Quantum-verse

Why - Reflecting on Perceptions

2011-10-19T00:49:00.000+05:30

Why?

I ask myself time and again,
when tired of the ceaseless monotony called "life";
perturbed by the pointless debates over politics, economics and education;
and faced with the imploding monstrosity called society.

A path laid down by ancient inhabitants of a tiny fragment of the finitely infinite cosmos.
Followed by timid, shallow and clueless billions even thousands of years later.
Progress in science and technology: first silenced;
then tolerated and finally accepted as suitable amusement and occupation.

Ruins of the hopes of eccentric, pensive heretics who dared to care beyond survival.
Rolling out millions of mindless workers, glorified craftsmen and overpaid scribblers;
Taught but naught other than to raid the rocks, poison the breath and parch the throat.
Slay the lambs, maim the horned and yet preach Forgiveness.

Suggest the ridiculous, stab the dissenting and drown the logical.
Sympathy, divinity and self-pity rooling the roost.
Rigid by education and languid by habit, ignoring the obvious by fright or mere stupidity.
Going on with the painfully cyclic, yet stressing on the ever evasive.

Emotions have no place, where meaning is to be derived;
uniqueness lost to the ever-important yet ever-deprived.
Rise above the surface to perceive the deceptive;
how real is the imperative?

To Think or Not to Think

2011-09-08T00:11:00.000+05:30

I think of roses pink, rabbits furry and rainbows bright.
Then of slums, Hitler and a bloody gun fight.
Raindrops pitter-patter, the Swiss alps and an ample bosom.
Uninterrupted, sporadic and sans boundaries.

Of why people care enough to do, and do again.
How most fear death, in the midst of endless terror.
And why knowledge is revered by those who have none.
Eat, sleep and procreate...to what end?

Six hundred trillions from one tiny cell,
Dreaming of heaven we create hell!

Deep Sea Jellyfish - Alien Inspiration

2011-03-16T20:33:00.000+05:30

This Deep Sea Jellyfish is one of the inspirations behind spectacularly luminescent Alien organisms in Science Fiction movies and novels.

How quarks may turn out to be Gods

2010-05-24T19:49:00.001+05:30

Let's go about this by dimensional-analogy.

God is alleged to have infinite resources of energy. We cannot see God(s). We cannot touch, smell or hear God(s) either. Thus, God is either something similar to Dark matter of Theoretical Physics, or something of dimensions extremely small as compared to the scale considered "ordinary" by humans. For our convenience, and since Dark matter is itself elusive enough right now, let us assume the latter to be the case.

Now, we consider the fact that the energy of interaction of matter is inversely proportional (very high index) to the numerical dimensions of matter under consideration. When we proceed from celestial to atomic, or say nuclear dimensions, the range of interaction energy increases for a given amount of matter by factors ~10^70 for the same sets of particles. This relative factor is of prime importance in keeping our Universe the way it is.

Now, it is highly justifiable that proceeding to dimensions smaller than quarks might lead us to much higher levels of interaction energies. However, keeping our assumptions to the present levels of scientific discovery makes the argument much more concrete.

Since the existence of Quarks as well as God(s) is of prime importance for existence of anything at all, and they have such identical characteristics and roles, why could they not be one and the same? This clearly vindicates the stand of Theists or Believers, that Science is Discovering the Web of God at an agonizingly slow pace instead of just accepting that it exists!

But let's make one thing clear. Scientists never rule out the existence of a "God" particle, in fact, the Higgs Boson is often dubbed one. What they rule out is the fact that God is human-like, or can be persuaded by prayers, or punishes or other such baseless stuff.

Let's hope the unison takes place soon!

GOD IS REQUIRED RELIGION IS NOT

2010-05-02T19:56:00.001+05:30

FRIEND: The God thing is something which every reasonably intelligent

creature needs. It's like i=sqrt(-1), it might be only an idea but its

tremendous. Religion was just an evolutionary tool. Its vestigiality

must be recognized.

ME: I subscribe to that. However, its vestigiality is not exactly of

quintessential importance. Far more important are the pschological

benefits you derive from the institution of "God".

FRIEND: God is very different from religion. God is required but not

religion, atleast not in its present form.

ME: Religion is something you need to support the institution of God.

If all men were equally "close to God", there would be no point in

having such an institution in the first place! That's were the myriad

religions come in.

FRIEND: Religion is like the washerman. After washing machines came

along slowly they are not going to be needed. It's just a means to an

end.

ME: The point is not what is actually required by people who can think

for themselves. There is a whole world of people out there which needs

to be assured and reassured time and again that they are getting a

whole lot better by subscribing to a particular institution of God.

They need religions! Many modern philosophers, one of whom is David

Hume, have often said and written, civilization would reach its

optimum point only when teachers and philosophers are no longer

required! That is when all men begin to think sanely for themselves,

without needing some external agency to teach/guide them!

40 MINUTES LATE TO THE EXAM

2010-04-28T19:14:00.000+05:30

An exam has been going on for forty minutes now, when a new entrant (whom we shall call Mr.X) with an elegant gait catches the attention of an invigilator(whom we shall call Mr.Y)...
Mr.X walking down the hall casually towards the invigilator table...

Mr.Y : Civil Engineering?

