This is a very interesting experiment — what exactly happens to the patients parts of whose orbitofrontal cortex (which plays a central role in regulating emotional feelings whether to approach or withdraw) are damaged so that they lost most of their emotional lives. Their reasoning and logical abilities are intact and they can perform normally on tests of intelligence. When these people go out into the world, you would assume these people are free of emotional distractions and able to see through the haze of feelings that blind the rest of us and achieve perfect rationality.

Just the opposite. They found themselves unable to make simplest decisions or set goals, and their lives fall apart. When they look out at the world and think, “What should I do now?” They see loads of choices but lack immediate internal feelings of like and dislike. They must examine the pros and cons of every option with reasoning, but in the absence of feeling, they see little reason to pick one over another.

Human rationality depends critically on sophisticated emotionality. Along a similar line, it’s hard for the controlled system to beat the automatic system by will power alone. That’s why all self-control would fail eventually if it’s up against one’s true desire.

Last day of 2010 — I read an article on Boredom (Boredom Enthusiasts Discover the Pleasures of Under-stimulation) and bought a book on Exuberance.

And I cooked a beautiful pot of mung bean soup for myself.

May next year be filled with genuine exuberance for life.

Two ways to apply for a Vietnamese visa — one is to line up in front of the Vietnamese consulate the other is much simpler and easier — apply on line and get your visa upon arrival. My indecision is completely hereditary, or more accurately, one clear parental imprint. Mom always prepared six pencils for me before every exam just in case — see the link?

Had a few drinks with a young girl at Soho. She is only 24 and still got a whole life ahead of her. I can’t say I’m not jealous. But I would not want to return to the 20s — young and stupid and easily scared. Now am halfway through. Had my fair share of regrets already.

Robert Burton called it “gut feeling” — “involuntary mental sensations that function independently of reason”. William James described it as “felt knowledge”, something extraordinarily difficult to be dislodged through rational arguments. I call it “intuitive knowledge”.

Cognitive scientists now seem to believe the bulk of our thoughts originate in the areas of the brain inaccessible to conscious introspection. The trick in Chris Nolan’s “Inception” — the planting of an idea in human mind — if it can ever work, we have to sort out where to plant it first. Thoughts arrive in consciousness already coloured with inherent bias. Our perceptions are filtered through our genetic predispositions, biological differences and idiosyncratic life experiences. Your red is not my red. These differences extend to the very building blocks of thoughts. Thinking may be as idiosyncratic as fingerprints.

Illusion is also a form of perception. If you think you can actually see the world as it is, you are in illusion.

Certainty is not biologically possible. We must learn to tolerate the unpleasantness of uncertainty.