Faith

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When I was a child, I was attracted by the world beyond our planet. I did not have the opportunity to see a really starry night, for the I did not often live in the country side. But I could still imagine. I bought I lot of books which introduced efforts humans had made on exploring the outer world. I also watch cartoons related to this topic. My yearning for the vast world first led me to science.

Years have passed. Now I’ve been concentrating on mathematics. But the deep spaces still play an important role in my life. I am not fond of money, honor, reputation or something else, for I believe that there is something far greater. Money, honor or reputation only works in human society and the duplicity, deception and disguise intended for these things are simply nothing but abjection in front of the universe.

But I am somewhat worried. In the early period of human civilization, men used to respect the earth. But as they became stronger, they no more respect it. If one day men knows much enough about the universe, will my faith become absurd?

I might not be able to live long enough to see the answer. Even if that happens, I can still consider it holy regardless of the society. But anyway, I hope to find the answer.

By the way, I have just found Microsoft OneNote very useful.

2010-09-23

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An Animation and the Middle Age

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This weekend I came across the anime Spice and Wolf. The character Horo is so cute, but this is not what I want to mention most.

It was in the Middle Age, Lawrence, the main character is a travelling merchant. Therefore trading activities and religious organizations(sorry I can’t find an equivalent word) are often mentioned in the story. That inspired me to the imagination of the Middle Age.

It was a dark age that religious power controlled the society, and however, an age of merchants. There were villages, towns, cities, ports and kingdoms. There were missionaries, knights, mercenaries and kings. It was hard to transmit information. It was hard to transport substances. It was a solid age. And it was merchants, who traveled everywhere for more benefits, that liquefied the age.

Merchants were(maybe are) crafty as I knew before and see from the animation. It is not a good manner today. But at that time, the time people had to follow strict religious provisions and to live for gods but themselves, it was the worldly characters merchants had that bring the light that people should live for themselves.   And it was the lust for more wealth that led to the desire for freedom. And it was the success of merchants that inspired people to belief in themselves instead of gods.

I haven’t read much about the Middle Age. Maybe what I know is more romance than reality, but I still believe that era was full of romances of merchants, and it was these romances that pushed ahead the world.

2010-09-12

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Diary (Sep 4, 2010)

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The book From Calculus to Cohomology by Madsen looks a nice book. Well, it’s the first time I saw an introduction to topology from CALCULUS so I believe it amazing. Maybe I am too ignorant in mathematics.

I’m studying Commutative Algebra and Topology recently. As far as I’m concerned, categories are fundamental in mathematics so I’m particularly fond of algebra in favor of the concept of category. I saw some one says geometry and topology structures are much more interesting than algebra structures. I don’t understand it very much. Maybe in my mind all structures are algebraic. Well, maybe when we adopt measures and Cauchy sequences we are entering the field of Analysis, Geometry and Topology? Actually in my heart it is still algebraic. I think continuity doesn’t mean non-algebra.

Huh…The above seems almost all stuff. At my level of mathematics I’m not likely to understand much of them. I even used to reject algebra because at that time I think algebra is a boring collection of axioms. I also used to reject categories when I first knew them.

The society in China is weird. Teenagers need to study a lot of things neither interesting nor important in order to survive. As a result they do not have time to do things they like. Students with high grades are expected to be talents, but most of them do not have dreams to live for. All they do is to study for higher grades and to play. Most of them do not have their view in politics, culture, etc.

Because of these, I start to feel that I don’t really have friends. I am in a serious lack of emotions. Actually I don’t think anyone around me really has friends. I impute it to the weird society. It doesn’t allow people to dream, to love. So the lack of friends are natural.

The blog is desolate. Perhaps no one will see this post. But I believe one day here will be crowded, if I will.

By the way, Japan in World History by James L. Huffman is also a good book.

2010-09-04

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How do we think?

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When I say «apple» ,an apple will appear in your mind. You can understand it. People may explain it as some correspondence between images and specific signs. And the signs themselves are images so actually we associate the images with sounds and then sounds with signs. Humans have evolved so much that today they can understand written language in silence, not needing to read them out.

The understand of concrete things may be as easy as the above. But what about that of abstract things, concepts and statements? That should be hard to explain because explanation itself is an abstract statement, which I must use my understanding system of abstract things to understand.

I used to guess, the approach to solve this problem is up to science. That is, to study the brain. But there is still a critical obstacle that we still have to think using our brain.

Is that the unreachable acme of human cognition? Do humans have to continue evolving to answer it? Or never?

2010-09-04

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A Testing Post

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Human and Natural Disasters

Human activities are largely involved in the formation of some natural disasters, while not involved in the formation of some others.

As we all know, it is obvious that humans have nothing to do with the formation of volcano eruptions or earthquakes. But some other disasters, for instance, sandstorms, are related to human activities. Overgrazing and overcutting ruin vegetation, in turn causing desertification. When sands meet a windstorm, a sandstorm comes into being. Another instance is acid rain. Waste gas produced in industry activities, mostly in thermal powering, goes up to the clouds. It then blends with the water vapors. As a result, the rain from the clouds becomes acid, doing a lot of harm to humans, animals, plants, etc.