Mr.X : (nodding his head in agreement) Yes.

Mr.Y : (indicating the table with his hand) There...

...by now Mr.X has reached the table and is taking a question paper from the stack...

Mr.Y : Hey stop! (Mr.X hallued..stares at Mr.Y resting his elbow on the table) What are you doing! (running towards the table) You are not supposed to touch the papers!

Mr.X : (still astonished..retorts) How then do I take the question paper?

Mr.Y : I'll hand it over to you! And you are coming forty minutes late! How are you standing? (in a really loud voice..rather in a scolding tone)Stand properly!

Mr.X : (almost red with fury by now...) I'm not a student! I'm a Professor and have come for clearing the doubts!

(a couple of minutes long roar of laughter ensues...)

another invigilator : Ok keep quiet now..the fun is over!

God is to a scientist what a quark is to a priest

2010-04-02T11:17:00.002+05:30

"God", an embodiment of the ultimate in every respect, the all powerful entity that explains why and how all that exists does so. To a priest, and to all the theists the world over.
A quark, the smallest defined unit of matter, though not the ultimate unit yet, that explains the structure and properties and interactions of matter as it is known today. To a scientist and science students the world over.

There is a slight difference though. A quark just explains how, and not why, things are as they are, while "god" explains both. This elementary difference is what separates a scientist from a priest. Both quark and god are hitherto unseen and undiscovered entities, and both satisfy the needs of their respective "believers".

Till now we've just seen how a quark and god are similar, and a point of difference between the two. Now we shall see how a quark and god are similar to the respective non-believers.

A quark is an entity which few priests must have heard of, though even those who must have heard of it or read about it would discard it as something which is merely a figment of Science's imagination, the collective imagination of decades of scientists, who spend billions of dollars year after year trying to conduct a seemingly fruitless experiment, and then predicting out-of-the-world events and particles. Why go through so much of mental, financial and social stress when you could just accept the fact that there is a god to take care of all that exists, ever existed, and will ever come into being?

God is an unexplained, undiscovered entity, proposed by centuries of impractical, helpless, afraid-of-the-unknown men, whose only motive is to advocate something that takes away most of your responsibility, makes a few believers stick to the rules of decency and civility, evokes a general but sporadic sense of humility, creates a gradient between the "enlightened" and the seekers, as in every other discipline, though in pursuit of something which is totally baseless and unnecessary, when each day our understanding of the universe is growing so much better! Why depend so inseparably on something so inexplicable as god, when you have more rational things to rest your imagination on?

Coming up.....How quarks may turn out to be gods...

Science and God

2009-12-28T10:13:00.001+05:30

1.Emotions are not the ends but means themselves. Means to longevity of life, or survival. Think with an open mind and you'll realise that emotions are not for nothing. Every single emotion is necessary for some essential life process or simply survival.

2.Emotions are brought about by certain processes we like to call electro-chemical reactions, and, to answer why a paticular elementary/complex reaction results in a particular emotion, is same as answering why we call ourselves men. We could as well have been calling ourselves apes, lizards, pigs, cockroaches or even viruses, or say "fbvfuier"! So you get a specific emotion of of some reaction, and some reaction has to give certain emotion. So, say reaction R1 gives emotion E1, R2-E2. If you change that to R1-E7, R4-E1, it's still the same!

3.If you argue why other beasts don't have as vivid emotions, it's pretty simple to answer. If you have a more diverse and complex brain, you need to, and will have many more emotions.

4.ID, or Intelligent Design is like saying "God" wanted to play around with some puppets and created heaven, earth, man, animals etc. But why create trillions of trillions of other planets and organisms? And why create only as many organisms as were visible to the human eye when the Bible was written?

5.If evolution by natural selection is the means to Intelligent Design, why take millions of years to create a "simple" human being? If you consider a different timescale, as changing the game-speed in AOE/RON, it's a drastically more involving twist!

6.The Eastern concept of God"s" seems to be much more acceptable and obvious. It is to the Judeo-Christian “version” of God what Relativity is to Newtonian mechanics! Why assume so many things and make isolated hypotheses, rather than saying what you see?

7.That you consider something as holy and pious concerns me the least. However, respecting a fellow man's freedom of thought and expression is important. That existence of God enters man's mind by itself is quite obvious, since the need for assuming the existence of God has always been and will always be present. Fear, lack of reasons, desire to explain everything without the ability to do so, absense of a visible cause for and origin of life etc.

Response elicited by : http://jmcc90.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/science-of-god/

First shot at hindi poetry

2009-11-04T11:57:00.000+05:30

गम तो है बाँटने वाला नहीं
ख़ुशी तो है कोई शामिल नहीं
ज़िन्दगी तो है हमसफ़र नहीं
दिल तो दरिया है पर पानी नहीं

