The relation between sound, idol worship and Indian temple architecture
In the beginning there was sound. That’s what the holy book says. We have 'OM' in Hindu religion and 'Amen' in Christianity.
If we go to the mountains and shout we hear the echo of our sound. Echo is basically the vibration of the sound we make that is returning to us. This vibration is not only to be heard of in the mountains, wherever there is sound there is vibration, irrespective of whether we can hear it or not.
The first sound was that of the big bang. Whatever scientists have been able to reproduce that sound does not actually sound like a bang. During the first 500 thousand years after big bang the sound was of low frequency that could not be heard by humans. Scientists gathered data from 2 satellites and enhanced its frequency to bring it to human audible levels. The next video plays the sound from the near big bang time.
https://youtu.be/kpchtF6KnMg
Now coming back to earth again, this sound vibration from an echo should go on continuously but in open space it dissipates and gets weaker till we cannot hear it. The vibration just gets distributed so much that it loses it effect on long distance and time. When we are in a closed space it may not form an echo but the vibration is still there and in a closed space the vibration will linger for a long time. Every form of vibration is energy and it can be seen in the shape of a 'form or pattern’. The following video will show how sound affects different elements.
https://youtu.be/Q3oItpVa9fs
Human body is 72% water, 12% is earth, 6% is air, 4% is fire and rest is space. This is what the ancient Hindu scriptures say, human body is made of these 5 elements. The vibration of sound also affects these elements in our body. So when you master the sound you can play with the five elements of life. That's how the ancient sages used to walk on water, walk through fire, disappear in space etc, which we now term as miracles. Even the Bible says that Jesus walked on water. So it is all about mastering the elements which we otherwise call enlightenment in spiritual parlance. It's all about mastering the vibration of sound.
Now I will touch upon the architecture of building Hindu temples which used this scientific knowledge of sound and vibration management since ancient times. Ancient Indian temples were built as as extension of the human body.
The place where the idol is located is a closed placed with no ventilation and the idol at the center. There will be only one door. The priests are inside the core of the temple and the devotees stand on the door. The priests will recite mantras which are thousands of years old and are in Sanskrit language. These mantras create specific vibrations inside the core of the temple which exit only through the door where the devotees are standing thereby the vibrations are directly transferred to the devotees. These temples are made of rocks which are very thick so the vibration cannot get out from any other place. The top of this core of the temples are triangulated and have an small hole which reverberates this vibration to the surrounding area of the temple. This creates an area of positive energy. This triangulated construction of the top amplifies the energy. So you can very well imagine how much effect this vibration energy can have on human body and mind.
A copper plate is placed below the main idol, mostly below the ground level. Copper is an excellent conductor of energy and it catches the 'earth' energy and with the sound of the mantra it dissipates this energy of the earth among its beings. The pillar you are seeing in the above picture is copper coated and it also absorbs the energy and further dissipates it around the temple.
The idol itself was made of rock, which are made of metals and minerals. So this dumb stone which is worshipped is also made of elements of the earth which have its own vibrations and its effect on our body. So it is actually not all that dumb thing which some religions project. Combining this with the mantras which also have its specific vibrations it creates a potent energy field. In later period to make it more potent idols were made of 'ASTADHATU' meaning a combination of eight metals. The science of the effect of the vibrations emanating out of the rock or the asthadhatu coupled with the vibration of the mantras was known to the ancient ages of India. Now modern science is slowly rediscovering this connection, that ultimately everything is inter connected and inter affected.
This positive vibrations remove all untoward thought, sharpen the mind by increasing the focus, balance the elements of the body leading to better health and will lead to enlightenment for the true seeker.
So it is not about the dumb idol but the total effect of the rock, the minerals, the metals, the walls and the vibration of the mantras and human body which make the temple a powerful place of positive energy. In my previous article I have already told about the effect of bells in temples.
Now I will touch upon the mantras. Mantras are only sound and inherently do not have meaning which we are used to when we speak words in the form of sound. Sound is primordial, not words. This video for better understanding.
https://youtu.be/vd9j8uo6OSY
The next video touches upon the scientific effect of the mantras on humans,
https://youtu.be/kJgByXXNCjI
We are more accustomed to the physical acoustic sound most of our lives, and also the mental noise we make. The external acoustic sound is heard by all and the mental sound is only heard by the individual. But both have the ability to create vibrations. The more we delve into spirituality of mental sound gets powerful as we are using mantras or the primordial sound which has the power to connect to the cosmic sound and create a connection. That's why you will find most sages speak very less because they know when they speak out they are just creating noise that is of no use.
But still there is a level beyond this vibration. The level where all forms of manifestation stops, so therefore there is no sound, no vibration, no divine expression and no super psychic experience. The last level of enlightenment.
So there is a lot to it than what appears to our eyes, beliefs and senses. It is really surprising how people from so ancient time researched on it and found out the correlations which has stood the test of time as well as corresponding to present day scientific knowledge.
Scientific reasons behind some Indian traditions
‘Namaskar’ is greeting another person on meeting. It is done by folding the hands and joining the palms of both the hands in front of the chest. It is an age old tradition and still followed in India. It is akin to shaking hands by the Christians and bowing down by the Buddhist. Joining he tips of the fingers is said to activate pressure points of mind, eyes and ears which helps in remembering the person. Also, as there is no contact with the person therefore there of no chance of spread of germs from one person to another.
Traditional Indian women wore ‘toe rings’ on the second toe after marriage. The toe rings were made of silver. It is said that a nerve goes from the second toe to the uterus and further till the heart. So the toe ring massages that nerve and makes the uterus stronger and also increases blood flow in the uterus and menstrual cycle is regularized. Also silver is considered a good conductor and therefore it helps the body absorb the energies from the earth.
Throwing coins in rivers is considered to bring good luck in India. But the original purpose of this tradition was different. Water sources were sacred as it was required for all our daily activities like drinking, washing clothes and bathing. Unlike now a day’s coins in earlier times were made of copper. Copper served two purposes, it is an important mineral ingredient required by the body so by throwing coins it was ensured that people had sufficient intake of copper in the diet. Secondly copper helped in cleaning the surface water by helping in pulling the dust and other impurities to the bottom on the water body thereby ensuring the top surface of the water was clean for drinking and other purposes.
Applying ‘Kumkum’ on forehead by women and ‘tilak’ by men. Kumkum or tilak is applied in the center of the forehead and between the eyebrows. The place between the center of the eyebrow is considered a major nerve center and energy center in India, it is also considered the location of the third eye (seat of consciousness). Applying Kumkum or tilak ensured that the energy is retained within the body and increase concentration. The center of the eyebrow is a major location of the 7 Kundalini chakras. Red Kumkum applied by women also increased blood flow in the face thereby increasing the glow of the face.
Bells in temples. Every Indian temple has a bell hanging on the entrance. In ancient times there were a lot of wild animals, so while entering the temple ringing the bell scared away any nearby animals. The sound of the bell also cleared the mind of all outside thoughts and helped in concentrate on the purpose of visiting the temple. The peculiar sound created by the bell lasts for 7 seconds in echo mode and helps in activating the 7 spiritual chakras in our body and also balance the left and right side of the brain. So we are able to get rid of any negative thoughts and concentrate on the supreme power.
Indian tradition entails to start our eating with spicy food and end with sweets. Spicy food in the beginning activates the digestive juices faster and enhances the digestion process leading to better digestion. Sweet involves sugar intake and it pulls down the digestive process, also the last taste on our taste buds is sweet which gives a feeling of satisfaction.
Applying Mehndi/Henna during marriage ceremony by bride. Indian marriages are a stressful function which involves many functions spread across 3 days. The bride has to participate in all these functions and is stressful for the bride. Mehndi is a medicinal plant which helps in cooling the body and prevents the nerves from getting tensed. So applying it on the hands and feet reduce stress, keeps the body cool and the nerves relaxed thus helping the bride to tide over those stressful 3 days of marriage. Traditionally also other than marriage mehndi is used by females for all functions and also used in cases of fever. The deep green color of mehndi also enhances the beauty of the bride.
Eating while sitting on the floor. Though in present times having food while sitting on dining table has become the norm but Indian tradition suggests sitting on the floor and eating food. One has to sit cross legged on the floor which also a yoga pose is called sukhasana. This position signals the brain to prepare the stomach for digestion. Also the slight bending forward while taking the food activates the stomach and helps in the release of digestive juices. The pose in itself lumber ups your leg muscles and keeps them flexible. It is expected that while getting up from this pose you should not take the help of your hands.
Not to sleep with head towards the north. It invites ghosts and death, that's what the myth says. But the actual reason as per Indian tradition is that our body has iron in our blood which creates its own magnetic field. Earth also has its own magnetic field. When sleeping with head towards north causes an asymmetry with the earth’s magnetic field and may lead to blood pressure as our heart needs to work harder to pump the blood. Also the iron of the body starts to accumulate in the brain which may cause headache and other diseases of the mind like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cognitive disabilities.
Ear piercing is a common practice among Indian females mainly but is also done by males. According to Ayurveda the center of the earlobe is an important location for the reproductive health and piercing it activates it. It also helps menstrual cycle. Two important acupressure points are there in the ear lobe – the master sensorial and master cerebral points. Piercing helps keeping them activated and it helps in the hearing ability. The ear lobes also connect the left and right hemisphere of the brains, thus helping in brain development. Stimulation of ear lobes is also said to be related to improving digestion and sperm production, that’s why it is done compulsorily for men in some Indian communities.
These traditions followed in India are thousands of years old and are still followed though the purpose may have changed. Piercing of ears is more for earrings meant for beauty and fashion, mehndi is more for beauty, throwing coins in rivers is useless now as now coins are made of other metals, in the concrete jungles people now don't care which direction there head is, eating while sitting on floor is now only on special occasions.
It is to be remembered that these scientific reasons are based on studies done by ancient learned people thousands of years ago. So comparing it with todays science will be futile. But it is also true that the present day scientific community has started taking note of ancient scientific knowledge and wisdom.
2 night stand
In 1993 I went for my first mountaineering expedition in the Himalayas. We were total 8 members, 7 male and 1 female. We had selected Gangotri-1 (21500 ft) peak to climb, out of the three Gangotri groups of peaks. The expedition was planned in the month of May- June 1993, a time which is after the winter and before the rainfall.
I don’t remember the exact dates but in second half of May we left Kolkata by train to Haridwar and from there we went by bus to Uttarkashi. Here we purchased ration, fuel etc, hired guide and porters. We had our own climbing ropes and necessary equipment's required for the expedition. After 2 days halt here we went to Gangotri by bus which is the road head, after that it’s all on foot. We had a one day halt at Gangotri (10000 ft) which is required for acclimatization, distribution of load and offered our prayers for a successful expedition.
I don't have any pictures from the expedition. All the pictures here have been taken from internet to show something similar to the situation we faced.
Next day we left for the actual part of the expedition. As it was a self financed expedition so we had to carry heavy loads, to save on expenses on porters. After 3 days we reached the base camp of the peak which was about 16000 ft. Here again we were required to halt for acclimatization as we had gained quite a height in these 3 days. Also this day is required to redistribute the loads for further load ferry to higher camps. The general principle is to carry loads to the next higher camp, dump it there and return back to the lower camp, and the next day again go there and put up tents and stay. There were 3 camps required before the actual summit. So this way we reached the second camp, that is the camp below the summit camp.
Now we were 6 members in this camp-2 as 2 members along with 2 porters stayed back in base camp to send rations to higher camps as well as back up for rescue, if required.
It was bright and sunny at camp-2 (19000 ft). The previous day we had ferried load to this camp and today we came here for night halt. We were 6 members, one guide and 2 high altitude porters, total 9. From here only 3 members, 1 guide and 2 porters were to go to summit camp the next day.
We reached camp-2 at about 1300 hours, established our camp and planning for the next day. It is known in Himalayas that around afternoon the weather starts to pack up in the higher altitudes, so most of the movement is done from morning till afternoon. Then by evening it clears up. Also in those days there were no satellite phones (it’s not permitted even now for civilians) to get updates about weather conditions.
Around 1600 hours the weather started packing up; the only difference was that there were clear cut signs of a snow storm coming. By 1700 hours there was complete white out with high wind velocity and a terrible snow blizzard. We had 3 tents pitched for 9 people. So we had 3 tents with 3 people in each tent. We were expecting the storm to be over by next day morning and if required we would stay one more day here before moving ahead.
We had those small tents which would accommodate 3 people only. The snow started covering the tents and so we had to go out every 30 minutes to clear the snow so that the tent doesn’t collapse. The wind speed must have been about 90-100 kms per hour and when going out the visibility was almost zero. Also the camp site was in the funnel of the wind flow. The wind chill factor plummeted the temperature further down.
