My blog

Website

2010-03-15T03:25:00.001-07:00

Hi,

I have uploaded my website http://www.gauravparashar.com/ and will be gradually shifting my blog to it.

Cheers,
Gaurav

Mix it up!

2008-07-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

I drank of the cup of life,
and found bitterness in every sip,
the sweet taste of happiness,
seemingly never touching my lip

I swirled the cup and saw,
many hues and flavors within,
never seen and tasted before,
as I hadn't seen beyond the brim

The secret to my happiness lay,
not in seeking another cup,
but taking the one I had,
and just mixing it up! :)

The Book of Life

2008-07-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Dog-eared covers,
enclose fading text,
missing pages I seek,
unknown chapters ahead

Writing my dreams,
in the blank pages ahead,
line after line filled,
with hopes in my head

It may well change
like chalk on slate,
but atleast I'll know,
the author was me, not fate

2008-05-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

Enthusiasts about climate please join this group









 
 
 
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2008-04-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

Check out this site

www.deltaclimate.com

2008-03-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

The Computer Programmer And The Frog

A computer programmer was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will be your loving companion for an entire week." The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket.

The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want." Again the man took the frog out, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket."

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The man said, "Look, I'm a computer programmer. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

Green Business

2008-03-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

A new upcoming genre of business is "Green Business". I am also new to this concept of enterprises, solely based on maintaining environment, or the new concept of "Energy management", or further the increasing trend on making pioneer educational institutions "green and carbon neutral". Be it the Harvard Green Campus Initiative with whopping funds or the MIT's upcoming plans.

Considering the trend in mind, and foreseeing energy scene in India in the next few years, we also should look forward towards a "Green IIT's" or "Green IIM's" campaign, present a model to the whole of the country on how to manage energy in the upcoming climate crisis.

My perception of same still remains noob but the future of business, seems to have a green element to me. :)

References:

1) Harvard Green Campus Initiative
2) The MIT counterpart
3) Community for Eco Entrepreneurs

Why Survival?

2008-03-11T00:47:00.000-07:00

This is the first of the "why" series, i may be blogging about. Such notions come in every mind (atleast i believe). Why do we live? Why survive? Just for the heck of it? Such thoughts seem misleading and disturbing at first but my friend you have to agree there is no purpose of life. Some answer to it by happiness, some try and solve the mystery by religion. In my initial quest for knowing the purpose of my life, i made a simple google query and to my amusement i found the link Discover you life purpose in 20 min and the funny four step guide:

Here’s what to do:

Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

I hold no grudges to the author of the above article (link in references below) but on a higher plane of thinking i find myself empty and unanswered. My brain unfed over this simple yet powerful question which i believe can disturb the most sensible minds.

Knowing what you want from you life differs a lot from knowing what is the purpose of your living. And i guess even a very little percentage of people know what they want from life or how to guide there life. Am i sounding like Robin Sharma guiding about life :P.
Keeping things light and simple what i feel is that such a confusion will prevail for some time until something divine guides me. ;)

Till then lets live life simple and more importantly without thinking :P. Let life come to you in the raw form. And after all it all lies in the brain, brain is what makes you think and behave in a way.

Let me introduce to you this awesome concept which will profess laziness everywhere. Why do we work, or why is work good. The notion of "constructive" deed is a human product. You work cause someone told you work is good. This notion is not and cannot be original to the human species. Work was a virus which infected human species when it was evolving and now it is almost internal to us.
Let us imagine a world where everyone has trained his/her brain for happiness. In such a world, everyone will be happy whatsoever the conditions are. You will be living in a virtual reality (btw who know this world may itself be a virtual)

We live life in fears and expectations. Amid the confusion about what will happen when i die, we work our ass off throughout our life and die. We try and follow various routes which people/ god /websites profess, basically we perform this life experiment as other have imagined/ witnessed/ tried. I would end this arbit, meaningless blog professing laziness, lethargy and brain power.
You think you are happy => you are happy. More powerful argument would be to redefine happiness (after all its the mind which sets parameter)

PS: If after reading this you feel i need counselling, please drop in a mail at gauravp@cse.iitb.ac.in

References:

1) Purpose driven life a crap link
2) Discover the life purpose in 20 min ;)
3) Another idiotic link
4) Purpose of life inventory

2008-01-08T02:12:00.000-08:00

Mike Gancarz: The UNIX Philosophy

In 1994 Mike Gancarz (a member of the team that designed the X Window System), drew on his own experience with Unix, as well as discussions with fellow programmers and people in other fields who depended on Unix, to produce The UNIX Philosophy which sums it up into 9 paramount precepts:

Small is beautiful.
Make each program do one thing well.
Build a prototype as soon as possible.
Choose portability over efficiency.
Store data in flat text files.
Use software leverage to your advantage.
Use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability.
Avoid captive user interfaces.
Make every program a filter.

The 10 lesser tenets are ones which are not universally agreed upon as part of the Unix philosophy, and in some cases, are hotly debated (Monolithic kernel vs. Microkernels):

Allow the user to tailor the environment.
Make operating system kernels small and lightweight.
Use lowercase and keep it short.
Save trees.
Silence is golden.
Think parallel.
The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
Look for the 90-percent solution.
Worse is better.
Think hierarchically.

