Mar 31, 2008

Freedom of Religion in China

As well known for Korean, China government doesn't allow people to have religion, because it is socialism society. It is well know not only for Korean, but also for the other countries.

However, one strange thing is that I cannot find specific data for legal regulation for religion in China. All I have found are mostly the government protect the right for religion, and lots of people have already believed in many different religions. Especially after 'cultural revolution', China government has promulgated and encouraged many people. Answer.com

Wikipedia said all of officer in China cannot have religion, which is strange, but although close to our common sense, it is not enough. Does really China government suppress religion? BB strongly told me No.

One thing, which still makes me suspicious, is Tibet. These days they fight to be independent from China government. It seems like political problem, but it could be religious problem, Petrik told me.

Maximizing Utility doesn't mean Human being is evil.

One of my Korean friends said that Human being is evil. For example, when he gives some money to a beggar, the purpose is not for making the beggar better, but for satisfying himself. He said every good behavior has a purpose to make himself feel better, not someone else. So even when a person does good behavior, he is evil, because it is a result from his selfishness.

According to this logic, the reason why a mother can sacrifice her life for her child is that she is selfish. She just tries to maximize her 'Utility.' Eventually, there is no behavior, which we can call 'Good', because all of them are result of selfishness and maximizing of their happiness. Finally he concluded Human being is evil.

First of all, the way to explain it, using the term 'Utility,' is the way to transform from Mental activity to Material activity. It is a kind of Materialism. It changes everything to a certain number of calculations.

Here is my question. If Human being is evil, why does the Utility increase when they do GOOD or sacrifice for the others? In other words, why do people feel happy when they do GOOD behavior, not BAD behavior? Using the same example, if a person is evil and selfish, when he donate his money to a poor person, his 'Utility' should decrease, not increase, because he must be selfish.

Some people might want to oppose, with insisting that a GOOD education system or GOOD law system is the reason why people behave good. Education system makes people feel guilty when they do bad or social system forces people to behave good, so that the utility increase only when they do good. Then, again my question is here: why has EVIL human being developed that kind of GOOD systems. Evil person must make EVIL system, not GOOD system. If you think any systems such as law, education or social fame are evil, not good, then you must face my first question again: why does the Utility increase when they do good, unless Human being is good.



Now a day, it becomes quite common idea that Human being is evil and selfish, although none of philosophers or psychologists has proved it. As I have found, lots of economists have addressed the bad behaviors of Market to EVIL Human instinct. They always emphasis on the advantage from Market, but they never admit the disadvantage from the Market. They say all bad results from the Market come from the evil Human basic instinct, not from the Market itself. The Market is innocent, and Human being is always guilty.

Their example that Human basic instinct is evil is usually a experiment using a baby. They say, in a certain BAD situation, even a baby gets intention to kill the other baby for food. But I want to raise a question, why do they ignore the opposite example that in a certain GOOD situation, even a baby might get intention to share their food. Their behavior comes from its environment, not from their instinct. In addition, it doesn't make any sense that a baby can represent basic characteristics of Human. If it is possible, I can say since a baby bird cannot fly, all birds cannot fly. Rational thinking is basic characteristics of Human being, which a baby haven't developed.

Bad environment leads people bad, but sometimes human basic characteristics overcomes the bad limitation. Even if it is true in battlefield a mother abandons her baby, it is also true that some of mothers sacrifices her life for her child. In the contrast, good environment usually don't lead people bad. If we see a case that in a good situation a person do bad behavior such as fighting for enough food, killing someone else, we would think he is crazy or he need to be fixed in hospital. We don't think it is natural, or basic, while we think it is natural that a mother can sacrifice.

While it is hard to find any psychologist or philosopher who insists Human being is evil, it is quite easy to find lots of them who insists Human being is good. Famous some of them are Erich Fromm, Spinoza, Mencius and Ecarte.

Mar 23, 2008

Komodo Editor

Today I found a good AJAX editor for Mac OS; This is not only for Mac.

The name is Komodo. ActiveState company made it: http://activestate.com

The company has made many editors, but among them "Komodo Editor" is free and open-source.
The function is quite good for JavaScript programming, including AJAX.

I has special function for many AJAX tool kits such as Dojo, Ext, and YUI.

I though it must be commercial, but the official web site announced it is totally free.

Mar 22, 2008

Market doesn't reflect all of people's needs.

One of my friends who is a game director in Korea one day told me, Human basic instinct likes to be violent. So the only way for us to be good is following religion.

