Infinite Game

Apparently, the purpose of an Infinite Game is not to win but to continue playing the game.

Some say Evolution is an infinite game. It probably means that in Evolution, winning means getting a chance to continue to play. If you win (survive), you will continue to play, but, if all others loose, you will inevitably loose. So, I think good players not only should strive to survive, but also try not to let other players loose so that the game continues in full vigor.

If you haven't realized the purpose of your life yet, you might as well treat it as an Infinite Game in the sense that the purpose of living is to continue to live... I mean to LIVE!

TED

I like TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) so much that I often say the following:

If I were introduced to TED by someone, I would have been indebted to that person through out my life.

The Count of Monte Cristo

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Abbe Faria: In return for your help, I offer you something priceless.

Edmond: My freedom?

Abbe Faria: No, freedom can be taken away, as you well know. I offer you my knowledge.. everything I have learnt. I will teach you economics, mathematics, philosophy, science..

Edmond: to read and write?

Abbe Faria: of course!

Halloween

Long ago, I used to play in a college playing ground with other kids on weekends. All the rooms of the college were always locked. But, we knew of a window that was overlooked all the time. We would sneak by that room to look through the window in excitement at the preserved animal bodies and in particular, a human skeleton that hangs on a wall. I don't know if it was real skeleton, but we were so fascinated by it since it was the only one, real or fake, we had ever seen.

Now I see fake skeletons everywhere in US during Halloween time. No excitement any more :)

Beauty

Why is nature so beautiful? or Why do I appreciate it so much.. much more than anything else?

I took this picture in July'09 in Changi airport (Singapore).

History

There is something visceral about learning history. Whenever I visit old forts or dilapidated structures and relate them to the things I learnt from history, I get strange sense of satisfaction.

Here are two quotes about history:

History is the study of dead people- Jill Lepore

We learn from history that we don't learn from history- G.W.F. Hegel

Imagination vs Information

I had trouble grappling Einstein's famous quote "Imagination is more important than information". I used to think that information (or truth) is the only thing we can really hold onto while imagination is just an artifact of our limited brains.

After thinking little bit more, it was clear that information too is an artifact of the brain and not as solid as I would like. In fact, information is almost always corrupted by noise while imagination has the potential to be pure.

The experimental set-ups, measurements, data that make up the information are all constrained by the world around us while imagination is, in a way, limitless. In fact, the prefrontal cortex is what makes us more "able" than other species.. isn't it?

Olema, Fall colors

I took this picture in October'08.

Ain't no grave can hold my body down

Waiting is all you have to do sometimes!

When I first read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, I was horrified when I realized that people like Ellsword Toohey might actually exist in real world.. you know, bad people that seem very nice outside. But, in my experience, I encountered more of the opposite kind.

Many times, the very people I wanted to distance myself from, helped me and showed their real nature. Remember the character Johann from the movie Das Boot.. he seems utterly hopeless at one point, but proves himself in the crucial moment. Sometimes, you just have to wait to get the best out of other people.

Let me put this in Randy Pausch's words:

Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you. It might even take years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting.

The illuminated crowd

Stratified Polyester Resin with Polyurethane Paint, 314x860x320cm.

A crowd has gathered, facing a light, an illumination brought about by a fire, an event, an ideology - or an ideal. The strong light casts shadows, and as the light moves towards the back and diminishes, the mood degenerates; rowdiness, disorder and violence occur, showing fragile nature of man. Illumination, hope, involvement, hilarity, irritation, fear, illness, violence, murder and depth - the flow of man's emotion through space.

Sculpture and words by Raymond Mason (1985). I took this picture in sept'09 in Montreal, Canada.

Love or Trust?

In the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he or she is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. The tribal ceremony often lasts several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe." - The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace By Jack Kornfield

Path vs Goal

I think some of us care so much about goals that we don't pay enough attention to the path we are on. Setting goals helps us keep track of our direction. We will know if we are going on the right path when we meet these goals. But, I think it is more important to enjoy the journey that we embarked upon.

Power & Responsibility

I like the Tagline of the movie Spider-Man: "with great power comes great responsibility". I like its vice-versa even more: with great responsibility comes great power or as I would like to say,

with more responsibility comes more power

In my experience, I realized that the more responsibility I take, the more power I wield.

