Week 8 - Classical Physic

Newton's 3 laws and me

For me the most interesting aspect of Newton's 3 laws is when, how and why when it isn't applicable. Why does it work for most of mechanical calculations but doesn't when Einstein's General Relativity is applied.

I wonder if we'll also be able to discover other instances where additional exceptions to Einstein's General Relativity at non-Quantum level?

Our Energy Efficient Culture

I am just glad that there's an increasing global and local awareness of need to conserve energy. In a sense, source of energy can be for practical purposes, thought as infinite since sun provides plenty of energy.

However, it's the process of capturing, storing, distribution and ultimate usage of captured energy which seems to cause pollution, global warming and other negative effects.

Descartes

For me, Descartes is just one of the long string of Western philosophers who's advocated mind and body division along with a very mechanistic view of the Universe.

I think we can trace these thoughts all the way back to Plato and Aristotle and other famous Western thinkers. Descartes didn't just come up with these theories in absence, he like most other thinkers in history, built upon those who came before him.

So maybe we should not be so hard on him :-)

Week 9 - Can I synthesize East & West?

In a way, I believe I've been synthesizing Eastern & Western beliefs since the age of 12 when my family moved from South Korea to United States. Although I didn't fully start to integrate and synthesize until my college undergrad years when I spent a lot of time and energy consciously evaluating my thoughts and values in order to both understand and harmonize them.

I do believe that synthesizing Eastern & Western beliefs is just one aspect of how all of us need to synthesize different values in all parts of our lives - be it family values with personal values, societal versus individual and any other conflicting values.

Week 9 - My E-Prime Day

Well, I've been trying to live a day of speaking (and thinking) in English Prime.

It's been a very thoughtful and slower than usual day because I am forced to think through all my dialogues before I open my mouth to utter words.

As people who've known me for a while, I tend to operate at a pretty fast clip. However today I'm probably running at a 1/2 speed if not 1/4 at times. I'm surprised though that I'm not frustrated as I thought I might become.

The biggest effect is that I am forced to rethink my usual thought patterns and also become more aware of others and not just about what I think/want during conversations.

All in all, that's not a bad thing to be aware of in this life.