Flights of the mind

Dr. Ambedkar's closing speech

2009-04-14T16:17:00.002-04:00

The following are excerpts from Dr. Ambedkar's seminal closing speech in defence of the constitution (via Offstumped):

My mind is so full of the future of our country that I feel I ought to take this occasion to give expression to some of my reflections thereon. On 26th January 1950, India will be an independent country (Cheers). What would happen to her independence? Will she maintain her independence or will she lose it again? This is the first thought that comes to my mind. It is not that India was never an independent country. The point is that she once lost the independence she had. Will she lost it a second time? It is this thought which makes me most anxious for the future. What perturbs me greatly is the fact that not only India has once before lost her independence, but she lost it by the infidelity and treachery of some of her own people. In the invasion of Sind by Mahommed-Bin-Kasim, the military commanders of King Dahar accepted bribes from the agents of Mahommed-Bin-Kasim and refused to fight on the side of their King. It was Jaichand who invited Mahommed Gohri to invade India and fight against Prithvi Raj and promised him the help of himself and the Solanki Kings. When Shivaji was fighting for the liberation of Hindus, the other Maratha noblemen and the Rajput Kings were fighting the battle on the side of Moghul Emperors. When the British were trying to destroy the Sikh Rulers, Gulab Singh, their principal commander sat silent and did not help to save the Sikh Kingdom. In 1857, when a large part of India had declared a war of independence against the British, the Sikhs stood and watched the event as silent spectators.

Will history repeat itself? It is this thought which fills me with anxiety. This anxiety is deepened by the realization of the fact that in addition to our old enemies in the form of castes and creeds we are going to have many political parties with diverse and opposing political creeds. Will Indians place the country above their creed or will they place creed above country? I do not know. But this much is certain that if the parties place creed above country, our independence will be put in jeopardy a second time and probably be lost for ever. This eventuality we must all resolutely guard against. We must be determined to defend our independence with the last drop of our blood.(Cheers)

On the 26th of January 1950, India would be a democratic country in the sense that India from that day would have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The same thought comes to my mind. What would happen to her democratic Constitution? Will she be able to maintain it or will she lost it again. This is the second thought that comes to my mind and makes me as anxious as the first.

It is not that India did not know what is Democracy. There was a time when India was studded with republics, and even where there were monarchies, they were either elected or limited. They were never absolute. It is not that India did not know Parliaments or Parliamentary Procedure. A study of the Buddhist Bhikshu Sanghas discloses that not only there were Parliaments-for the Sanghas were nothing but Parliaments – but the Sanghas knew and observed all the rules of Parliamentary Procedure known to modern times. They had rules regarding seating arrangements, rules regarding Motions, Resolutions, Quorum, Whip, Counting of Votes, Voting by Ballot, Censure Motion, Regularization, Res Judicata, etc. Although these rules of Parliamentary Procedure were applied by the Buddha to the meetings of the Sanghas, he must have borrowed them from the rules of the Political Assemblies functioning in the country in his time.

This democratic system India lost. Will she lost it a second time? I do not know. But it is quite possible in a country like India – where democracy from its long disuse must be regarded as something quite new – there is danger of democracy giving place to dictatorship. It is quite possible for this new born democracy to retain its form but give place to dictatorship in fact. If there is a landslide, the danger of the second possibility becoming actuality is much greater.

If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do? The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we must abandon the method of civil disobedience, non-cooperation and satyagraha. When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us.

The second thing we must do is to observe the caution which John Stuart Mill has given to all who are interested in the maintenance of democracy, namely, not "to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or to trust him with power which enable him to subvert their institutions". There is nothing wrong in being grateful to great men who have rendered life-long services to the country. But there are limits to gratefulness. As has been well said by the Irish Patriot Daniel O'Connel, no man can be grateful at the cost of his honour, no woman can be grateful at the cost of her chastity and no nation can be grateful at the cost of its liberty. This caution is far more necessary in the case of India than in the case of any other country. For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship.

