Knox Cartoons

Behold! The artwork I created at high school to vent about my horrible time there:

WW3

I heard an interesting quote the other day from Einstein: "The futuristic weapons of WW3 are unknown, but WW4 will be fought with stones and spears."

I know very little about global politics or the military, but the small trickle of truth I get from the internet is getting me slightly worried about the gradual buildup of militaries world wide. Also, since I'm fascinated about predicting how technology will influence our world, I thought I'd make a quick pathetic guess about what WW3 would look like if it were to happen.

Let me first clarify that I don't think the war will involve super fast tanks rolling in followed by troops storming over trenches. Nor do I think the war will be fought in space like some high budget star trek movie. Instead, I think we can expect a much less heroic and deadly war of attrition.

I suspect the world just before the war will be even more heavily interconnected by trade, extremely efficient, and utterly hooked to the internet and energy generation. Because of this, I think we can expect an 'invisible war' fought on two fronts; virtually and chemically.

The virtual side of the war will be fought with strings of code. Nations will invest in malicious AI to try and desperately hack high tier computer systems, shut down factories remotely and steal data. The chemical side of the war will be less boring, but equally faceless; I suspect nations will invest in highly engineered viruses & diseases that can infect crops and civilians. Both sides, will simply try and force the other into submission by starving the opposing population and crippling their economy.

During the war, I think nations world wide will try to counter these modern attacks by becoming more self sustainable by simply downgrading the quality of life. To avoid the chance of being hacked, high tech systems will get downgraded from digital back to analog. Likewise, to avoid the chance of eating poisonous food, people will have to rely on packaged/canned food. The world will also have to adjust to a life without reliable power or internet. By the end of the war, millions will be dead and whole economies and ways of life will have been pushed back to the 20th century or further.

Side note: You may have noticed I didn't mention nuclear war. That's because I think nukes are just deterrents. I suspect even when a losing nation reaches it's breaking point, it still won't be dumb enough to launch a nuke.

Day 6 - camino de Santiago

Done!! Bloodied, bruised and broken we stumbled our way into the city. Sadly it was so foggy that we couldn't see the famous church from the hill above like you're meant to, but that didn't bother us too much.

We arrived just in time to attend the church mass. It was entirely in Spanish but I still enjoyed it. It was a huge church that was struggling to figure out how to modernize. There were donation ATMs in the corner and multiple confession booths scattered around which had time tables attached to them. At the very end they had a huge metal container that was strung up to a pulley. They put some frankensence (is that how you spell it?) Inside and got 10 priests to fling it around as fast as they could by pulling on the rope.

Just as Pablo and I ordered a taxi to drive us to the airport, my blister which had been growing throughout the trip finally popped. It was a like a celebratory firework consisting of pus and blood.

Well, that's it! 118km done in 5 days!

Day 5 - Opedraozo

Originally we had intentions of doing a 40km hike to allow us to arrive at the finish line on Thursday. However, after our  exhausting 30km hike yesterday we decided to change our plan and do two 20km hikes instead.

The weather was perfect today. Nice and sunny. We stopped off at one of the hundreds of bars along the way to enjoy some fresh home made chicken pie and a Coca-Cola - I need a break from beer.

Towards the end of our 20km hike we hobbled up to our motel like zombies and instantly gorged on the -brains- internet.

Pub crawl day 4

Today was much longer day than all the others. We needed to hike 30km to reach our hostel in Arzua. The hike was lovely, not because the views were amazing, but because the journey was rewarding

Towards the end our feet were bloodied, blistered and bruised. Only two days more to go.

Along the way we stopped at a place know for having the best octopus in all of Spain. The rumors might be true. It was amazing. It was drenched with salt and olive oil which made the dish super tasty.

As soon as we arrived we decided to enjoy several beers and some gin with a couple of Spanish friends we met along the way. They seemed super lovely, but I can't be sure because I couldn't understand a word they were saying.

Day 3 Puertomarin to Palas de Rei

This hike was beautiful! It was sunny all day. It was a 26 km slog and I decided to tie my soaked jeans to the outside of my bag to dry as I walked. Sadly my plan didn't work since this area is still very humid. God 2 - Matt 0.

Once again Pablo drank his way to the finish line and I waddled behind him quietly. It was a great hike, we talked philosophy just like we did back in Australia and got to see some beautiful views. Once we arrived at our destination we enjoyed a 12 Euro meal which comes with two main courses, a desert and a beer. Great value.

Day 2 - Sarria to Puertomarin

After a pleasant sleep in at one of the most basic hostels I've ever seen (and I've been to South East Asia), we decided to start our hiking adventure.

We stepped outside at 8am and a crack of thunder raced across the sky. God had unzipped his trousers and was letting us bathe in his holy urine. It was a solid 24km of fog and rain. An atheist doing the pilgrimage hike; I should have seen it coming. God 1 - Matt 0.

On the bright side we managed to stop off at a few places to try a few great beers and enjoy some tapas. I love the bar culture here; you order a beer and you get complementary simple snacks like cheese, bread, or chorizo. I eat a lot but Pablo, who is a short skinny Spaniard put me to shame. He eats and drinks far more than me. It's almost as if he's viewing this entire 5 day hike as a very very long pub crawl.

Another thing I've noticed is just how chaotic Spanish architecture and town planning is. The roads are curved and dirty and the houses and broken down and unkept. It's a pleasant change from the ultra clean and organized Dutch way of life.

Day 1 - Madrid

On 2nd December 2018 I flew down to Madrid to meet Pablo and Africa. Only two weeks prior I had made spontaneous plans to do the Camino de Santiago (pilgrimage hike). The full route is long, beginning in France, but we decided to just do the last 120km of the hike from Sarria to Santiago de Compostella.

Meeting up with Africa and Pablo again was great. They're both adults and working full time. Africa is working at Caf which is some type of development bank, and Pablo works at Maxam which and sells ammunition to other countries. I wanted to ask if he was ashamed of his career in indirectly arming African drug Lords, but silenced myself instead. Africa has a chocolate Labrador called Congo - I'll never understand her families obsession with naming mamals after places.

After a nice standing tapas meal at Pez tortillas in La Latina Pablo and I said goodbye to Africa and headed for a 6 hour trainride to Sarria. The trainride went smoothly except for a small hiccup where I was humiliated by an employee for not wearing shoes. You don't need to know Spanish to understand "wtf are you doing?! That's so wrong!!".

The human brain

I've talked quite a lot on this blog about artificial intelligence and how it'll change human culture. I think AI has the potential to replace us mentally (in terms of creativity, imagination, problem solving skills, everything). I think this because I believe human brains are nothing more than chemicals swirling around in our heads. However, I read an interesting line from the book I'm reading currently called "Homo Deos". The author largely agrees with me but also stresses that since we don't know the inner workings of the human brain that well, there could be discoveries that await us that will prove that humans are superior in some ways.

It first I was taken back by this idea. While, I think this is possible, I suspect the opposite is more likely. I suspect that as we discover more about the human brain, we will actually discover how simple and inefficient it really is. Just like when astronomers discovered that the earth was not the center of the Universe, once neuroscientists figure out how the brain works, I think humanity will have to square it's shoulders at another realization of how mediocre & not special we all are.

