Random Fact about me: I dont dislike anybody. I simply dont have it in me to dislike/hate anybody. At most we may be at differences, but if there's any dislike between me and somebody it ain't coming from me.

Random thought: I believe that which humans, as a collective whole, fear most, is the unknown. For thousands of years humans have tried to think up explanations for everything which they are unable to explain logically. An eternal example is death. What most people fear most is not death, but the inability to explain what comes after. Old people suffering would usually beg for the sweet touch of death, but the main thing holding them to this world, apart from family and friends, is the fear of the unknown of what comes after death. More examples: in the past, natural phenomenons such as lightning and hurricanes were once explained as the wrath of the gods. Of course, now we know otherwise. However, imagine humans this way: once they justify something unknown, even if they are giving it the wrong explanation, they will have ease of mind. Hence "Ignorance is bliss", in an abstract form. For all we know 200 years down the road there will be scientifc explanations for the 'supernatural', which by then would be called the 'natural'. I mean, with the rate technology is advancing now, it would come as no surprise to me.

Which brings me to the topic of death. Some people define death as the natural state which most people pass into when they attain a relatively old age (relative because it varies with generation / locality / living conditions etc), when the body is unable to function due to illnesses, or when the body is unable to function due to fatal injury[ies]. This is the common definition of death.

Some people argue that death is attained when the brain is unable to function as it is; in other words when the brain is chemically dead and unable to restore its previous memories and/or form logical processes. This would bring an exception to the previous case, where people who died of recent physical illnesses or injuries, in which the brain would not be dead yet (since the body just died, although the brain would follow soon after due to lack of oxygen in 5 minutes to 2 hours time depending on the temperature), are officially alive by this definition. In the future techonology might possibly evolve sufficiently to allow reversal of the cause of death, which is more or less the basis for cryogenics (although technology has not reached the extent where humans are able to be revived from cryogenic pods even if they went in fully alive, because their blood needs to be removed in order to prevent the freezing water in the blood from rupturing the arteries in the body). By this definition, brain-dead people are officially dead, since while their bodies are capable of functioning, their brains are unable to do so, despite being fed with bloody and oxygen and nutrients and what not.

On the other hand, some cases I have read about in magazines such as Reader's Digest may seem to indicate that the brain is not fully responsible for what we humans are as we are. To simplify matters, I shall quote an example: I distinctly remember reading this article about a man who suffered from a tumour in his brain. As his end closed in, his brain consisted mostly of useless throbbing mutated grey mass, the tumour having taken over most of it. However, right before his death, he was able to converse calmly with his wife and children despite studies on his brain indicating that certain portions such as those assosiated with speech and memory were already corrupted. Perhaps it is a elabourate hoax, and perhpas it is not, but it may provide evidence that humans are not merely chemical. In a century or so we shall probably know for sure.

Somehow this reminds me of supposedly "Brain Dead" people. Are they really brain dead, unable to respond to any physical stimuli, or are they actually conscious, trapped in their own mind, unable to move or talk or eat? Some studies have shown that areas in their brain respond to physical and non-physical stimuli, such as talking or showing a photo in front of their non-responsive eyes. Apparently it is possible that they may be awake, conscious, but unable to even lift a finger. It seems a fate more terrible than death. I seriously ponder: if one day I am ever rendered in such a state, would I choose death or to live on in such a state with minimal chance of 'waking up'? Perhaps I would never know (and I hope I would never have to choose).

Which brings us to this question: Can our body be defined as a means by which we move our body, a glorified form of "input" and "output", which our brain has the capabality to control (and is co-dependent on)? A close comparison would be a computer: Its has the power to give output via its monitor and speakers, while allowing input via keyboard, microphone, and mice. Likewise, our body has the ability to give output by physically interacting with the environment, producing sounds (a.k.a. speaking), or through body language, while our input is more or less our five senses. Which brings me to this question: Is it possible for humans to dream of senses outside of what we are able to experience? Logically, since we are limited to whatever senses we have, we cannot imagine what it is like, say, to have 360 degrees of vision because we SIMPLY do not have it. But I'll ponder on that topic another time. Back to what we define our body as.

So my thoughts are that, basically since our bodies are merely a method for us to interact with the environment and to supply the brain with nourishment (and to reproduce too, but lets ignore that for now), perhaps the definition that the death of the body does not equate the death of the human as a whole stands true; simply put an undamaged brain means a human is still alive. Medical technology has allowed us to live with fake hearts, prosthetic limbs, allowed us to emulate the function of the kidneys via machinery. Would it not be possible that one day, medical technology would eventually allow us to live with our brains alone intact? This has been a topic of various science fictions, but I believe in the near future (within my generation's lifetime) we should be able to see the outcome. Meanwhile smaller milestones include the future possibility of restoring sight to blind people by being able to convert light siganls into electricty interpretable by the brain. More crude methods allow an illusion of sight by stimulating the brain in various areas when sensors respond to light in several areas, but it is possible that soon nobody would be blind unless their brain lack the receptors.

Anyway, back to real life. What a relief for people who are reading my blog and hate long winded boring posts about the worried thoughts of a troubled individual.

Starting back from where we left off... Ning Yu called me back to LT3, and I was denied of making the long winded post you have just read. Basically my class's performance was chosen to represent our faculty, and so we had to rehearse for hours (although it only mattered for the big shots like Kok Seng, Matthew Yang, Yi Zhuang, Edwin etc). After that its basically slack around and sweat until time to go to the freaking stuffy hall. The performance was damn screwed anyway, especially the song part (actually only the song part was screwed, but ah what the hell). Most of us had not memorised the lyrics (or claimed too, but -coincedentally- forgot when the time came ((no Ning Yu, I'm NOT looking at you =) )) ), and the song ended up damn soft with blank parts. Anyway we somehow made it to second for our performance, falling short only to Apollo, whose performance was more of a display of intellect than art, demonstrating their contrast with the rest of the faculties, their appealing to the judges by going for harmony between faculties instead of niaoing other faculties, and basically more or less performing for the rubrics, instead of having fun. Ok, maybe they did have fun, since I'm not one to comment, but it is of my opinion that their performance was more or less catered to simply suit the rubrics, since it was all tangible stuff which their performance was oriented around, such as cohesion, cooperation etc w/e. bleh. wtf. 

Today was basically dam tiring lah. So much so that after posting some random shit above i cant even type in proper words anymore, and even cannot bother to hold down shift to type uppercase i gg. w/e nite thx for reading.