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Live in Computer

Imagine a program that simulates all the connections between 100 billion neurons in your brain. Then the program is put in a Lego robot. Yes, now you have a robot equivalent. Sounds like BS? But the OpenWorm project recently announced that they did what I just told you, but only on a worm whose brain contains 302 neuron. They posted a video of the Lego worm. Notice that the worm robot, seemingly stopping and backing like a stupid robot that children play for fun, actually interacts with the environment, like the real one in water. In other words, the robot has the mind of a normal worm. The robot, unlike the artificial intelligence (AI), is created by nature but only cataloged and transferred to a robot.

Here is another video that shows the simulation of the worm in computer.

It was insane to say that human mind can be uploaded into a robot. Now, with the groundbreaking project of Lego worm, it only becomes ridiculous to say the same thing. But the speed of technology development is always an exponential curve. It took around 10 years for the OpenWorm project to succeed, but it is only the starting point. Just like the computer, whose development in the beginning was desperately slow and disappointing , comparing to today's computer. In short, the coming of Lego human will be much faster than we expect. Those sci-fi movies which look impossible may turn true before the end of this century.

Suppose everything of your brain is finally uploaded to a robot, and now you have Lego twin. He or she shares the same traits with you, not only the innate traits but also the acquired traits, because your Lego twin has the same genome and memory as you. This raises a ton of interesting philosophic questions. Can we say you reach digital immortality? Since it is the Lego you who is immortal but not you. Since the robot knows everything you know, including those secrets that you never want to share with anybody, what are you going to do with the Lego you. To deactivate the robot? The Lego you, as you, knows what you think, don't want to die for sure and will probably fight back, which you will realize too. Now, it becomes that you have to turn the Lego you off before he or she kills you.

No one knows what will happen when simulation of human brain becomes possible. Nonetheless, keep your eyes on the newly development of AI and computer science. An unprecedented storm is brewing.

Sleeping & Studying

You did not wanna sleep because you had a test tomorrow, but you never read your textbook or reviewed your note until you have to. Finally until 11:30 pm, only 100 pages were left, and you were tired and sleepy. Should you give up and sleep or keep reading? This question only stayed in your mind for few second before you dismissed it and guzzled another cup of coffee.

Sounds familiar? It happens to many students or people who were students. Today I am not here to appeal you to stop procrastination and live a happy life, since I actually don't know how to do it. Of course, it will be much better if you can plan your time properly. But when you decide to burn the candle at both ends, there is a better way to burn it.

According to an article from Harvard Medical School website, sleeping is important to memory. Sleep deprivation reduces your ability to study. This fact is known by many people. So let me tell you something you may not know.

If you are studying for a test, stop cramming to midnight. Here is a better way: study until 11 pm and sleep normally, then wake up early in the morning, depending on how many hours you need. The reason is that different types of memory are related to different stages of sleep. Formation of memory of basic fact knowledge happens in early stage, which is the stage that you need to consolidate what you study for a day.

Maybe next time you should go to bed earlier and get up earlier.

Nonetheless, this trick doesn't really work that well, according to my experience. Studying a little bit everyday is much better than cramming a huge chunk of information, which you can go to my last post for information about spacing study.

For more information and specific explanation, go for this video.

Spacing and Interleaving: counterintuitive way of study

Have you ever tried to cram 100 pages of textbook at the night right before history test? Or recite all those complicated Calculus formulas 3 hours before the quiz? I have. It just seems so reasonable to put all the work, spend few hours or a whole day, and finish it together. Doesn't it?

However, researches have showed that this is not how our brains work. Here are two of  those principles that researches find efficient for students to apply on subjects such as science, and art.


NO.1 Space your study time

If you have a test next week, you'd start to review right now and plan your study time evenly throughout the 7 days. Seemingly a clique, starting early is based on the findings demonstrated by years of research. When spending same amount of time, you wait longer between two sessions of studying. According to Williams College psychologist Nate Kornell, PhD, his research paper proposes that spacing is much more efficient than cramming. The more time you space between two period of study, the more you forget, and therefore the more reinforcement of your memory when you review again, though a really long break will be negative to memory.


NO.2 Interleave your subjects

It is common sense that students focus on one subject at a time, which seems to be more organized and concentrated. However, Robert Bjork, PhD, a psychologist in UCLA, thinks differently. His research paper which discusses the effect of interleaving points out that interleaving, by pushing students to distinguish the differences and similarities between two or more subjects, improves memory significantly.

In general, both spacing and interleaving enhance the long-term memory of students. For more information, check out the article from American Psychological Association that introduce even more surprising and useful principle for study.

