Category Archive

I admire the vows of poverty taken by monks to simplify their lives, but it seems like certain possessions would be difficult to give up altogether. We keep objects with irreplaceable sentimental value on display to remind us of people, places, and events in our past and rekindle the memories of our experiences.

I would more easily part with consumer electronics, I think, than permanently dispose of certain memorabilia, but perhaps detachment from the past benefits the monastic pursuit.

This morning I remembered two or three of my dreams, but I made a conscious decision while waking up not to record them in my dream journal. I’ve done this a few times before, too, usually when I don’t ever want to reread the dream. By doing so, though, my written record becomes less representative of my dreams as a whole.

I used to forget my dreams all the time, but now when I lose a significant one it’s almost like a memory fading away.

I sometimes wonder how the process of remembering affects our dream recollection. During a dream, we seem to tolerate nonlinearities and non sequiturs more than in waking life. When we try and remember our dreams, then, we create links between events, feelings, and locations absent from the original dream. Certain phrases and descriptions in my dream journal developed while I lay in bed remembering, after the dreams themselves have passed. Improved dream recall reduces this somewhat, yet some dream gaps remain difficult to reconcile to a waking memory.

I recently started contributing to Memory Cemetery, a place for human memories and dreams to rest. I enjoy the interesting collection of diverse recollections from across the globe, and it seems like a good place to share some of my more interesting dreams.

As my dream journal entries have become more regular and longer, I have noticed a distinct change in the way I remember dreams. At first I worked simply to not lose track of dream events and sequences, but now my dreams are becoming memories in the same sense as my memories of waking life. Dreams experiences are real events, as far as our minds our concerned, allowing us to spend each night in exploration and activity.

This can also led to some minor confusion in remembering whether conversations with some people occurred in real life or not. Anyone else run into this problem?

I’m not usually a huge fan of YouTube blog entries, but I couldn’t resist posting this gem from my childhood. I saw this music video/PSA (which apparently is the Barenaked Ladies) while watching Saturday morning cartoons one day, and I was never able to find it again until now! What could be more perfect than the combination of racial tolerance and extraterrestrials?

Last night in Seattle before heading back to State College.

We can, perhaps, define real life as a set of memories that corroborate present perception:

1) Perform sufficient reality checks to ensure a waking state.

2) Construct the set of all memories, from any method of perception.

3) Any memory that intersects with the sets of both physical evidence and the memories of others is considered real.

Mathematics: Begin with a sequence of numbers with maximum = MAX, minimum = MIN, and length = LEN. Given a random number generator with a range [MIN, MAX], find a seed that will generate the LEN numbers of the initial sequence. (I used this technique when developing the Stocalculator.)

Personal History: Begin with an interest, idea, interest, outlook, passion, belief, or philosophy you currently hold. Given the history of events that have transpired in your life, find the initial event (or seed) that generated the sequence of events leading to your present state.

Creating a personal history timeline is an interesting and insightful game to play. Some of these seed events can be easily identified , while others can only be confined to a range of a year or so–if at all; the complexity and inter-dependence of life’s experiences can make finding initial seeds a daunting task. But it’s still fun to try.

Often times we have a great deal of control over what we choose to remember and forget. We take photographs of the good times but not the bad. We keep addresses and phone numbers of some friends–even old friends we never speak with–while others are thrown away, never to be thought of again. Cutting up a photograph symbolizes the attempt to forget a memory, but refusing to take a photograph may actually lead to forgetting.

Tangible objects are not necessary to keep a memory, but they prompt us to remember.

If an experience gave infinite happiness but no memory, would it be worthwhile?

Our eyes, ears, and other sensory organs are simply devices that gather signals for our brains to interpret. Our perception of reality is not defined by these input devices, but instead by our brain’s interpretation of these signals. Anything that alters the brain’s ability to process and interpret these signals also alters our perception of reality (as the 1970’s proved).

This extends beyond chemical alteration of the mind, though. I am learning that the dreamworld is just as real to your mind as the waking world. The dreamworld is not a shared perception, but your perception of senses is still fully functional–the dreamworld is as real to your mind as anything else you perceive.

We can learn information from a book, teacher, or other source, but it is impossible to learn a skill this way. Books provide facts, but a skill is practiced and requires application. When does mastery of information lead to skill competence? In a sense, a person’s skill in a discipline can be thought of as their ability to recognize patterns.

