Fact checking

I used to think that life on Earth evolved over millions of years to be the best that they can be, upgrading themselves over generations. But if you’ve read any books on evolution, biology, you would know that that’s just not true. Even nature is imperfect. If you are familiar with Richard Dawkins works, you would know that we have evidence of design flaws in our own body! These facts contradict the involvement of an “intelligent designer” or some sort of a “supreme being” in the creation of all life on Earth. But we still “believe” because “mom and dad said so”.

Maybe books can make a difference in people. Maybe the nerds were right after all. But if you’re like me and hate books, and believe that they are the work of the devil, then I highly recommend you stay away from politics because if you get elected, people’s lives will be at stake.

https://www.richarddawkins.net/2012/08/the-laryngeal-nerve-of-the-giraffe-is-proof-of-natural-selection/

How real is real?

I was talking to my grandma the other day when I got an email saying my booking for a one-on-one ‘intimate’ experience has been confirmed. So I took a moment and thought to myself, “it doesn’t get much worse than this. On second thought, at least its not a mail from work”. So my natural reaction was to hit the spam button before reading it just like how I deal with all the other problems in my life. But it also had an attachment with a name that I usually use as my username. This creeped me out a little. So I opened the mail. It said, with my ticket, I would be able to watch a concert on my phone, live, in VR. I confirmed it was spam but it got me thinking. How real is real? How much ‘immersiveness’ do we really need to be able to say, “wow! that really felt like real life”? I mean, TV is getting real, movies are getting real, reality TV is…wait that piece of shit is still garbage. People like it when actors show a little humour even during the sad scenes. This, I think is a step closer to reality. Same goes with virtual reality. A ‘true’ virtual reality experience however, would take a few more years of development. There is however, a problem with this whole thing. This tech is tailored to satisfy the average customer and will keep on adapting with that motive. I am not saying that all immersive tech is evolving this way. I am only talking about those used in the entertainment industry. Let me explain.

There was a study done in the field of psycho-acoustics where people were made to listen to recorded sounds of a forest they hadn’t been to. The test was conducted in a controlled environment using high quality speakers. The aim of the experiment was to identify the type of surround-sound tech that people liked the most. So the sounds were played back a number of times, each time using different surround sound technologies. They were also made to listen to a version where the played back audio was perceived to be closest to the actual environment (with minimum special effects). It was found that people preferred the slightly exaggerated version over the close-to-original version. This is what I am slightly concerned about. Despite having the tech capable of replicating the actual experience, we still prefer to go for the artificially modified versions of it. Does this imply that you need to make the reality ‘realer’ to make it feel real? Or do people prefer distorted realities over actual ones? I can imagine a future(not that far from now) where people would be exposed to these ‘fake’ realities even before experiencing the real thing. For example, an AR experience of a jungle where you can go on a trek, run around, scare birds, eat a snake, you know, all that good stuff.  I am interested to know how the future generation would react when they experience the real thing for the first time in real life. Pretty sure there will be quite a lot of disappointment because they couldn’t do it while sitting on their couch, eating leftover pizza(like me).

 

Not quite, but almost there

 

Brace yourselves. They’re here.

The BBC uploaded a UFO sighting video on YouTube today. I was surprised to see that it was only the 35th one in the list of trending videos. I guess people are more concerned about important Earthly matters. I get it. Even I was concerned about why Green Lantern wasn’t in the new Justice League movie. I really felt let down.

Usually people go crazy about UFO sightings when its caught on a shitty camera and uploaded by someone named “UFO hunter 32”. Now we have legit footage and no one gives a shit.

I had a funny thought. Suppose the UFO was actually identified as a extra-terrestrial vehicle, I don’t think people would still give a shit unless it affects them directly. Don’t get me wrong. I am not a big fan of UFO conspiracies. According to ma man Neil deGrasse Tyson, the “U” in UFO stands for “unidentified”. That’s where your discussion should stop. It would be wrong to say “I just saw a UFO. I think it was aliens”(which is exactly what they say at the end of the video. Pretty ironic).

So they say the event took place in 2004, there was a government body investigating such events, it could be countries spying on each other, the UFO seen in the video was manoeuvring itself with such ease while conventional aircraft would find it difficult to do so under such high wind speeds, blah blah blah. I am just like everyone else. Deep down, I would be really excited if there was evidence to prove that some of these are actually visitors from outer space. I have so many questions for them.

First of all, where do you come from?

Do you know who/what made us?

Our planet is dying. Can you help us?