The third thing we must do is not to be content with mere political democracy. We must make our political democracy a social democracy as well. Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life. These principles of liberty, equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy. Liberty cannot be divorced from equality, equality cannot be divorced from liberty. Nor can liberty and equality be divorced from fraternity. Without equality, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty would produce the supremacy of the few over the many. Equality without liberty would kill individual initiative. Without fraternity, liberty and equality could not become a natural course of things. It would require a constable to enforce them. We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which is Assembly has to laboriously built up.

The second thing we are wanting in is recognition of the principle of fraternity. what does fraternity mean? Fraternity means a sense of common brotherhood of all Indians-if Indians being one people. It is the principle which gives unity and solidarity to social life. It is a difficult thing to achieve. How difficult it is, can be realized from the story related by James Bryce in his volume on American Commonwealth about the United States of America.

The story is- I propose to recount it in the words of Bryce himself- that-

"Some years ago the American Protestant Episcopal Church was occupied at its triennial Convention in revising its liturgy. It was thought desirable to introduce among the short sentence prayers a prayer for the whole people, and an eminent New England divine proposed the words `O Lord, bless our nation'. Accepted one afternoon, on the spur of the moment, the sentence was brought up next day for reconsideration, when so many objections were raised by the laity to the word nation' as importing too definite a recognition of national unity, that it was dropped, and instead there were adopted the words `O Lord, bless these United States."

There was so little solidarity in the U.S.A. at the time when this incident occurred that the people of America did not think that they were a nation. If the people of the United States could not feel that they were a nation, how difficult it is for Indians to think that they are a nation. I remember the days when politically-minded Indians, resented the expression "the people of India". They preferred the expression "the Indian nation." I am of opinion that in believing that we are a nation, we are cherishing a great delusion. How can people divided into several thousands of castes be a nation? The sooner we realize that we are not as yet a nation in the social and psychological sense of the world, the better for us. For then only we shall realize the necessity of becoming a nation and seriously think of ways and means of realizing the goal. The realization of this goal is going to be very difficult – far more difficult than it has been in the United States. The United States has no caste problem. In India there are castes. The castes are anti-national. In the first place because they bring about separation in social life. They are anti-national also because they generate jealousy and antipathy between caste and caste. But we must overcome all these difficulties if we wish to become a nation in reality. For fraternity can be a fact only when there is a nation. Without fraternity equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint.

These are my reflections about the tasks that lie ahead of us. They may not be very pleasant to some. But there can be no gainsaying that political power in this country has too long been the monopoly of a few and the many are only beasts of burden, but also beasts of prey. This monopoly has not merely deprived them of their chance of betterment, it has sapped them of what may be called the significance of life. These down-trodden classes are tired of being governed. They are impatient to govern themselves. This urge for self-realization in the down-trodden classes must no be allowed to devolve into a class struggle or class war. It would lead to a division of the House. That would indeed be a day of disaster. For, as has been well said by Abraham Lincoln, a House divided against itself cannot stand very long. Therefore the sooner room is made for the realization of their aspiration, the better for the few, the better for the country, the better for the maintenance for its independence and the better for the continuance of its democratic structure. This can only be done by the establishment of equality and fraternity in all spheres of life. That is why I have laid so much stresses on them.

I do not wish to weary the House any further. Independence is no doubt a matter of joy. But let us not forget that this independence has thrown on us great responsibilities. By independence, we have lost the excuse of blaming the British for anything going wrong. If hereafter things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves. There is great danger of things going wrong. Times are fast changing. People including our own are being moved by new ideologies. They are getting tired of Government by the people. They are prepared to have Governments for the people and are indifferent whether it is Government of the people and by the people. If we wish to preserve the Constitution in which we have sought to enshrine the principle of Government of the people, for the people and by the people, let us resolve not to be tardy in the recognition of the evils that lie across our path and which induce people to prefer Government for the people to Government by the people, nor to be weak in our initiative to remove them. That is the only way to serve the country. I know of no better.

