little prince

The Little Prince Chapter 2

The Little Prince even though written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was intended for children, is a novel, which has a hidden deeper meaning to it. By reading the book I found that it was very interesting and subtly brings out human nature and characteristics through various characters from the book the little prince meets.

This chapter appealed to me the most as it created a sense of questioning and awe in me. I was filled with these emotions as I could see that the Little Prince could connect with the author’s drawing while the adults could not. When the author drew the picture of a boa eating an elephant, no adult could say what it really was. All they could see was a hat. This shows how our minds are conditioned to think like the way we think. It is rare to find people who can think out of the box. Our perception is something unique to all of us. The author has tried to bring out a point through his drawing of the boa eating the elephant that a person does not see something even when it is in front of him, he looks at the picture as a whole and not through details. I feel that the author is showing that people in today’s time have prioritized things which are of consequences but do not look at something as important as their own child.

As the chapter moves on, the author eventually draws three different figures of sheep. The little prince ha asked him to draw sheep but the author’s reason to not draw a perfect sheep was because he had never drawn a sheep before. I felt that the little prince was pestering the author to do something he had never done was perhaps because the little prince knew the authors potential and the author did not know it himself. This is relevant as one always thinks he cannot do something because he has never done it before, what one does not understand is that he is not going to lose anything by trying something new. One cannot be certain that he is going to a new task wrong. If he does go wrong in the new task, he learns a way that he should not use to complete that task. The author by the fourth attempt to draw a perfect sheep used lateral thinking. He drew a box in which he said was the sheep the little prince wanted. This was a clever thinking on the part of the author, as he knew he could not draw exactly what the prince wanted but knew the prince knew exactly what he wanted. The box symbolized the mind of the prince since the prince knew exactly what the sheep wanted to do at any point of time.

When the author was asked to draw a sheep while he was asleep, his immediate reaction was surprise as he was in the middle of a desert when he heard the voice. The author was also astonished to find that the prince could understand that drawing of the boa eating the elephant. On the first drawing of the sheep the prince said it was sickly, on the second one he smiled and simply rejected the third one. The little prince wanted the picture of a sheep but the author wanted to fix his plane. There were contradicting sets of emotions in the conversation in the chapter. This is also directed at the fact that in today’s time people have no time to look at new things, they are usually impatient and disregard the feelings of others. The author was at first complaining about the adults but now he has become what the adults were to him, to the prince.

Even though the prince claims to have come from another planet, he knows how to speak the same language as the author. The author knowing this befriends the prince. I feel the author is trying to show that however different we are, we can always live together. The author has also stereotyped adults as those who would not listen to him. However even after concluding that no one might get what his picture of the boa eating the elephant is, the prince broke his stereotype of the people around him. The author knew he could connect with prince, as the prince knew what the authors drawing was. The author had called what we think is a box, a box in which there is a sheep. Both the author and the prince knew what the author meant. I feel the author does not like conventions like calling a box, a box. He wanted to say that that is a box which coul have a sheep in it.

 

emotion reflection

When used without reason, emotion can create a world where everything a person says or thinks is based on what the person feels. He loses his sense of judging both the sides of a situation. His decision, without being reasoned out may not do him well in the future. This powerful emotion, which leads one to make a decision, creates a cycle, which in the end will enforce his emotion from the beginning. The person chooses to ignore everything other than what he wants to see or feel.

An example can be taken from the animal kingdom. Many snakes are poisonous and have the potential to kill its prey. There have been many incidences that snakes have attacked and killed humans, however studies show that snakes do not hunt down humans, they attack only when they feel they are threatened. A person who has a phobia of snakes will have a biased perception that all snakes are poisonous and kill everything in their path, not looking at the fact that snakes only attack when they are threatened or are looking for food. He makes a generalization that all snakes attack humans in order to kill them. In the end he concludes that he is right in fearing snakes because he reasoned out that they kill humans.

