You have journeyed all the way with me, and we are here. Let me remind you of our wonderful journey together. And let me re-introduce myself. I am the Entrepreneur. I was tiny and unicellular, I moved around in the prebiotic soup. I am sure , you mighty observer, must have dismissed my micro and insignificant activity. I was helpless and vulnerable, and many the likes of me just vanished without a whimper.I somehow managed to survive, barely. I just hanged on enough till the next major evolutionary step. Despite the harsh conditions (more…)

Tags: Evolution, Physical law, Psychology, Reality, Social Sciences

Courtsey: farm1.static.flickr.com

I love communicating with people and sharing ideas with them. And most of the conversations are
fulfilling and productive and we both end up learning from each other. However, there are times
when I find some glaring logical fallacies in our language which hinder communication and stunt intellectual growth.I do not mind them when we are talking informally, but in any serious conversation logical fallacies can create major misunderstandings.Those are the ghosts worthy of exorcism. Here are some common logical fallacies which I observed.

(1) “Statistically most of the Indian policemen have mustache. Mohan is an Indian policeman hence he should have a mustache.”
This sort of argument suffers from a basic statistical mistake. Statistics talks about things in bulk. It does not say anything about one particular case. Hence to draw particular conclusions from statistical data is fallacious. Mohan might be an Indian policeman but you cannot infer from that that he must have a mustache.

(2) “I found evidence of no disease.”
There is no such thing like (more…)

Tags: Fallacy, Informal Logic, Loaded question, Luck, Philosophy, Philosophy of Logic, Statistics

Mostly it is the questions which really matter. Einstein said that if we ask the right questions, much of our work is done.

Not a while ago I did an interesting experiment. I wanted to see how much order can emerge from randomness.So I made these two computer programs.And the results suggested some powerful questions. (more…)

Tags: Giant Panda, Humour, Program stream, Randomness

“Gravitation can not be held responsible for people falling in love”

~ Einstein.

Last time I talked about Quantum Tunneling, a strange phenomena whereby particles tunnel through barriers where they are not supposed to be according to classical physics.

But according to Quantum Physics, this phenomena happens at precisely the rate the maths of quantum physics predicts.

Quantum tunneling is the secret behind the tunnel diode. So, the next time you listen to a high quality stereo music, remember that none of it would have existed if quantum tunneling did not exist.

Today I will talk about Time Travel. (more…)

Tags: Einstein, General Relativity, Kip Thorne, Quantum mechanics, Relativity, Stephen Hawking, Time Travel

“You are not thinking.You are merely being logical.”

~ Neils Bohr to Einstein when Einstein rejected the Quantum Theory.

Stephen Hawking founded a new branch of physics called quantum cosmology. At first glance it may sound quite paradoxical since quantum physics is the physics of very small sub atomic particles and cosmology is the physics of very large and distant objects like stars and galaxy. And the laws of physics governing the micro world and the macro world are so different that they seem irreconcilable.

It is the idea of quantum cosmology which holds the key to the feasibility of parallel universe. (more…)

Tags: Einstein, Quantum mechanics, Theory of Relativity

In the last post I promised to elaborate on what I wrote and to give an escape plan to evade our imminent doom. Even though this post can be read independently, it would be good if you read the previous entry before or after you read this one.(If I were you, I would read it ‘after’ I read this one.Sometimes, reading backwards gives you a novel perspective on things.[1])

So here it goes.

Two stories. Nothing highfalutin: just two stories, no big deal.

First Story: Romance across multiple universe.

Science fiction writer John Wyndham wrote a short story called “Random Quest”. In the story the protagonist Colin Trafford is a physicist and a victim of a botched experiment. By a freak accident in some high energy experiment, the fabric of space-time is torn and our hero falls into a wormhole to emerge in a parallel universe[2].

