Eyes, or an Eye, in the back of my Head －僕の頭の後ろにある目－

I remember wondering about eyes when I was a university student.  I understood the idea of evolution, and accepted that it was the best explanation for how life appeared and spread across the Earth.  But I couldn’t imagine how eyes could have evolved.  If each evolutionary change was a small step, how could something as complex as an eye appear?  How useful is half an eye, or a quarter of an eye? 

Luckily, there are scientists who study these things.  There are stages in the development of eyes, from more simple to more complex and effective (and sometimes back again, such as creatures that start to live underground).  We can feel sunlight on our skin.  Perhaps the eye started with a patch of skin that was just a little bit more sensitive at finding the sunlight. 

I heard about some new research about the evolution of eyes this week.  Scientists have found an ancient life form, which lived before the evolution of fish.  It had a worm-like body and one simple eye in the top of its head to help it detect sunlight.  The scientists believe that later animals such as fish evolved from these creatures.  So if you travel back far enough into our evolutionary past, there was a time when we were born with one eye, not two. 

The story also made me think of the English expression, “I have eyes in the back of my head.” 

Parents often say this to their naughty children.  It means, “I can see you, even when you think that you are out of my line of sight.” 

“Stop reading manga when you are supposed to be doing your homework!  I have eyes in the back of my head.”

 

Haven’t I Seen your Face Before? －あなたの顔を前に見たことがあるんじゃないか？－

I heard an interesting story on the radio this morning.  An elderly British man needed to buy some groceries.  So he went down to a local shop to pick up his bread, milk and so on. 

As he was walking through the aisles, selecting products, one of the shop staff came over to him. 

“I am sorry, but I am going to have to ask you to leave the shop, Sir.” 

The confused old man was led away towards the door.  At the door, he turned around and asked why he was being thrown out. 

“Our cameras have facial recognition software.  We have a contract with a company that registers the faces of suspected serial shoplifters.  The software has just set off an alarm, telling us that you are a serial shoplifter.” 

The old man had never stolen anything from a shop in his life.  He protested his innocence.  The shop staff gave the man the contact details of the company which had registered his face as that of a criminal. 

After some emails and discussion back and forth with this company, it was accepted that the man’s face had been added to the database in error.  He had visited a shop at around the same time that a shoplifter had.  The elderly man had to go through his banking details with the company to prove that he had paid for the items he had bought in the shop. 

So in the end the elderly man’s face was removed from the database of suspected shoplifters.  But he says he feels nervous when out shopping, and tries to avoid walking in front of surveillance cameras, in case the same thing happens again and he is shamed in public like a criminal. 

It seems like this is the future.  As more and more often we are being watched by technology, who is watching the technology?

Paperwork Problems －ペーパーワーク問題－

Governments love paperwork.  You need the correct visa, passport, form, permission slip, stamp or signature to get anything from the government.  And new governments love to change the paperwork.  The old stamp is no longer sufficient.  Now you need the new, and more expensive one. 

Now the stamps have been replaced with an online system.  But electronic permission is even worse than stamps, since there is never a real human being available for you to explain your problem to any more. 

“You will find all necessary information on our website.” 

Things get even worse when the government forgets to tell people that the process has changed. 

One such case of a sudden paperwork change has been making news this week in Britain.  The change affects people who hold dual nationality – that is, a British passport and also the passport of another country. 

Until this year, those dual nationals were able to enter the U.K. using either passport.  Now these people have to enter the U.K. only with their British passport. 

But the government did little to publicize the change.  Many dual nationals have let their British passport expire and made travel plans, not realizing that they would be unable to reenter Britain.  They are now scrambling to get their passports renewed, or are having to stay outside the U.K. longer than they had planned. 

The situation reminded me of the opening of Douglas Adams’ novel, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.  An alien fleet of ships suddenly appears above the Earth, ready to demolish the whole planet to make room for a kind of highway through space. 

The United Nations and the governments of Earth frantically complain that they hadn’t heard of these plans. 

The alien is entirely unsympathetic. 

“The plans have been available in the local planning office in Alpha Centauri for the last nine months.  Honestly, if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local government plans then that is your problem.”

