Exponential growth of information, science and technology could result in ‘accelerated evolution’ for human beings. A wild imagination of what the future holds in for us….
10000AD:
All renewable including nuclear powers like Uranium, thorium gets over. Not to worry as increasingly efficient solar cells are built. Every one could fly just by having solar powered jet engine tied to their back.
20000 AD:
There is no need for growing crops. Man has genetically programmed himself to be a bio-solar cell to directly process sun light into life energy.
30000 AD:
Since there is no need to scrounge for food, and with every region on earth being equally developed with the same facilities, transportation of the civilization greatly reduces.
40000 AD:
Further improvements in genetic programming gives rise to the possibility of implanting memories and experiences of past generations onto the offsprings. Since even the newborns knew almost about everything that has happened in the past, civilization got less curious about anything. The civilization stops moving at all as there is no need to do so. These reductions in activities conserve their requirement of cell regeneration because of lesser wear and tear and prolong their lifetime.
50000 AD:
Gender bias and inequality were considered as extremely objectionable by the society. Another breakthrough results in the evolution of a single sexuality. Asexual reproduction of Homo sapiens became the norm.
100000 AD:
Legs become vestigial organs and they are replaced by anchors which get attached to the soil thereby reducing the energy expenditure significantly. Since sunlight primarily consists of red and blue light, the bodies are adapted to absorb them efficiently. As a result, they have greenish color. In short ‘humans evolved into plants.
In the meanwhile, the apes have been evolving and developed their sixth sense. They have just ‘invented the wheel’.
Ad infinitum.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Free will
There lived a philosopher, who spent most of his life in trying to get an answer to a single question “Do we have free will?” His line thought went like ... “if yes, does that mean that God doesn’t control/know what we think or about to think? Or if no, why should we even bother to think, won’t God anyway be taking care of us?”
It is indeed a question of a life time. Him being a mathematician knew very well that Godel’s theorem could not be applied as human mind is far more complex than a Turing machine. In fact even if the theorem is applicable, all it proves it that we cannot deduce whether we have free will or not! What troubled our philosopher is the inconvenient fact that we do not even know if we could ever find an answer.
He enquired many persons in search for the answer, but in vain. He did not spend his entire time in this pursuit. As a proof, he had three sons and even managed to buy a huge mansion. But none of the sons were like his father, who spends most of his time thinking inwards. They were greedy and always quarreled with each other.
The sons grew up quickly; as fast the philosopher’s agony. Along with it grew their hatred and greediness as to who should bequeath the mansion. Time came when the philosopher was on his deathbed. The sons decided to bring a lawyer to resolve their issue. The lawyer tried to converse with the dying man. The philosopher didn’t react to the lawyer’s question but kept moaning “Do I have free-will?” ‘No’ said the lawyer definitively. The philosopher’s mind was hazy and thought that the voice was from heaven and died peacefully upon knowing the answer to his life time puzzle. Fortunately/unfortunately, the lawyer’s last few words “you got to pay me” did not reach his ears.
It is indeed a question of a life time. Him being a mathematician knew very well that Godel’s theorem could not be applied as human mind is far more complex than a Turing machine. In fact even if the theorem is applicable, all it proves it that we cannot deduce whether we have free will or not! What troubled our philosopher is the inconvenient fact that we do not even know if we could ever find an answer.
He enquired many persons in search for the answer, but in vain. He did not spend his entire time in this pursuit. As a proof, he had three sons and even managed to buy a huge mansion. But none of the sons were like his father, who spends most of his time thinking inwards. They were greedy and always quarreled with each other.
The sons grew up quickly; as fast the philosopher’s agony. Along with it grew their hatred and greediness as to who should bequeath the mansion. Time came when the philosopher was on his deathbed. The sons decided to bring a lawyer to resolve their issue. The lawyer tried to converse with the dying man. The philosopher didn’t react to the lawyer’s question but kept moaning “Do I have free-will?” ‘No’ said the lawyer definitively. The philosopher’s mind was hazy and thought that the voice was from heaven and died peacefully upon knowing the answer to his life time puzzle. Fortunately/unfortunately, the lawyer’s last few words “you got to pay me” did not reach his ears.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Coo'king' manual
Caution: This post is not about some recipes, rather deals with the macrocosm of cooking.
Intended audience:
Indian students who are studying/staying abroad, yearning for good food.
The different avatars that can be taken by a student over the period of time are, 1. Tester 2. Production support personnel 3. Experimenter 4. Cook 5. Chef
Tester (or rather just taster) watch their seniors cooking and provide ‘moral’ support to them. Few weeks later you evolve to perform production support which involves activities like vessel cleaning, and cutting. It should be noted that not everyone in a house can be in production support. So it is imperative to have one ‘developer’ beforehand.
The next stage is an experimenter. Emboldened by the auditing of a senior cook or getting bored of the production support, you enter this stage. This is a stage that poses multiple challenges to deal with. It is worth remembering that irrespective of the time spent on testing, the outcome of one’s experiment will necessarily have to evolve from inedible to incredible. After a few trials, the dish that you are trying to prepare will be edible (see disclaimer below ). Cooking, like any fine art, is highly subjective. Have you seen some persons croaking loudly? But for them it is an opus. It applies to cooking too. You might think it is a hit, but for others it is a ****.
