If you're not at all interested in thinking, better stop reading this about now.

For those who have decided to press on, the following is a disjointed rant on my opinions on Determinism, the question of whether or not we possess "Free Will," and maybe some other things.

I am not religious, because no matter how hard I try (not very hard, actually) I just can't believe in something as plausible as the Easter Bunny, Magic, or Santa Claus. I guess the technical term would be atheism: a lack of belief in any supreme power. I say atheism, not agnosticism, as I really don't think a supreme being that cares for and watches of humanity exists, in the exact same way that I do not believe there is a man who dresses in a red suit and delivers presents every year. If you wish to read about the difference between the two (agnosticism and atheism), please go here.

What does all that have to do with Determinism? I think it has very little to do with it, but other people sure do. I think they get a little confused, and assume that when I say that I'm a Determinist, and don't believe in Free Will, that I mean I am religious, and trust in some "God" to guide me. I don't. Another point of confusion is the similarity between Determinism and Fatalism. A simple way to remember the difference is: "A Fatalist's future is reached no matter how he struggles, while a Determinist's future is reached through his struggle. See? Different. For a more in-depth discussion of their differences, I encourage you to do read this.

Even though I don't believe in Free Will, I haven't been able to shake the feeling that I do have Free Will. Shall I eat cake or not eat it? Sure feels like I chose not to eat the cake, all on my own. This annoys me a little, it's as if the world is constantly trying to change my mind. Whenever it almost does though, I just think about what would happen if I picked up a tennis ball, raised it to a height of 1.2m above the ground, then dropped it. It'd leave my hand, accelerate towards the ground, then bounce up a little bit when it finally hit the ground. Maybe it'd bounce a few times, it depends on the surface. The point is, I know it would fall from my hand. I can predict it. How do I know? I have a standard understanding of basic causation, which I have learned largely through trial and error as a baby, or have been able to deduce on my own, based on inferences about past events. Gravity causes objects to move towards the ground until they come to rest. This applies to all things that belong to this Universe. We rely on our understanding of causation, the knowledge that an outcome is determined by its preceding event, to function. What if the ball floated in the air, or burst into flames when released from my grip? If the world we live in wasn't at least somewhat predictable, it would not be a very comfortable place to live.

Ha! I hear you say, he's admitted that the world is only somewhat predictable! Yes, I admit that I can't predict every future event, I'll go even further and say that I don't think anything will be able to predict every future event, ever. This doesn't mean, however, that I don't think that it is possible that any future even can be predicted, it simply means that I don't think the Big Book of All Events will be finished any time soon. Simple events, like what will happen when I release a tennis ball, are easy to predict, as there are relatively few variables involved. The outcome of more complex events are more difficult to predict, and that difficulty increases with each additional variable. To predict the outcome of complex events, we use Statistics.

People are predictable enough for Statistics to work. Take supermarkets, for example. Ever wondered why they all have the same general layout? It is because humans buy more when herded about the store in a particular manner. I think that we think we have free will, but actually don't. It's quite easy to assume that a human has free will, as it is often difficult to understand some people's motives for certain actions. But I think it is not that humans have free will, it is that humans aren't tennis balls, we are far more complex. Like I said above, complex events are more difficult to predict than simple ones. We're getting better at it though. So my "choosing" to not eat the cake was not an example of free will, it was an event caused by the events preceding it. For some reason, presumably due to how a human mind works, I perceived that I chose to do not eat.

The main reason that I stick to Determinism, aside from all of the above, is that I don't think that any part of us exists outside of the physical. That is to say, I don't think that we have a soul, I don't think that consciousness is magic, and I don't think that anything that is what we are is unexplainable. In time, we will understand ourselves, and know how our minds work. As someone who hopes to one day contribute to the "understanding our minds" effort, it wouldn't make much sense if I believed that the mind existed as some non-physical thing. It would be dooming myself to a life of futile research, attempting to explain something that is unexplainable.

Determinism is a tough one, I'm constantly reviewing my stance on it, but since I initially made up my mind, it hasn't changed. It helps me that it seems society secretly believes it is true also, how else do we expect the penal system to work? If we didn't think future was determined by events that happen now, why would we punish?

What do you think: do you choose things, all on your own, or are you guided by causality?

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On a side note, I've been doing little of interest here in China.

Here are some news articles I found interesting:

Stem Cell Shots Rescue Terminally Ill Children

Switching on Brain-Computer Interface

Unborn Souls No Longer at Risk From Evil Stem Cell Researchers

Also, I've added another Chinese Idiom.

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Tags: Philosophy | 哲学

Since starting this blog, I've often thought of things I'd like to write about, but haven't because they don't fit under its title - "China Blog."

