Devil's Workshop

Nothing will be 0.5

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:55:00 +0000

Life tastes sweeter at the extremes - Happy Birthday!

Dreams: The Brain's Simulation Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:12:00 +0000

Our dreams in sleep are our brain's simulations. It's a way by which a conscious/sub-conscious learning that took place when we were awake, gets internalized much faster - by simulating many more experiences governed by the same principles that we learnt during the day.

Let's say you saw a huge truck on the street & got scared. Your conscious self might dismiss it as a silly episode because your fear did not make any logical sense at that moment. Many times, it is true - we do get scared unnecessarily, especially when an element of surprise is involved. But many other times, we get scared because something as harmless as seeing a huge truck triggers a subconscious pattern that our mind identifies with the presence of a huge truck. It is the subconscious pattern that causes fear, not the act of seeing the truck in itself. Maybe you associate huge trucks with violent men. Dreams, are a way by which your mind can re-create 10 more experiences in your mind to strengthen your fear for the underlying cause - violent men, so that you need not wait for a few real-life experiences with violent men to start getting frightened by them.

Essentially, that makes dreams a force-multiplier for subconscious learning. If that's true, an awful lot can be learnt about the way we understand the world by understanding our dreams. However, there is a bottleneck - we hardly ever remember our dreams in their true form. And even a small error in recollection can completely change the underlying pattern that the dream seems to represent.

Is there a way to accurately remember our dreams? Hmm...

Random Chapters: A Few Hundred Feet of Darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:17:00 +0000

"Do you think it is dark enough, Cha?" I asked. Sylvia got up from her place instead of replying & took out her binoculars to gaze upon the Shanjaur. After looking around for a while, she finally turned towards me & whispered, "Okay, we need to start moving." I nodded & stood up. "We will slowly climb down the rocks onto the platform. And then we have to crawl our way through along the edge of the platform to reach the other side. It will be a much longer route, but safer than trying to walk straight towards the cave" she explained. "But what about the Shanjaur? Do you think he is the type who can see in the dark?" I must admit, I was still not convinced that her plan was going to work. "It does not matter. I think he is asleep & he is resting against the rocky wall. So if we stay away from the rocks & crawl along the edge of the cliff, we should manage to avoid him" she hurried through the plan as if she did not like being questioned. "How do you know he is asleep? We can't see him anymore!" I retorted. I was not going to step onto the platform without being sure that we had a good chance at not getting ourselves killed. "Here, take a look!" she handed me her binoculars. I took them & pointed them at the place she was pointing with her finger. "It's too dark, I cannot see a thing!" I cried as I turned towards her. "Switch on the night-vision filter, idiot!" she whispered as she reached out for the binoculars & slided one of the switches to the right. I looked again & there he was, standing exactly where Sylvia had pointed. He seemed to be resting against the rocks that formed a semi-circular wall around the platform, leaving the other half uncovered & exposed to the edge of the cliff. "He is not sleeping! He is still standing, Cha!" I exclaimed once again. "Elephants often sleep while standing. I think Shanjaurs might too. Look closely at his eyes - they are definitely closed" she remarked. I zoomed in on his eyes & found them fully closed. I waited for a minute to make sure that he did not open his eyes & finally conceded "Okay, he is asleep. Let's go."

Sylvia started our descent onto the platform & I tried to stay closely behind her so that I don't end up losing track of her in the dark. It was tougher to find the right cracks to hold onto in the dark than it was earlier when it was still bright enough for our eyes to be useful. But it was not a very long descent & we found ourselves standing on the same platform as the Shanjaur after a few minutes. "Feel the edge of the cliff with your hands & stay right next to it. The farther we are from the Shanjaur, the lesser the chances that he will be disturbed by our smell" Sylvia whispered. I nodded, though I didn't think Sylvia could see me in the darkness that surrounded us. She got down on her belly & started crawling ahead along the edge of the cliff. I followed suit & tried to keep close to her as I crawled behind her. We must have crawled for 20 minutes or more when I heard a rock ahead of me give away & crumble. I heard Sylvia give out a suppressed cry which was almost drowned in the sound that the pieces of rock made as they rumbled down the slopes of the mountain. "Sylvia!" I yelled out loudly as I tried reaching out blindly with my hands in the direction of the sound. Within seconds, I was drenched & frozen in my own sweat as pictures of Sylvia tumbling down the mountain flashed before my eyes. "Sylvia!" I cried out again, my voice hardly managed to leave my throat this time. I felt as if I was choking as fear & helplessness gripped me. I stood up where I was, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, I felt a hand grab mine & pull me ahead. "Run, you fool!" it was Sylvia. A sudden rush of joy ran up my spine as I struggled to keep myself from tripping, displaced by her pull. "You are alright!" I exclaimed as I ran along blindly in the dark. "You have woken up the Shanjaur! Run along the edge of the cliff behind me" she yelled as she panted for breath. I felt fear reconquer my limbs as I realized the danger I had put us into. "He can't charge at us for the fear of falling off the cliff as long as we are running along the edge of the cliff. So try to stay on the edge & follow my lead if we need to change course" she yelled again. I could not see the Shanjaur or anything else around me for that matter. But I think Sylvia was trying to monitor the movements of the Shanjaur through her binoculars as we ran. I closed my eyes & tried to respond as quick as I could to Sylvia's movements.