Modern Art

I made a Facebook post a few months ago which mocked a lot of modern art. This was motivated by a visit to a German art museum in which some of the art was so abstract and profound that it genuinely could be mistaken for ordinary furniture. Some of the paintings were just colored entirely red or blue. Some artworks were a pile of clothes lying on the floor. I distinctly remember questioning whether I should sit down on a bench or not, in case it was an artwork. To mock what I perceived as nonsense, I made a post which had two photos of modern art, and one photo of a dry wall, and openly challenged anyone to confidently say which 2/3 were photos actual artworks. As you can imagine, I got some negative feedback implying that artwork in intrinsically subjective, and hence trying to analyze the quality of artwork is pointless. This is my response to that feedback.

Firstly, I am incredibly critical of this whole notion of subjectivity. I think everything (yes, everything) can be objectively analyzed. Take for example the statement "John thinks blue is the best color" and "Mark thinks yellow is the best color". You'd be tempted to think that in actuality, there is no "best" color, and hence this can only fall into the realm of subjectivity. However, I think the only reason we think this is because the word "best" is very undefined. If we simply define "best" (for example; the color that has sold the most liters of paint worldwide) then you can find out what the best color is, and either or both John and Mark could be wrong. And even if John or Mark disagree about what the definition of "best" is, then the question can be broken up into two separate statements (one using Johns definition, and one using Marks definition), which can both be independently objectively analyzed.

Secondly, even in practice, what we consider subjective material still needs to be graded somehow. Architects need a mark to get their degree, TV shows air based on ratings, and artists still sell their paintings. At some point, someone has to objectively measure their work in some way. So to argue that subjective artworks shouldn't be measured is impractical.

Lastly, let me entertain the idea that subjectivity exists, and all artwork can't be objectively analyzed. If this is the case then what is considered artwork is boundless. I can call a photo of a puppy playing in snow an artwork,  I can call any quote from twitter an artwork, I can even call a sound recording of me forcing out a stubborn shit in a Thai bathroom an artwork. This means everything is art! And none of it is any better or worse than anything else. And so, if that is the case, then my criticism of modern art is also a work of art in itself which shouldn't be analyzed, so my criticizer was being a hypocrite. Also, more generally, the statement that artwork can't be objectively analyzed, objectively analyzes the artistic statement that artwork should be analyzed, which is circular!

Politics and AI

Let me start this by saying I am tremendously ignorant about politics and everything I say here is likely to change if I ever become more informed. That being said, I think I know the bare minimum to warrant an opinion about the future of politics.

It's hard to get an accurate view on what the state of politics actually looks like. Are political affairs as chaotic and emotional as we see them? Or is that what it is made to appear like due to polarizing media? For example, was there really any major threat between North Korea and the US? Or was this a very calculated game from the start being played by 2 very rational players? I'm going to assume that the answer lies somewhere in between; democracies can be somewhat chaotic, prone to populism and indecisive about long term issues.

If this is the case, then I think we should be a bit worried. I think the tango between traditional politics and technology is a dangerous one. Our advanced military capability and our economic dependence on oil and the internet has created a very unstable peak in prosperity. Several hundred years ago, if a king made a horrible decision, an empire would fall, thousands would die and some knowledge would be lost. Now, if a horrible decision is made by the United States, the whole world will crumble due to how interconnected we all are.

Now I know what you're saying. The president isn't a dictatorship; his views are checked and counter balanced by other members of his party. Surely it would take a miracle for everyone involved to make a horrible decision like this. I actually think this isn't true, I think that due to the stunning complexity of today's interconnected world, it has become remarkably difficult to predict the long term consequences of any action. I also think humans are very prone to biases and logical fallacies that can make it hard to think rationally about heated political issues.

Let me be clear about what I'm not saying. I'm not saying we can expect a 'butterfly event' (a mathematical description of chaos; where the flapping of a butterflies wings in Texas can cause a hurricane in Japan). I'm not saying that due to the super complexity of the world, adding one more immigrant into the US will be the cause of world peace or world destruction. I'm saying there are big political decisions that will be made in the future, and it'll be increasingly hard for human politicians to tell what the optimum decision should be.

This is where AI comes in. At the moment AI is in it's early stages, but it's only an amount of time until it gets developed enough to pattern seek far better than we can. I think a gradual, controlled phase-in of AI to help predict the long and short term consequences of political decisions could be a necessary next step for humanity. I think if it's done right, and we define our values in the right way, then we don't need to worry about a 1984 like scenario.

I suspect some time in the next 100 years, humanity will be pressing against an upper limit of human ingenuity and foresight. I think for the sake of progress, we will need to do away with revamped political structures, no matter how much we currently currently cherish them, and start building our benevolent babysitter.

Update on my life

Surprisingly, I don't write much introspective shit on my blog. Well all that is going to change!

I've recently passed the 2 months mark since starting my thesis. My project is all about Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) which is a device that is used mainly to scan the topography of a super small (like atom level, small) surface. The math behind it is fascinating and my thesis supervisors and really helpful and nice. However, I'm currently doing my literature review at the moment which involves reading plenty of papers and summarizing them. This is actually a much more challenging and boring job than I thought - it's a very inefficient way to learn and it's very hard to stay motivated.

None the less, my professor recently offered me a PhD position (4 years at $50,000 AUD) after my masters thesis is done. Because it's a highly sought after position, I need to make the decision within 2 months. Honestly, I think I'm likely to decline the offer, even though I love studying and hate the real world, simply because I want to trial the whole thesis thing for a bit longer before I commit myself to another 4 years of it. But while I've been tossing up the idea of doing a PhD, I've forced myself to confront my fears of the 9-5 and reevaluate my stance on the real world.

Anyone who knows me probably thinks I have an irrational fear of the 9-5. I can understand why; I talk endlessly about horrible work culture, the arbitrary rules, and the stupid clothing policy. However, I think it's time to open up and share with the world (or at least the 3 or 4 people who read this blog) why I desperately don't want to go back into the real world. But first! A quick summary.

Shortly after graduating from my bachelors, I rejected my fathers advice and got a job at UNSW as an 'educational developer'. The job was painfully boring and poorly managed. I would get most of my weeks work done by Monday, and spend the following week browsing Facebook. 2 years later, after learning almost nothing, and earning a small financial cushion of $50,000, I applied for a job in New Zealand as an acoustic Engineer. I got accepted and started working there. The environment was entirely different; instead of being forgotten in a corner of a cubical for weeks on end, I was micromanaged to an insane level. Every 5 minutes of my time had to be accounted for, including bathroom breaks. I fell behind almost as soon as I started; I wasn't good at report writing and struggled learning the software. This problem compounded overtime and was worsened by having a very intimidating boss. Less than 6 months later, I quit.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I want to get off my chest, my two main fears I have about the real world that has been instilled in me from these two experiences:
1) UNSW gave me an extremely strong fear of losing huge chunks of my life and motivation to work routine. I should have left that job in the first 6 months, but I persisted, not out of bravery, but because I had lost the motivation to pursue anything else. The lack of motivation didn't stop at the office, it dragged itself into aspects of my personal life as well. Every tutorial I made in those two years were never used - it really was a complete waste of time.
2) AECOM increased my insecurities about my own intelligence. I've had this insecurity since I was a kid, but it was magnified 10 fold while working for AECOM. I still honestly think my inability to succeed at AECOM can almost entirely be boiled down to me not being smart enough.

