Fiction Forgoing Facts!

I am a bit of a cinema freak, I love films and I’m not particularly bias to any one genre however I have never seen the reasoning behind peoples desire to be scared out of reason watching horror films. As a typical stereotypical boy however I do like action, thrillers and the occasionally dabble into science fiction.

After recently watching ‘The Titan’ and considering back through films such as ‘The Impossible’ and ‘San Andreas’, it dawned onto me that we are particularly great at labelling all of these very potential scenarios as fiction even though the basis of the disaster is grounded in fact. Temperatures are rising and as such so are sea levels. There is evidence of increased frequency and magnitude of hurricanes and other storms globally. Countries are suffering major droughts each summer, lakes are drying up and we do have an inconceivable population problem. These are the facts. But every fictional movie has a ground breaking new technology and good looking character that saves us or a new spaceship that can take survivors to a habitable planet. The fiction arrives.

The films end and we have had our fill of adrenaline, suspense and fulfilment and we go back to our day to day routine. We entirely overlook that besides the characters and direct story the environment and dates were only 20 years away. And we do not currently  have another habitable planet, or the means to get there and in all the films only one ship makes it to the new world. But somehow we can walk away feeling good about the ending. Ignoring the simple maths that is about 30 diverse healthy people survived then simple maths says 7 billion humans died and worse 8.7 million living species died. Incredible how we evolve on a planet over millions of years only to destroy it blinded by ignorance and then look for another ‘home’.

Utopia by definition is an imagined place within which everything is perfect. Now everyone looks at this and says, wonderful, a world without violence, war and bullying. That is great, sure, but I think you have fooled yourself again. Firstly, by my understanding utopia is not imagined, it is real and it is unbelievably complex and possibly our misunderstanding is our downfall. So predictably, secondly, I ask why do we have to go so far as to look at society and social norms when we live on a planet that we can breathe, move and eat on. Is that not perfect enough?

I think finally now that all of our polluting and rubbish dumping is recognised and taught in schools it is an upwards trend from here. Education will churn out generation Z with environmental revival at the forefront of their minds as the tail-end of the millennials and the environment strong elders have paved the new way. However, how do we tackle population problems, will saving our environment outweigh the need for housing space? We have an ageing population and a world population doubling time was 61 years in 2006 so by 2067 world population would be approximately 13 billion if growth rate stayed constant. I think we will soon find a conflict of interest.

Charlie!

 

Phubbing!

The practice of ignoring ones company for your phone!

Here is a little trick for you to try today. If you have an iPhone, or if your kids do especially, get them to open their settings, go to battery and look at the usage. Check just how much of the day your kids waste staring at their phone, scrolling through fake smiles and picturesque sunsets because the they can’t filter the reality of the one before them. Put that into perspective for them or yourself. 24 hours in a day, 10 hours sleeping, 3 hours eating, 4 hours working and I bet the next biggest activity of your day has been measured for you. Today I have spent 1.6 hours of my day on Facebook. That is embarrassing, I am embarrassed that I can’t fill that time with better things.

Have you ever been out with friends or a family meal and just looked up to absolute silence and a circle of empty vessels staring at a 4 inch screen. Its my idea of a nightmare, I catch myself doing it and immediately hate myself. But even if I stop the people around me haven’t, now I am just aware of the silence. This is what Phubbing is. A relatively new term and I am not even sure how I found it or it me. But we can all relate and if you cannot then just be grateful for what you don’t have in this case.

I hate my phone, I am always on it,  a slave to technology. So, other believers other improper technology abusers lets stop this anti social networking. Apple and Samsung dominate the phone industry but I do not and will not believe that I am the only person who wishes for less. I want utility and nothing more.

So, my idea! A new phone concept, practical, uninviting, ergonomic, aesthetic and nothing more. It has all the usefulness of a 2017 age phone, all the functionality but minus the dating apps, the so called ‘social’ networking apps. It serves a purpose to connect and communicating only what needs doing. The mobile would be a phone but only a phone, to inform someone of something you must call them, no texting. It would have maps, reminders, alarms, a camera and a torch. This product will be utilitarian. When it rings you answer, when you need it you use it, besides this it doesn’t interfere in your daily life. No hours lost scrolling, no anti social pub visits or empty meal discussions. I am not against social media, it has advantages but currently it is a demerit good. Over consumed and over valued by the younger population, lets teach silence, not coach anti social behaviour. Promote conversation, push for discussion because less social media means less depression, more productivity, more activity, more enthusiasm and generally a more intriguing life.

