Are you sure that's rape you're protesting against?

So what's the biggest buzz in India right now about?
All the protests , of course.
The protests which started after a physiotherapy intern was gang raped on a moving bus in India's very own capital just before New Years.

A physiotherapy intern?
Yes.
On a moving bus?
Yes as well.

But how?
What do you mean "but how"? More than 70 people are raped every day in India. You'd think that by now we'd have a fair range of rape locations. On streets , in public toilets , in stationary buses. And it would be no surprise if people were raped on moving buses before as well. In fact , the actual number of people raped in India on a daily basis would be above 700. The massive number of rapes in the underdeveloped parts of the country not only go unnoticed , but also unreported. We should feel incredibly lucky that this one actually made it to the news.

But how could this particular one have not gotten reported anyway? It's got everything media hungry dicks ever wanted. Crime , peculiarity , national shame and a moving bus.

But what would happen if the rapist was a single person? Or performed in a typical "rape" warehouse instead of a moving bus? Or didn't end up with a dead victim? What happens in this country if this rape was like every other 70 rapes happening this very day?

That's right. No one. 

Well..... some people do , but the number is too small to start national protests with.

Wait....you just mentioned that over 70 people get raped every day in your country. Isn't that over 20 thousand people a year?

Well exactly of course! And this is the point that I want to address my viewers with. 

Our government and society are both pretty messed up today. It has been decades since we've got used to reading that small section in the city column about someone or the other getting raped. Yet all the god damn protests are starting just now.

No , no. Don't get me wrong. It's absolutely great that people are protesting. This will finally give us the hope of improving laws and increasing security of individuals against such incidents. But...

Don't you think that the protests are just a bit too fucking late?

I believe that we Indians are neither so innocent and nor so ignorant. All of us are aware of the bazillion rapes taking place all the time but nothing has been done about it until now. Where were all the full fledged protests when other major incidents made it to the front page? Everyone just kept quite and criticized the nation and its laws. And that is precisely what makes me angry.
The protests are a great news , but I wanted to see those protests a long time ago. And for that very reason , these protests will have to bear mine and any other such people who share my views' criticism for being too damn late.

Well the protests are happening anyway. What does it matter if it's late or not? Shouldn't you be happy about the new changes that are going to come up?
Haha , well many people seem to think so. But in my opinion , they fail to see the much bigger picture.
You see , if the country had reacted appropriately before , then we could have had reforms against rape since a long time ago. And all these rapes taking place in the past few years could have been stopped , and possibly , the Delhi incident as well. It pains me that due to the country's lack of response earlier , we haven't been able to save around 10% of rape victims whom we could have otherwise saved.
Thus my criticism speaks , not only for my continued efforts against rape before the Delhi incident , but also on behalf of all those who could have been saved if only the country reacted a bit earlier.
I am indeed immensely happy that the new changes will finally be put into action , but it does matter that it is a bit late to say that there was no harm done.

What's so peculiar about this incident? What about the Delhi rape was so special that it caused all the uproar and protests that you would rather have had earlier?
Yes , this incident displayed certain peculiarity that finally made us think that we are in a sad country indeed.
First of all , how many rapes take place every year in a well developed city like Bangalore?
Quite less compared to the rural areas. The fact that a person was gang raped right in the very capital city of India startled quite a few. We can see this as one of the factors.
The next factor would be that she was not just raped... She was gang raped.
She was overpowered not by one man , but many. This shows us that we are past the stage where we can stay away from certain individuals with ill motives. We now have to stay wary of full groups of people who are in on such crimes.
Next we have the fact that she wasn't a gullible village girl who happened to walk into a trap.
She was an educated girl who came from an educated family. She was a physiological intern and held a certain social status that was reputable among her peers. The country was shocked when they witnessed such barbarianism even among the civilized classes.
Next factor would be the fact that she died later in the hospital. She was grievously injured during her rape attempt and after a few days she was declared dead. Even Google came up with a lamp on their homepage to mourn our loss. This final death of the rape victim stirred rage among a  lot of individuals.
The last factor is one that startled even the laziest of citizens in this country.
She was raped in a moving bus.
This is the immediate cause that started all the protests.
Everyone was startled at the limits that these people went to rape a person. What would happen next? People raped on public buses? People raped in schools? Colleges? The country could not possibly let this crime go unanswered. The moving bus factor initiated this all.

