Object-Oriented Evolution?

There’s a distinct similarity, or should I call pattern, between the attitude of human beings and the paradigms of computer programming.
(Weird thoughts spontaneously develop whenever exams approach. Tomorrow is my CS paper and hence it is not really that astonishing that I am writing this)
Lets see, humans have till now always looked what options he has at the particular instant and chooses the one most lucrative one with quick returns. This is true at both the individual and collective level. And this is the cause of all the environmental mess we are in and all the battles history books are filled up with. Talking of individual, how many of us think for the betterment of the human race and life as such instead of personal instantaneous gain/comfort? (I am not accusing or preaching anything here, just penning down my thoughts) In programming, this is what we would call the ‘greedy’ algorithm, wherein we take the best choice available without future considerations, vis-à-vis what we were talking about. In fact, I read a bio book once ‘survival strategies’ where it said that all the evolution we see around us has been a result of no great egoless individuals of species but the collective spite of greedy lunatics (everyone is one it seems). And it seemed to have been mightily successful till now I would have to agree, seeing that the result has been a person capable of writing all this here, if not anything else.

But I guess greedy has run its course. For one, the resulting change is too slow and for another, there’s finally a life form sufficiently advanced to influence and regulate its own destiny, to change it, for better or for worse. Now, I would say it is time to switch to the ‘dynamic programming’ algorithm, where each generation build up upon the foundation of the previous one. This is imperative, for this is in our potential to do, and not doing so, though would not obstruct development, would make it at snail pace. Hence, living life just for the sake/fun of it makes you dispensable and inconsequential. To make a comparison, we must decide if with advancement, we become a wasteland like Tatooine(refer Star Wars) or a utopia like Terminus(refer Foundation, Isaac Asimov).

Brave New World

The familiar routine of college life has just started to set in again. As I entered my second year of college life, I resolved to get some good reading done. My first adventure in that direction was reading this post-modernist novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. To the uninitiated, this name may not mean anything, but this man was a highly controversial figure of the 1930s-1950s era. He endorsed the use of cocaine, earning him the honour of appearing on the cover of the album, Lucy in the Sky, by the Beatles- an ode to the drug culture of the 70s.

Anyway, that’s enough about the author. The book itself is about this post modern society, where the world is controlled by a group of scientists. Now, these guys have created a society where the only way to create babies is through test tubes. Women no longer have to go through labour. Not only that, the babies are mass produced in laboratories.

Now, you must remember that this book was written in an era where we were still unaware of DNA, and genetics was still mostly about messing around with pea plants.

The babies are then subjected to conditioning- both physical and mental. The entire process rests on the mental conditioning. People are tailored right from birth for some job or the other- so that there are castes in society- but unlike our own caste system, this system derives stability from the artificial conditioning they receive right at birth, so that people will feel happy only if they are working in their own specialized environment. So labourers never have any inclination to get educated and get rich.

Now comes the controversial part: since babies are mass produced, there is absolutely no concept of family. No mother, no father. In fact, people are conditioned to believe that these, and particularly mothers, are bad things- not to be mentioned in polite society. Monogamy is strictly frowned upon- so no marriage. So you must have relationships, preferably physical, with maany people at once. Children, right from ages 7-8, are encouraged to indulge in erotic play, so that they reach maturity faster and start contributing to the society sooner. There is no concept of an individual- the society is supreme.

This entire set-up is based on one fundamental premise- that the aim of human life is the attainment of happiness. So no radical books or poetry is allowed to disturb the public consciousness.

On the face of it, this society is perfect. There is no crime, no want, no sorrow-even if someone dies, for you are never attached to anyone.

Huxley then introduces a man who is like us into this society. He, of course, cudnt manage to adjust, and eventually commits suicide.

The beauty of the book is in how Huxley draws parallels between the modern world and that society. I saw this interview in which Huxley says that the current trend in which we are becoming more and more enslaved to technology is leading us towards a similar society, where we can be controlled by our material desires completely.

I think this is probably the most compelling argument against technology that I know of.

Huxley also talks a lot about mental conditioning. I got interested enough to check it out on wikipedia. Here's the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_conditioning.
The precursors to this process are the conditioning experiments on dogs carried out by the Russian scientist, Pavlov. It's an extremely potent process- affecting your entire belief system. It leads you to wonder if there is actually any existence of an individual at all. And since all our beliefs are anyway shaped by other forces, what is actually real? Buddhism has a nice answer: the human mind is incapable of grasping true reality.

So there it is. No clear answer at all.

Hello

hey,
this is my first post on this blog. i tried to avoid blogging for quite some time.but like a few of my other friends, i have been peer pressurised into blogging too.though,after once starting ,i can hardly stop now. (well,there are some good effects of peer pressure).
until next time,
goodnight

Bloggermania!

