TED Community » Ambar Kleinbort

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• A comment on Conversation: What is a fiction and what is real?

  Mar 6 2011: sory, i didnt mean to say there are levels to how real something is, i completely agree that its either real or not. one more question, if 0. 00000000(infinite 0s)1 doesn't exist, which can be mathematically proven how is it that anything exists? i would think that is a glitch in math, like square roots of negatives

• A reply on Conversation: What is a fiction and what is real?

  Mar 4 2011: alright, colors are just light waves, but can't light waves be real? i think if they wearen't we probably wouldn't be here, its obvious we cannot fully perceive reality. perhaps there are levels to how real something is, well not really but we can try to classify things. The least real would be human made concepts rather than actual existing things, for instance identity or education. Then there would be what you can sense such as objects which probably go along with a lot of things we can't sense, and so on. We can also base what is real on what it appears to cause, for instance wind is real because we can feel it and because it changes the weather and many more reasons. The more things that become unexplainable when you take something away, the more real that something probably is. Does that make sense?
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  A comment on Conversation: Why we still don't use water to run our engines?

  Mar 3 2011: Assuming this truly can be done:
  It's cheaper for us and better for the environment = AMAZING
  It's bad for oil industries, capitalism because the supply of water is so high, and bad for most economies = NEVER WILL HAPPEN IF GOVERNMENTS CAN AVOID IT
  
  this is indeed very sad but the truth, although you should take into account not all countries have a good water supply and that we have messed up our oceans far more than enough.
• +1

  A comment on Conversation: How can we escape politics and empower peace?

  Mar 3 2011: I think to biggest challenge would be leaving behind the mass media. We can accept it more or less but the truth is everything you see in tv/movies/advertisement is full of subliminal political messages, this happens in some countries more than others. Also, to make it "realistic," shows always include how different people are treated badly, and we shove this into ours kids's heads since their about 4. The problem is mass media makes people feel safe, and it takes away the unthinkable task of thinking for yourself, which I personally believe people are afraid to do because they would end up realizing they live in a world of fictions that range from national identity, to your own identity to language being meaningless symbols that account for 7% of what you say and all those things that would throw you into the real world where you are not always feeling warm and fuzzy cause you have rights (which are human made and given and therefor not as we call them natural, in fact they are fictions and often unfair).
  
  Once you can get people to think for themselves, and i mean truly and deeply think for themselves about issues that can make them feel uneasy(this is where the phrase ignorance is bliss comes from, because seeing the world we leave in can be very painful), it will be obvious to them that politics should not be involved in the way they act, and once every person can act peacefully there is no other way for the world to be but peaceful.

• A comment on Conversation: Why do you send your children to school?

  Mar 3 2011: Well, I don't cause im a kid, but I will in the future because it's THE LAW. Most people do it because of that or because they have been taught to think its the right thing to do and anything else is unacceptable, which we are all thought through tv/movies and the simple fact that doing something else is illegal.

• A comment on Conversation: What do we really mean when we talk about God?

  Mar 3 2011: If you want to be so exact about what we mean by God you are already talking about language and how we percieve the same words differently. Those people who do have a clear picture in their heads could probably not transmit it properly without a very very long explanation, and even then the other person would interpret it differently. Again, the people with a clear idea most likely all have a different one. The problem is when we say God we automatically think inside a box created by a life time of education, we think He is supernatural or above all else or something similar. Someone who's gone mad could tell you his turtle is his God who he obeys and very well mean it. More importantly, even when we have a clear idea we unconsciously interpret and reinterpret it all the time connecting it to other ideas or experiences, and what is curious about the unconscious is that it is what we think or feel but cannot put into language and clearly interpret. This means none of us can ever have a total and complete understanding of even our own conscious thoughts, so much less can we express them.

• A reply on Conversation: What is a fiction and what is real?

  Feb 28 2011: thank you :)
  would you say feelings are realities? regardless of the fact that we might experience them differently and that your brain interprets them like any other information, is pain or happiness real? if not how exactly did we go from non-living to non-thinking to everything being a fiction?

• A comment on Conversation: How does one make a significant change towards genuine education?

  Feb 28 2011: Kinder Garden Lesson #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA
  
  rather then teaching you how to fit a square into a square :D
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  A comment on Conversation: Should we take a gradualist approach to animal rights?

  Feb 28 2011: I think you'll enjoy this poem and perhaps you can use it in a presentation or something of the kind:
  
  f you can start the day without caffeine,
  If you can get going without pep pills,
  If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
  If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
  If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
  If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time.
  If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you,
  If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
  If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,
  If you can resist treating a rich friend better than an poor friend,
  If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
  If you can conquer tension without medical help,
  If you can relax without liquor,
  If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
  If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics,
  then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.
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  A comment on Conversation: How does one make a significant change towards genuine education?

  Feb 28 2011: Search Education Paradigms here on Ted, I think you'll what the video says. As an answer to your question I say I thank the world for idealists like you who still want such a change which will most likely never happen due to how much it would cost and due to the fact that for modern economy to keep going happily ever after the education system we have is almost perfect.
  
  I go to an international school in which we are so international we don't even care, so that's not it. I think History class is very important, since often they only teach you the facts so they can build your national identity. I think ideas should be taught, like what exactly is anarchism or socialism? Then you can start analyzing history in a very different way, not in HS, in elementary is where this should be taught.
  
  The most important thing I have to say is kids need to want to learn, and that comes from parenting, and since most parent haven't had a genuine education they can't make their children see what it is. There are too many parenting books out there, so for now I suggest teaching classes such as Theory of Knowledge in first grade rather than senior year.