Now it was almost each tent had its own survival situation. 1 person was deputed every 30 minutes to clear the snow from the tent, repair the ropes and pegs which held the tents to the ground (snow). Ideally one person could stay out about 5 minutes outside due to the weather condition to avoid frost bite. If this drill is not done during snow storm then it is certain that the tent will collapse burying the climbers or it will rip apart. Also the snow cleared from the tent is piled up around th tent to reduce the ferocity of the wind hitting the tent. Each tent had a small covered window (about 6 inches by 6 inches) for ventilation purpose which has to be kept open slightly if the zip for entry to tent is fully closed. Snow started forcing its way through this ventilation and no amount of effort would fully close that window. The snow would start getting into the tent and damp our sleeping bags. So the condition inside the tent was also pathetic.
The person going out had to be tied with a rope on the waist and the rope was controlled from inside the tent so that the person doesn’t get disoriented outside. Even for peeing or going to another tent this system was used. Every 2 hours one person would go to another tent to check their condition.
The porters had cooked rice before the storm hit. So we brought the rice to out tents and ate it for the night. The whole night we followed this routine with no sleep. The condition was such and the sound of the wind and storm was such that no one could sleep. The cooked rice was a life saver that night.
Everyone was expecting that the weather would improve the next day. When the sunlight started showing up and the darkness ended we started peeping out of the tent to assess the situation. But the weather god had some other plans, it won’t relent so early.
The next day the same situation continued for the whole day and we had to follow the same routine. Due to the weather no cooking was possible the whole day so we had to eat the dry food which we carried. These dry foods are of an emergency nature and everyone carried small quantity of it. We did not know when the weather will improve so therefore we had to eat that in a very conservative manner so that it would last the whole situation even if it continues for 2 more days. The next difficulty was water. The first night we had some water in our water bottles, but now that too was finished and water was of paramount importance. Today we started squeezing snow to melt it and get some liquid water out of it and later on eat the snow to get some water out of it.
The whole day passed like this battling the nature to survive. The tent had to be secured because if it collapsed or got blown away then we would surely die of exposure, no doubt about it. Now night fell and the weather still won’t improve. We were extremely tired and required some sleep but that was not to be. Now the inside of the tent was also damp, our sleeping bags almost wet. We started rubbing each other’s feet with our hands to get some warmth. Lack of food, water and sleep was taking its toll on the cognitive thinking. Some even thought of going down in this weather which was sure shot a death march, but fortunately sanity prevailed.
Somehow the second night passed. Early morning with the first light we peeped out of the tent with only hope on our side. Now it looked as if the weather was in a mood to calm down which raised our spirit. By 0800 hrs the weather started clearing up and we could go out without the help of rope. By 1000 hrs the weather had almost cleared up and we enjoyed the sunshine.
The first thing we did was cook food and eat, melt water and drink. It was such a relief. The snow condition was not good and chances of avalanches were great so it was decided that we return back. So after having food we packed up the tents and all other equipment's and returned to base camp that day only. The people in base camp also had a terrible time and more ever they were worried about us as there was no way to attempt any rescue under such circumstances.
Anyway the first rule of the mountains is to be safe and everyone should return alive. Though the expedition was unsuccessful, but the experience was that of once in a life time. Every one of us stuck in the higher camps had this feeling at least once that this could end in a disaster. If it had continued for one more day then things would have been different.
My experiment with Pancakeswap
The Ethereum gas fees have been reaching ridiculous levels recently. For small investors it is costly to survive on the Ethereum mainnet. So like many others I had been on the lookout for an alternative solution. Scanning the internet I found the Binance smart chain defi platforms. My purpose was to create a passive income source where I could generate some money every month or quarter, within the volatility and uncertainty of the crypto world. I will share with you what I have started and hopefully it stands the test of time even when when bear market hits.
For this I added the binance smart chain network in metamask. Also you will require a binance account or you can get the binance chain chrome extension.
I started buying Binance coin (BNB) from my exchange in India, as it is the base coin with which you will have to pay the transaction fees. In Binance chain the BNB address start with bnb….. . In binance smart chain the BNB address starts with 0x... just as Ethereum address. From the second half of January 2021 I started accumulating BNB in my Indian wallet and send them to my Binance chain wallet (chrome extension). The transaction cost on binance chain is about 0.50 cents.
After transferring those BNB to binance chain wallet, I converted the BNB from binance chain (the original bnb... type address) to binance smart chain (the 0x... type address) and send it to matamask binance smart chain network. Up till now the basic work is done.
Now I opened pancake swap website and connected it with metamask choosing the binance smart chain network (instead of Ethereum mainnet). I converted the BNB to Cake token and staked the cake token in the syrup pool. I chose to deposit cake to stake them and get more cake. The APR is currently 138%, though it keeps varying in the range of 141 to 137%.
I bought 61 BNB at the average price of around 65 dollars and when I converted them to cake token I got 1378 cake tokens at about 2.9 dollar a piece. It cost me about 3965 dollars to buy BNB and the average cake price comes to around 2.9 dollar. Now the price of one BNB is about 275 dollars and price of one cake is more than 15 dollars. So as it is I am in a good amount of profit by price increase.
Now in staking I am getting around 5 cake tokens per day, which would make it 175 cakes per month with current APR. I am compounding these cakes every 2 days to generate more cake token. Even after paying fees for compounding I will get about 170 cakes per month. 170 cakes multiplied by 15 dollars would make 2550 dollars per month.
Now everything must be looking hunky dory but 2 situations will develop ultimately. First, as more people shift to Binance network and start staking the APR will reduce. Second, in bear market the cake price like all other coins and tokens will reduce drastically. To offset these two situations I will be compounding for few more months. My target is to have 2000 cake tokens before I start taking monthly income. With compounding my average cake price has now reduced to 2.74 dollars.
In the first case, even if the APR reduces to 50% then also with 2000 cakes I will be able to generate 80 cakes per month. Secondly in bear market the cake price will fall drastically like all other coins. The all time high of cake price is 20 dollars and even if the cake price corrects till 2 dollars (90% correction), I will be making 80 multiplied by 2 dollars that is 160 dollars per month. This in my currency would be 11500 Indian rupees. My pension is now 40000 rupees. So even in worst case scenario I will be making one fourth of my pension as passive income without doing anything. This I consider not bad. In better times the earning will be much more.
Defi is gaining popularity especially on the Ethereum side, but with high gas fees many are shifting to binance side. As of today pancake swap has toppled all other except Uniswap and the margin is very less between the two. The 24 hours volume on pancake swap is 1 billion dollars. Though there are other defi’s on binance like Venus, autorun network, beefy swap, bakery swap etc but pancake swap is the most popular.
Defi has its inherent risk and I might lose everything in case of a rugpull but considering the risk reward ratio I decided to do it. Mentally I am prepared if I lose everything, that’s why all my crypto investment is not in it. I wish with BCH also there was some defi opportunity.
I am going to take a much needed break. I have been writing continuously for about 5 months and have not taken a break since March. I am going out on a trek and holiday. I will be back next year. So see you then.
Happy days are coming back
I had written an article on why 2021 can be a terrible year for many people. Today I am going to present the other side of the coin, 2021 can be a great year for us. 2020 has been a gloomy year with news of sickness and deaths all around the world, economic slowdown and job loss in an unending loop. Everyone is missing the free lifestyle of the pre covid times.
Now the availability of a vaccine is not a distant dream but reality with some countries even starting the vaccine. The Moderna vaccine was tested on 30000 people and it showed a 94.5 percent efficacy. India which is the largest producer of vaccines expects the start of vaccination process as early as January 2021. Most of the vaccine trials around the world are in the final trial phase and 2021 will see majority of the population getting vaccinated. Experts believe that by spring or summer life would be as good as normal again. Once the vaccines start rolling out it will be a reason for cheer and happiness for the people all around the world.
Experts were expecting a great depression but now countries are expecting a V shaped recovery. It is expected that people will spend big amounts once the lockdown and social distancing becomes a thing of the past. For the last year people have just been locked up so the spring effect will induce people to come out enjoy and spend more getting the economy rolling again. Just imagine the relief people will have with no restrictions and the vaccine.
Most people who had covid came out recovered with the death percentage being low. This experience has made people more aware about fitness and healthy living. Now people will be more careful about a healthy lifestyle with more people taking up some sort of fitness activity. Also people are now more aware hygiene. Doctors in UK found that children have less seasonal flu cases. Though some of it is attributed to schools being closed but most of it is due to children following a good personal hygiene routine like washing hand regularly and using masks.
The air pollution around the world especially around big cities and industrial areas has come down significantly. Though when things get normal the pollution level is likely to increase but people are now more aware and concerned about pollution after seeing the better effects of a less polluted world. This pandemic has seen the better side of humans coming out to help each other. More people came out to volunteer help irrespective of the threat of the disease. We saw communities coming together to help others in need and people showing solidarity by playing music and lighting candles from their balconies. Now people are expected to have closer family bonding and also better bonding with neighbors. Many people learned to cook, started gardening or even repair their house.
Similarly there was a surge of people taking to the internet to learn new things through online courses. Google saw a huge jump in its search for online courses. Now many companies started work from home which gave the employees more freedom. In fact after the pandemic is more or less over the work from home culture will be the new normal. This would lead to less rush of vehicles on the roads and more freedom to work. Those who don’t have the work from home option will return to the jobs most of which were lost due to covid. There will be a set of digital nomads who will have the capability to work from anywhere in the world.
2021 will see a boom in the tourism sector as people are now itching to go out on vacations as the things get normal. The skyscanner website has seeing an exponential increase in searches for air travel. People will be eager to have their long due vacation with families. People will be able to go and watch sports in stadiums, watch movies in theatres, and go to live concerts again.
The better days are coming back for the people in general and what a relief it will be to return to a normal life again without thinking about the disease.
Blockchain and use cases
The people’s behavior has been a field of study for economists. They study how we make decisions, how and what affects our individual and collective behavior. They study how institutions have used human behavior to make theories and rules that facilitate trade, legal systems markets. Now a fundamentally different technological institution is developing that will revolutionize how we exchange values. That is block chain.
Block chain is in fact the continuation of the human story. As humans it is our endeavor is to lower uncertainties between people so that the exchange of value is smooth. The hunter gatherers traded mostly within their communities with some informal constraints like social repercussions/violence. Then when the society developed with time and the trade routes were expanding to long distances then we developed more formal institutions like governments, banks, corporations which regulated and monopolized things. These institutions managed trade as the level of complexity and uncertainty grew. Personal trades had to be routed through one or more of these institutions. When the internet came these things became online. Now we have the Amazon, Alibaba and other market intermediary that acts as middle man to facilitate trade.
Block chain is a technological innovation that decentralizes database and stores records of all kinds in a peer to peer network. It is just like a register which keeps record of who owns what, what he transacts and with whom. Cryptography is used to record these transactions and it get locked in blocks of data which are further securely linked to each other, again with cryptography. This way an immutable record of data is created which cannot be forged. This way no one controls it. It’s somewhat like the Wikipedia. We can see the Wikipedia and track the changes made in it with time and even create a new wiki. Wikipedia is just a data infrastructure. Block chain is also an open source infrastructure where many data can be stored like crypto currency, legal records, land records, financial transactions, contracts, certificates and many more. Here you can see the owner of that asset, its location, the changes in ownership and value. This way block chain reduces the uncertainty.
We have basically three types of uncertainties which we encounter in our daily life-
• Not knowing whom we deal with.
• Not able to see the sequence of transaction.
• Not able to do anything if something goes wrong.
In the first case suppose I want to buy a mobile phone from eBay or other such sites then we look for who is the seller. Does he have a verifiable identity, are the reviews good and original etc. Our identities are fragmented but block chain will allow us to create an open platform where any attestation by an individual will be recorded. This will help create a user controlled portable identity of everyone. It means we can create a profile that will selectively reveal our attributes that will facilitate a trade of value.
In the second case suppose you are going to send me the mobile through mail. I would like to know that I will be getting the same product that I saw on the website and some record of the process of sending. Products these days pass through various vendors working on a horizontal supply chain which may not be so cohesive. What is the proof that I will be getting an original product with original components? So block chain can create a shared data chain across non trusting entities.
In the third case suppose I do not receive the mobile, then I should get a refund. Here block chain allows writing a code that binds a contract between parties without the requirement of a third party. In this case it would be like an escrow where until all the conditions are met the funds are not released.
A lot of human economic activity can get automated with least human intervention and manipulation. The block chain will keep the mutual distrust to the minimum. All the uncertainties can be flattened out without the requirement of an institution controlling it.
Block chain has the capability to disrupt some industries and are already doing it in some cases-
• Banking and payments
• cyber security
• supply chain management
• Online betting game and casino
• Networking and IOT
• Insurance
• Ride sharing and private transport
• Cloud storage
• Charity
• Voting
• Government functioning
• Public benefit and social security
• Health care data management
• Energy management
• Online music
• Retail shopping
• Real estate
• crowd funding
• Any industry dealing in data and product transactions
and last but not the least- crypto currency.