This is the cycle one follows when one does not question his emotion and does not reason out his decisions. One can only get out of this cycle by questioning his emotions.

emotion v/s reason

Choosing to live in a world without emotion or to live in a world without reason. This may seem like a simple choice to make but in reality it is not. For a person to choose either reason or emotion above the other is a foolish choice to do. In my view one should live a balanced life in which one should know when his reason should be driving him or his emotion. Using emotions may be a more common way of living life. A person does not question what his actions have caused until he has done it. For example if my parents do not allow me to go out on a Friday night, I will get angry and start breaking things to show my disapproval of their decision. However while I am performing the action of destroying things, I do not think for 1 bit that breaking things is not the right answer since my parents will still not let me go out. It is only after that I have broken several things that I say to my self I should never have done that. Here my anger has taken control over my body. Had I reasoned out before why my parents have not allowed me to go out I would have had a better chance of going out that night. Another example is on seeing a spider in the house one does get afraid and kill it. What that person does not think is that that spider is the cause there are not other insects in my house. The spider is the natural predator of the housefly and other insects. Had the person not killed the spider, there would have been less flies around the house.  However looking at emotion and reason from a different angle, I can say that many of the scientific discoveries are due to the fact that the scientists were inspired or frustrated that they could not get the correct theory or answer. Emotion was the driving factor that caused them to stay up day and night to get the correct theory. Gregor Mendel was inspired to study variation in plants. This inspiration caused him to study plants and inheritance. Due to him today we know much of genetic inheritance. Hence we need both emotion and reason in our daily lives and not just either one.  

knowledge at work 5

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4313978.stm

 

The words ‘snake’ and ‘alligator’ bring a sense of fear into the minds of many people. These two reptiles are one of the most successful predators of our time and before. People fear these two reptiles because of their diet, which consists of animals ranging from rats to crocodiles to bulls. Each of these predators has different styles of hunting down their prey. Even though snakes and alligators are carnivores, those who fear them misunderstand them. Attacks on humans caused by snakes and alligators are usually because of provocation or invasion of their territories. In response to human interaction with them, these reptiles launch an attack on humans to show that they are angry or feel threatened. These attacks result in injuries or death.

However when one thinks of a snake and an alligator, the last thing on his mind is a match between them. In Florida’s swamps however, a match had occurred between them. A 13-foot python and a 6-foot alligator went head to head in a match. In the end both the predators had died. When rangers saw the animals bodies, they were shocked to see that the python’s body had an alligators tail sticking out of it and the python it self did not have a head.

This is a rare occurrence. The battle between them must have been intense. They are one of the deadliest creatures in the world and are equally matched. Pythons kill by coiling around its prey and constricting it with its powerful muscles until the prey’s lungs are too compressed to get in air.. The python’s method of killing its prey is a very effective way and has no weak points. Once the python traps the prey the only thing it can do is wait until it has breathed it last breath. Alligators kill their prey by dragging them under water and drowning them. This too is an effective way, as land animal will inevitably die in the water, where the alligator is in its prime.

On seeing the site of the picture of the two animals, I think that the python thought he had killed the alligator and was devouring it but the alligator must have still been alive even when but was n the pythons stomach and it started moving which made the pythons body burst open. Earlier in the past these two predators have fought usually resulting in the death of the python or a draw between the two.

This is very important footage as it shows us the extent an animal can go to protect it self or defend is territory. The alligator was a cunning opponent for the python as it waited for the python to devour it whole. However it too died in the end. Animals can show intelligent behavior and do not always rely on their instincts for their survival. The encounter between these 2 predators has made me conclude this.

 

emotion v/s reason

Choosing to live in a world without emotion or to live in a world without reason. This may seem like a simple choice to make but in reality it is not. For a person to choose either reason or emotion above the other is a foolish choice to do. In my view one should live a balanced life in which one should know when his reason should be driving him or his emotion. Using emotions may be a more common way of living life. A person does not question what his actions have caused until he has done it. For example if my parents do not allow me to go out on a Friday night, I will get angry and start breaking things to show my disapproval of their decision. However while I am performing the action of destroying things, I do not think for 1 bit that breaking things is not the right answer since my parents will still not let me go out. It is only after that I have broken several things that I say to my self I should never have done that. Here my anger has taken control over my body. Had I reasoned out before why my parents have not allowed me to go out I would have had a better chance of going out that night. Another example is on seeing a spider in the house one does get afraid and kill it. What that person does not think is that that spider is the cause there are not other insects in my house. The spider is the natural predator of the housefly and other insects. Had the person not killed the spider, there would have been less flies around the house.  However looking at emotion and reason from a different angle, I can say that many of the scientific discoveries are due to the fact that the scientists were inspired or frustrated that they could not get the correct theory or answer. Emotion was the driving factor that caused them to stay up day and night to get the correct theory. Gregor Mendel was inspired to study variation in plants. This inspiration caused him to study plants and inheritance. Due to him today we know much of genetic inheritance. Hence we need both emotion and reason in our daily lives and not just either one.  