So the bottom line is not to invite anyone for dinner until you cross this stage.
Hurray! Now you enter into the next stage: the dishes you prepare are ‘edible’ for others. (There is a difference between a cook and a chef. Cook cooks up, whereas a chef prepares.) Friends will begin to trickle in during dinner time. But the principal challenge during this stage is consistency. So never commit the blunder of disclosing the name of the dish beforehand. It might not turn out to be the item that you had in your mind. If you are proactive, convince your friends to think outside the box. After all, a dosa doesn’t have to be round; the taste of an item is invariant to the spatial coordinates it occupies. Even a perfectly circular dosa is reduced to pieces before reaching the mouth.
Kannal kaanbadhum poi, kaadhal ketpadhum poi,
Naakal nakkuvadhe nei …oops! mei
Even philosophical arguments like ‘doing your duty without worrying its outcome’ can be used. These are just a few of the ‘flavors’ possible; you can come up with anything that suits the ‘taste’ of your guinea pigs cum friends.
The ‘law of large numbers’ is applicable for cooking too. What I mean by that is the variation in the taste of an item is inversely proporational to the quantity of the ingredients used. So if you are preparing for a dinner, why not make it into a party?
If you follow these steps diligently, wouldn’t it be easy to become a chef?
P.S. The above post is not a ‘pot boiler’
Yours sincerely,
Enkay M.S. (Master of Samayal)
Disclaimer: Only to you
Intended audience:
Indian students who are studying/staying abroad, yearning for good food.
The different avatars that can be taken by a student over the period of time are, 1. Tester 2. Production support personnel 3. Experimenter 4. Cook 5. Chef
Tester (or rather just taster) watch their seniors cooking and provide ‘moral’ support to them. Few weeks later you evolve to perform production support which involves activities like vessel cleaning, and cutting. It should be noted that not everyone in a house can be in production support. So it is imperative to have one ‘developer’ beforehand.
The next stage is an experimenter. Emboldened by the auditing of a senior cook or getting bored of the production support, you enter this stage. This is a stage that poses multiple challenges to deal with. It is worth remembering that irrespective of the time spent on testing, the outcome of one’s experiment will necessarily have to evolve from inedible to incredible. After a few trials, the dish that you are trying to prepare will be edible (see disclaimer below ). Cooking, like any fine art, is highly subjective. Have you seen some persons croaking loudly? But for them it is an opus. It applies to cooking too. You might think it is a hit, but for others it is a ****.
So the bottom line is not to invite anyone for dinner until you cross this stage.
Hurray! Now you enter into the next stage: the dishes you prepare are ‘edible’ for others. (There is a difference between a cook and a chef. Cook cooks up, whereas a chef prepares.) Friends will begin to trickle in during dinner time. But the principal challenge during this stage is consistency. So never commit the blunder of disclosing the name of the dish beforehand. It might not turn out to be the item that you had in your mind. If you are proactive, convince your friends to think outside the box. After all, a dosa doesn’t have to be round; the taste of an item is invariant to the spatial coordinates it occupies. Even a perfectly circular dosa is reduced to pieces before reaching the mouth.
Kannal kaanbadhum poi, kaadhal ketpadhum poi,
Naakal nakkuvadhe nei …oops! mei
Even philosophical arguments like ‘doing your duty without worrying its outcome’ can be used. These are just a few of the ‘flavors’ possible; you can come up with anything that suits the ‘taste’ of your guinea pigs cum friends.
The ‘law of large numbers’ is applicable for cooking too. What I mean by that is the variation in the taste of an item is inversely proporational to the quantity of the ingredients used. So if you are preparing for a dinner, why not make it into a party?
If you follow these steps diligently, wouldn’t it be easy to become a chef?
P.S. The above post is not a ‘pot boiler’
Yours sincerely,
Enkay M.S. (Master of Samayal)
Disclaimer: Only to you
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Physics revisited
- New’ton’ laws explained the movement of ‘ton’nes of mass in a ‘new’ way.
- Relativity: To be among the fastest, you have to be ‘light’ weighted.
- Time and ‘tide’ wait for none. Not true said Einstein … time does wait, if you happen to travel by an electromagnetic tide.
- ‘String’ Theory: All theories ‘tied’ into one.
- Quantum mechanics is correct …. with high ‘probability’.
- Heisenberg determined that the atomic particles are very shy. The closer you look at them the faster they run away.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
A Moral Story
Once on a weekend, I went for ice skating with my friends at Chicago (The only good thing about the long winter over here is that many skating schools are present in the neighborhood.) During the first day, I was barely able to walk with those skate shoes on, (that too only by holding the side railings). It was a humbling experience to see toddlers who must have just learned to walk skating merrily. But I consoled myself on seeing some of my friends who wouldn’t even enter the skating hall afraid of falling. Being fond of advising, I told them that the life is all about struggling and adapting oneself to acquire the necessary skills and cajoled them to join me at the side railings. Being captivated by my preaching (or rather not wanting to hear any further of it), they joined me. After completing three rounds of ‘walking’, circumscribing the entire hall, we were done for the day.