One name, different minds

I once saw an intriguing statement that your body atoms change completely every 5 years. I was interested in it and googled for more specific information. It turned out that in just 16 days, around 72% of our body will be replaced, since 72% of our body by weight is liquid water -- H2O. Almost all of the water is renewed every 16 days. Other atoms of different organs take various time. Go here for more interesting fact about atom exchange in your body.

This data, seemingly based on urban legend, was pointed out in a landmark paper and led to a stunning conclusion that every atom in your body will be replaced every year. It evokes a philosophic question that If every atom in our body is replaced each year, who are we if we are not our atoms and we are not our cells?

It is common to argue that as long as your mind, or your soul remains the be you, it doesn't matter that your body is renewed, especially when everything functions the same as it did. However, the presupposition of this assertion is the constant of your mind. It is possible that your worldview and morality remain the same, but things in your brains like information, logic, way of thinking, emotion would have undergone radical transformation every year.

This is especially true for students in middle school who are growing rapidly in terms of knowledge, emotion,  even morality and worldview. It is not exaggerating that they become different people in a year in the most blooming time.

I can not really understand my thoughts and feelings few years ago. Not only because I have a different point of view, but also I don't particularly remember the old days. If I could talk to younger me, we would probably quarrel with each other. I do things that he would find it immoral, while I think he was stupid.

It is true that what I did in the past had a huge influence on me today. My past experience would somehow effect my current thoughts, and my old belief led to decision that formed my life today. Nonetheless, I believe that we are correlated but different. This is how I feel every time I recall my past. It feels like my life is composed of different but kind of similar people who share the same name.

If so, it is important to keep diary, in order to compare different me in different time so that I can know how I become who I am now.

A funny thing for this: sometimes it feels like I have only lived for a year, since my past was lived out by another me who just left a piece of vague memory in my mind.

Why do I hope my friend fail when I fail

When my friend gets an F on a test, I feel bad for him; when my friend gets first place, I feel even worse. This is what Rancho learns from his human behavior class after a test in the movie 3 Idiots, one of my favorite films. What Rancho learns is almost true for me. Sometimes, when I get a bad score on a test, I cannot control to wish that my classmates will get a bad score too. So why does this thought happen to me or even most people.

To explain it, there are three premises we need to know first: 

1. Most people has the motivation to compare themselves to others, in order to gain accurate self-evaluation. (Social comparison theory)
2. Most people has the need to maintain self-esteem by working to perceive themselves positively. (Self-enhancement)
3. People are inclined to use information to arrive at casual explanations for events. (Attribution theory)

When I get an F on a test in calculus class, I will first find out how my friends do on the same test because I want to know if I suck at calculus or the test is too difficult. (Self-evaluation) Because I have already failed my test, the motive to feel good about myself is even stronger. (Self-enhancement) Therefore it is inevitable that I hope everybody gets a bad score on the test, so that I can conclude that the test is too difficult for us and it is not my fault. (Attribution)

On the other hand, if my friend comes to show me that he or she gets an A on the test, my mind will automatically realizes that I get an F because I SUCK. This feeling is terrible, because the need to feel good about myself is not fulfilled. At this point, I will probably be overwhelmed by various negative emotions, such as depression and jealousy. At this point, I will automatically hope that my friend will fail his or her test in another class.

According to Leon Festinger, people will compare with others who are similar to one’s opinions and abilities, because it ensures the accuracy of evaluation. Festiger uses a chess novice who won’t compare himself or herself to a chess master as an example. That’s why sometimes instead of being jealous, I find it admirable that my friend gets the first place in a pencil drawing competition, because I know nothing about drawing.

This is just a simple explanation for what confuses me. Thank you for reading.

Pride

In 1984, Thatcher government decided to shut down 20 coal mines with the loss of over 20000 jobs. Strike led by the National Union of Mine began following the revelation. Pride is a movie about the story between two special groups of people, homosexuals and miners during the longest miner strike happened in UK. Homosexuals at that time faced pressure and bias from the society and government, though in 1984 government shifted their focus on miners due to the strike. Mark is a gay who came out an idea to create an organization named LGSM to help miners. At first the team only contained no more than 10 people. They called the national union which ignored them, so they decided to bypass the union by helping a mining town in Wales picked randomly. The first contact was embarrassing. People in town are prejudiced against homosexuals, and some refused their donation. However, as LGSM gradually brought some change to the town, the bias against them started to fade away. They made a huge change to the life of people in town, though they faced many problems.

I am a little bit amazed by Mark who led the team to do many things seemingly small but hard to achieve by a normal man. I saw how people gave an inspiring speech in front of people who were once alert and defensive without preparation. I realize the importance of cheering any people in any situation at any time by giving an amazing speech.

The process to ask for donation was also a hardship because of their special identity as homosexual. People called them perverts and even threatened them. There are two scenes in the movie so awesome that I hope I can do it one day. The first one happened in the town when people and members of the organization were eating and celebrating. Suddenly, Mark who looked thoughtful stood up and burst out his feeling and promise for the miners. 

