Simple Answers to Philosophical Questions

This philosophical question seems to keep on and on coming up, regardless of what seems to be the sheer simplicity of it. Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t understand where the confusion comes from at all.

Yes, I was prompted by last night’s QI: ‘If nobody hears a tree fall, does it still make a sound?’

People have always seemed to say that there’s no right answer to this one, in that if you didn’t hear it then you just don’t know if it made a sound. However, let’s allow common sense into the equation for a moment.

Now, I’m certainly not one to say that science has all the answers, and indeed in its current way of doing things it never will in my opinion, but its approach is necessary. However, in a lot of things it just is right. Sound can be defined as:

Sound is a sequence of waves of pressure which propagates through compressible media such as air or water. (Sound can propagate through solids as well, but there are additional modes of propagation). During their propagation, waves can be reflected, refracted, or attenuated by the medium. (Wikipedia, but let’s not get all heated about it.)

This makes sense, I hope. So basically sound is a wave of pressure – a vibration.

My answer is that if nobody hears the tree fall then there is still a sound, beyond all reasonable doubt! Saying otherwise is like saying that if you’re not looking at something it doesn’t exist, which is ridiculous. I am well aware of the ideas the quantum physics is giving us, and of Schrödinger’s Cat, but I think it reflects a rather narrow and self-important view of the universe, doesn’t it? Imagine, if at school a child could close his eyes and the exam would cease to exist because he wasn’t looking at it! The funny analogies are endless.

Think about it – say we go to another, unpopulated planet so there is no chance of anyone hearing it. Also not taking into account any other life. In fact, another barren planet which still has good atmosphere (somehow) but is otherwise just flat rock. Now, we land and stand a tree there with a little remote-controlled poking device. Also, we leave behind a sound recorder recording the silence. Once we’re back in orbit, we trigger the tree-poker. The tree falls over, but of course we don’t hear it. Now we land again, and take the recorder, rewind, and play back. Silence … silence … and then, OH! How surprising! I’d bet any money that there’d be the sound of … almost like … kind of … a tree falling over!

Sometimes I think these questions are made just to waste people’s time and cognitive effort. How on earth can the opposite be argued sensibly?

As for Schrödinger’s Cat, there’s another ridiculous one. If it’s in a box but it hasn’t died yet, then it’s alive. Otherwise it’s dead. That’s like saying whenever you go to your room alone and light a candle then you’ve already set fire to your hair by accident because someone’s not looking.

I can’t be bothered any more. You get the idea.

On texting back

Hey all,

Well it’s been a while since I’ve actually posted anything properly, apart from migrating the Musings of a Black Belt stuff.

So here’s a rant from yours truly to kick-start the festive season!

Texting back. Why does nobody do it these days? When I was young, I was always on pay-as-you-go instead of contract, so I was never a big texter (mainly because of being so tight) and yet, upon going on contract for the past year or so, I’ve been amazed at how many of my texts to people actually get replied to.

This prompted me to wonder, is it a ubiquitous problem that everybody has – there’s always a few people in everyone’s life who doesn’t text back – or is it simply just me?

Maybe everybody hates me!

Hopefully not, but still. Isn’t it annoying? I mean, the people in life who don’t text back aren’t annoying themselves; it’s just the fact that you are ignored that is a bit of a let-down, and in many cases can often mean that you’re left guessing about whether what you and a mate had planned is actually going to happen.

So let me put it to you (the lines are … OPEN, so comment away!): Does it irritate you? Do you text people a lot, only to get a handful of replies (or even worse, a reply that doesn’t answer what you asked them, prompting another text-and-wait session)? And about you personally, do you text people back, or are you one of the dreaded nonrepliers? :D

I only ask really because I always, always, text people back as soon as I get it, unless I’m asleep or in a lecture or something. As a general rule 90% of the time, I reply straight away. the rest of the time, I reply as soon as I possibly can; it could’ve been important.

Is that weird?

