Ramblings 4

Let the Hamster speak:
*squeak squeak squeak*
(Hamsters exits stage left)

There is quite a lot on my mind that I would like to share. Even more that I would rather not share. But I am here just to revive my blog. To see if I am finally ready to resume writing.

April 2010 was not a good time for me. I lost a part of myself. A very integral part. A caring, kind, passionate, loving, pure, clever, smart, intelligent, adorable, shy, warm, (insert all the superlatives of all the positive adjectives), part of me. One that I will never forget. A part that drove me like nothing else does. A part that made me who I am today. All this time I had locked up that grief and loss deep inside of me.

I spent a long time being very harsh to everyone immediately after the incident. Then like a crowbar my mother forcibly pried open my armadillo shell using the only chink in my armour. I don't think even she realised how bad she made me feel about how rude I had become. I don't think she ever will.

Things returned to an apparent normality. My job kept me busy and when I was not working my limited interactions with human beings kept me docile to the untrained eye. A year went by and life along with time kept moving on. I never let myself the time to embrace my darkest sorrow yet in life. There was so much more to be happy about. So much more that needed to be done. I learned quite a few valuable lessons about facades, masks, illusions, shells, ego, id and all the psychological stuff that goes with it. True I am not an expert but I learnt enough to start manipulating things around me. All it would take was a nudge. The only requirement. But it didn't mean I would get the results I wanted. I learned to work with that as well.

Then I fell in love with my best friend. Life seemed to be taking a turn for the better, despite my pretence I was finally starting to feel emotions that I would let play in front of others. My lies were finally starting to irk my morality. My conscious self was starting to have a war with my subconscious mind. After living a lie I had become a lie. Not a word I would speak would be the truth in its entire form. Always things hidden and squared away in the corner of my mind. Yet everywhere I look they want absolute transparency. All the more reason to keep things locked up inside. Yet here I am divulging my deepest darkest inner workings to you in the form of a blog that the whole world will read.

To return to the point, just when colour had returned to my black and white life, the colour was taken from again. This trauma more than ever offset any armour I could create for myself. It was not a force from the outside trying to find a chink in my chain mail. It was a strike from within. Just as I return to my black and white world a new shade of grey seeps into it. The sorrow that I had kept shackled in an abyss burst through but not as explosively as a dam. Rather with infinitely more subtle means. A sigh here or a grunt there or even a day dream elsewhere.

This sorrow tinges my black and white world. The world I have now come to love because I have spent so much time in it anything else would be alien to me. This sorrow paints a third colour on my world: a grey hue. Unlike the ease of perception and illusion in colour this shade of grey compels me to develop a new sense of depth and perception. At times it also helps disillusion myself from the fantasies that had been portrayed for me or by me.

This grey that I kept hidden from sight is now my best friend. Maybe one day it too will abandon me. But till then its the only friend I have who remains with me even when I am among my human friends. This hue that covers me in its shade will never be forgotten. For it represents the infinite chromatics that were before it. And it will be with me when colour returns to me again, if at all. 

000.001 Knowledge (secundus)

To continue where I left of in the last post: 

1.5 Libre Knowledge

Literally: free knowledge. A take on those words could be to liberate knowledge from the shackles that we cast on it such as the tedious processes of being able to publish a particular piece of research (also known as discovered, revised, re-visited or re-introduced to modern society knowledge). Or just to be able to share knowledge along with information as freely as information, data and knowledge are shared on the internet. Of course I do not agree with lack of structure; however I am a proponent of a large amount of freedom for knowledge and information. True that a researcher in some corner of the world spent half his life digging up some piece of knowledge from the depths of past and present research, but once its been figured out, it eventually becomes common knowledge. The perspective that I hold firmly is that rather than letting that piece of knowledge rot in some dark abyss to reach which exorbitant amounts of money are required, float the said knowledge thereby exponentially increasing the pace of research in the relatively next round. 

Going a little off topic here but quite necessarily. I would like to mention that research should not be viewed as a money-making tool. For money-making we should exploit the innovation and design sector which are both interdependent on each other as well as on research quite heavily. Research is and should be viewed a black-hole for investment from which the reward will be innovation and design in one field or another. In turn leading to production of unique products that when sold at appropriate prices will generate enormous returns. This system then should not be denied its most basic and intrinsic nature: LIBERATION OF KNOWLEDGE.