The apocalypse
Mythology and the gods depicted in the holy books have talked about the creation of the world and life within it which I have written about in one of my earlier articles. But there are myths about the destruction of the world also written in those holy books. It is referred as the apocalypse. So let us see how the world is going to end- as per them. Now days there are many post apocalypse movies talking about zombies or robots taking over, nuclear fallouts. But apocalypse stories are more related to the gods of the religious texts where they will themselves destroy the world.
Apocalypse is all about how a super natural power will cause the death and destruction of the entire human life. This would be a form of divine punishment as we see in those stories of floods. The difference between these floods stories and the apocalypse is that those flood stories are all in the past but the apocalypse is what is coming in the future. Also these stories end with a promise of a new beginning with everything good in it.
The Hebrew Bible has more than one story of apocalypse. But these stories have two common things; one is the general destruction of the natural kind and second is the punishment of the non believers and enemies of god. The book of Isaiah describes that the lord will strip the earth bare, twist the surface of the earth and scatter the inhabitants. The book of Zachariah says that while the destruction of world is taking place the people of Jerusalem will be fighting a battle. The lord will participate in the battle in order to save the righteous followers. And the non righteous ones are going to have a painful death; it is described as their flesh, eyes and tongues will be consumed away, most likely by fire. For the righteous ones there is the promise of the god kingdom
The ancient Persians have their Ahura Mazda, their ultimate deity. But there is a destructive counterpart also called the Ahriman. Here it depends on whom you follow. The followers of Ahriman will be punished and the followers of Ahura Mazda will get rewarded. Ahura Mazda’s son, the fire will destroy everything including hell. After the destruction of the world a ceremony will be held were the righteous followers will be brought back to life and thereafter will be a golden age.
For the Christians it is all written in the book of revelation. Saint John Divine describes the 7 angels who will be the harbinger of death. The 7 angels will be holding a vial of plague each with them and pour it on earth one by one. Then comes the thunder, lightning and earthquake leading to all the cities and nations crumbling. These apocalypse stories also talk about beasts in the form of dragons and multi headed animals.
Islam being an Abrahamic religion also has similarity to the earlier myths. These stories can be found in the Quran and the hadiths. Mohammad says that once people forsake the study of Quran and start indulging in worldly pleasures, there will be famine in Mecca and Medina and earthquakes across North Africa, Turkey and Iran will have thunderstorms, flood in the East and banditry in Iraq. The Dajjal ( anti Christ) will come riding on a donkey and rule for 40 days and thereafter god will send Jesus again with his army of the faithful. As expected Jesus will defeat Dajjal and rule for 40 years. Then Jesus will move to Jerusalem and from there he will again go to heaven. But still there is a twist in the story.
7 days after Jesus rises to heaven two monsters Yajuj and Majuj will escape will escape and destroy the world. Then Angel Israphel will blow the horn leading to 40 more years of earthquake and storms. After these 40 years Israphel will blow the horn again leading to the resurrection of the faithful followers who will spend the next 40 years praising Allah. After these 40 years the horn will be blown again when Mohammad will return to the world for the day of the Judgment. The sin and good of all will be measured in a scale and all will have to cross a bridge to the paradise. The sinners will fall off the bridge to hell and the good ones will cross over. Those sinners seeking mercy will have the chance to escape hell.
All these stories speak of great natural disasters and plagues but give a ray of hope at the end for the righteous promising some sort of reward or amnesty. This is where the innocent and the gullible commoners tricked into the belief of the promised land.
Digital immortality
Man has always experimented to fulfill the desire of living beyond the bounds of a physical body. We are bound by the physical laws of nature but our consciousness has always been an unintelligible experience and though it is bound by our physical brain but seems to exist in a different plain. For the first time in human history man is trying to go beyond the physical body and dreaming of ways to upload the mind in a digital form. Mind uploading and digital immortality will ultimately be a dream of many rich and famous. So will it be possible to upload the mind in a computer? Cryonic preservation of the body is already a reality.
Mind though a short 4 letter word is hard to define. It is the collective ability of the brain to think, intelligence and consciousness. The possibility of uploading a mind is based on a few assumptions:-
The mind is inside the structure we call brain and its connected bio chemistry.
One day we will have the technology to understand of how the brain functions and also will be able to simulate it.
Computer software will be able to host the mind, which means the mind must be computable through computer codes.
These things are of debate by the philosophers and scientists and there are too many unanswered question to come to a logical conclusion. Any discussion of mind starts with the brain, the most complex part of the body. Let’s try to understand how complex it is. Approximately 100 billion neurons are communicating with each other via 100 million billion connectors. Each one is sending up to 1000 signals each second that is a whopping 1 quadrillion signals each second and this is happening each second of your waking life. Apart from neurons there are a billion other supporting and immune cells performing various kinds of jobs each second. Within the brain where exactly is ‘you’ is not known or various parts of the brain working together may constitute ‘you’. Hormones also play a big role in the functioning of the brain.
To understand all these complexities we would need a scan machine which could decipher all that is happening. But presently we do not have such technology. Another method would be cutting the brain into small pieces and making an accurate map using a high resolution electron microscope. In 2019 scientists did this on a 1 cubic millimeter of mouse brain. It took 3 months to complete a 3D model when 5 electron microscopes worked continuously. The data takes 2 million gigabytes storage. The human brain is far more complex and will require further small pieces and may require more than the data storage available on earth.
Even if we are able to create a 3D model of a human brain, we would have to fully understand how to make this static model to a working model. We will have to bring it to life. Even if we get the model we just don’t know whether we will be able to create a thinking brain. We may come to know all the ingredients but making the final product may still be impossible. A somewhat easier objective would be to create a probabilistic model of the functioning.
A functional mind uploading will lead to the holy grail of digital immortality. But if it somehow gets corrupted as computer files do these days then we might get stuck in an eternity of pain or sorrow or any other form of outcome. If we are able to create a digital mind then the technology will make it possible for the digital and biological version of you to co-exist. Your biological mind goes through phases of pain, hunger, sleep, love etc but your digital mind can be programmed to go through selected emotions of your choice. Your digital mind will open up new possibilities which are now unimaginable like you could speed up time from past to present or you could revisit your past in the touch of a button. You could be able to change aspects of your personality which you don’t like. The adventurous could embark on a journey to explore the universe by pausing time in the digital mind.
It can be used by criminals to live eternally in the digital form; governments can use it to control the people. At present it is hard to judge what the consequences of a digital mind are and whether it will be for the benefit of mankind or not. It may create a digital utopia or a digital horror. There can be hundreds and thousands of possibilities opening up which we cannot even comprehend now.
When banks run out of cash
In times of financial volatility people love cash in hand more than anything. During such times having a lot of cash with you gives a sense of security and satisfaction. During such times you don’t feel confident keeping money in banks as you never know when it might restrict your withdrawal or even when the bank might collapse and your money is gone, at least for some time. Historically such situations have taken place and during those times people queued for long hours to get their money out of the banks. This is called a bank run. In such times banks can actually run out of cash.
During the great depression of the 1930’s and the financial crisis of 2008 people panicked and lost faith in the banks, thinking that it can close down and they may lose the money. Depositors then start withdrawing their money. At the beginning it starts with a limited number of people but slowly as words spread and thanks to the media, this thing gets hyped. Then more and more people start rushing towards the bank to withdraw. The banks start imposing restriction on withdrawals so that they don’t run dry.
A local bank branch has a limit of holding cash depending on the average demand of cash and security reasons. And that entire amount a bank can keep is not for withdrawals. It is also used for in house loans and investment projects. So when more than the expected number of people starts withdrawing then it has to divert cash from the other reserves to increase the cash position. They can also bring cash from other banks temporarily but when all banks are facing the same situation then no bank will be in a position to help other banks. Information of such a situation spreads fast creating more panic. During such times trying to talk sense and reassuring the public just don’t work. The fear that a bank can fail seems to be the biggest reason for a bank to fail.
The same psychology was seen this year only, when the lock down period started. People started hoarding toilet paper in anticipation of a long lock down. What started as a trickle ended in a mad rush to buy and hoard them leading to shortage of supply in major super markets.
The classic example of bank run was the great depression of the 1930’s. It started with the stock market crashing in October 1929. Before that America was having a great time- the roaring twenties with heightened economic prosperity. The people were ever bullish on the market trend leading to over pricing and inflating the stock market. This created an asset bubble but eventually all bubbles have to burst and this happened. Deposits in banks rose and so the lending by banks also rose. Banks were handing out loans like cookies and candies. The public were confident that the market would sustain that they were playing with margin money.
Meanwhile the agriculture and industrial production was at a all time high and also hurting the stock market. The Federal Bank of New York increased the interest rate by 1 percent and the other overhyped factors led to an economic chain reaction. The combined effect of so many things led to the collapse of the US economy, plummeting the GDP into free fall. To the public it came as a shock and they wanted to hold as much cash as possible in their hands. The news papers further fuelled the fear leading to further panic. The people lost faith in the banks and started pulling out funds. To keep up with the demand for cash the banks started selling their assets. Bank runs are the outcome of a sudden economic downturn and uncertainty.
The 2008 stock market crash was due to the subprime mortgage market where people were getting loans so easily that it created a housing bubble. The collapse of the Lehman Brothers bank created a great panic and proved that even large banks were not infallible. This also created the same effect as that of the great depression and its effect was profound in US and Europe. Some banks even became insolvent.
However, now the central banks have systems in place to avoid such things in future. One thing is the deposit insurance which guarantees the customer money even of the bank falters in paying them immediately. But such guarantees are not for the full amount and this guarantee amount varies from country to country. Second is to reduce the withdrawal limit or reduce the number of withdrawals. This happened in India during the demonetization a few years back. Banks can take money from other banks or the central bank to tide over such a situation rather than selling off assets. The banks can also convert the savings deposit into term deposits with a postponed date of maturity.
Though nobody knows that such incidents will be repeated again or not but one thing is that now banks are more prepared to handle such situations, based on previous experience. But on the counter side when public fear overshadows logic then no amount of preparation and persuasion can hold the public back.
A brief history of European colonial expansion
The 18 and 19 century Europe saw the adoption of civil rights, rule of law and constitutional guarantee. But when it came to colonial expansion these rights were the first to be taken away from the colonies around the world.
The British moved into India in the name of trade after losing monopoly rights aver trade in USA. The Spanish and the French were losing their importance in the west. Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands became the focus of colonization to gain access to trade in the raw materials like the palm oil, cotton, tea etc. This trading advantage shifted to political control over the territories.
China attracted a lot of attention due to its tea and silk. The British were expert in industrialization but their products were of low quality as the raw material was of low quality. Even the colonial countries did not like those products. In China they need something to sell to them in exchange of tea and silk. So they started drug smuggling and it was the opium. The Chinese government started a crack down on opium smuggling so this powerful opium lobby of the British convinced the British government to start the opium war in 1839-42 and 1856-60. In fact some of the rich British families are the descendants of the opium smugglers. The British win in these wars forced China to give access to more ports of trade. Though China had banned opium trade in 1799 but the British used to freedom to trade to keep the opium channels open and increased more political and economic influence on the Chinese rulers.
The south East Asia and the Pacific Islands was also a lucrative target for forced takeovers. The French used Indochina for rubber plantations; the British used the timber of Burma, the Dutch used Indonesia for the palm oil. In these regions also the trading posts slowly became centers of political influence over local rulers. The French, Belgian and the British also set for the interiors of Africa as quinine was available now to treat malaria. Though no importance is given to quinine in the role of expansion of the European colonialists but without quinine it would have been very difficult to survive and flourish. All the regions that were exploited by these people were malaria prone starting from the Sough America to Africa to Asia. The Portuguese got a hold in South Western Africa. The French held much of north and West Africa. The British had areas of south and east Africa. Belgium forcefully seized Congo for rubber and the Germans had interests in the Ottoman Empire.
The largest and the most continuous and successful empire was that of India and Central Asia held by the British. These regions had abundant supply of raw material and the primary motive was plunder. The British population was very less but instead they coerced the Indian prince’s and their army to rule and police for them. The used a vast number of local civil servants to rule over their conquest. Steam ships and railways were primarily used for transfer of good from the interior to the ports and for movement of troops, rather than for facilitating transport of people.
The discovery of diamond mines in the 1860’s in Africa led to a round of scramble by the Europeans to get control over these regions. This also led to mass scale forced migration of Africans who had to leave their homeland to work in these diamond mines in pathetic unhygienic and often fatal living conditions. South African lands were literally stolen to drive people to work in the mines.
The rule of law was almost nonexistent in these colonies for the locals and all forms of torture and subjugation techniques were used to control any form of revolt or uprising. White supremacy was supreme and the locals, all either brown or black or yellow were considered inferior to the whites. The first uprising in India was in 1857 by some of the rulers and part of local army but was brutally controlled by force. This led to a series of slaughter of the locals in the pretext that the locals have raped the white women, but later it was found that all these propaganda was false but by then many people had already been killed in the name of conspirators. The people of Congo and Caribbean were abused by the colonial rulers and it went to such an extent that the fertility rates went down. The pregnant women used a variety of things like peacock flower, rue, willow and other plants to induce abortion as they did not want to bring the next generation into a life of slavery.