Fame and popularity are not measured in Instagram likes and comments or the number of Facebook friends you have. Use these sites to organise a meet up, a meal, but put your phone on silent, leave it in your coat by the door and have a real conversation. When your friends organise something back there is a true measure of success in friendship and popularity. Beyond technology there are true connections to be had and felt. Strive for true reality not this virtual trap we have dropped ourselves in.

Phubbing is a disease. Phubbing needs to be recognised and eradicated as it is an embarrassment to our social evolution.

 

 

Ride the wave!

Life isn’t flat, life is a constant cycle and it should be, if you never take any risks you flatline, you are existing but you cannot call it living. But if you take the risks you hit the peaks and you learn from the dips and troughs. No one has lived without mistakes but too many live in fear and therefore do not take the risks that lead to greatness. What if Mark Zuckerberg had never invited those 9 friends to his room to discuss Facebook? What if Walt Disney had just given up having been rejected over and over upon his Mickey Mouse idea? To quote the man himself, ‘We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.’ We must embrace our imagination and creativity, do not shy away behind the fear of failure, because failure is simply achieving the next step toward success.

The turbulence of the oceans is a perfect metaphor for a timeline of our lives. There will be occasions where you are on the tip of a wave and life is perfect but the hard truth is that this will be short-lived eventually all waves break, wether it is over time and gentle or rough and abrupt is another unanswered question. However just as the waves will break there will also always be another not to far away to pick you up again. The idea is though not to swim into the calm where you are neither achieving nor failing, this is surviving but not living. Stay in the rough but learn to maintain the peaks for longer, and ride the breaks into the next wave. Take a grip of your life, learn from mistakes and thrive in the turmoil that can be life sometimes. I would rather play the game and lose than watch others succeed in front of me and idolise their luck. It is not luck but determination that they had. Adopt their mindset and idolise yourself and what you can achieve.

No more Negativity!

I am not sure as to whether this is a human attribute or something that has only arisen in the last decade but why is everything so negative. I am only 19 and realise that now I pay more attention to current affairs this may be the reason for my sudden recognition of this. But do we document only the bad stuff? Is there only bad stuff to document?

I understand that with incredible technology advances in the last few decades it has become ever more apparent that we are destroying our planet with great success and we are trying to advertise this to the millions but it isn’t really working is it? I think it comes down to a simple test of human behaviour, hear a bomb in the middle of London and everyone will go nuts. Completely reasonable, but another airstrike in the middle of Damascus, Syria… Would anyone react out of the ordinary? No, because now it likely is the ordinary unfortunately. We are happy to ignore the suffering around the world because we are no longer ‘shocked’ by it, like someone would be with a bomb in London. But more these things are becoming the ‘ordinary’ to us, like a strike in Damascus.

What is my point? Well, maybe if we didn’t only document the bad but tried to illuminate the good at every opportunity then maybe the bad would shock us into action. Am I saying lets bomb an airfield in Syria? No. But we can’t leave the world to devour itself from the safety of our living room and be surprised when it extends beyond saving! The millennials coming into power in the next decade… We grew up with words like terrorist, bomb, middle east filling our front pages every few months. We consider this to be normal, no one strives to change the ordinary so are we just going to let this continue? It will likely cause a divide, those who accept the ordinary and those who wish to make the ordinary better! Right now, the present, is evidence that change needs to happen!

So super powers need to account for their contribution to global warming and I can’t believe I have to say this but (Trump) look at the facts that global warming is real! The UK and USA we played out part in the industrial revolution so we can’t point the finger at China for doing it later on. We are leaders of the world and the only example we have set so far is that unless it benefits you then don’t get involved.

Anti-social Networking?

To me being sociable is to be able to communicate and converse freely and contently with anybody and everybody face to face. The ability to communicate is being lost, this sounds drastic and well it is. It is a highly exaggerated statement but you worryingly know that you would be blind and lying to not see some truth to it.

