VACUUM TO FILL - I

There are so many layers to the religious arguments. I am trying to listen and analyse one at a time. Its not only listening to the arguments between well established orators and speakers (with evidence and without!), but also I am trying to dig for ground reality by looking at the real people and how they deal with life situations. I am trying to find the deepest of the human yearning, slightest ounce of positivity that has allowed and still keeping religion in existence. 

Lets not waste our time analysing the existence of god sort of topic. And of course no amount of justification will cover the brutality of organized religion and radicalization of fringe elements. I do understand that religion as a whole should be considered in full and not piece by piece. My analysis below might sound piece meal, But the way I would like to draw parallel is by defining religious views as top down or bottom up approach.

If you point towards the brutality of the religion to start the argument, then it is an argument and not communication. I consider this as top down. And the communication breaks down quite often in this way of top down. If you point towards the humbling, compassionate and helping nature of the religion, it is bottom up , then also its breaks down because its too metaphorical and would not be complete. 

There is no nicer way to put that I have not much interest (for top down view and approach) in communicating with the extremist elements. By nature they are extreme fringe element. Best way is to eradicate!. What I feel where there is a sliver of hope is the bottom up. Within and bottom up where the humans try to find the hope to fill the vacuum. 

  

Human nature abhors a belief vacuum as physiologist have long studied. We yearn for completeness, fulfilment and fill the void in us. I am always surprised and amazed at seeing people with unmoving faith and their total surrender to the belief. What is that holds them together that simply can't be disproved by logic and reason. One of the strongest position the religious supporter/apologist often taken is that of hope which religion, the invisible force substitutes/brings. It fills the vacuum the human nature needs!. It gives hope at the worst of situations. It drive people to do improbable things (including crazy things), it moves your core (conscience self) to make yourself more than you are. (it kind of adds an apparition to your self!). 

In the video below. (its too long, you could go straight to Taleb & Dennett points at 1.21.37 onwards). 

(Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50pq71Bmils)

Taleb is raising that point, but very succinct. When religion is removed from a mind, what are we gonna put in place. Taleb is little different (from mine) in his approach. In his segment from the video 47.40 he talks about the stuff which constitutes and make this package (Trust and decision making (based on probability), Humbleness - god knows , Negative advice - Dogma) which religion fills with. He mention belief in a different light..like trust...like the way American dollar says.. "In god we trust"! Like the children trust their parents!

I am going to say that I would agree to a certain level and disagree in the other half. Before we go further lets put Daniel Denett's point to light. Pretty standard for me, the argument is reasonable, rational to say that the void to be filled with secular rational morality. Golden rule example. Respect for each other, making bigger humanistic circles and beyond. Here again I would agree to a certain level and explain further how to match the gap between Denett and Taleb stands.

My understanding of Taleb's perspective and approach is bottom up and Denett is talking top down approaches, that's where the mismatch is.  We can better understand if add an example subject. 

Subject 1: 

Religious extremist : Top down. There is no excuse applying bottom up justifications. 

Subject 2: 

Middle income salaried employer with certain level of stable life (some religious affiliation): 

Mix of both bottom up and top down. 

Subject 3: 

Low income, day to day survivor!. (with some religious/social affiliation and pressures)

Bottom up!

Subject at case 3 is the one I am most intrigued about. For me he/she defines religious affinity, society and life's belief. Yes I have classified based on socio-economic layers. That's the closest comparable subjects I have, I do understand that subject at case 3 can move to case 2 or case 1 situation with time. Similarly case 2 to case 1. I will not consider those options now just because of my life experience, my affinity towards eastern philosophical thoughts and statistics in general. 

   

Dennett and other related atheist/skeptics arguments are directed towards the interest of Subject 1 and Subject 2. Whereas Taleb and other religion apologist arguments are based on Subject 3 level of interest. So both of them are correct but in different situations. If we want to eliminate the toxic out growth of religions, we have to work at the Subject 3 level (apart from eradicating Subject 1) . To understand the vacuum it fills. Work in its foundation which in the first place that gave birth to this vacuum filler. 

For every situation, its always good to look at the history (unbiased). We often get into trouble when we try to hop instead of walk through history, Also when we choose and select only the selected time frame in history. 

Religions especially the western ones seems like they originated before few thousand years ago. But actually, I have to rename those times stamps as religious rebirth or renaissance (not in a good way though) which happened few thousand years ago. But if we look carefully, humans have much longer history with religion and belief systems. They seems to have served a purpose, some form of primitive justification system for our existence and suffering!. If we dig even deeper, this primitive enquiry must have come-forth as soon as we came to became conscious of our existence. Existence of 'I' the ego would quickly evolved to enquire the nature of that ego-self. I have to stop a bit here to rename this as a enquiry and justification system rather then a religion or a systematic belief! This is the state at its core that filled the vacuum for humans. It still does to a vast majority.  It is much more a deep connection and it has served a purpose for a long time. 

Then there are also biological hard wires like, we can't keep questioning every thing every time. We got to build on the certain foundation. Simply because, it is not economical (wasted time and energy). We are hard wired to be follow our parental lead when we are a vulnerable baby/infants.There are lots of residual by-products because of this hard wires getting reflected through religious beliefs. Looking at the evolution of human awareness in current century, I believe there is a hope for this hard wire to be turning more soft. 

One thing the religious extremist got completely in the opposite direction is - humbleness. When religious people don't know about something, they are ought to say "god knows" (like Taleb mentioned in the video above) or like A. R. Rahuman says, "all praise belong to god" when he wins an Oscar. To show their humbleness and amazement of universe. What actually happened with the extreme interpretation is that instead of humbleness, it became arrogance to go on to say that "whatever written in this book I hold is the truth!". Its a metaphorical disaster. Instead of unknown, it became all known!. Also, this 'god knows' is not exactly like the atheist argue that once you points/reason to the God, then human enquiry stops and became dull and dogmatic. In its core, 'god knows" means to convey the human humbleness and amazement of universe. (We are suppose to be amazed, continue enquiring and try to understand a bit more to be more aware). 

