Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A Wild Hypothesis- Simulation of Life

Source: Self
Genre: Science / Science-fiction

Don't miss the parts with the headings - "The paradox" and "The Question"

Let's consider a point in time when human race has reached a superstate, by which i mean there couldn't be any further improvement in terms of technological infrastructure. what could be a question which might still be left unanswered?

A decent prediction would be the question about 'The future'.Estimating it precisely and giving a systematic approach which can calculate it.

Idea:
Now, Given enough technological power to deal with this question, Simulation could be an answer to this. Because, if you create an exact scenario as it was in the past; and running the simulated world in time faster than our real world time (like 100 years in simulated world happen in just one sec or less in our real world), we can come across all the evolution phases, life has come across precisely.

C0nstant validation of solution:
We can even validate this model because, given the model we've created at the t=0 is 100% accurate, it should follow that the process happening in simulated world after some time should reflect at least conceptually what we as humans have experienced. If we find that simulated model doesn't correlate with actual world process at any point of time, we may decide we've started out with wrong initial conditions(but since our assumption is that we have the ultimate technological prowess, the possibility of going wrong here is not considered).

The paradox:
Now with this model running successfully, and pace of simulation set at a rate such that all of the evolutioin of life in simulated world happens in single realworld day (which might actually take billions of billions of years in simulated world), the creators of simulation should be able to see what exactly has happened to human race in the past..like how it evolved from whatever it started out with;

Suppose, that there are a N number of humans who were involved in this simulation project; sticking to the accuracy of the simulation model, it is a must that the N scientists should be able to see within the simulated world - some N number of scientists trying to simulate a new world with their intention too being- "to predict and define systemactially the future of their world".


The question:
Now the question is, how could the real world N scientists and all the humans in the real world say they are actually real?, according to model they have created, they have clearly proved that the ultimate endeavour of the people of simulated world is to find their future course and for that they have resorted to a "simulation", which should prove that we the real world humans ourselves should be a part of simulation run by a higher level world which is trying to find it's own future. !!!!


According to this concept, i wouldn't hesitate to say that in any point in the time in the future, if humans are able to acquire the capability to simulate the real world on such a scale that they can see the simulation of life running exactly as expected, it might be a irrefutable truth that there exists a world on a level higher than us, the people of which are simulating our human world to seek the answers about their own future.

Note:
Now in the above concept i've assumed the ultimate endeavour of humans is to know their future. Even by replacing this question by any other important and hard question the hypothesis still holds.

All the efforts to refute the above theory are most welcome.

Black and White collection

Source : Web
Genre : Visual pleasure








Sunday, September 30, 2007

some of the most influential images (Source: Life magazine & others)

Genre: Historical collection
1. America hasn't always been the way it is today...


Migrant Mother 1936

This California farmworker, age 32, had just sold her tent and the tires off her car to buy food for her seven kids. The family was living on scavenged vegetables and wild birds. Working for the federal government, Dorothea Lange took pictures like this one to document how the Depression colluded with the Dust Bowl to ravage lives. Along with the writing of her economist husband, Paul Lange’s work helped convince the public and the government of the need to help field hands. Lange later said that this woman, whose name she did not ask, “seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me.”



2. One man versus the war machines


Tiananmen Square 1989

A hunger strike by 3,000 students in Beijing had grown to a protest of more than a million as the injustices of a nation cried for reform. For seven weeks the people and the People’s Republic, in the person of soldiers dispatched by a riven Communist Party, warily eyed each other as the world waited. When this young man simply would not move, standing with his meager bags before a line of tanks, a hero was born.
A second hero emerged as the tank driver refused to crush the man, and instead drove his killing machine around him. Soon this dream would end, and blood would fill Tiananmen. But this picture had shown a billion Chinese that there is hope.


3. Segregation in United states..,

Birmingham,Alabama 1963

For years, Birmingham, Ala., was considered “the South’s toughest city,” home to a large black population and a dominant class of whites that met in frequent, open hostility. Birmingham in 1963 had become the cause célèbre of the black civil rights movement as nonviolent demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. repeatedly faced jail, dogs and high-velocity hoses in their tireless quest to topple segregation. This picture of people being pummeled by a liquid battering ram rallied support for the plight of the blacks.


4. The picture says it all...

Nagasaki 1945

Nothing like the mushroom cloud had ever been seen, not by the general public. It was a suitably awesome image for the power unleashed below. On August 6 the first atomic bomb killed an estimated 80,000 people in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. There was no quick surrender, and three days later a second bomb exploded 500 meters above the ground in Nagasaki. The blast wind, heat rays reaching several thousand degrees and radiation destroyed anything even remotely nearby, killing or injuring as many as 150,000 at the time, and more later. As opposed to the very personal images of war that had brought the pain home, the ones from Japan that were most shocking were those from a longer perspective, showing the enormity of what had occurred.