All forms of domination were justified in the name of racial supremacy. They thought that it was their right to turn the so called ‘savages’ into Christianity for their salvation. Priests were sent to all corners to spread Christianity. Social Darwinists, those who believed in the Darwin theory that white people are the pinnacle of human evolution, justified the acts of conquest to preserve their superiority. So the stealing of palm oil or diamond or tea or cotton was justified as a way to keep the white people superior. While the European colonial countries were the richest at that time the colonial territories were among the poorest in the world. Crop failure, famine and starvation were common and the locals faced the brunt of it.
Though the people who benefited from the colonialism, the people of Europe may say that these things are of the past but strains of it are still prevalent. The growing colonialism in those centuries also put colonial armies at war with each other in order to wrest more territories. This was also one of the reasons for the beginning of the First World War.
The final moments
Your doctor or your relatives may not tell you but you can make it from their behavior and eyes that you have very little time left. You are on the hospital bed waiting to embark on the biggest mysterious journey of your life- into the death. The time starts to slow down and your awareness of the surrounding increases. Your eyes start to get heavy and start to close. It may be you are aware that you are just about to die or maybe it feels like you are going to sleep and slip quietly. What is your brain doing when your body is taking its last breadths?
The brain is 3.3 pounds of tissue compared to your whole body weight but it is the command center for your body from where the whole battle of life is fought. The boss is sitting there directing the battle. The brain is composed of the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe and occipital lobe in addition to the countless number of neurons and its connections. The brain controls everything- the functions of respiratory, motor, circulatory, spine, and many other smaller functions connected to the nerve. There can be two situations of your death first, when your brain kills the body and second, when your body kills the brain.
Brain kills the body- This happens when you suffer an injury on the brain which can be due to a bullet injury on the head or a severe blunt injury or stroke and the brain is not able to sustain the body. In such cases the brain shuts down instantaneously and the body may not realize immediately that the brain has stopped. In some cases the lower brain functions may continue which we call as brain dead. The brain is technically speaking alive but body functions have stopped and the person is on life support to keep the heart pumping.
Body kills the brain- The body function provides the critical oxygen to the brain to keep it functioning at an optimal level. If the circulatory system cannot provide the required oxygen to the brain then the brain will start suffocating and will eventually die due to lack of oxygen. This can happen when there is a serious injury to one of the critical organs, excessive blood outflow, heart attack, cancer or natural old age when the major organs start to fail. In these cases there are chances of medical intervention to save you but even doctors can do to a certain limit only.
In such cases the brain will be shutting down slowly and people can experience the sensation of dying. But what is that person experiencing during the moment of death? Various people who have shared their experience about near death experience or returning from being declared brain dead. They have spoken about it and written books on it. But doctors believe that such experience could be due to hypoxia and the severe trauma leading to hallucination. The experiences ranges from, seeing own life in a fast forward mode (my personal experience) or seeing dead relatives ready to take your soul to heaven or seeing a tunnel of white light. A deeply religious person may also claim to see angels and god.
Scientists have studied what the brain is doing in the last moments through EEG scans, though they cannot say what the dying person is feeling in those last moments. They found that the brain activity increases during the moment of death. Also when experimenting with mouse it has been found that the brain may not die when the body dies. Though in most cases it can be a few seconds but Canadian doctors in 2018 found some disturbing facts when working on terminally ill patients. Life support was removed from 4 terminally ill patients but one patient’s brain activity was recorded for up to 10 minutes while there was no pulse and unresponsive pupil. It may be that during a non traumatic death the body lets the brain go into deep sleep and then die.
Another theory is called the dark wave. When there has a traumatic injury then brain starts to shut down one by one taking the brain to a depression, confusion and disorientation. But when the brain dies due to body then there is a relatively optimistic theory. It has been noticed that people dying in hospital palliative care have a peaceful expression in the face in the last moments. Experiments on rats have shown that the serotonin levels increase by three times during the last minutes. Serotonin affects the feeling of happiness. A serotonin release during the last moments is likely to take away the fear of death and pain and enjoy a natural high.
There is only one way to find out what actually happens in the last moments, but that is a one way street.
(This article is dedicated to Telesfor sir who lost his father very recently)
The machine within you that keeps you alive
At this very second we all are walking on a tightrope of life and death. We don’t feel it but an incredible amount of work is going on inside us to keep us alive. It is as if we are trying to go down using an escalator which is actually going up. If the escalator took us to the top that means you are dead. And the universe wants you to be dead.
All life is based on cell. A cell is a part of the universe that is just matter and energy but dead. Cells just separated itself for a time being so that it could do whatever it wants to do. Otherwise the universe would love to keep us in a form of energy or matter. When the separation period ends the cell just joins the dead universe again. The universe doesn’t like the fun of being alive and is not a fan of the exciting things that life can do. It would rather be boring as possible with all the matter and energy. This is called entropy.
Living things are always doing something exciting. A cell is filled up of a proteins and simple molecules like water. Thousands of things are happening every second inside our cell to keep it and us alive. To stay alive it has to keep up the activity or else it will reach entropy and again be the boring dead stuff. But for these activities happening inside it, it needs energy. So billions of years ago when the first cellular life was forming on earth, the most important challenge was to find a usable energy. Though not much is known about those first cells but it is expected that they got their energy from simple chemical reactions. And it required an energy transfer system which it got in the form of a molecule ATP- Adenosine triphosphate.
This molecule is very good at accepting and releasing energy. When the cells need energy, it breaks down the ATP and uses its energy to get the work done. This process is crucial to all types of life form on earth including plants, bacteria, and fungi. So no ATP means no life.
The biggest source of energy for us is the sun. Atoms merge inside the sun and radiate photons to the solar system, but this is raw energy and was not usable directly. It took millions of years of evolution for the cell to refine this photon energy to digest it. This is done through photosynthesis. Now the cells could convert the electromagnetic energy to chemical energy which could be stored in ATP. This process got better as some cells could now produce glucose- easier to break down and full of energy. Now some cells took the easy way and decided that instead of doing all the work of photosynthesis it would just eat other cells that did all the work and eat their glucose and ATP. Some cells made energy and some ate them and things went on like this for a pretty long time.
One day a cell ate another cell but did not kill it- instead they became one cell. This change would change earth forever. This cell was the ancestor of all animals on earth from the biggest blue whale to the smallest amoeba- and somewhere in between, you. This was so important because when those two cells merged they became more powerful and could produce more ATP. It became a powerhouse called mitochondria.
The host cell ensured its survival and gave the mitochondria the food. Mitochondria does a reverse photosynthesis, it takes sugar molecules and combusts them with oxygen to make ATP. It is the furnace inside the body which releases water, Carbon-di-oxide and heat. This opened up the way for creation of more complex cells. These cells started forming small communities which we call multi cellular life. Today you are a combination of trillions of such cells which are producing energy for you to stay alive. And we hardly give credit to them for our staying alive. The day this process of energy production is interrupted or stops – you die.
Every day you body is busy producing 90 million billion billion molecules of APT and it’s about your body weight. So now you understand that you need to make a whole persons equivalent of ATP to survive a day. You can’t store enough ATP in your body to last a few moments. It is constantly produced and constantly used up.
So, all the hard work is done by those tiny cells inside your body round the clock so that you can enjoy all the life’s pleasures at your will.
Apes that cook
Does out linguistic ability or our intelligence make us humans? There must be something that separated us from the apes in the first place. Cooking could be one of the causes that helped us transform form ape to humans. Let us see if this logic has some meat or not.
Humans are the only one who cooks food. Language and intelligence are present in other species also but it is only we who get the joy of eating the burger and pizza. It is believed that Homo sapiens invented cooking and before that our natural diet included only raw foods like raw meat, fruits and vegetables. But can be now survive on raw food. There are reports from the medieval period that Mongols did not eat cooked food for weeks while moving and not lighting a fire. They would draw blood from the horses to drink and put chunks of raw meat under the saddle to soften them and eat. By seeing their conquest it surely did not have any negative effect on them.
Though we can survive on raw food but it can also be said that we evolved to cook food. In 2006 an experiment was conducted by the BBC. 9 obese and unhealthy people were kept in an enclosure in a zoo and fed only raw fruit, nut, vegetables and a small portion of cooked fish. They had the recommended calorie intake of 2000-2300 calories per day. After the experiment it was found that their blood pressure fell to normal levels and they lost an average of 4.4 kgs weight. But if our ancestors ate such high quality diet with all the calories required and also lost weight then it would have been devastating for us. Apes grew in size and became fat eating such diet but humans haven’t.
Raw food diet leads to weight loss in humans. It can show signs of chronic energy deficiency. 50 percent of women on such diet would stop menstruating. Though this would be great to protect them from wild animals that could smell blood from far away but it would have serious fertility consequences and therefore evolution. So a raw food diet would have seriously threatened the population who were basically hunter gathers and required high energy to survive.
Cooked food provides more energy than raw food- that’s why we lose weight. Our primary aim to eat is to gain energy. Cooked food provides more energy because before cooking we crush them or reduce the size of it or soften them or grind them, thus making it easier for the body to absorb the energy. Raw food is tougher to digest and therefore require more energy to break them.
What was the advantage of the invention of cooking by our ancestors? First we have to understand evolutionary trade off. In evolution for one trait to become predominant it has to give up or reduce the dominance of another trait. Ostriches gave up flying to gain more speed on ground. Turtles chose heavy shells by trading off mobility. Giraffes chose to eat from trees and so have long necks. For the humans we traded off by having smaller mouth, intestine, weaker jaws and digestive ability unlike the apes and in return we developed bigger brains.
As our ancestors started using fire to cook food, natural selection helped us to get more energy from less food. Our stomach is about 40 percent smaller than our ape ancestors. This surplus energy was transferred for the development of bigger brain. Raw food needs a lot of chewing; chimps spend about 6 hours a day chewing. If we had the diet of a chimp then we would use 40 percent of the day just to chew raw food. That would be a full time job for us. Currently we spend only about 5 percent of the time chewing cooked food.
So the biological benefits of cooking food had a major impact in the development of our body and mind which led to the development of the intelligent species as we are today.
The past and future of genetic engineering
Someone who has been sleeping from the 1980’s if woken up today will be fascinated by the technological development in the field computers and AI. But behind the scene another not so discussed technological development is taking place which also has a dramatic effect on us. It’s the genetic engineering. It is not that we are doing genetic engineering from the last 50 odd years, but we have been doing it since ages, just that we did not fully understand what we were doing.
We have tinkered with many plants, fruits and animals for thousands of years. Through selective breeding we have changed many such things like changing wild banana’s to the present one’s we eat. The selective breeding has given us the pet dogs and cats. There are so many examples in agriculture. It is only recently we have unraveled the mystery of DNA, the code of life that controls our lives. All the required information and instruction is coded in the molecules. If we change the instruction then we can change the host being. In the beginning scientists exposed plants with radiation to cause mutation in DNA code. They wanted to get a useful variation of a plant. Then the scientists inserted DNA snippets into plants, bacteria and animals to research in the field of medicine, agriculture and sometimes just to experiment. The first genetically engineered animal was the mice in 1974.
In the 1980’s things started getting commercial, with the first patent being given to a genetically engineered microbe that could absorb oil. The first genetically engineered food to reach the market was the flavr savr tomato in 1994. These tomatoes had a longer shelf life as it had an extra gene which protected it from the rotting enzyme. The GM food era had started with its many controversies and debates. The journey to human engineering started in the 1990’s. In order to treat maternal infertility, genetic information from 3 different humans was used. Such children were the first humans to have 3 genetic parents. Today we have fast growing salmons, extra meaty pigs, featherless chickens and many others. Even fluorescent zebra fish is available for the home aquarium.
But genetic engineering was highly complicated and expensive and time consuming. But a revolutionary change in technology happened in the creation of CRISPR. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. This technology reduced the cost factor by 99 percent. Experiments which used to take years can now be done in weeks. It has the potential to change the future of humanity for ever- from designer babies to ending diseases to everlasting youth.
Bacteria and viruses are deadly enemies among themselves since the beginning of life. Bacteriophages hunt for bacteria and in the ocean can kill 40 percent of them in a day. These phages insert their own genetic code into the bacteria and use them as a factory. The bacteria will fail to resist because it is too weak to protect them. But sometimes it may survive and only in such a case can they launch the most potent antivirus system. The bacteria in such cases store a part of the virus DNA in what is called CRISPR. When the bacteria get attacked again then it releases a protein from the stored data called CAS9. This protein on entering the phage scans its molecular data and then when it finds a 100 percent match it cuts it out making it useless against bacteria.
How is this information important to humans? The scientists found out that the CRISPR can be programmed. Just give it a copy of DNA you wish to program and put it in a living cell. It was a cheap and easy way to edit living cell and target a particular DNA sequence. It works for every type of cells ranging from micro organisms to humans. Now more precise tools than CRISPR are being created. This has the potential to cure deadly diseases like HIV and cancer but for this further research and refinement is required. A single incorrect letter in your DNA can cause about 3000 genetic diseases. If things go as planned then in a couple of decades thousands of diseases can be cured.
