Human Categories

We all believe that we are unique and I do think that this is the case. However, when we socialize with others, especially when dealing with people who we haven't met before or don't really know much about, we tend to categorize people and judge them on their various traits, both internal and external. These traits can be the person's profession, race, looks, etc.

I don't think that we categorize people consciously. Instead I think that it is something we do that has allowed humans to flourish in society. If you think about it, we have soooo many interactions with new humans every single day, unless you live in a cave that is. These interactions can range from just looking at a person and thinking about something they have done to holding long conversations with him/her.

If we didn't categorize humans, then we would have to remember each and every single characteristic for each and every person, which too much, even for geniuses like Einstein. Hmmm Maybe not Da Vince though, he had an IQ of around 240 and wasn't very social as far as I can tell, and so wouldn't have all that much to remember.

Anyway, the categorization also helps to determine and predict what a person might do next. For example, if you have a professor that is very strict, you will learn from him to do your homework on time and study, even though you are a lazy person, like me. Now, let's say that next year, you get a professor that has a lot of the same characteristics as your last year's professor. Now, if you categorize this new prof with the old one, you will realize tht you have to work hard again. If you didn't categorize, you will have to go through the same process that will jepordize your grade.

We don't realize how much we do this, and if you can consciesly can become aware of it, you will see that it will be impossible to continue to meet people regularly. I'm not saying that all people of a certain type are the same. I mean there is probably some model out there who likes to eat at McDonald's out there or an Indian who isn't not obsessed with cricket. Ok, maybe not the model, but I think you know what I'm getting at.

They say you can never judge a book by its cover but I think that a cover is what makes a book what it is and to judge them by their outside is what allows us to really understand the plot of the story*


*That was supposed to be my last sentence but I had to add this. Have you guys ever noticed how school books always have the same boring hard cover. I don't think I have ever seen a school book that's not bound like that and now, after reading 11 years worth of those books, everytime I see it, my mind goes, "Great, another boring book that has won some pointless award and has no interesting story whatsoever." Here is a hint to publishers. If you want your book to be popular, don't bind them in cheap card board and display some random award that has no one has heard of on the front cover.*

Family Tree

Even though a lot of cultures have developed their own methods of taking care of the dead, there has never been a culture that has had a family tree of ancestors. I'm not talking about the trees that people have to keep track of lineage but rather, of a literal tree.

This family tree would be planted in one central area, near the tribe or community. The tribe would bury all of their dead around the tree. The nutrients from the dead body would be absorbed by the tree, and that could be like a part of the family is in the tree. This could go on for generations. There could be problems like the bones and stuff crowding the place but I think that they would be ale to accommodate. I would like to see this being used in a book, because I think that it incorporates ancestral worship with burying hence combining East and West.

Imagination in Artificial Intelligence

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about making robots that can behave like humans and movies like iRobot show Robots taking over the world

I believe that there is only one thing that will allow this to happen, imagination. Imagination is what makes humans who they are. Out of all the animals, we probably have the most active imagination but that is not to say that other animals don't have imagination.

The reason why I believe that imagination is so vital is because of the flexibility it provides us. For example, when we look at a car, we can generally "imagine" the car and how it will look from various angles. However, if you provide the same image to a computer, it won't be able to recognize the same car shown from other sides.

This proves to be a hassle when we search for images on Google. Instead of recognizing the image, it looks for key words in the same web page. Sometimes, when you search for 'car' it gives you an apple. Any human will be able to tell that thats not a car but a computer can't. It has to be fed the image of every single car from every angle to be able to recognize them itself. If they were given imagination somehow, they would see one car and then be able to identify other objects as cars.

Of course there are softwares that can identify basic shapes and colors, but those are pre-programmed into the computer. If instead, we can provide imagination, it woud make computing a lot more efficient.

Nevertheless, there is a risk that imagination will cause robots taking over the world as they will be able to develop their own ideas with it. I am getting ahead of myself though. No one ahs been able to figure out exactly how imagination works and it will be decades before we will be able to unlock its secrets and be able to produce this technology