Social Hacking

The world does not exist..

admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:39:55 +0000

Sorry for the scattered post but I am having quite a writers block and other projects are taking most of my time. I am currently in my first exam week of the year. Luckily I only have one exam in robotics tomorrow so hopefully the rest of next week won't be that stressful. Currently the main project I am working on is exploring bluetooth. As some of you might know I am really interested in computer security and bluetooth is a mobile platform that does not seem to be very secure. Turn off the bluetooth on your phone when you are not using it to protect yourself. I never do any damage with the programming I do, however, I know that it is fully possible to for example erase you phone book without getting your permission.

Besides the bluetoothing I have been thinking about religion. I believe that from the beginning religion was only invented for crowed control. Yes, I said invented. I know that saying this will probably hurt or make some of you who are reading this upset. However, it is only my own though and I don't try to convince anyone else that I am correct. I do however respect people no matter what they believe in, as long as they don't hurt anyone else.

A new line of though that I have had is that no matter what you believe in you can't really say that prove to anyone that you are right or/and that they are wrong. For example I am an atheist, I believe in evolution and that gravity is the force that pulls us towards earth. However I can't prove to anyone that there aren't for example tiny angels that are pulling us all towards earth.

Another simple example is the question is the earth round. Most of you, if not all, will answer yes to this question but how many of you actually know that the world is in fact round. Yes, you might have seen pictures of earth from space but can't they be fake? What if everyone is trying to make you believe that the world is round? Do you actually have any proof that the world is round?

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S03E01: All the same, but waay different

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:20:13 +0000

I am hopefully back blogging again, and I am changing more things. When I started this blog I was hoping to show you the psychological views that I had of the world. However, sadly I don't have the time anymore to write those post which I called lessons. In what I called season two I had a little more relaxed approach with shorter posts and less detail. In this, "third season", I am going to (hopefully) write more posts, but they are going to be very different from the previous posts. I will talk more about day-to-day things I encounter and share my thoughts at that moment. I hope you'll like it!

I am using this post as a little start up. I need to get used to writing again(!).
As you probably already know I am a computer scientist student at The Royal Institute of Technology and I spend most of my day in front of a computer. This semester I have, as usual, taking to many courses and I have way to much work to do. However, I do get some time over to think and analyze. I have started to read a couple of psychological blogs that I will comment on in upcoming posts. I know that some people reading this have studied psychology and I have gotten some interesting comments from these people. My views are at times different from what these people have learned and I have had some interesting discussion about this fact. My own opinion is that psychology is just based on human theories, you can't really be wrong or right. If I had the exact same ideas and thoughts as everyone else, why would anyone like to read what I am writing?

I really like to hear your opinions on what I am writing, I promise not to bite.

As I said I have read some interesting blogs discussing psychology. The other day I read that taking a walk every now and then can improve your memory by 20%. Reading on it showed that taking a walk in a nice and calm environment will relax us and when we return to our tasks we will be able to focus better. The interesting part was the psychological effect of the environment. If you took a walk in a urban area your memory did not improve as much as when taking a walk in the forest. Even when just looking at a picture of a calm landscape the mind was able to relax more then when looking at a picture of a city. This last part I think was the most interesting. The mind does a lot of work even though we don't think about it. Just by seeing a picture of a city we will imagine being in a city. Think about how the pictures on the wall in your home look. Do you live in a psychologically relaxed environment?

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S02E08: Eavesdropping cont.

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:00:26 +0000

I been thinking a little bit more about the unwritten rules that we humans follow (or don't follow). These rules differ between both different cultures and different sexes. I think that the cultural rules are easier to analyze and understand. However, the difference in rules between the sexes are more interesting to analyze. So I am going to do a little thinking about those differences in this post.
A few post back I was talking about a conversation that I heard on the bus and the mind games a girl was playing with this guy (boy/guy/man, girl/woman, late teens, early twenties). I call them games but according to the tone of her voice and the way she acted it seemed like something completely normal. The interesting part was that I don't know if she really liked the guy, however, the important part was to understand if he liked her.
So to accomplished this she apparently dumped him and expected him to come crawling back. This I personally don't understand at all. If I would get dumped by a girl I would respect her decision and not try anymore (is that wrong?). However, according to her rules, he should come back if he really liked her.
The other thing I clearly noticed was how important and obvious it was at what time he should call here. For example, if she called him and asked him for a dateish meeting but they did not agree on a time, he was supposed to call here back the next day before noon. Since otherwise he did not want to meet here. Another example was when he called her just to talk one day, if he did the same thing withing 5 hours again he was desperate.
I have tried to understand these thing and given up. Anyone who wants to explain?

I just have to add that I am not writing my blog to judge people or to make you think the way I think. I only write this blog because I think this subject is really interesting. I enjoy sharing my though and I really enjoy discussing things like this with other people. If I offend anyone, please tell me..

I got a sticker on my laptop that advertises this blog. I have gotten a few questioning looks today. I like it. (thought about making a smiley.. but naah..)
http://www.socialhacking.org/index.php

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S02E07: Listen and learn..

