last post in here

i hope this is my last post here, because from now on, i plan to post on my own little side: www.cynosarges.com/wpblog, as much as possible.

the social problem of atheism

Ok, so you are convinced there is no god and you are sure that you want to renounce the whole religion thing, so you go ahead and... get stuck with one problem - The problem of the vacuum!
When you are religious, there are certain rituals, celebrations, prayers and addnl. paraphernalia that give some "meaning" to the whole jingbang. Lets put it this way - towards the end of the year, hindus celebrate diwali, muslims celebrate id, christians celebrate christmas, atheists twiddle thumbs.
Some atheists give up and spend time celebrating their former religious festivals anyway, but thats a band aid solution. It is not a very nice thing for the long term.
you see, festivals are only partly religious, they also serve other purposes - they help bring people together, it is an opportunity to meet old friends, make new ones, business gets settled, partnerships are formed, marriages get finalized and finally, it is simply a way of having a "mass good time". The rituals that exist also serve a partly non-religious purpose - think about going to church, the shared rituals partly serve as glue for the community.
Perhaps atheists too need to evolve into a community - a community with traditions, rituals and rules and regulations. Perhaps it sounds binding, but the rules could be simple - respect life, help your neighbors. the rituals could be useful too - perhaps a renactment of darwin getting the first idea of evolution. Tradition could be turned on its head by having the tradition of regularly examining our traditions and beliefs :)
There are benefits to becoming a community - real tangible benefits! in the diamond age, NS talks about a freelance thief who steals from many people, but finally meets his end when he steals from and injures a member of the Ashanti, who are even today a successful group with a strong sense of identity. In another part of the book, he talks about the benefits of belonging to tribes, especially tribes that are massively successful.
I know where I am now, I do not belong to any tribe and i know ther are times when i would want to - and i know that my tribe does not bother about color, race, caste, language, or birth. the tribe-to-be that i belong to worships more than anything the god of reason. The high priest here is mathematics. This tribe-to-be has yet to evolve a culture of its own, rules of its own, it has no tradition expect for the tradition of asking questions and looking for real answers, not mystical ones.
But there is a lot missing from this tribe: a sense of belonging is chief amongst them, rituals full of meaning, perhaps even a sense of outrage...

Signal-Noise Ratio and Zen

The Zen master and his student were climbing up Mount Fuji. It was cold and foggy and they could not see the top of the mountain. The student was miserable and the master was stoic. Suddenly, the sun came out and the fog disappeared and there, in the distance, they could see the brilliant, snow-covered roof of Japan - Fujiyamas peak! The student was amazed at the beauty of the mountain and could not hold back. "Master, see how beautiful Fujiyama looks!" he exclaimed. The master kept quiet and continued walking. The student felt a little disappointed at the master's lack of reaction. "Master, do you see Fujiyama? Don't you think it looks beautiful? I think it looks serene and majestic - truly a blessing to our nation. Dont you agree, master? Doesn't it look great". The master sighed, looked at the student, and said, "Yes it does, but did you have to say it?"

Signal-Noise Ratio

First there is the thought - the purest creation of the conscious mind. SNR: 10:0

Then we articulate the thought into the language we are internally most comfortable with, and this is the first point at which noise creeps in - we try to retrofit the thought into the slots that our mother tongue provides for us. SNR: 9:1

We then translate the thought into the language that is spoken around us: SNR: 7:3

We then translate the thought into words that can be spoken without shame in our peer groups. SNR: 6:4

Sometimes we write down these words and thus retrofit the thought again into the zeitgeist's style. SNR: 5:5

Half our writing is noise!

Forget the numbers; get the principle.

How do you understand "mu" if you are a Cockney or a redneck? The Zen Buddhists know what mu means. How do you understand "love" if you are a Confucian Chinese? The rednecks know what love means.
Yes, the rednecks still have no word for "mu" and the Chinese still have no word for love.

Short Posts vs. Long Writeups

Short posts are like eating bits of chocolate - they give immediate, momentary pleasure. Long posts are like making a nine-course meal - you slave and slog over them and then hope everything has come out right and hope that the consumers like it. But usually, something goes wrong there and you don't win half the praise you desire, so you soon give up.
Some people keep working on it though, they sacrifice the pleasures of chocolate for the more refined enjoyment of a full meal; in time they iron out the kinks and gain praise and fame.
But right now, I'm having chocolate :)

when do you start....

living?
For the first 20 years of your life, you are under the thumb of your parents - in pretty much every sense of the term. Then you take 10 years to recover from those mental depravations - to find yourself. Only at 30 do you really start life! Anyone who says that he has been able to throw off the cloak of his parents before that is either supersmart or has no idea what he is talking about. And that goes for you too, ladies!
The funniest part about it is when i meet people at the age 33-35 who tell me that their life as they know it is over - their opportunities all gone! Or maybe its tragic; I could never tell the difference...

Vivid Dreams

Over the past few days, I've had some rather vivid dreams; stranger and more realistic than most others I've had.
The first one made me a gangster in the Satya mould. You know what I mean, the kind of gangster who will fade easily into a Mumbai mill worker crowd, sweaty, unshaven, miserable looking and mean.
The second made involved people from my office and an operation on someone.
And today was a dream about rats!
And my recurring dream is always about lot of snakes...
My next posts are going to be about these dreams in detail. Maybe i will see a real pattern in there.
And there are posts I need to make about tales from mumbai, apologies long pending, and long tiring days that never end...

Why I love reservations

When I was a kid, I hated the idea of reservations. What can I say? I was naive, I was idealistic, I was dumb. I thought because I had not known about some of my closest friends being lowercaste, everyone was like me, casteblind!
Now I know better. Tell me that casteism happens only in the villages and I will tell you that you are the one who is naive. Here ais an example: http://www.ambedkar.org/News/News1207041.htm. Tell me that this does not happen in Mumbai, the "most cosmopolitan" city in the country and watch me laugh at your face. Ask your Mumbai friends to marry lower caste ppl and watch the reaction in the family.
And in case you want something inetresting to watch, heres a good time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBxy1R0jitM

Weapons of reason

Oddly enough, some of the greatest weapons of reason are not fully reasoned out yet. But anyways, for the ones who are interested, here is a partial list of the guns that Reason keeps with her. This list is not complete, not logical, not even useful, but wtf, its my blog, so i can put in anything here:

Godels Incompleteness Theorem
Russels Principia Mathematica
Occams Razor

Any others?