Something In The Wall

Hello, friends and fans alike, I have written a new story - which I haven't done for too long. So I hope you enjoy it. I would like to mention that this was written for a couple of friends, so I did need to keep it short, but the most important thing is that with these said friends (Chris and Woody), we are going to be working on making this into a video. However, it will not be ready for a long while, so for now, you'll have to be content with the reading. Heh, well... here you go:

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Something In the Wall

    The first couple of weeks in a new house, you have to get accustomed to so many things. Little differences that scatter your day, jarring you from a certain status quo. As I eased my way around the fresh house that day, I made a point of taking note of the little things that stood out. My partner was away on business for another two weeks, leaving me to learn the ins and outs on my own, which was fine by me – I relished the personal time. Without too many new furnishings decided upon, the place was sparse. Naturally, I spent a good twenty minutes dancing around the free space, in a way only I could. It helps to get to know the place.

     There are other things than just the décor to get used to though. The speed of the taps, for example, or the springiness of a new bed. The general feel of the place; the atmosphere of the way the sun shines during the day, and the specific noises in the night. Especially the noises in the night.

     It had been a long day moving a load of stuff, so I decided to have an early bed time, around nine thirty, and it wasn't until around eleven that night when I was woken. A banging and a struggle sounding from downstairs that felt utterly frantic. It was accompanied by some kind of raised voice and I figured it was just my luck for next door to have a domestic, and ruin my first special sleep in the new place. It continued for a fair while, but I managed to drift off again – although I'd barely woken up at all – and slept through the night.

     I woke, startled as to where I was, naturally. Then followed that first proper breath of fresh air that felt like the joy of a new beginning, a fresh start to a long and happy next part of my life. It wasn't until around midday I thought about those strange sounds I had heard from my bed, and then it came to my attention that I did not even have neighbours. When I remembered that the place was detached, a shiver ran up my spine. I really didn't want to disturb my partner on business, so I just left a message instead. Though, it was just one time, so I forgot about the odd noises until later that night.

     It was around eleven when I heard the first thud. I was walking through the living room and a dull boom engulfed the silent space, definitely coming from the wall. I stepped closer to examine the wall, and it happened again, a stirring feeling built up inside of me. I knocked on the wall, not sure whether I'd be happy or not to hear the scattering of rats, then the thing in the wall screamed at me. A muffled screaming of someone with their mouth clamped shut burst from the wall accompanied by the urgent thudding, as if whatever was inside wanted to get out.

     Adrenaline was the only thing that carried me out of my house, hyperventilating and totally not in control of myself. After an hour, having calmed somewhat, and no replies on my phone, I realised that I would need to go back into the house. If I could just sleep through the night and sort it out in the morning, though I don't know what I could do. Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep through either the adrenaline, or periodic screams of someone trapped, and eventually I couldn't take it any more. I got up at around three in the morning, sought out a claw hammer that I had only unpacked that day, and readied myself for the wall to wail again.

     The second I heard the thing in the wall scream, I screamed with it in retaliation. I wrenched my arms back and struck a small chip into the plaster wall with my hammer. It wasn't enough. I smashed the same spot again and again until there was a visible hole, and the screaming stopped. An eerie nothing embraced the room, I approached the hole, no larger than a once folded post-it note, and cautiously looked inside. The room's light didn't give much illumination, so I grabbed a torch. Flashing the light inside, everything was still. Cracked lips smiled at me. I panicked and fell and everything went black.

     When I woke, I woke in shock. I tried to look around, but my head felt completely restricted. Everything was pitch black and my throat was dry, though my arms had a certain amount of freedom. I balled my hand and punched forwards, my fist met with a dull thud. I started hyperventilating, scratching the back of the plaster, and screamed the muffled scream of a mouth contained.

Answering Questions on Intelligence.

A Question I Was Recently Asked: 

"What Determines Intelligence?"

My Reply: 

Interesting question, and one that would elicit many different responses depending on whom you asked. That said, it isn't to say all of those responses wouldn't have similar patterns to them.

The interesting thing here is that intelligent, clever, smart, savvy, wise, bright, knowledgeable - they all mean completely different things. Though 'intelligent' seems to be the go-to phrase when we mean to talk about all of them, so let's work under that assumption. What makes some intelligent? Understanding. What is understanding? This is something I mentioned briefly in my 7th Introspection about introspection:

"Introspection is important. So important, in fact, I would suggest it is the separation between intelligent human beings and - to put it sensitively - those with no desire to learn. If sentience is judged by the ability to hold an understanding of our actions within our net of the world (as oppose to acting purely based on survival as non-human animals do), then surely up that scale is the ability to reflect upon yourself, and the reviewing of your own words, beliefs, actions to the greatest understanding."

That is to say, that when you learn things in certain ways - that builds to your own world view. You're able to see things in a certain way and evaluate other forms of knowledge as to their truth value depending on how well they fit into your world view. Someone who is intelligent will not only be able to reel off information about things they know, but admit what they do not know, whilst also coming to valid conclusions about those things they do not know, based on their world view. Of course the wise move after that is to do a bit of research and find out if you're right or not.

The key here is the application of the stuff that you know and being able to extend it to many situations. For example, if you learn about Pavlovian conditioning, then come across needing to train a Crocodile, you'd be a fool to think you were clever by applying that knowledge and end up trying to make the crocodile salivate for dog food. You'd need take a step back, figure out the Crocodile's stimulations, and then base your feeding and desired training around that. Applying the situation without having prior knowledge. (Crocodiles have incredibly sensitive touch to vibrations in the water, and not so in depth hearing. They wouldn't respond to commands, but systematic time based feeding could elicit certain behaviours from them, in case you were interested :P)

Think of it like this. People who do Physics are very clever at what they do. So they learn a few things in physics and they build a net of knowledge out of that, and they test all new theories against this net to see if it sticks. The problem here is all they have is a net of physics, and while it's a good net of physics, there's not much you can do with that net when you ignore certain other things like social skills, or art appreciation, or cookery. So you get two kinds of physicists like this, the ones who are arrogant because they think they know loads, then the ones who're aware that what they know is just specialist physics knowledge. Which of these do you think is more intelligent? The one who introspects.

You need to be able to know that you don't know things. Your net understanding of the world needs to accurately involve yourself, understanding the consequences of your own actions and the extent of what you are. Everyone always improves, and nobody ever knows enough, even on their death bed... so intelligence can only be determined by both what someone actually knows ('knowing' is a complicated process of Epistemology on it's own. We'll ignore that for now.) and their ability to learn.

This isn't a new idea at all. Dawkins suggests that humans are separated from animals because we're capable to understanding ourselves within our net of the world. And it's as far back as Socrates who points out '...I only know that I know nothing.' Meaning the first step to being clever is to view yourself and then understand the extent of how little you know. From there, it's an upwards curve of a mostly humble desire to learn.

Furthermore, someone with a lot of arrogance about their knowledge is significantly less intelligent than they think they are. This is because you need to cast off your arrogance to be able to fully learn, because the second you truly think you know loads of things, you stop improving, or striving to do so.

As a final note, being intelligent isn't judged the same across the board. People are every bit their potential as they are the skills they already have. For someone young, say 16-17, it's a matter of their capability to introspect, desire to learn and potential to understand - as opposed to being judged on the things they have already learned, and their world view.

Hope this helps!