Courtsey: Wikipedia

Romance with the Sky

2008-01-05T02:17:00.000-08:00

Hot Air Ballooning - MI 07

Ballooning was fun. Sky diving here i come

Automatic Poem Generator

2007-12-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

Yet another example of "artificial" intelligence overcoming average human intelligence. Poetry which is considered as one of the most creative art is now available automatically.
Here is an automatic poetry generator:
http://www.languageisavirus.com/automatic_poetry_generator.html

A sample poem:

So vaporous below the sky

I am mammoth in the water
I converse with luminous bugs on the water
Damn! The heat is vanishing
All electric behind the shadows
We grind florescent meaning below the flowers
Whoa! The fun will be born
So vaporous below the sky
You dream of dank shivas about the shadows
Ahhh! The pleasure is born
unsure unsafe
seeing the light
a ticking clock
How many times
the other
miss his chance
remembering old times

I am not sure, if this automatic generator just picks random poems or really generates them. But still i feel this world is surely changing.

Vanilla Sky

2007-12-20T09:42:00.000-08:00

Yet again, i am alone; not physically but in thoughts, in feelings; in MY "world".

Guys am not out of my mind...this is a "burn" i got from the movie "Vanilla Sky". The plot of the movie is simply brilliant. Vanilla sky belongs to the genre of movies which do not make much sense till the half or the three quarter of movie but in the end simple leave you in awe and wonder of the maturity in the script writing.
In the movie David Aames (Tom Cruise) takes all in his life for granted...money, fame and lust, ultimately suffering in his own "imaginative world" a dreadful time. He undergoes in this world a dreadful time hating his crashed face until tech support from 'life expectancy' comes to his rescue to make him understand that the world he is thinking of is guided by his brain, by what he imagines.
A must watch movies giving beautiful insights about possibility of our existence.

"Interesting" and "uninteresting" numbers

2007-12-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

The question arises: Are there any uninteresting numbers? We can prove that there are none by the following simple steps. If there are dull numbers, then we can divide all numbers into two sets - interesting and dull. In the set of dull numbers there will be only one number that is the smallest. Since it is the smallest uninteresting number it becomes, ipso facto , an interesting number. We must therefore remove it from the dull set and place it in the other. But now there will be another smallest uninteresting number. Repeating this process will make any dull number interesting.

Gardner (1), p. 131

For more paradoxes visit this wonderful site http://paradoxes.co.uk/

Virtual Relation

2007-12-18T00:16:00.000-08:00

I am concerned on the sprouting "virtual relations" through the social networking websites and chatting. Gone are the days when your best friend was the one, on whose shoulder you could have kept you head and confided every concern of yours. Today in this knowledge guided world the "best bud" as it is termed, is an "unknown" person sitting on a terminal chatting to you and expressing joys in your happiness, sorrow in your failure or may be sometimes even proposing love. This virtual system of virtual relations is exceedingly psychological and can be very dangerous. Some find such a system very helping to confide secrets into because the relation can be terminated by just a click. This provides secrecy and feeds your psychology in a positive manner but my friend you are losing hold of the "real world" because of such virtual relations.

Online Social Networking has a bright aspect as well, the joy of meeting an old friend and the satisfaction of the increasing "friend list" in orkut seems to be saying that you are getting increasingly popular. But this by no means is a constructive "real world value creation" process. In totality, this "virtual world" where people may even make close friends is good enough only until you can control yourself; i.e you should not be the person whose first chore of the day is checking the orkut account.

The big spectacles

2007-11-26T07:21:00.001-08:00

This is a work inspired by real life happenings and observations,

It was last night i had this spiritual realization though not from my inner spirit (my-self) but an external dumb idiotic source. Unraveling the deepest of the mysteries and eventually turned shock the spectacular glamorous world of fashion or the so the called style is guided by big specs. Take a look guys at the amazing fake new improved "you" with these big specs :P. Aint it said "beauty lies in the specs of the beholder". :p

Life, oh yeah, you life

2007-11-13T23:41:00.000-08:00

The Provisional Spirit

Oh life, so unruffled and serene,

Your unbounded beauty amazes me,

Your colossal nature just confuses me,

Am a tiny chap to match your gigantic stature,

Too austere to match your treacherous persona,

Your plot makes me pensive,

Your conspiracy so acute,

Your network so extensive,

Makes me submissive,

The perfect contrive one could do,

A self destructive ostracism,

Duping me so vividly,

For years,

But now it is open to elements,

I have learnt to tame you,

To dictate you,

To handle you,

You will now follow my course,

As my slave,

I will rule my new world,

And you will be the one weak,

The whim that tickled me,

Such simple yet conceal,

Is not to hold back,

But to fight to the extreme,

Not to anticipate,

But to swerve,

Not to settle, but unravel,

The meaning you conceal.

Black

2007-11-13T20:33:00.000-08:00

The world so bright so dark,

So enlightened yet so hazy,

Bound by air yet unseen,

Restrained by bounding yet so audacious,

So knocked up yet praised,

So understood yet unidentified,

With people so serene yet obscene,

So charming and magnetic,

Yet off-putting,

God am confused, help me

But are you there?

Are you there?

Oh fuck am so confused,

Like that guy who saw everything blue,

Though not a blue house with blue people,

Why am I despondent?

Some one help me,

Some one hold me,

Some one caress me,

I feel so alone!

My poetic self

2007-09-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Though am not much of a poet but still have started appreciating some poetry. Check this one out

Three Finger Crash

Author Unknown

Don't you wish when life is bad
and things just don't compute,
That all we really had to do
was stop and hit reboot?

Things would all turn out ok,
life could be so sweet
If we had those special keys
ctrl-and alt-delete

Your boss is mad, your bills not paid
your wife, well she's just mute.
Just stop and hit those wonderful keys
that make it all reboot.