And so there we have it. The two main reasons I desperately don't want to enter the real world are because; 1) I'm afraid i'll waste several years of my life, and 2) I'm afraid that I simply won't be smart enough to do the job.

Technology and values

Time to grease up the cogs of this blog with philosophical lubricant!

I've been trying to work on a big creative artwork alongside my Literature Review for my Thesis. It's still in it's infant stages and I'm not being very productive with it, but if I manage to complete it, it should reflect a lot of my philosophical views and fears for the future of humanity. I'm trying to create an interactive short story which I will narrate and post publicly via YouTube. This short story, if I do it right, should be about the difficulties humanity will face if technology succeeds in empowering humanity to pursue it's own values. Let me explain:

I don't think there is any objective set of values that humanity should follow. I think ideals like emancipation, equality, lack of hunger, freedom of speech etc are invented values that ultimately stem from biological impulses we've evolved with. Coming up with systems and tools to accomplish these values are great at first, but by following our gut too far, we risk doing more harm than good. I think this is most easily seen when it comes to food in the 21st century. Our desire to minimize hunger has resulted in the mass production of highly addictive sugar which has resulted in obesity and health problems. Clearly empowering humanity with the technology to minimize hunger has backfired to some degree, not due to technological faults, but because our values weren't fully refined. 

Now imagine a 'happy ending' to a science fiction novel where each individual human has been empowered by technology to pursue whatever goals they like. I would argue that this will still be a dystopia because humanity will inevitably trap itself chasing a poorly refined goal. If you give a teenage boy unlimited time and resources to pursue his own goals, he could simply just spiral into an addiction of video games. 

Poem from 3 years ago

I was browsing through old folders on my computer, trying to collect old photos and documents with the intention of immortalizing them on my blog before my computer shits itself. I found a photo of my graduation and this 'poem' which i wrote over 3 years ago..

Gather 'round children, let me tell you a tale filled with wonder, excitement, disappointment, judgement and mercy.

Once upon a time a young boy found himself frolicking around his neighborhood, prancing from street to street without the slightest hint of suspicion. Don't let appearance fool you, though! The young boy had a grin on his face and jump in his step, but a worrying thought in his mind. For only hours earlier, the young boy had been at a nasty place called Knox Grammar! For it was at this place, filled with overgrown vines and perpetual thunder, that the boy was told a secret from his teacher. A secret, that once known, could not be unknown. Another student, a friend perhaps, had innocently asked this teacher

"my grades aren't good, will I ever get a job?".

The teacher crawled up to the boy and tickled his chin, then turned around and said on a whim 

"It's not about the grades you make, it's about the hands you shake."
Silence spread in the room instantly. The teacher paused, hesitated, then bellowed out
"It really doesn't matter whether your credentials vouch for you or not, all that matters is your reputation"

The children then started clapping and making a beat while the teacher continued:

"As long as you; look presentable, have a firm handshake and glint in your eye,

then the job shall be yours, I assure you, 

because that's how I got mine

For you see children, you don't need skills,

no, not at all,

but if you don't wear polished shoes, then prepare to fall!

Employers will skip past the credentials and go to the picture,

they'll see a while male and know not to hit 'ya

A suit is your best friend

It says more than a degree ever could

but remember, dear children

your real advantage is rich parenthood"

At this point the class burst into song with the teacher:
Class: "so you're saying we don't need credentials?"

Teacher: "That's right, just networking potential!"

Class: "but what if we're not fit for the job?"
Teacher: "That's what hiring minorities is for, you silly sod!"

The class soon ended and all the children confidently marched home. Our young hero, all the while, pondering the truth of the employment process. The young boy murmured under a whimper

"perhaps there is an employer somewhere out there

that will hire people regardless of what they wear

maybe, just maybe there's a company that

doesn't discriminate, and focus's on stat's"

And that is the tale of our young hero. Eight years later he works a nine till five, pondering to this day whether a moral employment system might still be alive. 

Europe Trip part 5: Germany

Goodbye Polish luxurious hotel rooms, fine food and grumpy service people - hello Germany!

We flew to Nuremberg and immediately made our way to our hostel. The experience was weirdly science fictiony; all services were completely automated. There was no receptionist, we just followed online instructions by putting in a code to get our key and went to our room. The whole hostel was supposedly completely booked out but we never saw anyone because there was no common room. Everything was so streamlined and efficient due to this automation that all we could hear was the faint footsteps of people walking in and out of the hostel. Overall it was a weird experience that I think will become more commonplace as technology infiltrates more of our lives in the future.

My first impressions of Nuremberg were pretty disappointing, it seemed grimy and beaten down with very few people. But once we actually bothered to walk towards the city center everything changed. Despite being bombed by the British in WW2, beautiful castles, walls, churches and fountains were found everywhere. It was a very lively place with plenty of live music, street stalls and Bavarian pubs open everywhere. We went into a traditional restaurant and ordered a some wheat beer and food. I thought I ordered burger since there was an item on the menu called "Nuremberger", but later found out to my disappointment that that was just the way Germans spelled Nuremberg.

We decided to stay in Nuremberg a second day because there was still a lot left to explore. Instead of going out to dinner, I made a cabanara in our room. (I didn't want to risk ending up disappointed with another nuremberger). We joined a free tour, entered a few museums and enjoyed a few crepes.

The next day we took the ICE train to Munich. I'd been to Munich a few times before so the mixture of beautiful and grimy didn't surprise me as much as Kaz (our hostel was located adjacent to a stripclub). We went on  a huge walk around the nearest park. It was beautiful. There was a strong river flowing through  the center of the park. We saw surfers who were riding artificial waves caused by the river flowing through a narrow canal. It was amazing and a bit embarrassing to watch these Germans perfect surfing in an almost completely landlocked country. To finish off the day we went on a desperate pilgrimage to a beer garden. We found one called "English Garden" and reluctantly went in our of desperation for food. However, when we got in we were served amazing German schinitzels and pretzels! It turns out that English Garden is the just the name of the park we were in - whoops.

The next day we met up with Sebastian (Basti) and John to begin our hike to the Watzmann! We drove down in Basti's scoopy do style mystery machine, took the ferry across and began our hike. It was wonderful! Wonderful weather, and fantastic views. We stopped off at Watzmann hut (a conveniently placed stopover located only 2 hours away from the famous summit) and enjoyed a very delicious beer and some food. I was briefly humiliated by ordering some fresh milk at the bar to go with my Tim Tams. The bar tender kept assuming I meant wine and a nearby camera crew decided to film my petty attempts to correct him. The next day we headed for the summit. It was phenomenal and incredibly scary. Only photos can describe it.

After the hike, we were incredibly sunburned, exhausted and sleep deprived. A perfect opportunity to catch a 7 hour nighrider train to Cologne! We arrived in Cologne, and after some mcdonlads and museums, and some temporary travel difficulties to get back to Delft (blabla car = worst way to travel ever), we were on our way back to Delft.