Philosophy Redux

2009-03-23T19:29:00.007-04:00

An old question which bugged philosophers of all ages and places: what is the purpose of our life?

Is happiness the goal? What results in happiness? Or is there/should there be a purpose for life? Can't we just live like a cow? Is a cow happy? Or just plain dumb? Ignorance is bliss after all and cows hardly cry and seem to be at peace with themselves. Since we are humans, we seem to have a lot of desires, unlike cows.

Desire is the root-cause of all misery according to Buddha. The lack of desire should come from an actual self-realization that desire is meaningless. I suspect such a philosophy will lead to a civilization in decline, which abandons/devalues all things material. (How much of this affected India is anyone's guess!) These ideas contrast with the ideas of disinterestedness in the result of one's action (nishkama karma) but not in action itself and the importance given to all the four stages of human life - student, householder, retired and renounced - in Gita.

I believe, the purpose or meaning of life does not lie in some end goal, but lies in the pursuit/action itself. I mean there is not enough time in one human life to know all that is there to know, to do all that is there to do and to feel all that is there to feel. So experience the life.

Free will vs. Determinism

2009-03-23T11:01:00.007-04:00

One of my first blogs (Probability and human will and Fate, time n God) here is about whether we really have free will or is it all predetermined. Since then, I realized that many people have been trying to answer similar questions.

Princeton is conducting a series of lectures on the so called Free will theorem. There is an interesting discussion regarding the same in slashdot recently. Here, free will is roughly defined as any behavior that is not determined by the past. The fascinating aspect of the theorem is that it roughly implies that if we have free will, then so do elementary particles (like electrons).

My knowledge of quantum mechanics is very limited to understand the theorem completely. May be when I get more time to read and learn about it, I can understand better.

Indian attitudes towards terrorism

2007-07-07T16:28:00.000-04:00

This is in response to the plethora of articles in general in the media and the blogs on terrorism, criticism of Indian Govt.s poor response and comparing it to the US response to 9/11 attacks and so on..

Huge sections of Indian population have more pressing concerns than terrorism - employment opportunities, natural disasters like floods, droughts, basic amenities like water, living conditions, and so on. Basic infrastructure improvement and transparency in governance go a long way in improving the lives of peoples. Even after almost 60 years of independence and democracy, the politicians, the bureaucrats and the police still have an attitude of the colonial masters rather than the public servants they actually are..

Terrorism, considering so many more people die almost periodically every year due to rains/droughts, is not a significant issue for these sections and hardly anyone remembers/cares for such things by the time the elections come around! For the reasonably well off people like in most of the blogging community, a fitting response to terrorism, strong posturing of our Govt. in international forums, strong military capabilities - all serve as a source of national/cultural pride. While I don’t deny the importance of these issues, I also feel that there are much more important issues handled much more badly which often don’t get enough attention, from the blogging community or popular media!

Before applying the standards of US response to terrorist attacks on its soil to our response, we can’t ignore the fact that for the people of US, the basic stuff are almost taken for granted and hence such attacks are the most pressing concerns!

National security is no doubt, an important issue, but not the only one. Just as an example, I have seen only a handful articles (almost all of them in The Hindu) on the farmer suicides happening across the country, which I believe is a more important concern and affects more number of people than terrorism.

Disclaimer: These are just the observations of a single individual during the course of his normal life.. No scientific basis obviously!

Reservations... not again!!

2006-05-24T11:59:00.000-04:00

Everyone is opposed to reservations based on caste, but i guess no one has a problem if they were based on income. If the only reason for the present state of reservations is vote banks, then why are the vote banks based only on caste?? why not on income? why don't all poor people constitute a vote bank and push for their reservations?? that would have solved the problem forever at one go!!
But that's not going to be the case.. not in our country anywaz. Because, caste is still important, in all important ways in our society. I go to my village.. I see the so called lower castes still live on the outskirts.. they don't eat on the same table.. and so on.