You'd like to have another job,
you fear living in the street?
You solve it all and start anew
with ctrl and alt delete

Toying with Rap

2007-09-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Lately i have been trying to toy with rap and find this one cool....here is the Real Slim Lady [:)]

May I have your attention please? May I have your attention please? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? I repeat, will the real Slim Shady please stand up? We're gonna have a problem here.. Y'all act like you never seen a white person before Jaws all on the floor like Pam and Tommy just burst in the door And started whoopin' her ass worse than before They first were divorce, throwin' her over furniture (Ahh!) It's the return of the... "Ah, wait, no way, you're kidding, He didn't just say what I think he did, did he?" And Dr. Dre said... nothing you idiots! Dr. Dre's dead, he's locked in my basement! (Ha-ha!) Feminist women love Eminem {*vocal turntable: chigga chigga chigga*} "Slim Shady, I'm sick of him Look at him, walkin' around grabbin' his you-know-what Flippin' the you-know-who," "Yeah, but he's so cute though!" Yeah, I probably got a couple of screws up in my head loose But no worse, than what's goin' on in your parents' bedrooms Sometimes I wanna get on TV and just let loose, but can't But it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose "My bum is on ya lips, my bum is on ya lips" And if I'm lucky, you might just give it a little kiss And that's the message that we deliver to little kids And expect them not to know what a woman's clitoris is Of course they gonna know what intercourse is By the time they hit fourth grade They got the Discovery Channel don't they? "We ain't nothin' but mammals.." Well, some of us cannibals Who cut other people open like cantaloupes {*SLURP*} But if we can hump dead animals and antelopes Then there's no reason that a man and another man can't elope {*EWWW!*} But if you feel like I feel, I got the antidote Women wave ya pantyhose, sing the chorus and it goes I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Cuz I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Will Smith don't gotta cuss in his raps to sell his records; Well I do, so fuck him and fuck you too! You think I give a damn about a Grammy? Half of you critics can't even stomach me, let alone stand me "But Slim, what if you win, wouldn't it be weird?" Why? So you guys could just lie to get me here? So you can, sit me here next to Britney Spears? Shit, Christina Aguilera better switch me chairs So I can sit next to Carson Daly and Fred Durst And hear 'em argue over who she gave head to first Little bitch put me on blast on MTV "Yeah, he's cute, but I think he's married to Kim, hee-hee!" I should download her audio on MP3 And show the whole world how you gave Eminem VD {*AHHH!*} I'm sick of you little girl and boy groups, all you do is annoy me So I have been sent here to destroy you {*bzzzt*} And there's a million of us just like me Who cuss like me; who JUST DON'T GIVE A FUCK like me Who dress like me; walk, talk and act like me And just might be the next best thing but not quite me! I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Cuz I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? I'm like a head trip to listen to, cause I'm only givin' you Things you joke about wit ya friends inside your livin' room The only difference is I got the balls to say it In front of y'all and I don't gotta be false or sugarcoated at all I just get on the mike and spit it And whether you like to admit it {*ERR*} I just shittin' Betta than ninety percent of you rappers out can Then you wonder how can kids eat up these albums like valiums It's funny; cause at the rate I'm goin' when I'm thirty I'll be the only person in the nursin' home flirting Pinchin' nurses asses when I'm jackin' off with Jergens And I'm jerkin' but this whole bag of Viagra isn't workin' And every single person is a Slim Shady lurkin' He could be workin' at Burger King, spittin' on your onion rings {*HACH*} Or in the parkin' lot, circlin' Screamin', "I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!" Wit his windows down and his system up So, will the real Shady please stand up? And put one of those fingers on each hand up? And be proud to be outta your mind and outta control And one more time, loud as you can, how does it go? I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Cuz I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Cuz I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Cuz I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up, Please stand up, please stand up? Ha ha Guess there's a Slim Shady in all of us Fuck it, let's all stand up

Does God Play Dice?

