Sciencism

I was watching a video of a Harvard lecture. The subject was philisophy.

I was talking to a Chinese friend of mine today. She's a student at University of Canberra. She said she would live in Australia to study for another 3-4 years, after which she would return to China. "l made up my mind,even l will have much harder life back to china,my parents have only one child,l have to go back." Her statement got me thinking: what are kids for? Some people might say that we have kids so that there's someone to take care of us in our old age. This is quite a selfish view, one that people of many cultures and societies subscribe to.

"I must admit to having a little problem with that conclusion. First, one crow did solve the problem; second, the crows all varied widely in their performance on all of the tests, suggesting that problem-solving abilities vary wildly between individuals—no surprise there. Finally, I think the distinction between model-building and feedback-based problem solving skills are artificial points in a mental toolkit that spans a continuum.

I purchased a car (a Toyota Prius) yesterday. I paid the seller AUD 15,500 for it. It took a big chunk out of my savings. As I was driving it around town, I thought about my purchase. Science talked to me, and told me these things which I would like to share with you.

Often, we hear about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. What does this mean?

The problem is primarily caused by two things:

Throughout human history, the younger generations looked up to the older generation for guidance. Now the elderly have been relegated to nursing homes and no one cares about them anymore. When did this shift take place and why?

I was reading an article recently, and in the comments someone had said, "And she obviously hasn't seen those poll results saying that the "happiness level" of childless couples to those with families is roughly equal."

How to explain to this person? Is it even worth the trouble? Probably not. It's like the gears in a car isn't it.. No one can tell you how they work. The instructor can only tell you what to do. And then at some point, it will all just suddenly fall into place and make sense.

It's a rather harsh choice for women at the moment; if you want to be happy and successful, stay single, but if you want happy and successful children, get married and stay married.

I do think that many women expect more out of marriage than most men do. I don't think you'll find many men who expect relationships to be anything other than hard work from time to time.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/24/women-stop-looking-mr...

‘This sucks!’

‘Well, this is reality.’

‘Reality sucks!’

‘If you didn’t have the fantasy, the reality would be just fine.’

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/ar...

As I was driving home one night after a dance, my mind wandered and Science enlightened me. I must have been a bit annoyed that my good friend E*, who considers me her brother and who I consider as a sister, changed her mind about coming to the dance at the last minute. I mean of course that she didn't want to come. She was probably with her friends, and was comfortable at home.

Just today, I logged into Facebook, and in my newsfeed was an item that caught my interest. I read what others had said, I said something, others replied, etc. Eventually it looked something like this:

Now there are several interesting things about this facebook conversation. We will look at each in more detail.