I posted this on my philosophy module blog. Thought I might as well post it here cos I found it kinda fun to write about =D

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Well, since the good professor's post was about the Matrix, I'm going to talk about some of the things that I find interesting about the movie. Now that I'm taking this module and I think back, there are actually a lot of simple philosophical statements littered all over the movie.

For example, there's this scene when Neo has his first meal after 'waking up' from the Matrix. They are serving some goop that looks like oatmeal porridge.

Mouse (the scrawny digital pimp who programmed the Women in Red) makes a passing comment: how would you know that chicken tastes like chicken inside the Matrix?

Being devoid of a sense of taste, the Machines couldn't possibly know what chicken tasted like. For all you know, they could have gotten it wrong and erroneously programmed chicken to taste like marshmallows or something.

Descartes agrees with this notion that “the senses deceive” (pg. 250). There is no way that we can trust our senses when the data we gather from our senses are, as Morpheus puts it, “just electrical impulses sent to your brain”.

My question is this: how do the Machines know what signals to send to your brain? How do you actually digitize taste?

To create the neurological signal of the experience of eating a chicken, do they actually cook a chicken and then plug in wires from a device into the cooked chicken that converts taste into binary?

Decartes suggests that a “study of composite things…are doubtful” (pg.251). Instead of looking at the taste of chicken (hereafter ‘chicken’) as something unique by itself, what if we were to break down the taste into the “simplest and most general of things” – as a combination of a certain percentage of saltiness, sweetness, bitterness and sourness – would we have “something certain and indubitable” (pg. 251) ?

By this argument, certainly all the Machines have to do to get ‘chicken’ is to decide quantitatively how salty, sweet, bitter and sour the chicken tastes, and feed in the correct permutation to your brain. Oh yes. Might I add in texture as well (because I really hate dry chicken that tastes like it’s been on a trip through the Sahara).

The major flaw in this argument is that these basic forms of taste are open to the same interrogation as ‘chicken’. How do the Machines know what ‘salty’ tastes like? Granted, it’s a word that should be “[simple] and …universal” (pg. 251). It is one of those ‘base’ words that we use to build our perception of reality. However, a quick look through some online dictionaries reveals that there is no actual definition for the word! How strange! We have stumbled upon a empirical road block – language is not enough to define our reality.

Yet it is bizarre that even when we do not know what ‘salty’ means, we use the word often in our daily exchanges about food, and the other person seems to know what we’re talking about! Pretty amazing.

It is not a leap of logic that can be explained rationally. So how is it that the Matrix, a computer programme based on the back-and-forth conversion of such experiences into algorithms, be able to define taste for us?

Maybe there is no chicken.

I spent my whole weekend playing soccer. Ha. Life is good man.

I seem to be getting better at dribbling. The feeling is damn high lah. When you go past a few players. It feels so good when you're 22 already and you still feel there's room to grow.

Yeah but I think playing 2 days in a row has taken it's toll on me. I spent the whole afternoon sleeping when I couldn't get up after a power nap. I slept too much and now it feels like shit. Haha. Get too high and you'll surely get a withdrawal. I don't know man. Some people like alcohol, smoking or drugs. I'm addicted to soccer and it might be too much for my body to bear when I play too often too hard.

Yes while I was drawing money just now I realised I left out one very important resolution.

This week I shall be more generous and less 'giam siap' =D

This week I shall be less stubborn.
This week I shall put the interests of others above myself.
This week I shall not get discouraged by my crap test results.
This week I shall give myself a chance for once.
This week I shall assume that people are nice unless they are proven otherwise.
This week I shall talk less about myself and more about the other person.
This week I shall attempt to dribble more. But only to create more space for others.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Mika

Soci text: "identities are constantly shifting".
Recently made my mind up to start working on building character again.
Doing marketing and stuff.
Just because I can't do it now doesn't mean I won't be able to learn and do it in the future.
I thought I couldn't sell things. Then I went to work in Sentosa and realised I could.
I can be whatever I want to become. And the only thing that's going to stop me is a lack of imagination.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Sunday soccer today was damn shiok. Just the right amount of competitiveness. Scored 3 goals with my weaker left foot, which was damn damn damn satisfying! The first one was using my dad's trick, shaping to pass then dragging the ball the other way. I think I've mastered it and I keep using it. Better think of new tricks soon. Haha.

After a few weeks of bad form, I think I'm finally getting my (figurative) superpowers back. Ha! Can finally 'feel my legs' again. Shiok ah!

Whilst lying in bed last night, my thoughts suddenly turned to Jeffrey. Suddenly realised he's going to be 14 this year. That's pretty old already! Like, since when did he suddenly become so old already! Gosh. He's like already sec 3! Where did my baby brother go man.. He's suddenly not a baby anymore.

And it sucks to know that I haven't been there for him in his formulative years. I mean, that's the time in his life when you just need someone to listen to. It's been like 5 years since my family moved away. I'm the phantom big brother. I can't believe I've missed so much of his growing up. He's like my pride and joy lah. I'm always beaming away and telling my friends how smart he is. Hehe. He's like the smartass I've always wanted to be but never could.

I haven't exactly taken the pains to call him up or what the past few years. Oh man.. The guilt.

I've become a stranger who comes back once every year. And what do I do when I see him? I bully him! Argh the guilt! He's not really the age to be cuddled and hugged anymore. In the past, every year I found it increasingly difficult to lift him up when I see him at the airport. I just realised this year I didn't even try. He's already so tall. Haha.

In primary 2 there was once a composition I had to write, "the Happiest Day of My Life". I wrote that it was the day Jeffrey was born. I still remember that day vividly. I guess it kinda helps when it's on tape. Haha.

First week lectures have left me feeling out of my depth... Especially philosophy. Omg I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUN. Shit man... I don't have any module I'm confident in =s

Current Mood: stressed

"Body cells replace themselves every month. Even at this very moment...Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories." - Wild Sheep Chase, Murakami

How cool is that lah!

Current Mood: confused