Lets not dwell too much into the arrogance part ( as I said, it is a destructive top down approach) . Lets focus on the humbleness part for Subject 3 type. Humbleness added with strong hope and the need for a vacuum-filler drives the religion to its existence today. 

Intellectual arrogance does little to address this vacuum. Spirituality is one way to approach, but its a slippery slope with possibility that it can degenerate once again into another form of religion! 

Let me share a video to ponder further on this vacuum we all need to fill. Its a clip from the movie "Apocalypto" 

Balance V - Balanced Moments

Its being a long time since i wrote something in my blog. But i being thinking about this "Balanced moments" for quite sometime. I might get over this feeling in the future, but it an important phase i should scribe it down!

I started off with some extreme sides ...say a western religion and thought process. Thought that stuff's to be of OBJECTIVE importance. Like the definition of "God", which has to be a SINGLE and doesn't need to have to have any desire or earthly things sort of things. I enjoyed the undivided beauty of Aristotelian logic too. This or That!

Then i went through eastern side, where they is less definitions and SUBJECTIVE, where everything is blurred and in between, where they celebrated the Sakura's impermanence and beauty of earthly living. Enjoyed the awesomeness of metaphors and poems. Inspired to see how these metaphors can push the human limits and endurance. Learn to understand the accept the life's offerings.

After seeing both sides of the coin, i took a step back and saw everything in balance and realized that the importance of balance. I wrote few previous posts on balance, how balance was up-holded and seen through out our everyday life and process.I started living and experiencing thing in balance, in pairs, in itself!.

But i was getting little uncomfortable with conclusions, never comfortable with closed ended solution. This stage even scares me from writing ...writing anything. Because writing is concluding, because balance in a bigger picture is nothing and everything. There is nothing more to write or to discuss or to feel. So i became uncomfortable even in BALANCE!.

I wanted to probe further, further my quest to understand our process of balance. So i go wandering for more, i hit upon this feeling of "Balanced Moments". Because there has being moments/time when i was a rightist but still balanced, then there were moments when i was leftist but still balanced. Not just for politics,but for every aspects of life. To get to any understanding in Science, the first and foremost step of ideas are metaphors or some mere examples. Once we reached a concluding stage (by Aristotelian logic), then to neglect the earlier stages is not complete and true. So i thought that we get to balance in moments, in steps, in stages... The stage of metaphors and blurred definitions are true. True for that moment. The stage where we unravel and find some answers were also true. True for that moment. There were time when we needed war, there were time we wanted peace. To live life and realize the fullest,we need to appreciate the balance and for the moment. If we took the balance for a "whole" process or life, then we may not be able to move (forward or backward). Everything seems like a circle. Circle and cycles is not a comfortable positions. It might look very well balanced. But its never changing and never ending!. But balanced moments are like "WAVES", you will have the ups and downs and balanced for that moment. A Balanced Moment. Happy new year to all. Enjoy your wave.

PREDICTION

First year in college i was going around telling people that i can predict their intelligence based on their birth time. Basically from my experience, i tried to tell people that closer the people born towards midnight, more intelligent they are! Funny, I did get more than 50% success rate. Another thing i was trying to do is to predict their future based on their hand writing. Worst hand writing gets the best future. Of course as you guessed, my hand writing was very bad!. Also i learn to read palms. I still has the feeling that my life line has a break which predicted my near death accidents(Crash/crush) during my last days in college.

I think its just the indigestible quest and thirst of human mind to predict the future and so as to secure the survival. May be its more than survival, its the will to power. Our power over our future. If we can control then....

Science can tell us all present facts and past history. But when it comes to future, it got to depend on extrapolation and projections, Which is of course 50:50. Many people do go beyond science and super-natural to get some answers like palm reading and birth timings :).

But can we have the strength to embrace and have peace over the unpredictable chaotic future that we might encounter...

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

I love this song by Phil Collins. "Another day in Paradise",

She calls out to the man on the street

"Sir, can you help me?

It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep

Is there somewhere you can tell me?

"He walks on, doesn't look back

He pretends he can't hear her

He starts to whistle as he crosses the street

She's embarrassed to be there

Oh, think twice,

it's just another day for

For you and me in paradise

Oh, think twice, it's just another day

For you, you and me in paradise

Just think about it

She calls out to the man on the street

He can see she's been cryin'

She's got blisters on the soles of her feet

She can't walk but she's tryin'

Oh, just think twice,

it's just another day

For you and me in paradise

Oh, yes think twice, it's just another day

For you, you and me in paradise

Just think about it, just think about it

Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do?

Oh Lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell by the lines on her face

You can see that she's been there

Probably been moved on from every place

'Cause she didn't fit in there

Oh, yes think twice,

it's just another day

For you and me in paradise

Oh, yes think twice, it's just another day

For you, you and me in paradise

Just think about it, just think about it

It's just another day

For you and me in paradise

In paradise Its so beautifully written, it just stats the current status, it doesn't offer any solution. Our feelings get moved even when we see suffering. Lets move to the other half of the point i am trying to make.

"You will not enter paradise until you have faith; and you will not complete your faith till you love one another." - Prophet Mohammed.

The word i am trying to decipher here are "Paradise & Faith". The way i see this "Faith" to be nothing but love and compassion. "Paradise is nothing but being aware(not just living, but the whole) and being alive. Nothing more about Paradise and faith to be known!. Nothing more.

TOWEL DAY - 25th MAY

Douglas Adams easily became one of my favorite authors, even though i have not read a single book of his. All credits to the movie HHGTTG. Accidentally came across this movie while browsing a movie library. What to say, fantastically woven. One of the best philosophical+Scientific+Comedy movie of all time. I am all for the TOWEL Day - 25th May.

Surprise to know that Richard Dawkin dedicated his book " GOD DELUSION" to Douglas Adams. And answer to all-number 42 is adopted by "The Kumar's at No.42".

MATHS, MUSIC & METAPHOR

As an Engineer, i prefer to see things clear, as it is, defined well. We don't like to go around in circles to explain certain objects or concepts. That's why we develop tools to explain stuff in more accurate way as possible. The best of the best tool is of course Mathematics. When you explain 2+2 =4. There is no disagreement. Everyone understand it. Everyone approves of it. The best property of mathematics is its "PREDICTION". It call tell you exactly, when 2 is added with 2, you will get 4. It is as simple as that. And for us humans, prediction is everything. Predicting the future is everything.