According to his logic, the reason why many games use violence is it is our basic instinct. And the degree of gore would be getting harder and harder in future. And he was actually writing very cruel story of a new game, which includes slicing human body and drinking blood.
I tried to deny it is not true. The reason why game companies makes game cruel is not because of human instinct, but because of the market force. But he didn't admit it.

Some times the market doesn't follow people's need. Good example I have found is sugar and salt. I have never found, so far, the reason why food restaurants use lots of sugar and salt is because it is our basic instinct. I think some people might think it is instinct, then I have no example for them. At least I think it is good example for the difference between market behavior and people's need.

I also think movie is good example. Blockbuster movies usually don't care the story. But strangely many story bad movies earn big money. Does it mean people like bad story?

A little bit controversial example is food production. Market cares consumer so much. But their definition of 'Customer' is someone who has money. If someone doesn't have money, they don't count them as customer. And they say there is no need, although people die outside.

The myth that market price always indicate where the needs are is not true.

EyeTV

I found a great item for game.

Without any expectation, I have typed in good, "XBOX connect to MacBook." And I got this result.
EyeTV is a USB 2.0 device for mac computers.
I can watch TV through my MacBook LCD Monitor. And I also can play X-Box or PlayStation3 games.

As long as I found, there is one problem, that I cannot use 1080i, which is HDTV resolution.
Although EyeTV has the function for HDTV, it doesn't work for game. I don't know why.

Despite the defect, it is worthy to buy for me. Because I don't want to buy HDTV or any display device more.

The real problem, however, is I don't have time to enjoy any game.... hmmm.

Study in company.

If I had 6 hours to cut down a tree I'd spend 4 hours sharpening my axe.
-- folk saying


I always recommend for my brother to study in company. Although I don't know well about his situation in company, he never follow my advise. But usually the problems he asks me is almost the question that already has solved by many people.

He might think finishing job is higher priority than studying for himself. But studying should be always higher than commit something. It is much important especially for software programmers. Because the speed of software growth is so much fast. We can find almost always better solution.Of course, it is also true, we should avoid 'Silver bullets.' Some new technologies are just trash or not has proved its efficiency yet.

If you have time, spend the time studying. If you don't have time, spend more time studying.

Class hierarchy.

Sometimes people use the term, "Middle class," whose economical income is middle in the society. I, however, think it is wrong expression. Because, the distinguishing should base on the difference of their behavior, as if in the middle age the behavior of slaves are totally different from that of nobles.

Now regular schools teach this society has no class; at least it is true in South Korea. But we can clearly see there is Class based on behavior. Although the system always try to hide the truth, it always fail, because in real world people behave differently, and it cause conflict and fighting. There could not be peace between them. The people who has power try to change law to make their benefit better. On the other hand the people who don't have power to protect themselves use physical violence or 'illegal acts.'; their behavior has become illegal by the people who has power.
Here is the point. Who tells us there is class in this society? I don't find anybody except Marx.

Then, why does the system try to hide the truth? Why does the system waste time and resources in school to hide it? I think it is because the capitalism society has justified its appearing, criticizing the problem of slavery. So if the system accept the fact that the capitalism is just different version of 'wage slavery', it loses the way to justify.

Mar 21, 2008

Why does economics die?

There is a old saying in Korea, "Every grave has their own reason why he or she died."

Everybody dies finally. Actually the reason why he die is not important. Because even though he could avoid the reason, he would have another reason he die such as car accidence, or health problem.

When I ask my economics friends "why did the Great depression happen?", they usually answer it is because of the money currency. At the time, people used fixed currency, and it caused depression. Or some of them said the Federal government used wrong policy.
However, I don't believe they are real reason for depression. Because if it was real reason, now we could know how to avoid the problem, depression. But it hasn't stopped.

One of good examples is Korea economics. In 1997 Korea suffered depression, called IMF period. The symptom was very similar with the Great depression: many banks had been closed, many big companies bankrupted one by one, and unemployment ratio dramatically increased.

I think if I research more I could find more examples that the economics depression never stop. Because encyclopedia says economic panic periodically happens, generally saying the period is about from 7 to 10 years.

The real question is not "Why he died," but "Could people not die?." I think none of economists have explained it, except Marx.

Mar 3, 2008

User Interface for GamePed.

I though menu style user interface is only for Mouse. But Playstate3 and PSP has great menu user interface for GamePed.

While for mouse input device menu system cannot move the position dynamically, the GamePed could.

Stop the war

Stop the war.
BB took this picture in our campus: George Mason Univ.