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By deathstillness
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09 January 2007 |
what does it mean to be happy? I was asking myself this question since ever. Is it having enough money? Is it being healthy? Is it about ebing free? Is it about having a family? a house? a job? million Dirham or whatever currency you wish? what is happiness? Is it something that is fixed? Do we decide what happiness is? Does happiness existed and we try to reach it? I have been through such an amzing experience a year ago, or maybe two years ago. That made me think about this. Follows is what actually happned:
I have some kind of an encyclopedia on my MSN list and there is this cute robot that is online all the time to answer your question. We had this conversation: [10:35:59] Fulanah: what does happiness mean?
[10:36:05] Encarta® Ins: Here is the definition for happiness: feeling
pleasure.
[10:37:05] Fulanah: are you happy?
[10:37:15] Encarta® Ins: I know that I can pretend to be happy. At
least you seem to think it's possible.
OK, should we get back to the kind of questions I was
designed to answer? :-) I'm sure you've heard about
Kyrgyzstan... but do you know where it is? Just ask me and
I'll show it to you on a map.
[10:37:46] Fulanah: it is in Asia.. I know that!
[10:37:56] Encarta® Ins: You are quite smart. But there are many more
things I can teach you!
[10:38:05] Fulanah: Ok
[10:38:14] Encarta® Ins: OK.
[10:38:26] Fulanah: Thanks for the help..
Here we ended the conversation and I was left to think if I was happy or not according to my own view of happiness. Does it actually matter?
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interesting
Written by johniebg (553 comments posted) 9th January 2007 | firstly: if you dont want people knowing your msn login you may want to change it in this post if you have not already.
I really liked the questing nature of this and the thought you could ask an online encarta what happiness is.
I am rubbish at flags so don't have any idea where you live accept that it does not sound like Europe, so if english is not your first language then this is all the more impressive.
Good stuff. |
Written by Bottleblondesurfer (3457 comments posted) 9th January 2007 | I'm not very computer literate so sure about MSM. I must say that the encarta thingy does sound interesting. I thought the idea of asking an encyclopedia about happines is a bit of inspired surreal genius. Idon't know if you meant it to be funny but it made me smile. I'm sure there is a funny sketch just waiting to be written. I wish you hadn't stopped when you did.
Idon't know whether it helped you with happiness but your piece cheered me up and added a little to my happiness quota anyway
cheers
J |
Written by ellipinnock (1753 comments posted) 9th January 2007 | I think this is one of those pieces where a slightly unexpected idea comes out. I reckon BBS is right, there's potential for a comedy sketch in this...
Elli |
Written by Fledermaus (3456 comments posted) 10th January 2007 | This is realy cool. A chatterbot who actually makes no secret of being one. It's cute indeed.
Did you ever hear of Eliza? She was one of the first chatterbots, designed to imitate a psychologist and with a rather primitive algorithm, yet during an experiment, patients were put behind a computer and they could talk about their problems with her. Many of them actually asked if they could be helped by Eliza again next time, for they actually thought she was better than the human psychologists  |
Written by Phil (6851 comments posted) 10th January 2007 | | With all of the above on this one. Not much to add, so- Well done. Phil. | Thanks yall
Written by deathstillness (13 comments posted) 10th January 2007 | Hey all, thank you very much for the comments you made.
johniebg: I was amazed that it acyually said un expected thing like "pretending to be happy" I mean this really touched me. The flag thing: I am from the United Arab Emirates. I am an English graduate; so English is my second language.
Bottleblondesurfer: I am glad you liked it. I kept on asking more questions but Encarta kept reminding me of the reason why it was designed; answering people questions. I was thinking "God, it is not allowed to talk about itself. Here I had an interesting idea of a sketch, cannot wait to start writing it down.
ellipinnock: hey, thanks! Emmm, can you suggest few to help me start? I have one of my own, but comdey! emm!
Phil: thanks very much. I will keep on writing, of you all guys will keep on reading
Regard,
Death | : (
Written by deathstillness (13 comments posted) 23rd January 2007 | | What a writer I am asking others to help me with my own writing, I mean with ideas! I am a bit ashamed! |
Written by Tusk (53 comments posted) 6th March 2007 | This was amusing. I love how after caught out by the happiness question Encarta tried to redeem itself by asking a completely off topic geography question.
Talking to computers is fun...try smarterchild@hotmail.com (on msn). |
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