So , what if she was raped somewhere else instead?
Then this rape would most likely go unnoticed just like every other rape happening in the country.
I first heard of the incident while I was working in my school's computer lab. A student working in a computer nearby shouted out that it had come up on the news that a person was just raped on a moving bus. The ensuing whispers were not hard to interpret.
"On a moving bus? Seriously? Wtf?"
"Man , that's insane. What's wrong with our country?"
"Doing that on a moving bus sounds crazy."
No one seemed to care much about any other detail. Everyone seemed intrigued by the idea of something such happening on a moving bus. I am assuming that this same response was reflecting throughout the country.

What is your final conclusion on this whole matter?
I simply think that if the country was appalled only because the victim did not have the luxury of being raped while still , then we are running on poor moral standards.
The protesters cannot honestly say that it is rape that they are protesting against since this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. Unless they had been protesting before all such events occurred , I would aptly give them the title of hypocrites.

Are they sure that they are protesting against rape?
Or are they protesting against the incident in Delhi to be particular?

I have one last question. Who is asking all these questions in italics?
No one really. I simply thought of using a "questionnaire" style of blogging for this post to make it a bit more interesting. It is quite easy to make sure people click on your blog posts. But not as much as making sure that they read it through to the end.

So this is it. This is my entire take on the incident on Delhi. I am sure that many people would think that I am totally wrong in my opinions and would love to disagree. I would simply ask them to address their issue in the comments below. I welcome any form of criticism.

A Philosopher's Tale

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

Forgive me for being blatantly outright at the beginning but I must tell you that I believe I have endured more pain in my past than I would have thought possible. Pain that would leave scars which delude time ; memories that jump out of the blue to haunt what is left ; scrabbling to devour the last scraps of sanity left to feed the pain.
And what must one do then to go on?
Going on is a simple matter , don't mistake me. But what reply could you possibly have when you ask yourself "Why the fuck should you?"
Every action has a cause , every crime has a motive and at the end of the day , so does every life.

I wake up everyday not to the fresh morning air , but to the stark burden of reality. How many times I have found myself walking outside and realizing that it's really happening. I'm out there among everyone else. That this isn't some vivid dream or a thought turned into an image. Almost every step taken reminds me of a memory that I've long wanted to forget. But memories never do that , do they? At one point this crescendo of assaulting flashbacks traumatizes you so much that you push yourself to go sleep. Sleep ; where none of these evils can touch you. And then finally you realize that you've slept for almost the entire day. And every principle that you've built to utilize time productively has been thrown out of the window.

The key to my will propelling me forward is Philosophy. When you take away philosophy from me , is when I will find no difficulty in tying the noose again. But why philosophy? Because it is the only thing that adds a little meaning to a person's existence on earth. We buy coffee powder to make coffee. And that is the sole reason why coffee is powdered. If some power above is reserving us for a brew , I think we deserve the right to know whether it is tea or coffee.

What is the purpose of our existence?

I don't know. And that is why I cannot stop yet. I see my life as a race between this goal and death. The day someone cracks this final piece in the topology of understanding ourselves is when I will let myself guide my feet , instead of this desire. If I die before this happens then I will only find it sorry that my existence has come to an end without my knowledge consisting of why I ever existed in the first place. Why the universe bothered to instill life only to take it back without granting it this small gratification.

When you are such a philosopher , the meaning of every action changes. You don't see people walking in front of you anymore. What you see is countless unanswered questions instead. You question every event and every action until finally , you strip all meaning from the object itself and and you shrug , knowing that that cannot be correct , and so you start again , hoping to accommodate a better answer next time. And every theory thus formed gives you satisfaction as you inch one step further to reaching that last goal. The thought process of such a person is pitiful indeed. His sole motive being comprehension , he ends up questioning questions , theorizing on theories and searching to search. And even then , when he gets back up , you can clearly see the frustration on his face at having come nowhere close to the final piece.