1.6 Meta Knowledge

This is an interesting topic, because with the internet now declared as a basic human right and increasing access to it even in developing nations, knowledge (meaning how, where and what to do to obtain knowledge) about knowledge is becoming increasingly widespread. Then we cast knowledge into the irons of structure such as categories such as the Dewey decimal system. Also to make it easier to sort through the knowledge all the articles, notes, passages, papers, etc are tagged with keywords. In this day and age it is not difficult to 'google' key words with enough refinement that one can find anything quite reliably and extremely swiftly. Therefore knowledge about knowledge is not the problem. In fact meta-knowledge can be said to be trying to liberate knowledge from the chains we have put it in. That at least is the way things seem to me in the current environment. 

1.7 Procedural Knowledge

This is a different form of knowledge as compared to those opined up on previously. Procedural knowledge is quite specific in its nature and applies to, for lack of example, a particular task. A task can be relatively simple such as lifting a pen from the table top or it can be more complex and mad up of sub tasks further broken down into smaller jobs. Of course because not all things are standardised (such as spelling) so there are often multiple ways of completing the same task. The exact route taken depends on the person (and/or employer and /or region and/or culture/tradition/history). Therefore in the modern world there is a lot of deliberate hype about procedural knowledge (often labelled trade secrets). I understand that a particular way of doing something and carrying out a task is the key to delivering a particular quality of end product hence such high impact knowledge need not necessarily be liberated into the population at large. The only condition is that considering such knowledge as property and with-holding it from the global community should not become a barrier to development at any point. If this happens, then said knowledge should be immediately released to the public at large. As within the so called 'blind' consumers lie the dormant geniuses (genii) of tomorrow just waiting for a puzzle piece of knowledge to be released so they can present you with a solved Rubik's cube in the 7th dimention. 

1.8 Self-knowledge

I really should not need to explain this to anyone. Particularly as trying to describe something so intrinsic is in itself an example of Tacit Knowledge which coincidentally is the next little section. 

1.9 Tacit Knowledge

Let me begin with explicit knowledge which is knowledge that can easily be transmitted from one person to another verbally and or visually (by writing and demonstrating). Tacit knowledge is that vague little abstract bit of knowledge that can not be transmitted from one person to another. It can only be invoked. As tacit knowledge relies on an individuals inherent capability of 'making the connection' or 'connecting the dots' as it were. Language and learning a new language are examples of this kind of knowledge. While learning a new language the explicit knowledge is shared with the learner but the fluency does not arrive till the learner has immersed themselves in that particular language and its culture to understand the abstract rules of it. Like riding a bike. One can be shown how to do it and what not to do, but it only comes after grasping that intangible trick and making the connection after personal experience based on personal experimentation. 

And finally:

Management of Knowledge: 

1. Knowledge Acquisition: 

Knowledge can only be acquired through research and experimentation. Of course there is the route of revelation but that tends to mean one is a prophet of some sort. (For obvious reasons I shall not discuss theology)

2. Knowledge Storage:

We do this everyday. We just need to do it in such a manner that the storage is structured but available to all regardless of anything. This would then be called transparency (which happens to be politically correct besides being ethically and morally correct as it would lead to minimisation of corruption, lies and deceit. Unless someone just starts a massive hoax of building massive amounts of false knowledge thereby defeating the entire purpose of development and advancement.) 

Last but not least there should be LIBRARIES everywhere and they should be of any media: paper or digital or both. 

3. Knowledge Retrieval 

Based upon storage, knowledge should be free to be recalled at any time or place. (well almost, after all we do not want design data leaked before putting a product into commercial production or else a rival will do it before us but not of the same quality. So I guess a small amount of restriction is necessary however not as much as has been imposed upon knowledge today.) 

000.001 Knowledge

This post is not necessarily advice or in depth detailing of various Natures of Knowledge such as the priori or the posteriori or even the extelligence, experience or self-knowledge. This post is rather about how the author interprets the availability and use of knowledge in empirical terms rather than specific denominations thereof. Primarily my divination of acquiring, storing and management of all kinds of knowledge in this super-connected and online world. 

As I move along the defined path I will try and categorize the paragraphs and sections for easier reading as per this given structure: 

1. Nature of Knowledge

1.1 A priori and a posteriori knowledge

1.2 Descriptive knowledge

1.3 Extelligence

1.4 Experience

1.5 Libre knowledge

1.6 Metaknowledge (knowledge about knowledge)

1.7 Procedural knowledge

1.8 Self-knowledge

1.9 Tacit knowledge

1. Excerpts from Natures of Knowledge

1.3 Extelligence

Most of us do not even realize how deeply and completely we depend on knowledge that exists around us and is the fabric of our surroundings as well as culture and legend. Most of the superstitions lie in this category, but my opinion on them will be elaborated later. 