Even in that moment of danger & desparation, I felt a tiny drop of relief run down my heart that I was with Sylvia. If there was one person in the world that I trusted more than I trusted myself, it was Sylvia. "Right!" she yelled as she took a sharp turn. I was taken by surprise & tried to push myself towards the right as I lept off the ground involuntarily. But my reaction was not quick enough & I landed with one of my foot dropping on thin air beyond the edge of the cliff. I lost my balance & fell off on my side towards the edge. I felt my body surrender to gravity as my face hit the rocky floor. Sylvia was still holding my hand, but the pull was too strong & too sudden for her to counter. I tried to hold onto the edge of the rock with my right hand as my legs groped around, hoping to find something solid to rest themselves against. "Sylvia!" I cried out, as she regained her control & started pulling me upwards. I tried to lift myself as hard as I could with my right hand pressed against the rock. "Climb fast!" Sylvia yelled in fear as we heard loud footsteps of the Shanjaur approach us. I could sense the ground tremble gently every time the Shanjaur took a step. And I was pretty sure that he had started running, based on the way the successive trembles began growing closer & closer apart in time. I finally managed to get both my feet back on the platform. "Quick! We are close" exclaimed Sylvia as she lept ahead, still holding my hand & leading me forward. The Shanjaur gave out a loud cry right behind us as he must have tried to bring himself to a stop at the edge of the cliff. I flinched in pain as my ears felt like they were being split apart. Though his cry sounded very much like the trumphet of an elephant, the loudness was incomparably higher. I was running as fast as my legs allowed me to. I hoped that we would find the entrance to the cave anytime now, because we could feel the Shanjaur catch up on us. Within a few seconds, the Shanjaur was just a couple of meters away from us. The ground trembled so hard that it felt as if we were running on a huge bed of vibrating marbles that could give away & crumble any time, taking us down with it. The Shanjaur gave out another cry. I writhed in pain as my ears exploded & my head started feeling dizzy. I could not hear anything around me anymore & I tried hard not to completely lose my balance. But I could not keep up with my speed anymore & that was enough for the Shanjaur to gain some distance on us. I felt a powerful thud against my back that sent me flying off into the air. I felt my throat give out a cry, but I heard nothing. I felt my body hit Sylvia & the next moment, we were both lifted off the ground. I felt my hand slip away from her grip. Pictures of Sylvia, Mom, Dad, Grandpa & all my friends flashed before my eyes one last time before all my senses gave up on me & I passed silently into the darkness that surrounded me.

Random Chapters: The Last Hope of Varaya

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 19:50:00 +0000

"Let him sleep for some more time. He is tired" whispered Yashodha. But Mitra was in no mood to wait, "I have no time. Wake him up" he yelled as he kicked the water filled earthen pot that was lying beside the door. It cracked & within a few seconds the whole pillar of water came crumbling down making a loud splash. Yashodha stood still as she tried hard to control her rage. She could have brought him down on his knees in a second, burnt his pride and set his earthly disguise in flames. The women of the Hata Ashram were trained from an early age to master the skill of Agni-tantra - the art of summoning & weilding the fire demons to bid themselves in service of the one who summoned them. And Yashodha was the very best of the Ashram in the mastery of Agni-tantra. But she was also taught from a very young age that self-control is a more honourable skill to possess than any skill of destructive potency. "You will wait, Mitra" she spoke in a stern voice as she lifted her left hand & waved it in the air as if she was tying an invisible rope around him. She moved her hand so quickly that Mitra could hardly see her lift her hand before he realized that he was frozen where he stood. He tried to yell, but he felt completely immobilized. "I must have anticipated that" he spoke to himself in his head as that was the only thing he could possibly do at that instant.

"Mother, what's happening?" asked Nachiketa as he stepped out of his bedroom rubbing his eyes. The noise & the commotion in the hall had woken him up. "This is Mitra, my little one. And he wishes to speak to you" said Yashodha as she swiftly moved her hand as if to untie the invisible bonds that held Mitra. Mitra felt a shiver run through his body and his senses & limbs regained their mobility as if freshly injected by the serum of life. He tried to pull himself together & regain his composure before stepping forward gently. Yashodha couldn't conceal her smile as she looked at Mitra struggle uncomfortably to wear a posture of humility as he began speaking to Nachiketa. "Forgive me son, for waking you up. But I have come a long way and I am in great distress. I have travelled across many mountains and many rivers to seek your help. I beg you not to turn my request down" he uttered in a well practiced manner. "But who are you?" asked Nachiketa as his confused eyes patrolled between Mitra and his mother who stood beside the stranger as if supporting his plead. "My name is Mitra, oh blessed one. And I am the ruler of the Varaya kingdom. We live in the plains of river Saraswati several thousand miles away from here" he began to explain.

"Over the last three hundred years, my forefathers have been ruling Varaya with the blessings from Lord Indra who has been kind enough to gift our kingdom with appropriate amounts of rainfall and warmth at all times. And our farmers have been able-minded and able-bodied enough to make good of Lord Indra's kindness to cultivate and maintain an abundant supply of crops and cattle for our people. This allowed our researchers to devote their mind and energy into improving the support systems in our city. We have good hearted doctors who can cure almost any disease that is suffered by our people, inspiring teachers who lead our children on the path to wisdom and passionate artists who refresh our minds & help us enjoy the Lord's gifts with an open heart. But O' Son of Krishna and Yashodha, the last few years have not been so kind upon us. A great problem now looms over this kingdom of our good people and we have lost all our hopes of seeing joyous days again. Only with your help, Nachiketa, can we hold on to any hope that might be left for us" he sighed as his eyes slipped down involuntarily as if seeking refuge besides Nachiketa's feet.

Nachiketa looked with a puzzled face at his mother. Though he felt compassion & sympathy towards the sadness that seemed to have seized control over Mitra's face since the time he started speaking to Nachiketa, he was still clueless about the nature of the problem that the people of Varaya faced. Yashodha stayed silent since she did not know any more than what Mitra had described over the last few minutes. "But what is the problem faced by your people, Mitra?" asked Nachiketa. "What problem can the people of such a great nation as that which you described have that can be solved by a little boy like me? And why does it fill you with such deep fear and sadness when Lord Indra himself has been generous enough to take interest in the welfare of your people, O' King of Varaya? Is he not a more abled person to help you than me?" Nachiketa asked, trying hard to embrace the formality brought into the conversation by Mitra. Mitra took a deep breath before he looked up again & spoke in a soft, muffled voice - "Lord Indra has been assassinated, my boy!"

Yashodha let out a frail cry of shock when she heard this. Mitra looked up at her & closed his eyes in pain as if to convey that he too found it difficult to believe. "Who killed him?" asked Nachiketa. The heaviness of the situation seemed to have slowly made its mark on him, for he seemed a lot more attentive and serious as he waited for Mitra to respond. "We do not know yet, Nachiketa. But whoever assassinated Lord Indra now controls all the natural cycles that decide the fortunes of our people. We are already witnessing great abnormalities in the wind, clouds, rains, snow & heat. We are afraid that if we do not find a way out of this disaster soon, our whole kingdom would be drowned in chaos within a few months. And surely with the passage of time, this chaos & evil would spread to more distant parts of the world eventually drowning our whole world in darkness."

