above average

One of the best books i have read.It is about a middle-class delhi guy with a aptitude for maths,science.The book has parts with iit-d,mayur vihar in delhi,and usa as its backdrop.The book reflects on the fact that most people do what is considered to be safe and good rather than doing the things that they love the most.I couldnt stop reading the book.i read it while i was lying lazily on my bed,i read it while i was travelling in the car all through the afternoon till dusk ensued and ensured that i could read no more.The characters in the book kept reeling in my head for some time .In my mind's eye i could see them all-arindam,neeraj,aparna,chanda,shieku and many more.

the joy in small and simple things

I was feeling frustrated .i didnt know why but i was felling a little low that day .so i downloaded "amazing videos" from the BITS network and watch them to kill time .There was one particular video that i enjoyed watching .The video had a really cute baby laughing continously for about a minute and a half .The baby was going crazy! What was making him laugh ?nothing at all...someone was just making a small sound and each time the sound was made the baby would burst into laughter.for me and for most of us this has become impossible unless and untill you are in a laughter club.i realized that i had become intelligent as i grew up but i had lost my innocence .i got so lost in dreaming and working toward my dreams that i took small and simple things that make life so beautiful for granted .I read an interesting principle somewhere , it said " if you focus on the lack of something ,then the lack grows!".It then struck me that all the while i had been counting my problems but i had never bothered to count my blessings.I have got so much ,but i never paid too much attention to that !since then i have learned to appreciate simple things and yeah i have become happier .
So just chillax.Dont worry , be stupid!

I WISH

I wish that I could run a mile with the innocence of a child
I wish that I could just lie down and stare at the stars with no agenda on my mind
I wish I could just stay in silence for sometime
I wish I could stare into your eyes, say nothing yet convey all there is to be conveyed
I wish I could transcend the confines of my mind
I wish I could laugh with my entire being
I wish I could listen to the words you speak and the silence between the words you speak
I wish I could sing a song silently to tell the sky how much I love it
I wish tears of gratitude would roll down cheek
I wish you would respect my love for solitude
I wish I could see the triviality of things I worry about
I wish I could walk in the cosmos for a day with innocence of a child,
With no judgements in my mind to obstruct the truth,
With no memory of the past or anticipation for the future
I wish I could just be in totally in the "now",
I wish my wishing mind would just stop Only then will all my wishes come true.

Technolosophy = Technology + Philosophy

Thinking about the title? Even I did, when Harsha told me he wanted to start a blog about philosophy and technology. I always knew there was something between philosophy and technology. But that was just a gut feeling. But then Harsha told me they're both the different sides of the same coin! And this was THE sentence thats been keeping me thinkingrecently!I believe philosophy paves way for new technology. For example, there are lots of different philosophies about how we "think"... one of them being something to do with souls. I won't go into the details... You probably have your own beliefs and views on this. Now if you know a bit of biology, you know all "thinking" occurs in the neurons in your brain. Philosophy says they're all directed by some soul, some superior power thats around with you, everywhere, all the time.Now, the tech people did something. They tried to mimic these neurons on computers. They created something called neural networks. And these things actually can "think".I'll give you an example of how you would do something, and how these artificial neural networks would do. Say both are given a list of patterns and a unique number associated with each pattern.You:Whenever you are shown a pattern from that list, you can easily state that this is pattern number #. When you are given a pattern that doesn't match any in the list... you'd say "the given pattern doesn't match with anyone... but is quite similar to this one."Neural network:When given a pattern from the list... the neural network would give the answer as the number of the pattern (like Patter number 5). But when the given pattern doesn't match any in the list... it would produce a result like 5.47. Meaning its quite similar to patternnumber 5.The above artificial neural network has no more than 10 "neurons". Our human brain has billions of billions of neurons.So once we have enough processing power, we'll be able to create networks of billions of neurons. And those systems would be highly dynamic. They would do (almost) everything we can do.But thats quite distant.. even with the current pace of development of processors. But, the question is... when we create this "thinking machine", does the computer all of a sudden get a soul? Or are we getting closer to creating a soul? Are we getting closer to being the Supreme being that can create life? I leave that to you to decide, and that my friend is technolosophy.

Technology <=> Philosophy

Remember what the implication sign (<=>)meant in propositional logic? No? I'll tell you what it means... Technology implies philosophy, and philosophy implies technology. Both are interdependent.We've recently been talking about how questions about general things in life lead to unanswered questions (like the electric fan, leading to the question of "What is an electron?") and we interpret the answers to those questions as "the will of God".Philosophy has always asked strange questions. Cavemen had no idea what caused fire, or wind, or even rain. For them, this was philosophy... "What is this yellowish glowing thingy that gives us heat.. and burns us when we go close enough", or "What is the thing that we feel is moving, ruffling leaves, but still we cannot see". This was philosophy then. And what was the answer to the philosophical questions at that time..? "It is God". They worshipped fire, air, rain, etc. And what about technology? It was only so much that they could do some basic things: make stone tools, animal skins as clothes, etc. They had no idea why things were the way they were.Just a few centuries back, the idea was that atom was the ultimate particle. Then came the subatomic particles. Then the quarks. And then came strings. And we're still in doubt if strings actually exist.Today, the scene is pretty much the same. We have no idea what an electron is, or what made the universe, or even what makes us "alive". And what is the answer to the philosophical questions now? "It is God". And most of the people still worship God... nothing has changed since we were cavemen. Though technology has advanced a lot, we're still unable to answer some questions.The point I'm trying to get through is, humans have consistently tried to find out what "God" is, and he has almost always found an answer. But that answer is a partial answer. It reveals another "God", a new entity that humans have to solve for again. And upon solving that there's an even newer "God" that comes up...Its like the quadratic equation problem: y = sqrt(x+sqrt(x+sqrt(x+sqrt(x+..... you square both sides in an attempt to find the answer, and you end up with another problem. Unless you apply the "trick" of the question, you can't solve it.Maybe humans are doing the same thing. Attempting to solve things with their own way. We've not yet found the "trick" that'll solve the mystery of "God". Maybe we aren't supposed to... because then we won't remain humans. The curiosity of humans would then have been satisfied. With nothing more to know, the human brain would stagnate... leading to the de-evolution of humans into protozoans.Or it could be the other way round... knowing everything possible in the universe, probably trying to make it better. And doing an experiment on an evolution method much better than genes.. and watching the results over years. These new "species" would then try and seek *us*, the new "Gods".Strange huh? I've got stranger ideas... more on them later though.So what does all of this mean? It means Technology <=> Philosophy. Its the current technology that decides what philosophy we "have". And current philosophy provides questions for technology to solve. Quite a cyclic relation between the two, isn't it?

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