Influence

This post is part of the "First Few Old Blog Posts" archive.
You could expect a certain lack of coherency/maturity from these posts.

Been a long time since I've blogged. You can blame that on school and shit. I've been very preoccupied lately with all the accumulating work that I've been getting and hell it's been hard to even take a minute out and do some thinking.

Anyway , so yeah , you read the title - Influence.
Influence is essentially a very important key factor in psychology and philosophy.

This word has so many meanings and interpretations that it makes a fine topic for long discussions.

Let's start with the definition:
Influence : The occurring effect when there is a deviation in the normal routine/behavior of an object or a body due to impact of force/energy/information originating from an external source.

So at the lowest level , this means that , say a body A is moving with uniform speed along a straight line XY. Collision with another body would result in change in either direction i.e it deviates from XY or change in it's uniform speed. The body is thus said to be influenced.
Note that if there is change in the body's shape/size from the impact of the external force , but no change in speed/direction , then the body is said to have been "uninfluenced" by the external force.
Technically though , this is not really possible. The object that we were talking about had only 2 properties entitled to it , Speed and Direction. Shape and size were just the "features" of the body in it's current context. In reality though , as change in feature WILL cause change in property , it is actually physically impossible for properties to remain unchanged if the body is "influenced" in any way.
Also , as a living being , we have infinite number of properties/features entitled to us. And always , change in one will has resulted in change in every other.
So from henceforth , without mention , we will assume that when influence takes place in a living body , it affects ALL its properties.

The above example of the moving object , can be related to us on several larger scales in more advanced forms. Let's begin with the lowest level cases and progress to the largest.

(The following categories have been separated by me and so I apologize if they already exist under different names or are different from the following.)

1. Sense Influence :

Leaving spirituality behind , we have 5 senses : touch , taste , hear , smell and sight. It is these senses that interact with the external environment and relate to the brain which acts as a whole and respectively responds to the influence by making our body react to it. This reaction can occur in various ways. Speech , movement etc. So yeah , this is pretty much like that stimulus/response thing you learnt in primary school. It forms the basic level of humanity and human character since everything we do relies wholly on what we receive through these senses.

 - No influence :

If all the 5 senses of the body are removed in order to prevent sense influence , then ... umm , idk. This part is a bit weird. There will be nothing. The brain , not knowing that it even exists , will not attempt to do anything? I don't know , we'll have to do some guessing here since I did not find any reliable source for research. So , maybe the brain will just live? Maybe it'll live without even knowing that it exists , so it might be as good as being dead. It will age without any functional change since it has nothing to do. OR , knowing that it does not exist , it may cease to stop living. It might stop all functions including it's blood/oxygen regulation and eventually die out. Anyway , the point here is that it would be horrible.

 - Artificial influence :

Now that we know that the brain essentially holds the sum of form all its senses over time , tampering with those sense can be used to provide artificial sense influence. The technology to do so has already been developed but not perfected enough to be available for testing. Just imagine. Take a brain , isolate it from all its senses. and connect the sense receiving "ports" (I can't find a better word) to computer devices which know how to send/receive data impulses from and to the brain and knows how to interpret the brain signals. We could literally place a person in a virtual environment and give him his own virtual body to interact with. You could send the brain artificial signals about sight , which is actually just the visual rendering of the virtual environment. He could then see around and also his own virtual arms/legs etc. And the brain of the host , sending signals for movement , would then co-relate visual sense as well , as it would be able to see the moving hand it front of it , which the brain had sent signals to do so , and had been interpreted and processed successfully by the machine. He would also register the sense of touch , of how his feet were touching the floor and his body against his clothes , etc. Collectively , he could live in a digitalized environment as though it was completely real.

Now think , what if that IS reality? What if we are all actually living in a virtual environment with the illusion of reality? It's pretty much possible , even though you're probably gonna send me hate mail about The Matrix later today. If this is correct though , the possibilities would be much more interesting.

