On time / Fellow bloggers in SDM@MIT / Fantasy machines / On SDM contents / George the…

On time

Since time immerorial, the best minds have been wondering what time is. I was to write my master thesis (in theoretical philosophy) about time, how it has been anylysed by the Greeks, Augustimus, etc, about time travel and causality etc, but I found it bit too difficult. Or at least time consuming (sic!). Anyway, I read some books about the topic and am still fascinated. One nice piece of trivia is the fact that Kurt Gödel proved that time travel is possible in Einstein's universe under certain circumstances (by the way, Gödel is one of the most fascinating characters in the history of mathematics). Here is my own contribution, which of course is not novel to anyone else but me: when I have interesting things to do (like now in MIT), time flies, but feels long afterwards. When I did not have interesting things to do (like in the fall of the year 2004 in Nokia), time stalled, but felt short afterwards.

Fellow bloggers in SDM@MIT

Some of my classmates are also writing their own blogs:

• Yoav
• Robbie. See also his other blog. and even third one. He is quite energetic guy, indeed.
• Sam, but he has been lazy lately

Fantasy machines

We had a pre-preview of our Giga-city-projects today. Other teams have used rather complex engineering approached (Chaos theory, fractal, genetic algoritms, 3D-modelling, etc) and reached more or less same results as our team reached by thorough comtemplation. Good - either we are all mistaken or then not. After the review, we had an interesting discussion on whether it is possible to design engineering systems, which would (semi)automatically design large cities from certain initial parameters. Some of us thought that striving for such machines is a sensible goal (and likely to attract funding). I was, of course, as always, more skeptical. I have a few arguments for my position. First of all, I think devising a machine which would spit out suitable political systems for any city, is not possible (and such a machine would not be accepted anyway, and there has been infamous examples of attempting something like this). So, if one wants to engineer the city-designing machine, one must leave political system outside the goal. But does this argument also hold for education, health care, and court system as well? I think it does. So, the machine could more or less design only the physical cities. IMHO, engineering systems cannot replace (system) architecting. They also make (system)arhictectine easier, as they have been doing for several thousands of years already.

On SDM contents

Now some trouble stirring just to fill my duty as a student. First, I think that the Giga-city work is not really teaching anything - the time we spend on it would be better spent e.g. on reading system architecting books and comtemplating in peace. It may be that there are some other purposes for the project, and I actually trust that there is - I just have not found them yet. Second, I think the above discussion of fantasy machines shows that there would/could be some use/need for some courses in history of technology, some fundamental philosophy or similar. The SDM boast having multi-disciplinary faculty of political scientist etc, but they are suspiciously absent from the curriculum. More stirring later, but I think the trouble is already moving a little!

George the liberator took the oath

A poll by BBC world service found out, that "a clear majority [of the humanity] has grave fears about the next four years" and also " that his new administration will make the world a more dangerous place." We will see. At least George himself has now declared to get rid of all tyrannies in the world during the next 4 years. See for example this analysis He also pledged to make the world a safer place. If he walks his talk, we will see USA attacking at least China, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Iran, several Central Asia countries, Baelorussia, maybe even Russia itself. And there are at least 15 countries in Africa with more or less terrible tyrannies in place. So, if one wants to invest, investing in defence/attack industries would be a wise move now. Or could George find non-military means for getting rid of all the tyrannies in 4 years? More seriosly, George's way of speaking ""History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction set by liberty and the author of liberty" gives me the creeps. Every time so far, when someone with power and might has used this language in the past, millions have died. It is one thing to have an ideological view of the world, but this kind utopian talk is extremely dangerous. I hope for the best, for some moderation in the Congress and House.

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11 hours of lectures today. Even though the last two hours we were watching movie "Dead Poets Society" as part of our leadership class, I am rather tired now. So, nothing much here today. Actually, I just want to tell what Tom Allen, program director from Sloan told me today. He said: "Students have to stir up trouble" and was a disappointed as we were not doing that at that moment. My intuition says that he will not have to wait for long before we stir up something. Having 62 talented engineer with not so small egos and weak opinions is a guaranteed way to invent some trouble, too.

I also had a nice discussion with Paul on the US milatary and foreign policy and on Kyoto-treaty. Excellent, it is always fun to talk about these issues and learn new ways to look at them, and hear new opinions and arguments. One point I still want to make: I am not totally against armies, I think we need some armies (preferably under UN command) to take care and pacify military crisis and genocides etc (of course, preventing them would be even better, but I am not naive anymore). Furthermore, I do think that most of the US and other soldies in Iraq and elsewhere are doing a great job. It is not their fault, that their commander in chief and his mobs are a bit misguided.

Leadership training is really important. It is also emotionally really hard, since the only real tool in leadership in one's one person: emotions, feelings, way of speaking, the content of speaking, body language, character, etc. Every time we discuss some not so good way of leading, I remember committing each of the bad examples. Really tiring, but of utmost importance. Thay have said many time that SDM is life changing experience. I start to believe them, but I also notice that changing is painful and requires lots of energy, humbleness (?), and also courage and even daring. I find studying here like being in emotional rollercoaster. And I can appreciate the acronym IHTFP.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January 2005".