Now you might say this is only seen in villages and not in cities. Well, they constitute just 30% of India and even here the grouping based on religion/caste is so obvious that it'd be foolish to claim caste really doesn't matter.
And whatever solutions proposed seem to be once again based on the assumption that once a lower caste (well there is a hierachial order however much we dont wanna accept) person is financially well equipped, he doesn't need any more help. Which is all very good for big jobs/influential positions. For a small timer, it may not mean much if he doesn't have the necessary connections.. all success in getting a job/setting up a business/upward mobility depends as much on the connections you make as on your school grades. And these connections are usually considerably weak/non existent for lower castes compared to the upper castes.

Well, these are all points to ponder.. and there is no easy solution. And it's all very easy to sit and blame it on politicians who are probably as rational and intelligent as others in the society. They did not come from another galaxy!!!
What needs to be done? change the way the society thinks???
Anywaz, therez no point in increasing the reservation in iits/iims.. as it is the existing quota is hardly filled to the capacity.. and most of them struggle to complete the course.. the problem is with the primary education! and now whoz gonna run schools for poor kids? dont ask them to join govt schools!!

One good solution could be to reserve the seats in all primary and secondary schools- both private and public. Make it mandatory in all private schools too. This would probably lead to higher fees in general for richer sections. This would inevitably lead to increase in the number of good schools and mixing of populations in general. The Govt. could bear the costs of schooling for the next 20 years or so which I don't think is a problem considering the billions they pour into the defense deals.

Am baaaack!!!

2006-02-23T12:44:00.000-05:00

After a long time, I am back to blog... now that the summer is here!
Blog about what? Not yet decided, but decided to start anwaz...
Have been pretty lazy all winter.. not that it's something new! Analagous to polar bears going into long hibernation during winters :(

What's the big deal about the weather that stopped me from writing??
I dunno.. nothing really.. just some stupid excuse I guess, to cover up laziness of the nth order! I have decided something.. not to be so lazy any more.. So what am I gonna do? That's not important anywaz.. what is important is what I shud write about? And to be honest, why should I write anything? Thinking about writing something, I am reminded about the hapless Kaavya Viswanathan and her misery with her first novel.. How fortune can change just within a matter of days? And yeah, the family of Surya Narayana.. His beheading by the Taliban was a big shock! And as if that wasn't enough, enters a young lady claiming to be his second wife!!!

Hmm... don't wanna write about them. I am listening to this wonderful song Lemon Tree from Fool's Garden.

"I'm sitting here in the boring room
It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon
I'm wasting my time
I got nothing to do
I'm hanging around
I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens and I wonder

I'm driving around in my car
I'm driving too fast
I'm driving too far
I'd like to change my point of view
I feel so lonely
I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens and I wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree

I'm sitting here
I miss the power
I'd like to go out taking a shower
But there's a heavy cloud inside my head
I feel so tired
Put myself into bed
Well, nothing ever happens and I wonder

Isolation is not good for me
Isolation I don't want to sit on the lemon-tree

I'm steppin' around in the desert of joy
Baby anyhow I'll get another toy
And everything will happen and you wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree
I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
And I wonder, wonder

I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see, and all that I can see, and all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon-tree"

Perhaps aptly describes my present situation even though it's neither Sunday nor is it raining!

Reality

2005-11-13T12:30:00.000-05:00

Most of us must have heard this story about Rama when he was a child. One day he cried for the moon in the sky. Then, his mother Kausalya showed him the reflection of the moon in the mirror, to make him smile. Rama was happy that he got the moon in his hand.

Now, thinking back, I am very amused. Our perception of reality is very different from a child's perspective. Indeed, ignorance is bliss. But what is reality and what exactly constitutes reality? In its usual sense, that which exists objectively is what we call reality. This essentially means that what most people agree upon is what is called reality.