Europe Trip part 4: Poland

Ryan Air. Bloody Ryan Air. We printed off our boarding pass, but we hadn't checked in online and were forced to pay a 55 euro per person check in fee. Very annoying!

Once we arrived in Poland, Krakow, we took an unbelievably cheap bus (like, South East Asia public transport cheap) to our hotel. By the way, thanks Mum and Dad for offering to pay for the Hotel. Very much appreciated. We were overjoyed to see it start to rain as we got to our room. Finally, some colder weather.

With a spring in our step, we bounced our way around the old town of Krakow. The old town is exceptionally beautiful; with colourful markets, cobblestone walking ways and a moat of forest surrounding us. However, beyond the old town, things look very different. It looks as if it's been through a war! Drab grey buildings stained with what looks like bullet holes and rubbish everywhere. After surviving quite cheaply in Norway and Sweden we decided to treat ourselves by going to a Michelin 5 star restaurant. The whole meal, including an entree, two mains and drinks cost a total of 30 euros. That sounds like amazing value, in terms of taste / money spent, but it's actually pretty bad value in terms of mass / money spent. I can't complain though, the service and food was brilliant, and they let me walk in with a stinky shirt and pants.

The next day we decided to head to Auschwitz to do some sight seeing. Fittingly it started to rain just as we entered the main area. We waited in line for an hour to get tickets and were then greeted with a very rude, impatient and blunt cashier - a pretty standard greeting in Poland, I've discovered. It was so busy today that they had a very tight schedule for organized tours every few minutes. We even worse headphones so that the tour guides wouldn't talk over each other in different languages. Auschwitz was amazing. We got to see official documents signed by the Nazi's and photos taken of the camp during set up and liberation.

What did I learn?

1) The gate at the entrance said "Arbeit macht frei" meaning "work sets you free". I wonder if this type of slogan is what motivated George Orwell's work.

2) Is early as 1940 the Germans were gassing and burning people. However the technology improved during the war to gas as much as 6000 people a day towards the end of the wary in 1944.

3) Nazi's tried destroying evidence of the gas chambers by detonating them. Only the original one still stands.

4) The myth that the showers had 11 holes (all fingers plus 1) is a lie. Instead they had these 'stones' which they would pour through slots in the ceiling. The stones would then evaporate and make everyone's lungs melt.

5) Nazi's bought in Jews from multiple countries - even Italy which was an ally at the time. Goes to show that antisemitism was pretty strong back then all around Europe. Hitler didn't invent it, he used it. 

On the way back to Krakow we were in need of a bit of a pick-me-up so we went out to find some traditional food and music. We found both in an outdoor square. We tried "Zapiekanki" which is kinda like a pizza in a baguette and enjoyed some ice cream. The exchange rate made us modern day kings and queens with big pockets. We walked around aimlessly and spent money on random trinkets and snacks everywhere.

Europe Trip part 3: Sweden

Ok, so I'm really behind on my blog post. I'm actually in Munich, Germany at the time of writing this so I've got a lot of story telling to catch up on. Spoiler: I couldn't have died.

Ok, hybrid story telling using dot points. Here goes!

The nightrider dropped us off at Stockholm central station at 6:45am. We both didn't get much sleep so the 45 minute march to our hostel in extreme heat was quite a challenge.

We arrived at our hostel and only slept for a few hours before we decided to meet up with my Swedish friend Max. Side note: Max is a Swede Matt Gates and I had met travelling around Cambodia together.

Meeting up with Max was amazing. He's just as social as I remember (but not in the superficial American way) and very welcoming. He lived up to his word and took us out for meatballs in the city center!

I can tell Stockholm has way more character and excitement to it than Oslo. Oslo seemed empty 24/7. Stockholm, by contrast, has plenty of outdoor pubs, busy supermarkets and even VR gaming stations!

Later on that day we met up with Tim and Rebecca (other Swedes which we met in New Zealand together) and went to Aifur, an old fashioned Viking restaurant selling excellent quality Mead and meat. Definitely a tourist trap, but still lovely!

The next day Kaz and I took a ferry over to a nearby island (not technically an island) and toured a few museums. We walked briskly past the Abba Museum and into a viking museum. It was amazing! They covered the facts behind vikings and the average lifestyle of vikings in much more detail than the Oslo museum. It was really surprising to hear that Swedish vikings had gone as far down south as Istanbul. It was also interesting to hear that around the 10th century Christian culture had started to overwrite Norse culture - and anthropologists know this because Swedes stopped burning their dead, and started burying them. Overall amazing museum. It's called "Vikings Alive".

We topped off the day by visiting Max, Tim, Rebecca and another Swedish friend. We enjoyed some pizza, beer, played some soccer in a nearby park and then went in for a dip in the nearby river! Really nice finish to our trip in Sweden.

Europe Trip Part 2: Norway

Norway 10th July – The extreme hour

We arrived in Norway at midnight. We got off to a great start by accidently purchasing two train tickets from the airport to Oslo using a trainline that wouldn’t be operational until 5:30am the next day. Immediately after purchasing our non-refundable tickets, we realized our error, contemplated briefly whether it would be worth staying at the airport for an additional 5 hours, and then promptly purchased two more train tickets for an express trainline that operates every 20 minutes.

Before you read this and think “classic Matt”. I should tell you that we weren’t the only people who made this mistake. We saw a woman on the deserted platform who made the same mistake.

Once we arrived at Oslo train station we waddled our through the city center in search for our hotel (that’s not a typo, I actually mean hotel). Even though it was very early in the morning, we were still amazed to see how empty the city looked. It had a semi-modern feel featuring large roads, low rise buildings and the occasional small supermarket. We heard the faint yell of some drunk British footballer yelling something about the world cup in the distance, but that was it.

We got to our hotel at around 2ish, checked in and passed out. Fun fact, in Norway during summer it gets dark at 11:30pm and light again at 4:30am.

Norway 11th July – Viking Biking

We were pleasantly awoken by the smell of free breakfast hanging outside our door; two ham sandwiches and two bottles of orange cordial. Once awake, we bolted into town to join a free tour around the city. The tour was led by a Slovenian woman who told us mildly interesting stories about a 3-day fire that raged through Oslo in the something hundreds which destroyed half of the wooden city. This claimed this was why Oslo looked half traditional and half modern. There was also some brief mention about the origin of the Nobel Prize, and a few infamous people, but nothing too interesting.

On our way back we stopped by the fast food chain “Los Taco” to enjoy some traditional Norwegian burritos. I’m only half joking, a few of the Norwegian people I’ve spoken to in the Netherlands have told me Tacos are by far the most popular food in Norway.

This is where the day gets interesting! We decided to go to a bike rental place called “Viking biking” and try and zoom around the city. Against the advice of the information center, we decided to bike ride all the way to “Bygdoy” (spelled with a weird o). The bike ride was amazing! It was bright, sunny and right along the shore line. We stopped at a Viking ship museum to finally learn something about Norway’s violent and barbaric past. If memory serves me right, Vikings pillaged and colonized eastern England, Greenland and Canada between 700 AD and 1100 AD. Perhaps what was most surprising thing was the quality of the Viking ships; they had perfectly curved wooden planks, fine engravings and well fitted ores. It was hard reconciling how a group of monastery pillaging, woman raping murderers could at the same time have such an appreciation of delicate trinkets and fragile engravings. I also liked the museum because it got me thinking a bit about the philosophy of territory ownership. In every blockbuster we see a group of underdogs valiantly defending their land from a group of foreign invaders. But I think the Viking conquests show that over the course of hundreds of years, the line that separates who owns what land gets blurred. Vikings landed their ships in east England, settled down in that area and eventually assimilated into British culture.