Our phones are incredible devices but now we would rather stare at a 4 inch screen than sit for a chat with a friend. Our social behaviours have not only changed, I believe we have actually become less social, we have devolved in a matter of speaking. Social Media has probably prevented more meet ups and human interactions that would have come to fruition in its absence so forth forming a paradoxical description of itself. I have read continuously and so believe (no referenced sources so take with a pinch of salt) that looking at social media posts destroys confidence in children who see their ‘friends’ together without them online. My belief in this is also stems from personal feelings toward this. Photos of my mates meeting together unbeknown to me on social media had a conscientious affect whether I noted it at the time or not, I felt left out. You begin to question loyalty and strength of friendships and yourself. Am I not worthy of an invitation? It can be devastating to mental health spreading like an infection.

I also know that most kids my age would rather text questions to each other because calls are intimidating especially important calls in relation to business or work relations. We have deteriorated from a social species capable of face to face communication to one that relied on phone calls to now SMS messaging. When on my mobile I could be confident, I could be more bold in what I said, I knew that likely only the recipient would see it, I could form an argument before replying, it was simpler. The counter argument is that social media extends to Skype and FaceTime which are face to face conversations and I can see the logic in that but somehow I still find it personally lacking. Where are the days of business dinners and business cards to network your way up the job ladder, now it is font typed words on a LinkedIn resume. How do you choose an good interpersonal manager from linkedIn or a good communicator, linguistic specialist, etc. Grades are only benchmark figures the true test comes from trials and interviews.

To see us millennials be placed without their phones under surveillance would be beneficial to both them and the world in denial of our antisocial behaviour. We could again establish the beauty of human conversation and the world could view the change in our behaviour. Any scenario where my friends phone is broken or out of charge are the realisation moments to me when the friendship concluded. Now for that however long period of time I get your full undivided attention and we can just be human. Too many of us judge ourselves and quantify are self worth on our Facebook friends or Instagram likes where really these are irrelevant. You can be something to a thousand people or everything to one but each and every person is equally important.

Credit to Prince EA the inspiration and spark for this piece;

If you enjoyed the read give it a watch, truly amazing stuff!

Are we forever losing at Chinese whispers?

I never thought I would ever need to refer back to this man but Trump’s constant fall back on to what he claims to be fake news got me thinking recently, what can we trust.

The everyday question ‘Do you believe everything you read?’ comes nowadays with the rehearsed and often misleading ‘no’ from everyone that reads it. So we don’t believe everything we read but do we unconsciously refer to what we read without checking the source? Always. Most people would deem academics more reliable than newspaper articles and then newspapers over social media. The honest truth is however that anyone can write anything and claim to be anybody on the internet and it is very difficult for any average person to distinguish fiction from fact. And on your daily internet browse who really looks at the sources anyway?

I think this may be an ignorant view of mine but if the news could be influenced by someone or some group and wasn’t entirely free to write the truth then would we ever know. Anyone who speaks up can be syphoned off into a conspiracy theorist classification an the believers would just fall in line. The age of technology and information sharing has lead to many positive benefits to our success and prosperity as a species but it also sets us up to be manipulated in our beliefs and behaviours.

I make the over simplified comparison to murmurations of starlings. Each starling, although independent in thought and able to do as it wishes, is affected by the direction of flight of the birds in its direct vision and unconsciously it is being manipulated. I believe that IF we were being sold fake news we would believe it simply because the people around us believe it. If whoever is selling us the fake news is smart they would also create the classification of conspiracy theorists. I know other people doubt the truthfulness of our leaders and the media in certain situations; so I am wary of the media but trusting because I know someone is looking for an alternative truth. However I believe if no one was searching my distrust would accumulate over time and the first opposer to step forward would receive overwhelming support from the likes of similar positioned people.

I believe that if everyone thinks in a certain fashion without an alternative then people create alternatives and without being able to classify themselves as a conspiracy theorist if someone ever does speak up then the support is overwhelming and surprising large. I am a UK student and again shouldn’t be sticking my nose in but I think I can compare this to the 40+% of americans that voted trump, with growing hatred among people towards immigrants but our world having begun evolving beyond classification and racism when President Trump released his views these minor opinions people were previously keeping bottled were allowed to suddenly erupt and grow exponentially leading to the now very divided USA we see following his election.