He knows that he has been given life and whether he likes it or not , he must utilize this to the maximum by doing every act of good and standing by it. Take off your coat and give it someone in the cold. Is it so hard? Is it really so hard to oppose wrong and stand by it though it may compromise your position? He sees it as a duty , as a right when he was brought to life. But to what extent does his sense of judging what is right extend to? He knows this judgement is limited and so tries to expand it in every way possible by Philosophy. Do right , but first know what is right.

So what is Philosophy after all? What is this stupid thing that makes me live?
As Wikipedia says it , Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Problems approached by philosophy are done logically by applying reason , facts and evidence. Contrary to the stereotype that there can be infinite philosophies that can go against one and still appear rational , when two philosophies go against each other , one (or both) is usually wrong. Wordplay does not mask reason. By carefully approaching both philosophies , one (or both) can be ruled out. If not , then one (or both) is usually a fake philosophy

Fake philosophies are those which do not involve any form of logic , critical thinking , reason or some sort of relevant evidence in it's construction. I have the found the most reliable source of fake philosophies commonly as captions in Facebook profile pictures (those yolo swag fag types). You can't simply throw in some fancy words and expect your statement to be philosophically accurate. Again , a philosopher will always accept being proven wrong. He will be more interested in correcting his faulty statement rather than sadly brood over being wrong.

A problem that I face as a philosopher is that it is extremely hard to convert experiences into words. This problem is very common since most philosophies originate from certain experiences. We deliberately walk in the dark , trying to figure out why people are afraid of it. And then if we finally do strike upon some sort of meaning , we find it hard to convey this feeling of elation into words. Trying to see everything in a different light , that is our curse. You take a walk in the streets. Humans turn into storehouses of information. Buses turn into means for these piles of information to save energy and money. Money turn into  pieces of paper that has this strange power to get you what you need.

I envy those who do not need to understand more to move along in life. They say "who cares?" to every small question. It only fascinates me how they do so. I am not saying that such people are wrong , or ignorant or stupid. They are a different type of human. A type that will probably lead a more satisfied life. I call such people realists. They do not explore the intimidating limit of imagination. They don't like to guess as much as they like to prove. If only I had their mindset to console me , it would save me from this eternal frustration of trying to find answers all around.

It is indeed a trying state when you form theories about life every night before you sleep: hoping that life is an experiment in which some scientists threw you into a small virtual world with artificial robots all around pretending to be humans. Hoping that someday , a person will finally come up to you and say what enduring those days and nights finally meant.

I hope this post doesn't appear to be funny , strange or exaggerated because it wasn't written in such a mindset.

Quote : "Fuck you world , I'm alive"

EDIT : I was sorta depressed when I wrote this post. Do not judge me too harshly.
Also , thanks to Adithya for clearing out all the bazillion mistakes in my post. He's awesome.

Tic Tac Toe - Unbeatable Algorithm

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

For my Computer Project at school , I had to make a simple Java Program. The rules although simple, were very restricting since my class hadn't learnt as much in programming, The program had to be console based (i.e. no Graphics), I could not use any Library Classes apart from the ones that came along with java.lang and Console Input classes. Also, my class hadn't learnt about inheritance and other OOP stuff so I had to stay clear from those too.

The trouble now was to make a good enough project that fit the criteria.
My classmates had settled on making games such as hangman, crossword, calculators etc, but I had already made most of them before while I was getting into programming, and they didn't have much appeal to me.

In the end , I concluded that the project would have to be small anyway, so I decided to make Tic Tac Toe Singleplayer. I'd already made Tic Tac Toe mutliplayer last year as part of a larger package , so I thought that it would be a nice addition to have this as well.

The 3x3 grid was constructed using a 2 dimensional array.
You had to play against the computer in 3 modes - Easy , Medium and Hard respectively.

Easy mode was simple. I used Math.random() to decide the X and Y co-ordinates of the resulting move.

