记得多年前，英达丽水开始收费时，人民怨声载道，纷纷罢交排污费。

我爸爸说，他们不应该一开始就收这样高。如果试验性收费低，或甚至提供免费服务，让人民先尝到一点甜头。当人民已接受了收费的事实，然后再慢慢起价。最好是像南北大道般和政府签署一张铁合约，每次起价都有免死金牌，届时人民再不满也只能无可奈何了。当年我年纪还小，对老爸的伟论仍是懵懵懂懂。长大以后，我接触到更多的社会层面及读了几年科学，开始了解到“水煮青蛙”的原理。将青蛙扔进沸腾的热水肯定使到蛙急跳锅；用冷水煮青蛙就服服帖帖，至死都不会挣扎。科学上这叫做“适应”，调节自身体温来适应环境。可以保命，亦可以是致死原因。

今天收到一位朋友转载Jeff Ooi 博客关于多媒体大学里某企业列明种族为招选资格的奖励金海报1。网页中还有许多网友的回应。许多人都把矛头指向那家企业 ，纷纷批评它的种族作风，还有人要号召别人去杯葛。我独排众议。我认为M 公司只是为了迎合政府的雇员种族政策。我不是要追究责任，只是觉得M公司不应该做到太明显，它大可采纳多媒体大学的建议2，通过大学直接索取“合格申请者”名单，或甚至是在遴选入围者时设立种族固打，让一些申请者直接过关不就行了吗？这种登广告的手法真是拙劣，这些跨国企业还得多多向我国的许多政府机关学习。

如果明目张胆 ,
心里已屈服于制度。反动 “anti-establishment” 大概就是最令人怯缩的罪名了。
急不如缓，明不如暗，这就是政治之道。当政客要合理化一些偏差，首先要暗中进行，慢慢，不可大破大立，操之过急
更改制度、合约、条文、法律、宪法，一劳永逸。
待时机成熟

Accommodate adapt
人民会适应、认命、遗忘。一切既成事实，米已成炊，还能怎样？
张晓卿缓兵之计
风头平息，五年前的反收购势力已不成气候了，今天再谈星洲入主南洋也掀不起什么风波来了。

结语
政治是一局棋。明里来，更多暗里去。只要不撕破脸皮，不赶尽杀绝，政客们永远都有戏唱。揭发政客的假面具须要人民的支持，但偏偏人民也是最善忘、最容易适应的一群。民主的战士们，除了要有热血批判明显的事件性 (incidental) 偏差，也要有冷静应对更多看不到的制度化 (institutional) 的偏差。要参与这局游戏，就要熟悉游戏规则，才能洞悉对手的棋路。

________________
1 http://www.jeffooi.com/2006/04/again_what_are_mmu_motorola_tr.php
2 http://bulletin.mmu.edu.my/v3/view/bulletin_main.mmu?s=34534&by=date

“ We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle


熟能生巧
“practice makes perfect”
Learned reflex



Moldability
Adaptability
Biomedically, learning is just the process of building new synapse.
Smart then can be defined physiologically as having many synapse and linking ideas.
More than that.


“considerable practice is needed before expert percussion can be performed. The ability to percuss well count in students’ favour, as it indicates a reasonable amount of experience in the wards.” Tally
Good percussion skill does not imply a good clinician, but a good clinician should have a reasonably good percussion skill.

Is there a way to speed up learning process?
Increase the speed of synapse, axonal transmission… ie. Smarter?
Interference of the nature
Deplete all the energy
Interfere with autonomic nervous functions
Increase cellular activities which can lead to cellular exhaustion and hence hasten their death?
Dramatically increase your learning speed and shorten your own life?
Seriously dramatic.
“neuroscience”

哲学是领导人类的先驱
多么动听，但先决条件是哲学家必须言行一致。
空谈不做，只是空中城堡。

中国的百家争鸣最后竟不被承认为哲学。因为他们没有实践。
唯有通过行动，才能显示自己对理论的信心。Strong hold of your own belief.
从自己开始去影响大众。

“要改变世界，先改变自己”-- 甘地

是法平等 无有高下

万事都平等，只有价值观的差异
人人都平等，只有价值观的差异
超越权利的平等，这是生存意义的平等。
Value is what you value the most.