चलते रहें यों ग़मगीन इस वीरानी राह पर
दुआ करें खुदा से मिल जाए कोई हमसफ़र
जो ख़ुशी को बना दे दुगनी और गम को आधा
साथ निभाने के लिए जो मांगे न कोई वादा
और ज़ाहिर किये बिना ही समझ ले अपना इरादा

parallel multiple quantum universes

2009-10-29T01:21:00.000+05:30

This video isn't exactly entirely new in terms of content, but kind of helped me augment my interest in Physics. It apparently sums up most of my thoughts. Going about the concept of quantised multi-verse or Quantum-Verse in a systematic manner makes it quite intuitive as opposed to general belief.
1. Two persons, even twins have different thought processes.
2. Thoughts are born from our brain processing information received through sensory organs.
3. Sensory organs being afflicted with 'abnormalities' makes the versions of thoughts about the same information even more different.
4. The information received by sensory organs of the two persons is a function of space and time (in lay-man terms; in more technical terms a function of space-variables, energy-variables and so on).
5. Even if the thought processes are identical, the mental visualization or association with audio-images of the product of these thought processes is highly improbable to be identical for our propositii.
6. In consideration of these theoretical arguments, it won't be too far-fetched to assume that the apparently same universe in which we reside would be atleast 0.001% different for even the most identical of twins! Thus there can't be definite reality associated with any damn thing!
7. Thus it can safely be assumed that there is existence of multiple universes even at the macroscopic level.
8. Now, the probability of intersection of the space-time functions of a body (say 'physical' and 'non-living') in two different parallel universes would atleast intuitively be zero.
9. [This one was supposed to be comic] What then do you have to say about your midnight trysts with yourself? Don't you in your dreams come across atleast slightly modified versions of yourself?
10. And just now we'd argued about the seeming non-existence of absolute reality!

So where does that leave us?

Life and love

2009-10-26T14:09:00.000+05:30

An interesting piece of philosophical composition,
one that caught my attention....

Life's a mystery...unless you forget

Life's history...whenever you regret

Life's long...unless you love

Life's tragic...unless you love

The Life and Death of Joy

2009-09-26T21:50:00.000+05:30

"Bee. Carpenter Bee.
A year is all I need to be,
Buzzing around with solitary glee.
Shiny hues however you see!"

The death of a bee is not the death of joy!
That which spreads joy even in death is what lives on for ever!

The passage of a life
alters but naught, all else but life;
The life of one, the death of kin;
The life of a few, the death of a feeder;
The life of many, the death of a leader;
The life of all, the death of joy.

Enjoy life.....joy's what differentiates life and death!

Alternate Energy

2009-09-24T23:50:00.001+05:30

Energy is in itself an all-encompassing entity.

Light, sound, matter, heat, wind, waves etc. all are the various forms in which energy manifests itself.
Some are quite obvious while others are not.
When we say energy the first thing that comes to the mind is perhaps gravitational or radiant energy, maybe light, heat etc..
But these are just routinely used examples. All matter is but condensed energy. Even a seemingly devoid of energy sheet of paper has molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, gluons and an endless array of sub-particles.
And those are just condensed forms of energy, becoming more obviously so as we go from the macro to the nano- or pico- scales.
So, when we come across terms like energy-crisis etc. they are just mis-quoted ones. Energy is everywhere.
But not all forms of energy can be readily used for our purposes. If we need to illuminate a dark room can we use the motion of air molecules or water molecules in the ocean directly ?
Or for that matter the heat contained within the Earth ?
No. And precisely for that reason, we have certain forms of energy like gravitational, electrical, heat, chemical being more popular, since they are presently the most readily usable ones.
All our activities are performed by the inter-conversion of different forms of energy.
So, energy-crisis simply means the shortage of readily usable forms of energy, mostly electricity.
For driving an automated vehicle, we need fuels like gasoline and diesel, apart from the less-used ones like electricity, chemical batteries, compressed air etc.
So, when we use up all the petroleum reserves on the Earth, estimated to be around 50 years later, we can no longer use the same sources of readily usable energy. We can no longer power thermal power plants using coal. So, we do realize the importance of discovering alternate forms of readily usable energy and developing systems to utilize them. Presently the most promising field is Nuclear energy. The amount of energy that can be utilized from the same amount of matter is maximum in this case. That is its greatest advantage as well as its greatest dis-advantage. The sheer magnitude of thermal energy released per unit mass in Nuclear-fusion reactions is so high that it just cannot be kept within controlled yet utilizable limits.
Quite similar is the amount of electrical energy discharged during atmospheric electric discharges, causing devastation all over the Earth.
Hydro-dynamic/static energy, Solar energy, wind energy, ocean energy, geothermal energy are some more forms.
Even cosmic rays can be used for generation of usable electrical energy.
And recently, electro-mechanical energy conversion has gained popularity too.
Coming to think of it, we do need all this variety, because we should not lay all our demands on the same source, as has been done in the past.

Reflections by a Shepherd

2009-09-24T16:29:00.002+05:30

Once upon a mossy rock,

around me grazing my wooly flock;

I sat under an azure firmament,

pondering on Nature's enchantment.

Why on this bountiful haven

are thankless thoughtless bloodspilling men?
who turn the motherly earth raven,
dreaming of an earthly Heaven!

Forgive me O Creator of all,
for I know this core-less empire shall fall;
much blessed are the speechless guileless,
for they have not the guilt of the eternally treacherous.

Curse me not so ever again,
to put me in such ceaseless pain;
for wish I not to stain my hands
with scarlet of my own brethren.

Wealth is might said have all,
but said have they not follows it pall;
hunting for wealth, food and green pastures,
realised have they not love's the richest of all gestures!

