Thursday, April 16, 2009

Democracy- the only alternative?

What if you lived in 15th Century Italy and championed the cause of heliocentrism(the theory that says that the sun is at the centre of the universe)??

If one would have polled people from across Europe during that period, they would have all vouched for the geocentric view(the theory that says that the earth is at the centre of the universe). And because we the bearers of the democratic institution would have basked in it's glory and fortefied that claim. But we now know for sure that Galileo was right.

Rightfully, in questions of science, we all know that theories are discussed before being awarded it's right to become a law. Voting, polling and democracy does not drive scientific temper. This is so because the whole population is not capable enough to figure out the analytical disposition towards science. This is not just the case with science but also with art, music, technology, law and other fields of human achievement.

Then why is this different when it comes to choosing our elected representatives. We all have something against the people standing for the elections. What about those that vote them to power! Do you think that a large section of the population that can't read or write, that can get influenced by caste and religion based politics rather than economic reforms vote the right candidate to power? How can they take informed decisions when the information itself is so thinly disguised in various coatings of populism? Would that be a just and right outcome?

How can a nation where 99% marriages are based on caste and religion, where Ram Mandir and Valentine's day become major issues, where statues burn along with the city and where a film or an artist needs multiple permissions to gain rightful access to freedom of his expression?

Leave it to the custodians of democracy to see it through. We will be a witness to another jamboree of election mayhem where we hope that people take rational decisions. Lastly...as Galileo said 'the opinion of thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual'. Reasonings fail in a democracy.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

List of things to do....

We don't do a lot of things that we are supposed to do. Sounds weird!!

We are supposed to exercise regularly;
supposed to not eat fatty food;
supposed to give up someking;
give up drinking;
drive slowly;
eat slowly;
walk fast;
sleep early;
talk less;
spend less;
earn more;
stop complaining;
stop nagging;
rise early.....

Wish we could do all that! I don't know if then things would have been easier but this world would have been a lot tougher and weirder.

Makeover

How can we change the world and why should we change the world???

Because the world isn't perfect;
Because we have inherited it;
Because we shall not leave it the way it was given to us;
Because we get education so that we can make changes;
Because this world is a beautiful place that should remain so.

Maybe it isn't such a bad idea to change your world. Your world might be this planet, one's country or state or city or town or locality. Everything needs a healing, a makeover, a change. We need not change the whole 'world' as such. We can change as per our canvas. Maybe by doing little things right or taking that extra effort of make it right.

Afterall.....a change is a change and it can be soothing to oneself.

Artificial Intelligence

What great fun when search engine sites like Google assimilated data from everywhere and made life simpler for us! It enabled us to search for anything and everything. We could just dive into the toolbar and search for any topic on earth. For sure we knew that we would get an answer. Answer to the questions for our own little universe.

But search is not just limited finding data or information. All the indications point to a possibility of the assemblage of a system that would answer anything. Soemthing like the modern day Oracle. It would be traversing onto the human quest for artificial intelligence.

I lost my spectacles in the morning. I must have misplaced it somewhere. But how wonderful would it be if I could just type into google with 'specs whereabouts'.
Not as intelligent a machine as that but something that can think on its own. Something can can be creative and non-biased. Intelligence is all about being creative and innovative.

So the question isn't if there could be a machine that can do all that but how soon. Till then, I will search my specs on my own.