Hope

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Hope keeps us inside a non-terminating iteration. It keeps us going even when things take a turn for the worse. The belief that things will get better tomorrow. I think hope is essential for the survival of all conscious beings.

Will a conscious AI have hope? How will the brain of the AI differ when it doesn’t have a dying body and doesn’t have to depend on reproduction for eternal existence.

Calculus

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I knew calculus really well in school. I never thought I would forget it.

Yesterday I came across a problem on integration and I couldn’t solve it. I have forgotten almost everything except the basic concepts.

Right now, I am going through a quick refresher on calculus.

Resource - Calculus in case you forgot

Time

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I truly despise the alternating perception of time. It goes at breakneck speeds on days you want to live over again; gets stuck at snail’s pace on days that you hate yourself.

On Consent

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

It isn’t wrong to feel sexually attracted to the opposite gender. That is how life is sustained on earth. This increasing tendency to label every woman we see with a “sister” tag feels like another way to impose our misogynistic ideals on women. If a girl feels like killing herself after being raped, it is because we give too much importance to the idea of “virginity”, deeming girls impure when they are not virgins.

We need to teach our children what is consent and respect. All our movies teach us to pester the girl, to whom we are attracted, until she says yes. How is that respect? Rape is just a few steps further.

Missing Naivety

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Once upon a time, I was naive enough to think that I could change the world.

I wanted to be a physicist who worked on the Theory of Everything when I was a kid.

Then I wanted to become one of the best programmers in the world.

I started my company thinking I would change the world.

After learning about the complexities of the world, I found changing it is not an easy task.

I now realise how naive I was, but I think I did more when I was naive.

Maybe naivety is required to keep pushing myself through all the failures.

I am trying to channel my inner naive child now.

Maybe this time around, I will have some success.

On Minimalism

Sun, 11 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

“Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you. ”

— Ali ibn abi Talib

I am a minimalist by philosophy. This doesn’t mean that I don’t own any material possessions. This doesn’t mean I don’t want a car or a computer or other basic necessities.

It only means that the inherent value I give myself does not depend upon the things I possess. I only buy things after deliberately making sure that owning it will add value to my life or make my life easier in some way. Owning an expensive Macbook Pro is an example of that calculated decision. It allows me to take my work anywhere.

To know more about the philosophy, watch the following TED talk.

Procreation vs Adoption

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Some say the purpose of life is to have and raise your offspring. Everyone wants to pass on their genes. Nobody is thinking about the growing population and how we will address the problems that will arise due to overpopulation.

I see a lot of people spend lot of money on treatments for having children. Why aren’t more people considering adoption? Can one only love, when there is a subset of genes in common to the child? Are we still trapped by the grip of evolution?

Personally, If I ever want to raise a child, I would go for adoption and not procreation.

Conversations with a Machine

Tue, 06 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I loved the movie, “Her”. Given a choice to have a human or a machine companion, like in Her, I think I would go for the machine. A tweakable, omnipresent listener. Someone who will actually listen to all the bullshit in your head and produce intelligent informed response based on facts and scientific evidence. Human friends have the limitation of being “too human”.

The only beauty I see in believing in a benevolent God is that you get to have an open conversation with him. He knows you inside out. I love that, even though I am an atheist. Listening to someone without judging them, however insane they are, is one of the most valuable qualities in the world. I think a machine can easily give me this, without the obvious human limitations. Can’t wait for this to be a reality in a few years.

All the way

Sun, 04 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I was feeling a bit down today. This video made me feel a lot better.

The name of the poem is Roll the Dice. It goes like this..

if you’re going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don’t even start.

if you’re going to try, go all the way. this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.

go all the way. it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. it could mean freezing on a park bench. it could mean jail, it could mean derision, mockery, isolation. isolation is the gift, all the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. and you’ll do it despite rejection and the worst odds and it will be better than anything else you can imagine.

if you’re going to try, go all the way. there is no other feeling like that. you will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire.

do it, do it, do it. do it.

all the way all the way.

you will ride life straight to perfect laughter, its the only good fight there is.

– Charles Bukowski

The Myth of Sisyphus

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There is one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.

– Albert Camus

My friend and I had a philosophical debate recently about the existence of an omnipotent being that watches over us. He says, the existence of such an entity give lives purpose, and without God, life is meaningless. The most logical thing to do in a Godless world, in his perspective, is to commit suicide.

In Greek mythology, there was a king called Sisyphus. He was punished because he tried to fool Death. The punishment was to roll an immense boulder up a hill again and again, only to watch it roll back down again, for all of eternity. Parallels can be drawn about the myth to our very own Naaranathu Bhraandhan. That is a discussion for some other time.

If you compare the predicament of Sisyphus to our everyday life, we can draw lot of similarities. In a universe without a purpose, why do we get up everyday, go to work, earn money, spend it on things and repeat the cycle again and again? In a universe without purpose, everything is absurd. It is better to end our life right now. Only the existence of a God or a Destiny or a Universe that cares about you, gives life meaning. This is the argument used by my friend.

I have a different take on things. I am happy that the Universe doesn’t care about anyone and the fact that everything is random and meaningless. This means that the bad and painful things that have happened in my life, because of things that were not in my control, were due to the randomness of the Universe and not because a conscious vengeful entity was out to get me or I was bad in a previous life (Karma). I can turn things around at any time, even when the planets don’t align. My life is mine to shape according to my own hardwork and free will. And that is beautiful.