These uses of CRISPR live and die with the body, but it has the potential to make genetically engineered humans- designer babies. This will make a gradual but irreversible change in the genetic code. Humans already posses the means to edit human genome and it has been attempted twice by Chinese scientists. They were partially successful in their second attempt but it also gave a realization that there are enormous technical challenges in genome editing. We are now just like the computers of the eighties. Once this is successful then this code can be passed on through reproduction and will lead to the complete change in the gene pool of humans.
There is moral and ethical debate on its consequences. But once the technology is advanced enough and produces the first genetically engineered baby then the doo it will open cannot be closed any more. With this temptation will grow. The ultimate first baby with everything perfect and will remain perfect. No disease, perfect metabolism, high intelligence, perfect body, beautiful, choice of hair color, eye, muscular body, the list can be endless. Further advancement can lead to the solution to the biggest fear of man- aging and death. Though this can get generations to reach that stage or we may never reach that stage. We may find that at the end some things cannot be modified.
Everything can be positive but there can be negative consequences also. Imagine rogue scientists of rogue countries creating genetically engineered perfect soldiers. Rogue leaders using it to force submission of it subjects and creating a totalitarian society. Such things are far in to the future to haunt us now. But the future generations will have to decide on its course when genetic engineering is developed enough to cause concern about its use.
Understanding debt limit
What if the US could not pay off its debts? Will the citizens of world most powerful country and the biggest economy be confident enough that their government will take case of its interests first? Are they sure of it? Will the citizens be the first priority?
First let us see what a debt limit is and what will happen if the government exceeds that limit. Debt limit is the amount of money the government is allowed to borrow pay off its debt. A government has a lot of bills to pay like social security, pay and allowances, government expenditures, medical bills, interest on previous debts and many more. When the revenue coming from the taxes and investments do not cover the expenses and what it owes domestically and internationally then it needs to borrow from the treasury, the same goes with all countries.
You might be thinking that if you cannot pay off your debt, and you take one debt to pay off another debt then you will be in thick soup and will be bankrupt or even might land up in jail. But the US is doing the same for the last 100 years and still seems to be doing fine till now. The last time the US govt raised its debt limit was in 2019 and now it is just about 22 trillion.
The debt limit is different from the budget. Budget is the plan as to how much the government wants to spend each year. Debt limit is the maximum that the government can borrow to pay off its existing bills. So raising the budget impacts debt limit but raising the debt limit does not increase government spending. Debt limit is the money that the government can borrow to meet its financial obligations.
When did it start? It started in 1917 when US was in the First World War. It required money for the war so the treasury allowed the govt to issue war bonds. As the government had to pay back the money with interest so the first debt limit was set at 11.5 billion. Now it is about 22 trillion. So what would happen if the US govt is not able to pay its bills- a hypothetical situation as of now?
In the beginning it may seem ok, but things can change very fast. The government will absolutely not like to hit this limit so it will take measures to curtail expenses. The treasury would step in when the government approaches very near to the debt limit and would initiates extraordinary measures. The easiest way for the government will be to stop reinvesting its govt funds. The govt sets up funds such as govt transactions, retirement funds, currency exchange and puts its money in it. It then invests some of it in treasury securities. This way it makes some interest on those funds. This is done on daily basis. But as an extraordinary measure it can stop doing this so that it has cash in its hand. This will give the govt access to an immediate pool of money but will stop the growth of the funds it covers.
Other measure can be stopping or pausing pension funds, pausing government securities and borrowing money from other funds. When the debt limit is reached, it means it can no longer borrow from the treasury as the treasury in itself has run out of cash. Now the govt has to decide on which bill to pay and which bills to postpone paying. It needs to prioritize its expenditure. The expenditure on social welfare measures like social security, pension, and healthcare may not be the first priority of the govt then. The govt may decide to pay off the interest it owes to the treasury first than expending on social welfare plans. It will be a dire situation when the world will see that a country is not able to pay back to the treasury and other countries and will have serious economic ramifications. In that case people will lose faith in the govt and interest rates on all types of loans will go up which will lead to recession and may lead to depression as that of the 1930’s.
We do not think much of the debt limit but only about the budget as this only affects us. Debt limit is something which is managed by the finance ministry and the treasury of a country. So a lot can go in the background which the average person is not privy to and has little understanding of it. Around the world there are countries which have faced similar situations. Even the Chinese aggressive policy is pushing some countries in Africa towards reaching the debt limit.
Life without oil
Oil is one of the most essential things of modern life, so important that wars have been fought to control oil. It is said that it was not about Saddam’s nukes but the oil. Every aspect of our life is affected by oil. The most obvious use which we use for is transportation. Petroleum by-products are used in hundreds of chemicals, tar, asphalt, lubes, wax, fertilizers, cosmetics, soaps, perfumes, plastic products, PVC products, carbon fiber, some medicines etc. Even the dresses we wear have some amount of oil by product. Some aspects of use of oil are obvious to us but most of its use is not known to use but we use it in our daily lives. But what would happen if it is exhausted which it will some day.
Profit from oil depends on its demand and supply. In 2013 while the world was coming out of the financial crisis, the 5 big oil companies of the world were generating a profit of near about 200,000 dollars of profit every minute. In Sudan, the militias launched genocide on the villagers who were sitting on the newly discovered oil fields and the govt ignored it, because the oil lobby were paying them in oil. No other thing even gold has created so much prosperity and misery at the same time.
The most obvious effect would be on our transportation. Still only a small percentage of people have shifted to electric cars. While we commute so much distance to work, but without oil people will have to give up those jobs and look for alternatives nearby. Non oil options like cycles will consume too much time to commute to jobs. Most of the specialized industries would have to build housing nearby to accommodate the highly specialized staff needed to run those industries. Even in the current situation only those businesses could function which had the ability to work online. Luckily the lights will be on as electricity is produced by coal, natural gas and nuclear energy. But even these consume some amount of oil and the transport of coal and gas will get affected.
Countries which would have shifted to nuclear and other renewable source of power will be in the best position to adjust to the change. Transportation would have to shift to electricity. Consuming natural gas instead of oil will take time as the technology not fully developed. Without oil there would be food scarcity and famine. The agriculture production would drastically reduce and transportation of food to the nearby supermarket would not be possible. This would also create riots to horde the limited supply food. There will be a mass migration from the cities to the villages to be near to the food production. This reverse migration would be met with anger by the original residents as it would stretch the limited food supply of those people.
Life would shift to the pre industrial age lifestyle. But with the increased population and fewer yields due to non availability of agricultural machinery and fertilizers, the quantity, quality and the variety of food grains would be seriously affected. All those fashionable and exotic food will be replaced by cereals like wheat, barley and rice. Countries completely dependent on oil production economy will face a social and economic collapse. There will be mass migration from these oil dependent countries and will lead to both civil and external war. Even war will be affected without oil. ll the high-tech weapons will be useless and fighting would again be in the old world style. Cities like Dubai are an example of the preparation for the future oil less economy.
For individuals the living conditions and salary will get down and most of the oil based things which we use today will be a thing of the past. The world economy will be completely shaken. Its effect will be more devastating in the developing economies like China and India as their industries will suffer and coupled with it, it has the highest population in the world. The developed economies will also suffer but they will be in a better position to adjust and shift to a non oil based economy.
But it will not be a complete catastrophe for mankind and man will start the long and painful transition from an oil based life to a non oil based life utilising renewable resources. Natural gas will slowly replace oil. Though natural gas is as efficient as oil but it has the capability to power our progress. Though it is cleaner than oil but it releases methane which will hasten the green house effect. Once when even the natural gas gets exhausted and the climate disaster due to it, which will take a few lifetimes, things, will start to settle down in the new reality.
Oil has fueled the development in the last few centuries. Without oil we would not have seen the speed of development we see today. But oil that led to such progress for mankind will in itself be the cause of the next catastrophe. With new reserves being discovered that time may be a century away. But unless we make a shift starting from now, we will be making the greatest mistake for the development of our future. But we with our short sighted views and selfish agendas are not really good at making good decisions which would affect things beyond our life time. Forget the outer space exploration, going to meet our relatives living 10 miles down the road would be decision we would think 10 times before embarking on that journey.
2021 can be worse than 2020
Spoiler alert: this article may depress you, read at your own risk.
2020 has been bad for all of us, real bad. With 2021 just round the corner we all hope that it would be better than this and things get normal to a large extent. 2020 was a year of anxiousness, depression and loneliness; the virus had attacked at the root of our normal lifestyle and had successfully dislodged us from our routine life. So for most of us 2021 should be a ray of hope so that we can leave behind the scourge of 2020 and move on. But things are not so rosy looking as we might expect it to be. Was 2020 just a trailer of what is about to come in 2021?
Actually things can get worse in 2021. Everyone is pinning their hope on the vaccine to be available in large scale. But will it be in enough numbers to vaccinate the whole population of the world. Even if it is so then what would be the cost factor and how many will be able to afford it and how much will the governments will step in to provide it free of cost or at a subsidized rate for the poor people. Then how much trained manpower will be required to administer the vaccine, we know that it has to be given intra muscular so there is no question of self administration and only trained medical staff will have to do it. Then the question of maintaining the cold chain for the vaccine, though this may not be issue for developed countries but for many poor countries this might be an issue. Also all governments will have to prioritize its use due to supply bottleneck and in this the most vulnerable section will actually be at the bottom of the list. This vulnerable section is the one which is poorest of the poor and malnourished and jobless and more prone to get infected, and this lot will actually be at the bottom of the list.
Now everyone is talking of a second wave and may be a third wave. Historically all pandemic have raged till many years and we have not even completed a year with Covid. Though we are technologically way ahead from the days of Black Death or Spanish flu but we are not that ahead to actually take on the second wave. The first wave wrecked havoc with the lockdown, job loss, stress, depression and suicide. The crime rates and addiction rates have gone up. The loosening of the lock down has again increased the rate of spread and death. Though now we have a better understanding and experience of the lockdown, but a second wave will just have the same effect as the first wave. The first wave saw our health care system cracking under pressure and we are only marginally better now, but will it be sufficient to tackle the second wave smoothly, quite doubtful.
A major challenge will be the mutation of the virus into a deadlier version. We know that viruses are expert in it and routinely do it. So if we face such a situation then it will lead to more panic and deaths which will be difficult for the governments to handle.
Then there is the problem of food shortage. We have seen that the pandemic had affected the food supply chain and in many cities there was actually a food shortage and prices spiraling high. The New York Times wrote at the height of the pandemic that food banks across America could not meet the demands of the hungry. If the second wave is deadlier than the first one then starvation and death due to it could be a real life scenario. We know people protest but when it is related to food it can lead to serious law and order problems and civil unrest. Rogue leaders wait for such perfect time to further their agenda and people flock in, in expectation of a better future.
Voices have also been raised about the governments may increase the surveillance levels which might intrude the privacy of the individual. We know governments have facial recognition and other AI based technology to use, China being the best example of its misuse and intrusive nature. But democratically elected governments may start doing the same in the in the name of the pandemic. Governments may use to pandemic to curtail the freedom. As it is Google and Facebook is already doing it- tracking you.
The first wave seriously affected the economy of all countries and they are just now coming out of it, but a second wave would again lead to closure of industries and job loss and this time the damage would be worse than the last time. As per World Bank estimates there can be 150 million more people going down the poverty ladder and there can be a hunger pandemic.
This might seem to be a grim picture of the coming year but this is just a worst case scenario and I hope and may just not happen. But the future will surely look bleak for most of the people if it happens.
The anthropocene era
Anthropocene is the unofficial human era where humans have developed the capability to influence the biosphere. Due to the increase in the complexity of the world and the exponential increase in the collective learning, we can say that more changes have happened in the last century than in the whole human history of 200000 years. One century is just a very short time, your, your parents and your grandparent’s lifetime- that’s it. Though we can say that we are living in the most technologically advanced stage of human history, people living a thousand years from now will consider us as the primitives of the technological era.
Since 1800 we have seen a bubble burst of innovation and discovery, from the fundamental particles of the universe to the black holes to the antibiotics to the jets and the electric cars. We are mow 7 billion plus and our mobile has more computing power than what NASA had at the time of its first mission to moon.
The collective knowledge has increased at a tremendous rate. With the growth of human population, it has a snowball effect on the collective learning. In the last 200000 years about 9 billion people lived and died. Due to agriculture in the last 5000 years about 5.5 billion people lived and 7 billion are living now. Now we are globally and almost instantaneously connected and we have mastered the technology to harness the power of the earth and the sun. We are now able to understand some aspects of the quantum world as well as the cosmos. This is in sync with the big history that started 13.8 billion years ago.
