Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Human Spirit

The world of technology may in itself become obsolete but the human spirit lives on. The human spirit, the secret behind man’s dominance, has also been the key to his survival. It’s a complex concept. However this is an attempt to define it. A definition unrelated to the field of psychology. A definition in the language of computers.
The human spirit is a dynamically changing entity. A parent class with a number of subclasses. A class implementing the singleton pattern but in a unique way. A class which is abstract. It has a number of subclasses. Determination, Persistence, Emotions are a few of its sub classes. These classes not only implement the abstract methods defined in the HumanSpirit class but implement a number of their own methods as well. The depth of this hierarchy is however unknown. This is because the hierarchy varies among individuals. Some may have a rather flat hierarchy while others may have something totally different and unique.
Another issue worth discussing is the changing hierarchy as a person matures. In a baby the hierarchy may just be of a single level. But as the person grows and matures the hierarchy deepens. Finer implementations of classes come into the picture and several of the classes that seemed optimal at a particular point of time may now seem obsolete.
There exists a method setVisible(*stimulus) which is of prime importance. This method is unique. Though it needs to be implemented in all of the sub classes, the implementation changes drastically through time. As a child the only parameter passes to it is that of stimulus. However as the person matures the number of parameters increases and the method is overloaded. The parameters now not only include the stimulus but also the environment which may include the location, people etc. Once these factors come in to play databases are brought into the picture to analyze the situation and to store data for future reference. The Inference Engine runs at full steam to complete its tasks in the stipulated quantum of time.
Its true that as the hierarchy deepens man becomes more social. But all this comes at a cost. Deepening of the hierarchy implies an increase in the file size. And all this comes at a cost. Not processing cost of course because as we al know that the true potential of the human brain is not yet known. It comes at the cost of innocence. The innocence so eminent in a child. That innocence that every one longs for. That is lost. Saying that it is lost would however be incorrect because it still exists within the hierarchy we’ve built for ourselves. Lying dormant beneath the façade of refinement that is portrayed to the world.

“I suffer, but I still live. Its true that I may be a sort of phantom in life, but I know my beginning and I know my end. It is true that I am an X in an indeterminate equation, the X that will terrify mankind as it voyages through a million galaxies. But no matter. The X is the rock upon which I stand...