Selfish Gene

Read this book sometime back. I haven't read Darwin's book "Origin of species" but have a working knowledge of his idea from high school science. One of Darwin's theory (on evolution) is survival of the fittest. This book goes one step further and explains that it is the survival of the fittest gene and not an individual as most of us might think. If genes are taken as the survival units then lot of evolutionary behaviours can be explained, according to this book.

I am not a biology student but I could easily understand all the ideas and concepts put forth in the book. Also found myself agreeing with most of them.

One thing, that I found very interesting, was the explanation on seemingly selfless behaviour of organisms - Instances like when an organism sacrifices its life for its offspring or sibling. The book explains how this still falls under the shadow of the theory of evolution and does not go against it.

Another interesting part in the book was the section on game of life. In this game one has two choices, you can either cooperate with others or you can engage in conflict. Depending on what your opponent does - when you cooparete or fight - you win or loose some points. The game was contested in a computer among lot prorams, each with its own strategy to fight or cooperate. The program which won the contest was the simplest of the lot. It statrts by coperating and then repeats whatever the opponent does. It is explained in detail in the book.

Very interesting book.

What is God - Part II !!

Continuation of my previous post about my thoughts on God.

http://ideasinca.blogspot.com/2005/07/what-is-god.html

So, if we assume life takes care of itself, where is God ? Is he sitting somewhere up there in the clouds looking at all of us ?
The explanation which sounds most credible to me is the one I heard in the story of Prahalad.
http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/holi/narashimha.htm ( the link is for story of Prahalad ). When is Dad asks him where is God - he answers God is everywhere. If God has created this world then it is only logical that everything here is a manifestation of God. He can be found in anything and everything in this universe. This sounds very similar to how Yoda describes "force" in Star Wars - "The force that binds us all..".

It is only in the name. If God - or an associated religion - is something one does not like very much then we can call it the force, if it is not the force then we can call it nature's wonder. Force or nature's wonder is something most people will agree on mostly due to what God, and the usually attached religion, has come to mean in human history. But in the end we are refering to one and the same thing. It is not something completely beyond humans. Most of us - old enough to have lived for millions of seconds - would have had few seconds of exposure to that force. If we are God's creation then we should have some God nature in us and should be able to feel him.

When God is seen as the all pervading force, it makes all the difference - from believing that there is God, we go where we know that there is God !!

Victoria pictures

A snap from Victoria.













After many attempts to capture the spectacular fireworks at Victoria, managed to get couple of pictures right.

What is God !

Recently read post by Mukundan on God. http://chennaicentral.blogspot.com/
It brought back some memories from that time in life when the biggest challenge was to find the meaning of life !!
Here's my take on the topic - the issue, as I see it ,is God is being treaed like some local Zamindar - he gest upset with you if you are not willing to acknowledge his powers. He then does a show of power to prove who is stronger. As we have enough problems in life already, we do not want to add on to it by antagonizing one more powerful person. So might as well sing songs in his praise and in return get some favours from him.
God, being God, probably deserves a little better treatment than this. I am not able to believe God ever punishes anyone. Or in other words I dont see any need for God to micro-manage at the individual level - making sure the people get punished for their actions. Here, I agree with Mukundan's post - we are bound by our own Karma - actions. Once we have chosen to act we cannot escape the results or consequences of our actions. The actions will come back and reward us or punish us depending only on those actions.

So, what are the right actions and what are the wrong ones? For our own welfare, any actions that does not come back to hurt us are right . In a broader sense how do we define right ? - We can start with an assumption that life is right and conclude that any action that promotes life is right. Action which do not hinder life will not come back to hurt us and hence will be right for life - our life.

So, where is God now ?

I am thinking God could be involved in starting the whole process - ( was it Big Bang ? ). Once life unfolds, it takes care of itself. A line from the movie Jurassic Park comes to my mind - "Life finds a way" - http://www.garnersclassics.com/qpark.htm -

this is becoming a long one. will post part II on my thoughts on God.


more to come...

Books - Guns germ and Steel

Last book I read -

Really enjoyed this book. As every other book, I did not manage to finish this one. Author tries to answer the question - why is it that Europeans were the ones to go out and rule the world and not any other race ? Are they genetically superior or is it just due to turn of events ? -

Most of us would have had this discussion. I think the author has done a good job explaining the various factors involved and how these factors come into play. The approach was scientific enough to keep one ineterested and not too deep that one would get lost.

One ineteresting fact from the book - I did not know before - the arrangement of keys in QWERT keyboard was to slow down typing. This was done to avoid typewritters from getting stuck. The author points this out as an argument saying western civilaztion does not always favour innovation. Apparently, once the typewritters improved better keyboard designs came about. These designs were stopped before they gained popularity.

There is a lot interesting facts in the book. Highl recommeneded.

Anniyan - whats on Shankar's mind

Recently watched the movie Anniyan. The best part of the movie was Vivek's comedy -amazingly timed one -liners ! The main story, though, left a feeling of having seen it before- A common man unable to tolerate the apathy & corruption in Indian society starts to set it right with some stunts. List - "Gentleman", "Indian", "Anniyan"
The process is started when the hero has a first hand experience of how bad the society is
- if he hasn't already felt it by watching Shankar's movies :)

In all three movies Shankar has picked well-built stars for the main role. Surya should probably add little more muscles before he can qualify, Vijay will probably never qualify . Siddharth was an exception as the movie was titled "Boys" and also "Boys" is beyond the scope of current discussion.

The hero almost always leaves a clue - being a nice guy he has to help the cops solve the crime before the movie gets over. The innovation has been from an ancient tamil character in "Indian" to jumbled words in Tamil-Sanskrit combo in "Anniyan". I forget what happens in "Gentleman".

The main character is either a Brahmin by birth in real life or is made one in the movie.

I have to watch the movies again to dig more similarities. I am sure there are more to come.