Music and mathematics are very much in marriage. Especially instrumental musics are Rhythmic, Repetitive puts our predictive mind at ease. The mind enjoys when the prediction matches...time after time. The singer voice is like metaphor. It is not so predictive as the instrumental music. It cut across the beats with sweet melody. Singer voice and words try to give meanings for the rare and unexplainable (by mathematics and science). It help us to hope and dream about the stuff which we could not explain by predictive mathematics/science.

Only if this two comes in perfect harmony, we will have a sweet song. Metaphor should have being a good starting point for poems, songs and may be religion. Every now and then, we will stumble upon a new stuff which we have not encountered. Our mind will try to compare with our current data base, it will not match. So we need to investigate, but in the mean time we need to give a name....or a metaphor, poem...religion. Then by careful logical reasoning & investigation, we will classify it and give it a name. Then the metaphor should/will be removed. Yes, science always cut down the dreams and put a name. CRUDE. But that's nature. We should be moving on to explore and dream of next unexplainable items. But many people would like to stay in the state of metaphor, hope and faith. (Not wanting to accept the reality).

To live in harmony, we need the combination of both predicted instrumetal music and the singer song in balance.

On a lighter note, i found this picture as an example of mathematical metaphor (Algebra). I thought it will be crude, but in this case it is very funny.

INHERITANCE

Inheritance, How much can a human inherit, genetically, financially, patriotically, philosophically....

I started thinking about this topic, when i dreamt of a place without boundaries. No national boundaries. We all should be united under " United States of GAIA" -USG. People i talk to seems to be very much ingrained in Nationhood and patriotism. Of course it is good, but when will we see the bigger picture. Long time back, we had clans & villages, then we evolved towards city, state and country. The phenomenon of country itself a very recent one (Few thousand years) compared to our human origin. We have seen the rise and fall of kings. But still we are so much fascinated by nation building. The amount we spend on defence budgets are enormous and this could be better spend. Some might want to argue that competition could keep us improving for better life. But lets just grow up, those periods are over, we don't need silly competition to tell us that some technology is good. The way i see it is that competition can speed up the developments. But under united umbrella, we could channelize all our efforts for better human living.

Financially, i often wonder, how come some people get an edge because their father worked his ass out to save millions. Do they deserve it. Was it a fair competition. That's what capitalism does. But that does not mean i am for Marxist or communist. I often see this scenario in Internet games. Some people would play the game day and night to get the points. Some people would just come in and buy the point with some cash.(The game developer need to get paid). So in this situation, what is fairness? Without the paying customer, there is no market or game. And with paying customer, the market is not fair?? How to strike a balance in between? Or Is there any balance to be found?

Genetically, i got the biggest gift from my father, baldness. And of course, everything what i am now is a product of my parents. Genetics combination of two. Where is fairness in this?

Philosophically, i often wonder, how much and how far can a parents teach to their children. Customs, culture, religion, etc. The children will grow up eventually to understand things by itself. But even for that, the parents still need to sow some seed of knowledge, discipline and understanding. How much ? Ideally speaking, a life have to be created like a clean slate. Without any history, without any mothers-land, fathers-money, ancestors culture, religion etc. And all the life to be put through the same environment to grow and evolve. But in this case, we will be just blank again. Because we cannot pass any inheritance to our offspring. Then there is no mutation and there is no change..no more life to evolve!. Its like going back to basics again and again and again... So, the conclusion seems like Inheritance is here to stay and will keep reminding us of the Inequality in nature. My metaphorical side hoping for a United States of GAIA with equal life's born with clean slate again and again, but the nature keep reminding me that's just "HOPE" and "DREAM". In fact that ideal form is not a life and never to exist. Inherent nature of the nature is its inheritance and inequality. We better learn to live, fight, circumvent, circumnavigate and do all sorts of things to turn that to your advantage and survive. (I shaved by head :) ) But not just survive, but to evolve and exceed...."WILL TO POWER"....reading Nietzsche now...

Ambused by GOD himself !

Funny in all our activities and pursuits, we being looking up and hoping some one is watching over our performances. Each and every moment, every actions, every breath we perform for an audience. William Shakespeare put it "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players". A performance is worth only as much as the audience, without them the performance is merely non-exist. So there we go doing things as perfect as possible, day and night doing our duty as a son, daughter, father, mother, husband, wife, employee, employer and so on.

The audience as we know could be of different varieties, some would just sit and watch the performance quietly, some would shout and show their excitement and some may choose to sleep through. The worst could take a rock and through at you.

If we equate the performance-audience parallel to religious life. Then the typical audience(GOD) also plays the part of creating all, including the performer and the environment. He controls the action and reaction.

Then, there is this element of "Free will", but it was created for a reason and purpose. By doing so, it defies the purpose of free will. It is created with a purpose. And we know the choice. So if you have the choices and you already know all the available choice, then you are forced to choose. This is not a free will. This is just free choices. Ofcourse the outcome is known for each choices.

Lets equate the performance-audience parallel to atheist life. Then the typical audience(Nature) takes the place of the GOD! nothing more nothing less.

Either way, its seems like the performers doesn't have much free will. If they think they have, then surely they will be AMBUSHED!.

LIFE's HIGHEST

Knowledge might seems the life's highest form and evolution might have made humans the most intelligent species. But I believe that life's highest form lies in "Compassion" and being aware. (Inside and outside). Compassion should be the highest form of conscience-evolution. Only by compassion, the full awareness of this universe and beyond could come to life.

By evolution-short term seems selfish, it could drive us to do things for our own interest. But it has being shown that for a long term survival, the same selfish gene act altruistic. We could argue that altruism is being forced or as an act of rebellion, whereas selfishness is genetic. But it all depends on where we put our boundary for genetic and free will. What if that evolution was meant to became aware and thus evolved consciousness. What if selfishness is just a starting point for becoming more altruistic and compassionate. Selfishness is just the means, but compassion and altruism are the ends.