Well, blogging seems to be the latest fad in in the group. With new blogs coming up every other day, its anyones guess how many will survive more than 3 posts. That is the condition the world over it seems(I am not overshooting myself here, I read it in a magazine). Many people start blogs with high ambitions (the easy to use n free services don’t hurt either) but after their initial venture just cant seem to be able to sit down for a while to collect their thoughts and write. I will not produce any judgment here, the same was the case with me but fortunately I was too idle to keep ignoring it for long. I guess its not that people don’t like to post but the tragedy of life is whenever they plan to sit down to write something else interesting(what do u expect when they sit in front of a computer) pops up which they rather be doing. And when they do have a brainwave of an idea…theres not a computer in sight(all from personal experience).

Well, so heres wishing everyone a happy blogging experience..its tough to move those fatty fingers every once in a while but the euphorism after posting is addictive!..

Some Extensions to improve your standard of life

Here are a few extensions (Firefox) after using which you won’t be able to imagine your life without them.
1. Video Downloader – watch videos on YouTube? Save them for posterity
2. Adblock Plus – remove the annoyances….while saving your bandwidth
3. Cooliris Previews – Really cool! Hover above a link to see the target window in a pop-up.
4. DownThemAll – Download manager for firefox.
5. FireFTP – FTP client for firefox, really useful if when you are in college.
6. PDF Download- Gives you options to download or preview when u click on a PDF link.
7. Greasemonkey – for the geek in you…really cool mother of plugins!
Of course search engine plugins of IMDB, Wkikipedia, Youtube are also quintessential for any amateur surfer. Also fun are the various skins (I currently use noia).

All this and more can be found on the official mozilla page. So if you are getting bored in summers, theres your day right there.

fool-n-final

one of those interminable days which have become a common feature of these hols, i started watching fool-n-final....now if you have seen the movie/hrd of it, please refrain frm making a judgement on my choice of movies...its all the fault of these hols...

neway, as i found out, the movie is an near exact copy of the movie 'snatch'...now snatch is one my fav movies ever....and it is literally painful to be watching sunny deol play brad pitt's part

so instead of the brad pitt's gypsy accent, u have sunny deol and gang sporting their punjabi...complete with 'puttar' and all

not ony tht, theyve introduced a heroine too...whn snatch didnt even have a girl even in the props...it makes u cry out loud

just whn u thought bollywood is finally improving....

First year

As you go through life, you meet people and you meet some other people. New people, new perspectives, new ideas.

I just completed my first year at college. I have never been out of home before. The closest I have come to adjusting into a new environment is when I changed schools, both of which happened to be in walking distance of my house. So when I first made my foray into my hostel, I had a somewhat tough time, like many others like me.

The first people whom you(well at least me) almost immediately notice are of course those from cities. Especially from Delhi. They tended to stand out from the rest, which of course made them easier targets for ragging too. I dont think it would be wrong to make the generalization that Delhi kids are somewhat smarter, at least in terms of clothes and body language, from the rest of the crowd. I know, from experience(not necessarily personal), that those who satisfy the above characteristics are even expected to be from Delhi.

I am easily impressionable. My judgement is easily swayed by external characteristics, like clothes, way of talking etc. Over time I discovered this to be a common enough error. For example, during ragging period I was usually scared of everything around me. It influenced the way I talked, walked, and even the way I ate. This however, led one guy to form the impression that I was sophisticated, another thought I was cool, and so on.

If you happen to be in my friend circle, you might be aware of their error.

These were just some of many incidents in 1st year which led to a gradual process of disillusionment.

Then there was this other guy, from Lucknow. His English was unlike anything I have ever seen.He had read nearly every Nobel winning author there was. I was completely bowled over the first time I met him. Subsequently however, he turned out to be a real jerk, out to impress everyone within range, act like he was the most sophisticated guy on the planet, a real politician-always passing judgements on people,then changing them to his convenience and so on.

Then there were other people. Some of them were absolutely repulsive at first, and then were totally different people an year later. I might mention my next door neighbour in hostel here, who is, incidentally, from Delhi. He turned out to be this totally sweet, innocent, lovable guy, a type you just cant find easily. I dunno who changed here-the guy or me.

There were again others, people wanting to be someone else, people who meant well but shouldnt be allowed, people who couldnt care less abt their surroundings, ppl in lungis, ppl who were girls....

My first year was all about learning about these new breeds of people, recognizing a good one from the rest. I not only got to know all these new people, but I learnt to appreciate my old friends better.

My first

hello people

this is my first blog.

(tht is abt it)