The beginning of this so called anthropocene age was not all sunshine. In 19th century we have seen the power of innovation in the destructive power of weaponry and the colonization of 80 percent of the countries of the world. The increased complexity saw a rise in the bigotry and nationalism which led to wars and chaos till the 20th century. The World War 1 and 2 killed about 65 million people and the Spanish flu eradicated around 45 million. This is the price humanity paid for all the innovation and complexity of this era. After the World War 2 there was a wave of industrial revolution in the third world countries especially in Asia. Innovation in agriculture led to increase in production of food grains which helped countries with large population like India and China.
The bottom line of organic history of humans’ as well as animals has been to cope with the scarcity of resources. So the human history can be divided into 4 zones, the agrarian communities within the zones were further divided into various classes and social order depending on the degrees of wealth. The wealthy and the aristocrats in a general agrarian society were generally between 10 and 20 percent. Today in the globalization period if you earn about 20000 dollar a year then you are among the top 20 percent of the world. But you are far better than the kings of Middle Ages, you have the TV and the refrigerator and the mobile and the electricity. And now the average person is a little more concerned about the challenges of this century like poverty. For the next 100 years a lot will depend on how the developed world behaves with the developing world.
So now let us see some of the pros and cons of this anthropocene age:
Pro: Since 1960’s the manufacturing jobs have lifted about 600 million people from poverty. Modern technology can clothe and feed more people than ever.
Con: More and more people are leaving their traditional jobs and moving towards industrialized jobs, with poor wages. Most of their produce goes to the rich and prosperous nations leaving them stuck in their current state. In 1820 the ratio between rich and poor country was 1:3 but now it’s closer to 1:70. The wealth inequality gap has increased though the standard of living has increased.
Pro: We are now capable of harnessing the energy store of the earth, mostly non renewable. This has seen a massive growth in development around the world.
Con: As most of these are non renewable energy therefore it is limited and this has also led to an unprecedented climate change. As we are forcing our need on the environment therefore its consequences have started to show up.
Pro: Advancement in agriculture, medicine and genetics have improved the life expectancy and lowered the death rate.
Con: The increase in population which is expected to be in between 10 to 12 billion by the end of this century- the world will only be able to support 2 to 3 billion people to have the same standard of living of the developed nations. The climate change will reduce the amount of cultivable land by 20 to 25 percent and therefore we may face a severe population problem.
The stabilization of the population growth is extremely important for the next 100 years. Early agrarian people produced more children to compensate the high mortality rate and to get more hands on the field. With education and more jobs now developed nations have stabilized their population growth. While China and India may stabilize their population growth by 2050 to 2070, the African continent where poverty and chaos is the highest may face the biggest challenges.
Even then it will be a huge problem to give a decent standard of living for all the population, considering the 10+ billion people to feed coupled with dwindling natural resources. It is to be remembered that we were 1 billion in 1804, and in next 216 years we are at 7+ billion.
What are the future scenarios?
Some new technology saves us.
We collapse in chaos and anarchy
We guide ourselves into a gentle decline in the complexity of our progress and live a simple subsistence living.
The next 100 years will write the history of anthropocene.
8 events likely to happen by 2050
**Colonization of Mars** is a real possibility by 2050. The conditions on mars are quite close to earth in terms of temperature and sunlight than other nearby heavenly bodies. But it will not support life due to radiation, 0.1 percent oxygen and low air pressure. So life won’t survive as we live on earth but would require artificially created habitation zones and life support infrastructures. Elon Musk is the main player and he is funding the development of cargo space craft’s which can happen as early as 2022, manned missions are planned by 2024. The first phase will send methane and oxygen propellant plant and build a small base. The aim is to send humans to Mars by 2030. Musk estimates that it would take 50 to 100 years to have a population of 1 million shifted to Mars.
**Nuclear fusion**. It is a process where two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form different atomic nuclei. The biggest problem in this is to sustain the right amount of heat to produce meaningful amount of power from plasma. Why is this so important? it’s because this will open up to door to create unlimited clear energy which can eliminate the energy crisis as well as global warming.
**Interstellar travel**. Interstellar travel has been a dream of scientists as well as a major stumbling block in the further exploration of outer space. Russians are currently funding the development of spacecrafts that will be able to make the journey to Alfa Centauri, the closest star at a distance of 4.37 light years from us. The aim is to reach Proxima centauri B, an earth like exoplanet in the goldilocks zone of the host star. They expect to achieve a speed of 15 to 20 percent of light and the journey will take about 20 to 30 years to complete the journey. The return message will take about 4 years to reach us. Now this would not be a manned mission but a fleet of about 1000 small space chips of few centimeters size, each weighing about a few grams. He expects to launch them by 2036.
**Ice free Arctic**. Thanks to humans ice free Arctic may happen by 2050. Since 1979 when scientists started measuring arctic ice, now we are at the lowest level of ice in the arctic region. Scientists predict that the rate of melting of ice is increasing at an alarming rate and an ice free Arctic may happen sooner than expected. Sea ice is very sensitive to temperature and as global temperature rises it is going to get thinner and in summer melt may slowly completely remove the ice cover. Ice free Arctic has been defined as less than 1 million square kms of sea ice.
**99942 Apophis asteroid**. While you are reading this an asteroid the size of a small mountain is rushing towards earth and may just make contact on 13 April 2029. It is about 370 meters in diameter and if it makes an impact then it can create the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. It will make entry with about 750 megaton of kinetic energy. As a comparison the Krakatau volcanic eruption was 200 megaton and the biggest hydrogen bomb ever exploded was a mere 57 megaton.
**Chocolate extinction**. Your favorite chocolate is in threat of extinction. The cocoa plants from which chocolates are made are increasingly threatened by fungal diseases and climate change in their original habitat. Scientists are of opinion that this can spread to other cocoa producing regions of the world. Cocoa plants are very sensitive and need specific conditions to grow and bear fruit.
**Antibiotic resistance**. A 2016 study in UK suggests that unless its use is controlled then it will lead to antibiotic resistance and will make many major medical conditions untreatable. This will lead to medical procedures like caesarean operations, joint replacement and chemotherapy may become very dangerous to perform. It is estimated that antibiotic resistance can kill up to 10 million people by 2050. Another unassuming intake of antibiotic is through pork consumption. In UK, 45 percent of antibiotic is given to livestock and it is ingested by us when we eat them.
**Technological singularity**. With increase in the technological advancement in the field of artificial intelligence a time will come when the AI may overtake human intelligence. Stephen Hawking expressed that AI can cause extinction of human race. It is expected as early as 2045 that AI will become the smartest life form on earth. Also the creation of AI enhanced human capability will ultimately be a reality and this might be an apocalypse for humans.
We are lucky to live in a time when the world is seeing a major shift in technology. The twenty first century will spearhead the changes which will permanently reshape the world in the future times. These times of major shift are the most testing time for mankind as this will dictate the future of mankind. A change too fast will surely have unexpected and unwanted results which may be regretted in a later stage.
Tax havens
The ancient Roman city of Kaunos implemented a clever tactic- tax incentives. This was unheard of in ancient kingdoms. It abolished import taxes for cargo brought through the city. Fast forward to the present time, about 8.8 trillion dollars are kept in tax havens across the world in off-shore accounts. So let us see what are tax havens, how they work and their effect on global economy?
It is a place that requires no taxation or very little of it for people and businesses to park their money, so that they can avoid paying taxes in their country. These tax havens are highly secretive about their account holders so the tax authorities will not be able to access the information. Only heaven can be better than these havens for the ultra rich. Today there are around 55 tax havens spread across the globe, prominent among these are Ireland, Caribbean Islands, Switzerland, Singapore, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Luxemburg etc.
How do the ultra rich people and companies do this? One way to do it is – Let’s say I am the CEO of my company named ZZ. I want avoid paying the millions of dollars of taxes in my country. I will create a shell company in places like Bermuda, one that exists only on paper in one of the tax havens. Taxes are zero percent or almost nil and my identity is also secret. Then I will open an account in the name of that shell company in Switzerland. My company ZZ now pays for services taken from that shell company like consulting. I will then send the payment to their Swiss bank account. The taxable income in my country is reduced for all the payment I have made for fictional services I have taken from that shell company. Suppose I had to give 20 percent tax in my country. By sending my money to that shell company I am able to reduce my profit and therefore my tax liability. That Shell Company in Bermuda is making millions from me but does not have to pay taxes, and that money is sent to the Swiss bank account where again it is safe from government noose. When I need money I just need to take a loan from that shell company. So from wherever I earn money around the world, I am able to save paying taxes and keep that money.
All big companies around the world use some variant of this tactics to avoid paying taxes. Google in 2015 send 15 billion of its profit to its shell company in Bermuda, where it has to pay zero tax. Similarly Apple has about 250 billion offshore in Ireland and if they had not done so then it would have to pay the US government 76 billion in taxes. This amount is good enough to end world hunger for 1 year and also buy around 100,000 average sized homes in US. Nike holds around 12 billion in Bermuda, thus saved paying 4 billion in taxes.
The top 50 biggest US companies have a total earning of about 4 trillion a year but hold about 105 billion in off shore accounts. Some of these names include Chevron, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, Exxon, and General Electric. That amount comes to about 3000 dollars per US citizen. For US this money is out of their tax net. This is all about money but other than this there are thousands of priceless arts, gold and even yachts, real estate registered in Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Singapore and other such tax havens. It is estimated that the tax loss is around 175 billion annually across the globe. This 170 billion is about 1 percent of the total revenue raised by governments worldwide. 1 percent might sound less globally but the developed nations bear a much higher rate of loss. Europe has about 11 percent of its revenue in such off shore havens. Both the developed and developing nations need this money for developing the economy and infrastructure of their respective countries. The wealthiest are the only beneficiary of these tax havens, while it burdens those who are not rich enough to hide their money.
But all this can be prevented if countries across the globe came together. The creation of Organisation of Economic co-operation and development (OECD) is a step in this direction where signatories have agreed to share information about financial movements through bank accounts to tax authorities. In 2017 the EU published a list of blacklisted countries which included Trinidad and Tobago, Guam, Samoa and the Virgin Islands but did not include the major tax havens like Ireland, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Netherlands, and Malta etc.
The majority of the people living in these tax havens do not gain anything out of it and it only helps the ultra rich. If this money goes out of Switzerland, it won’t hurt its economy. The middle class is ready to pay the taxes and so these ultra rich people should also have a moral obligation to pay their due to the society from where it has earned that wealth.
Social stratification- an universal truth
Imagine two very wealthy people- one inherited the richness from his forefathers and the other worked hard and took some right decisions at the right time and acquired wealth. Which one of them is deserves the wealth? Well, you answer doesn’t matter. Sociologically different societies at different point of time and place had different answer to it. It is a matter of social stratification which decides what it means to hold wealth, power or success.
Social stratification is all about inequality. It is a hierarchy created by the society which ranks the people. Every aspect of our social life is affected by social stratification- the job you do, the social status, the income, your prestige. Social stratification is a universal phenomenon and is variable as well and is prevalent in every corner of the world. Just, how it works vary from society to society. It is not a matter of individual differences but something larger. Children of wealth families are more likely to get better education, have more status and live longer than their poor counterpart. Stratification categorizes and ranks members of the society based on certain parameters. But society also allows some social mobility, moving from one level to another in the hierarchy.
A small portion of the population moves upwards or downwards in social mobility, more of a vertical movement. But there is something as horizontal mobility also. It is like changing positions without a change in the stand in the hierarchy. When someone changes job with around similar pay, but a slightly variable prestige. Then we have the structural social mobility. This happens when a large number of people have a change in social hierarchy due to a major structural change in society. Example of it can be found in the current situation where a large number of people lost their jobs and moved down in the structural social mobility.
But social stratification is not all about the economic aspect or jobs or social inequalities. It is also based on the beliefs. The cultural beliefs of the society also categorizes people and it also defines these categorization as normal and even fair. If people did not believe in this stratification then this system would not have lasted so long. This belief dictates who deserves wealth and prestige and power in the society.
One way this stratification is defined is that of closed and open. The closed stratification is a rigid one where social mobility is extremely difficult and it is decided on the basis of certain ascribed standards. The open one allows more mobility both ways, upward and downward and it is more of an achievement rather that what is ascribed by the society. One of the best examples can be found in the Indian caste system which is probably the oldest example of social stratification.
It is based on four levels, the Brahmins (priests and scholars), Kshatriyas (warriors and administrators) vaishyas (merchant and business class) and Shudras (the working class of laborer's and service providers). It is an example of a closed stratification with no room for vertical mobility. It determined the power, wealth and position. Marriages were within the caste only. This system also determined the contact control between the various castes. All these were based on the bedrock of a strong cultural and religious belief. The birth caste decided the place and opportunities available in the society.
Some aspects of closed society can also be found in the early European feudal society- the nobility, the clergy and the commoner and this was too based on the birth. This whole system was also justified as being ordained by God. A diversity of this closed system was followed in South Africa during the apartheid period which legally divided the white and black people.