2. Emotional Influence :

The next big thing is how we are all so much affected by our own emotions. Emotions are responsible for most of the choices we make and the actions we perform. Although emotions themselves are products of influence , they themselves play a very large role in the forthcoming and resulting influence. Emotions can result in good/bad actions. If Hitler wasn't so hateful toward the Jew doctor who was treating his mother when she died , the holocaust would've probably never occurred. If our army forces weren't influenced by courage and bravery , they wouldn't take the risk of protecting us form terrorists and other threats. If we couldn't laugh , then there would be no comedy shows. If we did not feel being scared , then no one would make horror movies. The whole world is so diverse and running the way it is because of emotionally based actions and choices occurring everywhere. This is partly why a robot does not laugh when you tell it "There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who can read binary and those who can't"

 - No influence :

When emotional influence is removed , we get complete unbiased opinions , decisions and actions. A computer will not stop processing because it hates you. It is very rare to see people making choices that are not biased on one personal emotion or another. It actually helps several times especially when you're angry. You just have to tell yourself that you wouldn't make such decisions if you weren't emotionally influenced , so just calm down and think what logically should be done , regardless of how you feel about it. This can be a bit hard to do , but once you're successful , you will realize it's importance. It takes a great man to be calm and remain proud of his actions with everyone else laughing beside at him.

- Artificial influence :

This is the interesting part. I myself realized this was possible just a few days ago. I found out that it is actually possible to "simulate" emotions in a person and thus indirectly influencing a person's actions. The color blue for example , imparts piece and calm to a person whereas red stands for anxiety and aggression. In a similar way , the manner in which you speak to a person can also affect his/her emotions toward you , hence influencing their actions. So next time you want Bob to do something for you , don't shout at him , you retard. Just buy him a goddamn drink. Once you realize it , it's actually quite fun. The way you can induce emotions in any random person by just speech and actions and hence manipulating his actions to your advantage. Similarly , you can forcefully convince yourself to be happy when someone/something angers you to avoid negative emotional influence.

3. Informational Influence :
From the moment we are born , we are loaded with information from all sources. We start by learning and adapting to a language , then learn to communicate through it. Then use that language to receive more information in that language. This "premade" information that we receive which did not originate form ourselves , is responsible for informational influence. This influence is responsible for today's advancement in knowledge. We are learning what others have discovered/created and are basing our discoveries/creations on them. This pre-existing information acts as a base on which we contribute to. In school , at home , from the television , from the internet , almost EVERYTHING today that we comprehend is not made by us , thus playing its part in informational influence. For example , this blog post is MY creation , so it won't have any influence on me. But on you , it plays its part , since it was not you form where this information came from. But the essential information I required to make this post had come from an external source . Thus informational influence leads to resulting information that just adds to it. It can be compared to a tower. Every person born must contribute to either increasing its height or guard a part of the tower that has already been built. A person does not have to make the tower from scratch since lots of it has already been built by his ancestors. This is how information escalates. The person who invented the cloth button , we probably don't know his name today , but he influences all our lives. This means that if he had not come up with that invention , the universe would have probably taken a different turn and the world today would probably be different , regardless of whether the button would be invented later by a different person or not. If he made the button as a square , then that small change would have impacted all our lives today. It is a sum of all these small factors that shape our lives today. As much important as is the process of gaining knowledge , it is also necessary to discover knowledge sometimes , even though it has already been made. In that case , there is no informational influence , as it is you who is deriving knowledge. But then again , doing so will cost valuable time that can be used to make yourself up to date with more later knowledge. Here's a relevant chat log : http://pastebin.com/T48TGQPc

 - No influence :
This is what the Early Men had to endure. They has nothing to start with. Just themselves. But as humans , they felt the need to communicate and make work easier. Thus they invented languages , made drawings etc to communicate and start out creating information. It is a gift that we have so much already made for us , that we don't need to "invent the wheel" again. And by being given so much information to learn , it is our responsibility to in turn contribute by adding information to it.

 - Artificial influence :
This is ambiguous. Artificial information would probably mean , a lie. Because a lie isn't real information , it's false , and hence artificial. So next time someone accuses you of lying , you can put on a nerd cap and say that you were just just influencing him with artificial information.