The next weekend, I had eagerly put on my skating shoes and set off bravely for the arena. For sometime, it didn’t seem to get any better than the first day and I was still holding on to the railings. I guess skating is similar to cycling; suddenly you tend to figure out how to balance yourself without falling but couldn’t explain what changes you made in your technique (or if there is any). Feeling excited, I began to skate completing many rounds teasing my friends who still wouldn’t come off those railings. It was at that proudest moment when the terrible accident happened. I saw a kid skating backwards and even then overtaking me easily. Being very confident of ability, I vowed to overtake him and began to push myself hard. Suddenly from nowhere a beautiful girl came in my path and only then I realized that though I had learnt to skate, I hadn’t learnt to stop. It might be hard to believe if I told you that the story of Abhimanyu came to my mind at that instant. He had known how to break and get into the chakravyuha (a particular tactic of arranging soldiers during a war similar to those you find in a game of chess). But he hadn’t learnt to come out of it and because of that lost his life. My situation was slightly better; I just had a terrible fall (unfortunately not over that girl). My friends to my dismay just gleamed at me and continued their walking without even trying to help me out. I don’t know if it had to with their envy or just the fact that they couldn’t walk without those damn railings. Even to date it remains a mystery.
Oh! I almost forgot about the moral of this story. There are two morals that I could think of:
For kids: Slow and steady wins the race. Haste makes waste and so on …
Or
For adults: Do not fall for girls …even if they are good looking
The next weekend, I had eagerly put on my skating shoes and set off bravely for the arena. For sometime, it didn’t seem to get any better than the first day and I was still holding on to the railings. I guess skating is similar to cycling; suddenly you tend to figure out how to balance yourself without falling but couldn’t explain what changes you made in your technique (or if there is any). Feeling excited, I began to skate completing many rounds teasing my friends who still wouldn’t come off those railings. It was at that proudest moment when the terrible accident happened. I saw a kid skating backwards and even then overtaking me easily. Being very confident of ability, I vowed to overtake him and began to push myself hard. Suddenly from nowhere a beautiful girl came in my path and only then I realized that though I had learnt to skate, I hadn’t learnt to stop. It might be hard to believe if I told you that the story of Abhimanyu came to my mind at that instant. He had known how to break and get into the chakravyuha (a particular tactic of arranging soldiers during a war similar to those you find in a game of chess). But he hadn’t learnt to come out of it and because of that lost his life. My situation was slightly better; I just had a terrible fall (unfortunately not over that girl). My friends to my dismay just gleamed at me and continued their walking without even trying to help me out. I don’t know if it had to with their envy or just the fact that they couldn’t walk without those damn railings. Even to date it remains a mystery.
Oh! I almost forgot about the moral of this story. There are two morals that I could think of:
For kids: Slow and steady wins the race. Haste makes waste and so on …
Or
For adults: Do not fall for girls …even if they are good looking
Sunday, January 20, 2008
One way ticket
As you all might have heard, Sir Edmund Hillary has gone to a higher destination than Mt. Everest from where he would never return. I was wondering given the following choices which one would have made him happier:
1. Giving him a supernatural power which would directly taken him on top of Mt.Everest or
2. The humanly possible but tough way of climbing it.
We could say with reasonable confidence level, that he would have picked the latter. This is because the real joy is not in reaching the destination, but the journey itself. It holds even for our lives. Many of us live with the sole aim achieving our aims and in the process sacrifice all the small sources of joy and merriness. One thing that we need to remember is that our goals are like unmeasured peaks. Immediately after reaching a peak, we begin to notice an even greater peak and then again start a wonderful journey. Now, if we blindly climb those mountains fixing our vision only on its summits, we will fail to notice the beauty of the terrains. Remember unlike mountain climbing, this is a one way journey. Beauty lost is lost forever.
1. Giving him a supernatural power which would directly taken him on top of Mt.Everest or
2. The humanly possible but tough way of climbing it.
We could say with reasonable confidence level, that he would have picked the latter. This is because the real joy is not in reaching the destination, but the journey itself. It holds even for our lives. Many of us live with the sole aim achieving our aims and in the process sacrifice all the small sources of joy and merriness. One thing that we need to remember is that our goals are like unmeasured peaks. Immediately after reaching a peak, we begin to notice an even greater peak and then again start a wonderful journey. Now, if we blindly climb those mountains fixing our vision only on its summits, we will fail to notice the beauty of the terrains. Remember unlike mountain climbing, this is a one way journey. Beauty lost is lost forever.
Monday, December 31, 2007
A Pale Blue Dot
On looking at the recent incidences that happened in the recent past, I was thinking about writing a post on it. But fortunately, I stumbled upon this video (courtesy my teammate),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M
which is along the lines of my thought, but with much more clarity, and cogency. Moreover it comes from a great person whose words would have significantly more influence than mine.
My New Year Greetings to all the readers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M
which is along the lines of my thought, but with much more clarity, and cogency. Moreover it comes from a great person whose words would have significantly more influence than mine.
My New Year Greetings to all the readers.
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