Now the variations of the caste system are slowly shifting to class system especially in modern societies of America and Europe. Class system is not based on the rigid closed structure as in a caste system but is open to mobility based on the ascribed status and personal achievement. An ‘under class’ In US is not the same as shudras of the Indian system. The class system is based on the idea that on the basis of your hard work and achievement you can move up or down in the class standing. It is more about merit than the birth.
But is this stratification on the basis of meritocracy fully justified? This type of class system creates a belief that anyone who is unable to move up the hierarchy deserves to be poor. This type of merit based class system gives advantage to those who are already in an advantageous position. The benefit of this class system is that it is not a part of the law or taken as being ordained by religion.
This class system can also create some status inconsistencies. It is when a person’s social position can affect his social status both in a positive and negative way. An example can be of that a teacher or professor- he earns comparatively lower income but is comparatively higher educated. This inconsistency can happen if we take only the income, education and occupational prestige into consideration.
Now of course things are changing and it is not a question of either caste or class system any more. Both of them can works as a fusion in a society. The British system is an example of it where the some element nobility of the feudal system is maintained but the common society is more class based. On the other hand the revolution on 1917 in USSR created a theoretical classless society but still some amount of friction remained in the form of the government officials, the intelligentsia, the industrial workers and the peasantry.
So as I mentioned before this is universal but variable from place to place and time to time.
Ex nihilo
Myths about the creation of the world out of nothing are found in all regions of the world. The Latin word to describe the world coming from void or nothingness is ex nihilo.
The book of Genesis says 'In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void,
and darkness was over the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the waters.
So the God exists before the creation of the world. It’s not clear where it exists, but there was void and water only. Ex nihilo type stores can also be found in the east. The birth of the Abrahamic religions were mostly in the Mediterranean region, the Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
Egypt was connected to this region and one of the myths originating from Egypt also tells about the world coming out of nothing.
‘I am the eternal spirit; I am the sun
that rose from the primeval water.
My soul is god and I am the creator
of the word. Evil is my abomination,
I see it not. I am the creator of the
order wherein I live. I am the creator
of the word which will never be annihilated,
in this my name of soul.’
Both the Genesis story and the Egyptian one have a similarity where there is one eternal god and there is water.
All these points out that before creation there was chaos, until the god or the deities came and provided order. This has been put as bringing light out of darkness. The Kono people of Guinea believe that the darkness was inhabited by death named Sa, his wife and daughter. As they had no place to live so Sa through his magical power created a sea of mud and from that mud built a hut. The god Alatangana visited them. He decided to give them a better place to live so he made the mud solid, what we call the earth. Then he made plants and animals to give company to Sa. This also has similarity with the Egyptian one, both tell of a vast sea, but one is of water and one is of mud. In both a god is existing already who is outside this darkness and void. The Kono myth has the additional input of death as if death is the only constant that existed even before the creation of the world.
The water is the constant in all the above. But what is this water? Maybe those ancient people when imagining about something vast and eternal could compare it with the sea and ocean only or could have taken the sky. But comparing it with sea seems to go well with the creation of life as evolutionary creation came from the sea.
The Mayans had their creation myth too. As per them, creation occurred four times. Here also the creation began with the word. According to them the world began in a place called Quiche, where the Quiche people lived. There were no birds, fish, animals, mountains, forests, absolutely nothing. There was sky, the sea and the invisible earth. There was nothing to make sound. There was darkness. Yet within that darkness was a god and a sea serpent. They brought their words together and planned the creation. Their thoughts and words were so clear that whatever they thought became real. They started with earth and then the other features of earth like mountains, rivers, forest and animals etc. But the wild animals were not able to speak the name of the feathered serpent and god and therefore unable to praise the gods. So the first experiment failed.
So the maker started the process all over again. This time they made the animals at a lower level. Now the animals would have to stay in the jungles and canyons and mountains where they will kill each other or be killed for food. They will be a lower form of life as they could not praise the god. This has similarity with the Genesis where Adam names the animals and established superiority of humans over animals. Though this myth doesn’t directly talk of a void before creation bit implies that there was nothingness before creation happened. This way the Mayan myth of creation goes from 1 to 4 until it took the final form as we see today.
I will quote here two verses from the Rig Veda the oldest texts of Hindu religion. These also point towards the ex nihilo.
“Then was neither non-existence nor existence:
there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it.
Death was not then, nor was there anything
immortal: no sign was there, the Day’s and
Night’s divider.
Darkness there was: at first concealed in
darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos.
All that existed then was void and formless:
by the great power of Warmth was born that One.
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of
this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether
He was mute;
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps
it did not;
Only He who is its overseer in highest
heaven knows,
Only He knows, or perhaps He does not know.
Let’s take it to the modern times, the big bang. It says that from a time before the time we had the origin event, just like the darkness before the light. Though big bang doesn’t have the water and the god but there are some similarities in the fact that everything that is now was there at the time of origin event though in a different form. Just like those gods creating everything out of nothing. The basic underlying similarity of there was void and nothingness and chaos before the creation.
Of late earning have dried up a lot. Its difficult to make 2 dollars for an article. Random rewarder is giving very less these days. Without Telesfor sir's support, things look quite bleak for me. Still need to keep writing.
Facets of justice
Justice is one of the pillars of our life and government. We use it in various ways loosely meaning various aspects. We talk about economic justice, police and lawyers are in the field of criminal justice. Even in our life we use this term though not quite intentionally. When kids fight in the ground or someone gets lower grades than he deserved we use this term to put forth our point of injustice. Justice can have many shades like it can be about equality, fairness, getting what we need or what we deserve.
The ancient Greeks used it to mean harmony- a just society where everyone performed their role so that the society would run smoothly. So it was considered unjust if you violated your place in the social order. Justice can be utilitarian also where justice meant that that the society worked to make the quality of life of everyone better. For some it meant that its people are maximally free.
So what is justice actually, is it to buy somebody his meal, or send a criminal to jail or is it giving out rewards and punishment on the basis of merit. We talk about justice because it is one of the more fundamental moral and social principles in our lives. To each individual justice defines how the society should work based on his definition.
In a society who decides who should get how much and on what basis. This concept of distributive justice has many different schools of thought. For some it is justice as equality that is everyone should get everything in equal proportion. But is it true justice as someone may want or need more than others. This leads to need based justice that is everyone’s needs are different so everyone should not get the same. Some say about merit based justice where people should get what they deserve and not necessarily an equitable distribution. Then there is justice of fairness which says that everyone should get enough to cover his basic needs at least. Some argue that we cannot or rather we should not disturb the naturally uneven playing ground. They say that they are entitled to the stuff they have provided they have not stolen it or obtained it unjustly.
So we see here that there is a lot of disagreement about what should be the justified distribution and our political system has a role in it. People who believe in the essential human rights argue that people should have their basic needs fulfilled b the government. But there are people who think that it is not the government’s duty to fulfill the basic needs and rather we should do it ourselves. This is something called negative rights, it means that I will not prevent you from fulfilling your need but I will also not help you in fulfilling your needs. A positive right would be that if you are need of some help like getting a doctor then you should get it even if you cannot afford it. This is what governments do; they take taxes from those having more and to help those who have less. So people are actually talking about justice when they talk about healthcare, income inequality and taxes.
Justice is also about punishment. We disagree about the most appropriate way to respond to wrongdoing. The retributive justice says that a wrongdoer should suffer in proportion to what he has made others to suffer. In other words the old days an eye for an eye justice. But now we rely more on fines and jail rather than the tit for tat. Utilitarian’s have another view- they are in favor of welfare maximization than making people suffer. One option suggested is rehabilitation where so that these people are taught how to get along in a society and follow its rules. The focus is on therapy and education. Others counter it by saying that it means that the wrongdoers are in need of help to be cured from some sort of social disease. Punishment is viewed as a way to deter someone to commit crime and also deter others from doing it. Then there is restorative justice, here rather than punishing and making him suffer the focus is on amending. This is the concept behind community service. It is about forgiveness and restoration, which is opposite to retributive justice.
We should think about these as it will influence your vote, how you treat your child’s mistakes and also how you spend money. This might lead to a change of your views.
Short sighted homo sapiens
Whatever we touch, we ruin it. The latest example of our stupidity is the space.
Nothing can be more exciting than space travel, one of the ultimate achievements of humans. After completing this milestone of human adventure of space we have now diversified to other aspects like communication, GPS, weather forecasting, spy satellites and even permanent stations in the orbit. We all now so dependent on these things that we hardly understand and see the problem it has created for the future generations. We are cresting our giant prison called earth.
Every rocket and satellite we deploy on the orbit is creating a trap for us. And with the increasing number of satellites deployed every year things are getting messier and deadlier. If things go on this way then we might get trapped inside for decades and centuries.
Getting into space is extremely difficult, first it has to go very fast to bypass the gravity and then it has to tilt to get into the lower orbit, still very fast. Once in the orbit it has to maintain a speed, again very fast to counter the residual gravity so that it doesn’t fall back on earth. This is the source of all problems. Rockets are metal cylinders and metal parts; they require fuel which is stored in these cylinders. When ac cylinder gets empty it is released from the rocket and then it floats in the space. Only some parts fall back to earth or burn up.
After 50 years of space travel the lower orbit has become a junk yard of useless satellites, its boosters and millions of other small parts which are moving around the lower orbit. There are around 2800 defunct satellites, 10000 objects bigger than a computer monitor, more than 22000 objects larger than an orange, 500000 pieces the size of a marble and millions of pieces that are too small to be tracked. All these are moving at around 30000km/hr. This speed is so fast that it would feel like being shot by a plasma gun with a pea size object. On impact it vaporizes and leaves a small hole enough to destroy a satellite.
So we are putting trillion dollar space infrastructure zone in a debris zone. 2 to 3 satellites get destroyed every year. We expect about 10 fold increases in the number of satellites and so much debris. We might just be approaching a tipping point. Worse than those small pieces of junk would be a chain reaction caused by two colliding satellites in just the right way. When two satellites collide they don’t fall of the sky. Orbital speeds are so fast that two colliding satellites can create a wall of space debris that can create a domino effect destroying everything in its path. With more satellites being destroyed, more debris is created and the destruction increases exponentially. By the time we will realize what happened it will already be too late.
Within the next few decades we might just create our prison earth. With a debris layer around earth consisting of millions of pieces and impossible to track, future space travel may become unviable and dangerous. Our dreams of creating moon and mars base may be set back by decades. More over the loss of satellites will send us back to the sixties and seventies.
Things require changing and scientists are suggesting some measures to retrieve or destroy this debris before it gets out of hand. There are many ideas that are floating around some of them are being seriously considered. One such idea is to send rockets with nets to catch this debris and propel it to earth. For bigger objects harpoons can be used and with a big sail, the speed can be reduced to make it fall on earth. Other sci-fi ideas including giant electromagnets that will work as a magnetic tug with the satellites magnetic equipment which help them orient and stabilize the satellites as per earth’s magnetic field. This seems better than the nets and harpoons as here there are no chances of accidently creating more debris. For the very small one laser can be used to vaporize them. For bigger objects laser can used to ablate them.
Whatever method we use, it is time to act now or those millions of objects will surely kill the dream of humans of future space travel. Now is the time when we are dreaming big about space travel than ever before. Let us not shoot at our foot and cripple those dreams from becoming a reality. The scientist and engineers alone cannot do it unless there is global consensus of political leaders in this direction.
We have done enough stupidity on this earth, its time to take lessons and amend till we have time.
An unsustainable argument in favor of God
In theology the base assumption is that there is a god and then all arguments are based on it. It tries to solve the philosophical problems based on this belief. Philosophy takes nothing for granted and everything has to be scrutinized- even god has to prove its existence or non existence. Everything needs an argument and a debate. This differentiates theology and philosophy. Even the most sacred belief has to be examined. One area which many take as beyond debate is faith, but for philosophers even faith is also a matter of examination, nothing can be taken for granted.
Before going deeper first let us see what philosophy of religion is not:
It is not what your parents taught you to be the truth. It can give you a certain belief but certainly not the truth.
It is not the study of books like the Bible or Quran because whatever written in the books cannot be proved to be the truth just because it is written in a book.
It is also not the physiological understanding of what we believe.
Can we give an argument that god exists? In 11th century Anselm a French monk gave an argument to conclusively prove that god exists- as per him.
Our image of god is mostly a long white flowing beard with a robe, a nice guy looking over us but you don’t have his mobile number. Anselm said that god is the best possible thing we can ever imagine. The best of the best of the best thing you can imagine of- and god is better than that. He said that something can exist in two ways – only in the mind like the Santa – both in the mind and in reality also like the dog and the cookie. He said any good thing will be better if it exists in both our mind as well as in reality- true indeed. If Santa was real it would be great. You idea of your dream girl friend- hot, sexy, romantic, rich, understanding, compatible would be great if it was in real also. So he claimed that if we think god as the best thing we can think of then the only thing that can be better is the real version of it. So therefore god has to exist- both in our imagination as well as in reality.