"But Mitra, you have still not told me how I can help you in these times of great trouble" interrupted Nachiketa. He was now experiencing a feeling of heaviness inside his heart, as if he was being dragged unwillingly into something that is much larger than what he understands or can understand. Mitra seemed to notice the hesitation on his face, "Dear Nachiketa, I know this would be confusing & maybe even upsetting for you to be thrust into such a difficult situation all of a sudden. But most our priests & scientists together believe that there is only one person on the face of mother earth who is destined to replace Lord Indra. And they believe that you have all the necessary signs of being able to fill this tremendous void. You are destined to be the next Indra, my boy and you must come with me to Varaya to fulfill your destiny and rescue the world from the clutches of these uncertain times." As he said this, Mitra came down on his knees & held up his hands with both palms touching each other to form the posture of a praying disciple. Nachiketa looked at Yashodha once again, with a puzzled face. She seemed equally puzzled and scared.

"I need time to think, Mitra" said Nachiketa in a soft voice. "Of course, my son. I will take leave now & see you again in the morning. But please be kind enough to remember that the fate of many million citizens of Varaya and the rest of the world would depend on the choice you will be making. I shall take leave now, Nachiketa." he uttered as he stood up & stepped back towards the door. Nachiketa nodded silently. It seemed as if this was all a dream and that he would soon wake up to find his mother being angry at him for waking up so late in the day. Even if it was not, he hoped it was as he waited for Yashodha to bid farewell to Mitra. "Goodnight, my little one" Mitra greeted as he left the house. Nachiketa seemed not to notice it or anything else around him at that instant. There was only one question that was rining in his mind over and over again - "Why me?"

Random Chapters: The Cave Shanjaur

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:03:00 +0000

"Oh my God!" exclaimed Sylvia. "He is bigger than a mammoth. There is no way we can get inside the cave without waking him up!" she whispered into my ears as she stepped back from the edge of the cliff. I could see fear spring out of her eyes even as she tried her best to look brave. There are very few times in my life that I have seen her scared; she grew up thinking if she never shows her weak side to her little brother, he would grow up without knowing what being weak was. But it never really seemed to work. I think being weak is not really a learnt skill, being strong is. And though she could not save me from the misfortune of having to be weak, I think she did a pretty good job at teaching me how to be strong inspite of my weaknesses. "Don't worry Cha" I said as I stepped ahead to take a look myself. "We have learnt enough about cave Shanjaurs to figure out a way past this one" I tried to throw a smile at her. But it did not seem to reach her in the darkness that surrounded us in the mountain pass. I muffled past her & inched slowly towards the edge of the cliff careful not to place my foot away from the narrow trail of rocks that led to the curve in that rocky mountain. When I reached the edge, I slowly took out my vaccum hook & clamped myself to one of the rock. I had to do that since the only way for me to see past the edge of the rock was to stand on one leg & lean ahead to get my eyes past the cover of the rocks. And then, I saw him - a cave Shanjaur; the first one I have ever seen for real. All of a sudden, my heart was pounding so hard that I felt as if the entire mountain was trembling. He was bigger than any of the cave Shanjaurs I had imagined in my head. Much bigger than a mammoth for sure. All the different stories we had heard from the villagers at the bottom of the mountain had prepared me to believe that a Shanjaur came very close to what the ancient Hindu mythology described as an Airavat - a huge mammoth like creature with pearl white skin, long tusks and broad legs powerful enough to jump a thousand feet off the ground before coming down to pound the earth with a crushing force. All that I had managed to imagine from that description was the picture of a wooly mammoth from ice age that I had seen in my grandfather's museum. But what stood a few hundred feet in front of me was a pre-historic giant the size of two or three mammoths, covered in long, white fur and decorated by two large ears & two large tusks bigger than what half a dozen elephants put together would be able to match. I could not guage the strength of its legs since it was resting on the ground with all its legs folded neatly beneath its large belly. He was so large that I could not see even the slightest signs of the cave entrance which we were hoping to sneak into without being seen by the Shanjaur.

I could feel Sylvia tug my rope from behind as I stood there transfixed in a simultaneous attack of fear & awe. I slowly brushed myself back against the rock & got myself back on both feet again. Sylvia smiled as she came close to me to check if I was feeling alright. "You are sweating" she said. I had not noticed it, but I did not manage to get any words out of my mouth in response. "You are right! There is no way we can get past him" I uttered in a broken voice. "You are wrong! There is a way" she exclaimed as she winked at me to let me know that she had a plan. Of course she had a plan, she always did. I was just not sure it would work this time. But as always, I hid my doubts and pulled back my strength to unclamp myself from the rock. She took a step ahead & took me in her arms as she embraced me tightly as if to squeeze all my nervousness out of me. I could feel her spirit and courage fill me up like I've experienced a thousand times before. I took a deep breath as I whispered in her ear one last time before we set out to battle the cave Shanjaur - "Lets do it!"

The plan was simple - distraction. We had to distract the Shanjaur away from the entrance of the cave long enough for us to sneak inside before it returned to guard the cave. "But why does the Shanjaur guard the cave anyway?" I asked myself for the umpteenth time. Though Sylvia and I had come up with a thousand different reasons by now for why we thought the Shanjaur guarded the cave, the truth was that we had no clue whatsoever. But it did not matter now. All that mattered now was that we distract the Shanjaur, sneak into the cave, rescue grandpa from whatever problem he has got himself into this time and find a way to get out and get home as soon as we can. And I am sure grandpa would have answers to all of our questions anyway - so in a way finding grandpa is also a way to find the answers to all these questions that kept ringing inside our heads ever since we left home eighteen days earlier.

"Jack, what are you doing? Start climbing" Sylvia cried out in a muffled voice from above. She had already started climbing upwards in order to reach the platform on the mountain where the entrance to the cave was and where the Shanjaur was. I tightened the belts of my backback and groped on the rocks with my hands to find the nearest crack that I could grab with my fingers as I pulled myself upwards to find a place where I could keep my right foot. And then I did the same to lift myself higher and land on my left foot. "Two" I said to myself. I always loved to count my steps while climbing mountains. It kept my mind busy and it kept me from thinking about home. Sylvia never seemed to miss home much, but for me - it was different. I could hardly manage to go a day without thinking about how easily Jhonny would be able to extend his lead over me in Darwinian Checkers when I am away or about how many classes at school I was missing and how I would have to do all the homework at once after I go back. I was also worried about Jimmy. He was a tiny little husky pup when Sylvia gifted him to me on my ninth birthday. Now he was a fully grown adult with almost no trace of a dog and all the traces of a mountain wolf. I wanted to bring him along with us but Sylvia said it would be foolish. I didn't know any better, so I agreed.