Subsidising higher education in India

2009-07-14T22:21:00.004+05:30

I do agree with and support Kapil Sibal's decision to subsidise higher education by paying out the loan-interest incurred by students in reputed educational institutions within the country.

Yes it is really necessary for a few, even though most would just squander the same amount like additional pocket money.

At the same time let's not forget that subsidy would be ultimately born by the country's taxpayers!
So, they should get some benefit in return for educating the underprivileged though talented youth!
It should not so happen that the very same guys end up serving some American or Singaporean or European private co.s!
At least a bond of say 2-5 years service in the SAME field (job and education) within the country itself AND for Indian companies, preferably PSUs or central/state govt. co.s would be satisfactory and reasonable for everyone involved.
Anyway the taxpayer much of the educational expenditure, be it engineering, medical, space technology, nuclear science and research or whatever.
So, why should all that effort be wasted in preparing ready-made professionals for MNCs and foreign co.s?
I, an IITian, personally wouldn't mind, rather be quite content being a prof. or researcher at a pay sufficient to sustain myself, getting research facilities as good as at IITs or the IISc or TIFR! Though that might not be the case with others, they could atleast serve their country for a couple of years or two!
Reservations, though being granted to the tune of 50% with no tuition fees in elite institutes, produce mostly either below standard or grate-less professionals, thus putting a huge burden on the country's expenditure/return ratio in terms of economic and infrastructural figures.
We do need to seriously think about the investments in education!
P/E ratio should be equally important in this sector!
How else would you optimize the educational sector without 100% privatisation, which comes with its own demerits (let's say the cost of education in private colleges)?

Let's not make our billion-strong population a bottle-neck but the strongest possible foundation for future growth and development!

India : The Nation

2009-07-05T17:00:00.003+05:30

We should neither treat the Western appraisal as a placebo nor its criticism as a nocebo.

Rather take it for what it is.

Do we not praise the clean environs and disciplined traffic of the West?

So, what's the big deal if they praise our Intellect and Knowledge and Spiritual superiority.

The very educational system for example, which we so readily criticize, gives us probably the widest variety of knowledge, while the rigor itself hardens our brains (figurative of course).

So, let us not dwell on our merits and demerits, rather think of the way ahead.

Not to become the next Superpower, but to become(not in order) the :

1.greenest,

2.cleanest,

3.most peaceful,

4.most loved,

5.most respected,

6.most efficient

7.most equanimous

8.most just

9.most reforming

10.most innovative

nation.

If that may be called being a Superpower, so be it!

A post on similar lines

Poetic Monsoon

2009-07-04T22:01:00.003+05:30

MONSOON

Seeds sown for crops to be grown

Farmers pray it doesn't leave'em alone

Dripping from roofs gushing down gutters

Crows n sparrows left in flutters

Rain, rain it teases my brain

Why all that water goes in vain

One's sorrow n other's delight

While forces of nature put up a fight

Loud rejoices at the first showers

Spring up grasses, sprouts n flowers

Rejuvenated is nature's bounty

In the virgin inurbane county

Agitated voices at persistent rains

Rushing under sheds are men

Stranded are cars, buses and trains

Compelling me to work a lazy pen

Diabolical downpour, poisonous,

Cancerous isn't nature's gift

To man's credit is the unnatural rift

Broken trunks n cattle drift

In a more native shift

Flooded are rivers n roads alike

When the nature's demons strike

Though we recharge our batteries at will

At nature's turn we scream shrill

Torrents n thunders do the same

In the atmosphere's electric game

The rains are past with thunder at last

And no more are seen days overcast

Leaving behind green

Green n blooms between

Miss may we

Days of wet glee

Wait we must

For a year with trust

Say I must is nature great

Its gifts worth in gold their weight

Rote Learning : A Necessity ?

2009-07-01T16:48:00.004+05:30

1. Rote learning is a choice and not a compulsion.
2. Examinations like olympiads, Mental Aptitude papers in NTSE-like exams, IITJEE, AIEEE, Architecture exams and others based on understanding test not your rote-learning and memorization but concept-formation, application and most of all analytic ability, learning on the run and resolving power.
3. Life is not a rote-learning test but an application of what you learn.
4. An advantage of rote learning is that you can rely on it even when you are nervous / tensed etc. in exam conditions, probably that is why girls end up higher in the school-examinations.
The thing to note is that rote-learning isn't and can't be enforced but is desirable under certain circumstances.
It's not the system, but the students who are responsible!
There are some things which so-called better systems do not allow the students to know,
like things which have to be known and cannot be understood in any way!
That is why Indians have a better GK than other guys!
However, everything else is upto you.
If you want to rote and forget it's your wish.
If you want to understand and retain it's your wish.
History is not memorizing a few lines and biology is not mugging up a few hormones, enzymes and latin names, and chemistry is not memorizing a few equations and formulae, likewise maths or electro-magnetism are not memorizing a few theorems and equations.
What you see is what you want to see!
If you know the concept you can derive the formulae.
But if you know the formulae you cannot understand the concept!
That is where the difference lies.
And to make myself amply clear,
Learning is different from being successful.
Educational excellence is not success.
Academic brilliance is not the pinnacle of success.
Getting a 95+% doesn't guarantee you a job, let alone make you a scientist or an engineer or a doctor or a professor/teacher.
Then how is it supposed to make you a successful person?
So, why lay so much emphasis on % of marks?
What does it lead to?

