It's that day of the year!

Heya there people,

today, is my birthday. During which, usually my brain and heart goes to overdrive and think about so many things. Most of the time, and yes, I know that is not saying a lot, I tend to keep my thoughts to myself. They tend to induce people to remind me to not think too much.

But you know what, on my birthday, I utilize this privilege to say whatever it is I deem coherent enough to say. Because, hey, why not?! so here they are. Bear with me readers, I think some of these things can be quite an interesting topic for you too.

1. 1st of all, I want you all to know that I decide to always announce my birthday to everyone. Because, you know, there's no point in anguishing whether you forgot my birthday or not. Sometimes, you can be forgetful unintentionally, so I would announce my birthday to avoid that anguish. In addition, several years ago there was this trend of people pretending to forget a birthday... And I really do enjoy the awkwardness that ensues when I announce it the group of people with that planned because they went like "huh, what, that's not in the script. what should we do now.".

2.  I am going to plug a new group effort I participated in called Akar Ilmiah. That literally means "root science". Metaphorically, we wish it delivers the sense that we are a group of people enthusiastic in answering many questions in this world by digging down the rabbit hole of information and finding the scientific roots to the matter at hand.

The irony of people that believe in science is that we are fundamentally doubtful of how things work. Neil de Grasse Tyson, a very popular astro-physicist often voiced the tenet that science should answer the question that can work in repeated situations. In repetitions, science should produce the same result. I agree with that sentiment, but yet with the dynamics of the biological knowledge, often the information that can be provided is not the whole picture. It will take hundreds of more years to finally find the full picture of how our genome work to generate the variety of characteristics that exists in humans.

Following that, we realize that the current progress of science have gone so deep in some aspects that it is very difficult to be inclusive in scientific discussion. For example, different gene names have been generated for the same protein due to the difference on how it was discovered or perhaps the context that it was discussed in. There are many underlying resources now that have to be waded through, ranging from basic vocabulary to specific jargons, just to finish reading an article from a scientific journal. And that is JUST to read them! not necessarily understand them enough to build on top of it.

So in Akar Ilmiah, we wanted to spread more of the scientific attitude. A slow process of introducing science and making just the entrance to the rabbit hole less intimidating. However, we also realize that we could make our biggest impact by thinking globally, but acting locally. We decided to make Akar Ilmiah in Indonesian through a bunch of social media gateways. I would now like you to imagine my  somewhat generic looking face, hoping that you all could visit the pages and give it a looksee. If you can understand Indonesian and are interested in our endeavor, please do drop in a like a subscribe (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyzJAM8L7D1Sj0nfeNTMiRg). If you cannot understand Indonesian, I hope this opens up a kind of discussion on how we can help each other more in understanding the intricacies of the world through a positive attitude in science.

That's right people. I am that low that I plug my Youtube channel during my birthday. And you know what, it feels kinda good.

3. I think that humans have yet to evolve to our maximum potential because we are held back by thousands of years of biological evolution pathway. For ages, living creatures have survived by sticking with their own kind and gathering as much resources as possible. Then the earth encountered that living creatures can reproduce faster than the local resources can provide, so biologically creatures began migrating and develop methods to eliminate each other through violent fights and territorial battles.

Because back then, differences in shape or form were considered a threat, similar living creatures tend to instinctively collaborated and develop ways to overcame other possible organisms. Even worse, various organisms that grew in different locales had their own operational basis that are so entrenched in their existence that they couldn't help but to invade other sites and beat others down to submission. Because, in their mind, that was the only way to survive.

But humans were gifted...or cursed (?) with neurochemical system that elevate the thinking process and allow for the complicated system of thought, communication, and emotions. Every so often I theorize that these upgrade to our cognition is the next step required to elevate our existence from a population based progress to species-based forward movement. Development of the neurochemical reactions needed to feel, empathize, sympathize, and love could elevate us all for more than just survival. 

And therein lies the problem. I feel like we, as humans, have not been able to break through our basic biological evolution pathway of survival and move on to the advanced evolution pathway of communication, understanding and open-mindedness. This is when my friends start to view me as psychopaths when I tell them that I am often unsurprised by the horrors of our current world. Ranging from people ignoring specific knowledge for a certain micro-organism to the agonizing racism and the often side-stepped gender/sex related issues. It is still difficult for some humans to overcome thousands of years of biological pathway and find the revolutionary pathway of love and empathy.

4. When I feel sad, but like "what am i doing with my life" level sad and not the "aw shucks, i ran out of Nutella sad", i watch a the Kurzgesagt video called The Egg. Basically it's an interesting idea, written by Andy Weir, that we are all one consciousness split to all possible existence on earth across time and space in effort to gain some kind of divine knowledge. It gave me a little bit more reason to be slightly more positive when meeting other people. It's pretty cool, give it a watch.

5. I think every religion should be taught to everyone. And in school, there should be an open essay test or competition or what have you, with 2 questions. A. what is the most interesting thing in your religion now. and B. Pick another religion and explain 1 similar aspect of that religion with the one you have now. I feel like it should always be fine for anyone to choose whatever religion they believe in. But we should also nurture an environment where we are excited for the common ground in our belief systems instead of emphasizing on the differences. I realize this is a difficult topic for a lot of people, even for me, but I remain hopeful that we can celebrate each other's beliefs soon.

6. Which reminds me. Most of the time, I think in English. But in lifestyle related discussions, I tend to think in Indonesian. Then somehow, in grocery shopping, now I think in Japanese. It's kinda fun. I hope to learn more languages, but sometimes I feel like that doesn't seem realistic with my current brain capacity. By the time I master more than 5 languages, technology-based translate tools might be smooth enough that we have a Black Mirror episode where the translator technology got hacked and triggered a kind of world war during a diplomatic meeting or something like that.

7. Video Games need better space in a person's growth and development. It is now one of the big industries in the world and requires a wide variety of skills to make. The right games played with the proper respect can really go a long way. The problem is when we avoid learning about games and let it stay in the shadow. Because then, the greeeeeeeeeddddddddd that runs the gears of that industry began to discover ways to exploit the media.

well... THANK YOU so much for reading until here! I would like to put forward the overarching idea from this year's "rant". 

We, as humans tend to be uncomfortable to learn new things. Which is apparently an unfortunate normalized reaction based on our un-evolved social abilities. Here's hoping we all can take a step up towards a better world.

cliche huh? yeaaah whatever, it's my birthday. indulge my cliches.