If a random individual in the group sees things which others don't see, then that individual is said to be hallucinating or he is diagnosed mentally ill. Now, is it possible that a whole group could be hypnotized to believe something which is not real (to members outside the group!) ? Ofcourse, it's possible. Widespread longheld superstitions (which aren't superstitions to the believers themselves until they were told about them) until the advent of science and reason are glaring examples.

Now, if a small group can be made to believe somethings to be real, perhaps the whole world could be made to believe that somethings are real and we wouldn't know. Ofcourse, we are not told or hypnotized by anyone to think somethings are real and some are not. We all came into this world with an innate sense of what is real and since we all independently arrive at the same conclusions about what constitutes reality, we might argue that what we perceive is real (not just to members on our planet earth, but to any neutral observer outside our group).

But can we be sure? Since we all are within the group, within the system, we can't know. For all we know, right from the birth, we might have been conditioned to the same objective reality as everyone else.

"What we perceive as reality is a tiny detail from the field of possibilities surging around us which our nervous system has realized through computation. If all reality is a computation from possibilities, then "reality" is a threshold value." - www.equivalence.com/labor/lab_vf_glo_e.shtml

Let me see

2005-11-03T19:34:00.000-05:00

Hmm... so what should I write? Well, immediately the question arises.. should I write? Okay I don't know the if's and why's, but I am going to write something. Anything.

Tic Tic Tic ...

Blank. Am just staring at the screen :(

Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic Tic ...

Zero. Still nothing :((

What is there around me? Hmm.. laptop, bag, table, chair, shoes, lamp picked from the trash. All stupid boring things. Oh yeah, this key board seems to be interesting.

Nooo.. not again.. I never understood why these letters have to be ordered in such a weird way? Now, I don't even want to think about it. A case of machine evolution gone haywire I guess!

Ah! Evolution. Now, that's an interesting thing to think about. And there's lot to write too. Probably another time, now that I have other things to do!

Cherished moments

2005-11-01T23:52:00.000-05:00

Manasuloni bhaavaalanni maatalugaa bayatiki raavaalani thapana..
So many thoughts in mind.. expressing them in precise words seems to be so difficult! A sudden inexplicable feeling of happiness at times.. reason unsure, but why should I care.

walking across the green field on a pleasant morning
the dew drops sliding across the leaves
the dense fog slowly lifting up
the distant sounds of the chirping birds
the cool breeze blowing across the face
the sounds of the running water from the nearby stream
the long rays of the rising sun on the horizon
the paradise is neither too far nor unreachable!

Let the moments linger on..

Happiness

2005-10-23T20:30:00.000-04:00

Somehow, I really don't like the conclusion of my last post. I never thought of fate that way and it sortaa just popped out in my mind. But right now, for lack of better explanation or understanding about consciousness I'll put that idea on hold for a while..

What is consciousness? How important are we in this universe? What is so special about the earth? What is so special about us? Or is there anything special at all? So many questions and not many answers I guess..

Sometimes it appears so silly and foolish to go through all these trappings of modern life. All through the ages, people have been doing the same things more or less.. when it comes down to the basics, nothing much has changed really. We are faced with the same sort of problems faced by the first humans i guess.. just the scale is different! Even with all the advances in science and technology, supposedly meant to save a lot of human labor and time, we are still working all day and perhaps, we have even less of a time compared to our ancestors. Perhaps the difference is that our ancestors might have been happy for so many things, that we take for granted and no longer derive any pleasure from them. Now, we want more or rather different things that the earlier ones had no knowledge of.

In such a case, if our aim is to make this planet a nice place for everyone, are we any closer to achieve that goal than the earlier ones? At any given place, over a period of time, I would imagine there is happiness and there is misery, in roughly the same proportions. Happiness is more a state of mind than anything else.. which can be influenced by the surrounding material world, but not just that.

