"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"

(I forgot to POST: .... Sorry!)

Christopher Boone, the protagonist of the "Curious Incident" is a 15-year old autistic boy. Christopher knows all the countries of the world and their capitals. Christopher is also a whiz at math (he is what sometimes is called an idiot savant but more appropriately called an autistic savant.) Our protagonist has a hard time dealing with the real world sometimes, and in those times he starts screaming or curls up in a ball. Christopher tells us about all the ways he deals with the world around him. Like seeing everything when he looks at things around him. For most people, when we look around us we can focus on just a few things and ignore the rest... But, for Christopher, it is much harder, because when he looks, he sees everything.

This explanation, by author Mark Haddon is one of the many things I liked about this book. He has worked in the real world with Autistic Children and understands their behavior and where they come from. In fact, it impressed me to not only see his knowledge on the subject, but also the level of research on autism. There are some amazing things being learned on this subject, and this understanding is also increasing the understanding of the workings of the human brain. The last fictional depiction of autism I know about, was the film, the Boy Who Could Fly which is an excellent treatise in its own right.

Christopher tries to find out who killed Wellington, his neighbor's dog (a poodle) using a garden pitch fork. His investigation takes him to places he has never been to before, and these new experiences help the reader learn more about autism, and help Christopher deal with the world around him a little better. When he goes on his investigations, we go along with him. I spend most of the time, cheering Christopher to go forward with his quest.

Overall, this is a book that I can recommend without any reservations. It is not intended for children, as I had originally purchased it for my nephew who is only 9. However, I do think teenagers 15 and up will probably get something from this book. Ultimately, this is a book about the search for love, and how even those of us challenged in life can and should go on this quest, this search for love. It is love that holds the fabric of life together, and there is no room for hate in the world. And isn't that a message worth reading about?

A Book Review

From time to time, I will post some book reviews here on books that have caught my interest and I would like others to know about. There are a couple of economics books I just finished recently, but today I will start with a Novel. Eventually, I plan to have links for the books I like on the side of my blog. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. (Oh yeah, I used to do book reviews on Amazon.com, and I will always co-post there).

Truth

I have been wondering about the nature of truth. Is "truth" subjective, meaning, can you, the individual believe something is the truth and be right, when we the majority believe something else is the truth?

Does Quantum Mechanics really explain the nature of "truth"?

Or is "thruth" more fundamental than that? Is "truth" so obvious that sometimes people just don't see it? Or could people believe something as "true" and in believing it make it so?

I have my ideas which I will explain in a near future post. But what do you think? Is "truth" subjective? Or are there some "truths" and then some other "truths"? Are there "grey" areas?

I want your input. Please comment.

Status Quo

Apart from this being the name of a favorite 70s Rock Band, it can also mean lots of things to different people.

For some people, Status Quo=Security. This is the reason they give me as to why they will vote the way they will vote this year.

For other people, Status Quo=More of the Same, as in, "we don't want more of the same."

For me, making decisions that depend on the phrase: "Don't make changes midstream," (as in in the middle of the war) are dangerous and show no attempt to reason the decision. The owner of this phrase also told me that if this president, after getting re-elected takes us into another war, they will vote Democratic in the next election, as in 2008.

I think, however, that this statement is very dangerous. If you vote for President Bush using this rationale, aren't you in effect telling this president, continue what you doing, and do more of the same? And isn't more of the same another war? And isn't it possible that things could possibly get worse in the next four years of the same president to the extent of not having an election in 2008? And wouldn't that be too late then?

I know this is fear mongering, but, a negative rationale can be a powerful motivator. Isn't that what the right has been using in this campaign from the beginning? Essentially: "If you vote for Kerry, we will be hit again in a 9/11 style attack".

So, while I do not believe in fear mongering, as some people do (who even talk about leaving this country if Bush gets re-elected), I do think that people need to THINK before they vote. Their decisions are long term and they must think of the long term consequences.

Otherwise, it won't really matter.

The truth about....

Take your pick:

WMD non-existent in IRAQ.

The lying game that is Political polls. This is an excellent article.

Lying is a bad thing. The last president who lied was almost impeached. How about this one?

To Infinity and Beyond

It's done. It's accomplished. Private space flight is now open to the rest of us. The indomitable human spirit of invention has succeeded. Read: SpaceshipOne Wins the X-Prize.

