Thought Transfer

  She is the most decorated female soldier in history. Here's her story: Born June 28 1888. Not much is known about her early life, apart from the fact that she had a brother. When he was drafted into the Serbian military in 1912, she chose to take his place. She cut her hair and adopted the name 'Milun'. Women were only allowed to work as medical staff in the army at the time, but Milunka wanted to see battle. She fought in the two Balkan Wars as a part of the Iron Regiment and in the Battle of Bregalnica, she was promoted to Corporal. When she was injured in the 2nd Balkan War, it was discovered that she was a woman. She was brought to her commander, who didn't want to punish her for serving her country, so he decided to transfer her to the nursing division. She declined and said she only wanted to serve her country as a soldier. They decided to let her. A year later, Serbia found itself in the First World War, with half a million Austria-Hungarians invading it. In De...

The internet is filled with a slew of viewpoints and perspectives that are readily available with just a simple google search. This overwhelming amount of information can lead to people actively seeking out only the viewpoints they agree with and are subsequently subject to confirmation bias. Social media can amplify this by their use of intelligent algorithms. The social media algorithms are designed to recommend us content that we may be interested in based on our likes and what content we consume. This is an effective way of keeping us on the platform for longer so we consume more and more content and see more ads. This has an adverse effect as the algorithm only shows us content that we agree with. We never see the other side of the argument, but rather only what we want to hear. This devolves into an 'echo chamber' situation. An echo chamber is an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own so that their existing views are...

Politics are depressing. Look at it from any angle, the political sphere across the entire world is full of depressing headlines and mistrust. Yet we choose to find and/or create positivity in this field. The one positive thing I see in Pakistani Politics is the youth. The youth has great ideas, perspectives, and potential. They, over time, will replace the politicians, activists, and government bodies, thus challenging the norms and values set by their predecessors.  Why do I believe this? Well, it's simple: today's youth is hyper-aware of anything and everything going on around them due to the internet. They also have the ability to form and spread their ideas on social media. I believe that this and this alone will bring change to Pakistan. The youth will offer a new perspective to existing problems and that will lead to progress and prosperity. Another development in today's youth is that the majority is petty left-leaning when it comes to politics. Leftism in Pakistan...

 One of the major problems in the world is division. We somehow love to divide amongst ourselves. Be it on basis of race, religion, creed, culture, gender, sexuality, wealth, power, status, and political stance. We love to draw arbitrary lines between ourselves. It's easier to hate than to love.  But why? Seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Why would a species that evolved to work as a team and be social try to divide itself and hinder the performance of everyone? Each of us thinks in a different way. We all process information differently and quickly make our opinions. This has far been hypothesized into being the main cause of our division. Many argue that because we all see the world slightly differently, so we cannot agree with each other on one interpretation of the world. Some suggest that it may be because we want to feel safe. The unknown scares us, and so, we naturally want to protect ourselves from what is fearful. We like being around people who are like us and rem...