When a person living in a small hut suddenly acquires a palace, he will be elated and happy, but not for too long when the palace becomes granted for him and he'll soon be worried about other issues.. as worried as he was, when he was in the small hut. Eventually, he craves for other things, things which he doesn't have..

Now imagine a world in which we could get anything we wanted. Will that assure us happiness? I am not so sure. I would imagine, we would eventually get bored. Come to think of such a world, that would be even more painful than this one. Here, atleast we wish for something and strive for it anticipating the pleasure it's going to bring us. There, we don't even have that anticipation of pleasure which is very upsetting I think.

Probably, here lies the clue to our happiness.

What we want itself doesn't really matter. All the pleasure is in the sense of achievement, when we get what we desired. And the knowledge that we could have failed in achieving that, enhances the happiness we get when we really achieved it. And ofcourse, this is only one facet of happiness.

Fate, Time 'n God

2005-10-16T13:17:00.000-04:00

It appears very counter intuitive to say we don't have choice. But do we really have? At any given time instant, we can do only one thing and not another.. and it looks like we choose to do what to do at that time instant. Now, suppose the choice is already made (not by us, but the situation demands that a particular thing is to be done and not another.. the all perfect model can theoritically predict this choice) and we dont know this. In such a situation, we feel we chose to do that particular thing, even though we really had no other choice. An illusion?? If we really have choice, then we should be able to go back in time and change our choice and do another thing at that same time instant.., which is not possible in reality.

The unidirectional time really leaves us with no choice!!

So assuming the choice is already made, the next question is who decides what choice we make? Or is there any reason for us to believe that there exists someone who decides our choices?

Hmm.. let's say all the knowledge is known and the perfect model of the universe is available. With this perfect model and the initial conditions in hand, we can predict the evolution of the universe in time. This, in effect, will help us in knowing what choices a person makes at a particular time instant. So, it doesn't look like there is someone making choices for us, but the universe once started will take care of itself, with the supply of energy.

And probably this source of energy and starter of the universe is called God by all our scriptures (atleast this is my idea of God). God as just a 'source of energy' seems to be pretty bland/lifeless. Since we humans who are a part of the universe have consciousness (now what is consciousness??), we can safely attribute this (certainly a higher level of) consciousness to the 'source of energy' and hence the all powerful God.

Hmm... it really luks like our fates depend on how God decides the universe to be!

Probability and human will

2005-10-16T12:26:00.000-04:00

I had several thoughts going on while I was blabbering about probability. I was thinking about human will. How do we choose? Is it governed by our upbringing? Is it governed by what we are offered? Is it governed by the situation and timing? Is it governed by our mood? Is it random?

Or to put in other words, it seems to be such a complex process and it seems to be governed by so many factors that can it be modelled as a random process.. similar to our modelling the coin tossing as a random process??

Hmm.. I guess in most situations, it's heavily influenced by our upbringing and surroundings and it's not really random. So given that, we can say that we can model how we choose as a function of our upbringing and similar factors with some randomness associated with it. Given this model, we can safely predict, within the limits imposed by the randomness, how we choose in any given situation. However, the knowledge we require to model this correctly is enormous and complex.

Now imagine a world in which wehave all the knowledge that is there. What then? With this knowledge, we can model everything perfectly without a random term in the model. Now, every choice of every human being can be predicted with our model without resorting to any randomness or probabilistic explanation.. what does this imply?

Doesn't this imply there is no such thing as human will?

In effect, does it not mean we are all doing what we are predestined to do? May be, it's just our incomplete knowledge of the world that's not letting us know what we are going to do in the future.. in other words, our concept of human will seems to be just an illusion.. (like the Oracle says "Choice is an illusion")

Probability

2005-10-16T12:13:00.000-04:00

As I keep spending more n more time on noise characteristics and its modelling, I cudn't help but wonder at how efficiently it works out in practice, not withstanding our incomplete understanding of the physical world..