Well that's all I have for now. After days of procrastination , finally my post is complete :D
It was fun influencing you with influence about influencing influence.
I can drab on and write separate blog posts on topics like "Emotions" or "Information" , but that'll have to wait for sometime.
Alright , I'm done here. Catchya Laterz. Don't forget to influence me with any questions down in the comments. Ciao.

Quote : "You have the option of either building ideas on existing ideas or starting out as the Early Man" ~ EnKrypt

OCD Boon or Bane?

This post is part of the "First Few Old Blog Posts" archive.
You could expect a certain lack of coherency/maturity from these posts.

I was rifling through a Wikipedia article about René Descartes , supposedly a great patron of mathematics and philosophy when all of a sudden I remembered about something called OCD which I always wanted to know more about. I don't know why I thought of it at that time , but the next thing I knew , I was on Wikipedia again. This time staring at a different title:

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Also known as Obsessive Compulsive Syndrome , this is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, by repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the associated anxiety, or by a combination of such obsessions and compulsions. In short this means that people having OCD often have random/unwanted thoughts/habits (this is common even among other people) , but they feel uncomfortable or anxious unless they carry out their compulsion.
I read on and realized that the description of the symptoms was quite precise , if not exact , with what I did
I never really thought before that I actually had a disorder of such sort. One major symptom of to always keep things arranged and organized in a systematic order. That made sense like nothing ever did. I opened my school bag and stared at the books inside. Not only were they arranged according to height , but also subject-wise. To accept what I had seen and to admit that I functioned a bit differently from others took me some time.

At first , when I started writing this , I originally titled it as 'God isn't really funny'. Seriously , if you look at it , I have the weirdest combination of abilities and disorders. Who the hell will like it they've been informed that they have the ability to learn and cope with new concepts/environments really fast , but on the other hand , they will also have OCD. So that means you'll get the hang of Java in only an hour but you'll take days to write a good enough project on it. Oh yeah , I may have forgotten to mention this - OCD doesn't seem to have any effect while you're learning or understanding new principles. But it haunts you in full measure when you apply them. In this case I consider myself quite lucky that this is one of the only drawbacks to what I have to endure. The main disadvantage is supposed to be that it will be hard to ignore irrational thoughts and anxiety and uncomfort will be felt unless the compulsion is carried out. I don't know if I'm just "used" to this uncomfort but I don't seem to have any problem at all at discarding irrational thought. If the thought , however is completely sane or will deal no harm , then I don't see any reason not to carry it out.

As I read on , I was greeted by more revelations:
The article said that people diagnosed with OCD commonly share personality traits such as high attention to detail, avoidance of risk, careful planning, exaggerated sense of responsibility and a tendency to take time in making decisions.
And all this while I just thought that I was good at covering up my tracks. Ironic as it seems , I have almost never been caught for any offense I made till now. Makes sense now I guess. You will be quite surprised at how I would think about the hundred possible ways I could get caught and then take steps to eliminate them all. Always thinking a couple of steps ahead was my forte.
Within moments , I realized that I had more advantages than disadvantages at my disposal. Take the ability to learn fast and add careful planning and avoidance of flaws , and you will then have attempts at perfection. Only , it just takes twice the time.
At this stage , I would like to assert that the personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency is also known as Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. Although I feel that I have OCPD and not OCD , it is said that symptoms are very similar and since OCD is more widely known , I will stick to OCD for now.

Secondly , this 'careful planning and thinking' allows me to pull out my strengths even in the most hopeless of situations .OCD is probably the reason that I can outline these advantages in the first place. It allows me to first think what is helpful and what is not in particular circumstances and then do whatever necessary to gain the lead. All I have to do now is make sure that I play on my strengths and avoid falling into occasions which are to my disadvantage. If I can somehow make sure that over-thinking , mental pressure and time consumption are not limiting factors , then I will gain the upper hand.

Thirdly , I realized that OCD can come at one certain point of time from several factors. For example , if I start to feel mentally tired when I'm doing some hard thinking , then due to fear of getting too tired I can abandon thinking about it and divert thought to somewhere else. Just now , before I started typing out this paragraph, I started to feel a bit weary so I just took a round in my house thinking about this anime I was watching yesterday before I continued typing the rest out. So this means that if the task at hand proves to be uncomfortable or tiring , then I can choose to divert my concentration on something less trivial.