天下没有懒惰的人，只是他们觉得没有事值得他们去努力。
天下没有勤劳的人，只是他们觉得太多事值得他们去努力。
天下没有慢郎中，只是他们觉得没有事值得他们去急性子。
天下没有蠢人，只是他们还找不到自己所长。

如果你真觉得某件事非常重要，你自然愿意花费时间、下功夫去做。
即使那件事非常无趣。


“god or the girl”
a documentary abt 5 teenagers choosing between becoming priests ie. celibacy or marry just like normal people.

牺牲。
没有说成为牧师就比商人高尚。纯粹是个人选择。
若说牧师牺牲比较大。不然。
如果他真的要做牧师，他自然会欣然接受必要的付出。
“甘愿做，欢喜受”

社会会觉得牧师的职业牺牲较大，所以比较受尊敬。
如果一个人是为了得到那份尊敬而去当牧师，他就会非常在意别人的尊敬。
真正自主的人，那份工作本身就是目的，不是手段。


20060415 night.
了解到我可能不会安分地当医生。

An epilogue of talk with Sean

We sometimes think that we have the Free Will. The freedom to choose.
But think deeper. Do we?

Speak of minor things like buying a product.
Our decision are largely influenced by advertisements: on TV, radio, paper, by your friends…
A frightening fact: experiments showed that images introduced can lead people into choosing the otherwise
Affected subconsciously

Let’s say you are deciding to buy a pizza.
Two days ago when you went to your friend’s house you saw your friend is eating brand A pizza. On your way to the supermarket, you caught sight of packaging of the very brand of pizza in the waste bins. When you are arrive at the frozen food department, you realize that brand A is almost sold out while other brands just piling up.

All these hints albeit subtle are always effective in affecting us.
Because we don’t always have a reason to support our choice, that makes us susceptible to influence.
Even if we do have a reason for choosing something, how sure can you be that reason is really YOURs and not ideas inculcated into you?
“malleable”

Talk about major decision in life?
Constrained by our culture, race, family, friends… which oftenly not up to our choice. We can't choose our parents, our language, some even religions. Unfortunately all these are the most deterministic factors in shaping who we are.
Skim through any sociology texts. they will tell you how factors A, B, C etc affect your health, social status, psychology.

Society the media the textbook shape our mind.

Think of your career.

You are not always given the full choices. Just like you are marrying. I hide all the pretty gals and leave you with 3 ugly girls. Only one of the three is so-so. I would not surprise if you end up marrying her. But it would be ludicrous if you claim that you make the choice of your life.
“Restricted choice”

You live in the society with limited options offered to you. If you come from a kampong, you will never have think of becoming a researcher.
If you come from Cambodia, being a neuroscientist would not be in your selection list.


Not knowing makes you unable to choose. Unfortunately the opposite is also true. Knowing too much makes you vulnerable to influence.

Independent thinking huh?
Too bad you can't seclude your mind from the rest of the world and every input to your brain can change your mind.

Let say too bad you are born in the deepest jungle of Amazon. Then I wouldn’t envisage you to become a doctor in anyway. Very unlikely.

If one day when you are 60 years old, you look back your life and think, do you actually chosen this life? How many things are your own free will?

Ok. Speak of unlikely you may think there is always still a chance. Yup. Sometimes miracle happens. Somehow somebody bring you out of the jungle.

What I would say it is unusual for people to break away from the norm. they lead a normal life, complacent with what they have, they achieve, they believe and they choose not to change. Maybe they are afraid to lose.
This is what I call inertia. Reluctance to change.
Remember the childhood dream that you had. When we grew up, we lost the courage to change. We afraid of losing the things we currently have. We contemplate and procrastinate. We wait, until one day we lose our lives.