Michael Agyeman on Society’s Tainted View of Young People

Hey all,

A good friend of mine who I met on an IGGY Summer U a couple of years back (courtesy of Warwick University) got in touch today asking for help. Now I’m asking you to help him too. Check out his video to see what it’s all about:

Basically, with his help we could take the first steps towards raising awareness of just how prejudiced society on the whole is against young people simply for being young. While, as a young person myself, I do understand that many have had negative experiences of young people, the opposite can also be said. I have met rather unpleasant elderly people and middle-aged people, but do not discriminate against their age groups because of that minority.

If I did, I would be called ageist and would be guilty of discrimination. I would also be ashamed of myself.

Here is where you can vote for his cause:
http://apps.facebook.com/hsbcstudents/?threadID=580000619&ref=mf

This is something I feel quite strongly about actually, so I do urge you to help him. It’s only a click…

What It’s Like to Own an Apple Product (The Oatmeal)

Originally from http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple, I did not make this or have anything to do with it, apart from appreciating and sharing it.

It’s so true. This is why I don’t own an iPad or iPod, touch or not. I don’t use iTunes and dislike using Macs.

A Warning, and a problem with Windows Live Essentials (particularly beta)

Hi all,

DON’T BOTHER TRYING THE NEW BETA OF WINDOWS LIVE ESSENTIALS…!

With that said, let’s carry on. It’s been a while since I blogged properly (aside from Plinky, of course) so here I am.

Recently, I wanted to synchronise my Personal Message in Windows Live Messenger with my Facebook status (MessengerDiscovery live says it does this by the way, but so far I can’t get it to work…) using the WLMessenger Facebook application. However, I couldn’t get it to work. Somebody from MS advised me to try the new beta, which has this function.

Of course, me being me I promptly tried it out and immediately regretted doing so. Within the space of the 5 minutes I gave it a go on my computer, the software hung and stopped responding I don’t know how many times, and it was generally slow and unresponsive, despite my CPU/RAM/temperature/Internet connection, etc being absolutely fine and normal. The status thing also didn’t happen by the way.

Deeply unimpressed, I decided to uninstall the new WLEssentials beta suite and reinstall the current versions I had before. Simple enough, I thought. I uninstalled them, using their own installer thing, and it said they were gone, so I fired up the current version’s installer. It said that Messenger, Writer, etc could not be installed because I already had more recent versions installed! LIES!

After a LOT of messing around for a couple of days with regedit, deleting folders and various uninstallers and registry cleaners, (speaking of which, I should probably do a Glary checkup about now…) someone helped me on Windows Live Help, and someone else on Byon’s Blog (links at the bottom) and eventually, using MyUninstaller, and everything else, I managed to get rid of it all, and all the rubbish it left behind, and installed a clean, fresh Messenger and Writer to my computer. I couldn’t thank these people enough; they’ve really helped a lot. It seems that the messed-up installations were not showing as they were filed under either windows updates or system components (or both) which MyUninstaller showed by default, but I hadn’t seen the option in Revo Uninstaller, which is my usual uninstaller. As a result of fiddling with it until 03:00 this morning, everything seems to be running ok, and I am writing this using Windows Live Writer once again!

Here is the thread on Windows Live Help, which I recommend if you’re having difficulty:

http://windowslivehelp.com/thread.aspx?postid=8b70be4f-0bb7-4317-ba49-eba1d8cd5ca6#8b70be4f-0bb7-4317-ba49-eba1d8cd5ca6

And here is the link to Byon’s Blog:

http://byon.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/windows-live-essential-beta-0×80280007-error/#comment-534

By the way, one of the many errors I had was the infamous 80040154 when trying to sign into messenger at one point. Comment here or on the links I gave if you’re having difficulty with WLEssentials, and I really recommend Windows Live Help (http://www.windowslivehelp.com/) for anything you’re struggling with because they were really very helpful.