I see that awareness is needed to realize one own existence. As the gene evolved to became individuals and we started developing consciousness, becoming aware of our individual existence. Next we will soon tend to became aware as a group, became aware as one thought.

Compassion will lead us to this stage. Compassion for another individual is what we need to be aware and is the best thing for evolution. Once you show compassion, then individuals became aware of the group and the surrounding. This again can built on to much higher level consciousness. And ultimately leading to a single thought or consciousness.

I am not claiming that reading other peoples mind will be possible in the future. But as we can see when showing compassion, you can feel the sadness and joy of another individual. This feeling can be extended and a day might come that you be aware of the whole universe and vice verse.

Thus the highest form of consciousness/awareness could be reached through the highest form of life...i.e "Compassion".

MEMORY IV - METAPHOR

As i was listening to the music, i find our(human) unique ability to compare things to explain more attributes of an objects. For eg. "Your eyes are like fish". Metaphor is not only used in Poems and songs, it is used in every aspect of our life. I believe metaphor is a very important tool humans developed to compare things and also to convey the thoughts to other person more effectively. If we have developed Memories first, then comparing things like "Metaphor" should have evolved second. Only after this we should have got the "Consiousness". Metaphor should be the bridge that connected our memory-ancestor to evolve consiousness.

EVOLUTION III - DRAVIDAR DARWIN

Dravidian's are one the oldest people lived and living in the southern part of India. According to gene map, their ancestors should have traveled from Africa around 50,000 years ago. Current population is a combination of older Dravidian's and later migrated (Aryans). I see the Dravidian's as race with Dark skin and Aryans with Fairer skin. Aryans should have migrated much later from North. There also a possibility that the slightly fairer skin could have evolved within Dravidian race. I consider myself a mix and not sure how many percent with Dravidian gene and Aryan gene.

Among the people(South Indian) i know, i consider E.V. Ramasamy(Periyar) and Subramanya Bharathi as well fit for the title of "Dravidar Darwin".

Subramanya Bharathi:

Needless to highlight again the abilities of this highly praised poet. He was not just a poet, he was one the greatest visionary of all. On his words...

" Food, for all living human beings" (He did not differentiate South, North, Indians, Non-Indians. He just said for all human beings). He went a step further

" All birds and bees are our race" ( He did not stop at humans, he went further to add all living creatures).

And many more he wrote, which is beyond boundaries & limits. That's why i consider him to be one of the best fit for "Dravidar Darwin"

E.V. Ramasamy(Periyar):

Another best fit for this title is "Periyar". He had his voyage similar to Darwin, travelling all over India. Experiencing different people and culture. He was a rationalist with a clear vision. His senses very sharp as Darwin. I wonder if he had the opportunity to travel like Darwin in Beagle, he would have come to the similar conclusion as Darwin. But i suppose he had a better job to do in South India fighting for the masses.

Alas, after all his fights and work, i am very surprised at the current state of South Indian Philosophy and way of life. Administration and politics wise, i am not so much concerned since it is just a representation of the masses!.

Hope i see a revival of his vision and the masses emerge from the dark ages!

EVOLUTION II- CONSCIOUSNESS

I think it was Richard Dawkin in his book "Selfish Gene" mentioned that Consciousness as evolution of simulation and prediction strategy. I find this very interesting. I am totally thrilled with this view of consciousness evolving as a part of human simulation strategy.

We always want to predict the possibilities in the future. It would be impossible to try each and every item to get the best solution (For Evolution). So us the forefront of evolution could have got into this consciousness to simulate and predict. Just like Arifical Intelligence for a Computer (Richard Dawkin Example).

And all this wrong and wright (Morality) is just a byproduct of this new found ability!. And realizing this itself (Being conscious) is just a byproduct of the evolutionary trend.

To further my understanding into this field, i would like to study on genetics, Inorganic to organics evolution. Life we know stared from some organic material. This organic material itself should have come from some inorganic material with some specific environmental condition. Once life sprots up, then came the competition and survival and Evolution and so on...

I regret now that i choose a narrow path of Physics+Mathematics--> Engineering. I missed all the fun with Chemistry and Biology!. I forsee that there will lot of activities towards Inorganic to Organic life in the future. And i read somewhere that Quantum physics to help understand this process. Then i see my current field of physics getting into bio-chem and kick starting the life as a whole. Wow, wonderful.

The orgin of Inorganic materials itself should have come from space...stars...universe...and ultimately the BIG BANG!.

If you ask me the orgin of Big Bang and why Big Bang! :( Sorry.....I am lost too!) But i can direct you to EXISTENTIALISM! Lets grab a drink and enjoy the life we have.

Cheers.

VOKAT

EVOLUTION-I : ORGIN and THE BEGINNING

On my knowledge quest, I started off with history,history of my orgin and place and people. Then i got hooked onto world history, organizational history, history of everything. Of course, time of essence. Then my quest lead me to philosophy and human consciousness. Came to realize that religion and beliefs are part of it.

Then i try to dig deeper, i could reach Evolution and Darwin. Not all the answers i am looking for, but seems to be more of logical, rational explanation for history of everything. I could go towards Big Bang and space. But that direction could wait for some time. Evolution and Darwin seems to be more towards us as a human.

Got a long weekend to spend so i got hold of few books on Evolution from our nearby community library. (Sengkang, Singapore)

David Sloan Wilson’s "Evolution for Everyone" . Not sure of arguments and internal fights withing the evolution groups. But i find this book more interesting than other two. And i like the way the author trying to strike a balance and not just prove that we are all Animals here. His stand and move towards philosophy seems fit for my reasoning.

Carl Zimmer's "Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea": Nice history book with lot of technical explanation for the history of evolution. I always wondered, if human from chimp, then chimp from what...and so on... This book was good in explaining all those intermediaries. Nice details. Still i understand that the fossils are in digital form, still not yet an analog form of continuous step by step evolution.

Richard Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene": Hardcore, but bit argumentative. I am yet to take any side. But have to accept, "altruism is deceiving". His analysis on sociobiology was informative. One thing i find very interesting is that how we could have evolved memory, consciousness and cultural evolution. And that too being encoded in gene...mmmm...need more study.

