The Snowflake Effect

Whats with people  wishing their near & dear ones on facebook? Ok, I can understand if the loved one stay far away and all, but wishing family who lives together 24X7, that too posted on their own timeline (sometimes even the concerned person doesn't even have a fB profile). The other day a young lady was wishing her grandmother, who absolutely can't read, wishing on FB. Mother's day wishes are posted on FB, while the mother is busy slogging in the kitchen. Is the kisses and hugs from a mother to her child marked with *on FB are more sweeter than those given in person?? or you need to prove how much you love your kid.....

Same goes with photographs....what happened to the time when sharing photos was sharing of memories of trips taken together, birthday celebrations, festivals, special occasions, wedding photos, events which had a meaning..... now everyone bombards you with information of where they are eating, sitting, talking and may be in the near future where they are shi*ing. A selfie taken in every angle possible, photograph of every ordinary dish made, photo of every dinner....list goes on........

And all this goes with the whole "herd mentality"

Is the self esteem of this generation gone so low, that it requires appreciation everyday? May be the "Snowflake effect" is on the verge of taking place or has taken place. To quote Trey Willis "The Self-Esteem Movement was the catalyst for the shift in cultural norms and values that has allegedly ruined an entire generation. Everyone was suddenly a special and unique little snowflake. Trophies were mandatory. Success became an expectation. We have been corrupted by self-esteem".

I fear what the next generation will turn out.........

sigh....

Only One quote comes to my mind:
“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

All you Zombies

"All you zombies" is a science fiction short story by Robert A Heinlein. Its one of my favorites "paradox" stories.

Following is the link for the pdf version:
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/303/heinlein_all_you_zombies.pdf

Time Travel

They laughed, danced, drank their hearts out as the war came to an end. As thankful as they were about being alive, they couldn't stop thinking about the horrors of the war. Talks about the enemy, bullets, casualties, victory, loss, echoed the whole room. Among all this discussion there was one mystery that remained unsolved.... who was he??? Stephan Golosov said "It was the night before Germany attacked Stalingard, that the rumor started". To which Vladimir Kulbertinov replied "It cant be a rumor, i did see him.... how can you explain a naked american in the middle of a battle??"

Today was James Arnold's luckiest day. As an historian, it was a real breakthrough for his research. Getting the permission was a way tougher job than the research itself and now finally he had an assess to 1st hand information. He had to just go the lab, wear the suit, get into chamber and in a split second come face to face with reality or in this case..... the past. It was the 23rd century and anything was possible in the field of research. He was to be a mere "observer" and not do anything that may risk changing the course of history. He had planned this weeks, as to where it was safe to appear, where would he not get noticed.

Alas!! who would have thought the setting on the chamber required more calibration...  

Are we Important? : The Bigger Picture

Heat Death of the Universe:

It may be a theory, but it really puts things into perspective. We are so engrossed in the mundane things of our life that sometimes we fail to see the bigger  picture.

According to the second law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy tends to increase in an isolated system, over a period of time (That will be trillion, trillion, trillion......trillion years....can  even say eternity) the whole of the universe will go from a state of lesser chaos to a state of greater chaos. Food goes stale, iron rusts, bodies rot, trees  rot, cloth tears, buildings come apart, stars burn out.... all this will led to an increased state of entropy, which means there will be a time wherein the whole universe will be in a state of energy equilibrium. No energy will be transferred, no work will be done, everything will  cease to exists. This phase will be called as the 'Dark Era'.

Where do we stand??

In this long long run from the big bang to the dark era,  Are we just a mere coincidence?? or just another chemical reaction wherein the earth was in the right time, right place and right temperature in this chaotic universe?? On the other hand the probability of finding another life form in the universe is so rare that its nearly zero. So in this regard are we special to be in the exact minute speck of time in the universe, in which we have maintained order in the ever growing disorder around us?? 

As Douglas Adams used the metaphor of a living puddle examining its own shape, since, to those living creatures, the universe may appear to fit them perfectly (while in fact, they simply fit the universe perfectly),

until and unless we do not acknowledge are very own stand in this universe, we will only remain a small phase of time.

Marvin: The Depressed android

In all of the sci fiction novels i have read, I must say Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy is one of the very few which combines sci-fic with humor. Douglas Adams has the ability to combine or compare (or for that matter use in the same sentence) something huge like the universe and something very very ordinary like a 'towel'. Where else have we heard of a chronically depressed android?? We are all familiar with the Viki, Sonny,C-3PO, R2-D2, T-800, T-1000, Gnut, Gerty and even the Bicentennial Man. But a 'Paranoid robot'??? Its something only Adams can come up with. Mavin, is one of my favourite androids. I mean which other android do we know of writes a lullaby? which goes by:

Now the world has gone to bed
Darkness won't engulf my head
I can see by Infra-red
How I hate the night
Now I lay me down to sleep
Try to count electric sheep
Sweet dream wishes you can keep
How I hate the night


According to Marvin He was created by 'Sirius Cybernetics Corporation' which the corporation's marketing division defined as "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With". Nevertheless he was made against his own wishes: "I didn't ask to be made: no one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter. I don't think it even occurred to them that I might have feelings. After I was made, I was left in a dark room for six months... and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I called for succour in my loneliness, but did anyone come? Did they hell. My first and only true friend was a small rat. One day it crawled into a cavity in my right ankle and died. I have a horrible feeling it's still there..." 

Another funny episode would be the one when the crew of Heart of Gold are teleported  from the planet Magrathea into the future to the 'Restaurant at the End of the world' which in fact, was constructed on the ruins of the planet they had just left, and, while there, they find Marvin, who had been waiting patiently for their return for 576,000,003,579 years (he counted them).  According to Marvin, "The first ten million years were the worst, and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline." Apparently, the best conversation he'd had was over 40 million years ago, and that was with a coffee machine.

So even with "all the diodes down his left side," which have been giving him severe pain for the whole of his existence..... he always makes me smile :-)

The Einstein Approximation: A review of TBBT

The Big Bang Theory, the sitcom is a treat to watch. Just watched season 3 episode 14 and I have to say its going in my list of all time favorites. In this episode Sheldon (at his usual best) is trying to solve a physic's problem by trying to free his prefrontal cortex by occupying his basal ganglia with a menial job (just the way Einstein did by doing a job at the patent Office) . And ofcourse the menial job being at Penny's cheesefactory. The explanation he gives is "I asked myself what is the most mind-numbing, pedestrian job conceivable and three answers came to mind: a toll booth employees, an Apple store genius, and what penny does. Because I don't like touch other peoples' coins and I refuse to contribute to the devaluation of the word genius, here I am" (I just love this guy). And oh yes everytime he does "Bazinga" in the ball pit is absolutely hilarious. The surprise of the episode was Yeardley Smith:-)

The script of Big Bang is well researched and logical. Each dialogue is well conceived and is never out of context.

Please Watch the episode, it will make your day!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKLFrjFA5xY

And Oh yes... the classic " Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. And as it always has, rock crushes scissors"

Sci-fic 100 years back

"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same"
This was written by H G Wells, in his book 'War of the worlds'. It still amazes me that this book was written in 1898, more than 100 years back.