2007-08-19T03:01:00.000-07:00

This lecture is about whether we can predict the future, or whether it is arbitrary and random.
In ancient times, the world must have seemed pretty arbitrary. Disasters such as floods or
diseases must have seemed to happen without warning, or apparent reason. Primitive people
attributed such natural phenomena, to a pantheon of gods and goddesses, who behaved in a
capricious and whimsical way. There was no way to predict what they would do, and the only
hope was to win favour by gifts or actions. Many people still partially subscribe to this belief,
and try to make a pact with fortune. They offer to do certain things, if only they can get an Agrade
for a course, or pass their driving test.
Gradually however, people must have noticed certain regularities in the behaviour of nature.
These regularities were most obvious, in the motion of the heavenly bodies across the sky. So
astronomy was the first science to be developed. It was put on a firm mathematical basis by
Newton, more than 300 years ago, and we still use his theory of gravity to predict the motion
of almost all celestial bodies. Following the example of astronomy, it was found that other
natural phenomena also obeyed definite scientific laws. This led to the idea of scientific
determinism, which seems first to have been publicly expressed by the French scientist,
Laplace. I thought I would like to quote you Laplace's actual words, so I asked a friend to track
them down. They are in French of course, not that I expect that would be any problem with this
audience. But the trouble is, Laplace was rather like Prewst, in that he wrote sentences of
inordinate length and complexity. So I have decided to para-phrase the quotation. In effect
what he said was, that if at one time, we knew the positions and speeds of all the particles in
the universe, then we could calculate their behaviour at any other time, in the past or future.
There is a probably apocryphal story, that when Laplace was asked by Napoleon, how God
fitted into this system, he replied, 'Sire, I have not needed that hypothesis.' I don't think that
Laplace was claiming that God didn't exist. It is just that He doesn't intervene, to break the
laws of Science. That must be the position of every scientist. A scientific law, is not a scientific
law, if it only holds when some supernatural being, decides to let things run, and not intervene.
The idea that the state of the universe at one time determines the state at all other times, has
been a central tenet of science, ever since Laplace's time. It implies that we can predict the
future, in principle at least. In practice, however, our ability to predict the future is severely
limited by the complexity of the equations, and the fact that they
often have a property called chaos. As those who have seen
Jurassic Park will know, this means a tiny disturbance in one
place, can cause a major change in another. A butterfly flapping
its wings can cause rain in Central Park, New York. The trouble is,
it is not repeatable. The next time the butterfly flaps its wings, a
host of other things will be different, which will also influence the
weather. That is why weather forecasts are so unreliable.
Despite these practical difficulties, scientific determinism,
remained the official dogma throughout the 19th century.
However, in the 20th century, there have been two developments
that show that Laplace's vision, of a complete prediction of the future, can not be realised. The
first of these developments was what is called, quantum mechanics. This was first put forward
in 1900, by the German physicist, Max Planck, as an ad hoc hypothesis, to solve an
outstanding paradox. According to the classical 19th century ideas, dating back to Laplace, a
hot body, like a piece of red hot metal, should give off radiation. It would lose energy in radio
waves, infra red, visible light, ultra violet, x-rays, and gamma
rays, all at the same rate. Not only would this mean that we would
all die of skin cancer, but also everything in the universe would be
at the same temperature, which clearly it isn't. However, Planck
showed one could avoid this disaster, if one gave up the idea that
the amount of radiation could have just any value, and said
instead that radiation came only in packets or quanta of a certain
size. It is a bit like saying that you can't buy sugar loose in the
supermarket, but only in kilogram bags. The energy in the
packets or quanta, is higher for ultra violet and x-rays, than for infra red or visible light. This
means that unless a body is very hot, like the Sun, it will not have enough energy, to give off
even a single quantum of ultra violet or x-rays. That is why we don't get sunburn from a cup of
coffee.
Planck regarded the idea of quanta, as just a mathematical trick, and not as having any
physical reality, whatever that might mean. However, physicists began to find other behaviour,
that could be explained only in terms of quantities having discrete, or quantised values, rather
than continuously variable ones. For example, it was found that elementary particles behaved
rather like little tops, spinning about an axis. But the amount of spin couldn't have just any
value. It had to be some multiple of a basic unit. Because this unit is very small, one does not
notice that a normal top really slows down in a rapid sequence of discrete steps, rather than as
a continuous process. But for tops as small as atoms, the discrete nature of spin is very
important.
It was some time before people realised the implications of this quantum behaviour for
determinism. It was not until 1926, that Werner Heisenberg, another German physicist, pointed
out that you couldn't measure both the position, and the speed, of a particle exactly. To see
where a particle is, one has to shine light on it. But by Planck's work, one can't use an
arbitrarily small amount of light. One has to use at least one quantum. This will disturb the
particle, and change its speed in a way that can't be
predicted. To measure the position of the particle
accurately, you will have to use light of short wave length,
like ultra violet, x-rays, or gamma rays. But again, by
Planck's work, quanta of these forms of light have higher
energies than those of visible light. So they will disturb the
speed of the particle more. It is a no win situation: the
more accurately you try to measure the position of the
particle, the less accurately you can know the speed, and vice versa. This is summed up in the
Uncertainty Principle that Heisenberg formulated; the uncertainty in the position of a particle,
times the uncertainty in its speed, is always greater than a quantity called Planck's constant,
divided by the mass of the particle.
Laplace's vision, of scientific determinism, involved knowing the positions and speeds of the
particles in the universe, at one instant of time. So it was seriously undermined by
Heisenberg's Uncertainty principle. How could one predict the future, when one could not
measure accurately both the positions, and the speeds, of particles at the present time? No
matter how powerful a computer you have, if you put lousy data in, you will get lousy
predictions out.
Einstein was very unhappy about this apparent randomness in
nature. His views were summed up in his famous phrase, 'God
does not play dice'. He seemed to have felt that the
uncertainty was only provisional: but that there was an
underlying reality, in which particles would have well defined
positions and speeds, and would evolve according to
deterministic laws, in the spirit of Laplace. This reality might be
known to God, but the quantum nature of light would prevent
us seeing it, except through a glass darkly.
Einstein's view was what would now be called, a hidden
variable theory. Hidden variable theories might seem to be the most obvious way to
incorporate the Uncertainty Principle into physics. They form the basis of the mental picture of
