Models [Taken from Live Spaces Blog, 05 mayo 2007, 0:15]

(The first part of this entry was written on April 29th, but it was finished only until May 4th due to technical reasons).

I woke up at 1:00 AM today for two reasons:

1. I went to sleep at 6:00 PM yesterday
2. The mosquitos in my room sucked my blood during the night and left my skin itching, so much that I woke up and could not get to sleep again.

So what could I do? I turned on the computer, had a small GTalk conversation with MGM, checked my email, and listened to so music until about 3:00 AM. Then my mind turned to the abacus - I needed to practice. So I turned off the computer and practiced until 5:00 AM. It was then that I got the urge to go walking around the neighborhood. I put my abacus stuff aside, put on my Nike shoes, and went for a walk. Lots of birds were tweeting and lots of dogs were barking already. I enjoyed watching and listening to the morning sounds, until I came up to some very pretty flowers, and I wished I had my cellphone camera. So I ran back home, got my cellphone, and took about 80 pictures of flowers, trees, the sunrise, and stuff like that around the neighborhood. It was very nice. I got to see all kinds of plants slowly changing their color together with the brightening sky, slowly getting a more intense hue, while all the time listening to birds chirping and tweeting, and seeing them fly from tree to tree, and doing some really neat flying tricks over walls, between window bars, and well, just looking at them fly was amazing.
All the nature stuff I got to see in the morning made me think: "wow, the world's really really nice. It's amazing what we miss because of being inside 4 walls all day. We now just model stuff we see, and simulate it digitally or by any other means, so that people don't really need to go outside those 4 walls, so they can perceive it all while still being inside their 4 walls. We don't need to make or go listen to music being produced... we store it and listen to it through speakers. We don't need to go places to see stuff... we just download images and look at them. So simple, isn't it? But I've spent hours and hours using the computer, and have never, while doing so, felt so good as I do with nature that morning. Is it possible to simulate the complete world - a sunrise, with its continuous hues, majestic clouds, shimmering light, intense tonalities, vivid colors, together with birds chirping, flying around, playing with each other, swaying trees all around, morning dew on every leaf, barking dogs, noisy crickets and roosters, mixed with the cool, refreshing morning wind, the smell of humidity and life all around, the intense feeling of being alone with Nature? Can that be simulated? Can it be modeled precisely so that we can STORE it all, always stay inside our 4 walls, and never have to see the 'real world' again, Matrix-style?".
My guess would be no. I think about the models people make about stuff - Mechanics models the movement of stuff, Chemistry predicts the molecular and physical state of stuff, Astronomy models the position and influence of really-far-away stuff, Economy models the wealth of stuff, and so on and so forth. But any of those models is SO FABULOUSLY LIMITED! It is really mind-boggling, how complex things actually are when as compared to the methods we use to model them.
But we accept models. They make our life so much easier. Take roadmaps, for example. If I need to plan a roadtrip somewhere, the model of the roadmap tells us exactly where to go, how long the trip will be, what places will we run into, etc... It's so simple... models take the world and simplify it, but keep the "necessary" information inside. Necessary? What is necessary? Well, whatever people would find useful, don't you think? Like a roadmap. But by adhering to this roadmap, we see only the road and the distance on the way. Most of all the other details on the way are obviated by the person being faithfully guided by his roadmap.
I'm not saying models are bad, you know. I like them, I use them, they're pretty neat. But I do believe they can be wrongly utilized. I think that if a person accepts a model as true, this person will also accept the simplicity of it, and then go on to believe that the actual, real world is as simple as the model. And nothing could be farther from the truth. It's not only models, you know - it happens with all blindly accepted truths. Take water, for instance. Water is a liquid, people drink it, it takes thirst away, it takes on the shape of its container, it's good to clean stuff with, it goes through pipes, all houses need it, etc... But if a person only sees it that way - as what it is useful for, then that's exactly what it will be. The more this person accepts the common uses of water, the less he or she will notice, or remember, how water reflects and takes on the color of its surroundings, how it can also perfectly function as a mirror, how does it shimmer during sunrise and sunset times, how does spraying it on a sunny day creates a beautiful rainbow, and how can it acquire a heavenly sweet nectar taste in specially tiresome moments. And that is sad.
I believe a word has been created for these "widely accepted common concepts": paradigms. People take them, notice their usefulness, use them, and forget about the concepts they can create themselves. Don't we have the capacity to create concepts all the time? Why should we use the same concepts all the time? Don't you think that is almost insulting the virtually endless world of possibilities around us? I DO. Let's learn to value things for what they are, not for what we THINK WE KNOW they are, or MUCH MUCH WORSE, for what OTHER PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE.
As a sidenote, my cousin Ileana died on April 29th @ 7AM. May she RIP (Rest in Peace).

(Update, Dec 28, 2013: I found this piece of text, originally together with this entry, but later removed for some reason. I thought it pertinent to include here):
Then I went back home, had some breakfast, and then Elisa told me that my cousin Ileana had died at 7:00 AM, and that a funeral had been arranged for that very same night. I cannot say I was shocked, since it had been expected for a while now, but my sister acted like she was sad - I couldn't tell if she really was. Anyway, I had a psychological test @ 10AM @ UFM as an AIESEC exchange requirement, so I asked my sister to take me to the bus stop. Given the city's crime rate and my attachment to my cellphone, I decided to leave it at home, along with my whole wallet. I only took money with me, so that in the event of a robbery, money was all I had to lose.

I don't feel like expanding on all the details, so I'll just skim on my day. I finished the test, which was administered by a psychologist who I think has turned out to be the same psychologist who evaluated most of the FJBG scholars upon entering the program. I finished it at about 12:30, walked all the way up the "2" route bus stop, went to UVG, picked up my thesis, casually met Giovanni Paredes, Frodo, and Carlos Salvadó on the way, and took the bus back home at about 2 in the afternoon.

On getting back, I found Marcelo on MSN saying he was bored. I burned a DVD for Alicia and my dad so that Marcos could mail it to them from NY the next day. Marcelo then came home, we walked and talked for a while around the neighborhood, then I came home and remembered I had to go to my cousin Ileana's funeral. So I dressed up and left with Elisa to the funeral home. I met Santiago and his brothers there (Ileana's sons), which I had not seen for at least 3 years. Even though they were mostly calm, they were smiling and making jokes about stuff. It did not seem as if their mother's death had been such a blow to them, either. Good for them. I spent my time there talking, listening to people, and even went to McDonald's with Joel, Ana, & Emily for a while. Since neither Elisa nor I had taken the house keys with us, I had to open the house with my sneaking and burglary skills.

Now, this blog was begun yesterday at about midnight and finished today at 11PM, so it doesn't really make much sense to say that Saturday has just ended. I'll summarize today too: I went to Pasos & Pedales today in the morning, met the two Parkour brothers I've been talking to lately through MSN, did about 2 hours of Parkour with them, learned a few skills, and was given a lift back home by the brothers' parents. Then I came home, and spent all afternoon here in the computer MSNing, transforming my thesis into PDF format, and mostly wasting my time. And now I'm about ready to go to sleep. Yep, I guess that will be it for today. Good night.