“to be contented is to be slack”


Gosh. if one day you decide to break away from all the norms and stand out. You become a rock star as you always want to. You started from scratch and you succeeded. Now you think this is our own choice.

Fine. I can't really deny this. But think of the true man show.

How if the whole breakaway is also part of the plot?
Then who is script writer? Some people will point upwards. Ironically they are the people that also believe in free will.

What do I think? The world is playing.

Yes I am being pessimistic. This thoughts of mine are not actually mine as I was also influenced by the things that I read or know. Especially Wesley sci-fi “toys”. Everyone is just a toy. A toy played the media, the society, the politicians, the religion…
“Choice is an illusion. The keyword is ‘control’.” -“The Matrix”


You can choose not to believe in anything so that you are not influenced.

We are all in a game and the world is the playground. Good and bad things are always in dynamic equilibrium. You can affect the crowd and at the same time you are being affected by the crowd. The playground is governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
1. you cant win 2. you cant break even 3. you cant get out of the game (only if you really wanna kill yourself now)

“万法因缘而生”

Remember these rules will save you a lot of unnecessary worries and disturbances. Just live your life as “normal”, continue to make choices but please stop proclaiming that you have free will. (especially you believe in an omnipotent superior being) . Look out “game theory” in maths if you wanna be more in control of the game. The theory is now being exploited in politics, military and business world.


Why have to trouble your mind with all this rubbish? Thinking of this question doesn’t help reduce pollution, poverty or crime. Ermm.

That’s what I consider the meaning of life.
You are born knowing nothing. If you live life like this and until you die you know nothing of why what you have done. A muddled being.
People live passively. We react not act. We respond to environment.

“时势造英雄”


Don’t hope that something drastic will happen tomorrow. Bad things doesn’t go away in a blink of an eye.

Be positive? Then I would say “mind can’t be confined”. No matter how stringent is the mind control, there are always new thoughts that you can’t suppress. See The Island.

Creativity is the greatest gift human possess. We generate new thoughts from all the available information and become our own ideas.
Observe that birds never change the architecture of its nest for 100 years. But human do.

Most human behaviours are learned. We cant really distinguish what is the product of our thoughts and what is learned. No way you can tell. Unless you are constantly reflecting yourself, your mind and your actions. Be mindful of what you are doing and thinking. This is where meditation comes in. if you agree that this question is relevant to the meaning of life, you shall agree that the ability to reflect is crucial. (ad. for learning log)

“think before you leap”.

The end.
20060414 coming back from tesco.

将回教先知描绘成恐怖分子肯定是亵渎宗教；那用漫画描述先知的义举呢？我询问了身边的穆斯林朋友，他们同声回答“不行”。为什么？因为经典明文禁止。为什么要禁止？没有理由。再追问下去，就会有人好心提醒：不要冒犯别人的宗教啦。

“神圣不可侵犯”成了宗教里理解教义最大的障碍，也是跨信仰对话中最难以逾越的鸿沟。因为不可侵犯、不能批评、不许议论，所以我们千方百计要捂住别人的嘴巴。我们阻止跨信仰对话的进行，让神圣的继续高不可攀，我们则继续活在自己的象牙塔里，别人继续误解宗教。

神圣，到底是圣人自我加冕，还是人们的心理期许？为什么先知的谆谆教诲千百年后会变成了不可置疑的教条？经人们不断地神圣化，经典慢慢地变成了圭臬，质疑经典即被视作是亵渎宗教。然后开始有人自告奋勇，要扛起“维护神圣”的责任。


维护神圣

曾在某个宗教论坛上看见一些教徒列举圣经里描述“地球是圆的”的章文，力图证明圣经的绝对无误。想到几千年前，众神学家亦曾引经据典来反驳加利略的地圆说，我只觉得好笑。人类可以为了维护神圣而耗尽心思，甚至不惜否定科学。