Few more things which i caught my attentions in these books:

Movement of eyes: Humans way of expression feeling with eyes is remarkable. And we can move the eyes whereas all other animals move their head in the direction they intend. Interesting.

Memory and Written language: For individual, memory and written language of limited use. But for a group, these tools helps a lot in getting your idea to everyone. I will try to explore more this area in line with my MEMORY topics.

Vincent Van Gogh and Vaikom Muhammed Basheer

Wonder what could be the relation between this two. But i feel i should write about them together in one blog. Let me see where it leads me too.

Van Gogh is a painter and Basheer is a writer. Von Gogh was born somewhere in Europe around 1853. While Basheer was born near Travancore in South India around 1908. Van Gogh started as a art dealer and move into missionary work. While Basheer got excited about India's freedom struggle and Gandhian Philosophy.

Van Gogh suffered much depression and boring life. While Basheer embarked on a challenging journey across all over India working as a loom fitter, watchman, fortune teller, cook, newspaper seller, fruit seller, sports goods agent, accountant, shepherd , hotel manager to living as an ascetic with Hindu saints and Sufi mystics.

Van Gogh got rejected to marry his love, whereas Basheer family went bankrupt. Van Gogh got into painting in desperation.While Basheer, started writing after his failed business ventures. Van Gogh kept painting and Basheer kept writing. Van Gogh have to be admitted into mental asylum so does Basheer for few times.

Van Gogh was the pioneer of "Expressionism" painting. (This is some sort of reality distortion to give a emotional appeal to his work). While Basheer was know to be using very unconvetional language to write his stories. (Does not care for grammer or sentence correctness. Using a practical flow of language...more of a practical, reality style).

Both with sharp observation of reality try to reproduce their observation in different forms (Painting & Writing). One try to distort the reality to give its emotional appeal while another try to (undistort) using the simple language to bring the reality to light.

Aren't they related!

BALANCE IV- WinWin Situation.

I always perceived that its all a zero-sum game. If some one has to win, some one else has to loose. All the scientist would agree that any thing would have to come from something.

I saw this guy with a limp in the MRT(city-train). Normally if i see any old people i would be willing to give up my seat. But in this case, the guy seems to be around 40 (not too old). Seems to have a some limping...but not disabled.

In this case if i give up my seat, i think he would be offended. He doesn't wanted to be treated as handicapped. He should be given a respect of an full grown adult with maximum abilities to take care himself.

So in this case, i don't have to give up my seat and he is still happy....win win...

PROBLEM

The only way to get rid of it is to get used to it.

PRESPECTIVE

The shape of a star wasn't actually they way we typically draw with sharp angles. We ourselves made a shape and we are happy about it. We enjoy it. Even though we know that the actual shape is a simple circle. That's how i would like to perceive things, see movies.

" Vanathil parapathum, tharayil natapathum, avaravar ennaggale"

(Whether you fly or walk, its all in your thoughts)

DEATH

The 4-dimenstional beings eat every humans in different way..like we eat things in 3-dimentions...goble goble...we call it death.

STORIES

Human love a good story. Either a fall or a rise, a nice story is always of interest. A nice story is always sell able. A story is exciting when there is a big change..like rich to poor, like peace to war, like a simple guy to a super hero. The larger the variation, more interesting and exciting it becomes. Humans are infatuated with variations! Changes!. better or worse!. changes and variation gives food for brain...its exercise the idle mind...yes, it kills boredom. Humans just can't sit straight. They got to keep doing something, they got to move, they got to change. They got to feel alive!..of course... Where else can you find more life than in death!. Death explains and reaffirms the living. Being alive..A person loves to be alive cannot be scared of death. He should be worshiping it. Of course that's what we are doing! worship the death. Its not about the past.Its about the present living. Reaffirming of being alive. The best stories are always about relations... I remember these words from the movies "Great expectations: " I am not going to tell the story as the way it happend. I am going to tell it the way i remember..."

NO NEW INVENTIONS!

I got to say that there is nothing called invention, i believe everything we find is all a discovery and natures way of revealing things. And our ability just got to the point of realizing that discovery!

HUMAN, THE NATURE

People talk about nature and artificial things. If human are a product of nature, then things created by human have to be a part of nature as well. There nothing artificial in this world. Everthing created by humans are part and parcel of nature itself. Its nothing more than the natures extension. Just that we humans speed up things! And things we create are so durable that it migt take more than several million years to disintegrate into the nature.

EFFICIENCY ENGINEERING

I am very surprised that there is still no dedicated course to teach "Efficiency". We follow efficient way to utilize the resources in certain areas. But in many other areas we are very inefficient. This a huge price to pay by our mother "Earth", straining its resources.

We the forefront of evolution should have better understanding in making the most of the available resources to the fullest.

As a communication engineer, i see that typically a "Power Amplifier" efficiency to be less than 25% .

Starting with Food, How can we produce and consume with little or no wastage?

For clothes, What clothes is best suited for a weather and how is make it with best material?

For housing, How to make our living places most efficient in energy spending and conservation?

For city, How should it be designed so that people don't travel a long time to work...wasting resources? Where the schools should be ? Where the business should be?

For transport, why are we still producing mostly 4 seats? when only one person driving to office? So on and on...

I hope in the future, this kind of efficiency management be taught in school along with SOCIAL SCIENCE. This should create an awareness to all future generation about resources and how to make efficient use of it.

FREEDOM

Freedom without responsibility is barbaric. Freedom with responsibility is not freedom at all!!

BALANCE-III INDIFFERENCE & REFLECTION

You can be my friend, you can be my enemy, but don't be indifferent to my presence. I feel ignoring a person's presence is the most cruel form of acknowledgement.

Human as a responsive being.We work just being responding to the stimulus we receive. But of course we got limits, laws, rules, constrain to respond. Basically, we are subject to the Newtons third law of (e)motions. "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." The worst thing is not an enemy. But a person who is indifferent to you. Just don't respond!

Who could be the best audience for my blog. I wonder. If the whole world can view it, then it would be the ideal or is it just me. The reflection of the whole word is me...just me.

