Solar System: is it stable?

During my first year at BIT Mesra, at a C language workshop, I asked one of my seniors:

"Can I simulate the Solar System?"

He said that it was probably a hard problem, but you can try it if you want. As my attention span is low, I forgot about the problem till now. Two years later.

Here is the article I am referring to. It is still a hard problem.

Spelling Mistakes

You may remember all those books, we used to read in childhood. One of them was about common spelling mistakes.

As a child, I never had problems with spellings. I saw a word, memorized it and never committed mistakes while spelling it. I wondered what was the necessity of such books if I never committed mistakes. Till now.

I realized that the authors of those books were adults - not kids (how could adults know what were the common spelling mistakes done by kids?). And, it was not so long for me to reach the conclusion that it is the adults who committed those mistakes, they are teaching the kids not to do.

I can safely say that I am an adult. I was born in 1994. And, I commit spelling mistakes while writing - frighteningly close to all those given in the books. I should thank Google search and automatic spell-checkers for saving me from embarrassment. If you're wondering about which words am I talking about, here they are - achieve, receive, there, their, embarrassment, commitment and so on.

Now, when I reached that conclusion, I thought about why I was committing mistakes now when I was a spelling pro as a child.

I think it has something to do with how our brains process information. As children, our neurons were not overloaded with tons of information. We were new to world and were learning about our surroundings. Getting new information and storing/retrieving it was a fairly easy task. But, things changed as we grew. Our brains have soaked in years of articles, images, movies and sounds. It is natural that we sometimes commit mistakes in the most basic of tasks such as spelling.

P.S: I am no neuroscientist. I came up with a possible explanation. If you think it is incorrect, then do inform me.

Exactly why our world works in Maths?

It still seems quite mystical to me that mathematics can describe the world in which we live.

Some people (whom I have met online) have mentioned that there's no deep meaning to maths in sciences. Science is about rationalism and mathematics is the best tool for logic. Hence the correspondence.

But, I think it goes deeper than that. Wigner mentions in this article that Heisenberg's matrix mechanics worked for lowest energy level of helium atom. No one knows why - matrix mechanics was developed keeping hydrogen atom in mind.

No one knows why our universe follows mathematical rules. Who(or what) is behind them.

It might be the case that mathematics and physics are highly crafted bullshit. But as for now, this possibility is highly unlikely. Mathematical laws provide too accurate descriptions of the things we are able to observe.

So, I think the question is still in philosophical domain. Maybe many years from now, when humans have developed far better understanding of the universe, the questions will be answered. It might also be possible that the questions remain unanswered.

And, this brings us to another question. Will these questions ever stop? Can 'whys' and 'hows' stop someday?

If yes, then who or what is at the pinnacle of all knowledge and everything that is there to be known?

If no - well sorry, I don't even know what this situation means.

Both the possibilities are nerve-chilling.

The Pale Blue Dot

 The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of our planet  taken on February 14, 1990 by Voyager I from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers. It went to become one of the most powerful photographs in the history of mankind.

If you look closely at the yellow streak on the right side of the picture, you will notice a faint little blue speck. Yes, that's where we live. Our only home. Earth.

It is where we humans evolved. Where we created our civilization. Here is where we fought wars, sought love, wrote books, composed poems, created music, made friends, killed enemies and practiced religion. All of that in one tiny pixel.

Every human has lived and died on that tiny blue dot.

All those fighting done over lands, money or who is right appears senseless in the vast cosmic perspective. We can see no countries from over there. No boundaries. No religion. No caste. No gender. Not even a single human out of those 7 billion (and counting).

The photograph forces us to think where we are headed. Are we doing a good job as a civilization? Are we kind and respectful to each other? Are we moving towards making our world a better place?

It has been 25 years since that photograph was taken. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But, what is the word count of one containing all the humans who ever lived? And, that too at a single point?

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What have you done to make our Earth a better place? How do you think we can become good human beings? Please share your answers and thoughts in the comments.

An Internet Rant - the first of many to come.

On the internet, I feel that majority of Indians are generally rude and incapable of "Be polite" and "Don't attack people" policies. 

I have discoursed with Slovakians, Israelis, Americans, Britishers and Russians. I found out that they were superbly nice even when they were opposed to what I was suggesting. Some of them were high school students, and their maturity floored me. They were always focused on ideas and not on the person who was expressing them.

And, their communicating style was radically different. They didn't use one-liners and stupid remarks which they thought were cool. They never let me feel that I was not wanted in the conversation and I was already wrong.

Even when I was not debating and wanted some information or clarification, they were quite forward(and nice!) in making me understand and providing me with references.

Maybe conformity bias and my online circle has forced me to draw this conclusion.

What are your thoughts?

Is it true - yes, then why ?
If no - then why I went through this experience?

The Dilemma Behind Rightness

For Potterheads: Do you think that providing wands to children of eleven is a good idea? Wands can do Avada Kedavra, Crucio, Sectumsempra and some pretty nasty stuff.

For Mistborn readers: Do you think that a group of Mistborns can take over the world? Don't forget that they can control kandra, the flesh-changers and the hemalurgical beasts, koloss.

For A Song of Ice and Fire readers: Do you think the Faceless Men of Braavos can do whatever nasty things they could and get away with it? They are already world-class assassins and let's assume that they can change their finger-prints and DNA too.

Let's come to real world. There are restrictions on weapons, laws specifying age limits and rules on nearly everything you can think of. But, still nasty things do happen everyday.

Why then the laws exist? Do the existence of laws contain a hidden assumption that humans are inherently bad and need to be carefully controlled?

What makes a person become a jerk? Why some people do wrong? Do the wrongdoers really know that what they are doing is wrong? Is punishment the right way to 'solve' the problem of crimes, whichever they may be?

Who is actually responsible for a wrongdoing - the person or the circumstances he grew up/found himself in ?

What would happen in a lawless world? Will people crumble or they will rise from the ashes?

What will it need to make a world where no laws are required?

Thanks for reading. If you have something to say, then please comment. If you have some books to recommend on this topic, then please do. You can bring anything from neuroscience to western philosophy.

The Flame Still Burns Bright

Today is the birthdate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Though, India doesn't hold him as important as to grant a national holiday, he still burns like a fire in many hearts.

I first came to know about Netaji when I was a small child. My father has a portrait of him alongside Rabindranath Thakur at our home. My father - then 17 years old - bought the portrait from a road-side vendor. He never abandoned it though many things changed with time.

I still remember how I came to know about him. One day, I was quite bored while playing with a set of model airplanes. My father was reading his copy of Anandabazar Patrika at a chair nearby. My mind wandered off and I asked my father who the 'military man' is (Rabindranath Thakur as an old man with a long beard didn't interest me then...I was a child!). He kept his paper aside for a while and began explaining things I didn't know about. I came to know about how Britishers enslaved our country for a brutal 200 years. I was told about men and women who worked relentlessly against the oppression of the Imperialists. And, finally came the name of Subhas Chandra Bose.

I will not add endless details about Netaji here. I am no scholar in his life nor great enough to comment on his feats.

But, I am interested in other things - how could a man become such a figure? How men like him can do things other people can't? How could a boy interested in philosophy rose to such prominence against a colonialist superpower?

I guess we can't say for sure. But what we can learn from his story is that endless perseverance and a steadfast unwillingness to accept what is wrong, can move mountains.

118 years later, a person is writing about a child born on this day. The man knows in his heart that the flame still burns bright.....