Another scene happened in the gay bar where a miner gave a speech to express his gratitude to homosexuals in the bar. People were vigilant against the miner due to the social prejudice against homosexuals. However, the miner gave a normal speech that was humorous and sincere, which mitigate the tension between them. These impromptu speeches were affecting, therefore I want to learn to give a normal but great speech.

Despite of people’s disgust against them, they raised a lot of many money by standing in front of their gay book store yelling “Gay and Lesbian support the miners”, holding a concert to raise money, and sticking their special post everywhere to let everybody know about them.

I dreamed of becoming wealthy and famous in the future, because everybody wanted to do it. I worked so hard on Math, because everybody spent a lot of time on it. I chose my future university according to the ranking of US News, because everybody believes in it. I am proud of what I did, but nothing belongs to me. My sense of superiority simply derives from being part of the majority.

That’s why I have always been embarrassed of doing or being something different from people around me. But in the movie Pride, even those who face most bias from the world are brave enough to stand up for themselves and change the world. The meaning of pride is to be proud of being yourself, because both your “flaws” and “virtues” are unique. I am still trying to understand the meaning of being proud…

What is the color of the dress

Recently, there is a photo of a dress so widespread on internet that I can see people talk about it on Chinese internet.

(Here is the original site of the dress)

The funny thing about it is that some people see blue and black from the dress, while others see white and gold. So what color is it exactly?

Let's talk about the real color of it by standard definition. Here is a photo that shows the real color of this dress, thanks to Jesse Alford II who shows us how to use Photoshop to find out the true color of the picture in his blog.

However, truth is only based on how we perceive the world through our senses. In the movie The Matrix, seemingly living in a normal and modern world, human beings are enslaved by artificial intelligence who feeds neural simulation of reality to brains. This reminds me of a philosophy problem named brain in a vat which raises a question: how can you be sure that you are not a brain in a vat, and the reality you perceive is not a computer simulation created by a mad scientist?

The point is that our brain is easily credulous. Look at this photo and you know what I mean:


This famous picture is known as checker shadow illusion, in which square A is exactly the same as square B. Look at here if you are interested in its explanation.

There are some guys trying to learn how people perceive the dress, and they give a test to collect data on the phenomena. You can see how you compare to others in the end of the test. Here is the result I got on March 6:

Though the specific reason for why people perceive different color from the dress remains unknown, it reminds me that maybe there is no truth in the world, but only the virtual reality simulation that runs on the brain.

I would like to end up this blog with the following cool dialogue from The Matrix:

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. 
Neo: What truth? 
Spoon boy: There is no spoon. 
Neo: There is no spoon? 
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Thank you for reading. Please tell me what color of the dress you see in comment, since I wonder whether seeing gold and white is rarer.

Why did I buy so many books that I never feel like opening it ?

This article is prompted by what happened to me in a normal morning last year. One day, sitting on the floor, looking at the bookshelf in front of me, I suddenly wondered what was wrong with me: there were hundreds of books in the shelf  that I wanted to read at the time I saw it but never opened the cover of almost all the books. Am I crazy? Maybe not. Do I love shopping? Nah. The more I thought, the more curious I was. 

So I searched my question on Internet and happily found out that I am not alone. Many people share the same problem with me and complained about it-- "I need more willpower to keep reading books", "I have so many books rotting in the shelf because I do not have time to read", "my neighbor so noisy that I can not concentrate on reading".  Everybody seemed to know what is the problem , but nobody knew how to solve it. I didn't know it too, so i just forgot it. This problem stays with me and keeps cursing me not only in terms of reading but also everything such as playing guitar or playing tennis I tried to learn and tackle.

I recently read a new book named 你的生命有什么可能, written by a Chinese writer named 古典. I knew this author by reading another book named 拆掉思维里的墙. I actually finished this book after i bought it, which is amazing. I like this book for the new way it proposes to perceive our daily life. In the new book, he claims that being interested in anything is not inborn but cultivated. Some people are not born to love playing guitar, reading book, or playing tennis but instead learned to love it. This is important to me, since it means that instead of trying to maintain my desire to read, I should cultivate my own passion for it.

Flow

Then how should I cultivate my passion, by watering it everyday? Maybe. By doing what you want everyday, you create a habit that helps you keep doing it. Another thing to notice is the ideal relationship named "flow" between the challenge of work and your skill. According to Wikipedia, "flow, also known as zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity." 

Now, looking back at my problem, I think buying too many books itself is the problem, since I bought so many books I want to read that I am choked by my interest. The solution will be buy a book once at a time and finish it before i buy another one. This is a easier mission to complete and therefore helping my passion for the book to grow day by day, since I am still a noob in reading.