All of us are born in communities which have some form of legends and folk-tales and old-wives tales that have been existing since time immemorial. Thus the legends and superstitions are taken for granted and often then further developed in to destructive and morbid myths that are more often than not scientifically not possible. Culture is also based around tradition and ye olde myths and legends. Thus in my book culture itself is can easily become part of the problem particularly when people say " ... that is how my father and forefathers did so and so..." or " .. that is what my fathers and forefathers believed and so will I". 

These days there are educated illiterates roaming around the world believing anything they are told by anyone claiming to be an expert on any subject with any random qualification or certificate to show for it. They are ripe for the picking and ready for exploitation by those who even have the slightest tendency and ability to do so, which pretty much means that the world is up for grabs by itself. As every man woman and child expresses various degrees of selfishness and conceit. All on the basis of culture, traditions, myths, legends, folklore and superstition. This cycle should be broken and it should also be self-explanatory of where we as a human race stand with regards to knowledge and development. 

1.4 Experience

The impact surroundings (including people and their actions for or against us) have on us always changes us even if the change is indistinguishable at first. We undergo such affronts to our very being be they positive or not so positive every single moment of our lives. The touch of the mother when we are born to the touch of our lover, everything is an experience in itself. Over time and repetition some experiences do not hold the same awe and feelings for us as compared to something we are experiencing for the very first time. Which is also the reason that in some episodes of CSI (yes I watch TV too) I have noticed the dialogue " ... it was not the same as the first ..." either from the investigator or from the criminal. It can be applied to any facet of our lives from love and hate to anger and happiness and even to less abstract and more physically real aspects such as walking and running or even bungee jumping (something I would love to do again). 

Something that most of us take for granted and don't realize when we talk about experience is the simple fact that all experience is subjective and relative to the one experiencing it. For a simple example, the way I feel the wind in my hair is not identical to the way any one of you would; however, the two experiences can easily be very similar. (A side note: they could be so similar that a digital read out would equate them but the analogous human brain would clearly be able to tell the difference). Therefore the pleasure I get from learning how to do Ko Soto Gari (refer my up coming posts on MMA/Jiu Jitsu/Judo) does not equate to my training partner actually feeling the brunt of the throw. That example is for lack of a better example because it shows that the same action is being experienced by two different people in two very opposite ways. 

In terms of knowledge, experience is something all of us are completely and entirely dependent up on except for those who have trained themselves to do otherwise. It is a type of acquired knowledge that forms the basis of our future and our future efforts of acquiring knowledge of any kind. 

-------

TO BE CONTINUED ..... 

Live long and prosper and May the Force be with you. So say we all. 

breaking silence

I am not sure about my next step, but I do want to continue.
The dilemma is nothing as drastic as choosing jobs. It is a lot simpler than that:
I want to be published and in as many categories as humanly possible for me. Do I need to be an expert in any one such subject to get published in that subject (for example under Dewey Decimal System Classes/Categories ). Also if I do not need to be an expert to be published in any subject but just need to have the most basic and fundamental knowledge of the principles then after acquiring such enlightenment how do I go about getting published.

One solution to the said dilemma is presented to me by the most easy route anyone with access to internet could think of: BLOGS
I could post all my thoughts or at least most of them on a given category and class of the dewey decimal system per say, but how many people would I then be impacting. There was a recent discussion about the matter between a friend and myself, but we failed to reach a conclusion. A random reader then commented on my point of view 'shows how non american you are'. Truth be told, it does not matter to me if I fit a stereo type or not. It is my belief that knowledge and its interpretations should be shared and tolerated provided the said material is of at least some standard and quality so as to improve and enhance the society on a local and global scale. After all when the world has become shorter thanks to the internet and all the technology why then are we becoming a barrier to our own development. But that is a discussion for one of the first topics I will be posting about from the Dewey Decimal System.

Maybe sometime one of you readers will provide a helpful suggestion to this seemingly easy problem that the hamster in the upper chamber is having with the drum beater in the rib cage ....


Live long and prosper and may the Force be with you. So say we all.  

still

here