"Three hundred and seventy two" I whispered to Sylvia as I held her outstretched hand to pull myself up a flat rock she had managed to lead us onto. We were now only a few feet away from the Shanjaur, but on the side that was opposite to where we first saw him from. Sylvia wanted to make sure we knew his terrain well before we started fooling around with the beast. I opened my bag & fetched my water bottle to quench my thirst as I watched Sylvia pull out her binoculars and scan the terrain conscientiously. "There!" she exclaimed with an outstretched hand pointing at something that she found in the direction where we were initially watching the Shanjaur from. "What did you find?" I asked, still sitting in my place. "Take this" she exclaimed as she walked down & thrust the binoculars into my hands. I held it up to my eyes & focused it on where she was pointing earlier. And then, I saw it too - the entrance to the cave! It was right next to where we were watching the Shanjaur from earlier. That was why we could not see it the last time. "The Shanjaur is not blocking the entrance, Sylvia. I think we can sneak inside without getting noticed after all" I turned back & whispered in excitement. "I don't think so" she shook her head. "Look again. There is no way for us to get to the entrance from the other side of the mountain. The only way to reach there is to get down onto the platform from this side & somehow manage to reach the other end of the rock bed to reach the entrance" It seemed as if she was talking to herself than to me. So I kept quiet & let her continue. "Looks like we are caught up in the worst situation possible. We now have to walk close to a hundred feet on the same platform as the Shanjaur without getting sighted by the beast" she looked at me as she took a deep breath. "Lets wait for it to get dark," I said in a half-convinced tone. "Yes. Exactly what I was thinking" she let out a forced smile as if it was a desparate attempt to comfort me. I returned the favour & smiled back at her as I put my water bottle back into the backpack. Sylvia walked slowly towards where I was sitting & squatted besides me. I put my arms around her & whispered - "For Grandpa!"

The Irrational

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:31:00 +0000

"There is pleasure in the irrational; There is pain.
There is life in the irrational; There is no death.
There is no similarity, no difference; There is no reason.
The irrational finds no questions when the answers are lost."

Random Chapters: Just A Sea Shell

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:49:00 +0000

I was looking around restlessly, trying to catch a glimpse of her cheerful face. I never believed in Gods or Demons, but I must say she made me suspect that maybe Angels did exist after all! She was indeed an Angel - her long, black wavy hair frequently covering her radiating blue eyes as if they were trying to protect them from the gaze of countless young men who lingered around her; lips more red than the shade of Barbados 47 that covered them, trembling gently as if they were trying to shake off the falseness of the color that concealed them. The more I thought of her, the more I thirsted for a glance, for a chance meeting perhaps!

And then... there she was, looking straight at me, wearing the one thing on her face that I could never understand - an emotion! Just like a million times before, I did the only thing I had told myself not to do - shift my gaze away. I was just not built to be pierced by things that did not exist for real. I turned again towards where she stood, determined not to look away this time. But she was gone, leaving behind only the fragrance of Cashmere Mist that the wind carried towards me from where she stood. I liked the fragrance. It was neither too strong, nor too sharp - just as mildly intoxicating as a glass of red wine served at the right temperature.

"Struck by a thunderbolt, eh?" whispered Johnny. He must have been amused to see me surprised - how could I have forgotten that I had come here with Johnny! I can already imagine his smug face gloat as he narrates the tale of my loss to the rest of our band. I had lost a heart - he had gained a story. It was always like that - always will be. I never really bought all those "win-win situation" arguments anyway. "Thunderbolt?" I asked trying hard to conceal the fact that I had more or less figured out what he meant. "Yeah, you know like that thing Michael Corleone gets struck by in Godfather..." he burst out into a mild laughter. "Yeah right!" I mumbled as I got back to what I had been doing all morning - scanning the place to catch a glimpse of her face. I wished I had that x-ray vision thing which Superman has! Scanning the place would have been so much more easier. And while we're at it - I'd like the flying thing as well... and the steel body, laser eyes, jet black curly hair, strong muscles... and maybe that side-kick dog as well that comes in the cartoon versions.

"Have we met before?" I heard a voice behind me interrupt my train of thoughts. A moment later came the fragrance of Cashmere Mist. It was so strong, so sharp - I think my heart might have slipped a beat or two! I turned to face her - or so I imagined. But I think I was frozen where I stood. She must have walked around to come in front of me. I could feel the warmth of her gentle blue eyes as they pierced mine with a crushing force that showed no intention of being gentle. I tried to speak but my throat was all clogged. It was as if I was choking on.... well, the fragrance that emanated from her mere presence!

"I see that you have been spying on me all morning" she leaned forward towards me and back again, as she whispered softly in a menacing tone. "No... I mean, not spying" I fumbled for words. She produced a partly concealed smile and reached out for my hand. Before I could respond, she slipped in something into my hand as she clasped it and enacted a handshake. The warmth of her palms froze my body all the more as I watched her turn away and disappear in the crowd. It seemed like an eternity as I stood there motionless for a few seconds staring at the crowded emptiness that filled the trail she left behind. "Whoa dude! This is legendary!" it was Johnny again. "Gosh! What are you still doing here!" I cried out. Suddenly, it all seemed a lot less magical now that I knew Johnny saw it all. The stink of whiskey oozing from his pores made me all the more annoyed.

Out of nowhere, a question popped up in my mind - "What if Johnny is all I get to hang around with? What if this is as good as it gets - a momentary escapade with an unknown angel in a crowded party of mindless intellectuals?" I laughed at the thought as it slipped away as quickly as it had appeared. I was never any good at holding on to pessimistic thoughts. "What is that in your hand?" Johnny asked pointing at my hand into which she had slipped in something. I opened my palms and held it up in the light to take a look - it looked like some sort of a sea shell. Even though it was tiny, it did weigh more than what one would expect for its size. It was also unusually cold, as if it was frozen. As I moved my hand, I found that it reflected light in a way that made it transparent to different degrees when viewed at different angles. It even seemed to change colors when viewed from certain angles - as if someone had stacked up a zillion layers of colored soap films. I had never seen anything like that before. "It's just a sea shell" I replied as I hastily put it inside my pocket, lest he lay his hands upon it. It would be a long time before I realize that it's a sea shell alright, but not just a sea shell!

