lets users give feedback, comments and ideas to the developers through a series of "missions" over the next few months. So for the rest of this post, I'm going to talk about my initial thoughts about Project Ara.

So like I mentioned, I'm really excited for this idea, and I really want one, but I am worried about the size of the phone since, as I also mentioned, the parts are going to be separated and there is going to be some wasted space. Hopefully, technology has advanced enough for this to be a negligible problem. I also hope they don't solve it by making the parts less complex, trading higher-end technology for the module design. Either that or made the phone the size of a Phablet or something stupid like that.

I don't remember where, but I read somewhere that specific builds of Android are required for different combinations of parts in order to have full optimization. This isn't a problem with conventional smartphones since every phone has the same parts, but with a modular phone, this is obviously a problem. I'm curious to see how that problem is solved.

I'm very curious to see what companies start developing modules for Project Ara, and for what. It'd be awesome if Nvidia, AMD and Intel made processors and things specifically for gaming. I mean that's the entire point of this right? To have phones that can be customized to fit even the most specific or obscure niches.

So yea.
I'm pretty excited.

The Man Who Rules The Universe

On January 1st, 1980, Pan Books published Douglas Adams's Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Chapter 29 of that book features a minor, but fascinating character: the Man who Rules the Universe. He lives with his cat in a ramshackle hut on a desolate planet hidden and protected by a field of Unprobability. The most interesting feature about this man, however, is that he believes in nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even the things he perceives with his own eyes.

Most would call such a man insane, and that was clearly Adams's intent. But the fascinating thing about this character is that, in fact, he isn't. On the outside, the man is as he appears, weathered, rough and quite out if his mind, but underneath this facade is a sort of bemused, resigned but very perceptive intelligence. His insanity seems more like something to pass the time in the isolation on his lonely planet rather than an actual degradation of his psyche. My reasoning for this is as follows; the man seems to know exactly what is going on. With apparent awareness of the situation, he distracts Zarniwoop, allowing Trillian and Zaphod to escape unnoticed, then deliberately locks Zarniwoop out of the house and ignores him. These very calculated, specific actions lend evidence to the idea that the man who rules the universe is not only at least partially sane, but has an awareness and understanding of the world beyond his apparent doubt of everything he perceives. The way he acted, the actions he took imply that the man knows the consequences of the actions he took, and the consequences of the trio's presence on the planet.

The man's entire reality exists in a duality of doubt, and actions contradicting that doubt. His life symbolizes the somewhat bittersweet truth that every philosopher, every conspiracist, every human on this planet must face.

We are trapped by our experiences, they are inescapable, we can doubt them all we want but in the end, we must live our lives as human beings along with the rest of the world. We have no choice but to interact with the world under the assumption that it is real.

But is that such a bad thing?

Our lives, no matter how much we doubt them, are quite beautiful. Every day we have the chance to learn something new, something fantastic, to meet new people, to discover new places, to have some fun. Our lives, have the potential to be quite enjoyable. The Man who Rules the Universe can find excitement in everything he experiences, because he can experience them in a new way every time. He lives with his cat in a ramshackle hut on a desolate planet hidden and protected by a field of Unprobability, yet he can find something to do, something to enjoy every single day. What excuse do we have for stagnancy?

I say enjoy life, all of its doubts, assumptions and beauties.
After all, it's all that we got.

I bid you welcome to the Man Who Rules The Universe.