Hanami-Cherry Blossom- Butoh dancing

Recently i saw German-Japanese movies on Cherry blossom and Butoh dancing. Good movie and first time came across Butoh dancing. Pretty haunting though. Cherry blossom happens only few days in a year. Japanese people seems to celebrate these as way to see impermanence in our every changing life. And for Butoh dancing is type of dancing originated in Japan. More details in the link below. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh There are many different interpretation for this dancing but the way i see is an expression fits to show the normality and boring day to day life !! I could consider this as an opposite of fast moving non realistic action movie.

And the relation between Cherry blossom and Butoh dancing. You got to watch the German movie then... http://www.german-films.de/app/filmarchive/film_view.php?film_id=1632

In Short, my view point is that cherry blossoms are like interlude. And Butoh dancing to the monotony of our daily life. People could love the interludes as well try to accept the monotony of life.......LIVING

Dreaming in a Windowless room

In olden days before the advent of TV/Internet, there were windows, which people would use to look out and dream. Window is the place where you could see the sunrise and sunset. Its where you see the streets and all things going past. Windows is where you want to enjoy the drizzles from the rain and the cool breeze. And to make friends and to chat with neighbors.

Now its the time of TV and computer and Internet. We can sit in a WINDOWLESS room and can still watch the world through the Internet window!! make friends....live a whole virtual life....in a windowless room.

I wonder Microsoft has some conspiracy to replace our real windows to virtual windows!!!

BALANCED II - BIASED

How can anyone be unbiased? When you have a choice, then there is no such thing as unbiased!. And human life is full of it. Choices!..we have to make each and every day. In the end, biased decision are taken and done in every single little things we do. This sounds totally opposite of balance. Unbiased is balance. Its like choosing nothing!. Because in a balanced life, there would be nothing to choose from, there would be nothing to be biased. Discrimination is a worst word to use for biasing. No one is far from it. Its just a human behavior. may be i can say, intelligent human behavior. We discriminate based on color, language, food...etc. We might have improved (Civilised) in a certain way. But i see it that we have only transformed from one form to another, we still have the discrimination. Now its based on intelligence. We get jobs based on intelligence and your salary. That's going to decide your status in the society. The you discriminate based on this. Some time back in the past, it was the power, brute strength. Now it is the intelligence. Next it could transform into something else, so this will keep on going from one form to another. But the discrimination will be there as long as human intelligence exists. Its is the way we see, understand things. If everything is same and nothing is different. then there is nothing to discuss, nothing to compare, nothing to improve. We just would died down.Is it? Is there a way?

If humans are born just with memory, but not intelligence...then i wonder, how this world will be. Its worth exploring the possibility. (Without my human intelligence ability, i wouldn't be able to make this statement Of course!). Intelligence could seen as the corruption of our memory. Its corrupts, it biases, it tells you to make decision. Best way to understand is to look at the human babies. When they are born, they are unable to make decision, they just absorb things..in their memory. Of course they do nothing! But slowly, their intelligence kicks in...started making decision....and we became what we are. Decision making animal!. I don't have to tell you that wright and wrong are just names and you could change as per your point of view. So the point is decision making between choices. Whether its wright or wrong...its just constrain, environment based.

Out of curiosity, I try to differentiate between Japanese and American way of decision making. I could have take any other group, but the reason for choosing this two is because i being exposed more to it and both contrast each other well. I said differentiate, i want to be careful that i should not make decision and take sides. But i am afraid i am just a human.

Japanese tend not to take quick decisions and of course not by the individual. It will always be a team effort, team decision. Some time its became indecisive! :). (Here i go..biased). Americans on the other hand, take quick decisions and of course its highly based on individual. Ayn Rand style. There is always a decision, never without it. Japanese tend to eliminate the possibilities, they give importance for all possibilities, verify it and then eliminate the wrong ones...finally reaching at the correct one. This is a bit rigorous, but quick effective with persistent effort. Yes you need to be very passionate and very persistent. While American way of thinking is, just think out of box and hit the bulls eye out of no where. Some time you get lucky, but if not, then you don't know what to do!. Of course, things may not be so sharply divided as i described. But for argument sake. This could be considered as a two classical way of division between being in group and being individual.

Biased are we humans, in every aspect of life.

INTERLUDE

Life is a journey as many people say. Some would want to wait for the destination. Some would want to enjoy the journey. But what about the interludes. Yes, that's where most fun is. Its like the train journey, which has the starting points and the end points. Interludes are the station it brings in between. We know that many people keep faith at the destination and save every breath of the journey in prayer. I am more of a person like to enjoy the journey and not to put too much pressure on the destination. apart from this two ways, there is this third way to look at life is to realise the interludes. These are like the feeling of love you get it when are in love.

When we are in love, the feeling of love doesn't dominate all the time. Its comes out like a spark and ignites the passion and goes before you know. Interludes are exactly like that. The train stops at a intermediate stations. Before you enjoy the whole place. The train starts again.

Its like the university life you had after your childhood and before your career. It was pleasant, a time to explore and experience. I can also draw a parallel to our whole life as an interlude. If you can take it that way, then you don't fix or hold on to things. You would be like the droplets in lotus. We human are here in this world for a very short period of time. Its a pleasant interlude you should enjoy, appreciate, realize the things in and around you. We know and we see that life balances out, everything born on this planet will die one day. But every little things try to live out their life in the in between time of INTERLUDE.

Evening&Morning: The day and night meets at two points, one is that early morning when the lights penetrate throughout the dark. The other is of course the evening, when the night permeates and swallows all the light. These should be the best part of the 24 Hours. Like wise if i apply this parallel then for the human, then moments when we turn from sadness to joy and joy to sadness are the core of the moments. These are interludes

Some may say that leaving a legacy or offspring can make you immortal. But if you look at the longer history of things, then we know there is no such thing as immortal. Human race as a whole could disappear from the universe one day. So living our interlude beautifully and happily is the best way to live fullest. People always like a nice interlude, the thing is to enjoy the interlude and realizing that its a interlude. That's like Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Predicting its mass and momentum at the same time. You can look at things through the clear glass window, the world around, the beautiful world coming to life. But realizing that you being part of it is an amazing feeling. It like feeling being alive. Getting out of your body and looking at your self being part of this whole puzzle. Amazing!

