A Tiny Flaw in the Plan

Othello

Act 5, Scene 1

Lines 9-23

RODERIGO

I have no great devotion to the deed,

And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons.

‘Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword! He dies.

                                       [He draws his sword.]

IAGO

I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,

And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio,

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,

Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo,

He calls me to a restitution large

Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him

As gifts to Desdemona.

It must not be. If Cassio do remain,

He hath a daily beauty in his life

That makes me ugly. And besides, the Moor

May unfold me to him. There stand I in much peril.

No, he must die. (Be ‘t) so. I (hear) him coming.

Othello, written by William Shakespeare, displays what human’s worst characteristics lead to. The combination of pure evil, selfishness, and complete loss of conscience is imported into the Iago’s character. His carefully plotted cruel plan leads to the death of general Othello, and his innocent wife, Desdemona. Iago’s desire for power and money backfires on him, thus destroying his life as well.

One of Iago’s ways of executing his plan is convincing others to do his job. He gives fake evidences, promises that cannot be fulfilled, and shameless lies. Roderigo, one of Iago’s victims, who is in love with Desdemona, believed in the villain’s every word. Even though he sometimes doubts what the hypocrite tells him, Roderigo still shows as naïve and believes him:

I have no great devotion to the deed,

And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons.

Iago has carefully manipulated the poor man, taking all of his treasures and convincing him to kill the main “enemy”, Cassio. At the end, the only person who would have any gain from all this would be Iago. He has convinced his general, Othello, that his wife is cheating on him with Cassio. Thus, Othello orders Iago to kill the poor man, not realizing that all of the villain’s words are false. Instead of at least following that order, Iago tells Roderigo to perform the murder. He, lied that Cassio is Desdemona’s lover, doesn’t need much and he easily goes in action: “‘Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword! He dies.” This shows how Roderigo has been persuaded to such a degree, that he goes ahead with full confidence. Despite that Iago convinces him to kill another man, he begins having second thoughts about the whole thing.

At the moment that Iago starts having second thoughts about whether or not his plan would be successful if only Cassio died, the whole “pyramid” begins to collapse piece after piece. In the beginning, Iago thinks that he has one-hundred percent sure gain:

… Now, whether he kill Cassio,

Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other,

Every way makes my gain. …

This is a turnover in the whole play as it is the moment which brings the doubt in Iago’s thoughts and plan, and makes it urgent for him to come up with a “option B”. So then he thinks over what the two possible outcomes would be: if Cassio remains alive, Iago might get revealed and his evil web of lies would be finally unfolded; the second option, if Roderigo remains alive, then Iago would owe him jewels and gold that he had taken before that as “gifts” for Desdemona. The quick improvised solution that Iago thinks of, i.e. to kill both of them, doesn’t cover a third possible outcome – if both Cassio and Roderigo remain alive.

The solution comes as the most obvious one: the murder of both Cassio and Roderigo. But here Iago fails to predict that Roderigo wouldn’t have the strength to kill another man. The words “No, he must die.” show the fear in the villain’s head: Cassio must die, otherwise everything would fall apart. However, Cassio remains alive, and thus the whole evil plan collapses.

This is the passage in which Shakespeare introduces a turning point in the play – the doubt in Iago’s head. The possibility that something different might happen, not what set in the plan before that, scares Iago and makes him improvise a backup option. Nevertheless, the villain fails at predicting the future, and good overcomes evil once more. Partially.

Why I've decided to study artificial intelligence

The moment I saw my first computer on my desk, in my room, I understood that this would be my future. This happened in third grade, around nine years ago. I remember that in the first few days I managed to crash the "Windows", and I had no idea what I had done. Then, day after day, I started exploring the capabilities that computers offer, and in seventh grade I wrote my first program. It was a great experience for me, as it finally made me a little above the average users. Then I realized that computers have much more capabilities than what they initially offer. I began writing programs that helped my father in his finances, my mother's school in her book management, and many more useless piece of software. In school I choosed my profile subject to be IT, and expected to study Word or Excel again. However, much to my surprise, the teacher that standed in front of us the first IT profile class did not have the intention to teach us boring stuff. Since than, I started learning a computer language that I thought is impossible to be learnt and understood, and the teacher managed to make it sound interesting. With the help of his explanations, I finally understood some of the core elements of a computer and the way it works which were once vague to me. I visited his consultation hours(I was the only one, really), and I managed to gain a lot knowledge.
Day after day digging into the subject I found that there was one side of computers that was still unknown. It is true that modern technology can do millions of things, including complex calculations that would otherwise take years, producing real-life images, and even creating a virtual reality. However, they can't do one thing - thinking. They don't have imagination, and all of their algorithms and capabilities were once designed by a human being. This is the main technological problem nowadays - creating a machine that would take decisions on its own.
Now, during my last year at school I am faced up the question - what do i want to study? Do I want something that has been developed for many years and is already considered something normal, or do I want something that is still unknown, still unclear, something that would change the way people live just as the invention of computers did? Thus, I chose to apply and study Artificial Intelligence - the "dark matter" of the computer world.

