A Strange Thing About Life

As I read about 5 Centimeters Per Second review -- it's 8.0 in IMDB, btw -- I searched the bad comments of it. I'm interested in people whom commented bad about this movie because not many of them. In fact, there was only one or two bad reviews! Anyway, I found a comment intriguing that commented about:
  1. How can a guy can't let go his first love? Why he drifted instead?
  2. As little children we are forced to get along with parents decisions, but as an adult person you can fulfill your desires. Why not search her?
A man drifted by his unrequited love? A very interesting theme indeed. I don't think a man drifted into his love is bound to Japanese theme. There are many stories about man drifted with his unrequited love. The most I remember would be Hamlet.

I also got a true story about a person whom drifted with his unrequited love. My father said he had a friend whom had someone dear in his heart. Unfortunately, they were separated by their countries. Until the day my father told me the story, his friend never got married. My father said the friend of his still longing for the one he love.

"Reality" Logic

So, why Takaki Toono, the protagonist, couldn't moving forward?

Have you as a person whom have desire chose to chase that desire? I think most people won't do it, especially in these modern days. We are culturally raised to kill our dreams as we grow old. We have many things in our young days and by the logic of what we call reality, we soon forget those dreams.

What is this "reality" logic?

You would die from a car accident. That's the logic. But, reality doesn't always like that. There is this chance that the car would stop in the right time. There is a chance that you only have broken ribs. There is a chance that you could move your body accordingly to have minimal impact with the car.

Now what's the "reality" logic does?

It makes you to choose to close your eyes and surrender.

The way reality logic reads into what they call reality, is a logic that have presets of choices based on what they would think. So, instead of people take good care into statistical evaluation, they would believe that the confidence level of the decision is 100%. That's why people would give up. As if that there is no other branch prediction that things would be done otherwise.

Strangely, the way of science prove otherwise. There would always be a confidence level not 100% for a hypothesis. If you have been in social study and creating math model to discover a relationship an occurrence with others, you would have to prove it. The proving comes with confidence level of 99.9% or 99.99%. Meaning, although the hypothesis is proven, there would be a 0.1% or 0.01% chance that what you prove is wrong.

Human are not scientific. In modern days, they use their hunch for defying other possibilities. They would call their love unfathomably unreasonable to search. So, in the case of Toono, he won't hire a private detective to search of his love, given that he is wealthy enough to hire one. Like modern people, he would have doubt that the other side would move on. Or, he would be so busy with other things that he thinks that the reason of his feeling is not significant enough. Or, may be he just don't know how to have help.

It is different between knowing how to have help with knowing what help is. It's like you know how to bake a cake, but you have never put an effort to bake one. That may because you would felt troublesome, unmanly, or simply you think that a cake store is enough.

When you know you need help but you don't asked for help, that's what you would think that baking a cake yourself is troublesome. You would think the trouble when you have to go to groceries, buying the ingredients, and walk hours of trial of error. Some of you may think that the money should go elsewhere. So, instead invested in that "risky" opportunity, you would go something safer.

When you know you need help but convince yourself you are right is like men think kitchen is for women. Unconsciously, we are often make our own wall of thought because of the cultural ways when we are being raised. In many ways it is a good thing, e.g. you would not do something that hurt other, you would not steal, and so on. In other many ways, it make you stop thinking of possibilities, e.g. putting tea on a bottle in the 80's would be considered weird; people would not bother to buy litter; why would people buy something that they can get free? And so on....

When you know you need help but convince yourself that the help method is for others, you are thinking that baking should be done in cake store. You would step away from discovering new possibilities and trust that the truth is something that proven long ago. You would not go far from what your environment think. You would comfortable from the box of mind sets by your society and decided not to made one different thing.

You would say that move on is what people should do. That's the common sense. But, why are you still have lingering feeling?

The common sense is not always a common result. I believe life is an NP Complete problem. There is no optimal answer for it. But, people would assume it otherwise. Thus, the lingering feelings and troublesome heart.

In case of Toono, his loneliness in modern society touch his sentimental side. I believe that's because of, according to Maslow's 5 level of needs, people needs to have acknowledgement from others. Technology separates people from other people. The vending machine would make you less contact with the people whom run the business. All of your needs are fulfilled until you are in the level of need of someone else. Suddenly, in that time you realize that there is this gap in your heart.

The gap would made a man ask about what the life itself. The question leads into realization that you are alone. Then, the gap widened. As it widening, the man fathoms in the search for fulfilling the gap. Man would cling into whatever man have, i.e. the best time of that particular person with others.

Choosing What Is Right

Like I said, there is no effective solution to a fulfilled life. I think everyone uses Genetic Algorithm to find their own solution. So, instead of going to compute the whole equation, which is impossible, the person would search local maximum/minimum for the best choice he/she can make.

In case of Toono, he chose to think that the girl of his dream have walked away and have a new wonderful life. As she is happy, he should be starting to made one too. So, he chose to walked away with new smile.

In case of a certain friend, the person would choose to hate. To find a satisfaction in hating the other person, then the person would felt alive.

In some cases, they would engulf their selves in another love. Hoping that that love would washed away the old wound. Thus, playboy/girl.

In weirder cases, they choose to end their own life.

What about me? Well, I would lie if I tell you I had one. I barely feel anything. :P

People and A.I.

I think people thinking like any A.I. algorithm but with greater parameters. People would consider backtracking their past events to be an input to predict the next event. Then, based on the area of their heart, they would compute the maximum/minimum locality. The result would make them learn.

Some would lucky enough have their equations getting better because of a revelation of things from others. Some that lucky enough to watch TEDTalk videos or similar. Some that having series of events that formed his/her thinking. Some that wise enough to know all of this. Just like bayesian equation would gets better in SPAM fighting game. The corpus would make you wiser and getting the right choice.

Well, for most other, they would trapped in the maximum/minimum locality from the equation sets by common sense.

But, for you, my dear reader, you need to know that there are possibilities. You are entitled to have happiness. It's just you have to bake your own cake not just buy it from the store.

Comments

  1. cardepus9:35 PM

    Wuih....panjang yah :P
    "All of your needs are fulfilled until you are in the level of need of someone else. Suddenly, in that time you realize that there is this gap in your heart."

    I really agree with that sentence. Right now, I am a happy girl. I have a good job (ya...as a PhD student, I think it is a good job with good salary :P), good place to stay, nice environment, good food everyday, good colleagues. But, I feel lonely....really lonely...I miss my old colleagues.

    Huhuhu...apa gw cepet2 nikah aja yah biar punya temen sekamar :P

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  2. Aih, Olin feeling sentimental.... xD

    Jangan lupa undangannya :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. to think that '5 centimeters per second' had a very deep meaning and subtleties to it... I'm not alone! *not-so-important joy of life I found today* =D

    anyway. Takaki's case is very much open for interpretations depending on the viewer, and how they relate themselves to the theme. though yes, the loneliness in society itself lent a good part to it... and how, in Takaki and Akari's earlier days.

    also this,

    "[...] the man fathoms in the search for fulfilling the gap. Man would cling into whatever man have, i.e. the best time of that particular person with others."

    I very much agree. then again, aren't all we.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:10 PM

    sial.

    ~malesLogin

    ReplyDelete
  5. @yud1: Well, I think it is normal to think that there is something to that depressing movie... xD

    ReplyDelete

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