the universe, held by many scientists, and almost all philosophers of science. But these hidden
variable theories are wrong. The British physicist, John Bell, who died recently, devised an
experimental test that would distinguish hidden variable theories. When the experiment was
carried out carefully, the results were inconsistent with hidden variables. Thus it seems that
even God is bound by the Uncertainty Principle, and can not know both the position, and the
speed, of a particle. So God does play dice with the universe. All the evidence points to him
being an inveterate gambler, who throws the dice on every possible occasion.
Other scientists were much more ready than Einstein to modify
the classical 19th century view of determinism. A new theory,
called quantum mechanics, was put forward by Heisenberg, the
Austrian, Erwin Schroedinger, and the British physicist, Paul Dirac.
Dirac was my predecessor but one, as the Lucasian Professor in
Cambridge. Although quantum mechanics has been around for
nearly 70 years, it is still not generally understood or appreciated,
even by those that use it to do calculations. Yet it should concern
us all, because it is a completely different picture of the physical
universe, and of reality itself. In quantum mechanics, particles don't have well defined
positions and speeds. Instead, they are represented by what is called a wave function. This is
a number at each point of space. The size of the wave function gives the
probability that the particle will be found in that position. The rate, at
which the wave function varies from point to point, gives the speed of the
particle. One can have a wave function that is very strongly peaked in a
small region. This will mean that the uncertainty in the position is small.
But the wave function will vary very rapidly near the peak, up on one
side, and down on the other. Thus the uncertainty in the speed will be
large. Similarly, one can have wave functions where the uncertainty in the speed is small, but
the uncertainty in the position is large.
The wave function contains all that one can know of the particle, both its position, and its
speed. If you know the wave function at one time, then its values at other times are
determined by what is called the Schroedinger equation. Thus one still has a kind of
determinism, but it is not the sort that Laplace envisaged. Instead of being able to predict the
positions and speeds of particles, all we can predict is the wave function. This means that we
can predict just half what we could, according to the classical 19th century view.
Although quantum mechanics leads to uncertainty, when we try to predict both the position and
the speed, it still allows us to predict, with certainty, one combination of position and speed.
However, even this degree of certainty, seems to be threatened by more recent
developments. The problem arises because gravity can warp space-time so much, that there
can be regions that we don't observe.
Interestingly enough, Laplace himself wrote a paper in 1799 on how some stars could have a
gravitational field so strong that light could not escape, but would be dragged back onto the
star. He even calculated that a star of the same density as the Sun, but two hundred and fifty
times the size, would have this property. But although Laplace may not have realised it, the
same idea had been put forward 16 years earlier by a Cambridge man, John Mitchell, in a
paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Both Mitchell and Laplace thought
of light as consisting of particles, rather like cannon balls, that could be slowed down by
gravity, and made to fall back on the star. But a famous experiment, carried out by two
Americans, Michelson and Morley in 1887, showed that light always travelled at a speed of one
hundred and eighty six thousand miles a second, no matter where it came from. How then
could gravity slow down light, and make it fall back.
This was impossible, according to the then accepted ideas of space and time. But in 1915,
Einstein put forward his revolutionary General Theory of Relativity. In this, space and time
were no longer separate and independent entities. Instead, they were just different directions
in a single object called space-time. This space-time was not flat, but was warped and curved
by the matter and energy in it. In order to understand this, considered a sheet of rubber, with
a weight placed on it, to represent a star. The
weight will form a depression in the rubber, and
will cause the sheet near the star to be curved,
rather than flat. If one now rolls marbles on the
rubber sheet, their paths will be curved, rather
than being straight lines. In 1919, a British
expedition to West Africa, looked at light from
distant stars, that passed near the Sun during an
eclipse. They found that the images of the stars were shifted slightly from their normal
positions. This indicated that the paths of the light from the stars had been bent by the curved
space-time near the Sun. General Relativity was confirmed.
Consider now placing heavier and heavier, and
more and more concentrated weights on the
rubber sheet. They will depress the sheet more
and more. Eventually, at a critical weight and
size, they will make a bottomless hole in the
sheet, which particles can fall into, but nothing
can get out of.
What happens in space-time according to
General Relativity is rather similar. A star will
curve and distort the space-time near it, more and more, the more massive and more compact
the star is. If a massive star, which has burnt up its nuclear fuel, cools and shrinks below a
critical size, it will quite literally make a bottomless hole in space-time, that light can't get out
of. Such objects were given the name Black Holes, by the American physicist John Wheeler,
who was one of the first to recognise their importance, and the problems they pose. The name
caught on quickly. To Americans, it suggested something dark and mysterious, while to the
British, there was the added resonance of the Black Hole of Calcutta. But the French, being
French, saw a more risqué meaning. For years, they resisted the name, trou noir, claiming it
was obscene. But that was a bit like trying to stand against le weekend, and other franglais. In
the end, they had to give in. Who can resist a name that is such a winner?
We now have observations that point to black holes in a
number of objects, from binary star systems, to the
centre of galaxies. So it is now generally accepted that
black holes exist. But, apart from their potential for
science fiction, what is their significance for determinism.
The answer lies in a bumper sticker that I used to have
on the door of my office: Black Holes are Out of Sight.
Not only do the particles and unlucky astronauts that fall
into a black hole, never come out again, but also the
information that they carry, is lost forever, at least from
our region of the universe. You can throw television sets,
diamond rings, or even your worst enemies into a black
hole, and all the black hole will remember, is the total mass, and the state of rotation. John
Wheeler called this, 'A Black Hole Has No Hair.' To the French, this just confirmed their
suspicions.
As long as it was thought that black holes would continue to exist forever, this loss of
information didn't seem to matter too much. One could say that the information still existed
inside the black hole. It is just that one can't tell what it is, from the outside. However, the
situation changed, when I discovered that black
holes aren't completely black. Quantum mechanics
causes them to send out particles and radiation at a
steady rate. This result came as a total surprise to
me, and everyone else. But with hindsight, it should
have been obvious. What we think of as empty
space is not really empty, but it is filled with pairs
of particles and anti particles. These appear
together at some point of space and time, move
apart, and then come together and annihilate each
other. These particles and anti particles occur