After the museum we rode down to the ‘beach’ (which was really just a small collection of rocks near some water) and then proceeded to go to the Holocaust museum. Apparently the King and Queen of Norway fled the country early in the war fearing execution by the Nazi’s. Supposedly in this power vacuum, a fascist prime minister took charge and allowed the Nazi’s free access into the country to use their oil supplies and deport their Jews to concentration camps. The museum definitely gave the impression that the whole country was betrayed by the fascist prime minister, but after learning a bit more about Norway’s popular view on eugenics and culture of anti-Semitism in the leadup to the war, I really wonder how much of the history museum was white washed. I mean, Norway was still a democracy, so this fascist leader must have still been elected…

When we finished with our bike riding, we decided to head to the nearest pub to grab a few drinks and watch the football. We ended up squeezing ourselves next to two 50-60 year old men; one from Norway, one from Sweden. They were really nice people and were equally interested to learn about Australia as we were to learn about Norway. They were drinking very heavily and at one point they bought us a shot of schnapps. We clinked shot glasses, shouted “skull” and then gently sipped on the liquor – apparently “skull” here just means cheers. By the end of the very engaging England – Croatia football match, the Swedish guy was quite drunk and was beginning to ramble in broken English about how lazy and self entitled the younger generation of Western kids are, and how India and China are going to overtake Europe eventually. I mean, he’s not wrong, but it was still interesting to hear.

Norway 12th July – Hiking Bessegen ridge

We woke up early to catch a bus to Gjendensheim (in Jotenheimen national park) to begin our 3 day hiking adventure. Just before we started our 5 hour bus ride, we decided to double check the weather. To our jaw dropping surprise, today was the first day in 6 weeks that was forecasted to experience heavy rain and thunder. With our backpacks filled to the brim with food, water and clothing, we simply squared our shoulders for the task ahead.

The bus dropped us, and a few other equally shaken hikers at the base of the mountain at 1:40pm. It was already raining and thick dark clouds were starting to gather in the distance. Undeterred we started our hike uphill towards Bessegen ridge. The uphill hike was easy at first – only light showers and the occasional slippery rock. However, once we ascended to the top of the first mountain, a crack of thunder ripped through the sky letting lose an army of water to batter us from above. Like Spartans bravely resisting wave after wave of assaults, we slowly powered on. Occasionally we’d run into an American or Russian straggler who was hiking the other way. With hardened faces, but beaten bodies we yelled advice to each other over the roaring rain. “STEEP DESCENT! SLIPPERY! BE CAREFUL” one screamed at us we marched on. He wasn’t wrong. As we approached the edge of mountain we witnessed the descent that lay in front of us. Illuminated only by the periodic crack of lighting, we saw the maze of jagged slippery rocks we would need to navigate down to reach the closest camping site. At this point, Kaz was hysterical, unsure what to do, but sure we had to do something. I bravely comforted her with my deep voice of reason: there was no going back now, we had to go down. Reluctantly, but bravely, she agreed, and we began to step down the stairway to hell together. One at a time we hopped down each ledge of fragile rock silently wondering with each step whether it would be our last. Then, without warning, mother nature released a sudden powerful gust of wind directly at us. Kaz tried to hold on, but her weak arms were unable to overcome the sheer power of the icy wind. She slipped and fell. Without a moment’s hesitation I ripped off my shirt revealing my 6 pack and modestly chiselled shoulders, constructed a pully like mechanism with the cloth over one of the pultruding rocks, and swung over to her, grabbing her hand, preventing her from an inevitable gruesome death. As I pulled her up to safety by my side we noticed the clouds begin to clear and the camping ground, only a few hundred meters in front of us, reveal itself as the curtain of rain began to separate. “What a day” I sighed in relief. Kaz cracked open a faint smile and then proceeded to weep uncontrollably. I consoled her as we stepped into the safety of the camping ground, knowing full well that this was just the beginning…

Ok some of that may have been exaggeration. Here are the facts, this is a 3 day 2 night hike. For the first day we intended to start at Gjendensheim, hike along Bessegen ridge and camp at Memrubu. For the second day we intended to hike to Gjendebu and take a ferry back to Gjendensheim. This seemed doable on the map since the first part was only a ‘family friendly’ 14km walk. However, there was some bad weather and some scary steep declines which slowed one of us (not going to say who) down a lot. Instead we ended up camping in the middle of nowhere about 5 km from the village.

Norway 13th July – Memrubu

I awoke at around 4:30am just as it started to get bright. In the hazy distance I witnessed 3 mountain lions only 400m from us walking over Bessegen ridge and behind a mountain! In a frantic fury I woke Kaz and pulled all the leftover food from last night (canned sausages, corn and tortilla wraps) inside the tent. When fears had subsided and we were ready to move on, we packed up the tent and continued our hike to Memrubu. Our pace was a lot faster because the weather was bright and sunny. Along the way we passed 3 wild sheep, leading us to the obvious conclusion that these were a special breed of Norwegian killing sheep  that must have eaten the mountain lions I had saw earlier.

When we eventually arrived at Memrubu village we decided to set up our tent and relax with a much needed cider. The village is located right by the lake. The view was tremendous. We met 3 locals there and struck up a conversation. They were in their 50’s and were farmers growing potatoes. We asked them for a second opinion about traditional Norwegian food and were glad to hear they had some suggestions; reindeer beef cake was the only one I can remember. So far every person I have met from Norway is a proud patriot – they were tremendously trusting in their government and talked fondly of their people and their countryside. It was nice. However, characteristic of true patriots, they seemed quite clueless about other parts of the world; one of them asked why Australians can speak English so well.

Later on in the day, I decided to challenge myself by climbing the nearest mountain from the village. God I missed non flat surfaces.

Norway 14th July – Back to Oslo

We decided once again to stay put in Memrubu for the remainder of our time in Jotenheimen national park. Even though the “hike” had turned more into a camping experience, it was a welcome one. Memrubu is beautiful, and we used the time we had to go swimming in the icy lake. But all good things come to an end. Our food supply of corned beef, tuna and cheese was all gone and we needed to catch our ferry then bus back to Oslo.

We arrived back in Oslo at around 4:30pm, dropped off our bags at our new hotelish thing and then went on the search for traditional Norwegian food. We found a place that made raindeer meat cakes and cod. Once Rudolph and Nemo were eaten we headed back to our accommodation for some much needed sleep.

Norway 15th July – Ski slope

This was our last day in Norway, and so we decided to make the most of it by renting a few hybrid bikes from Viking Biking and travel to Frognerseteren and back. Frogerseteren is the last stop on the trainline and is located at the top of a nearby forest. It’s most famous for featuring the worlds largest and almost largest ski jumps. We visited both. As we bike rode around, we saw a bunch of young Norwegians on ‘ski rollerblades’. No wonder these guys are so good at skiing – they practice year round!