Neurons that shaped Civilizations - VS Ramachandran

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:07:00 +0000

Just like a Wavin' Flag

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Sat, 01 May 2010 02:37:00 +0000

Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:53:00 +0000

Transactional Interpretation of QM

View more presentations from amruth.

Life: Part 2 - Intelligence

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:14:00 +0000

[continued from this post: Life: Part 1 - Memory]

What happens if all of a sudden, every species on earth looks the same? - That's what happened once organisms developed intelligence. Before, what an organism can do, was a function of how the organism looked (i.e. internal physical structure including DNA). But once we started making external tools to expand what we can do - things started changing. Very soon, these external tools became closely intertwined with our notion of how an organism looked. So propagating oneself was not just about propagating our physical structure in the form of DNA, but was also about propagating our association with external tools & our access to them.

In short, an organism's association with external tools/systems became as important as the organism itself when it came to evolutionary fitness or what an organism can do.

I must mention here that this was not a sudden difference. A lot of organisms used elements of their environment for support, attachment & as tools in loose terms - even before organisms with brains evolved. But the domination of these external tools over genetic material began only after the evolution of memory & intelligence.

There is something far more important, that intelligence brought into the equation - with the ability to figure out patterns came the ability to anticipate the future. It is this ability that truly differentiated living organisms from every other kind of objects in the universe. Every other characteristic of a living being that we read about normally is exhibited by many other non-living entities as well in innumerable circumstances. It is this ability to anticipate the future that led to our attempts to control and modify the future. And it is only natural that we try to change things that we find harmful, things we are afraid of. So some of the first things we learnt to fight - were agents that imposed evolutionary stress on organisms. Weather, Availability of food, Physiological adaptations to the environment - one by one we made them all irrelevant.

Result? - very few factors around us could act as agents of evolutionary stress. And without evolutionary stress, there is no strong criteria which nature can use to decide who is the fittest organism - an apparent break down in natural selection. It seemed as if intelligence truly did mess up the natural order of things in our world.

But a broader look at the play of things reveals something different. Our every attempt to weaken the then existing agents of evolutionary stress - strengthened a new agent of evolutionary stress - us, humans. We were now the new criteria for nature to decide which is the fittest organism. Organisms that humans found fit (read useful) survived - others perished or depleted in number. It was only natural that this chain of events would lead us to a time where we ourselves would be the dominant evolutionary stress on our own evolution.

But what role would such an evolution play in the lives of humans? What role do individual organisms of the human species play in shaping the evolutionary stress called humans? Do some humans contribute more to the build up of evolutionary stress than others?

[Next: the species that came after humans]

Bigger Last Supper

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:40:00 +0000

(Click on the image for full-size version)

Full Article: Each of the people in this picture has accomplished more for humanity than any of the guys in that other painting.

Life: Part 1 - Memory

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 04:53:00 +0000

A primitive life form like a bacteria - can see the world only in the present. It gets a stimulus, it responds to the stimulus.

Over the course of evolution, we have evolved 2 unique processes - pre-processing and memory. Both of these processes drastically change the way we respond to an external stimulus. Firstly, memory allows us to save the past. Which means, every stimulus we get, is first looked at in the light of the past. This is what happens during the first process - pre-processing.

As a result of these 2 processes, the way we perceive our world is a combination of how the world is and how the world was for the individual. In case of time-independent behaviors of the world, these 2 skills prove to be extremely useful. Because it lets you know before-hand about how the world is going to respond once you respond to it's stimuli.

In case of time-dependent behaviors, there are two distinctions to be made - behaviors with an underlying pattern in time-evolution and behaviors without any underlying patterns in time-evolution. In case of the latter, the effectiveness of our response depends on how well our pre-processing system has figured out the underlying pattern. If it has not yet figured out the underlying pattern, then it is equivalent to the former case - where our response is either as effective as that of a bacteria or worse - if our understanding is opposite to the actual behavior of the external situation.

So along with memory comes the need for evolution of intelligence - the ability to figure out underlying patterns in the behaviors of external world. Because without that, an organism with memory fares worse than an organism without memory, when it comes to survival. Now, this is where life as we know it from our Biology text-books started losing meaning. It's hard to make one see why - so I'll try to give you an analogy:

When designing war air-crafts, we constantly look for newer and better ways to make the air-plane blend in with the surrounding in every way possible. Such blending prevents enemy radars from detecting the air-plane. In some of the latest efforts, we try to make the air-plane blend by using hundreds of sensors which constantly try to perceive and understand how the environment is, outside the plane & change the structure and behavior of the air-plane surface accordingly. There is something very trivial about this whole effort that is often joked around - the perfect blending technique is to not have the plane and just have the air-molecules. When are we going to achieve that? We are not going to achieve that - because it is pointless, it negates the purpose of having an air-plane in the first place, doesn't it?

So the reason which eliminated the solution of not having a plane is the existence of multiple purposes beyond just wanting to make the plane blend in with the environment around it.

And THAT is precisely what changed in the course of evolution as well, once intelligence arrived into the scene - multiple purposes. Evolution was no longer driven by a singular purpose of - propagating one's DNA. And the number of such purposes became as large as our ability to store, preserve & make sense of new purposes - in short, insanely large number of them!

We invented writing on cave walls, we invented language, we invented paper, pen, type-writers, computers, internet - all because it helps us store, preserve & make sense of more purposes. Each new invention was better than the previous in it's ability to store, preserve & make sense of more purposes.

Propagating our behaviors via these new channels became as important as propagating ourself via DNA - our first & primitive storage unit of our behavior. Wars were fought for a place in people's memories, for a place on the stone walls of temples, for a place in history books, for a place amongst Google search results. Wars are still being fought every day by every single individual - right from the men and women who want to be remembered as world leaders to the 7 year old kid who carries a school-bag on his back because his parents want the world to remember him.

If you observe this whole play of evolution more closely, you'll find something very interesting. A long time ago before intelligence - when there was a singular storage unit across all organisms in the form of DNA, the primary factor that determined the success of an organism in propagating itself was the quality of it's behaviors. A behavior more relevant & more effective in the prevalent environment - won the race. After the introduction of intelligence, organisms differed not just in their behaviors but also in terms of their access to newer storage units other than their DNA. Evolution now had to put up a status which read - "it's complicated!"

