I don't read. I hate reading, but not for the usual reasons (if there are any). As an Engineer, I was force fed Math and Science books all through college. As I'm sure you are aware, these types of books give all other books a bad name. On the rare occasion that I do find myself willing to pick up a book, I find myself a man obsessed. My thoughts, behaviors, and conversations become consumed by the source material right up until the very last page. This annoys my friends and relatives to no end. No one seems to be interested in what I'm interested in. Part of this is natural, and part of this comes from a very real problem [1].
The natural part seems to go something like this; I pick up a book, I read something interesting in the book, I want to discuss what I've learned with the first person I see so that I may expand upon, explore, and better remember the information that I've recently absorbed. The result of which seems to be that no one wants to talk to me. So I quit reading to keep my friends. Furthermore, I appear to be incapable of positioning myself as a normal person would when I read. I cramp, curl, twist, lay, stretch, and lean when I read; anything except sitting up straight. The consequence of this is that I get painful cramps in my muscles and joints. This alone would deter me from ever picking up a book. But it happened just the same, during an interview on the Daily Show with John Stewart.
A man came on the show to discuss his new book about participating in the Turing Test. I won't relay what he said because it's in his freaking book. If you must know, click here: http://tinyurl.com/yejzehy In his book 'The Most Human Human', Brian Christian explores the philosophy, psychology, and science behind the concept of Artificial Intelligence, but more importantly, what it means to be human in a world populated with intelligent machines.
Over the course of the past few days, this new fangled 'book readin' stuff has taught me (rather made me remember) life lessons that feel like half-remembered dreams that I've chosen to forget. Why would anyone choose to forget a dream? I did it out of convenience. It was simply not worth the effort to explore my mind enough to extract the details and lessons I learned from long ago. Also, as I mentioned, it often has the effect of annoying everyone around me. It is for this very last reason, that I have created this note.
As I read this and other books, I will come across quotes and other thought provoking material that I will not be able to resist sharing with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, I'm also acutely aware that most people do not share my fondness for the intellectual. This being made clear to me through decades of witnessing the glazing over of the eyes of my conversation partners (or victims as I'm sure they felt), the cold shoulder of those who would rather discuss sports, or the outright animosity of those who are intellectually disinclined [1]. In the interest of keeping my future friend count greater than or equal to the current friend count, I've decided not to post all these little nuggets on my facebook status wall. Rather, I'm going to include them here, as dated entries edited into this blag. In short, I'm going to post things I learn, and perhaps my own elaboration on the issues. I welcome any and all conversation that may arise from it. If this takes off and proves to be a success, perhaps I shall get my own domain. Either way, you wont have to suffer my spam.
Additional Stuffs
[1] I have a theory that some people are naturally disinclined to exercise their brain because it causes them physical pain, much the same way I would be in pain if I tried to dead lift 600 pounds with no weight lifting experience at all. That's not to say that they cannot comprehend, it's just that they need a little more practice.
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