We then bike rode back to Olso via well travelled dirt path. I loved it! Kaz didn’t. I think it had something to do with her falling over and scraping her shoulder and hands.

Finally when we got back we had some cheap (well, as cheap as Norwegian food can get) Indian food and were ready to catch our night bus to Stockholm!

Europe trip part 1: The Netherlands

7^th July: The arrival

For some crazy reason, Kaz decided to fly a solid 30 hours via Shanghai to Amsterdam. Coincidently I was in town and decided to train up from Delft to meet her. The meetup was great. It was really nice seeing her directly through my fleshy eyeballs rather than through a 240px camera resolution. After an hour long commute back to Delft without experiencing any lag or WiFi issues while chatting, we decided to quickly drop her bags off at my place and head out for a quick dinner. Since my entire diet while studying at Deft consists almost whole heartedly of cereal, I was just as surprised as her to see all the food available in the city center. We settled on some half German, half Dutch, half Italian (Gerutchan) restaurant. I was equally as tired as Kaz after dinner because I had stayed up till 4:30am the previous night making sure all my assignments were completed so we were both pretty keen to call it a night.

8^th July: The red light mission

We woke up and decided to take the world by storm by bike riding to Rotterdam. We had originally decided to go to Den Haag, but I reckoned the bike ride to Rotterdam was much better. After purchasing a mobike subscription we were on our way! The ride was tough, the view was stunning and the sun was fierce. We parked out bikes at Rotterdam near a local lake and enjoyed a nice brie (the good brie, not the bad shit you get a your local super market) and baguette and some salad.  Once our stomachs were pumped with cheese we decided to waddle around Rotterdam a bit and see the sights. Shortly afterwards we hopped on the nearest train to head to Amsterdam to meet an old childhood friend of Kaz. Her name was Gwinie (Guinnie? Quinnie?) and she was very friendly. We met at Vondelpark, drank a few ciders and got to see a live band performance in the blistering sun. After exchanging pleasantries, banter and embarrassing childhood stories we decided to split ways and head to the red light district for some much needed red lights. Like children finding the porno section of a candy store, we wandered around slack jawed at every 99% naked woman pressing herself against the window. The red light district lived up to its reputation because once we got back we realized both of us were insanely sunburned.

9^th July: The Errands

Today was an easy day. The accumulated effect of sunburn, lack of sleep and just plain bad planning made today a Delft day. We spent a large part of the day getting travel plans organized for Norway and cooking food. We made a nice lasagne and some pesto chicken wraps and enjoyed a relaxing time at the lake watching the ducks fight fiercely over  arbitrarily small patches of land.

10^th July The Norway flight

At some point over the last few days Kaz had casually mentioned that she might be interested in learning to play a computer game. Needless to say, I made a big deal out of this and insisted she install Age of Empires II conquerors expansion so that Adi, her and I could all play a game together. The game was amazing! There’s a lot to say about the strategies I used to beat Adi while playing as the Vikings, so I’ll have to write it in a separate blog. After the AoE game we headed to Den Haag to walk around town. We enjoyed a good cider at an Irish pub and trip down memory lane by visiting a Games Workshop. After that we took the train to the airport to head to the Norway!

Future of Truth

So exams are coming up which means this is a great time to vent about the philosophy of Truth.

What motivates the beliefs of flat earthers? It's tempting to dismiss the problem by claiming all the group members are simply crazy, stupid or motivated by an ideology. But I think all these explanations miss the core cause: a growing distrust in authority.

I've vented plenty of times before about how the average person seeks truth through bad sources, and how misinformation spreading with 21st century efficiency is a culture defining phenomenon. But this post is going to be a bit different. Here I want to talk about what will happen when we cross a certain technological threshold.

Before I get started, let me zoom back out. Ignoring epistemology, how can individuals 'know' what's true? Well, for a statement like 'the Universe is 13 billion years old', the average person typically depends on truth being transported from the source (scientists with data) through multiple channels (media). This is an easy way to pursue truth, but it's not a reliable one since the message can be diluted or tainted along the way.

But have no fear! Even the biggest skeptic can still get access to the pool of delicious truth by either doing the experiment him/herself, or by directly reading the journals themselves. While this is a better method to pursuing truth, it's insanely impractical; there's no way I'll have the time or skill to look at the scientific journal or article for every single scientific discovery that I've been taught.

This leaves the practical person in a bit of a pickle. However, there is still hope. Even though it's necessary for the average person to rely on potentially flawed sources for truth, the risk of being misinformed is minimized by creating a hierarchy from all of these sources. So for example, if I wanted to know the GDP of Spain; I would be more likely to find the correct answer from the economist rather than some arbitrary YouTube channel. But how can we determine the reliability of these sources? Answer: you look at 1) the quality of the news source, 2) the consistency between other sources and 3) it's reputation for being right.

So far everything I've mentioned is more or less commonsense. But here's where it gets interesting! What happens when we cross the technological threshold where almost anyone can artificially create false content at an extremely large scale? Imagine if 10 year old kid can become capable of using Photoshop9000 which can create flawless video and audio footage of the president of the United States beating the shit out of a homeless man? If this happens, then our 3 point checklist for determining a reliable news source is rendered useless. If these high quality fake videos can be slightly modified and distributed en mass, then they will appear as if they are consistent with multiple other sources. Lastly, if there is a enough high quality, seemingly consistent, fake content pumping through the veins of the internet, then it will be practically impossible for any individual to churn through the statistics and determine accurately the reputation of a news source. 

I call this technological threshold the truth barrier because if this happens scientific truth will become completely filtered on its way to the general public. And if that happens; 1) science will be be perceived as no different from any other faith based religion, and 2) all rational people seeking to pursue truth outside of their own experience will have bury their heads in the sand screaming "I don't know" 

machines and humanity

Very brief philosophical post.

Thanks to the first and second industrial revolution, population has exploded while the average amount of manual labor done by each human has dwindled. We now have giant tractors and automated assembly lines which can vastly outperform a thousand humans in much less time.  In the blink of an eye, technology has made the need for a fit and strong body almost completely obsolete.

I suspect there will be a 3rd industrial revolution. There's nothing about our brains that is intrinsically capable of doing what a machine cant. I know I'll sound like a batshit crazy sci fi nutter, but it's only a matter of time until AI will outperform another part of humanity: intelligence. Yep, soon some Google assistant equivalent will be able to consult businesses, be capable of generating scientific hypotheses, and even run governments.

Just like the first and second industrial revolutions, I don't think this is a necessarily a bad thing. Having machines as our benevolent babysitters could be an amazing and perhaps necessary empowerment of humanity. Being out-competed by technology in the physical domain hasn't devalued human accomplishment; Usain Bolt still draws in a huge crowed even though a porsche could easily outrun him. I suspect the same will be for intelligence, and perhaps even creativity. Maybe in the future, super geniuses practicing mathematics might only have aesthetic value in the same way bodybuilders only have aesthetic value now.

With the first and second industrial revolution came a huge diversification of labor. We started inventing and perfecting skills we never thought existed before hand. Maybe this next move will liberate humans to explore the mysteries of consciousness and morality (purely as a subjective experience) in just as many ways.