Medium randomly chose between playing easy or hard for that move.

And hard used an algorithm that was impossible to beat. Of course , tic tac toe isn't such a full blown game , and any person smart enough could play any number of matches and always make a tie. But anyway, here is the code for all 3 modes.

Note: This is a function that simply calculates the position that the computer plays in, in a given circumstance. It takes an integer value (int c) that contains the difficulty value (1,2 or 3 for easy,medium or hard). It also takes a 2 dimensional character array of length 3 and 3 (char[][] u) which contains 'X' (player value) , 'O' (computer value) or '-' (empty value). The function returns an integer array of size 2 which contains the x and y co-ordinates of the computed value.

To see the whole program , click here.

     
    public static int[] compute(int c,char[][] u){
        int ar[]=new int[2];
        if (c==1){
            int x=(int)(Math.random()*3);
            int y=(int)(Math.random()*3);
            if (u[x][y]=='-'){
                ar[0]=x;
                ar[1]=y;
                return ar;
            }
            else{
                return compute(1,u);
            }
        }
        if (c==2){
            return compute(((int)(Math.random()*3)+1),u);
        }
        if (c==3){
            boolean mark=false;
            int x=0,y=0;
            int count=0;
            for (int i=0;i<3;i++){
                for (int j=0;j<3;j++){
                    if (u[i][j]=='-'){
                        count++;
                        u[i][j]='X';
                        if (check(u)==2){
                            mark=true;
                            x=i;
                            y=j;
                        }
                        u[i][j]='-';
                    }
                }
            }
            for (int i=0;i<3;i++){
                for (int j=0;j<3;j++){
                    if (u[i][j]=='-'){
                        u[i][j]='O';
                        if (check(u)==1){
                            mark=true;
                            x=i;
                            y=j;
                        }
                        u[i][j]='-';
                    }
                }
            }
            if ((!mark)&&(predict(u,0,0)>1||predict(u,0,2)>1||predict(u,1,1)>1||predict(u,2,0)>1||predict(u,2,2)>1)){
                for (int i=0;i<3;i++){
                    for (int j=0;j<3;j++){
                        if (u[i][j]=='-'&&((i==0&&j==1)||(i==1&&j==0)||(i==1&&j==2)||(i==2&&j==1))){
                            u[i][j]='O';
                            for (int k=0;k<3;k++){
                                for (int l=0;l<3;l++){
                                    if (u[k][l]=='-'){
                                        u[k][l]='O';
                                        if (check(u)==1){
                                            mark=true;
                                            x=k;
                                            y=l;
                                        }
                                        u[k][l]='-';
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                            u[i][j]='-';
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            if (!mark){
                if (count==9){
                    int ran=(int)(Math.random()*5);
                    switch(ran){
                        case 0 : x=0;
                                 y=0;
                                 break;
                        case 1 : x=1;
                                 y=1;
                                 break;
                        case 2 : x=2;
                                 y=2;
                                 break;
                        case 3 : x=0;
                                 y=2;
                                 break;
                        case 4 : x=2;
                                 y=0;
                                 break;
                    }
                }
                else if (count==8){
                    if (u[1][1]=='-'){
                        x=1;
                        y=1;
                    }
                    else{
                        int ran=(int)(Math.random()*4);
                        switch(ran){
                            case 0 : x=0;
                                     y=0;
                                     break;
                            case 1 : x=2;
                                     y=0;
                                     break;
                            case 2 : x=2;
                                     y=2;
                                     break;
                            case 3 : x=0;
                                     y=2;
                                     break;
                        }
                    }
                }
                else{
                    if (u[0][0]=='-'&&u[2][2]=='O'){
                        x=0;
                        y=0;
                    }
                    else if (u[2][2]=='-'&&u[0][0]=='O'){
                        x=2;
                        y=2;
                    }
                    else if (u[0][2]=='-'&&u[2][0]=='O'){
                        x=0;
                        y=2;
                    }
                    else if (u[2][0]=='-'&&u[0][2]=='O'){
                        x=2;
                        y=0;
                    }
                    else{
                        if (u[0][0]=='-'){
                            x=0;
                            y=0;
                        }
                        else if (u[2][2]=='-'){
                            x=2;
                            y=2;
                        }
                        else if (u[0][2]=='-'){
                            x=0;
                            y=2;
                        }
                        else if (u[2][0]=='-'){
                            x=2;
                            y=0;
                        }
                        else{
                            for (int i=0;i<3;i++){
                                for (int j=0;j<3;j++){
                                    if (u[i][j]=='-'){
                                        x=i;
                                        y=j;
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            if (u[x][y]=='-'){
                ar[0]=x;
                ar[1]=y;
                return ar;
            }
            else{
                return compute(3,u);
            }
        }
        return ar;
    }