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:34:45 +0000

I am currently in the waiting room of a hospital. Nothing serious, just checking on my arm that I hurt last week and it doesn't seem to heal. However, I found something really interesting here that I am keeping myself entertained with. There are some people here talking to each other in another language. (I hope I don't offend any of you by writing this, I am sorry if I do). I would guess that it is Turkish or something similar. I don't dare to ask them what language it is since I been listening for quite a while now, long waiting times in Swedish hospitals.. However, that is not the interesting thing.
I haven't understand a single word of what they have said, beside a few phrases of Swedish that they have mixed in. Even with not understanding one word, I still have an idea of what they are talking about. They are very expressive and use there a lot of body language to express themselves. Compared to swedes talking they are much more expressive. They use different tone in when talking about different important things. If swedes where talking in the same way I would defiantly think that they where arguing. That's what I though that these people also where doing at first, however, after more careful listening I realized that they where just talking about everyday things. They are incredibly friendly towards all doctors and people who approach them.
Form this I can defiantly see a lot of conflicts between cultures arise. You can't really be that expressive when talking to a “regular” swede. Well, swedes are a little strange in usual but I can defiantly see a lot of prejudiced coming from this.
As I said, I though they where fighting at first, however, I was clearly mistaken. Don't make the same mistake.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S02E06: Hi there..

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:54:22 +0000

I had another interesting lecture in my language technology course today (not today anymore). It was about (at least the interesting part) interaction with dialog systems and how humans communicate. We humans have a set of unwritten “rules” when it comes to communicating. These rules will for example tell you who's turn it is to talk. These rules are something that we learn very early on, maybe even before we learn to speak. For example when someone ends there sentence with a question, you know that it is your turn to talk.
These rules can also be exploited. Politicians are often very skilled at this and used it to a point when it starts to get amusing (yes, I think its fun to see these things in action). Just watch any questioning of a politician and see how they keep the word until they have finished there whole answer. They never make a pause or give an end to there answer unless they are really finished with there answer.
Lost my train of though...

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S02E05: Limits

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:31:22 +0000

No, I have not died.. (yes, I got that question). The reason why I don't update my blog is that I simply don't have time to write. As soon as I get some more free time I will update this blog more frequently.
Anyhow, I will write a little more this time...
So this weekend I ran the Cologne (Köln) Marathon. For you who don't know, a marathon involves running 42 km or 27.1 miles. I completed the race in 3 hours and 53 minutes, which means that I had a lot of time to think.
The main thing that I distracted myself with was to think about how the human body handles pain. After 41 km, my legs were really stiff and my brain told me to just stop. However, I was still able to continue and even run faster the last kilometer. The interesting thing about this is that even though our brain tells us that we should not be able to do something, our body can still go through with it. However, the next day it was quite clear that I should have listened to my brain since my whole body was aching.
The same thing (not as interesting though) can be applied to when our brain tells us that we are thirsty. We do not have to drink, however, if we ignore it long enough we will surely die.
In some way we humans can affect these signals that our brain gives us and to some degree choose to ignore them. So my next though was; what would happen if we were able to completely turn of these signals? This could be compared with turning of our basic survival instincts. If it would be possible we would probably die pretty quickly because we would forget to eat or drink.
In the marathon running case, without any signals from my brain, I would probably have been able to finish the race in a better time. I come to this conclusion because I was still able to walk after the race, if I had used all my energy I would not have been able to stand. However, a more realistic conclusion would be that I'd died before the end of the race since if I was able to use all my energy without restrictions, my heart would not have the energy to beat.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S02E04: Eavesdropping

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:55:57 +0000

I am currently on the bus on my way home from school. It's 11.30 PM and the bus is almost empty. I usually listen to my mp3-player during the ride home, however, today I forgot it at home. The reason why I started writing this post is the girl who is sitting a couple of rows behind me. She is talking really loud on her cellphone and without trying I can hear every word she is saying. There are a few things that I started to think about.
Withing the first minute I knew her name (only first name), where she lived, and where she went to school. Just this information can be used in many ways as a social hacker. It also reminded me about one of my favorite quotes: The quieter you become the more you can hear. I got all this information without even asking for it.
Another thing that was interesting was how she was talking in the phone. She talk just like the person on the other line was sitting in front of her. She was shaking her head when she did not agree and making gestures with her hands. I have seen this many times and I am probably a victim of it myself. Body language is something that we use sub-consciously. Somehow we don't need the confirmation of someone standing in front of us to start using body language. This also shows how important it is to pay attentional to someones body language because it could provide us with information that we otherwise would not get.
The last thing that caught my attention was what the conversation was about. It was between her and one of her friends. In short they were talking about a guy that she somehow knew and maybe liked. The interesting thing was the mind games that she was playing with this guy. She tried to figure out if this guy liked her by for example seeing how long it took for him to call her a second time. Then she had tried to reject him just to see how much he was willing to put into their relationship. She had all these unwritten rules and ideas about what people to when they like each other. That is another interesting topic that I will talk about another time. Now I need to get some sleep. Good night!

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

S02E03: Prejudgment

admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:10:31 +0000

We talked a little more about unnecessary content in written text today in my language technology class. We looked statistics from written Swedish. It turns out that you can remove 67% of the words and still understand the meaning. Insert conclusion here.
What is important to realize though, is that this extra information does help us when we talk. So in a optimized language you might have to differ written from spoken text.

Over to something new that I have put some though into; prejudgment. I have been trying to advice people to be less judging when meeting new people and in other social situations (conflicts?). However, I have also realized that we will never be able to not judge people. Prejudice comes subconsciously. The only way to not judge someone is to know everything and do you know anyone who is all knowing? (besides God or Santa or whomever you believe in). We all live in our small bubbles. No matter how much you explore or learn, you will only make your bubble a little bigger but never pierce it (nice metaphor?). However, what we can do is hold back our prejudice, try not to act upon it.
Try to consider how prejudgment affects the decisions of others. One easy example is when getting a bank loan. Does wearing a suit improve your chances of getting the loan?

Original post blogged on b2evolution.