My worst snowboard day

That Sunday I woke up around six am, so that I could have enough time to get prepared and get out of home around half-past seven. I was going to go snowboarding with my brother, who is a skier by the way, up to the nearest mountain to our home town – Vitosha. It certainly not the best choice that could’ve been made, but it was still something. Anyway, after I got up, I went to my brother’s room to wake him up. I knew that would be a hard job, but it was necessary one to do. After losing more than ten long and excruciating minutes of shaking and talking, playing to music and simply making a lot of noise, my brother finally woke up and went to wash his teeth. Then he went immediately back in his bed, which meant another ten minutes hard work. Around seven we were finally having a breakfast: nothing special, just a few slices of bread with chocolate over them. It might’ve not been a five-star breakfast, but it had everything that the body would need in such a moment – chocolate to give strength and power, and bread to fill the stomach with something. Then we had the usual argument whether or not we should take the car. My brother hated giving money for parking, I hated giving money for taxi or carrying my snowboard in the public transport. However, he had a driving license, he was older, and his was the final word: public transport. We got on the bus that lead to the chairlift, and at last we were up in the snow. Snow is not the right word though. It was a mixture of water, a little bit of dirt, small rocks, and some melting snow. Complete disaster. It was one of the last days for snowboarding for the season, so we had to use the opportunity, no matter the awful conditions. We went to our favorite track – the one with the least number of people on it. The first few runs were perfect, but then the so-called pros came and ruined everything. Since all they could do was to take pictures, they spent all their time posing on the top of the peak. Eventually, a small avalanche fell down. It was nothing big, but it still looked really frightening. The avalanche fell around eleven thirty, around two hours after we made our first “hit”. I assumed it as a sign that I should go back home, in front of the TV, instead of staying up there, wet and freezing, thinking if the next avalanche wouldn’t fall right below me. So I told my brother that I’m going home. He told me that should better blow my head off, but I said that I didn’t want to remember my last going up as a disaster. I went home, and then I realized that he was right. It was one of the last days with some snow, and I was laying on my bed, doing nothing.

A short story

This morning Tony woke up around noon. He went out to buy something to eat, because there was nothing at home. His parents were kind of strange. Actually, his whole family was strange. Everyone was eating on their own, almost hiding from each other. Why did they do that? I guess even they’ll never know. Anyway, he went to the local market to buy some bread, cheese and eggs. This was his usual meal in the morning. After breakfast he watched a few movies, called a few friends and wondered what he would do after that.


Suddenly, a very strange girl called him. Her name was Elvira. She was “different” – her hair was very short on the top, and reasonably long by the sides. It turned out that Elvira was deeply in love with Tony. She was thinking about him all the time. Unfortunately, Tony didn’t share the same feelings. Her hair was way too strange for a girl. But she had this great body.

Nevertheless, he answered the phone. They went out for a few hours. It was strange for him at the beginning, but as time went on, Tony slowly got adjusted to the fact that she was different. Elvira, of course, was near heaven every time she heard his voice. There was only thing that stopped Tony from liking her completely – her teeth. As stupid as this reason was, her teeth were really big. They were totally enormous. Whenever he looked at her face, he saw these big, a little bit yellow, teeth. Maybe if they were smaller, they would’ve looked white. No one knew. This was a huge dilemma for Tony. He could cope with everything else. Well, almost everything. Her hair was still an issue, but a bearable one.

One night Tony went along with Elvira to her home, so that she would not be alone. He accompanied her like that every now and then. It usually took him no more than ten, maybe fifteen minutes. But that time it was different. When they were in front of her front door, they had their goodbye-hug as usual. And then something very strange happened. Tony, not Elvira, but Tony, made the “first step.” He kissed her. Not on the cheek, but on the lips. It wasn’t just a mistake, but a real kiss.

As their relationship was way too far away from normal, there had to be something wrong in the whole situation as well. Earlier that day Tony went up the mountain to ride his bike. It was just a casual ride, so he didn’t take his helmet with him. This was a mistake that would’ve cost him a lot. With his bad luck, he fell down and hit his head. It must’ve shaken his brain quite a lot, because what he did next with Elvira was really odd and crazy.

Instead of moving up in her apartment, he ran away. Right after their lips touched. Maybe he remembered who he was kissing, maybe he felt the teeth underneath; it was still way too weird just to run away.

Tony didn’t call her the next few days. He needed some time to think about whether he really wanted to be with her. It wasn’t only Tony that felt strange, though. Elvira didn’t call him either. She thought that he wasn’t the right guy for her. And yes, she liked him a lot, she was even in love with him. Still…

One day Tony was lying in his bed, thinking whether or not he should call her. Suddenly, his phone rang. He thought it was Elvira, so he got really excited. It was his mom though. She told him that he must clean his room, because it was way too cluttered. And then he realized that he should call the strange girl. He had been thinking about her for the past few days, and their kiss clearly meant something. It meant something for both of them. He needed to know what. So he phoned her.

After a while they began going out on regular basis. Everyday Tony would tell his friends that he went out with her, just as friends. All of them, however, sensed that he was hiding something. And he was. He began falling in love with her as well. A year later he confessed that they were actually dating. Secretly, of course. Elvira didn’t share anything with anyone as well. It was a mad relationship. Normal people are usually proud of their affiliation. But not these two. They were both hiding it from the world.

Unfortunately, Tony had to move to Austria to finish his studies there. He studied architecture. His parents were architects, very famous ones, in fact. Elvira was very miserable. She cried for a few days and didn’t go out for some time. Sad, but true, it was impossible for a hidden relationship to last for long.

My first post

This is my first blog post. It looks exciting!