Well, I admit that this algorithm isn't the most efficient one out there, but I had functionality in mind, instead of efficiency, so I rolled with a makeshift solution.
But what's more fun is to tell everyone that you couldn't beat my program the next day at the computer lab. They enthusiastically take up the challenge at once, and their faces were worth being looked at when most of them lost to the computer at the second game.

It was great fun.

My website is back with a bang

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

Alright , let's narrate the whole event from my point of view.

Last week , during the evening , I desired to check on the Abstergo Project hosted on my website. To my surprise , I was redirected instead to some other advertisement page. Confused , I then tried the direct URL for my website. The same thing happened again. Furious , I logged in to my host's CPanel , and found out that my account was suspended.

I rewarded myself with a big giant Facepalm. I realized what an utter idiot I had been.
My host was called 0fees. It was a free host and one of the best in it's business out there. I had previously hosted several websites on it's services and I had no problem trusting it to be reliable with my website too. I trusted it so much to the point that I had kept no backups at all of my site. In fact , anything that was to be backed up , was put up on my website. And now , I realized how stupid I had acted. That day , I remembered a big lesson I had learnt in my childhood.

Never trust anything that's free. (Except Google)

So now I was stuck without a website. All my files were lost. All my database entries were gone. Why was my account suspended? Well it's obviously a marketing gimmick to get me to upgrade to paid hosting. I actually considered paying for the hosting just to recover my files back. But then I realized that the paid hosting would be on a different server , thus removing all hopes for a recovery.

The worse part is that my website meant a lot to me. Every line that I code , every line that I write on the internet , every account that I make somewhere , can be traced from my website. I use my website to organize myself. So that I can keep track of every contribution I make to the internet. This is especially required due to the fact that I have OCD. I have to sort every of my actions else I feel that all my work is useless. I have to remind myself that I have a blog , I have a twitter , I've made my own quotes etc to realize that I have done something atleast. The worse problem an organized person can face is losing his organizer. And I had lost my website.

At once , I began to rewrite my website. It was of course , a hard job. I was aided by Google's webcache and I could recover the text content in my website. But all the resources were lost and I had to make them from scratch. Luckily , I had a backup of a few of my bigger projects thus they could also be restored. Once I was done , came the question of where I would host the website now. I first considered turning my home desktop into a server since it was switched on for 20 hours a day anyway. Then I remembered of my good friend , JamezQ. He owned a server with above 99% uptime. I had hosted small Java projects on it many times and it worked great. But I was hesitant in asking to host my entire website on it. As it turned out , he was glad to have my website on his server. And so , I uploaded all my files , configured the MySQL databases , and restored the subdomains. But even then , a few projects could not be restored as I had kept the backups on my laptop which I do not have right now.

So , yeah. There you go , my website is back with a new look. There's new content and a better interface.
Check it out at http://enkrypt.in

Also , while making the website , I took to myself for making some entertaining error pages.
400 - Bad Request http://enkrypt.in/400.htm
401 - Authorization Required http://enkrypt.in/401.htm
403 - Forbidden http://enkrypt.in/403.htm
404 - Not found http://enkrypt.in/404.htm
500 - Internal Server Error http://enkrypt.in/500.htm

A record every day

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

One particularly interesting fact about my weird life is that I have an obsession with getting stuff done. Even if any work at that point happens to be non existent.
If any day passes by without any significant reduction from my workload/to-do list or any addition to my personal records , then that day is to be considered as a complete waste of time and energy.