网上还有另一班人坚信地球诞生于六千年前。他们大肆攻击碳14鉴年法及化石考证。纵有地质、天文、考古、解剖学各方面的证据，他们仍不愿正视事实。他们净举些似是而非的例子，将科学批得一文不值，仿若进化论是世纪大骗局，各科学者串谋起来合力维护着不堪一击的谎言。甚至有博士级的人物撰稿用早已被推翻的论证来数落自己的专业。如此典当自己的学术资格，真令人扼腕。这些人在网上声嘶力竭地摇旗呐喊，在科学界也激不起一丝涟漪。科学家的自信是建立在确凿的证据及严谨的理论分析上。这种没有基础的攻击完全进不了学术殿堂，但他们仍乐此不疲，以此取悦信众。


科教分离

科学只是探索事实的一种方法。没有科学发现是存心要和任何信仰过不去的。即使圣经早就明说地球是圆的，为什么我们要等到科学证明后才肯转态相信？这就是科学认证的可贵之处。宗教自不能取代科学。两者都是描述真相的，各站在不同的角度。为什么要硬要混为一谈呢？前人有一句“上帝的归上帝，凯撒的归凯撒”引伸出政教分离的理念，我现在也要斗胆呼吁“宗教的归宗教，科学的归科学”。

一个人的信仰选择不是因为它的科学前瞻。偶然的科学佐证固然是很好的促销，但当事实和经典相左时未必就是反见证。何必为了那一句话争论不休，以致失去了宗教里更重要的教义？见树不见林，实非智者所为。事实上，宗教本来就不是旨在解释科学的。而且，待科学验证后才跳出来声称“经典早已记载”可说是马后炮；引用又无法详述举证只能算是滥用科学；打着科学的幌子宣扬“真理在这里”然后又不容许别人运用科学方法来检验教义：“上帝是超越逻辑的”，这已经是近乎无赖了。


完美的真理

“宗教是没错的，只是人类诠释错误”，这是最常见的开脱藉口。为力保神圣牌坊，我们自揽过错，掉入完美的陷阱里。我相信人们都想追求真善美。现实的残酷，迫使人们在宗教里追求完美。每个人都希望自己的宗教是完美无缺的真理，但事实是有些教理是不尽完善的。当别人有意无意的探询戳破了完美的泡沫，我们即无法接受。然后我们申斥别人亵渎宗教。然后我们发动圣战，以捍卫宗教英名。

我觉得真理就像数学里的无限大，你可以无限趋近却终不可能抵达。但有谁愿意承认自己的信仰并不完全呢？罗伯特·清崎认为：世界上最难的事就是改变别人的想法。尤其牵涉到信仰时，我们还有更难搞的神圣情意结。如果阿拉伯国家有核武，今天丹麦可能已从欧洲版图上消失。为了神圣。

如果神圣使我们的见解更加盲目，胸襟更加狭隘，更难包容异见，这样的神圣值得我们去维护吗？如果我们承认人类时常错误解读经典，为什么现在我们又那么固执地相信己见？我们须要诋毁科学来成全自以为是的神圣吗？


放下神圣，回归务实

此文非要质问神圣，而是感慨今天的宗教已经变成了信仰，而不是行道。我们热衷于研究教理，以为经典就是真理的全部。我们相信神圣的教义，却忘了将其付诸行动。当我们讲多于做，信却没有行时，我们已经和大道渐行渐远了。Karen Armstrong ，一位美国的宗教学者，在其著作The Great Transformation中就极力倡导我们回归务实：“最重要的不是你相信什么，而是你体现什么”。古代先贤在教导我们时都是先亲身示范才示说教义的，现在我们则是反其道而行。

下一次当我们想要高举神圣时，不妨先躬身行道，因为积极行动的人都知道，真理在生活中，不在书本和网络骂战里；也只有行动，才更能体现宗教的神圣意义。