Fairness for fairness sake

When ever i see mentally, physically disabled people, i often wonder, what god has planned for them. Then i will remember the story i heard long time back. The story goes like this, one devotee on this way to god's house(Church/Temple etc) come across a poor mentally retarded sick person. Looking at this person the devotee was totally devastated and wonder why?. When he reach the god's house he demands the god , why would he create such a life and why don't god take care of this poor people. Or may be create everyone the same. The god replies " Look around, why do you think i created you for ..." .

There are two way to look at the story. One is to wonder how creative and clever god is. How meaningful your life could be!..that god is within you and god has meaning and place for everyone. You could fulfill your life by take caring of disabled and less privileged.

The other is see that god is just playing dice!. Creating a healthy person to take care of a sick person.!! Its like making a fault in your creation purposefully and also creating a fix. Its like those software companines creating virus so that they can sell more of their anti-virus softwares.

Creation has to be judged. Anything being created has to be judged. It is a human characteristics to judge. Creation is parallel to a performance. A Performance is created for an audience. Without the audience, the performance has no meaning/life. The performance comes to life only when it reaches and interacts with its audiences/spectators. Likewise, creation has to be judged.

And i hope the creation to be..."FAIR". As a human, child, son, father, employee, boss....i prefer to be created and treated and existed as an EQUAL and FAIR being.

Independent-Team Player!!!

Independent team player. Its an oxymoron, its an irony, its our life. Its us!. I often come across advertisement for job asking for a independent and a team player. Isn't this an opposite qualities. Being independent usually make you a very bad team player. Being a team player will make you dependent on others for most of your job!! May be they should mention 50% Independent and 50% team player. A balanced worker. A slave and a king!. The lord and the servent combined!. Hope i can fill this position...

Communication Engineer

Engineering wasn't my dream job. It was pushed into me for better life, better prospect and the only card out for survival. If i had a chance to choose another career now, will it be difference.. may be! I wouldn't want to say that i want to born again and again as an engineer. Engineers build things, from bridges to phones. But the best part of engineering i love is about the human touch. The engineering achievements cannot be celebrated without the humanity in mind. The purpose to all engineering is to improve human life, to make it easier

Yes, i love to be a Communication Engineer than a Engineer. The one help people to communicate, connect....yes. I love designing radios, which help to connect two far far away people. I was interested to find similarities between human life and communication engineering. I find the whole communication theory is very much equated to humans and their lives. "Of course it may be much a surprise that everything we do and invent is just another reflection of us and our lives". Before getting into more interesting technical metaphors, i would like to note that it was all written with fun intent and not to offend anyone or anything.

Modulation:

Lets start with frequency modulation theory. Have you ever wondered the modulation is a marriage, a marriage between high frequency(Carrier) and a low frequency(modulated signal). Carrier signal a high frequency signal, very much like a female. The low frequency signal is like the male. Both of them being alone has no meaning, no use!. The high frequency signal has no use with out the low frequency information and vice verse. But when they join in harmony, you have a wonderful modulated signal which can be transmitted to a very far distance with meaning full information. Don't forget the byproducts....the inter modulated side bands!!. That's the children's!!! :). Some people call it noise, but some learn to live with it. In harmony.

Response:

Low frequency when it passes through a resistor or an inductor or a capacitor, you get a predictable behaviour. Some thing that a male brain works like. If you tell him you want a diamond ring, the will understand and not to go around giving hints, which the low frequency won't comprehend. The high frequency, which can be very unpredictable. You will know if you work in RF!!. You never know where the noise or the interference coming from. But they emerge unknown, undetected. Doesn't sound the familiar female traits!. At high frequencies, the inductor behaves like a capacitor. A capacitor becomes a inductor. And a resistor going crazy and becomes frequency dependent!. Its not all complex for high frequency. Its the carrier, a mom, which carriers all information. Yes, female carry all the men and woman. They are the driving force on communication (earth).

Analog versus Digital:

Another part of communication i love is Analog. The digital is bit crude. It has only two states 0 or 1. You can do all sort of manipulation with 1's and 0's. But in the end, you have only extremes. Either 0 or 1. But analog is wonderful. It has various levels. It can bend to your need. It doesn't understand extremes. It tries to create a balance by adjusting the levels and strengths.

BALANCE-I : OPPOSITES

The world is full of it. Our life revolves around it. We live it, we love it, we would be lost without it. Balance, balance in anything , balance in everything is the answer to all.

Physically, people needs to eat, sleep and lead a balanced life. We know any food taken in moderation is good for health. Balanced diet. Mentally and spiritually, we need to have a balanced as well.

Does the god has a role to play if there wasn't any evil. Will there a meaning to peace if there was no war. Will we be cherishing the good time and laughter if there was no bad time. Human life as i see it is cycle. Ever action has an equal and opposite reaction. Or every reaction is caused by any equal and opposite action. Is that simple enough.

To find the richest person, you need to find and define the poorest pauper. To see an extreme, you need to go to the other extreme!. You can only find peace where there is lot of war. I always tell people, war movies are not about war, its about peace. Biggest of heroes are made when you have the worst enemies. Every new world order will come after the worst of chaos.

To appreciate any thing tangible and intangible is to go very far away from it. That is to miss it. The highest value of any product/relation is its opportunity cost. You will realize only when you don't have it. In this way, you can define and understand any item by looking at its "OPPOSITE". Opposites or balancing forces or completing entity. Woman completes a man or a Man completes a woman. Happiness completes the sad. Peace completes the war. These entities should be perfectly balanced. Every time, everywhere, everything....

MEMORIES-III

Recently, you all might have come across the Movies based on Robert Ludlum novels The Bourne Identity (1980) The Bourne Supremacy (1986) The Bourne Ultimatum (1990)

I still have not seen this movie series. But i understand the story line is similar/based on the Franco-Belgian comics XIII http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIII_(comic_book)) Luckily, i enjoyed reading this comics(lion comics) in my native(Tamil) language when i was young-school boy. I have to say this is one of my most favourite character/comics of all time. Hugh attraction/fascination for this comics came from the Main character's MEMORY LOSS. Memories, it haunts and fascinates us humans. The story line is simple, but very strong. The main character of the movie/comics losses his memory. Why don't he accept himself and die down? No, that's not what we humans are, we want to find the past, our lost/past memories.