It is theorized in physics that at each moment the time forks out producing two(or more than two) different sequences in time, hence producing two(or more than two) parallel universe. (more…)

Tags: collapsing universe, Cosmology, Edwin Abbot Abbot, Flatland, John Wyndham, Multiverse, Parallel Universe, Random Quest, Romance of Many Dimensions

I will tell it very succinctly: It all started with a ‘ big bang‘, and it is all going to end with a ‘big crunch’;(most probably.)

When they stumbled upon the debris of the creation of our universe, they thought that it was bird poop. And they shared a Noble prize for that.

Radioastronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson detected some strange noises coming from nowhere. Of course, there had to be a mistake. They heard it again and concluded that a bird had pooped on their disc detectors. Apparently, they did not find any bird poops, or any other fecal mater much to their surprise and dismay. So, they set out to calculate the exact properties of those mysterious noises emanating from nether land.

While Penzias and Wilson were ruminating about bird poops and micro-fecal matters, other scientists were busy theorizing about the origin of the universe.And they figured out the exact (more…)

Tags: Arno Penzias, Big Bang, Big Crunch, Bird Poop, Cosmology, Hubble's Law, Hubble’s Law, Metric expansion of space, Red Shift, Robert Wilson

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S
relativity

~ Albert Einstein.

From the very beginning Albert Einstein’s life seemed to be an endless series of failures. He wasn’t able to speak before 3.5 years of age. His parents feared that he might be retarded.

When he was in school he was known to ask silly questions. His teachers said that he was so dumb that he was coming in the way of other student’s progress. One teacher directly asked him to spare others and leave the school. Naturally Einstein didn’t like going to school. He dropped out of high school, as a result he could not get a regular job. To secure a job he had to take a special exam. He failed in it. He took it again and then passed. He had to take a low paying, boring job as a patent clerk. There he got lots of time to think.

Like any genius he had a knack of asking very simple questions having earth-shattering results if you try to answer them(and answer them correctly). In his famous quote he said that 90% of the job is done if you ask the right questions. And he asked one simple question which changed the course of history and how we view the universe (more…)

Tags: Albert Einstein, Newton's laws of motion, Special relativity, Speed of light, Theory of Relativity, Time Travel

I have been asked, why this potpourri?(For another thread of answer see the about page).
Wouldn’t it be better if I stick to just one topic(say,entrepreneurship or maths)? This potpourri gives an impression that there is no unifying  theme,it is haphazard.

I have to say that this view springs from a false notion. And that is the notion of ’scholasticism’, that we study theory according to fixed demarcated subjects. While in reality, real thinkers don’t think in terms of subjects. What motivates them is questions; deep, penetrating, burning,eternal questions. The question is the  unifying theme, not a category. Why do the stars shine? Why are some  people rich and some poor? Is there a soul? How can I get her to like me?etc.

Any great advance comes not through religiously becoming a scholar of a particular subject, but from following a particular question and going down the rabbit hole.Take for example the advent of computers.Computer technology was actually a result of trying to solve a philosophical riddle concerning the foundations of mathematics (also noted by Gregory Chaitin).

Stage 1-Russel’s Paradox:The story started with Bertrand Russel. He was a well known mathematician turned philosopher turned humanist. He saw some troubling paradoxes in philosophy. One of them is the following: “In a small town there is a barber. And he shaves all those who do not shave themselves(and not anyone else). Does he shave himself?” At once you can see a paradox in this question.If he shaves himself then he is shaving someone who shaves himself. Hence he cannot shave himself. If he is not shaving himself then he is not shaving someone who does not shave himself in the town. Hence, he cannot not shave himself. We reach totally opposite conclusions each time.(Actually his statement is set theoretic, but barber example is a good way to express it in layman terms)

This conundrum may seem trivial, but some of the best minds of those times were grappling with it.

Stage 2-Hilbert’s escape plan: (more…)

Tags: Alan Turing, Bertrand Russel, Kurt Godel, Turing Machine, Von Neumann Architecture