Pollution, Science and God

2009-06-29T00:01:00.002+05:30

Pollution is quite explicitly an instance of the manner in which some activities/phenomena lead to various repercussions causing an avalanche of changes.
Couldn't it be so that the apparent contamination of the environment on Earth is just another (though man-made for sure) of the various phenomena which led to the extinction of our gigantic posthumous co-inhabitants, in short the Dinosaurs, and others like the Mammoths, and the myriad of those whose remains we might not yet have encountered.

Again, though its progress may see the humans and many others wiped out, yet numerous others may see pollution reach a state of equilibrium in our absence, eventually new species capable of surviving under such conditions popping up. So, the only worry we might face could be our own extinction rather than termination of all known life on Earth.

And for the surviving species a progressively polluted environment would probably be a greater evil than a highly polluted but static (in the present sense) environment. And definitely so for the new classes or even kingdoms of life.

If there is a God, and he/she be as impartial as we say, then should he/she not desire the betterment of all survivors than that of a single species of killers? Should he/she then not further hasten our efforts to reach our own doom? Probably yes. If there is a God though. And that too an impartial one.

The rest of the thought-train shall halt in the next post. Please come to board it soon.

SCIENCE IN MY LIFE

2009-06-18T23:59:00.001+05:30

Though not exactly surprising, it may be a bit uncommon that the greatest amount of time a guy has spent in the first 18 years of his life is on science.
Though my first choice would have been biology / biotechnology as the subject in which I would have completed my graduation, the summer of 2007 saw a radical change in my opinion.
It was the same summer in which I went through the whole of
Relativity : The Special and General Theory, by Albert Einstein,
officially translated to English in the year 1920.

That was the only instance in which I was so radically influenced by any external element.

And not necessary to be said, Physics became my first and last choice.

Ever since I finished the book all my days and nights (even during my examinations) were filled with thoughts of Physics, Metaphysics, models of the Universe and the existence of the Supernatural. I also thought of 2-3 interesting projects on electro-mechanical and mechanical physics in the 2007 summer.
It was indeed fortunate enough that I was, under such circumstances able to clear one the world's toughest undergraduate level examinations, the IITJEE in my first attempt itself, which is considered quite a feat and that too without any coaching or tutoring.
The above couple of sentences are not a part of what you may wrongly consider bragging, but instances to support the effect the realization of true science has on a person.

I have ever since begun visualizing all phenomena in Physical terms and had it not been for my pre-existing interest in Biology I would probably have begun thinking even in my social life of all life-forms as inanimate objects.
Then comes the debate on the existence of the Supernatural, including the birth of the Universe.
It was pretty clear that Science could not at least in the present decade conclusively present an undisputable explanation for the birth of Everything.
Even though I am well aware of the fact that nothing is true in all domains, such as the unique definitions of life being possibly invalid on another planet or the inadequate description of colour in the presence of plants, fungi, bacteria and others, or even the description of more common phenomena merely limited to our senses of perception, even aided by the best of the technologies.

Thus Science has made me break through the view of the Universe (even that portion which is visible, audible and can be sensed) defined by the dimensions of our sciences, and open to the various possible unique definitions of the same phenomena.

I fully realize the importance of the various principles, definitions, theories, hypotheses etc. which are required in order to be able to proceed even with limited tools in our quest for exploration and knowledge, though not being bound myself to just these.

Definitely Science is an indispensable dimension in our lives, rendering those unaware of it hopeless, helpless and hapless in unforeseen situations and assigning roles to Supernatural elements for phenomena that can be perfectly described in terms of Science.

Education, especially Science education is not about gathering knowledge but about gathering and learn how to make your own tools to measure, analyze and describe the world around you.

In this light, I would like to present my pity for those pursuing just commerce, arts or even science in a superficial manner in that they lack the very essential qualities mentioned in the previous paragraph.

For greater understanding of my views please view all other posts till date so that you get the details of my thoughts.

An integrated attempt at poetry !

2009-06-15T02:45:00.006+05:30

Poles apart

strait as the crow flies

along the poles a star lies

along the cosmic axis Ptolemy cries

opposing him Copernicus dies

succeeds Galileo when he later tries

'tis still along the poles, above the Earth the world cries

comes Einstein says 'tis blatant lies

north n south n up n down 's all the same !

masses of bears polar n penguins

dreading the heat solar

with peace lies

what's it ?

but a game He cries !

The End

Existence of the Super-natural

2009-06-08T22:35:00.006+05:30

Faith in God is something which can neither be forced upon someone nor taken away from another. The most basic idea is that the institution of God in any of the myriad religions/sects must have been solely established for the purpose of explanation of unresolvable phenomena, and secondarily for relying upon in hopeless/hapless/helpless situations, having developed in some religions/sects into a power hierarchy.
Now, you must surely be aware of the fact that any man can only explain new phenomena on the basis of existing supposedly known facts or otherwise his own unlimitable imagination. If you go for the second one you get the typical religious fanatic. In the first case you either are a non-believer or a scientific person. If you are a non-believer, no one can make you believe anything. A true scientist is open to all outcomes and doesn't hypothesize without reason/logic/evidence and thus needn't deny the existence of a supernatural element.