Chandamama - The Moon

Planets are named after Roman gods. Earth is the only exception. Their moons were named after a Greek character in the life of Greek counterpart of the Roman gods. Uranus is the only exception.

We always see the same side of Moon from Earth. I took this picture in August'09.

Lowest Bidder

There is a dialogue in the movie Armageddon I like very much. The statement amuses me for the cynicism of Rockhound's tone in such a tense moment and for its reference to 'lowest bidder'. Rockhound, a crew member of Freedom shuttle says this to Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis):

You know we are sitting on 4 million pounds of fuel, 1 nuclear weapon, on a thing that has 270,000 moving parts, built by the lowest bidder.. makes you feel good.. doesn't it?

Of course, Bruce Willis replies 'Yes'.

Round Round Around

An acquaintance of my brother once had an argument with his computer science professor. When the professor threatened to complain to the Head of the department, he frivolously warned her that he would throw both the Head and professor in an endless 'for loop' and let them revolve forever. Now, thats a good one!

Brick Walls

Few people attempt difficult tasks purely because they are difficult. They want to jump over the brick wall and land in the beautiful world awaiting on the other side. Sometimes, success in jumping the wall itself is the most sought after part.

We all heard late Prof. Randy Pausch. He said, "The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people." In my case, the brick walls sometimes tend to forget that they are there to stop others and not me :)

Absolute Logic

I have a burning question. Does reasoning depend only on our experience? I came across few ideas that support this notion. For example, researchers say that our brain works by means of input to output mapping. Of course, this mapping is very complicated and with changing experiences, the mapping also changes. If this is true, logic is probably relative.. right?

One interesting example: It is argued that we can't see a world having other than three physical dimensions in our minds. Apparently, we can see a 2D plane in 3D space, but can't imagine the whole world to be in 2D. This puts serious limitations on our ability to imagine. May be there is some credit to the quote by J.B.S. Haldane after all.

Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

Gold & Fire

It reminds me of the following quote that justifies every hardship we face in life.

Gold is refined by fire.

I took this photograph on the night of Ugadi, Telugu new year in 2009 at Ocean Beach, California.

Enemies & others

Living icon of nonviolence, Dalai Lama once said,

"It's your enemies that build your tolerance and patience on the road to your enlightenment."

I am not worried about enemies. There are few people whom I can not love no matter how much I try. I wouldn't be surprised if they feel the same way about me. Yet, we are not enemies. I am worried about this relationship or lack of it (the connectedness). I wish someone had said something about this.

Vegetarianism

I have been trying to find out if it is practical for all the humans to be vegetarians. I read many qualitative statements mentioning how animals we consume eat more food than we do, if we chose to eat that food instead. If it is true for majority of the animals we consume, it is a powerful argument. There must be some research done in this regard and I am still looking for that data.

There are other angles to this issue. On one hand, we have people disregarding the wellbeing of animals in 'animal farming' and on the other hand, we have the concept of 'edible pets' (Yes, there are people that raise animals like pets and at the end of the day, cook them).

Philosophers Paul & Linda McCartney said, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian. But, I don't think treating animals with love and dignity before killing them is the solution.

Anyway, I am asking why we should eat animals instead of asking why we should only eat vegetarian food. I am looking for a convincing answer for why we should be non-vegetarians.

Maverick

There are numerous examples in History of people being wrong. Be it earth being flat or blood passing through the body like tides or even judging other category of people like Nazis did, people were collectively wrong.

Many years ago, there were rumours that a wierd biped creature is tramping Delhi streets during the night time. Instances of attacks all over the city by this creature were reported in the news. Typically, people sleeping on their roofs would wake up in the middle of the night with painful scratches on their bodies and would spot this creature running away. This continued for few days. Then, doctors declared that the scratches on victims bodies were inflicted upon by the victims themselves.There was no wierd creature, it was mass hysteria. That was the first time I felt that I should not believe in something just because most people believe in it.

The only way not to be influenced by what people around you think is to critically reason everything you hear.

Stanford: Hoover Tower

I think Hoover Tower has become Stanford's face in the recent past, trouncing other monuments of the University such as memorial church, main quad, etc.

