Emo Bit (TM) Theory

I don't really write all that much. So here goes nothing much.

I'm trying to remember what life was like before the Internet. Before Google. Before "social websites." Was it more meaningful than today? Was my attention span longer, was I less distracted? Were relationships deeper, social interactions better? How were memes and ideas spread?

Surely information is much more "decentralized" nowadays, and easier to find. I cannot imagine doing my line of work (R&D) without the power of Google search. But does it come at a price? Perhaps I am more prone to think less on my own, though I certainly don't think so. Perhaps, too, I lose a certain focus to the task at hand when I am presented with such a vast array of diverging information. "I digress" could well be a motto for this age.

Even as I write this, my mind is constantly wandering about. My fingers are itching every few minutes to open a browser -- and subsequently lose minutes, if not hours, of productivity to surf the web. No doubt the Internet has expanded the horizons of my knowledge and opened my mind to new ways of thinking and solving problems. But this ultimate tool is at the same time also the ultimate time suck.

What of the social aspects? Sure, there are more ways to communicate now than ever: e-mail, IM, skype, wikis, forums, social webs. But I feel that "more" is not inherently "better." There is still somehow that "disconnected" nature of expressing through a computer screen rather than to a live person. Though one could argue that a computer screen is just an analog for the ink & pen of old, I think that the act of writing on paper imprints more of one's humanity on it as compared to writing it on a screen. For one, it is in your own handwriting.

Let me give an example. Below is the same "message" recorded in different ways.

[I love you. in ASCII text]
[I love you. in hand-written script]
[I love you. in voice]

They all want to express the same thing. Which one is *least* convincing? Which one(s) is(are) likely to evoke a more emotional response?

Information theory tells us that all information (here: "I love you" plus all the other meaning that goes with it) can be represented as bits. So why is the ASCII-encoded "I love you" (10 x 8 bits) less evocative than the handwritten or voiced one? I would argue that the latter ones add additional "bits" of information to the message, emo bits (TM) if you will, imparted from the sender to the receiver. (Note that I'm not talking about the additional bits necessary to store the encoded image or voice information!) Or that conversely, if I choose to express "I love you" by typing it through a computer, I actually lose some bits of information as compared to if I write it or say it directly.

This brings us to an interesting point. If these bits can be quantified and measured, can they then be used to make computer communication more "human"?

Another example. Think of the computer-generated voice in your GPS navigation system ("Turn right after 100 meters"), or any other text-to-speech program for that matter. Why is this voice always so distinguishable from a normal, human voice? (Even one that is intentionally trying to disguise as a robot :P) There are a lot of nuances, randomness in the human voice that can be difficult to express by a machine. In fact, the whole idea of computing, of algorithms, is counter to the idea of nuance and randomness. After all, you would expect a computer to produce the same result each time it calculates something, otherwise what's the point? If it gives a different answer when the weather is sunny from the answer it gives when the weather is cloudy, I wouldn't rely on that computer to run my banking or nuclear reactor software. :D

Okay, I've had enough pseudo-intellectual-rambling-without-any-factual-basis for today. Your thoughts?

Today's News: Nov. 3, 2008

Paint thief caught red-handed.

Day One of ... many.

7AM. Well. I finally arrived here in Babenhausen. What a long, long, long, long flight: I ran out of sleep before I ran out of flight. (And to those who know me well, I almost never run out of sleep.) I sat next to this nice French couple who chatted me up, probably out of civic duty, after seeing how fatally bored I was. Thanks for that.

Speaking of long things, how about that airport in Bangkok where I had to transfer to the connecting flight. I swear, I must've walked more than one kilometer to get to the destination gate. There were "walk-alators," sure, but they only served to highlight how feet-numbingly long that walk through the terminal was.

I had three dinners, by the way: First at the airport before boarding the plane, another one during the flight to Bangkok, and a final one on the flight to Frankfurt. Nice! By the last one, I was so full I barely managed to eat. I didn't realize that free food can sometimes be gift horses.

Update: Went to Aschaffenburg to buy some groceries. God, I'm so tired. It is now just 9PM but my body is still thinking it's 3AM. So this is how a zombie feels.

Brraaaiinnn...

Leave Out All The Rest

Leave Out All The Rest

Linkin Park

I dreamed I was missing
You were so scared
But no one would listen
Cause no one else cared

After my dreaming
I woke with this fear
What am I leaving
When I'm done here

So if you're asking me
I want you to know

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

And don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

Don't be afraid
I've taken my beating
I've shared what I made

I'm strong on the surface
Not all the way through
I've never been perfect
But neither have you

So if you're asking me
I want you to know

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

Don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

Forgetting
All the hurt inside
You've learned to hide so well

Pretending
Someone else can come and save me from myself
I can't be who you are

When my time comes
Forget the wrong that I've done
Help me leave behind some
Reasons to be missed

Don't resent me
And when you're feeling empty
Keep me in your memory

Leave out all the rest
Leave out all the rest

Forgetting
All the hurt inside
You've learned to hide so well

Pretending
Someone else can come and save me from myself
I can't be who you are
I can't be who you are

This Week's Free Video on iTunes

Now I can have the classic song "We're Brothers Forever" with me wherever I go :-)

Coolness

Will this work? Ü

And speaking of mythbusters...

OMGROFLOL.  (^_^)

1. Pretty Girls Don't Pass Gas?  BUSTED!

2. Lighting The Emission : CONFIRMED!