Therefore, we humans should actively take action to prevent the disasters which are mainly caused by us from happening. Education should be implemented to let more people realize the harm they are doing to the nature. Laws should be made and harsh supervision should be conducted to ensure no overgrazing or overcutting. Technologies that enable us to gain power while doing no harm to nature, such as transforming solar energy to electricity, should also be developed with exertion.

We should also actively deal with the disasters of which the formation does not involve human activities. Education is also important here. Comparing the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, why did a much heavier earthquake cause a much slighter consequence in death numbers? One of the factors is people in Chile are well educated about how to survive earthquakes, while people in Haiti are not. Technologies are important as well. With better technology, we can develop more effective methods of surviving, forecasting and maybe even controlling the disasters.

To sum up, humans are responsible for a certain portion of natural disasters. We should positively deal with natural disasters in order to survive. Actions should be taken both as not to cause disasters ourselves and to reduce damage disasters can deal.

2010-08-27

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從張鈺哲說開去

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大概一年級的時候,看一本書,名字忘了,反正講的是宇宙啊、星星啊、航天啊相關的知識(或者八卦?),與之配套的還有一本講地球的。那時我就是這麼喜歡這種書,經常成套地買。有一天就看到一段講月蝕和日食,說是雖然日食發生的比月蝕還要頻繁一點,很多人一輩子都沒見過日食卻見過月蝕,爲什麼呢,它說因為日食能看到的只是一小片區域,畢竟月球能擋住的小,而地球則是整個把月球都擋住了,另外日食時間短,就更容易受天氣影響。這時候就舉了個例子,說是某年中國某地發生日食,古稀之年的張鈺哲先生趕過來,適逢陰雨天憾而沒能看到。配圖是一位瘦削、長臉的老者,頗有混血風範。其時就對張鈺哲這個人很感興趣,然而那個時代信息閉塞,我一個小城市的小屁孩,沒有網絡,上哪去主動獲取信息呢?但這種好奇就一直在我腦中徘徊不去。另,我當時的眼光反而落在“古稀”一詞上更甚,一是沒什麼文化,覺得很新鮮,二個,是書的另一處講到人的壽命,說活七十歲,其實才兩萬多天,而那已經是“人生七十古來稀”了,我就常常覺得悲哀,因為各種書上常常提到冥王星公轉要二百多年,哈雷彗星也要七十幾年才迴歸一次云云。

而後很多年,都沒有網絡。日子一天天地過,到初一有了網,我又沉迷遊戲(黑歷史就在QQ空間,感興趣可以慢慢翻),然後又英語、又數學、又政治、又數碼地,就淡忘了這些事。

高三的時候,@wdq 看清華校史的書,我也借來看,看著不免上網找些資料,在豆瓣上偶遇一篇講老清華政治運動的文,提到任之恭等人再回大陸,提出要見一些老友,然而他們不知道這些人都由於種種原因不在了,陪同的竺可楨為之震驚。此時不知怎麼就想到了張鈺哲。或許是因為張鈺哲也是清華的校友,而我在書上的某個角落看到了他的名字?總之,借這個契機,我瞭解到張鈺哲的大略生平,他從建國就一直任紫金山天文臺台長,直到逝世。但資料並不甚翔實。

剛剛在知乎上看見一位南京大學天文學的同學。南京,天文學,不由得想到了張鈺哲,想起前幾日說的要寫點東西,就寫了。寫的時候,在看http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTI0MTQ4MzY=.html?f=2629679,說到他9歲(大清宣統二年)看到哈雷彗星,就勵志做天文,後來在紫金山天文臺(西元1986年)又看到一次。從生卒年上看,他不久就仙去了。人生能見到兩次哈雷彗星,是多麼幸運而幸福的事啊!

張鈺哲當了很多年紫金山天文臺台長,在業界有很高的名望。有一個月球上的坑以他命名,還有一顆小行星也是。1928年他發現了“中華”小行星,是中國人發現的第一顆小行星。1941年,他拍攝了中國境內第一張日全食照片,去日占區拍的,據說是冒著轟炸。至少粗略看來,他應當是個有趣的人。然而如今的大眾都不大知道他了。網上也沒有很多關於他的資料,僅有少數幾篇革命宣傳口吻的傳記。從來沒看見人們談論過他。作為中國天文學的領路人,這樣的待遇好像並不相稱。现在生活水平提高,越来越多的人買得起相機、望遠鏡、赤道儀,成為天文愛好者,但還是沒看見他們談論到張鈺哲。孔子說,君子疾沒世而名不稱焉,如此看來,不能不說是一種遺憾。

然而以我看來,他至少能說「我度過了美好的一生」,他的人生足夠有趣,足夠波瀾壯闊了。縱觀歷史,應當有很多這樣有趣的人吧。爲什麼我的生活總是似乎索然無味呢?希望我也能成為這麼有趣的人,希望我也能遇見很多這麼有趣的人。

于 2014 年 6 月 30 日

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