If it looks too confusing then let’s recap it in bullet form:
God is the greatest thing we can possibly think of.
Things can be in our imagination or in our in reality.
Things in reality are always better.
If god is only the creation of our imagination then it won’t be the greatest thing.
God in reality would be better than god in imagination.
Therefore god exists in reality.
But we can prove anything if we follow this line of argument. His contemporary monk Guanilo was not satisfied with this argument and said that he can prove a lost mystical island this way. He said my best possible mystical island is where I could swim in the ocean as well as ski in the snowy mountains in the same day. So if I can imagine it therefore it must exist, otherwise it won’t be the best island.
Anselm responded by saying that his argument only works for necessary beings and that is only god. So here we have a fallacy- a flaw in reasoning which destroys an argument. When Anselm adds this idea of a necessary being he makes the argument in favor of god as a part of god.
After this for centuries philosophers have tried to prove and disprove Anselm’s argument. In 18th century German philosopher Kant also objected to it, saying that existence is not a predicate. For him Anselm had mistaken in thinking that existence is something that can be predicated on a thing or can be used to define a characteristics. Let’s see with an example- for a triangle to exist it must have three sides but it could be that no triangle exists at all. The idea of existence is not the part of the definition of triangle. Likewise if god has to exist then he must be the greatest being but it does not mean that god exists.
British philosopher came up with a thought experiment- the parable of the invisible gardener. It says that suppose John and Tom return to their garden after a long time and sees that the plants are still growing and have not died. John says that some gardener must have maintained it in their absence, but Tom disagrees. So they wait out to see if any gardener comes, but no one comes. John says that the gardener must be invisible so he puts up traps and brings in the dogs to smell and catch the gardener. But still no one is found so John says that the gardener must be intangible as well as unsmellable. Tom asks is there any difference between being invisible, intangible and unsmellable and no gardener at all.
I hope you get whom we are talking about.
Where every man has gone before
What are you afraid of- cockroaches, public speaking, snakes, and calculus?
And what about death- what do feel about it? Our feeling about death is mostly shaped by our beliefs and our concept of afterlife. And if there is an afterlife then how will that afterlife be. The ancient Egyptians believed that once you die your heart will be weighed in a scale with a feather on the other side. A heavy heart with misdeeds was to be the food of demons and a light heart with good deeds would to heaven. Christians have a belief that Saint Peter is waiting in the heaven’s gate to welcome you- of course only if your name is in the list. So you can very well imagine that unless you make it to the list which gives you entry to the coolest pub, you will get banished to an eternity of turmoil in hell. There is no middle ground. Islam says that in heaven you will get 72 virgins, a good motivation for men but what about the women. Hindus believe that at the gates of heaven the book keeper will tell you about your deeds on earth and then give its verdict. So every religion has formed its own concept of death.
When the stakes are so high that is going to affect you eternally then it is obvious that the nervousness will be more for this final exam of life. But many philosophers believe that death is not be feared. Socrates was sentenced to death for reasons ranging from not accepting the deity of Athens to brainwashing the youth and not rubbing the wrong end of nobility. But he was calm and unafraid even if he was facing his eminent death. He thought that there are only two possibilities on death- one, death is just a dreamless sleep which means enough time to rest- two, it could lead to the next life, which again is good as he could meet new people to hang out with. So both the cases seem to be a good option.
But if there is no afterlife and death is a dreamless sleep – a total annihilation of the self, would it be scary? Epicurus, the philosopher who lived after about 100 years later than Socrates thinks otherwise. He was a stoic philosopher and did not believe in afterlife. For him death is the end of all sensations and good and evil makes sense as a sensation only. That way death is neither good nor evil. And there is nothing to be scared about as you will not be there to experience any sensation. Fearing non existence gets in the way of enjoying life. You are alive and therefore enjoying the sensation, so it is up to you to make the most of those sensations. When you are gone you will not be there to miss them. You and death cannot be present at the same time.
Now fast forward to this century. Thomas Nagle thinks that we fear death because we will miss out a lot of experiences. If you died right now then you will not be finishing that game on play station or finish reading the book you started to read or see man landing on Mars. But see from this perspective- great things were happening all through the history even before you were born- you missed the invention of wheel, you missed the full beauty of Coliseum, you missed Lincoln, you missed the first Olympics. So if you are not missing those things that have gone by then you should not feel bad about missing the things that are going to come.
He says that if life is taken to be essentially a good thing then there is something to mourn when it is cut short by death. If someone dies at 25 then he is likely to miss 50 years of good time. If in your opinion life is inherently good then most likely you will have high value for the sanctity of life. But if it is quality of life that you value the most then just being alive may not be always good as in the previous case. In such cases death can actually be good as it brings an end to a terrible and painful life- like cases of Euthanasia.
Whereas Socrates and Epicurus may have convinced you that death is not to be feared, but what about death of your loved ones. Do you fear for their death because then you will be left alone without your loved ones. Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, a contemporary of Epicurus says that there is no reason to fear death when it is inevitable. When we celebrate every part of the milestones of life then why should we be afraid of the last milestone? He said that the death of our loved ones needs to be celebrated as he has completed the last milestone. We celebrate the birth of a child, the first walking, the entry into teens, the end of teens, going to college, getting out of college, job, marriage, the new born, the new house, the financial freedom of the forties, the retirement, he grand children – then why not celebrate death as the parting party for a grand new journey.
Common human ancestry and scientific racism
Our species the Homo sapiens dates back to 2 to 2.5 lakh years and originated in East Africa. All of us can be traced back to a single female. It is not that she was the only female at that time, there were others before her but we are taken to be the descendants of that particular female who is also called the mitochondrial eve by the scientists. But how is it possible? Scientists assume that the likeliest possibility could be the evolutionary bottleneck. It happens when majority of the populations dies, not due to lack of adoptability but due to natural catastrophe. In such case only a few survive to start the process again and that lucky female gets the honor to be the mother of all.
The initial population was very small with very limited genetic diversity. The low population and the disconnection between different groups slowly led to diversification of the genes. And again in the next thousands of years these groups again intermingled due to increase in population thereby creating a uniform genetic pool all over again.
For over a lakh years they roamed around in Africa and then started moving out towards Middle East. But then disaster struck in the form of a super volcanic eruption in Mount Toba, Sumatra about 70000 years ago. This reduced the human population to between 3000-10000 people. It will sound odd how this volcanic eruption so far away affected life so far but the eruption is estimated to be of the likes of 1.5 million Hiroshima level nuclear bomb. This had a deadly effect with about a 15 cm thick layer of volcanic ash settling over everything in South Asia and Eastern Africa. Also the sky was covered with volcanic ash blocking the sunlight bringing in winter for a decade. After this disaster the population though increased again. The population boom can be used to explain the next wave of migration out of Africa about 64 thousand years ago.
The humans stuck to the warmer climates and colonized the Middle East and the South East Asia and even up to Korea. About 60 thousand years ago humans crossed through the land bridge between Indonesia and the Asia and further went on to reach Australia. This may be the first sea faring expedition of humans to reach a completely cut off Island. Slowly these early people started to adapt to the colder regions of north and spread to these regions about 40 thousand years ago.
But the Homo sapiens were not the first to do this exodus out of Africa. There is strong evidence of humans met the Neanderthals and even interbred with them. About 1.5 to 2 percent of DNA of people of Eurasians has Neanderthal DNA in them.
The humans also took the perilous journey to reach America most likely through the inhospitable Bering Strait. Around 30000 years ago it is expected that humans from Siberia took this journey.
If we look back then 64 thousand years is not a long time. The second wave of migration to different parts started creating the first ethnic groups. This way the genetic pool diversified into various branches. We see certain diseases and traits common in certain group of people. The prominent observable difference is the skin color which is due to the melanin level of the skin. About 100000 years ago everyone was African and dark due to the tropical climate and sunshine. But the migration to different climatic areas with different levels of UV radiation and sunlight the changes in skin color started to appear. And this change took thousands of years. Scientists believe that till about 8 to 10 thousand years ago there were only black skinned people even in colder areas.
In the last 500 years with mobility of population around the world these ethnic distinctions are again blurring. Our DNA test may bring up surprising results. But this diversity has created a tortured history of mankind with battles and economic exploitation and slavery. Our ancestor, the primates like the monkeys and gorillas show hostility towards other primates within their own species due to completion for food and mates. These traits of hostility, fear, caution and aggression go back millions of years. The Homo sapiens are not much better except that we use logic and reason. We distinguish groups by physical appearance, language which was otherwise ethnically indistinguishable and this led to war and rivalries to control the resources.
In the last 150 years before scientists started understanding genetics one thing that happened is what is called scientific racism. Certain group of scientists started questioning the unified origin of humans and postulated theories that tried to justify the diversity of humans to diverse origin. Some started to describe superiority and inferiority based on such origin. The race for colonization around the world gave impetus to such views. Some even differentiated the superiority and inferiority within the Europeans and this was one of the reasons for the increase in fascism. It can also be found in the Sino-Japanese war and also the conflicts within countries in Africa like Sudan and Rwanda. If we keep ignoring our common ancestry then even today we may have consequences.
As the world is moving towards a global society, it in even more important now that we remember our common ancestry. The diversity which we see today is a totally cultural one and we should rather celebrate this diversity and not make it a reason for differentiation. And more important is the genetic diversity within us which is especially important for the survival of the human species.
Emergence
A single ant is a stupid insect, it has very little of a brain, and no plan or a will and yet when a lot of them come together they create the best of the colonies and societies. Together they are so cohesive and efficient that it is almost unbelievable how they achieve it. So how it is possible that a bunch of stupid insects do such smart things when they are together?
This phenomenon is called emergence and is one of the mysterious things of the universe. In short it means how small things form bigger things that develop a different set of properties than the sum of their smaller parts. It is about the change of behavior during transition from simple to complex things and this feature can be found everywhere.
Let’s take the example of wetness which is one of the properties of water. But when we break it down to its molecules then we find that its molecules as an individual have nothing to do with wetness. A wet fabric is wet but when we zoom enough then there is no wetness. At that level they are just molecules sitting in between the fabric of the cloth. So wetness is a property that is created when many molecules are combined to form water. Like this example many things interact under certain circumstances to combine and form something which is beyond them.
So more is different. Smaller things combine to form a new thing and they again combine to form yet newer form of things and properties. And this process continues. Molecules of water> water>snow>ice>blizzard. Atoms form into molecules, molecules form into proteins and they again make cells and again organs and again individuals and again societies. How do ants form colonies? They follow a rule set that produces order in chaos.
Let’s see how ant colony works. Suppose ant colony should consist of 25 percent each of workers, gatherers, soldiers and caretakers. The job of a particular ant is known by the chemical it releases. A worker ant will release a chemical saying that it is a worker ant. When it meets other ants they communicate through the chemicals sharing information about their job. When a worker ant will meet a gatherer ant they will share their job with others through chemicals. Suppose an anteater eats up most of the gatherer ants. This means the balance is disturbed and they will need to switch jobs to restore the balance. So this information is to be shared to thousands of other ants. How do they tell others- they don’t. They will keep meeting other ants but they will meet very few of the gatherer ants. When food becomes scarce and reaches a critical point they themselves switch job until the initial balance is restored. The act of one ant meeting the other is random but the set of rules work so elegantly that the various operations of the ant colony are always at the optimal level. A single stupid ant when in a group has a different level of outcome.
Now if we go to a still smaller level we will see that millions and billions of molecules interact with each other to maintain the bigger structure. All the dead parts like atom, molecule, and proteins combine to form the smallest unit of a living cell. These cells combine and cooperate with each other, they specialize in a particular work and in this way by combing those cells with a preset rules large organisms are formed. Our body parts are incredibly complicated but they are made up by combining those single cells which has nothing to do with the final product. These individual cells combine to form us the final product that eats, digests, and do whatever we do.
How do the individual cells know what they are supposed to do? Take the example of the pacemaker cells in the heart, billions of these cells work in complete synchronization to form a single heart beat. One cell interacts with the other and decides what to do. This way all the cells working on the same task will interact and act on the collective feedback. There is no master cell that is organizing things but just single cells communicating with each other and deciding on the course of action. All these and still there is a confusion as to are these single cells individually alive?
Then comes the most important part of us, the one that questions what is going around us. Is our consciousness also a part of the functions of the cells of the brains?
Just as colonies emerge from ants, human also form societies and nations which functions differently from the individual. What is nation – is it the sum total of its population or institutions or its flag. Or is it the physical things like the villages and cities, the territory it controls? All these things are fluid; population is changing and getting replaced, institutions are changing, the leaders are changing, the cities are changing, the demography is changing and the borders are changing with time. A nation is just like the ant colony which as a cohesive unit interacts with the world. But a nation is existing because a lot of its basic unit the humans are interacting with each other within a set of common rules. We are as a group creating something which is completely different from the stupid ape from which we came. We don’t know why this happens but it seems to be the fundamental property of the universe.
@aniruddhasen