Neither have you nor have I seen the creation of the Universe or even the Earth. Even scientists have various views on the same. Science relies on evidence. And, what we feel to be something needn't be the same for all. What we call life-forms may be entirely different from life-forms on another isolated celestial body. What we call sound/sight/taste is not same for even other animals/plants/bacteria/fungi and others. Whatever progress be made in the field of space-exploration we can only conclude by analyzing information based ultimately upon our sense organs (all data displayed by advanced machines are only translated into a format understandable by humans !).

So the Universe would be different for every thousand on a thousand and one life-forms known.

Multiply that by as many entirely different life-forms possible in the Universe(going even by the known minimum dimensions).

So, how in the cosmos are you supposed to decide whether a supernatural being exists ? What you call supernatural may be absolutely natural in another domain !!!

The rest is of course upto your knowledge and imagination.

SOME ELEMENTARY QnAs ABOUT THE UNIVERSE, MATTER AND ENERGY

2009-06-06T18:45:00.002+05:30

Q. What is the universe?
A. The most widely accepted definition of the universe is all that is contained by the
boundary formed by the surface at which all matter-matter and matter-energy
interactions become zero.

Q. Can there be multiple universes?
A. Yes. Since according to the theory of relativity all luxonic and bradyonic/tardyonic
interactions are independent of all tachyonic interactions, there can be more than one
universe according to the proposition, apart from the probability of universe
separation due to unknown containing forces.

Q. What is the most probable shape of a/the universe?
A. The most intuitive answer would be spherical (or maybe some would quite as
intuitively be able to say ellipsoidal), however, that is not correct.
According to the General theory of relativity, due to presence of matter, there is a
curvature in the Minowski’s four-dimensional space-time continuum, making an
exactly spherical shape of the universe seem quite improbable. And thus the most
probable shape is either quasi-spherical or quasi-ellipsoidal.

Q. How is matter distinct from energy?
A. Though in the conventional sense there are a lot of distinctions, going by the most
evolved understanding of matter and energy, going upto the quark-lepton level, there
are none. All matter is made of interactions ie. exchange of energy of still smaller
scale matter. So according to the principle of induction it can be hypothesized quite
intuitively that there is absolutely no distinction between the two.
*This makes me think of the presently understood universe as probably being an
atom-like entity at a gigantically larger scale!

Q. Can matter and energy be transformed into each other?
A. Yes! At the quark-level it has been pretty well explained. Clearly you know of the
conversion of mass into energy via nuclear reactions.
Let me give you an example of the other transformation. A proton is made of three
valence quarks. When a photon of sufficient energy strikes a proton, one of its quarks
gets excited and to a certain extent overcomes the colour force binding it with the
other two. Now, due to the de-excitation of the quark, another quark of the opposite
polarity is formed which again to compensate for the excess valence is bound with a
quark of the same polarity as the originally excited quark. As the second quark-quark
pair is formed, the interaction between the originally excited quark and the nascent
pair becomes weaker and it completely de-excites forming the ground state proton
and producing a new quark-quark matter pair from energy(photon).

Q. What are luxons, bradyons/tardyons, tachyons?
A. Particles of matter have been classified according to their speeds and rest masses.
Luxon- Speed same as EM radiation in vacuum – Rest mass zero
Bradyon/Tardyon- Speed less than EM radiation in vacuum – Real non-zero rest mass.
Tachyon- Speed greater than EM radiation in vacuum – Imaginary rest mass.

Q. Does it mean that if a particle travels at a speed u greater than v the speed of light in
an optically highly dense medium, it will be a tachyon?
A. This is not supposed to be asked at all! Note the clause carefully. Speed of EM radiation in vacuum (Popularly known as SPEED OF PROPAGATION OF LIGHT IN-VACUO as propounded by Einstein).

Adventurous Inventor Tom Swift Junior

2009-06-03T22:15:00.005+05:30

Familiar sounds the name ?
Must be a long time after you are reading the name I guess.
Even if you are a total stranger to the hugely popular and quasi-realistic fantasy series,
I bet irrespective of your age you wouldn't find these volumes boring.

A legendary creation by Victor Appleton, the series has been especially popular for its non-distinguishably fantastic series of inventions through the protagonist (Tom Swift junior, son of the great materials inventor Tom Swift senior). Though the initial years and even the final ones during the creation of the series would have been rarely ones in which the then present innovations would have been even remotely connected to the fantasies, an enthusiast who has more than a passing interest in innovations /inventions in the present world would find them rather too realistic to be fantasies.

Some of the popular inventions I can recall are Frequency-specific sound attenuator; Magnetically levitated railway-track; Laser-driven spaceships; Nuclear-fuelled ships, submarines and spaceships; Cosmic-ray fuelled spacecraft; Touch-sensitive robots, those working in nuclear plants; Flying and immersible labs; Vacuum-display projector, and definitely there are more than double as many inventions.

Whether or not you like reading such adventurous and quasi-fantastic novels, I would definitely suggest this series as a starting experience, and most probably it would be a transforming one.
I must admit my interest in inventions/innovations was to a large extent influenced by the series.