North Korea: The Craziest Country in the World

Stumbling away for last week’s Weekly Stumble, I came across this image article. I was going to use it for the Weekly Stumble, but I thought it deserved a post of its own, as it’s important that things like this are read. After all, that is the main point of this blog; to show people things that I’ve seen across the Internet that I feel should be more widely appreciated, and to spread thoughts and experiences of my own that I feel might benefit others in some way (even if only to provide light entertainment).

I can’t speak for the validity of the information in this image, but it all sounds realistic enough. The sources at the bottom are reputable, certainly. I won’t be going to Korea any time soon (especially after reposting this image!) and I can’t say I’d recommend it to many people either, from what I’ve heard. It’s a real eye-opener though, especially if you haven’t studied geography or politics or don’t watch the news all that much.

People seem to think that because we live in the western world, and things are (mostly) ok within society on the whole, things like this don’t happen any more, and mistreatment to this kind of degree is a thing of the past. Words cannot express how untrue that view of the world is (however nice it is). People need to know, so here it is. As with the previously posted “Let’s Say (For Whatever Reason) You’re the First Human Ever to Make Alien Contact”, zoom in or click the image then zoom in if you can’t read it clearly enough. Alternatively just download it and zoom in on your computer.  Enjoy:

Found on http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/the-craziest-country-in-the-world/

Original design by Jason Powers.

Weirdness from Facebook…

Hey all,

Things like this creep me out.

It doesn’t happen all that often, but every now and again somebody posts something to my wall, and either decides to delete it or something goes horribly wrong (Let’s face it, excuse the awful unintentional pun, but it’s Facebook. Things go wrong.) and I end up with these ghost notifications which make sure that I have a persistent, false “1” notification at the top for a while.

I’ve recently gone through all the crapplications that I’d collected over the years, deleting countless “which legendary warrior are you?” and “would you survive a zombie outbreak?!?” quizzes. How on Earth did I accumulate 492 applications? Just HOW?

Though there is one thing I am proud of. Not one of them was FarmVille, or Mafia Wars, or any of those Wasted-Time Lords of Facebook. And they never will be. Ever.

I mean, come on. What’s so good about FarmVille…? Surely there’s better things to do?

But maybe that’s just me being a young old man…

Ultimate Frustration – Megavideo Edition

Hey, blog-reading-type peoples,

As I’ve mentioned before in a previous post (http://schamael.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/a-chuckle-from-a-stargate-blurb/) I am a huge fan of Stargate. No, I’m not a sci-fi freak, and I’ve never been to (or hosted) a convention. Nor do I want to. BUT I just think it’s awesome and, despite the opinions of many people whose opinions don’t matter at all, it is possibly the most epic series I have ever seen. Ever.

Anyway, on my travels across the Internet scooping up episode after episode into my mind, I have come across an entity which is the embodiment of ultimate frustration.

It is the insufferable little irk who thought this was a good idea:

NO! Just no! I disapprove with a furrowed brow of epic proportions! Honestly, this is THE biggest annoyance that the Internet has in store for us. Adverts? AdBlockPlus. Stupid Flash thingies? FlashBlock. Annoying cookie spam clogging up my system? CookieSafe. There seems to be a solution for everything, except this. Nothing works because I have a static IP address it seems. Not even VideoDownloadHelper (renamed to DownloadHelper now I think). By the way, all these things I’ve mentioned are Firefox extensions – head over to Mozilla or just Google them, they’re all good to have.

Still, it lets me get on with some work I suppose… –_-

If anyone has a solution that does actually work ALWAYS, then please leave a comment, and I will think you are awesome for the rest of time, and tell of the legendary commenter who helped the world become a better place by slaying the Demon of Megavideo and liberating its epic episodes (there’s a pun in there somewhere but I’ll leave it methinks…) from the evil clutches of the Lord of Frustration.

Ok, that was all a bit over the top but you get the idea. It’s annoying.

P.S. I thought I’d change the title to mention Megavideo because I’ll probably have more Ultimate Frustrations in the future to rant about… :D