because a field, such as the fields that carry light
and gravity, can't be exactly zero. That would mean that the value of the field, would have
both an exact position (at zero), and an exact speed or rate of change (also zero). This would
be against the Uncertainty Principle, just as a particle can't have both an exact position, and an
exact speed. So all fields must have what are called, vacuum fluctuations. Because of the
quantum behaviour of nature, one can interpret these vacuum fluctuations, in terms of
particles and anti particles, as I have described.
These pairs of particles occur for all varieties of elementary particles. They are called virtual
particles, because they occur even in the vacuum, and they can't be directly measured by
particle detectors. However, the indirect effects of virtual particles, or vacuum fluctuations,
have been observed in a number of experiments, and their existence confirmed.
If there is a black hole around, one member of a
particle anti particle pair may fall into the hole,
leaving the other member without a partner, with
which to annihilate. The forsaken particle may fall
into the hole as well, but it may also escape to a
large distance from the hole, where it will become a
real particle, that can be measured by a particle
detector. To someone a long way from the black
hole, it will appear to have been emitted by the
hole.
This explanation of how black holes ain't so black,
makes it clear that the emission will depend on the size of the black hole, and the rate at which
it is rotating. But because black holes have no hair, in Wheeler's phrase, the radiation will be
otherwise independent of what went into the hole. It doesn't matter whether you throw
television sets, diamond rings, or your worst enemies, into a black hole. What comes back out
will be the same.
So what has all this to do with determinism, which is what this lecture is supposed to be about.
What it shows is that there are many initial states, containing television sets, diamond rings,
and even people, that evolve to the same final state, at least outside the black hole. But in
Laplace's picture of determinism, there was a one to one correspondence between initial
states, and final states. If you knew the state of the universe at some time in the past, you
could predict it in the future. Similarly, if you knew it in the future, you could calculate what it
must have been in the past. The advent of quantum theory in the 1920s reduced the amount
one could predict by half, but it still left a one to one correspondence between the states of the
universe at different times. If one knew the wave function at one time, one could calculate it at
any other time.
With black holes, however, the situation is rather different. One will end up with the same state
outside the hole, whatever one threw in, provided it has the same mass. Thus there is not a
one to one correspondence between the initial state, and the final state outside the black hole.
There will be a one to one correspondence between the initial state, and the final state both
outside, and inside, the black hole. But the important point is that the emission of particles, and
radiation by the black hole, will cause the hole to lose mass, and get smaller. Eventually, it
seems the black hole will get down to zero mass, and will disappear altogether. What then will
happen to all the objects that fell into the hole, and all the people that either jumped in, or
were pushed? They can't come out again, because there isn't enough mass or energy left in
the black hole, to send them out again. They may pass into another universe, but that is not
something that will make any difference, to those of us prudent enough not to jump into a
black hole. Even the information, about what fell into the hole, could not come out again when
the hole finally disappears. Information can not be carried free, as those of you with phone
bills will know. Information requires energy to carry it, and there won't be enough energy left
when the black hole disappears.
What all this means is, that information will be lost from our region of the universe, when black
holes are formed, and then evaporate. This loss of information will mean that we can predict
even less than we thought, on the basis of quantum theory. In quantum theory, one may not
be able to predict with certainty, both the position, and the speed of a particle. But there is still
one combination of position and speed that can be predicted. In the case of a black hole, this
definite prediction involves both members of a
particle pair. But we can measure only the particle
that comes out. There's no way even in principle
that we can measure the particle that falls into the
hole. So, for all we can tell, it could be in any state.
This means we can not make any definite
prediction, about the particle that escapes from the
hole. We can calculate the probability that the
particle has this or that position, or speed. But
there's no combination of the position and speed of
just one particle that we can definitely predict,
because the speed and position will depend on the
other particle, which we don't observe. Thus it seems Einstein was doubly wrong when he said,
God does not play dice. Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us
by throwing them where they can't be seen.
Many scientists are like Einstein, in that they have a deep emotional attachment to
determinism. Unlike Einstein, they have accepted the reduction in our ability to predict, that
quantum theory brought about. But that was far enough. They didn't like the further reduction,
which black holes seemed to imply. They have therefore claimed that information is not really
lost down black holes. But they have not managed to find any mechanism that would return
the information. It is just a pious hope that the universe is deterministic, in the way that
Laplace thought. I feel these scientists have not learnt the lesson of history. The universe does
not behave according to our pre-conceived ideas. It continues to surprise us.
One might not think it mattered very much, if determinism broke down near black holes. We
are almost certainly at least a few light years, from a black hole of any size. But, the
Uncertainty Principle implies that every region of space should be full of tiny virtual black
holes, which appear and disappear again. One would think that particles and information could
fall into these black holes, and be lost. Because these virtual black holes are so small, a
hundred billion billion times smaller than the nucleus of an atom, the rate at which information
would be lost would be very low. That is why the laws of science appear deterministic, to a
very good approximation. But in extreme conditions, like in the early universe, or in high
energy particle collisions, there could be significant loss of information. This would lead to
unpredictability, in the evolution of the universe.
To sum up, what I have been talking about, is whether the universe evolves in an arbitrary
way, or whether it is deterministic. The classical view, put forward by Laplace, was that the
future motion of particles was completely determined, if
one knew their positions and speeds at one time. This
view had to be modified, when Heisenberg put forward
his Uncertainty Principle, which said that one could not
know both the position, and the speed, accurately.
However, it was still possible to predict one combination
of position and speed. But even this limited predictability
disappeared, when the effects of black holes were taken
into account. The loss of particles and information down
black holes meant that the particles that came out were
random. One could calculate probabilities, but one could
not make any definite predictions. Thus, the future of the universe is not completely
determined by the laws of science, and its present state, as Laplace thought. God still has a
few tricks up his sleeve.
That is all I have to say for the moment. Thank you for listening.

Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel

2007-08-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

In a hotel with a finite number of rooms, it is clear that once it is full, no more guests can be accommodated. Now, imagine a hotel with an infinite number of rooms. One might assume that the same problem will arise when an infinite number of guests come along and all the rooms are occupied. However, in an infinite hotel, the situations "every room is occupied" and "no more guests can be accommodated" do not turn out to be equivalent. There is a way to solve the problem: if you move the guest occupying room 1 to room 2, the guest occupying room 2 to room 3, etc., you can fit the newcomer into room 1.

It is also possible to make room for a countably infinite number of new clients: just move the person occupying room 1 to room 2, occupying room 2 to room 4, occupying room 3 to room 6, and so on, and all the odd-numbered rooms will be free for the new guests.

Now imagine a countably infinite number of coaches arrive, each with a countably infinite number of passengers. Still, the hotel can accommodate them: first empty the odd numbered rooms as above, then put the first coach's load in rooms 3n for n = 1, 2, 3, ..., the second coach's load in rooms 5n for n = 1, 2, ... and so on; for coach number i we use the rooms pn where p is the i+1-th prime number. You can also solve the problem by looking at the license plate numbers on the coaches and the seat numbers for the passengers (if the seats are not numbered, number them). Regard the hotel as coach #0. Interleave the digits of the coach numbers and the seat numbers to get the room numbers for the guests. The guest in room number 1729 moves to room 1070209. The passenger on seat 8234 of coach 56719 goes to room 5068721394 of the hotel.

Some find this state of affairs profoundly counterintuitive. The properties of infinite "collections of things" are quite different from those of ordinary "collections of things". In an ordinary hotel (with more than one room), the number of odd-numbered rooms is obviously smaller than the total number of rooms. However, in Hilbert's aptly named Grand Hotel, the "number" of odd-numbered rooms is as "large" as the total "number" of rooms. In mathematical terms, this would be expressed as follows: the cardinality of the subset containing the odd-numbered rooms is the same as the cardinality of the set of all rooms. In fact, infinite sets are characterized as sets that have proper subsets of the same cardinality. For countable sets, this cardinality is called (aleph-null).

An even stranger story regarding this hotel shows that mathematical induction only works from an induction basis. No cigars may be brought into the hotel. Yet each of the guests (all rooms had guests at the time) got a cigar while in the hotel. How is this? The guest in Room 1 got a cigar from the guest in Room 2. The guest in Room 2 had previously received two cigars from the guest in Room 3. The guest in Room 3 had previously received three cigars from the guest in Room 4, etc. Each guest kept one cigar and passed the remainder to the guest in the next-lower-numbered room.

The Craptastic Seniors

2007-08-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

For everybody (who is not in iit) iitians are great, brilliant, focussed minds but only once you get in you realise that a part (almost 40 %) consists of frustrated souls, searching for excellence and recognition within IIT.
Just an example:
Yesterday night, me and my roomie got a call from the seniors, and the same moment we realised that the seniors must have drunk(not an issue) and were having some arbit thoughts which they wanted to tell us.
Thus after 5 minutes we go to the seniors room to find three guys drunk to limits and still drinking and then started the not so wished and asked FUNDE session, comprising of all funde of life as in we got the new OSHO who was a given-up guy sitting in his dorm, out of senses and boasting of himself.
Things were good uptil this time but the shocker came in the morning, when the wing was covered with ash and broken bottles. This is the life of the GOD seniors who set an example for us and this is the wing culture which is expected to be built.

Sophie Treat

2007-08-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

The much awaited sophie treat is still a disappointment, postponed for a week, mostly coz of the indecisive seniors and the whopping conti. :p
It started a week back with all the wing seniors (captan sahab [:p], sunil, kaustubh, and lahoti) started pouring funde over what is a sophie treat.
Then came the part of choosing the venue, ranging from nearby restaurants to resorts. The most appealing being exotica, which had hopes of dinner on a boat. ;). but all in vain...as the treat seems postponed with further more brainstorming sessions to choose a good place (precisely not a room, not a long table dinner and not a congested place, no buffets {all of these eliminated by seniors mostly lahoti....arey yaar buffet mein veggies ka infi kat ta hai :p})

May the holy day arrive soon and let the despo seniors have there daaro and we have some fun as well

Black

2007-06-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

Black signifies darkness, depression, disdain, fear, sympathy, etc

Now lets see how can you link these things, although black is my favorite color but still, lets give it a shot:

Black may seem sick to some, something for a sad, depressed lonely soul which out of desperation has resorted to the evil. To some black matches with the evil, or rather anti-white where white shows purity, serenity, and peace. But it may not be so it may be seen as a place of insecurity, imagine yourself locked up in a black room, the fear that creeps in and the restlessness that arises in you, can be given sympathy. But black can be creepy and frightful, much more than this.
Black has been linked to some unsolved mysteries, should i mention some. Black is where the human capabilities reaches its limit. It is when your feelings change, when your nerves tingle when you start to shiver and its then you realize your mortality.

PS: Black is beautiful. :)

Budding Interest

2007-06-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Watching the no of posts, there intensity and meaning or randomness and entropy, you will guess that i am a novice in blogging, which is true to quite an extent.

I have been noticing quite a few changes in me since the last year

well to be frank into the important skill of decision-making (as computer scientists hype it) i am choosing things which are the easiest, as in blogging v/s chatting , reading novels (good thing) v/s orkutting, and blah-blah infi other examples.

One good thing done during these summers can be only mentioned as am physically more fit than before (thanks to my friends and Babloo :p)

Further getting lazy, into a shell of unprecedented success which is of course a mirage.

Wanna break through this. Tear apart the transparent cover of a truly changed me, not enjoying moments to the fullest,
but still there is a will to fight

PS: Such blogs are written in the worst/ depressed max of moods. So if you have any solace for me , better save it for yourself.