Now , if you've read my older blogs , then you'll know that I am an OCD patient. What that means is that I need to consistently keep a track of any work done , any work that shouldn't be done , any work that should be done in the future , and so on.
Out of all these , obviously the most important is to keep track of any work that needs to be done in the future. This is why last year , I furnished a complete To-Do list of every work that needs to be done by me at some point later. As of now , the list stands in 57 points of work that needs finishing. All the points mentioned on the list do not consist of everyday work such as shopping or cleaning the lawn as some might expect , but it is rather a collection of long term projects such as learning Android Development or writing a previously thought out novel.

I hold this list to high regard. Every point noted within demands a lot of time , patience and energy which would in some way or the other benefit me later either by self gratification . or by any other method.
When I look back to my past , I see the transition or marking progress. When I was 10 , I used to see how much I had progressed every year. By the time I was 13 , I measured progress monthly. And now at 15 , I do so in a more or so , daily/weekly manner.

The next point and the most important point is the one presented by the title of this blog.
And that is my commitment to setting records.
You see , every now and then , I attempt activities that are not listed in my to-do list either because they are not important enough or they produce inconsiderable results. Among these , I put forward great emphasis on personal achievements.

What sort of personal achievements you ask?
Well let's say that just today , I got chased by a beggar for the first time , I walked over a sewer bridge for the first time , I tripped over a road divider for the first time and I was ambushed by a group of crows for the first time.

It's just that the possibility of doing "firsts" fascinates me. The fact that I'm doing (or being done) something for the first time in my life gives me a great deal of satisfaction and that is why I deliberately put myself in such situations where such "firsts" are possible.
Like for example , all those "firsts" that I accomplished today , they were the result of deliberately choosing to walk all the way to my friend's house , rather than taking a cab (or an auto in linguistic precision).

This is why sometimes , instead of sitting at home and trying to contemplate on sad and stupid stuff , I sometimes set foot outside my house to get some achievement accomplished.
Just this month , during the Diwali dinner held at school , I accomplished a lot of "firsts".
I took pictures with every girl in my class (except 2 because they did not turn up to the party)
I wore a suit for a good whole of an hour
I confessed to a watchman how hideous his uniform was
I walked 10 meters on my toes and most importantly ,
I ran through every corridor that the school had (a pretty great task considering that the party was held at the grounds implying that every corridor was fucking dark and deserted)

And the most daring firsts were also recorded this very month
I stayed 24 hours without food
I stayed 24 hours without water (on separate days) (dehydration is worse than hunger. I had to sleep more than half of the day to keep myself distracted)
I slept for 20 hours straight
I ate a burger for every hour in a day
And most importantly - I got drunk for the first time (this was just last week and it was just a few simple glasses of beer , nothing to worry about)

So , yup. With all these stuff to do , I take pride in saying that almost every day , I am setting and breaking records. It seems eminent that with so much , soon I will be needing a list to maintain all these achievements , and every achievement that was close to completion and every achievement that should be avoided  , and so on.

So , yup. That is it. In summary , I give high regard to working and achieving. Something that I take pride in.
I know that many of the records as such do not present much moral value and you will dissent in opinion about the necessity of performing such acts , but I assure you that they were all executed in safe environments. The last think I want you to assume is me being a reckless teen. Pssh , me? I barely even get out of my house.

I just think that this is my blog , and it needs to contain any personal habit that needs to be mentioned. Also , I haven't posted a self centered blog in a very long time.

What do you want from life?

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

Ok , first of all , as usual , an apology. I had two successive exams on and so I could not find the time to post a blog in two months ( Not like you care anyway ).

Pre-introductory warning : This particular blog post does not apply for nihilists and such other people who's only reason for not committing suicide yet is because it'll upset their parents.
Such people will be unable to reach an agreement between their views and the one that this post will offer due to the presence of such elements that assumes that you still have some motive left in life.