Choosing to live in a world without emotion or to live in a world without reason. This may seem like a simple choice to make but in reality it is not. For a person to choose either reason or emotion above the other is a foolish choice to do. In my view one should live a balanced life in which one should know when his reason should be driving him or his emotion. Using emotions may be a more common way of living life. A person does not question what his actions have caused until he has done it. For example if my parents do not allow me to go out on a Friday night, I will get angry and start breaking things to show my disapproval of their decision. However while I am performing the action of destroying things, I do not think for 1 bit that breaking things is not the right answer since my parents will still not let me go out. It is only after that I have broken several things that I say to my self I should never have done that. Here my anger has taken control over my body. Had I reasoned out before why my parents have not allowed me to go out I would have had a better chance of going out that night. Another example is on seeing a spider in the house one does get afraid and kill it. What that person does not think is that that spider is the cause there are not other insects in my house. The spider is the natural predator of the housefly and other insects. Had the person not killed the spider, there would have been less flies around the house.  However looking at emotion and reason from a different angle, I can say that many of the scientific discoveries are due to the fact that the scientists were inspired or frustrated that they could not get the correct theory or answer. Emotion was the driving factor that caused them to stay up day and night to get the correct theory. Gregor Mendel was inspired to study variation in plants. This inspiration caused him to study plants and inheritance. Due to him today we know much of genetic inheritance. Hence we need both emotion and reason in our daily lives and not just either one.  

james lang theory- reflection

The James Lang states that we emote through physical changes that occur in our body. I do not completely agree with this theory. In my view this theory like all theories in science need some exceptions. For example Newton’s laws of motions only hold true only if the mass of the object is constant and the object doe not reach the speed of light. It may be possible for us to force ourselves to feel happy or sad when we want to feel that way. An example to support the statement would be that if one sees a snake in his or her home, he or she would get scared only because he will run away. The act of running away is the physical change occurring and the emotion produced is fear. However I can say in contrast to this statement that he had seen a snake eating another animal therefore he was afraid of being eaten and to prevent that from happening he ran away. These two examples comprise of both the act of running away and having the fear of emotion. However which comes first is the question. This theory may hold true for some situations but may not hold true for others. A person may want to smile in a dull situation but from inside he still is feeling sad. The outer smile he puts up does not make the inner sadness go away. 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/chaos_theory.aspx

Unpredictability.

The word chaos in simple terms means disorder, uncontrollable actions caused by any phenomena in the world. In physics chaos means measuring these uncertainties, unpredictability and randomness of nature. One may think that a simple flap of a butterfly’s wing causes no changes in the conditions of temperature, the butterfly being so tiny that it can have no affect on any wind patterns. However in reality a simple flap of a butterfly’s wings could be the cause of a tornado some 100 kilometers away. It is surprising. The science of physics in its way tries to calculate how and why such a phenomenon can occur by something so insignificant.

In a dynamic system small changes in the initial behavior of an object can cause large changes in its outcome. This unlike a linear function of a system can alter the behavior of a system tremendously. Mathematics and physics can calculate predict the changes of the system. Although chaos theory is a new concept, it is very important in fields like economics and weather forecasting. In economics chaos theory can be used to measure the rise and fall of the stock market. Stock markets are non-linear dynamic systems which means changes in the initial conditions can have adverse effects later on, however even markets show patterns. In the short run of a market economy, one cannot predict the outcome of an economy however in the long run using chaos theory can be used to predict the situation of the market. In weather forecasting chaos theory can be used to predict weathers of any number of days ahead. However this being a very complex equation because variables like temperature, air pressure, wind speed and humidity have to be taken into account. Upon entering these values in a super computer the weather forecast for second can be predicted, entering those values again can predict the weather one second ahead of that. Repeating this the weather can be predicted but even if there is a small calculation error like a miscalculation of 0.0000000001 units, can completely alter the forecast.   

However every system has a drawback. Chaos theory cannot predict accurately the outcomes of systems. The more number of variables in a system the less accurate a prediction is. The inputs of variables in a system have to be chosen with precision and accuracy otherwise the theoretical answer will be wrong.

Since the time science came into existence one has always tried to calculate and hypothesis things. However most of those calculations were of linear equations without taking into consideration different variables. With the advent of Einstein mathematical and physical equations reached a new level with his theories of relativity. Trying to predict the outcome of systems with variability is something, which cannot be done easily. The term ‘Chaos Theory’ came into existence in the late twentieth century and has helped scientists to get better understandings of dynamic systems and its behaviors. Chaos theory is applicable to any situation in ones life.