Is it weird that I wish to watch climate change deniers get struck by gigantic bolts of lightning?

What happens after one dies? Is it nothingness or is there something more?

What is your opinion about the Marvel/DC universe?

At the same time, the whole idea also scares the hell outta me. Because obviously one would wonder if they come in peace or ready-to-fuck. If they have the capability to make the inter-planetary trip, they have got to be much more technologically advanced than us. However, in all honesty, do you know what’s much more scarier than all of this? Unemployment.

What’s the next step?

Let me first make one thing clear. I love space. I am fascinated by it and I can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe its because I feel like I don’t belong here. Any way… in spite of my fascination with the unknown, I don’t know anything about it! I haven’t read any books about it nor have I tried to study it. All the information I’ve gathered is from watching scientists talk on YouTube.

What intrigues me is the general public’s disinterest in space and space exploration. If you go up to a person on the road and ask him what he thinks about space and the importance of space exploration, this is probably the answer you would get-“There’s a sun and planets revolve around it. We have a moon going around us too. No one really knows for sure what goes on out there. We’ve got more problems here on Earth to deal with”. And I totally agree with this. We’ve got a hell of a lot problems here. There is suffering, pain, injustice, torture, climate change, overpopulation, poverty, unemployment, crime, disease, etc. They are all very worrisome. A normal person would ask why the hell should we spend money and put in effort for space exploration if it has no guaranteed results? Instead, why don’t we solve the problems here on Earth that might have practical solutions?

I’ve asked myself these questions several times. There are fundamental questions that each and every one of us have in our minds. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? From what I understand, the answers to these questions lie out there in space. I don’t think meditation is going to give us the answer! The amazing thing is that we make discoveries all along the way. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. You will be amazed to see how space exploration has indirectly affected our lives. Most of the technology that we use on a daily basis have been developed based on the research undertaken for space exploration. Read about it here.

It is said that life began in water. Then it moved onto land. It started to crawl, walk , hell! it even began to fly! That’s all good. Here’s what’s bothers me though. What if the fish never left the water? What if the aquatic animals decided to better their living conditions rather than trying to move into land? How different would the world be? Are we still fish in a pond and just don’t realize it yet? What if the next step in evolution is out there in space?

We’ve been told in science class that we live on a planet that revolves around the sun. We’ve also been told that planets, stars and other celestial bodies are “moving” in space. I accepted all these things because I was child. But I never stopped thinking about it. Just “floating” in space wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to know how and why. What surprises me is that everyone else in my class was fine with this vague explanation. Not me. I don’t understand how people can just blindly believe what they are taught in class and not want to know more about it. How can one not be curious about the cosmos?

This is why I admire travellers. I think they follow the gut instinct without any hesitation. They work hard to experience the unknown. They have no boundaries. They are the real explorers. Can you believe that there are people willing to take one-way trips to outer space? Curiosity has no limits. Curiosity rules!

 

Evolution

Evolution fascinates me. I like to think of it as biological reprogramming. Life’s adaptive circuit. An organism that is infinitely small in the universe, absolutely clueless about its surroundings slowly adapts to survive as if it were alien to its own surroundings. It learns from its mistakes. Does it know that the changes in its body are being triggered by itself? How confused must have it been? Reminds me of Ice age. Some lose the ability to breathe in water. Some lose weight. Some grow tails. Bloddy hell, some fly!
How cool is nature? It just didn’t follow one path that lead to success, it followed millions. It gave some organisms feathers, some gills, some limbs, etc. It is constantly trying different approaches. Has it stopped it’s trials now? I personally think it hasn’t. Is a three-parent baby a consequence of evolution? Maybe! The concept of just two genders has always been a mistake. Evolution will not stop. It’s magic is endless.
I find it a little hard to grasp Kevin Spacey’s world in K-pax. Their children are raised by different parents? That’s a little too weird for me. That’s a little too evolved!

Evolution also provides exceptional survival tactics. Like how cool is our immune system? I’ve read that many of early man’s survival skills have moulded us. Scared of creepy hairy spiders? To early man, they meant trouble. The knowledge been passed on through genes I guess. Scared of thunder or any sudden loud sounds? To early man, sudden loud sounds usually mean big trouble. Like floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. There are organisms that can live without food, water and air for many years. There are organisms that can rejuvenate themselves. There are organisms that can survive in bloody space!(Tardigrades). It is these kinds of survival techniques that leads me to think that life anywhere is inevitable. As a great thinker once said “Life will find a way”!