Morality and the law

I recently wrote a blogpost which talked about the future of education. In it, I argued online learning can greatly facilitate personalized learning.

You might think that education is the boundary at which my desire for personilization ends. You'd be wrong. Very wrong. I think personalization can be extended all the way to moral theory. Yep, it's gonna be another philosophy post.

Before I get started, let's do some groundwork.

1) I don't think there is any objective morality at all. I think our concepts of justice and equality are manifestations of instincts we've been programmed with by evolution. I don't think there is anything objectively wrong with murder, slavery or adultery.

2) I think environment and biology slowly and subtlety cause cultural changes. In some cases, these cultural ideas can resonate with our biological instincts and cause a culture spiral in a certain direction. For example, violence in men is much more common than it is in women, and this is originally due to biological reasons. However, if a man is indoctrinated by the army at the age of 5, then the cultural values of the army (kill, punish etc) will resonate with the biological instincts of the man, and the end result will be a killing machine. Likewise, the subjugation of women by men originally has biological roots, and can explain slight behavioral differences between men and women. However, if these men and women are exposed to a misogynistic religion, then these cultural values can resonate with biology and create an end culture where women remain completely house locked or covered up.

3) We don't have free will, and a lot of the moral and philosophical ideas we think we have are actually largely determined by our environment, biology and culture. If you were born in central America in the 1700's you'd probably think sacrifices were moral, if you were born in America in the 1800's you'd probably think slavery is moral, and if you were born in New Zealand in 1998 you'd probably think eating meat is the moral equivalent of murder.

Anyway, what does this have to do with personalization?

Well, if we take the utilitarianism stance and define 'moral' as whatever maximizes well-being, and not arbitrary golden rules like equality and freedom, then, in general, it's moral to treat different people differently. This means if you did the calculus and could prove that giving James 2 puddings for desert and giving Mark 1 pudding for desert maximized well-being, then this unequal treatment is moral.

Ideally, if we had the power to do so, we could custom make laws that relate to the individual. It would be a good thing (by definition) if we could hypothetically analyze the brain states of every human in the world, and create potentially different rules for each person such that wellbeing is maximized.

So far, this is very theoretical. Clearly we're nowhere near doing something like this, and I bet the inner George Orwell in us is screaming. But consider how domesticated dogs are currently treated. Labradors are essentially slaves to their middle class masters; they are told what to eat, when to eat and where to live. The temptation to apply the golden rule of freedom doesn't apply to Labradors because we know their wellbeing is maximized by being domesticated house pillows. I'd argue humans are just a much more complicated, harder to control breed of labrador.

Even though the end goal would be to analyze the brain state of each human flawlessly, we don't need to start there. We can iterate our way there by creating rules for smaller and smaller groups of humans that have similar traits. This is actually a non controversial idea: 1) The drinking rules for teenagers driving is different to the drinking rules for adults driving, 2) People who earn over $80,000/year pay more tax than people who earn less than $20,000. Where it does get understandably controversial is if we apply these rules to races. But if we can hypothetically show that one race of people is biologically determined to become addicted to alcohol and heroin, then making a law forbidding that race to have  access to that substance would be moral.

Admittedly, the diversity among humans is remarkably small - we all have the same basic instincts and physical limitations. What I've mentioned above about treating some races differently for being different relies on the assumption that there will be no other uncalculated consequences of such a law. I think history has taught us that identifying difference between people brings out our inner xenophobia which can have disastrous consequences. Since personalization is practically impossible to enforce at this point in time, then equality is definitely the best option for now.

Future of education

This is going to be a pretty jam packed post so brace yourself.

You probably know that I'm a big fan of online education. In my mind, online educational giants like the Khan Academy and Coursera are so valuable, not because they just produce a lot of free educational content, but because they are the first real innovators in personalized education. What do I mean by that? Well let's consider the traditional classroom. Students are grouped by age (not by ability) into different classes where they are forced to learn the basics; Math, English, History etc. It's only by the end of high school that students have limited control over the classes they can enroll in. Don't get me wrong, I think young students should be exposed to all the core subjects to teach them the fundamentals of physics, math and literacy, but what I don't like is how students are grouped by age and are forced to move at the pace the teacher sets. Faster kids get bored, slower kids get disinterested, and the whole class dynamic is only glued together by social pressure and authority. If implemented correctly, online education can fix all these problems and more. Imagine a school where:
1) The syllabus is an organized on an online Learning Management System (LMS) that is flexible enough to allow students to customize the subjects they're more interested in (eg focus more on African empires in history class), but rigid enough such that students still need to learn the basics.
2) The classroom is flipped. Most of the lecturing content is done entirely online, and physical classrooms are organized by subject, not by age. The purpose of the classroom is to apply the theory through example problems / group projects. The teacher is no longer an authority figure, but a mentor and a motivator. Peer to peer tutoring is encouraged.

Now I know what you're thinking:

1) How can we trust that kids will be self motivated /disciplined enough to watch lectures online and tailor their own learning experience.
This is a big one. At younger ages, kids definitely need more guidance and face to face teaching. Clearly this whole system is for kids that have reached a certain maturity level. For starters, I think each student should have their own mentor and be scheduled to meet regularly. Ideally the mentor will be able to identify and fix red flags through online analytics. Small things like gamifying content can help motivate (especially male) students. But most importantly, the LMS needs to be well implemented, comprehensive and engaging. My high school, Knox, got this step horribly wrong. They were experimenting with the 'laptop program' but had no LMS, homemade educational content, censoring, or even staff that knew enough about computers. Instead laptops were viewed as a supplement to the traditional classroom which inevitably resulted in students playing computer games and watching porn in class.

2) Won't tailored content be a bureaucratic nightmare? What about grading?
It would be a bureaucratic nightmare if we stuck to the old school way of grading. Recording attendance, homework, assignments and projects can be done automatically. Rather than grade the student based almost exclusively on a final exam, a progress report of the student can be generated automatically using multiple inputs including; video watch time, attendance, example problem scores, RATE of learning, peer to peer tutoring etc. Imagine all the useful data that has historically been ignored by only recording a final letter grade! Khan Academy already has a working version of this, but in my mind there is a long way to go.

3) Won't kids get embarrassed studying with younger students?
I don't know a way out of this one. It constantly amazes me how much our ape like instincts leak out in weird ways. It influences how we dress, sleep, work, socially interact, everything. No matter, how much a school is modernized, it will never be able to undo the deeply engraved biological impulses students have been evolutionary programmed with. It's true that if a really talented younger kid wants to 'specialize' in the same subject an older weaker student, then they will be in the same class. And maybe this will be a huge cause of embarrassment that will cause the older kid to disengage. I don't know. However, I suspect that once the expectation is clearly changed from an age based system to a results based system, where there are multiple ways to get a high 'score', perhaps this form of embarrassment won't be so prominent. And even if it is, is it any better than the existing system of having a severely multi talented class which secretly mocks and judges other students?

In summary, online learning is already a huge part of education. Students use YouTube and Wikipedia all the time. At the moment, this content is not utilized fully when treated as an additional supplement of teaching material to the traditional educational system. However, if implemented correctly, I think it can revolutionize the educational system. The old school way of teaching perfectly paralleled the industrial revolution style of working - a 9-5 with fixed outcomes. Now that jobs are becoming more flexible and creative, I think it pays to have an educational system which is based in part on self motivation, flexibility and personalized learning.

new favorite book

Shakespeare is overrated. This book is genuinely brilliant. The Demon Haunted world by Carl Sagan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0yII8OT5fc

How easy is it to do a pushup?