I previously wanted to study economics at university and my ideal specialism would have been behavioural economics and with my siblings combined degrees in psychology and Economics I guess I knew I couldn’t be far off what I wanted to do. I read the book Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, a recommended read, simplistic and very interesting. This only extended my belief of how unconsciously controlled we are by our environment and are true lack of independent thought that we believe we have. All our beliefs are only regurgitations of previous ones we have heard and theirs were the same and all in all our thoughts are really just a huge game of Chinese whispers getting further and further from the truth or actual opinions.

Right that is enough of a mind boggle for one post.

Our Destructive Time Here on Earth!

https://flowingdata.com/2012/10/09/history-of-earth-in-24-hour-clock/

Beginners Luck!

Ok, I apologise beforehand if the style and grammar in my posts is lacking in professionalism.

So where to start, it is the simplest of ideas that can spark my imaginative theories and it can keep me awake at night as my brain will not drop the simplest of questions.

So lets start begin with a simple one which I imagine if you are anything alike me then this has crossed your mind as well. So the universe is 13.82 billion years old and Earth is 4.543 billion years old and as humans if those 4.543 billion years were compacted into a single day we would arrive in the 23rd hour in the 58th minute and 43rd second. We are an incomprehensibly, to most ordinary people, insignificant aspect of our universe. And to top it all off humans in the UK have a life expectancy of 81.5 years. This may seem like a lot but in comparison it is only a grain of sand in the beach that is time.

So my questions is why am I spending my trillionth of a fraction of time passed aiming to sit behind a desk for 30 yrs doing accounting formulae and achieve an ICAEW qualification when we have an unbelievable planet we live in. Albeit that we seem intent on destroying it, or at least if you are anti-climate change caused by humans and believe it is natural, intent on not helping it survive. It relates back to the simple saying that you won’t miss it till it has gone. The ice caps are beautiful in photos, I probably will never see them in real life and neither will you which is a shame in itself. But if I wake up with the money to go in 20 years and they have already melted then I will feel like a right idiot that we did nothing to stop it.

Anyway I have digressed, there is a simple answer to this question and it is an annoying one, money. We all hate it and we all wish are world wasn’t controlled by it and some of us try and tell ourselves that money doesn’t buy happiness. Sure you can be rich and unhappy and in poverty and have everything but ultimately we work for money. Money gets us food, shelter and security. I am at Newcastle University studying Accounting and Finance so I can make money to provide for myself and ultimately my family (ideally) one day. In our day an age money is a necessity to survive and thrive. I am sure we have all theorised about the possibility of being the next Bill Gates or winning the lottery and we think ‘I would be the next J.K. Rowling, I am going to follow in her footsteps and be the next person to drop out the billionaires list purely due to generosity to charity’. And then reality hits, I have 5 million pounds, before I was surviving on a percentage of this. Now greed takes over and you decide you will buy the car and house you always wanted and eat good food. There is no wrong in doing this, it is your money and you can do as you wish. My point is that money would corrupt even the best of us. How many celebrities do you reckon thought they would d0 the same?

I realise I am not really answering my primary question here but this is just how my mind works. Education is a godsend, I hate the the school structure and system but the idea of education and passing information I do not disagree with. Humanity would not be what it is today without it but one of my favourite common minds like mine Prince Ea, check him out on youtube he is awesome, came up with a brilliant analogy. It is a cryptic but obvious message, that not all humans are the same and that the ladder that is the education system takes all students to the same position but they are not the same person and this position will not be suited to them all. Sure you can choose your GCSEs and degree course but the sciences and maths are still compulsory and the creative subjects are looked down. Why is it that you need an A* in Maths but not Art to do medicine. Why are students not being taught programming and coding as a compulsory subject these days? Some of the greatest ideas will come from these denounced voices but probably 90% will never be heard as the praise and the accomplishments are showered over the accomplished maths student who is deserved but not alone. It baffles me the inequality in the simplest of structures can go unnoticed and untouched.