I thought about starting another blog, but I think one is enough. I had decided to can the other ideas until I return to New Zealand, but that'd make things a bit fragmented and confusing, for those of you still in the dark about ... technology.

Instead I'll just change the name of this one. Actually, I already have.

It is now called: "Blog of Interest."

Don't congratulate me on the incredible name, just update your bookmarks, in case my redirect hasn't already.

In the future you can look forward to reading about any subject, not just things related to China.

Oh what a joy it must be to be you, reader.

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Tags: Blog | Miscellaneous

Today I was woken up by Yvonne telling me that we were going to the place from which one may buy balls. Not the type you're probably thinking of, but the type that one may roll around in one's hand. According to Yvonne only old men use them, but I've had a set for ages (Grandparents bought them for me from Singapore). I didn't know why we had to get up so early to buy balls, but Yvonne allowed no argument. We took a bus, then another bus to our destination.

We got off the bus and walked into a rather bustling market area. The predominant colour was red, from hundreds of new year's lanterns. It seems that most of the shops sold those lanterns. Walking into one of the stores was like descending into the forest of another world, a world in which instead of trees forests have desks, and roofs without insulation, and instead of vines hanging from the "trees", there are hundreds of new year's lanterns. That analogy should go down as one of the worst ever. Maybe I should have just said this: there were a lot of new year's lanterns, everywhere. I thought that this was the place we were to spend the entire day, so I was slowly wandering about, feigning interest in the store's wares. I later found that I was wasting my time when Yvonne pointed to a big gate that the majority of the crowds were heading towards, and told me that it was where we were going for the day. I was a little confused, as it looked a bit too "up market" to be selling balls, but I didn't argue.

The place was called Yu Yuan, and is apparently the only site of cultural significance left in Shanghai. It was pretty much just shops in new looking old-style buildings. I thought this was quite amusing, seeing old style buildings with big KFC signs being prominently displayed on the side of them. One building was a Starbucks. We went in and bought a Caramel Latte, which was delicious. All of the staff at every Starbucks I've been to (two) have spoken workable English. One time I tried to order in Chinese, and it too far longer than loudly saying "Latte Medium" would have. Instead I repeated myself three times, then labored through an enquiry about how one says "latte" in Chinese. Turns out it is natie. I recognized the "na" character, 拿, but not the tie, 铁. After I heard the staff member say it however, I recognized it as the second part of "subway", 地铁. Silly me. This time Yvonne did the talking, which was much more efficient. I also got her to ask whether the iced coffees had more caffeine than hot ones, as I wanted a real kick. The iced ones are stronger, take note.

After buying wonderful coffee we crossed the oddly shaped bridge to the main attraction. Tickets were 30元. It was worth it, I guess. Yuyuan was quite big, and very pretty. Its style was different to the buildings we saw in Beijing, but only slightly. The roofs were black, Beijing's were brown. Also it wasn't as cold. I took a lot of photos as well, go have a look.

One thing worth mentioning is the number of white people there. It was the only time I've seen Chinese people outnumbered. Most of the white people were Russian. I saw two Americans, a couple of Italians, and maybe ten Russians. It was interesting to hear the Chinese guides speaking Russian/Italian. The Russians scowled at me when I slurped my drink loudly, so I made sure to slurp even more loudly. Take that, Boris.

On second thought, maybe the Russian wasn't scowling at all. Maybe that was his standard expression?

My favourite part of Yuyuan was the pond. If you've been reading this blog for a little while, I doubt that will come as a surprise. The pond had a little waterfall, and some fish. In short, it was perfect.

Other cool things in Yuyuan were: Dragon themed walls (naughty, according to Yvonne. At that time only the Emperor was allowed to use Dragons), old trees, small trees, and creepy lions. One tree was over 400 years old. It was black, and did look its age. There were a lot of small trees around, all well pruned. The lions near the exit of Yuyuan were rather strange, quite creepy in fact. Actually, the whole place was quite strange, in a subtle way. All of the doorways in white walls were weird shapes, there were Dragons on the walls, buildings had little characters on top of them, and the place was filled with Russians. My spine tingles at the memory.

After looking at everything we realised we were quite hungry, so we left and crossed the oddly shaped bridge again to get some lunch.

While walking towards Yvonne's chosen food source, we passed a small stall that sold, among other things, camera tripods. I've been keeping an eye out for a particular type of tripod, one with short but flexible legs. They had one such tripod, and after a small amount of haggling we bought it for 25元, a price equal to one coffee from Starbucks.

Yvonne wanted special dumplings, which required queueing for about half an hour. When we finally got some we found that they weren't that special, Yvonne's mother's are much better. We ate them anyway. Then we went to a restaurant that sold bigger dumplings with straws. One is supposed to drink the juice from the dumpling. These weren't very nice either, though they were very cute. Each dumpling cost more than a coffee from Starbucks - 25元. We left without finishing. Yvonne then bought some strange pudding that I didn't taste. It was gooey.