[Next: How intelligence redefined the role of our behaviors]

Morphogenetic Evolution

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:04:00 +0000

Okay, here's a theory:

"We've passed the age of genetic evolution. Why? - 'Coz we've evolved organs which can shift to Morphogenetic evolution (read The Human Brain) which makes genetic evolution far more slower/narrower (in other words - obsolete)"

Confused? A quick & dirty intro to the ideas involved:

A version of Morphogenetic Theory (the version which I like) believes that every single interaction/event that occurs in the universe leaves a "footprint" of sorts. And any future interaction which resembles the first interaction - can "pick up" the first footprint & settle down into a state that matches with the first footprint. This makes an interaction (or event) more likely to happen the 2nd, 3rd, 4th..... 'N'th time once it has occurred for the first time.

What it means to us: Let's say no human had even imagined anything about... hmmm... "Plants having life". Now what this theory suggests is, once someone somewhere for the first time gets an idea that "Maybe plants have life" - the chances of other people in the world getting similar ideas go up! The crazier part is - this does not even require the people involved to know each other or even have access to some sort of a connection. It could be some random cavemen sitting inside caves on opposite sides of the planet.

The theory argues that the whole world works that way (particles, forces, life-forms, et al). So some weird (yet undiscovered) mechanism inside our heads make our brain think more on the lines of already existing thoughts in the world. This is what Alan Moore calls - "The Idea Space". It's as if - all thoughts lead a life of their own in another space/dimension all around us. And every time our brain tunes itself to "pick up" a particular idea out there - we access it & load it into our thought machinery. So as more & more people start thinking about the same idea, more & more of such thoughts take birth & start roaming around in this Idea Space. Hence, the likelihood of the next person catching a similar thought goes up.

Cough... Cough... really?: Yeah, I know - you doubt it! So do a lot of other people. And groups of people around the world are continuously proposing and building different experiments, surveys & data collection exercises to try and prove the theory. You can get to see some of them here - http://tr.im/Npjr

Now coming back to my original theory: I believe even in the absence of Morphogenetic theory, we are more influenced by ideas/knowledge/life-habits stored outside our physical self (books, internet, movies, propaganda, et al) than by the information coded inside our genes. Which makes the "competition" for passing on one's genes - kind of irrelevant. Our ability to access, understand & modify these external storage-sources becomes more important than our ability to access, understand and propagate our genes. Hence the gene-pool gets evicted from the driver seat of the evolution bus.

When we are anyway looking for a new driver in its place - why not include new & exciting sources like Morphic Resonance in our list of probable candidates? Is there a way to measure & decide which one of these external sources are currently the most powerful? More importantly, is there a way to voluntarily access, understand & modify the Idea Space?

What do you think?

Breaking a Rubik's Cube

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:25:00 +0000

When I see broken pieces lying on the floor all around me, all I know to do is try to fix them. I don't know how to sweep them off into the bin or to leave them broken and walk away. I don't know how to make peace with the impossible or to make a compromise for love.

Time makes you learn - is a common belief I see in a lot of people. I disagree. It is weakness that makes us learn to give up; that makes us fear, compromise & turn a blind eye to all that is wrong around us. And the truth is - we are all weak.

But not all of us are weak in the same way. Just like how not all of us are strong in the same way. It makes me wonder, if one man's weakness can become another man's strength when they join hands? The answer - does not interest me. Because it will forever remain a mere opinion. The possibility however - is what excites me. The possibility of such connections forming all around us to create an infallible sphere of fortitude that forever shields us from learning what impossible means; what a compromise means.

There is something magical about the beauty of a Rubik's cube - you can spend a lifetime trying to figure it out and yet, you will never know what lies on the inner faces of the individual cubes that form the whole. All that you get to see is what you need to see - nothing more, nothing less. Unless of-course you break a Rubik's cube. But as it turns out, I only know how to fix things - not how to break them apart. Sometimes though, I wonder if the latter skill completes the former.

Revolutionary Road

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:09:00 +0000

“Classical physics is like life itself” Prof. Nile said. “There may be a zillion complicated things to understand, but they always connect together to a simple pattern; a simple principle – Minimization.” He always loved talking to an audience. He claimed that the feeling of slight nervousness, a tinge of caution and the need for perfect articulation helped him think better, in a more organized way. But I always thought it was just an excuse. I believed he loved his audience because without them, the universe would be quite an empty place, a lonely place to live in.

“For thousands of years, we humans have tried to travel two paths together – One where we explore, walk out to seek more complexity, more mystery. The other where we try to tie all the seemingly mysterious observations together in as few a set of principles as we can”

If I did not know him better, I would call him a psychologist – always knowing what exact words to use to keep the other person interested, curious. We would always walk out of a conversation with Prof. Nile thinking we understood it all, only to realize later that we do not always know what it is that we understood.

“Let’s take the laws of motion for instance – we have all seen since childhood that almost always, objects lying on the ground do not start moving by themselves. Neither does a falling apple or a speeding bullet change direction by itself unless something visible or invisible pushes it in a different direction. Simple enough, isn’t it? Then why did we have to wait for thousands of years till Newton came around, to define the laws of motion?”

It did seem simple, but we knew it was not. It was never simple if Nile had chosen to talk about it. So we chose not to give an answer.

“Well, let’s think about what Newton exactly did – he stated the same observation as what many others before him had seen. But he claimed it was not just an observation, but a law – a law which nature itself cannot defy. In doing so, Newton exposed himself to be proved wrong if even a single observation amongst the millions that people experienced every day, contradicted his law – his belief. And THAT is not so simple after all, is it?”

Like I said, if Nile had chosen to talk about it, it can never be simple. But I cannot say I was much surprised by the argument. If there was any person I would pick to defy the whole world and come out all smiles – it would be Nile. The man has simply done it too many times in his life to not be able to do it the next time.

“And THAT my friends, is what I call a revolution. It is the willingness, the confidence to take the blame for being wrong that separates a revolutionary from the rebels”

There was a wave of approval amongst the audience. Ofcourse they would approve – a bunch of teenagers would approve anything that mentions a revolution, a rebellion.

