Inquisited.com

Just for kicks, I decided to search for “the meaning of life” on Google. The first result, as with many other queries these days, was the Wikipedia entry which was very… comprehensive (go see for yourself). It wasn’t quite the short, succinct answer I was looking for but close enough.

I can’t say what it was that made me turn to a search engine for metaphysical comfort, but it only goes to show how integral internet search has become to my life - Googling something, whether a cocktail recipe or synthesis of phosphatidylcholine, is second nature. Its almost like we’ve outsourced an entire portion of our brain to the internet. The Library of Alexandria was humanity’s first attempt at compiling the sum of all human knowledge. The Internet is our latest and greatest attempt.

Like a digital librarian, internet search facilitates the connection between a user’s query and his desired answer. But relationship between humanity and information retrieval has also fundamentally changed. A question that might have taken weeks of perusing at the local library to find scantly 10 years ago can now be answered in a matter of minutes, if not faster. In terms of knowledge organization, this represents nothing short of a quantum leap forward. 

That also got me thinking how the web itself might evolve in the future. Today, just about everyone is connected via home PCs, 3G Phones, PDAs and other devices. But the interface is still relatively clumsy - that is to say, you can only navigate and operate Google, Facebook, email, MSN messenger etc as fast as your 10 fingers can type. I think it would not be a stretch of imagination to say that in the near future, we will be plugged in directly to the net via an integrated neural interface (Its not science fiction anymore, people).

Its interesting to speculate how humanity might evolve when you’re able to instant message anyone in the world, anywhere at the speed of thought. Would that be any different, for all intents and purposes, from true telepathy? And why stop there? If you’re able to thought-communicate with someone, not why with a whole group of people? Could an entire nation connect their minds and form a singular consensus of thoughts? The concept of a “democratic government” would change radically, as would the fabric of society itself.

And would it be possible to download the sum of a person’s memories into a digital repository? Perhaps a repository that contains multiple memories. Maybe then even physical death can be cheated.

Its one day after Singapore’s 43rd national day, and I thought I’d spare a minute to reflect on the issue of national solidarity. Recently, I polled a small group of friends who had spent time abroad on whether they took pride on being Singaporean. The consensus was a resounding “not really”. I suspect they’re not alone in their views, given the nation’s strong Europhillic disposition.

This sentiment seems most pronounced among the nation’s intelligentsia (or at least those who consider themselves such), a good proportion of which have, or are considering moving overseas. Having actually lived abroad for more than half my life, I can say with some certainty that the grass is indeed greener on the other side. But the issue remains: A great deal of Singaporeans don’t identify with the country. Why might this be the case?

Part of the problem might have to do with the country’s colonial legacy, but the other part I think, is caused by the government’s incessant harping on how Singapore should always imitate that other country. How Singapore should be like the Swiss in banking, imitate the oh-so-refined accents of the Brits, the Brazilians in their swanky football skills or whatever. With annoying regularity, politicians beat on this to death at every chance they get. Its kind of like how your parents used to compare you to the geekiest kid in grade school: “why can’t you be more like perfect peter or smarty sandy?”. Remember how irritating that was? The other thing that was ever good for was deflating a kid’s confidence, or in this case, national pride.

Of course, the government’s line might be a natural consequence of Singapore’s collective low self-esteem, rather than the cause of it. But that’s still no excuse for the lack of inspiring leadership. A lot of government-sanctioned events and cultural festivities seem incredibly contrived and passé. Combined with the constant nagging on how the other kid’s always better and you have the perfect recipe for an insecure and outward-looking citizenry. One might argue that a national identity can only arise from acts of self-expression that are unrestrained from moralizing or politicizing. Only then will you have identifiable traits of true “Singaporean” culture that people can identify with and feel proud of.

Incidentally, this is reminiscent of a scene from the movie “Cool Runnings”, an inspiring flick about the first Jamaican Bobsled team to take part in the winter olympics. The captain of Jamaican team realizes that the swiss team is really good. In fact, he admires them so much that he tries to get his teammates to imitate the swiss in every single aspect of bobsledding. The idea, of course, is that if they all act swiss they’ll be just as successful. Needless to say, his fellow bobsledders don’t appreciate the posing and the team doesn’t get very far.

One of his teammates finally speaks up.

“All I’m saying, man, is if we walk Jamaican, talk Jamaican, and is Jamaican, then we sure as hell better bobsled Jamaican.”

And that is the crux of the issue. Just like it can with a bobsled team, morale and make or break a nation. Recognizing and appreciating culture has a lot to do with this. Since no two countries will ever develop in the exact same way, trying to imitate another blindly would be a lot like the Jamaican bobsled team counting down in German. Let a thousand flowers boom and have faith that Singapore will forge its own way guided by its own culture. The Swiss will tread their own path. The British will tread their own path. The Jamaicans will tread their own path.

So must Singaporeans.

Yesterday night, I took a long bus ride home from other side of the island. I could have taken a cab and cut down my travel time by a few orders of magnitude. Ordinarily, that’s what I would have done because I’m a sucker for efficiency. But for some reason I didn’t. Last night was different.

The bus was one of the older ones, meaning it had no air conditioning and the rumbling and rattlings of its antiquated engine could heard as distinctly as it could be felt. It was also slow, but I didn’t care. The bus was vacant, so I had a large space to myself. The view outside was scenic, at least by Singaporean standards. With the windows down, I felt the gentle breeze of the night and the world in its natural state of being. It felt right. Just me and the world under a starry moonlit sky. For the better part of an hour, nothing else mattered.