Knocking on heaven's door

2007-04-14T02:05:00.000-07:00

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Push it to the limit

2007-03-27T05:37:00.001-07:00

Cause we're in it to win it in it to win it
Oh yeah

I realized that this is where my heart is
Now is the time to finish what I started
Can't worry bout what other people might say
It's who I am
Gotta live my dream my own way

Work work it harder
Gotta take it farther
No holding back
You know we gotta do it right now
Be even better
Work work together
It's now or never
Show em how we shine we gotta

Push it push it to the limit limit
Cause we're in it to win it in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit
Give it all we can give it
We're in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit

That's right

Gonna turn it up
That's the way we do it now
No time to stop
But check the answer in the house
Yeah we can be
When as soon as we understand
Our destiny is right here in our hands

Work work it harder
Gotta take it farther
No holding back
We reachin for the sky now
Be even better
[ these lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
Work work together
It's now or never
Show em how far we gotta

Push it push it to the limit limit
Cause we're in it to win it in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit
Give it all we can give it
We're in it to win it
Oh yeah

Gotta work it now
Work it out
We got it
Wanna hear the crowd
Everybody now
Gotta work it now
Work it out
Can't stop us
Gotta show them how
We gonna bring the house down

Push it push it to the limit limit
Cause we're in it to win it in it to win it
Let's go

Push it push it to the limit limit
Give it all we can give it
We're in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit
Cause we're in it to win it in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit
Give it all we can give it
We're in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit
Cause we're in it to win it in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it push it to the limit limit
Give it all we can give it
We're in it to win it
Oh yeah

Push it to the limit....

Feeling Life

2007-03-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Till now life has been like an apple pie too easy, with a little ups and downs but now things are becoming clearer my perception about the life is improving in short i am maturing, realising the importance of relationships for a healthy living

As all human i am also dazed by looking at life from the two sides and still the unanswered question prevails,
why do we live and why aint there any freedom and purity in heart!!

HIGH HOPES

2007-03-09T03:16:00.001-08:00

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun
Along the long road and on down to the causeway
Do they still meet there by the cut
There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide
but the highest altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

****

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever

Post Midsem Trip to Sameer Hill

2007-02-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

The midsems just got over on saturday and there was a plan to visit Sameer Hill. At morning 5 o clock (see the ht of excitement) Sunny comes over and slams our door waking up my roomie Sanyam who is a bit dazzled over by the dedication of his.

I also am disturbed of ma peaceful sleep which had now been only 3 hrs :).
I doze off again while other guys go to freshen up, a bit later Sunny comes to me and says "Are you getting up or should i get a bucket?". So finally i am up (the plan had once been cancelled coz of me)
We collect our group and decide to move on. But who knows the route to Sameer Hill? is the emerging question. We get hold of a map of the campus and then start moving towards the Sameer Hill while enroute there are a series of farts and pj's courtsey Sunny, Pratyush and ofcourse Mayank.
We get closer to our destiny but are confused at a T. Which way to go. To the left was a slum which appeared spooky to me. I guess we reached the boundary of the campus. In the slum were people whom i found a lot mysterious. The were living hardly 50 metres frm the hill but conveyed they had no idea of the hill!!

We got hold of a security guard who told us the route and an advice "Keep a stick in your hand"!!
For those who dont know it was meant if we faced a Panther. It was still dark but as we headed towards the hill the sun was setting in and the light taking over. I guess the first sunrise i saw in Mumbai :).
We reached the top and had a lot of freaky stuff in RBD style and a lot of pic-sessions throught the whole route.
Coming back when we reached out the hostel gate the bum-session started in which anybody caught hold was kicked hard.
It was a pleasure experience to have with a lot of funny people!!

JD ke funde

2007-02-14T03:23:00.000-08:00

(This text may be offending to some.
IF YOU ARE NOT A JD -FAN PLEASE LEAVE THIS PAGE IMMEDIATELY ;) )

Its almost a part of my schedule now that i play basky for around 2 hours.
And most of time i am with JD (aka jaideep) a cute sardar, n his funde.
Tips on shooting , passing (i guess he has never passes the ball)

1. Condtion: JD has a ball in his hand and is outside the 3 D.

What will happen : JD will move to his right at full speed (but will not lose the ball and will never pass) => Then try an awkward never seen lay-up. Will hit the ring sometimes ;)

2. Condtion: JD has a ball in his hand and is inside the 3 D but outside 2D .

What will happen : He will not look at the ring or board and will miss

3. Condtion: JD has a ball in his hand outside the 3D

What will happen: JD will not shoot and convert it to condition 1.

but on his day he can score from anywhere (afterall he is a sardar) :)

But surely JD ROCKSS!!!! (a complete sardar ) ;)

------------ERROR--------------

2007-02-14T03:10:00.000-08:00

I was (sorry am) a student of IIT BOMBAY (cse :( )

This blog is posted in the lightest of my moods and is not intended to hurt anybody.

In 11th class i joined bansals (dont ask y) cleared jee (dont know how) and then came to bombay and then joined cse (biggest mistake ever done).
Caution : If you dont want any peace or fun in your life then fight for cse dept and become a big geek.

I thought that in iit it wont be this much pain as was during jee. Now i guess i see myself in coming 4 years in front of the comp trying to code some programs to the best of my knowledge. :)

Sports are a big respite i guess that may entertain me.

All this was just a 2 minute job. May not be properly framed and not all true.

And after all life is not so much pain. Its a hell lotta fun. (Nite-outs, basky, footer, workout, hn, and ofcourse gaming)