I took this picture couple of days ago (in August'09).

Aim at Stars

I don't know why we were told that if we aim at stars, we will atleast reach the moon. Perhaps the previous generations faced too many setbacks to daresay that we can reach our goals.

After all the developments of our century, I can't help but think that if we plan right and implement it,

we should be able to achieve our goals. So..

If you aim at stars, you will reach stars.

I read a funny statement that goes something like..

Aim at moon and if you miss, you will reach stars.

:)

New Frontiers: Men Wanted

Sir Ernest Shackleton released the following advertisement for his Antarctic Expedition.

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

Apparently 5,000 people responded almost overnight. I think we need more of that kind, to open up Space Exploration.

Explorer Bill Stone said, "There was once a time, when people did bold things to open the frontier. We have collectively forgotten that lesson". I hope we will explore oceans and space at least as thoroughly as we had explored land. Along with the technology and financial backing, we need right kind of leadership. Courage is a very important quality. Here is a quote by Lord Chesterfield:

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to loose sight of the shore.

Sending crew to moon without return propellent, mining the moon to get fuel for return journey and to set up a fuelling station to ease interplanetary exploration - this is indeed loosing sight of shore.

It's a multi-disciplinary World

We have done such a great job in dividing education into different disciplines that most students don't even consider learning other disciplines, let alone mastering them. Even those who realize the complexity of the World's problems offer collaboration among 'experts' as the way to go. Here is a statement by one such person:

Big problems don't come in disciplinary packages. If we're going to solve them, it's going to require diverse expertise working collaboratively. – Dean Deborah Stipek, Stanford.

I have different take on this. I can't forgo the pleasure of knowing everything that I have access to. My contention is that if anyone doesn't like a subject, it is only because they didn't learn it properly. I see no reason in constraining our expertise to one specialization. So,

Big problems don't come in disciplinary packages. If you want to solve them, you need diverse expertise.

Lake Tahoe

My first experience with snow: On December 26th, 2008 at Lake Tahoe, CA.

The snow experience was as spectacular as I anticipated, matching my expectations of the feel I had imagined while watching movies. This photograph made my day. It is undoubtedly the most beautiful snap I have ever taken.

Everyone calls me by my name

One morning, I replaced all my e-mail passwords with a strange beautiful word I concocted. Actually it is not even a word, it is a random combination of few alphabet. After couple of minutes, my boss gave me a task, the kind that has to be finished immediately. So, I started working on it and half an hour passed before I realized that I forgot my new password.

I had applied for admission in few grad schools in US and they would intimate me of their decision through one of my e-mail accounts of which the password I just forgot. With unflinching composure and confidence, I clicked on 'forgot my password' link and the websites sent new passwords to the other secondary mail accounts whose passwords were also replaced with the new word. Still without panicking, I used the option of answering secret question one website offered and the question was 'What's your pet name?'. Now, I am really in the soup because I never had any pet name. Everyone calls me by my name.

Pale Blue Dot

No need to say anything..

The Ideal

If I have to choose one principle as the Ideal I want to conform to throughout my life, what would that be?

In everything we do, we should strive to minimize the cumulative energy that is spent on that task by everyone including ourselves.

This means completing the last mile in every journey we embark upon with same level of energy we had during the rest of the journey. In some cases, it may amount to going one extra mile to help others who would otherwise have to spend too many resources to start from where you left off.

Ahhh the Dish

The dish walk is a famous trail at Stanford.

I took this picture on a December evening when I went to the Dish along with Lakshman and Sandeep.

Are you playing god?

I love to hear what scientists say, when they are asked "Are you playing god?". So far, I liked two answers very much.

James Dewey Watson's response:

Are you playing god?

Well, somebody has to.

Hamilton O. Smith's response:

Are you playing god?

I am not playing.

Nothing like the first one

Well.. this is not my first post. In fact, this is my third blog series. This time, I promised myself not to delete any of my posts. I will keep them short.

Ok.. here we go.

I had thought about it over and over again. I reached a conclusion and wanted to express in nice words. Then, I saw this quote and realized I couldn't have said it any better than this.

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of our exploring shall be to return where we started and know the place for the first time. - TS Eliot