What's this? Matt isn't writing Philosophical crap? :O

Difference between Australia and Netherlands

I was recently approached by a guy from the Taylor board at Tu Delft. He wanted me to write a quick something about the differences between Australia and Netherlands. Here it is:

Hey! I’m an Australian Mechanical Engineer from Sydney that’s been studying in the Netherlands for about 6 months now. In my time here I’ve noticed plenty of small differences that really accumulate to create a whole new experience. But before I tell you all about it, let me clear up a few really common misconceptions; yes, spiders are as big as you think they are, and no, it’s still a perfectly safe country travel around.

Alright! The first big difference is Alcohol. When I first arrived in the Netherlands, I was blown away to find out how cheap alcohol was here and how easy it was to get it. A cheap beer only costs 40 cents at the supermarket, and a really good beer at a pub will only cost about 5 euros. I was also really pleased to see a very relaxed drinking culture; there aren’t many clubs in Delft, and most people I know here are usually content having just one beer or two in a sitting. In Australia, things are quite different. Alcohol is heavily taxed which means that it’s really expensive. Expect to pay at least 30 euros per case of beer and about 25 euros for a bottle of vodka. Australians also drink differently. It’s a cultural norm to buy “rounds”, this is where one person in a group will buy everyone a beer, and then afterwards the next person will do the same. If you’re at a University pub with four other Australians, expect to drink a multiple of 5 beers in a sitting! Drinking is usually a much more high energy activity as well - expect the occasional drinking game challenge! Oh, and whatever you do, don’t let the Aussies make you try “goon”...


The next big difference are outdoor activities. The Netherlands is an impressively flat country making it perfect for bike riding, rowing and running. Most Australians live along the coast which is usually not that flat, so sadly cycling is not as big as it is in the Netherlands. You won’t find any bike parking lots! However, there are quite a few popular beach based activities like surfing, beach volleyball and swimming. My home University (UNSW) was located 30 minutes walking distance away from a beautiful beach where it’s not uncommon to see students finish their daily studies and then go for a dip in the ocean. Don’t worry, it’s completely safe, no sharks will get ya. Hiking is also a really great thing to do in Australia as well. If you’re in Sydney, visit the “blue mountains” - if you find yourself based in Sydney, it’s definitely worth a visit. Watch out for drop bears though!

Another thing I’ve noticed about the Netherlands is the way people socialize. Every Dutch person I’ve spoken to in the Netherlands so far is unfalteringly logical and direct. It’s as if all Dutch people have a little bit of Engineer in them. Australia really prides itself on it’s laid back culture, and so you’ll find even in big cities a very friendly and relaxed vibe coming from most Aussies. As long as you get yourself involved in different activities, it should be really easy to make Australian friends.

I’ve also noticed that the architecture in Delft is very beautiful and old fashioned. There are cobblestone paths, beautiful churches and very pretty canals. Because Australia is a much newer country, expect to see a much more modern look. Also, because Australia is a pretty large cultural boiling pot, expect to find a wonderfully diverse range of Asian food stalls. Oh, and don’t expect to see houses built as narrowly as Dutch houses! Australia is a bit more spread out in that regard.

One of the defining features about Australia is its geographical isolation. In Europe, you can walk 10 meters to the left and end up in another country with an entirely different culture. In Australia, you’re stuck in a giant, mostly homogenous country. This shouldn’t discourage you from traveling around Australia though! Traveling up (or down) the east coast and passing by places like Byron Bay, surfers paradise, and the Whitsundays is always a great idea. Also, if you can, try and visit South East Asia on your way to and from Australia. Bali is the default tourist hotspot for Australians.

Hopefully this gives you a bit of a cultural summary of the differences between Australia and the Netherlands. It’s definitely more than pronouncing the letter “J”. I know this sounds cliche, but the best way to find it is to just go there and experience it for yourself!

more of the same crap

Pretty text heavy, I know.

Fun fact, the bible quote is actually relevant.

Truth using the internet

Finding facts on controversial subjects over the internet is hard work, especially since most younger people rely on social media, YouTube, and comedy shows to get their facts. The problem with this is that all of these platforms are pumped with emotion and are genuinely designed to feed you content you already like. This makes getting properly informed about things like politics, feminism and religion almost impossible. Websites like wolframalpha are an ideal counter to this, because they just present emotionless facts - however, the website isn't advanced enough to handle complicated queries. In the meantime we'll just have to put up with people getting less informed and more opinionated about already controversial problems.

Equality 1/2

Wahoo! Exams are finished! Now I have the time to focus on a few things of interest; teaching myself how to code an app and making more blog posts. Anything but the gym..

When I was in highschool I noticed that my Physics syllabus was quite bizarre. Firstly, there were many "discuss", "argue" and "elaborate" questions that required students to write small essays about the history of physics (eg Westinghouse vs Edison). Secondly, we studied a topic called "Quanta to Quarks" which is an infamously difficult (both conceptually and mathematically) subject to learn. There was some mathematics of course, but because such an ambitious subject needed to be dumbed down to suit highschoolers, the formulas used (like de Broglie wavelength) were arbitrary and simple to apply.  I remember being tremendously uninterested in Physics (despite being extremely interested in Mathematics) because I had the impression Physics was a type of humanitarian subject which was more about writing essays & sounding persuasive than about problem solving. It was this impression which funneled me towards studying Engineering instead of Physics at University - I decision I still regret to this day. It's only after my first year or University that I realized how different Physics really was from what I was taught. Physics has nothing to do with memorization of formulas and writing essays - instead it's a brilliant application of mathematics and logic which compliments analytical thinking skills. Why had the syllabus gone so wrong in accurately capturing what Physics really was? I later found out. And the answer is... (drum roll) ... women! Let me explain.

Historically, women have been intellectually oppressed. And I don't just mean direct oppression in the form of not being allowed to matriculate, I mean in the much more subtle form of living in an anti intellectual culture. It's an uncontroversial fact that all people consciously or unconsciously aim to live up to stereotypes. And it's also an uncontroversial fact that women in every culture have been culturally pressured to peruse "people oriented" professions / lifestyles like childcare and cooking. How is this related to physics? Glad you asked! In the last 20 years especially there's been a pretty large push-back against gender inequality. I have it on good authority (seriously, I do. I talked to teachers n' shit) that the Physics syllabus was changed from a once math dominated subject to a wordy subject primarily for the sake of interesting women into Physics and Engineering classes at Uni. To compliment this movement, there have also been huge rise in female only scholarships and 'women in engineering' support groups. Recently I found myself tutoring Physics in New Zealand, I was amazed to find out that this widely spread British syllabus has not changed.

But is this move towards 50/50 representation in Engineering a good one? I've been tossing and turning on this subject for a while now. On one hand, I really like the idea of empowering women to persue traditionally male dominated fields of work. On the other hand it seems discriminatory against men. So what's the answer? Stay tuned for my answer on my next blog post!