And such is the popularity of the novel-series that numerous present day authors (both amateurs and experienced ones) tirelessly try to re-ignite the enthusiasm and creative spark they have experienced.

So if you wanna experience the same thrill and quasi-apprehension pleeez
G O F O R I T !!!

PHILATELY

2009-05-30T23:58:00.008+05:30

Well maybe you've never met such a bore as a philatelist ! Or is it so that you're one of them (Thanks for your like-mindedness!) ? Neither ?
Welcome all learned, haters, ignorant and flukes !
Philately (not for the first two kinds!) is the hobby or (for very few) profession of collecting and preserving various kinds (used as well as freshly printed) of postage stamps.
Now, philately doesn't include the hobby of collecting every weird or strange object in your childhood !
Philately has often been dubbed as a getaway for the weirdos and geeks who wanna run away from the reality. But in my opinion, it can be one of the greatest hobbies which tremendously enhance your knowledge of your very own country, apart from the hundreds of others !
Postage stamps carry information on important events, people, discoveries, inventions, crops, flora, fauna, cultural heritage including monuments, traditions, festivals and others, in short virtually everything under the Sun.
Just imagine how convenient it would be to be able to gather such info going through not more than a couple of hundred square inches !
And with a little effort you could make a mini-encyclop(a)edia for quick recapitulation or if you are still in school it could prove to be one of the most innovative ways of decorating your social science projects !
I had infact (in hindsight quite foolishly as I never got them back) used up more than two dozen stamps depicting India's cultural heritage in mine, to be repeatedly praised for the innovation, and it felt quite easy to remember and recall the names of various monuments (>20) obviously due to visual association.
And for even those who are past school and still interested in culture, it can be a quite interesting pastime occupation.

AND

It could be something you could proudly show your friends a few months later !
For those of you who hated bitterly the pages of History in school, philately could well turn out to be a profitable material investment ! No investment in fact apart from the temporal one.

For rare stamps the price collectors and museums pay may go upto more than a thousand times the postage value ! Ain't it a rather safe and sure investment option ?
And of course, it is never too late to begin collecting. Rather due to the very rapidly falling usage of snail-mail, it could well be an in-demand activity !
Who knows you may be a museum owner tomorrow !
Happy collecting !

SIMPLICITY BUT NOT SENSE

2009-05-30T12:26:00.004+05:30

The seemingly most dreadful (due to its non-intuitive nature) of theories, Einstein's brain child, The Theory of Relativity. Is it after all so that a childish pursuit turned into one of the rarest epoch making theorizations ?
Perhaps so.
Having answered one of the questions on SR (Special Relativity) on Cramster, I began thinking about how the numerous constants and seemingly out of the world equations would had been derived.
Obviously the starting point had to be the most general :
x1^2 + x2^2 + x3^2 + x4^2 = constant
For those of you feeling a bit twitchy, these four variables are displacement magnitudes in Minowski's four dimensional space, three belonging to the conventional space and fourth one to time, xi = ict (i=(-1)^0.5).
Now taking the constant to be the square of an imaginary (not mathematically) absolute (universal) displacement magnitude, just differentiate the equation wrt absolute time.

You get a diff. eqn. with independent solutions giving you the more well known constant gamma and one whose name is unknown to me [t - vx/c^2 = ?]

Then you further differentiate the equation with the same absolute time and you get other constants of general relativity !

So, what innovation was after all required ?

Take Minowski's space-time continuum and Differential Calculus and bang! You have Einstein's Relativity theory in front of your eyes/mind.

KNOWN THEORIES ARE LIKE THE FLUIDITY OF WATER AND THE AIR !

WHY DOES LIFE EXIST ?

2009-05-14T22:06:00.006+05:30

Why does life exist?

I think not because of any greater purpose (which we are not serving anyway!) but simply because life itself means existence !
What do we do leaving aside imagination ? Eat, work (in order to be able to do other things!) , sleep, interact, reproduce and do some more, non-essential activities.
Is it not basically survival and reproduction ?
I would rather keep myself restricted on the imagination part in this blog (maybe later !) ,
by saying that for survival without great beastly strength or microscopic size or highly toxic secretions, we do need as much !
Just survive and reproduce !
What then differentiates us from another plant or animal or fungus or bacterium or protozoan or virus or prion [I do not think you would have a problem googling for them]

or even a molecule or an atom/ion?

[ I stopped at that because a smaller but yet stable unit of matter is hitherto undiscovered!]

They all do exist and survive and in some way or other reproduce !

Even the seemingly complex process of evolution seems quite simple in that light.
Howcome do we have only certain ions/atoms/molecules and not others similar to them [or even if they do exist they are not as stable] ?
Is it not for a similar reason that only certain types of higher living organisms exist and survive and reproduce while others similar to them perish ?

Does not the same ion/atom/molecule exist in a given environment and not in another ?

Also, does not a particular type of organism survive in a particular environment and not another ?
If you take out a neutron/electron/other subatomic particles grouped into bosons, quarks, leptons, gluons, neutrinos will they survive (for an appreciable time period) in an isolated state ?

Can an atom survive without one(or more) of them?

Would one of your organs survive (again for an appreciable time period) in an isolated state?

Would you survive without one (or more) of your organs ?