Now , before I can answer the very tantalizing question which I presented as the title , I need to introduce you to how I came about it.

I place a quality of a man by how much he has completed two processes of his life. The first process is what I call "knowing" , and the second process is "deciding".
It's like listening to two sides of a story (knowing) and then forming an opinion on which one you think is correct (deciding).
I am a teenager and thus consider myself in the learning stage. Meaning that I may not have decided for everything that I have known yet and reserve my decision for when I reach a higher form of understanding of that topic.
And so going on , the last thing that a person must do to end the process of  "deciding" is to philosophically define the word "life" . Which I hope to one day do so with a satisfactory conclusion.
So then I started to think about those questions that I can answer by myself. Stuff like "Why is life necessary?" and "What leads to belief?" , etc.
And that lead to the question in the title which put me into a long trail of thought.

But after around an hour of thinking , I came up with an answer which atleast applied to me and most other people.

A satisfied ego and a satisfied hunger for adventure.

The first bit is kinda obvious , but it is the last bit that will attract questions. Well , we're gonna discuss both anyway.

Now , the first thing that came into my mind when I thought of the question was this movie called Revolver.
Revolver is kinda my favorite movie and it also happens to be a movie which has influenced me a lot.
It happens to answer most of the question in the title and described in detail about how our ego supersedes us.

"A satisfied ego"

Come on , we all know this to be true. What don't we do everyday to make sure that we get what we want , to do what we want , to satisfy every whim that our ego puts forth?

To quote from Revolver :
"There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning, the only reason you suffer the shitty boss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. "Fear or revere me, but please think I'm special." We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The "hip, hip, hoo-fucking-rah." Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on, you crazy diamond. Cos we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others. "

The sad part in the whole thing is when you understand that you cannot destroy your ego. Because it is your ego itself that says that it must destroy ego. You just think that it's you trying to do it.

"The greatest con, that your ego ever pulled... was making you believe... that he is you. "

Well that's for the ego part.

"A satisfied hunger for adventure"

Ah , this bit is interesting. In fact , it might even be a part of the previous statement. But it stands out like a sore thumb , so I decided to add this in the statement anyway.

"I'm happy with my quiet life." - Said almost everyone.
But how many people actually meant it?

Every time you get up from a movie , every time you finish that video game , every time you finish reading that novel , you sigh. You sigh because you have to return back to your boring miserable life. What would you give to be Sam Witwicky? What would you give to be Altair Ibn-La Ahad? What would you give to be Sherlock Holmes?
Everything.
If only it was possible.
You may not want to all so much , but admit it. You know the feel when you want to be part of it. Part of the drama. Part of the action. When you want to be the character that does it all.

How many times have you sat at work/school bored , and dreamt of how a bunch of terrorists randomly burst into the place and you saved everyone there? Admit it. You've done it.
And why did you do it?
Hmm , you can pretty much answer that yourself.

And you can always spot those who want adventure really bad. These sort of people may seem quiet at first glance. But you can always tell them apart by how they easily turn a really small issue into a huge thing.
They easily respond to emotions and you can easily make them very happy or very sad.
It's just that these sort of people are the ones who've accepted that they're never gonna get the adventure of their life. So instead , they turn whatever of the boring life they have , into as much drama as possible.

I remember this one girl in my class some years ago who used to cry at every small thing. At first I suspected that she had some problems to face back home. But then one day , I read her English essay on "My Thoughts Last Night". And My God , was I shocked! She'd written stories of gore and blood and war and murder and what not. Soon enough , her condition became apparent to me.


So there ya go. I've justified my answer. But I do not claim it to be correct. In fact , every person may have a different answer to what they want from life. And every answer may seem as convincing as the next.

If you have your own answer to this question , write it in the comments below. Also don't forget to mention anything that you may think that I've written wrong in this blog. Please do point out any errors you can find.

Catcha laterz. I got more exams coming up.

Quote : "In every game and con there's always an opponent, and there's always a victim. The trick is to know when you're the latter, so you can become the former. " ~ Revolver

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