Alright , for those who are interested , lets step into my shoes and feel how it is to face OCD.
First , OCD can become seriously inconvenient while doing something will full concentration/dedication. In my case , that will be Programming. Writing a one file program is pretty easy (and fun) and will probably make no difference if any other person programmed it. The problem kicks in when the content increases (or the complexity of the logic). Usually  , you keep track of the features to implement in a program. Lets say I've got Login , Chat and a 'Users available list' left to implement while I am programming a Register feature. My mind constantly keeps telling me that you've got 3 more features to finish coding. My subconscious however , delves further into each feature. This tells my mind that I've got to make a prompt system for Login , A userbase to keep track of the users' records , a password checking protocol , keeping track of who logged in from where , etc . Then it goes into the next thing I was yet to do. My mind realizes that to implement Chat , I have to configure socket connection , make a working protocol to send , receive live messages , make sure every username is unique, etc.
This entire deduction builds up and finally gives the illusion that I've got millions of stuff left to do which finally results in headaches or feeling mentally fatigued. This illusion can be intimidating and while you're trying to remember every one of those features that you were going to implement , you miss out on concentration on the actual task at hand and this results in your work slowing down considerably. Unless I don't actually look back and realize that I've actually got just 3 simple features to complete , this mental stress continues.
This can also happen when you're try to read/understanding certain logical components which was programmed by  a person other than you. You're trying to figure out what programming in that particular fashion will result in . You're just trying to figure out what the output of his logic will be. Simultaneously though , your subconscious will question WHY he coded in that peculiar fashion. Although most of the components make sense only at the end of the program , till then you're constantly bombarded with questions like - "why hasnt he used that variable yet?" , "why did he use that specific datatype?" , "why didnt he do something simpler?". This again leads to mental fatigue and slow progress.

Lets take an example more common and more applicable to people on a day to day basis.
Now , if you step into the room of a person suffering from OCD , you will see that every thing is arranged in one order or another. It may not make sense to you but it certainly makes sense to the person who arranged it in that fashion. Most likely , it will also be clean to the last speck. Now , you might think its not a big deal if you just pick up one of those books from that neat pile to read , you'll just put it back later. Now , if you happen to be close to the person , he will not mind. Else , he might tell you to keep that back down. In either case , he will certainly feel a tinge of annoyance. This is not because he thinks you will be careless with his belongings. He is mostly afraid that you will disturb the order in which it was originally arranged and he doesn't want to put everything back again.

To make things clear , let me state this. A person suffering from OCD is NOT aggressive or violent , or acts strange in public. He's just ignoring stupid thoughts in his mind and forming plans , slowly , but a completely perfect one , when done.

Also , everyone , yes EVERYONE has OCD in very negligible forms if they dont have it on a larger scale. Example of this : Whenever you set the TV volume or the computer's volume , most of us , always set it in multiples of 5 if say the volume ranges from 0 to 50. Although you may have set it to 33 once , you will , or at least tend to set it to 30 or 35.

SO , through this , we come to an end of another one of my blogs. God , I can't believe I ruined another one of my blogs with stupid random stuff about me. My promise to you - next time , I will post about a more general topic which will be way more interesting.

I probably bragged out a lot about myself in this blog. I did so with the sole motive that I want to know myself to the maximum. What I'm good at and what I'm not. So forgive me if I bored you too much with how great I am and stuff. I wrote this in a stretch so I'm scanning for typos and grammatical errors. Forgive me if you fall across one.

Alright , so did you like this blog? Do you think it was too long? Any inaccurate information? Do you think that I'm wrong and that I'm mistaking something else for OCD, and that I'm not really suffering from it? Want to share your experiences too? Any specific parts about this blog that you liked? Any other thing you might want to tell me?
Just leave a comment below or email me at arvind@enkrypt.in

Ciao

Quote: "Action is the real measure of intelligence." ~ Napoleon Hill
Another Quote: "I think , therefore I am" ~ Rene Descartes