Of course, this is not scientifically supported, and i welcome any discussion and debate over it. If you have any idea about anything, please let me know in the comment. Thank you.

Why do I automatically compare myself to peers when it hurts

I have long been used to comparing to my schoolmates in terms of many aspects, from the score of last math test to how physical appearance. The feeling of being superb is enjoyable, while the feeling of being inferior is unendurable. I think this is familiar for everybody. We can never control ourselves from comparing with others, especially peers and people near us.


Why Compare

But why do we do it? Considering the how comparison tortures us when we feel inferior, and how it leads to bad results when people keep up with the Joneses, I doubt the meaning of comparing with each other. However, I understand that every trait of humans descends from ancient time with us for a reason. In other words, if human beings are keen on comparing, it always means that such behavior has its reason for existing.

The comic strip named Keeping up with Joneses 

Biologically, the reason is obvious, since comparison reminds you of what you need to survive in the nature when you see that your friends who know more about hunting lead a better life. This pushes you to improve hunting skill so that you can catch up. When you are extraordinary, comparison makes you happier and more motivated to spend even more time on hunting. This is just a extempore theory pops in my mind, but it partly explain the benefit of comparison.

But now we live in 21st century, our brain fails catch up the rapid change of environment, and we sometimes do something for a reason that no longer exist in our society. I do not need to know about music to survive in the society, but I still automatically compare myself with my friends who are good at playing piano and guitar.


What Should We Do

Knowing the why comparison happens does solve the problem, i need to know how to deal with it when it happens, since i am not likely to stop it. According to "Should You Compare Yourself to Others?", we need to understand the benefit of comparison to utilize it properly. The articles suggests "a healthy comparison is looking at great work and analyzing its parts". You learn from comparison and therefore find out the potential of human beings. That is why sometimes comparison will be inspiring. Knowing how Einstein proposed his famous theory in his 20s when he was just nobody in a small patent office can make people who dream of making a new discovery in science.

Nonetheless, there are still a lot to learn more about the mechanism of comparison. It is a double-edged sword, and whether you can benefit from it depends on how you use it.

Good luck, have fun.

Why do I spend more time on game when I am busier?

Life Out of Control

This weekday I had 3 blog analyses due on Thursday, a history test on Friday morning, a community leader application due on Friday afternoon, and a blog due before Friday midnight. So with so many works waiting for me, I chose to play League of Legends, a computer game, on Wednesday evening until 9 pm.

As a student who cares about his grade, I find it a mystery that I almost screwed my academic life by indulging myself in meaningless battle on Internet. Actually, this was not my first time to do such ridiculous thing. I decided to find out what happened to me on the Wednesday night.


Brain under stress

I first tried to understand why I did it by recalling the night on Wednesday. I just finished my dinner and was so full. Siting on my chair in front of the desk and staring on the history textbook, I suddenly felt the revulsion to read it and wanted to do something else. Being so ambivalent, my mind was finally blown up by the contradiction and decided to give up thinking to do whatever I want. Then I chose to play computer game.

An article on Time.com about decision making argues that “It's counterintuitive, but under stress we tend to focus more on the rewards than on the risks of any decision”. An experiment referred in this article was designed to study the impact of stress on decision making by stimulating similar situation. 


Researchers found out that males are more inclined to take risk and make a faster decision, while females always react oppositely and make decision more slowly. Now I know that I played game because I am so stressful that my brain chose the most favorable one and refused to consider the consequence of the choice.

Time to Hack the Mind

However, instead of blaming the mechanism of brain evolved from ancient time, I want to figure out some ways to counter it. So here comes a problem: How? There are a lot of suggestions online about how to make tough decision under pressure. Here is one that I found on Forbes.com:

1.      First, Frame The Question (by asking 4 questions)

2.      Find Your Answers

3.      Evaluate Your Answers And/Or Decisions

4.      Apply Your Decision

Actually, this does not work for me, since I could not even finish step 1 before I quitted. I found a much more helpful suggestion from a Chinese question-and-answer website called Zhihu in which the most voted answer points out that when you choose to play game, you don’t really need it, since playing game will only make you more exhausted. 


On the other hand, it recommends that “do not blame yourself for being self-indulgent.” Seemingly counterintuitive, it is based on the truth that people have limited energy and willpower. Instead of solving the problem, blaming yourself and feeling guilty, indeed, increase your stress and therefore the possibility of failing next time. The ultimate solution is to love yourself, which means to admit your limitation as a human being and to forgive yourself. Make sure this does not mean to indulge yourself, and you should follow your own principles.

Additionally, when I am hungry and tired, I don’t want to study any more. So before you are about to tackle your paper or test, make sure you have enough energy to go through the hell.


Stop blaming. Love yourself. Eat enough. Sleep enough. Enjoy hacking your brain.