I made this rather last minute for the WHY EXPLORE SPACE competition, but because of some unfortunate technical issues, didn’t get it uploaded on time. I missed the deadline by like 10 minutes, but I thought I’d put it up here anyway.
UPDATE: It seems they extended the deadline a day so I could enter. Voting starts Sunday at noon. SO VOTE HERE, I guess.
I do not consider myself a mean person. I tend to mind my P’s and Q’s and try to avoid cutting people off on the interstate. But sometimes one wonders… Is life easier being mean? Could Alexander the Great possibly have become Alexander the Beige of Heart if he was a little bit nicer to his mom and had worried about his neighbor’s feelings before hacking those branches along the property line? Could being mean be beneficial to the average person?
He who said – sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me - probably had the crap kicked out of him right after being ridiculed for his horrendous haircut. Being on the receiving end of an unfriendly altercation can be an unpleasant experience. Wouldn’t it be more pleasant to be the giving, generous person who doles out the noogies and wet willies? Any bully will tell you the best way to avoid being hurt is to beat them to the punch. Meanness can be an excellent protection mechanism. It hardens you to life’s ills while creating a wonderful cushion of “personal space” around you that some weaklings find impenetrable.
Some find the lone gunman approach to meanness to be, well, lonely. For those who prefer a more social approach, it is possible to find groups of mean people who readily welcome those who truly understand them. They sometimes have a hierarchy that takes a special social cunning to understand, and the first week could be tough as you fight to find your place within the pack. But the initial difficulties may prove well worth it when you find yourself surrounded by friends who bite before they growl and offer a sense of protection from the infuriating intricacies inherent in the outside world of emotions.
But true meanness is more about what is withheld than what is dished out. It’s the lack of sharing, the unwillingness to give to those around you, that truly separates a mean person from one that is merely apathetic or possibly a megalomaniac. And if being mean is a little confusing, just default to the harmless version. Sum it all up, divide, and smile.
I am often told that I am nice. I usually take this as a compliment and I suspect it is mostly meant as one. But I have also spent a lot of time thinking about the ways being habitually nice has actually been a hindrance in my life, mainly in social settings. Additionally I think it is very related to being shy. So this is a list of ways I think being nice can make life more difficult if it is taken to excess. Of course, like most of my articles, it’s not based on any hard data, just my own observations from my life and people I have known.
Making niceness meaningless
When you are too nice too often, the very act of being nice means less and less. Like everything, it is understood and appreciated through comparison. If you are too nice, you may simply fade into the background and be forgotten. That, or be thought of as some kind of standby personality. As in, no one has to worry about you because you’ll be there if you are needed. Continue reading
A new episode by Peter Mack.
We’ll be back to posting regularly at roboheart again soon.
Well, we’re not actually leaving. But we really DO appreciate the fish.
www.RoboHeart.com will be taking a short break while our lovely and talented NickQuest works on his various artistic endeavors and sings Kumbaya around a campfire with fellow artists at The MacDowell Colony. But in the meantime please enjoy some Sean Connery in a mankini, courtesy of Nick.
I have a confession to make : I have never seen a western movie. There, it’s out. No, I have never seen Unforgiven or Tombstone. I have never seen the American remake of Seven Samurai. I have never had the cinematic joy of vicariously riding off into an 8 mm sunset or tying a woman to train tracks. I don’t really know what kind of guns they had back then, and what was necessary to be the fastest gun in the west. To be honest, I don’t even know what was actually considered the west. I imagine it’s somewhere past the central time zone, sauntering in between mountain and surfer territory. I’m not sure why people actually chose to forego civilization and fend off bears, but I imagine that according to society’s rules prostitutes and priests followed shortly thereafter.
Every zombie movie is a snowflake universe. They all have their own specific laws regarding their own specific zombie universe. Some of them have fast zombies that attack humans at a full gallop, broken legs and all. Some of them have slow zombies that count on each other, using a hyena tactic to overcome their human prey. There are some zombie-verses where brains are a delicacy, and some where it’s the only item on the menu. But regardless of which donut-shaped zombie universe you find yourself in, one thing is certain. You want to move like a running-back and not like a lineman And you never, ever want to open the door.
No this isn’t about who would win in a fight between Superman and Goku. Specifically this is about a particular mainstream Japanese hero character I see over and over again in Shonen action based Anime / Manga and how it compares to mainstream American super heroes. Of course I don’t mean to say there aren’t characters on both sides that break the mold, only that the type I describe seems interestingly prevalent in modern mainstream media.
Growth Mindset
For me, the biggest difference is that Japanese super powers are based around a growth mindset. The hero must train hard to unlock his hidden potential. Even if he is the chosen one of some kind or come from another planet, it doesn’t come for free, it takes hard work. Most American super heroes were born with their powers or gained it all at once through some happenstance beyond their control. They will usually go through an awkward period of learning how their powers work, but it will be more about discovery than training.
Everyone loves robots. How can you not? With those large mechanical LED Bambi eyes and cuddly exterior, it’s difficult not to feel a deep rooted protective love of our cyber friends.
Robotics has come a long way baby. We live in a world where robots are a part of our everyday lives. They make the gadgets we use and entertain adults and children alike. What we hope for advancement in (or secretly fear) are androids, robots created to seem “human” in the looks or actions. The progress is almost startling when considering robots like Asimo, or even simple chat programs like Cleverbot, the disturbing lovechild of a programmer and a perfect example of robot learning, gathering information from thousands of individual human interactions.
By that I really mean, they will hate the science fiction of today. In all likelihood a passive experience like a movie or TV show will be of no interest to them at all. But lets just say it is still relevant, or at least it can be converted into a new entertaining format for super humans. In this case I think the new humans would only be able to, at best, muster some amount of historical appreciation. At worst, they may find it quite stupid and insulting, assuming post humans are capable of being insulted.
It seems to me that most science fiction stories are cautionary tales. They are so often about the failure of scientific advancements to account for the human spirit. I touched on this in an older post. Scifi today has to appeal to the emotions of people today. Continue reading