If i take a parallel of this movie to our real humans life cycle. Have anyone accurately remember, whats your first image/sound/experience when you were born or brought to life? Not sure!!! The memories come into existence all of a sudden. Some might want to call it "Life". But i want to call it "memories". It starts when we are born...all of a sudden!. This memory caring object never existed before it was born!. Then we grow....Time takes over. We get old and die one day. Its just the memories which stops! Like an hard disk crash!!. Zoom, all memories gone in a split second. Stop taking images, stop recording voices. Just a hard disk crash!. Computer without memory is like body without life/memory!. Memories is the life and soul!. Its the memories, we are born, live and die for. The sole purpose of our life is create memories, store it, compare it and store more...

When i say purpose, i remember the Samurai, warrior. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai

Samurai means "to serve" the sole purpose for their existence is to serve the Master(landlord). That's not the end, when Japan moves into more stable history, there was no need for the samurai!. No war, No fight! So many Samurai's became whats known as "Ronin". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronin. Ronin means a Master less Samurai!. If you look at carefully, its an oxymoron. Samurai gets the meaning only if he can serve, to serve a master. If there is no master to serve and still need to exist! Its purposeless existence, that's why Ronin is also called a "drifting person". I still don't want to say "meaningless".

We are a drifting person in time. Our memories are. We always want to attach a meaning to our memories/purpose in life by seeking a master!!. But the truth(i am afraid to use this word) is that we are nothing but a Ronin. As soon as we are born, we are suddenly injected with memory and drifted in time!. Our memories wander around for some time and dies down.

I am going to close the third chapter here and see whether i have any more memories on memories to write about...

MEMORIES-II

The foremost aspect of our memory is because of the quantity called TIME. Time is linear (Stephen Hawking's theory of bending the light/time can be considered later :) , now lets go with the classical). "Time is non-stop" The previous statement is one of the scariest i can imagine!. Time never stops! When ever we talk about Memory, we have to consider the time frame!. Time defines Memory. Time completes and encapsulates the memory!. We can try to define memory with Time, but defining time i think i am not capable of it. Only when i can step out of time, i can observe it and to define it!.

Anyway, lets not deviate from our main topic "Memories". So we were trying to identify and define "Memories" with time. Our current system/universe/world is ruled by the TIME progressing linearly. Since i say linear, then there could be another possibility of non-linear/random progression of Time. Can you imagine!. 1980 comes first, then may be 1550, then 1920.... It may not make sense (doesn't have to make sense. Sense/logic is not what we are discussing), but its still possible! Random memory is possible, but random Time! think about it.

When people tell me that they fell nostalgic about their past school or university or their past lived city or their friends/family. I always reply that they don't miss the place/person/thing. What they miss is Time, which is already past. You can go back to your old place. You can meet you old pal. But the memories can never match to the original!. Simply put, you can never go back in time (is it?). Some people might start writing about their past to recreate their nostalgic memories, but end up becoming a writer!.(future) Some would want to build their dream house (from our old memory), but would end up building a new house, a new town, a new city, a whole new world.....wow...this progress/process is going on and on. So typically what we are doing is building something, try to match it with the previous state. Doesn't fit, but this new one becomes the ideal one and based on this we build the next one! confusing, is it?

Lets go with an example, Lets take your grand parents home. That must have being an ideal place/happiness for your parents. For you, its your parents home. For your son, your current place. So my point is we humans keep on trying to recreate our lost time/memories to recreate that perfect ideal picture we experience some time back. From this we get our new house, a new town, a new city....our future!!! wow, amazing. Our memories are creating our future!!!(this is interesting, but will explore later).

I will stop here for today. Before that a point to ponder. If we humans are always trying to recreate the old/past and match it. Where do the so called progress/inventions/improvements/ come from??

MEMORIES-I

Memories, its what we are. Which differentiate Humans from others. Some might have a different view and would argue that the rationality of the human mind to separate out right and wrong is what makes us Humans. But here is the question for them, if you don't store the "Value1" and "Value2" in your memory. How can we make a comparision of two quantities and to arrive at a conclusion. And of course, the philosophy of wrong or right changes over time. So here we are , a moving "Data storage" . We go around collecting, learning millions and billions of informations. Day after day, year after year. People can talk a lot on our brains processing capabilities. Some human can became an engineer, some a doctor, some a scientist and they would also tell you that how superior Humans are with all those processing, analyzing capabilities. But at the end of the day, what matters most is the simple " Happiness". How to feel Happy with that simple "smile". I think the answer lies in our MEMORIES!. Have you every wondered, why that chocolate you had when you were young tasted perfect, but now even when you can buy all those expensive or even the same chocolate can't even come closer to that perfect taste!. And to make it worst, we are always trying to get that perfect chocolate day after day.....working, building, making, acheivehing higher and higher. To get back that moment, to get that perfect taste of that choclate, which passed away a long time ago, which stuck in our memories for rest of our lifes. Time and time again, tasting new chocolates and comparing with that perfect one. When a baby is born, its doesn't start with rational thinking. Its starts by storing the images, sounds into its memories! Since most people know computer nowadays, i can easily compare a program flow. Did some one say "Adding two numer". Yes, if you want to add two numbers, you need to store the two number first. That was absolute beauty ( i call it). Then you can do the processing. 1 + 1 = 2! Hurray. Then we do decission making, rational/logical thinking ( i call it). "2 is bigger than 1" So before the thinking process starts, there is this thing call Storing the data. That where the realy beauty lies. Yes, in our terms, we call it MEMORIES!. Like a picture perfect, information get stored in our brain. You can try to erase/delete the image. But as you know (computer experts). The real thing never get deleted. It lies there some where in your MEMORIES. I will stop here for today. Will try to continue...hopefully sooner.