 

Revenge of the Little People －小さい人たちの仕返し－

I recently listened to an audio version of an old book by a science fiction writer.  “The Cyberiad,” by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, was first published in 1965.  It is a kind of mixture of science fiction and fairy tales.  The idea is that robots in the far future tell their own series of fairy tales, partly explaining their morality and fears. 

The heroes of the stories are the constructor robots, Trurl and Klapaucius.  In one story, Trurl is travelling in deep space when he encounters another robot which is stuck on an asteroid.  Trurl lands on the asteroid and speaks to this other robot.  The robot explains that he was the king of one planet, but he was considered such a bad and cruel ruler that he was exiled to this asteroid and cannot now get off the lonely little world.  He begs Trurl to take him back to the planet which he once ruled. 

Trurl doesn’t want to upset the people of the planet by returning the exiled king.  But he feels sorry for the lonely robot.  So he promises to build a new world for the cruel king to rule over.  He builds a tiny little world full of microscopic creatures, who live and die on a world the size of a little box. 

The king is delighted with the gift and starts ruling over the world, threatening to shake the box and cause earthquakes if the inhabitants don’t follow his strict rules and build statues of him. 

Trurl flies away and meets his friend, Klapaucius.  When he tells Klapaucius what he has done, his friend is angry. 

“Why have you created this life and left it to be tortured by this awful king?  You have to go back to that asteroid and set the people of the box free.” 

Trurl realizes the cruelty he has inflicted on the microscopic creatures.  So he and Klapaucius return to the asteroid.  When they get there, there is initially no sign of the king, or the box.  The whole of the asteroid is covered in tiny cities.  Given their microscopic size, the created creatures live and develop much faster than fully sized creatures.  They have developed a high level of technology, and they have escaped their box and spread across the asteroid. 

Wondering what has happened to the bad king, Trurl eventually sees his frozen body, floating around the asteroid as a moon.  It seems that the creatures of the box rebelled against his rule and managed to expel him into space, where he will float above them forever, like a cold, dead god. 

All life that can think and feel pain is to be valued, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem, and no matter how humble or artificial its beginnings.

 

Willing to Sound Bad －下手に聴こえても構わない－

I am a big fan of the American band, Wilco.  I happened to find a book written by the lead singer, Jeff Tweedy recently.  It is called “How to Write One Song,” and it was very inspiring.  After reading the book, I started writing a song on the guitar.  I haven’t written any songs for about 15 years, but it was interesting to try Tweedy’s methods. 

Here are a few quotes from the book, and some of my thoughts about them. 

1

“Don’t undervalue things that come easy. Sometimes they’re the things that would be the hardest for someone else to do and often they are the things that would be almost impossible to do when you try too hard.” 

I once wrote a song in my sleep.  When I was a university student, I had a dream in which I was holding a guitar and singing a song.  I had a unique melody, and what seemed at the time to be interesting lyrics. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t own a guitar, and I didn’t know how to play one yet.  I had no recording device, either.  So I went back to sleep and my song was lost. 

Paul McCartney famously wrote the song “Yesterday” in the same way.  He wrote it in his dream.  So maybe Jeff Tweedy is right: sometimes the best things you create can come easily.

2

“No work of art is ever finished; it can only be abandoned in an interesting place.” 

Songs which someone has tried hard to perfect can often be less interesting than the first demo version of the same song.  Somehow, you can get a better sense of the warmth of the human musicians if you hear a rough vocal or a sigh or laugh caught on the microphone.  A good example of an imperfect but warm and slightly wonky recording is Orange Juice’s version of the song, “L.O.V.E.”.

 

3

“I find it’s almost impossible to put two words together and not find at least some meaning. We’re conditioned to look for patterns and identify mysteries to solve much more than we are designed to dictate what we’re searching for. I recommend allowing that natural curiosity and our sense-making brains to do their thing.” 

Tweedy suggests playing with words, and finding random connections between them to make unique lyrics.  Obviously not all random collections of words will be interesting, but you might be able to pick out a few interesting combinations, and build a poem or song lyric around those random combinations.