Can a particle be transferred from one atom/ion/molecule to another ?

Can a part of your body be transferred to another human or some other animal ?

Are there cohesive, repulsive and adhesive forces between atoms/ions/molecules/subatomic particles ?

Are there interactions between you and the other humans / non-humans ?

Are there instabilities induced by some atomic/molecular/sub-atomic species in others ?

Do you suffer from negative health-afflictions?

Are there not weak and strong species of the same species of atomic/sub-atomic/molecular/ionic [in many different ways] ?

Are there not weak and strong animals/plants/fungi/bacteria/viruses/protozoans etc. [in many different ways] ?

Analogies galore !

God and Science

2009-05-07T19:29:00.004+05:30

Oh God !

The all pervading, omnipresent, omniscient, almighty ..... and what not ?

"The...". So why at all do we have so many Gods ? Perhaps some civilizations are superior to others and thus their God should have the better claim ! What about the Indians especially the Hindus, and also the Greeks. Though the Greeks have a well defined hierarchy, the Hindus have allocated their Gods mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive tasks.

As per my knowledge, which I guess is very limited, most of the other cultures either have a well defined hierarchy or have just a single God. Does it ever seem to any of us that it would be possible to unite all the Gods ? Maybe so for some deeply peace-loving ones among us humans.

And what about science ? Let me say Physics, which I have always felt is what all the sciences converge to at the smallest scale[ Mind you all mathematics-lovers MATHS is not conventionally a science. It is an integral part of science but not one itself.]. I do hope most of you would have heard of the GUT (Grand Unification Theory). Apparently what Einstein died working on !

For those of you who aren't quite aware of it,

the GUT is a unifying hypothetical model of the Universe and its phenomena. Including what have been quite radical contributions from Maxwell, Einstein etc. on clubbing together two or more apparently independent phenomena, like electricity and magnetism, gravitation and light.

To the ordinary physics student or enthusiast or event a classical hardliner, it may appear entirely out of the cosmos to suggest that electricity, magnetism, gravitation, nuclear(strong and weak) & colour forces etc. can all be unified and all related phenomena attributed to a single force.

However, keeping in view the advancements leading to the evolution of the quantum theory, such a possibility can't be ruled out.

Although no deeply religious person would acknowledge that (due to reasons which I believe are quite obvious), there is quite a possibility that all our Gods (call it something else if you are bent upon ruling out any possibility of the existence of such a being/force or whatever)are in fact one !

By the way how many of those of you who even remotely feel positively about existence of aliens have actually physically seen one ?

Quite a no-brainer if you ask my scientific view on God. Clearly existence of God itself hasn't been conclusively proved or disproved yet. However all that science relies on is physical evidence. So there can't possibly be a hard scientific view on God. It only falls within the purview of religion.

The religious/social existence of God according to what I feel is purely for the convenience of mankind. That is the only possible reason why I find theists to be more self-confident than atheists and find it annoying if someone wastes his/her as well as my time trying to debate out the existence of God.

Going by the Hindu scriptures one would find a never ending count of useful tips and techniques. The rituals being the so-called unscientific part are themselves solely to make the useful seem divine and possibly to provide the then higher castes with a perpetual source of income ! So, in hindsight aren't they quite scientific ?

So, what's the harm in giving up the useless argument(so because of lack of evidence) and having some peace of mind instead ? Who's anyway asking you to stop looking for the evidence ?

Going by the real religious purpose behind the institution of God, doesn't it seem to be so that there is infact a single God (definitely if any !) ?*

Now, doesn't there seem to be a point of convergence of two seemingly non-intersecting functions ?*

*Conditions apply :The rest (and even the above) is a part of a human being's imagination.

Anthropocentricity

2009-05-07T00:02:00.004+05:30

Discoverers, inventors, teachers, scientists, engineers, DOCTORS, statesmen, warriors, kings, patriots .......is it over ? There you are ! I forgot about the gang we were forced to memorize in preprim classes ! The postman, the milkman, the blah...blah...blah.... How could we possibly forget their roles ? Well doubtlessly the most important people are mothers, fathers, siblings, grandies etc.. And somewhere in the special non-human category lies all the glory ! GOD !

Then somehow the sands of memory shift and all the plants(trees) and animals(and other three kingdoms of taxonomy) spill into our cache.

Treat animals as you treat humans !

Trees are our lungs !

Why for once can't we see-hear-feel-think of them in their own truth !

We are taught in the wee period of childhood to return every favour and expect nothing for any. To what extent do we repay the favours poured unto us by all the human elements co-existing on the mother Earth ?

And then how do we repay GOD ?

Did I ever mention repayment of all the minute favours we got from the non-human and non-GOD elements ?

Why to repay them ?

Then don't !

Atleast not with all the poison we concoct !

But wait ! We still have the age old remedy !

Pray to GOD and thank him for all he gave us !

Man is GOD's best creation !

What have we ever created knowingly to un-help us !

Policies and treaties are fervently drafted to save the world (read US) from pollution, global warming, depletion of resources, ........ and so on.

Green-n-clean cities ! Afforestation drives ! Alternate-fuel tech !

Why do we all worry ?

We still have NASA with us !

MIGHTY HUMAN SPECIES !