Now was the time to look for suitable balls to purchase. We left the Yuyuan area, and re-entered the bright red shopping area. Hidden behind all of the stores was a very large, three storied warehouse filled with small stalls. The stalls sold various different things, from souvenirs to knitting essentials. We spent quite some time here, asking around for balls. We also bought some little things for people back home. One of the storekeepers told us that balls were available from a store just outside the warehouse, so we headed there when we became tired of the warehouse.

After some searching we managed to find the store the man was talking about. They did indeed sell balls, and I bought a pair of steel ones. They were 5元 each.

On our way to the bus stop we stopped at a cafe and had some more food. Yvonne ordered the Cuboidal Toast for me, and had some yellow buns and rice soup for herself. Cuboidal Toast was strange only because of its shape. Everything else about it was what one would expect from toast - butter, jam... oh, and a scoop of ice cream. Totally normal. When the waitress brought us our drinks, she got confused when we asked which was the coffee and which was the tea - she told us there isn't any difference. There was, and I quickly identified them. I finished eating before Yvonne, and amused myself with my new tripod.

Our business in this part of town concluded, we took a bus to a more familiar area, one with Watson's. Yvonne asked me if I wanted to "have some fun." I said that I did, and was led into "Tom's World," which is an arcade. It was very colourful, and quite large. I played a manly game involving guns 'n' killing, while Yvonne played what I would call "kiddie slots." We spent quite a bit at the arcade, but we also had fun. Whether the fun was proportional to the fee is not important.

When we had finished with the kiddie slots, we went outside and I played with the tripod. I took three photos, then the battery went flat. This was our cue to leave.

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Tags: China | Shanghai | Culture | 上海 | 中国 | 豫园 | 旅行

I haven't really done much of any real interest since the last entry, so instead of wowing you with lies about things that didn't happen, I'll just type until I get bored about whatever I want. Sure, lies about awesome exploits would be more interesting, but I don't want to ruin my "online reputation". Just kidding. The real reason I'm not going to write a whole lot of lies is because I know too many people would believe it, and waste my time not understanding when I told them "it was a joke, I was bored."

So... what have I been doing lately? I went to Cybercity again, because I'm addicted to the place. Also we had to get a memory card for Yvonne's new camera. Don't think that all we bought was what we intended to buy, oh no. Our intention was to buy a memory card, but we left with a memory card, a screen protector, a camera bag and two keyboard covers. This time our favourite salesman was there, so we didn't shop around at all. The memory card is a Kingston 4 GB - 380元 - NZ$62.70. I thought this was an OK deal, but I haven't done any research. I forget how much the rest cost, not too much though. 4 GB is a ridiculous size. At the highest quality setting we can take 996 photos, or 32 minutes of video. This is a huge improvement, from 51 photos at full quality on the old camera. I will now be documenting each step I take outside. When we were choosing the memory card, the salesman asked to see the camera. He saw that we lacked a screen cover, and while asking us if we wanted one, he fixed one to the screen. We saw that it wasn't coming off in a hurry, and mentioned that his sales technique was effective. His English is very good, much better than average. It is good enough for him to get the idea of what Yvonne and I are talking about, when we use English to discuss whether or not whatever item we're looking at is worth buying at the given price. He'll use this information to calculate a lower price, or interject with information about the product in question, showing that he knows what we're talking about. About the camera case - we had one when we came in! Now we have two.

By the time we left, night had fallen. Yvonne wanted to go pay her respects to Kanebo, so I trailed along behind. I sat on an uncomfortable stool while Yvonne talked about different methods of worship. Eventually she decided on a suitable monetary sacrifice, and received her blessing, a bag filled with special paint. I often see her kneeling alone in front of a mirror using these paints to "pray."

After the make up store we decided to go home. On the way we passed a building, that during the day looks rather unremarkable, aside from the fact that it has a big sphere sticking out the front. At night, however... It is transformed into an amazing orb of light. I took a video of it, you can see it here.

* * *

When I am not out doing things, I'm sitting on the couch (my office) making websites.

The websites I have made are:

Pages of Interest (this site)

Waikato Golden Key

New Zealand Scene

My favourite is New Zealand Scene, because it has a black background. I haven't had time to finish it, as I have recently been hired to create a website for a fighting style called Taejitsu. I'll provide an address for it when it is done.

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Also, I'm announcing the beginning of the "Toilets Series" photo page, where I will post photos of toilets. The quality range varies greatly in China, some are absolute luxury, some are simple holes in the ground. Some of the holes in the ground are still pretty luxurious, you'll see what I mean in the future.

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Tags: China | Shanghai | 中国 | 上海 | 徐家汇 | Cybercity