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.....

Comment on The Unforgivable Curses

This post is about a group of curses from the magical world created by J.K. Rowling. If you don't know who Harry Potter(the Boy Who Lived) is, then this post is NOT for you.

I have compiled the following set of messages keeping in mind the different classes of people who may happen to read this post. Kindly assume "Harry Potter" written before the words, "books" and "movies".

People who have not read the books AND have not watched the movies :-

       

Don't read. Spoilers Ahead.

People who have not read the books BUT have watched the movies :- 

      

Read this post if you want, but you may not get many things I wrote in this post. Yeah, the movies don't do justice to the books.

People who have read the books :-

There are no additional conditions for you.

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The Unforgivable Curses. They are named so because the Death Eaters indiscriminately used these curses under the terror reign of Tom Riddle. If any wizard is caught using any of those spells on a fellow human-being, the wizard is sentenced to a life term in Azkaban.

These curses are marked under Dark Magic. The user must be sufficiently skilled and powerful for the spells to work. More precisely, the user "has to mean" them for the curses to work.

These three curses form the Unforgivable Curses as per the Ministry of Magic :-

• Imperius Curse (incantation: "Imperio!" ) :- Mind-Controlling curse. The user uses this curse to make the victim do whatever he or she wants. This curse may falter in case of strong victims who can oppose it.
• Cruciatus Curse (incantation: "Crucio!" ) :- Torture Curse. This curse is said to cause immense amount of pain and agony to the victim. Longer duration of curse can cause permanent insanity. Bellatrix Lestrange(who uses this curse on the Longbottom couple, ultimately turning both husband and wife mad) advises Harry to take pleasure from hurting instead of using rightful anger. Only then, the curse would work. One can shield oneself from the curse.
• Killing Curse (incantation: "Avada Kedavra!") :- The most mysterious of the three curses. If an user uses this curse successfully, then his or her soul breaks (whatever that means). No shield works against this curse.

So, I was thinking about the realistic foundations of these curses. The first two curses can be understood as to be doing something with the cerebral system of the victim. Imperius Curse is very similar to hypnotism while the Cruciatus Curse can be realized by falsely triggering the pain-receptors of the brain.

But, what about the Killing Curse ? The Unforgivable Curses need the user "to mean" them. How could one mean to kill ? When Tom Riddle killed his father using this curse, the police collected the body afterwards. The post-mortem report showed that the body was perfectly normal and healthy, apart from the fact that it was dead. I couldn't find any logical explanation for the curse to work.

That's all for the time-being. If you happen to find a logical explanation then do comment!

In the meantime, I will keep thinking about possible reasons behind all those things that do not make sense.

Thanks for reading !

Loner

Strange title to begin with it. Alone, Me ? Yes, most likely.

I will not brood over it. Nor bore you with unnecessary details. This is a post to rationally sort out the things that made me unsocial and as a result, lonely.

Here they are. One point at a time.

--> One of my classmates told me (Wait. One or many?) that I have a peculiar habit of using points in most of my writing. Well, sorry if it bothers any of you, but I can't help it. Points help me in thinking clearly. Well then, let's get to the point.

• Looking back, it all started in Class 10. Nearing its end. My parents indirectly made me realize that I can't be irresponsible anymore. I had to get a decent job. They informed me of a simple path :- study. Get good marks in boards, go to a decent HS school, get a decent college education and finally get a job.
  So, I became ambitious. If I had been sorted at that time, I swore I would've went to Slytherin.
  I started making powerful( intelligent ?) friends. Friends who I can rely because of their extreme problem solving skills. I valued those who had intelligence. I considered that only nerds deserved any kind of attention from me.
  Naturally, I lost my friend-base, either because I found more intelligent "friends" or my friends found someone better.
• Science. No matter how much I hate to write it, one of the things that acted as a transition function to my present state was science. I took one of its principle quite seriously :- Be curious. Question Everything. So, I avoided friendships thinking that that evolution(early humans needed friends to survive) was making me need friends. Same goes for my approach towards girls. I couldn't make out whether I was liking her because of what she is or because of my hormones kicking in (I may regret writing this line later in life, but for now, I am letting it stay).
  And, I questioned myself about myself. Who am I? What exactly universe is? Questions like that tend to make people more secluded. More thoughtful. Aloof. Far less friendly.
• Comparing myself with others. For years, that was my working logic. Compare yourself with the next best one. Impoverise. Grow.
  I never realized that this was what making me grow cold. Always looking for what I don't have. Who had time for making friends ? I had to defeat the next one who stood in my way.
• And, finally humans piss me off. I couldn't stop why the human civilization is as it is. Same things happening over and over again:- be born, get education, work for the economy, get married, raise children to take your place when you die and repeat.
  And, why the hell, there is so much wrong in this world. People killing people. People raping people. People conning people.
  So, I developed the notion that people are flawed. I am flawed. Why do I make friends with another flawed specimen of my own kind ?

That's everything I can get to my mind right now. So, the list of reasons I became a loner may tend to grow in future. Thanks for reading (I can give you a hug if you want).

But, I have to go now. I have a question that is bothering me for years :-

"How do I make myself the master of the universe?"  **evil laugh**