Saturday, January 12, 2013

A complex set of Balanced equations.


I have started to believe that the well known adages have a lot of truth in them. Let's try to put all them together. It is said, according to the yin yang philosophy, that the universe works in balance. Every action has an equal an opposite reaction. What goes around comes back around. If we take a cue from the movie matrix, the fact that Neo was to become so powerful was to control its negative counter part smith. If we look at the latest news, at one part of the work we have negative 40 degree temperature in Eastern Russia while bush fires in Australia. The heat waves in Australia brought a maximum temperature of as high as 42 degrees Celsius  The environmental explanation for this is termed as 'Global Warming' which also, essentially explains the same thing - extreme surge of temperatures in either side of the equilibrium. I believe everything in the world is driven by an algorithm ( which also proves the cause and effect relationship).

The ideas that I try to put forth here may be haphazard, but my job is done even if you get the feel of it. Jackie Chan in one of the movies quoted - "Too much of good thing is bad thing". This goes well with another popular saying - "Excess of everything is bad". We have all been advised not to be dependent on something, as dependence leads to helplessness  But then, at the same time, are we not growing more and more dependent on one thing - Technology? Can we, as prospering people of generation Y, imagine a world without technology? Have we ever wondered how complex data was calculated, for example, the GDP of an economy, when there were no computers? The world did go on before computers were invented. On the one hand, where we have had break through technologies such as the Internet and similar upcoming technologies such as Cloud Computing, which will/have completely revolutionize/d the way we behave, live and act. Bu then at the same time, technology has silently made us so dependent on itself that we cannot even dare to think otherwise. This may sound a bit related to all "Man vs Machines" movies, but it is actually not. And if you realize the difference, then you will clearly understand what I am trying to say here.

Why are the obesity percentages in the world rising? Because there was a time when people used to walk and cycle for miles whereas that has now been replaced by Automatic vehicles. The general argument in this case is that Time is more important than money. But then again, where is the balance? And how fast do we consider something really fast. If we were to say that we are fast as we can now save 40 min by travelling through car instead of walking, it is just another way of saying that you can now do more in your lifespan than generations earlier than yours did. But then, at the same time, there is a decrease in average lifespan across the globe over the years. I think if we were to calculate the net achievements of the world in totem while giving equal normalized weights to the essence of the innovations, I think we would arrive at a constant number. Scientifically, we can say that in a closed system, whatever happens inside is irrelevant to the overall entropy of the system as seen from outside. Consider someone who is large enough to see all the worlds at the same time and who is millions of centuries old, he would see no change in the million years in which we humans have existed. Religiously we term such a being as God ( And I purposely did not include the word 'Human' here).

Coming back to the topic we started with, I guess technology has played a major role in causing the major global issues we face today, and not only global warming. The environment has deteriorated ever since we have started exploiting it, and technology has only accelerated the rate. Species are getting extinct, water bodies are polluted, land areas are becoming intoxicated all this at the cost of the time that we save by choosing to drive over walking for 40 minutes.

Imagine the extent to which gmail controls our lives today. Imagine suddenly their database getting corrupted - all the emails and data evaporating in thin air. What chaos would it create world wide?

Talking about dependence, would there have been a World wide web had there been no personal computers? And would there be cloud computing today had there been no Internet? The idea here is to make you realize that technology is like an entanglement - no two things are mutually exclusive of each other. If the base bubble bursts, there would be global catastrophe. Quoting another famous dialogue from the movie Matrix - "Another organism follows a similar trend - A Virus".

We are a time when we face crises politically, economically, socially and technologically - Grouping together to what we can call the PEST crisis. The Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012, but I guess their only fallacy was not taking into account the effects of technology. I believe we are still on path of destruction and technology has only delayed it. But eventually fate will have the better of us.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Better Said than Done !

The most manipulated word in the history of mankind is "Self Respect". I believe it is just a face saving way of not accepting the fact that we have too big an ego to satisfy. Half of the battles that have been fought in the pretext of self respect were actually satisfying someone's ego, more often than not, directly.

Two people are great friends when they play together, live together, study together or hang out together. But why does it happen that for most of the people relationships, if not end, weaken over time? Why does the frequency of texting or calling diminish over time ? Why is that at one point of time we don't feel like calling someone just because they didn't? Isn't that the big fat ego coming into play.

Consider this - to people are driving on the same road and one of them overtakes - and in seconds there is a virtual race started on the road. Even without the first person's knowledge, he has been dragged into the race and what happens when the second person finally overtakes? His ego is satisfied.

In fact the same is the reason why some people tend to get hurt over petty reasons. Consider a hypothetical world, where there is no ego. To say imagine a world without self respect would instead be hurting self respect's self respect itself, so we leave it aside for the time being. Let's say there was no ego in the world; no one would ever get hurt, angry or even feel bad at what others say. There would be no broken relationships, and no bitter memories to nourish. In such a place there would be no hesitation in talking to a stranger, as the fear of being rejected would not exist, since that hesitation is a direct consequence of one's ego. Even the reciprocator (I made up that word) would not hesitate in replying back, as he too is a part of the ego free world. Wouldn't then there be a lot less burden on people as the barriers to friendship would reduce to zero ? Now if that is the hypothetically perfect world why can't every one follow it in reality. Why can't we just let go of our stupid egos and give weight to the more important things in the world?