Whether in music or mathematics, pattern recognition is itself a skill that requires practice–but the repetition of this practice yields mastery of the subject. A book can teach a person the rudimentary skills of playing the guitar, but it cannot teach them how to make music–as the guitarist learns to recognize musical patterns, though, they will develop the ability to do so.

Our talents and successes reflect the patterns in life we each find significant.

We all remember important moments in life. Sometimes other people were around to share these moments, while other times we were alone. Important events help guide the course of our life, and looking back at our memories, it seems odd to think how life would have progressed if these events never occurred.

Below is a list of pivotal dates in my life so far. I’ll add to this list as life continues (and as I remember more). Dates marked with a (?) are uncertain with a range of approximately one week.

April 5, 2006

February 24, 2006

January 21, 2006

October 18, 2005

July 10, 2004

January 21, 2004

January 20, 2004

December 28, 2003

October 10, 2003

January 21, 2003

January 10, 2001 (?)

March 14, 2000 (?)

July 20, 1994 (?)

November 30, 1987

A friend recently told me that “everyone needs a good hangover at least once”. Why would anyone consider this to be good advice, though? After all, just about everyone experiences physical illness at least once in their life, and most people do not enjoy the feeling of being ill.

The difference between these two situations is the process by which sub-optimal health is achieved. Typical illness may be developed by unsanitary hygiene, stress, improper nutrition, infection, or various other ways. Some of these sources may be more under our control than others (e.g. washing hands); but very few people purposefully avoid washing their hands in order to become sick. The hangover, on the other hand, is almost always a self-inflicted ailment. Although symptoms may be similar to other sicknesses, it is the knowledge that a series of conscious decisions previously led to the present health condition. That is, it is not a question of experiencing sickness, but rather the experience of negative consequences following a positive sensation.

Most of life involves weighing actions and consequences in an effort to maximize some factor (fun, profit, etc.). The hangover is simply an obvious illustration of this struggle in life–and ultimately a harmless one when contrasted against other situations in life. Still, there are some consequences that are best avoided whenever possible. I’ll drink to that.

I visited the Batu Caves while in Kuala Lumpur this past June. It was one of the few touristy things to do in the city. I am not a big fan of this type of tourist sightseeing, but sometimes there are things that you see simply to say that you’ve seen them.

In any case, there is one thing I enjoy about doing the tourist thing: it provides a venue for meeting interesting people. The Batu Caves were nice, but not particularly outstanding in my memory for any particular reason. However, I do remember the taxi driver who took us back to our hostel. He had apparently learned English by being a driver, was interested in hearing our opinion of U.S. International policy (I was surprised to find that he was a Bush supporter), and had interesting insights based on his interaction with travelers. According to him, the best tourists are the Japanese, Americans, and British. The worst are the Saudis and Indians.

I had other such experiences in this trip and in others. Tourist spots are nice, but it’s really the cab drivers and merchants that make them interesting.

“It would take more than a million Earths to make a ball as big as the sun. It would take about 109 Earths to make a straight line across the sun.”

One of my favorite gifts from my childhood is My First Book About Space (Western Publishing Company, 1982). In just 24 pages, the book led me through a tour of the solar system, with descriptions of gravity, comparisons between the planets, and photographs of the moon landing–with full color illustrations, of course. Looking back on it now I am impressed by the factual content of the book, as I would not expect many children’s books to contain too many numerical quantities. But thinking back to when I frequently read this book, I don’t think this distinction ever occurred to me. Rather, the combination of the book’s fun presentation and my fascination with “space science” kept me reading it again and again–not to memorize the figures, but to get that sense of excitement and discovery that drives us to explore.

Although most of my childhood books have since disappeared, My First Book About Space still sits on my shelf. I must admit, although my outlook and education is different now, I still enjoy reading through this book, and I still have much of the same excitement toward my scientific career as I did then. This feeling and outlook that has so far lasted through my life is perhaps best expressed by the last line of this book:

“Are there any space creatures? No one knows yet. Space is huge, and there is still a lot to learn about it. Exploring space is exciting. Maybe one day you will be a space explorer.”

(This entry inspired by a question at the World’s Fair blog.)