Probability!! when I first studied it in school, I never imagined it wud be so useful in the practical real world.. guess it comes from my incomplete understanding of the concept. The first example everyone is told in probability class is certainly misleading.. atleast to me.. when you toss a coin, we are told it's equally probable for the outcome to be either heads or tails.. and intuitively, though it seemed true and trivial.. I had a nagging sense of doubt that if the conditions were all exactly the same, there is no reason for the outcome to be different in different experiments!

And isn't it true?? and does this not apply to any event? Why would/should there be any scope for randomness in the world? Is it not our incapability to model the complexities in modelling the coin toss correctly that is leading to this probaility explanation?

If we were to know exactly the intial conditions and the physics of tossin the coin, we should certainly be able to predict the outcome, without having to to resort to any probabilistic explanation.. so where does probability come into the picture in our coin tossing experiment?

Now let's change the experiment slightly.. let's say 1000 people are given the coins and are asked to toss without any other instructions.. then, we wud intuitively expect half the outcomes to be heads and the other half to be tails! and well, it actually does turn out to be true..

Why does this happen? as mentioned earlier, for any single toss, the outcome is not random, but is a function of how we toss the coin and what the experimental conditions are.. so there seems to be no reason to expect half the outcomes to be heads and the other half tails!! shouldn't the outcome depend on the mood of the individuals selected for the experiment and on the experimental conditions??
But assuming a random selection of individuals and normal experimental conditions, the outcome almost always adheres to our basic intuition.. so what's happening here?

Guess the theory says that the small disturbances in the experimental conditions, which affect the outcome, can be modelled as random noise which will determine the outcome as either heads or tails with equal probability and it turns out to be truel in reality.. so, in effect, our inability to exactly model the process, is overcome with this wonderful probability theory. and very often, we really don't need all the fine details of the physical process for our applications.. so we can save all our energies and time by cleverly incorporating this theory of probability!!

Making money??

2005-05-26T09:14:00.000-04:00

I am writing this after reading some of Mokri's blogs- www.chennupatim.blogspot.com
When do societies develop? Or rather, when are societies considered developed?
The obvious answer is when the societies are rich. When they make lots of money. Not just a few individuals, but when most members of the society make lots of money. So when we are thinking about improving the lot of our folks, we are thinking about improving the standards and quality of their living - all of which, in effect, requires them to find ways of making money.

Throughout the history of human beings, no society has developed because of the few people who set out to improve the social/economic conditions of their fellow beings, but because of the few people who are enterprising enough to find ideas of doing productive work and thereby make money for themselves and for the others, by generating lots of opportunities.

A Bill Gates or a Narayana Murthy or an Ambani have done lot more good to their fellow beings through their enterprising ways, than any of the people care organizations ever hope to do, not withstanding all their good intentions.

I am not saying making money should be the primary goal.. the primary goal should be to realize our potential to the fullest extent possible.. be the best at what we can.. that is when, we will be happy and satisfied - money or no money..
If we can achieve the best we can, prosperity- not just for us, but for our fellow human beings too- automatically follows..

Hope!

2005-05-14T12:04:00.000-04:00

As my first year comes to close, again I wonder, as I have wondered so many times in the past two years, what next? The first 20 years of life had been fun. All the idealism of the past seems to have been deserting me.. i think i know when it all started. but i am too lazy to do anything about it.. or may be i don't care enough to do anything about it.. or may be i don't realize how big the crisis is..
But then, i am hopeful. Hope is a gud thing to have.. n gud things never fail. strangely, these days, i find myself in a new dilemma.. albeit a pleasurable one. is it born out of this strongly felt necessity to regain my strength or is it for real?
i wud like to think it's a bit of both.. Again hope!!

I started!

2005-03-26T02:09:00.000-05:00

Finally, one year after I thought about blogging, I really started it after much procrastination. But now that it's already 2 in the night, I have no more energy left to write about anything at all.
I guess I should take some rest before I start it.