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Showing posts from October, 2016

School of Thought: Existentialism | Hri-Write

Existentialism is a philosophical school of thought that deals with human existence, trying to explain the purpose of a human life. Existentialism, like many other schools of thought, is of course only a speculation and something we made up, take what you read here with a pinch of salt ( after all, I don't know any more about life than you do! ) If I were to try to explain existentialism easily, I'm afraid I'll lose out on its intricacies, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Existentialism, at its most fundamental level, says that every person is responsible for defining their own purpose in this world and that we are governed by our free will. Existentialism says that we are not here to 'find purpose', but rather to 'create our reality and purpose'. It sounds simple, but that's because I've tried to break down roughly a few centuries worth of study and philosophical evolution into four sentences. Existentialism originated as a school o...

The Internet of Things: Smart Home Tech

Smart home technology may just be in its growing years, but there's still a lot of powerful, efficient equipment that you can still use to make your home a little more "smarter". Before I get into it, I'll answer the question, "What are smart homes and how do they work?". Essentially, a smart home is quite obviously a house that is linked together with household stuff that can talk to each other through the internet, and can give you the ability to switch off/on things at home, regulate the temperature, all at your fingertips. The "Internet of things" is a phrase used to describe products that can be identified over a digital network and are connected to one another. Think of it like a web, where every point is in someway connected to the other object, no matter how far it may be kept, as long as it is connected to the same network. So in essence, your air conditioner could talk to your digital door lock, so that as soon as someone enters, the A...

Our growing dependence on technology may be our greatest weakness

Here's an essay I had written for my Grade 10 assignment. I think it's still pretty relevant, and before it gets lost in time on my hard drive, I'd like to share it with you. Our world has grown over the past hundred years in an unimaginable direction. Even though we still have to discover plentiful about this planet, we have managed to supply ourselves with bare necessities, such as food, water, shelter and security. Matter of fact, not only bare necessities, we have managed to provide ourselves by using our wit with most of the luxuries available at our disposal. However, the increase in machines within our homes themselves has a large impact on how we live our lives. Some aspects of technology have become household items, such as the television, or the fridge. Even though it seems that some are necessary to survive in this world, we may have crossed the line between necessity and luxury. In a fast-paced world such as ours, technology is present everywhere. From...

How the Hubble telescope changed Astronomy + Beginning with Astronomy

From the beginning of the human race, to nearly only 400 years ago, everything we knew about space would be observed from the naked eye. Then Galileo came up with his telescope, and the world awakened. We learned Saturn had rings. Jupiter had moons. Within just a few years  of that, our entire understanding of the Universe changed. In the next few centuries, telescopes became more complex, of different sizes, lengths, and powers. Hubble is up in space, the ultimate viewing spot. Unhindered by weather, light pollution, or any other inconveniences, it is used by scientists to study the great cosmos. For 26 years now, the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) has been enthralling us with its spectacular images of nebulae, galaxies, and other space phenomena. Against a stunning backdrop of thousands of galaxies, this odd-looking galaxy with the long streamer of stars appears to be racing through space, like a runaway pinwheel firework. However, the telescope does more th...

Why video games aren't all bad

Well, here's a topic, or probably the topic closest to my heart. The pros and cons of video games have been debated for 10-15 years now, and there's been a lot of studies, for both sides of the coin. We've all heard the typical blames thrust on video gaming. Addiction, increased aggression, and various health consequences such as obesity and repetitive strain injuries. However, how many people actually know the upside of gaming? In grade 10, I had conducted ~8 months of research into this, for my personal project. I'll quickly sum up the most important parts of it and then leave you with the entire video I had created. Patience and peserverance - The world of gaming and many games, in particular require you to do things repetitively to master them. It's ironic, because that's how real life works. Until you do a task over and over, with diligence, you cannot become better at it, and cannot fully master it. In gaming, this term is grinding, adapted from t...

Popular posts from this blog

Where is all the 'alien life?' - Fermi Paradox and other theories

My first blog, ever, was about understanding the odds of alien life. I've gotten much better at writing blogs since then (or so I like to tell myself), and it would only be right if I reinstate the legacy of that one. We should openly admit that when we happen to be under a starry night and see a sight similar to this, we all have a react in a different and interesting way. Some people are left boggled by the immense size of the universe, others by the sheer glamour of the scene and if you're anything like me, you're paralysed by the sudden realisation that you have a negligible impact on the universe. The point is, we all feel something . When he looked up at the sky, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi too felt something, a thought that lingered around this question, "Where is everyone else?" It's been half a decade since Fermi passed on, but he left us with a fundamental query and idea. Fermi realised that in a universe as old and vast as this, there s...

Why your digital footprint matters

Every second you spend on the Internet, you're actively involved in painting a digital picture of yourself. This portrait helps companies target content at specific markets and consumers, helps employers look into your background, and helps advertisers track your movements across multiple websites. Whatever you do online, you might be leaving digital footprints behind. ( http://www.internetsociety.org/your-digital-footprint-matters ) In short, your digital footprint is everything you do online. Social media activity, app usage, email records. Watching videos, visiting adult sites, using certain plugins, everything goes into this piece of art. Whether you like it or not, everything you do on the web can be tracked. A lot of people seem to think that using incognito features on browsers or routers does any good. It might hide data locally (on your system) but it does nothing to completely hide your presence on the web. A diagram of how your internet works The abov...

'Kids these days', and Juvenoia.

The phrase 'kids these days', has been used since time immemorial by older generations to express their disappointment in the younger generations. We love to talk about just how different life was 'back in the good old days'. In that regard, you see a huge number of 'only 90s kids will remember...' on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. George Orwell had a brilliant quote that went along the lines of this: George Orwell (1903-1950), was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. There's a neat neologism for this phenomenon, Juvenoia . The point is, it's an endless cycle. Let's examine this situation. A family is sitting around the breakfast table, all engrossed in their own digital life. It's a common situation nowadays, right? However, in 1907, the Journal of Education deplored, "At a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine." Let...