Fundamental forces that govern human existence

Take a look at the presentation below before we talk about what I am about to say on the topic. ...(not for the faint hearted)



(*note: I got this presentation by email and assume this to be a public property. So I am not providing any reference to the source but also not abusing it)

I got this by a forwarded email and like any sensible person was really disturbed so much so that I almost cried and got into depression for a while. There can be no better example of where some of our own makings (like money, religion, etc.) got us into. It also got me into asking more deeper questions. If we human beings could serve such pathetic (to put it really really modestly) conditions to our fellow human beings and continue to coexist what then really drives the human existence. What really are the fundamental forces that govern the human existence? I really could not fathom fully. But here is my attempt at answering that question. For the discussion, I would define any fundamental force (FF) is something that is absolutely essential to the very existence of something else say a system. So if the system is deprived of its FF, it should completely breakdown to the point where there is no meaning to the existence of system. Confusing? I am getting there. Lets consider three things,
1. Food (basic food required to sustain daily life)
2. Love (Not of romantic kind, just something that means human interactions/companionship)
3. Religion (nothing specific)

Our daily existence seem to have at least these three in varying proportions. So, we tend to think that all of them are driving our existence. But I beg to differ. Lets say we deprive someone completely of religion but with availability to food and love. I am sure that person is not going to go mad. He/she may still continue to exist and may even make a very good human being. Now lets deprive of the same person of food. I am sure the person is going to break down sooner than later. It is bound to break the whole human spirit into pieces and the human thing in him/her will have no meaning eventually. Deprivation of love/companionship will break the person's spirit to an extent but not completely. I see food and religion on these two extremes where one (food) is absolutely necessary to hold the very existence of human spirit while the other (religion) at best is a practice which you can embrace provided your basic needs (food) to hold the spirit is met. So I got my answer (at least I am satisfied with it). Religion is not something that is really essential to our existence and certainly doesnt mean anything to those kids who drag their last drop of soul to the source of food in the above presentation. After seeing this, I promised myself that I would certainly respect food in many ways as I can and will never let religion stand in my way of doing good. On a passing note, for whatever reasons religions are invented, increasingly there is more harm done in their name than good.

words of wisdom from the former US president

thinking out of the box

may be this is an example of thinking out of the box ( i mean the computer box)

What biologists can do

Its amazing how much physics is involved in a biologists work...

Story of QWERTY

This interesting bit of info--I read from http://www.ecn.wfu.edu/~cottrell/wp.html

"Do you know that story? Why the standard arrangement of keys on typewriter keyboards (and by extension computer keyboards) has QWERTYUIOP along the top line? That was not the original arrangement of typewriter keys. It was designed for a purpose, namely to slow typists down. The problem was that the expertise of the early typists quickly outran the capabilities of the early mechanical typewriters: a fast typist could jam the keys, hitting them faster than they could return after striking the ribbon. QWERTY distributed the keys so they couldn't go so fast. This is clearly a crazy arrangement for the keys on an electronic keyboard, but it's too late to change: QWERTY is standard, and all attempts to rationalize the keyboard have failed in the face of that reality."

nice article from atanu dey blog

Since it is a long time I wrote anything in the blog i thought of just linking good articles in order to keep the momentum going...here is the nice one about child abuse in India.

http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/04/05/of-buffaloes-and-children/#more-778

Money is the common denominator

What a true statement that is. Certainly, money is the common denominator. But the way I look at it is different. What does a denominator do? It divides. Yes, that is what money does. It divides. It divides rich from the poor. It divides influential from uninfluential. It divides people that can access better health facilities from that cannot. It divides today's good friends into tomorrow's enemies. It divides the tax evaders from those employees whose tax is deducted right at the sourse. It divides everything into things that were not meant to be divided at first place. I could go on dividing things. I am sure money was invented to be a facilitator, as a tool to get away from the messy bartering system. Messy?? I think atleast in the bartering system you learn to respect what you are capable of producing and also what your neighbour with whom you will trade is producing thereby leading to a harmonious living. I make what I am good at, you produce what you are good at and we share both the good things. Over centuries, money has become a dicatator than just being a facilitator. Anyway, the point is what is the solution. When you have such a powerful denominator that divides everything, what do you do. You look for an equally powerful numerator. Well, before you start counting on Love, culture, family values etc., to play that role, I am not going to preach them as solutions. As an Indian, I stronly believe that we have those things more than we need. What we indeed lack is a stronly uniting strict laws. Oh well, you might argue that we do have laws. Ours is the strongest constitution in the world, biggest democracy in the universe blah blah blah. But are they being applied? In fact the very denominator I am talking about, the money divides the way law is being applied in our country. Developed countries like US are developed countries not because they dont have crimes, but because they dont waste time recognizing that there are crimes and try to enforce law as much as they can and ofcourse as less divided by money as it can get. So, as a strong solution, I suggest LAW (the ones that will be applied no matter one has more money or not) as the most powerful numerator. LAW must be above everything. After all, numerator is above everything, including the denominator...you know what i am talking about.

Fight for those who cannot fight for themselves

Recent noida killings has really shocked the whole nation and without doubt I am moved. But what is appalling to me is that this act is still widely being referred to as gross murders than as an extreme case of child abuse. Civilizations have risen and fallen, wars have been won and lost, super powers have come and gone, but the child abuse in many forms have always been haunting many countries. While countries like US have at least tried to recognize the fact that CA is a disease to the society and try to sensitize their people about it by providing knowledge about it and ways to fight it, our country does not even seem to recognize it as another or the only worst crime, let alone sensitizing its people. Our culture suggests close knit families and strong bonds among the people yet stands right in the way of fighting against CA by placing the family pride much higher than the CA. Can you imagine a case of child abuse by family members being reported? Somehow the culture and religion on which the whole nation is rooted seem to stand in our way of doing good. I wonder about the purpose of the culture and religion then. I would ask the power that be--If the culture and religion cannot protect its people at all levels, especially the children, then what is it for? 15 million children are subjected to abuse in India as some statistics say. A country where the First citizen meets the children on a daily basis at one end placing biggest hopes on them to take the country forward and on the other end being subjected to abuse--worst being that the children don't even can understand that they are victims. Caste, unemployment, poverty and other issues of national importance stand no chance when compared to CA except to find its place in political manifestos with a very short life span. Aren't we ashamed? I am. Alas! 5000 years of culture only seem to have left us with no face in the context of CA. The more I find about it from the world wide web, the more I feel being drawn into it. This blog is just to mark my promise to myself that I will fight someday for those cannot fight for themselves.

ps: more information/related links on the child abuse :

http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/dec/chi-abuse.htm
http://www.sawnet.org/orgns/child_abuse.html

I will post more information and links as I find them.