 

4

“So if you’re doing something with your free time other than writing a song, it’s because you really don’t want to write a song.” 

Don’t complain that you have no time to do something creative, and then sit down and watch tv for two hours.

 

5

“Being willing to sound bad is one of the most important pieces of advice that I can give you. Writing a song will teach you that it’s OK to fail. And more than that, that it’s actually good to fail, and that you can come to appreciate the gifts of failure.” 

The book sounds a bit Buddhist at times:  It’s not the destination that counts, but the journey.

 

Tweedy is convinced that doing something creative is good for your mental health.  It can be writing haiku, drawing pictures, or finding the beauty in an unusual sound.  Like God, we all have the power to create something that wasn’t there before, even if it is only ourselves that appreciate the creation.  And like a child we have created, our poem or song doesn’t even have to be great in every way for us to love it.

New Year, New Job for You －新年、あなたに向いている新しい仕事－

Since it is the start of a new year, it is a good time for new beginnings.  Do you feel trapped in a job that doesn’t suit you?  Why not consider a career move?  Here is some useful advice about different jobs from people who have really experienced the working conditions. 

1

Q: I am thinking of becoming a delivery driver?  Is it a good idea?

A: Your strange environment will disrupt your sleep cycle and mental health.  You must be able to withstand motion sickness, homesickness and claustrophobia on a daily basis.  If you can do that then this is a good job for you.

 

2

Q: I am thinking of becoming an English teacher in Japan.  Is it a good idea?

A: It is very rough on your body and doesn’t pay well.  There is a risk of being bitten, if you are not careful.  But if you can put up with all the strange smells and challenging behaviour, it can be a really rewarding job.

 

3

Q: I am thinking of becoming a politician.  Is it a good idea?

A: You must learn to hide your true feelings, live with a false identity and constantly manage stress and secrecy.  You have to be a little crazy to want to do this job, since the wrong word could put you in real danger.

 

4

Q: I am thinking of becoming an astronaut.  Is it a good idea?

A: You might think that this is an easy job – just loading up your vehicle and travelling.  But you have to be comfortable travelling in all kinds of weather, and working when many other people are having time off.

 

5

I am thinking of becoming a zoo keeper.  Is it a good idea?

A: You may encounter cheeky or naughty behaviour, but also you will have wonderful and rewarding interactions.

 

6

Q: I am thinking of becoming a secret agent.  Is it a good idea?

A: You probably shouldn’t do this job for the money or job security.  You might enjoy this job if you are an extravert, who loves being the centre of attention and talking to people.

 

Oops!  I have just realized that I have accidentally mixed up the answers.  They should be: Q1 is A4; Q2 is A5; Q3 is A6; Q4 is A1; Q5 is A2; and Q6 is A3).  Or was it right the first time? 

Ito and Atami, from a Monkey’s Perspective －伊東と熱海、お猿さんの観点から－

My family and I took a brief break to the hot spring resorts of Ito and Atami over the New Year’s holidays. 

We mostly enjoyed using the hotel pool and restaurant, but a few other things also caught my son’s imagination. 

As we were climbing up towards Atami Castle, we passed a group of trained monkeys performing a play.  A woman would ask one of the monkeys, “Are you feeling tired?” and the monkey would drag a little chair onto the stage and sit on it with legs crossed, or suchlike.  My wife and I felt a little uncomfortable for the sake of the monkeys, and would have liked to move on quickly.  But my son was mesmerized by the monkeys and wouldn’t leave.  He must have felt some affinity for the little creatures.  His role is basically to be the little monkey of our family, after all. 

My son also took the unusual step of spending money in Atami Castle.  He has developed a very tight-fisted attitude towards cash, and he generally prefers piling up and counting his money to spending it.  But he did buy a fortune for 200 Yen.  He got a level 2 good fortune, and was reasonably satisfied. 

Lastly, he really enjoyed the cable car ride which takes people up to and down from the castle.  It is regarded as one of the shortest cable car rides in Japan, taking only two or three minutes.  The car swung quite a lot as it moved.  I found it a little alarming, but then I didn’t have a piece of paper giving me level 2 good fortune.