5. It's not about what you believe....it's about how strong you are with what you believe..,

Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel

The defining portrait of one of the 20th century’s most influential figures, almost didn’t happen, thanks to the Mahatma’s strict demands. Granted a rare opportunity to photograph India’s leader; Life staffer Margaret Bourke-White was all set to shoot when Gandhi’s secretaries stopped her cold: If she was going to photograph Gandhi at the spinning wheel (a symbol for India’s struggle for independence), she first had to learn to use one herself.

But that wasn’t all. The ascetic Mahatma wasn’t to be spoken to (it being his day of silence.) And because he detested bright light, Bourke-White was only allowed to use three flashbulbs. Having cleared all these hurdles, however, there was still one more - the humid Indian weather, which wreaked havoc on her camera equipment. When time finally came to shoot, Bourke-White’s first flashbulb failed. And while the second one worked, she forgot to pull the slide, rendering it blank.

She thought it was all over, but luckily, the third attempt was successful. In the end, she came away with an image that became Gandhi’s most enduring representation. it was also among the last portraits of his life; he was assassinated less than two years later.


6. The other extreme of human race ..,

This photograph showing a starving Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture won Kevin Carter the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

A Column from Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997

Genre: Reflections on Life

Try skipping the first 5 to 6 lines at the beginning of text and start from the line- "Wear Sunscreen"... & If you are enthusiastic about how this text sounds with added multimedia, enjoy the video in the following post, with this text inspiring the lyrics for the video.
I've highlighted some of the sentences or paragraphs that i think have given the text, nice and touching finishes.


Source: A column from Chicago Tribune, June 1, 1997.

Author of the text: Mary Schmich.

Name: Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.



Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who'd rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there's no reason we can't entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.

I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.


________ _________
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:


Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall
in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future.
Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve
an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts.
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.


Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long
and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive.
Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.


Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.


Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.

Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either.
Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can.
Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it.

It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings.

They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on.
Work hard to bridge
the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in Northern California once,
but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths:
Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old.

And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Thursday, March 29, 2007

ten minute thought flow......

Source: Self
Genre: Miscellaneous (personal)


Hmm...i tried to sth which makes sense on this blog....but haven't dared ...due to the lack of proper motivation to direct me...

I want to make this blog popular....like...a reflection of my taste...so that the number of people turning and dropping in comments can act as a sort of metric to assess my taste from society's perspective....

Ya...my thoughts are moving ....i should rather use the word....pouring i suppose......and my fingers are assisting them...to put them into english words fast on this page.....so before i change my mood let me put some of my current thoughts......

hmmmm.......

of late i lost interest in my studies of second semester.....compared to the first semester....because of ......... i don;t want to get into ....it that makes another page of words......

so i have been surfing on web looking for interesting sites and news..... hey....did i tell u that....i'm getting interested in news of late....and also finding history fascinating....a behavior which has been surprising myself......
some intersting sites......were like...

www.blinkx.com

which is very much like...youtube and google videos but it appears that this site specializes particularly in news.......so i with my recent inclination to world wide events.....i found it naturally interesting......

another site...which i found have been cited in many of the websites...has been

del.icio.us

this is a good idea since it allows me to track my bookmarks.....which of late has been exploding in number..... online.... but still i find my local browser provided facility enough for my purposes....i think that i haven't yet got the tast of what this site is actually intended for....let's see about it in the future...

also have a look at the sites like.......

www.tv-links.co.uk

hey...forgot to mention.....i have seen a film "The excorcist" from 1970 s...but man !!!....thats a solid horror movie worth watching....and spending ur time on...... though the horror specific scence are few but the build up to those few scenes would be awesome......i rate it as one of the few films....when ur watchcing it for second time, retains the feeling you had when u saw it for the first time......

i still want to write a lot of stuff but.....one particular thing is strongly holding me back....i always believe that to talk about a thing...involving the words....like...."i ", you got to have some qualification.....like the capability to accomplish the things which you have started....and the things which you dream of....until you prove your living makes sense to yourself i don't consider a man to be man or a woman to be woman.......but a bit inferior......to put it mathematically......the value i give to the person is equal to the ratio of things he does to amount he talks or thinks of about the things he wanna do........i took up the ratio because........it is possible that a man who never accomplishes anything can have a value of one provided he keeps his speech and thought discussions to similar proportions ........

if right now i take that ratio......damn.....i will far less than 1 ...... i will hit back on this page.....when i feel that i'm in positive accelaration towards.... 1 or may be more......

hey..hey....i'm gonna get to read the whole text now.....