"But everything apart, a revolution is only as meaningful as it's cause, it's message to the world around. So what is the message you want to spread? What is that magic spell that you want to cast upon this world? Is it simply stating that the world is wrong? We don't need you to tell us that - we already know. What we do not know, is how to repair it, how to fix it. Unless you have a clear understanding of the fix - you will only be a rebel no matter how strong your will is"

There was a haunting silence as if all of us were holding our breath. Maybe we were holding our breath anticipating Prof. Nile to end with an answer to the question he posed. An answer that would make us think for a long time to come leaving us as clueless in the end as we began - but richer in thought, stronger in will.

"I believe the fix is once again a simple one - Minimization" he paused making sure he read the expression of confusion on each of our faces as we leaned forward even more waiting for his next words.

He pulled out a beaker, poured in a few liquids, a few crystals & some more powdery chemicals. As we watched, the solution grew cloudy & then became clear once again leaving an orange substrate at the bottom. "Now, let me repeat the same in the second beaker, only this time - I'm going to remove most of the catalysts which were present in the first case" he said as he repeated the same in the second beaker. We now say the same cloudy solution form. But as we waited - it never settled down into a substrate.

"You see - evolution is but a form of Minimization. And different elements in our environment that impose an evolutionary stress on the organisms are like the catalysts driving the reaction to a conclusion. What we have done over the last few hundred years - is progressively eliminate these catalysts. Changes in climate, habitat, vegetation, geographies - none of these are significant evolutionary stress any longer. As a result, our world is like a chemical soup with little or no catalysts to drive the reaction to completion. We are caught in an intermediary world with zillions of intermediate chemical states without a catalyst to advance the reaction to select one or a few of those states in preference to the other states."

It was an interesting thought, but we were not quite sure what it meant in the context of our world. As usual, we waited to hear more from Nile.

"Every revolution of the past has introduced a new catalyst which helps the world condense these zillions of intermediary states into a set of final ones that make more sense both at the level of an individual & at the level of a species. And then, the world grows into a different chemical setup where the old catalysts no longer act as catalysts - we need a new one or many new catalysts."

"Unless you find a new catalyst, all the solutions you propose would be temporary fixes that are bound to wither away. So when you think of a new solution - ask yourself if it even vaguely matches with the behavior of a catalyst. If it does - well, it might just be the beginning of a new revolution" he smiled at all of us. He knew he had set us thinking. He knew his job was done. And so, like every other time he walked out of the class leaving us by ourselves to ponder about new ideas coming alive inside of us.

I still haven't found an answer, but looking back, I think all he wanted to achieve was to make every one of us not-want to be just a rebel - ever! I must say he was very successful at that. And as for the catalyst - I know some of us atleast, will keep searching for it - every single day of our lives!

Everything is art

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 06:34:00 +0000

I was speaking to a bunch of my friends when I happened to share my belief that - "There is no objective truth." As I tried to drive home my point, I observed a growing sense of restlessness & denial in almost every single one of them. The exact same kind of reaction I would expect a 80 year old person to show if I went up to him/her & told - "There is no God."

The experience set me thinking about how concepts like "rationality", "objective reality", "measurable, verifiable quantities" have shaped a completely new kind of religious experience which most of us like to drown ourselves in. Science, indeed is our new religion & we pledge our allegiance to it with the same blind sense of passion & emotion as what believers in God do. Come to think of it, Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life trying to come up with a version of physics where "objective reality" still made sense, after refusing to admit the alternative reality proposed by Quantum physics! We are indeed THAT religious. (On a different note, we ought to be - 'coz we actually have evolved specialized neural circuitries in the brain to experience the religious connection to such strong beliefs)

Makes me respect art all the more - it is not constrained by the shackles of science. I'd rather be an artist who is good at science than be a scientist who uses art. Amen.

What Matters Now? - CHANGE

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:34:00 +0000

[This is in response to Seth Godin's new ebook - "What Matters Now"]

In one of my lone-trips, I met a boy called Raju. Raju lived in a remote village near Kullu. While we were talking by the river-side, he mentioned to me that he felt his life would be so much more delightful if he could live in a city someday. And there I was, drowned in the pleasure of wandering in the lonely woods - away from any city. Would I tell Raju that he was wrong? Or would Raju tell me of how I would get bored soon, if I stayed in his village?

I was puzzled at first - Is there nothing common that would make us all happy? Is there nothing common that we can all aspire for, in order to be happy? There did not seem to be a common answer. Since then, I've made it a point to observe happy moments in the lives of those around me - to understand the origin of the feeling itself, a little better. And turns out - there indeed is such a common cause, connecting all our moments of happiness!

Before I dwell upon on that, let me share a very brief introduction to how the chemistry of happiness works:

Certain experiences in our lives trigger particular regions of the brain to release a course of chemicals (serotonin & dopamine) which cause us to experience the feeling of happiness or joy. How much a particular environment or an action makes you happy, depends on how well the neural circuity excited by that action, can trigger the release of these chemicals. Based on the sum total of all our experiences, each of us get wired in our own ways because of which different actions & experiences make each of us happy by different amounts.

Now that might make you say - "Well... that suggests that there can in fact, be no common cause for happiness!" But things are not so simple in reality. In order to maintain the extremely delicate balance of various chemicals in our brain (& the rest of our body), our body also has a bunch of regulatory mechanisms that ensure that none of these chemicals end up being produced in high amounts - because that would negatively affect the working of other vital chemicals around. Here's how those mechanisms work:

Certain regions of the brain (particularly the Caudate & the Putamen) are involved in regulating the release of the happy chemicals by measuring how much of these chemicals are already present in the brain. They do this, by using the net change in electrical activity of certain neural pathways because of an experience, to influence the release of happy chemicals instead of using the absolute neural activity of those neural pathways.

As a consequence of this, if you have just now won a lottery & are happy about it - then you are less likely to be equally happy about winning another lottery of the same kind, a moment later. In other words, only if the happiness causing experience is different in nature from our previous experience do we actually experience the elated feeling of happiness!

"Okay, but even then - what matters most now in that case is a positive change, not just any change" you might argue. And once again, it turns out that our common sense is wrong about it. (which is not very surprising actually, considering how common it is for us to wrongly judge what makes us happy!)

