21.12.10

Three Hodja Stories

Following stories about Nasreddin Hodja is taken from hundreds of them which are probably the collective creation of the 13th century Mid Anatolia. I have chosen three stories to give you the general characteristics of these people.  The atmosphere of these stories continues to determine the culture of the region which includes, with minor differences, all of modern Turkey, Balkans, most of Middle East and even some parts of central Asia.

FEELING OF FINDING

One day, Hodja lost his donkey again. He rushed to the marketplace and announced,
“whoever finds and bring my donkey to me will have it, including its saddle.” Everybody was surprised.
“If you are going to give your donkey to the person who finds it then why are you looking for it?” they asked, “But, ah!!” said Hodja, “You don't know how good it feels to find something you’ve lost”

FUNERAL IS COMING TO OUR HOUSE

Hodja sitting by the window and he saw a funeral procession coming
down the street. Relatives of the deceased were crying and wailing
“Oh! You are going to a dark place where there is no light or fire,
no Food or water. Oh!”
‘ Hodja turned to his wife and said,
“Quick!  Go and lock our door.  They must be bringing the deceased
to our house”


YOU TAKE THE MONEY

While Hodja was walking in the street somebody approached him and slapped him on the back of his neck. He was hurt badly so he wouldn't accept the man's apology. He took the man to the judge not knowing that the man was a close friend of him. The judge tried to convince Hodja to accept the man’s apology but Hodja was adamant. The judge finally said,
“O.K. I have decided. This man will pay one akçe to Hodja,” and signalled to the man,
“You go and bring the money.”
The man left. Hodja waited and waited for the man to return and finally ran out of patience. He approached the judge who was reading the paper in front of him, and slapped him on the neck. He then told the judge,
“I have some business to attend to, so I am leaving. You go ahead and take the akçe instead of me.”



For further reading : http://u.cs.biu.ac.il/~schiff/Net/front.html

10.11.10

Internet, the New Challenge

Internet has become the new environment for another type of life form. More and more people are “addicted” to social networks and other internet activities like multiplayer games. These are claiming increasingly higher percentage of lives of still increasing percentage of humans. This double increasing mechanism can be compared to the positive feedback of “reproduction” cycle.


Some genetic algorithms started to run on the internet to create sustaining patterns to reproduce. These patterns have their own lifecycle, consisting of birth, growth, reproduction and death. What is interesting for me is that with the communication technology and growing penetration of internet, these “living patterns” have what we can call their own way of “thinking” and “behavior”.


This is not the psychology individuals forming the pattern, what is determining the behavior of these patterns is the psychology of each of these. Although individuals in the group can be very calm, moderate and average in many ways, these patterns can be aggressive and invasive or individuals can be radical and emotional but the pattern can be less dominant than others (which is usually the case)


Human psychology and human needs are not enough to explain the phenomenon described here. The science of sociology can be used to some extent, but not in enough depth, since almost all the terms and methods of this science is based on assumptions of human interactions of another type, what we call “pre-internet”


Human being on this world has lived for at least a couple of hundred thousands of years, keeping most of his psychological and physiological form as it is. There is no significant human evolution. However there’s a highly versatile set of built in defense mechanisms of humans which enabled them to sustain their lives more or less the same way for so much time. These defense mechanisms of humans, both physical and psychological are very similar to our ancestors. The only addition to this initial pattern is the science which evolved to protect human life form from the other life forms and mostly from one group of humans from others.


On 21st century, new life form on the internet is the next big threat on the “human” life style and form. Of course the social sciences will evolve to grow extensions more and more into the world of internet, to understand and describe the self creation of patterns on the internet. This is one type of human defense against this invasive life form. We (as humans) notice and decide to understand the chain of events.


However this is exactly the dangerous part of this new threat. The internet addiction is not fighting back the scientific human approach in the classical way. On the contrary it is “rewarding” this approach. Different from the TV addiction phenomenon of 20th century, internet is giving false feeling of satisfaction and reward to the curious mind. People were “bored” of TV after some time depending on the educational level and sophistication. There was no or very limited interaction, therefore it didn’t contain enough satisfaction for human mind, but internet is attracting them to a jungle where they can continue having small rewards of social interaction which creates packets of psychological satisfaction.


The importance of this phenomenon comes from the fact that possible outcome of this new interaction forms a wide spectrum. On one end of this spectrum is total destruction of human life cycle turning our world into a “Brave New World” on the other end, it may create a utopia of infinitely connected heavenly society. Probably it will result in something similar to symbiosis of “TV networks” and “human masses” which continued nearly all 20th century, but a more resistant one which may require some human adaptation. Let’s hope for the human psychological defense mechanisms such as “boredom of false rewards” and need for “true intellectual and philosophical satisfaction” stand against this new wave of invasive life form fed with the “curiosity” and “reward seeking” nature of our minds.

8.11.10

Last Night

Last night I wept silently alone,
My tears didn't fall, instead they flew
towards children whose hopes are postponed to another life
and towards ones whose destiny ripped into their bodies in metal form
Last night I wept silently
one drop magnified you on my wall
permanently painting the moment we were eye to eye
that moment
I prefer to the moment of having you when losing you starts
Last night I wept
to wash my blade and walls of the castles inside
the blade should scare enemies but cuts my heart instead
and the castles shining in glamor but not strong enough to stand against bombards of your eyes
Last night