Monday, June 21, 2010

What Peace is About

Went to a peace carnival at SGI, Tampines yesterday afternoon. I find that the whole carnival is very informative and meaningful.

Just one of the talk which I have "opinions" about. And I think most people have this particular "bad habit" of not putting themselves in others' shoes.

1. Theres one section where the speakers talks about how manufacturers "trick" consumers to change the whole computer system by changing just the "specification" of CPU.

2. How manufacturers again try to trick consumers to change their old CRT monitors by portraying that LCD/LED monitors are more "elegant" and "up-to-date".

3. Theres another section where the speakers talks about why must youth support the total abolishment of nuclear weapons in the world.


The things that I think the speakers fail to do is to put themselves in others' shoes and try to understand who are the people working/researching behind all this. And Why they did that. They tend to over simplify things.

1. Computer system

Who? The people researching about computer architectures are computer engineers. They have spent a quarter century of their life studying, and another 5-10 years to work and pick-up experiences in computer industry, before they really start to take-charge in computer system designing.

Why? Computer system issue. Each CPU are only compatible with specific motherboards. So if you were to change to a CPU with different architecture, you must change your motherboard as well (and hence "almost" the whole computer system need to be replaced). Each set of CPU-motherboard has are specifically designed for different performance. The closest analogy to this is your brain-and-body, and the different behavior of each individuals.

This is the explanation in layman term. If you are curious to find out more, there are a lot of "computer architecture" books out there, which I strongly suggest you to read if you are not convinced ;)

2. LCD/LED monitors

Who? Same as above - professionals.

Why? To tackle environmental and heath issue. LCD monitors uses significantly less energy than CRT monitors. And further more, LCD monitors doesn't not emit X-ray radiation as CRT monitors. So, the entire reason behind all this is just for the benefit of consumers. If you think you are tricked, why not change back to the old-dangerous monitor.

3. Nuclear weapon

As mentioned by the speakers, Daisaku Ikeda has been submitting proposal to UN every year to urge for nuclear (weapon) abolishment. The speakers mentioned only about the cons of nuclear weapon and urge everyone to support nuclear abolishment too (without consider the need of nuclear weapons). Try considering the following scenarios:

- A giant meteoroid (the size of moon for example) is going to hit earth. What are we going to use to defend earth?
Just normal rockets? You can't even barely create a scratch on the surface of the meteoroid. Don't mention about changing the course of the meteoroid or even blasting off the meteoroid. (refer to wiki on Asteroid mitigation strategies)

- History. What if atom booms were not dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Most probably all of us won't be here today. And maybe there is only one country in this world.

- Alien invasion. What if earth is invaded by alien which tries to wipe out human race? Use M-16 rifle to fight against their super laser weapon?
(I don't think I need to mention the outcome here...)

Nuclear weapons should exist for planetary defense.

In fact, there are reasons behind every single thing that exist in the world. We shouldn't jump to any conclusion, especially to deny others, without understanding more about it or try to find out about how it can useful.

Try to think for others

What I think peace is really about:
Peace is when people start to work together and try to think/care for one another.

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