As Dan Gilbert famously demonstrated during his TED talk, it turns out that our brain has another amazing machinery. A factory of some sorts whose sole purpose is to manufacture happiness when we are subjected to a change that we do not control. In other words, irrespective of whether we go through a positive change or a negative change - our brain has an inbuilt machinery that automatically transforms both experiences into happiness over time! It's easy to understand how a positive change gets transformed into happiness as seen above. So lets take a look at what happens when we go through a bad episode of change:

As you would have rightly guessed, the happy chemicals in the brain become less. The more traumatic an experience is, more scarce these chemicals become in the brain. But like already pointed out, we can all function only under the equilibrium of all the chemicals in our body. So that demands that the concentration of these happy chemicals be raised again. But what if nothing good ever happens to you after the bad change? Even then, the brain starts pumping in the happy chemicals back into your system under new & often seemingly irrational pretexts. These pretexts generated by such a process are what we sometimes call rationalizations.

Now what Dan Gilbert proved with his experiments is that such a seemingly synthetic happiness is no less inferior in quality or in its effect on our brain than what we conventionally label natural happiness. "Yeah right!" you might say. I'd encourage you to explore the details of the experiments - here.

So all that it means is - if you want to have lots of moments of joy & happiness, break free of your fears & constraints - change, and keep changing! For that is really the only way you can ensure that everything you do transforms into happiness either at that instant or in the near future. I think Mark Twain got it right a long time go, when he said:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

I cannot agree more! So what matters now? - CHANGE

The Marshmallow Test

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:36:00 +0000

(via Akash)

♥

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:45:00 +0000

Siddhartha was visibly terrified. He was sweating profusely & panting as if he had just run a mile to come to Chandra's home.

"What happened?" Chandra asked. Siddhartha responded by holding him by hand & dragging him outside. He started to run asking Chandra to follow. When they reached the high grounds of the cliff, Siddhartha stopped suddenly.

"Look, there!" Siddhartha yelled in excitement pointing at the setting sun. Chandra looked up.

"It is beautiful!" Chandra exclaimed. They stood there for a while, till the sun completely slipped below the horizon.

"Don't we all love sunset?" Chandra exclaimed when they were walking back.

"No. We all admire sunset"

"What's the difference?"

"Fear"

Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:21:00 +0000

Siddhartha was sitting in a garden filled with colourful flowers. Govardhan walked towards him & sat down besides him.

"The flowers are so beautiful. They make me so happy" said Govardhan.

"Come with me" said Siddhartha as he got up & walked towards the gate. As soon as they both stepped outside, Siddhartha locked the gate & turned to go.

"Why did you do that?! You don't want me to by happy?" yelled Govardhan in anger.

"The flowers are still beautiful" Siddhartha yelled without looking back as he walked away.

Still Not Right?

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:25:00 +0000

Just a few days back, I posted this. And the weekend after that, I attended this. And then I hear this.

The point is: The system of justice has been flawed, is flawed & shall be flawed. The real question is: "are we fine with it?"

And I'm embarrassed to say - "Yes, we are!". We are fine with it simply because it does not hit us hard enough. And there are those that are hit hard, so hard that their mere existence becomes a story of misery. Should they be fine with it? Irrespective of what the answer is - they're not fine with it. Hence the war.

But then... we've got real problems to worry about.. like this. So we shall ignore the not-right & label it inevitable. Amen.

Da Vinci & Edison Quest

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:52:00 +0000

Remember this post of mine, where I had expressed my unhappiness about the current education/social system? - http://primoxion.blogspot.com/2009/08/battle-of-stories.html

We're doing something to address the problem in our own small, romantic way. This Children's Day (Nov.14th) we're starting a program in a school in Bangalore to find 2 extraordinary persons - Leonardo Da Vinci & Thomas Alva Edison.

Will follow up with more details soon. But all I can say for now is - can't wait for Nov.14th to come :)

Beautiful Stupidity vs Ugly Intelligence

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:08:00 +0000

Statistically, a lot of guys think 'the more beautiful a girl is - the more likely that she is stupid'. A friend of mine had a problem with this view & we ended up having a long debate which threw up some interesting observations:

Firstly, a majority of us (guys) really don't mind even if a beautiful girl is stupid... (unless she is THAT stupid!) whereas if an ugly girl is stupid - everyone has a problem. The situation being so - natural selection might dictate that in a 'free & liberal' society - beautiful girls get dumber & ugly girls get smarter with time. So if you want beautiful girls to be smart - you got to be 'not-okay' with them being stupid :)

Secondly, the notion is more popular about girls & not often about guys because everyone only cares about girls. There have been plenty of surveys, polls etc which have shown that:

in social occasions like a party or a celebration, most guys have a greater tendency to look at other girls. Surprisingly, girls are no different - they too spend more time looking at other girls than guys (for different reasons ofcourse).

So the world cares & talks less about guys being stupid/intelligent/handsome/ugly... !

Third & most interesting:

A long time ago, both guys & girls were intelligent. And then came the marketing people from big companies. They spread the notion that - 'doing silly, stupid things' are a sign/symbol of being extra-ordinarily beautiful. And then they brought out products & services that help girls do silly, stupid things - thereby opening up a whole new market segment that flourished greatly.

And since majority of people in marketing were guys back then - girls got to be stupid to prove their beauty. Probably if women dominated the marketing world - we'd have guys competing to be stupid, to prove their handsomeness :)

Experimenting with the Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Amruth) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:18:00 +0000

If all goes well, I might hopefully get a chance to design & perform experiments directly on the brain of monkeys etc to understand better - the mechanisms in the brain which are responsible for making & executing a decision. Just the thought of it excites me so much! :)

I'm also surprised how little I had done to dig deeper into the eye-movement & motor control functions of human brain earlier. Turns out - these fields have much more in common to the kind of work I've been doing over the last 2 years than works which focus exclusively on decision making. The key reasons being:

+ They are much more quantitative & verifiable... Hence more closer to the approach I prefer than models which try to knit together findings from cognitive experiments to form a holistic model for decision making. (by the way, I love the other approach too!)

+ The science & theories used have to go hand-in-hand with the physical setup of experiments. Hence the top level model that you design can be compared against physical recordings from the experiments to validate/invalidate your hypothesis.

+ They give as much importance to how a decision is executed as to how a decision is arrived at. Often the two overlap to a great extent. So the kind of integration we've been working on is actually a 'requirement' in these fields.

The best part is, having studied several top-down models of decision making for some time - it makes the bottom-up approach followed in these fields appear a lot more connected than I would otherwise find it. 'Coz after each new learning you will naturally be trying to figure out how they fit into the bigger picture proposed by the top-down models.

In short - all excited about the opportunity. Looking forward to get some concrete results & validations.