You can read more about the X-Prize here: The Ansari X-Prize

And the company that accomplished it: Scaled Composites

I can not contain my enthusiasm. I feel as excited as when men first walked on the moon. I feel as excited as when the Columbia Space Shuttle first went into orbit. These actions inspired me to become an Aeronautical Engineer. These actions inspired me to want to go into space myself. Somewhere along the way, I lost that dream. Somewhere along the way, I took my eyes off the dream. Somewhere, something, no longer spoke to me.

But I feel elated. I feel inspired again. I am dreaming again. I love computers, but I love space even more. I love cars, but I love spaceships even more. NASA did not want to hire me. But NASA has taken her eyes of the prize. The future is for those privately funded efforts who are and will be taking chances. I want to be part of that. I want to take what I know and learn more and use it in this endeavor. Because this endeavor gives me hope like nothing else in the world today is giving me hope.

I am, today, rededicating myself to my original dream. It is the dream of space that woke me up and made me successful in school. It is this same stirring of years ago that I now feel in me. I want to be part of it. I want to be a dreamer again.

And maybe that's what society today is lacking. Maybe, we no longer have any dreams left and we need some new ones to inspire, to make us achieve.

So, all together then, let's say: "To Infinity, and Beyond".

Are you living in the REAL world?

There is a recurring theme in my beliefs and in my writings. In many ways, whether attempting to ascertain this from the spiritual side (coming from a religious background myself), or if I use logic, or some other scientific principles, the question always comes down to:

Why are we here?

This questions takes many forms. One very important form is this: What is the meaning of life? What are we supposed to do with this thing given us called life? If a higher being has given us this, why? What does that being expect from us? If we're just a chance arrangement of atoms, why where those atoms arranged that way? Are we the universe, made manifest, attempting to explain itself?

I wonder these questions, as I wonder about the reasons behind decisions occurring around me. Whether one of those decisions is what I am going to have for dinner (and why is my wife always asking me what I want for dinner, when we've already made a menu for the next two weeks -- but that's a subject for a different post), or who to vote for in the upcoming US election.

Let us instead, direct our thinking to what effect our decisions have on today and the near future. I think the future is very malleable, constantly changing, depending on individual decisions on the here and now in order to be formed.

There was a time when people chose to create a thing called democracy. This experiment began about 2,500 years ago in Athens, Hellas on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula. It took another 2,300 years for the experiment to be repeated. In order for the experiment to be successful, a number of things are of importance.

1. The people, no matter what their religious affiliation, MUST put aside those beliefs, and work together for the common good.
2. Reason, is more important in this experiment than let's say deciding what color to paint the side of my house. I'll explain this in more detail later.
Finally,
3. The good of the many, sometimes, HAS (by definition) to outweigh the good of the few.

I sometimes like to express these principles using the Heisenberg uncertainty principle which proposes that you can not measure the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously. Extremely smart scientists have made the effort to connect this principle of Quantum Mechanics with the metaphysical questions I posed earlier. In short, their position is that it is impossible for us to tell whether what we're observing around is real at any given point in time. This is important in another respect also. In quantum mechanics, you can affect the position or momentum of a particle by observing one or the other. It is possible that if enough people believe one way, then what exists, what reality becomes, what we experience is what that original belief was.

This then also brings into questions whether there exist certain individuals that can transcend this observation limitation and "suggest" reality to the rest of us. This, in more that one way is really relevant to the world today. It has been suggested that the monster called Hitler for example, was one such individual, who was able to collectively alter reality for millions of Germans in the 1930s and in effect the actions they collectively took, forced WWII on the rest of us.

Similarly, the question arises. Can we alter the world around us. As we're caught in it, as we move through it, as we decide whether to have beans or rice (or both), as we make career decisions.

It has been pointed out to me that in the past 3 years, I have wasted three good job opportunities. I therefore, should not blame anyone else for my predicament. And yet, did I alter my perception of reality to such a degree that this fact escaped me? Or, did I fall prey to those others altering perception around me, and in this way, the decisions today are affecting my perceptions of what is real? In other words, am I leaving in the real world, or in the virtual world of the Matrix? Am I living in the real world, or am I dreaming?