Reality, Destiny and some philosophy

While I sat looking at the lecture on quantum mechanics which preceded the lecture about Einsteins theory about gravitation, I realised the inevitable. It was high time for me to dig into the uber nerd stuff and research quantum mechanics. What started as a random idea to fulfil curiosity ended up in me questioning reality.
Obviously I didnt go into the hardcore mathematics stuff as that would have been like gibberish to me but I did get the gust of the whole idea. So heres the thing. Heisenberg wanted to define atom and quite literally had a crazy fit one night. That night the quantum mechanics was born. For quantum mechanics to work, however, two of the one thing had to be considered wrong:
1) Distant events do not effect each other
2) Properties we wish to observe exist before measurement.
It was a question to choose between locality and reality. The former meant that everything was interconnected in a space-time continuum which would have fit snugly with Einsteins 4th dimension idea. The latter meant that lets say if your shirt’s color is blue then its because you see it blue and everybody else sees it as blue. Its weird I know but thats what the maths pointed out. One of them had to go.
Enters Schrodinger, with his infamous cat. In an attempt to describe an orbital, Schrodinger came up with a wave equation. It is used to identify characters of a particle in the space time continuum. According to the wave equation, every object is in a state of quantum superposition. Putting it in layman words, every object’s fate is branched and at any given moment of time it can adopt any of the next branch. Its like calculating probabilities. To help understand his own equation, Schrodinger invented a thought process. The cat. Lets say the cat is inside a box with a lethal radioactive substance which is emitted once the box is closed. As soon as the box is closed the radioactive material is released. The question is, whether the cat is dead or alive OR is the cat dead and alive right now…and the true value can only be known when we open the box.
All of this lead to Heisenberg coming up with his Uncertainty Principle in which he says that measuring the momentum and position of an electron at the same time is impossible. Fair enough. Anyway, right about this time, the scientists started ganging up. Heisenberg and Niels Bohr endorsed the quantum mechanics and firmly believed that reality had to be abandoned. They said that everything is in superposition and appears the way we want it to be.
You might be saying “What the hell?” How can the whole world see the world in a way it actually is not…The reason we see our world as we do is because of what we use to observe. Human body is just an adequate measuring device. We all create a classical world around us. There could be other classical worlds different from ours.
Did I hear you say the world Multiverse? Well somebody else that time thought so too. It was Mr Everett who came up with the Many World Interpretation, generally called the MWI. Everett added nothing new to the quantum mechanics, rather he removed the restriction of abandoning locality or reality. It tells us that the universes are both determined and undetermined. It is in a superposition and the universe itself is a wave function. It means that all possible outcomes of an event are being played in different copies of our universe in a determined fashion. It happens by our universe going through decoherence and forming a new universe. Decoherence is the fastest process ever in the universe. It means the instantaneous splitting of some superposition elements to form altogether a new reality. This is basically the concept of multi-verse idea. However this theory has been easily proved false many times. I would just state two basic reasons. One is that according to the de cloning theory, no matter or wave can be cloned this way and hence the cloning of a wave function viz a universe to form a reality is impossible. Similarly, the idea of one universe somehow giving brith to new universes pulverises the law of conservation of energy, without which almost all of present day physics is rendered useless.
Moving back to our topic of reality and locality. Einstein, being a classical scientist openly refuted the idea that reality had to be abandoned for quantum mechanics to work. I would like to quote him here:
“Do you really think the moon only exists when you look at it?”
“God does not play dice.”
This is where things get interesting. Since the physical background is now clear, let us move to the bigger and higher question. The philosophical question.
Research has clearly shown one thing. Reality has to be abandoned for quantum mechanics to work. It wont work any other way. Experiments like the teleportation of charges on photons and teleporting of light to name a few have patronised this point. So lets come to the philosophy.
Does this mean that everything that exists has a value? It means that the universe is determined. Everything already had a value. Every variable has a solution and it is written. I mean its comforting and discomforting at the same time. This also means that distant objects do not influence each other’s end result.
Lets put it more err lamely. Our destiny is written. It’s fixed. Whatever has to be done will be done. And two contrary and unrelated objects/sprites cannot alter each others fate by their own mere actions. But then again, isnt that what Islam says. Islam says that whatever has to happen at any time in future is already written and fixed. It says that the fate of every being on earth is determined. What does this mean? Clearly, it is an open proof that Allah is All Knower and that any claim that Holy Quran is false is baseless. How can a book revealed in 610AD say what was proved more than 1300 years later? Oh! It can say it after all its the Scripture of the Most Knowledgeable and the All Knower.
However even some Muslims wonder that if everything is fixed, what use is praying and restraining from sins if the end is inevitable. I am no scholar. Not even close. But I quote Paulo Coelho here: “If you desire truly, the whole universe conspires for you to get it.” Point being, who says you cant re-write destiny? Work hard, pray intensely and maybe you can do the impossible. Lastly in regards to this, Allah knows the best. Whatever He does, there is some reason behind it. Maybe the deeper secrets and the ultimate truth about universe and reality are secrets that Allah has kept covert from humans for the right time is not nigh.
We deviated a lot didnt we? I wrote all of this to prove one big fat point. The reality we know might not just exist. We might be holograms. We might be a virtual simulation. We might be viewing the world from a very narrow point of view causing us all humans to see the typical world we live in. Truth be spoken, I dont think we are going to find the answers to these questions anytime. Some questions are better left unanswered.

Weirdness

Weirdness lies in all of us. We are all uniquely flawed. We are all weird and have our very own unique set of characteristics that seldom resemble anybody else. This is what makes us all unique. This is what makes us all special. Ironic as this may seem but most of the people do not value this ‘special-ness’ the same way. Occasionally it is in fact termed as weirdness, which is theoretically very wrong.

What is weirdness? A guy with a crazy hair-cut? A dude who is very awkward and clever at the same time? A boy who is not a socialite and has creepy habits? If these and their correspondences do not define weirdness, I don’t know what does. Interestingly if one observes, all this features also distinguish the personality from the crowd, making him/her special. Usually when we meet someone new, we tend to remember them with one specific characteristic that they have which keeps them apart from the others in our memory bank. That characteristic ranges from a unique name to a unique dressing code. Mind it that I say unique and not weird, crazy or awkward. Hence it is safe to imply that weird people tend to end up more in our memory banks and influence us more. There is another element to this. Weird people lead interesting lives. But hold on, by weird I specifically mean people who have weirdness in abundance. It’s a quality. Believe me. So a weird person does everything weirdly, that’s because he is weird.

On further thinking, we can reluctantly imply this phenomenon to an interesting field. Popularity is a very desired abstract material. A popular person can be very influential. There’s no need to dig deep for the evidence of this as it is quiet inevitable how famous celebrities shape the future fashion. So, the point under consideration here is that are all popular people weird? Is that what makes them special besides their skills? And then the ultimate question: Is weirdness the key to success?

Popular people are weird; this is an interesting statement. Firstly, however there exist all sorts of popular people. From scientists, artists, celebrities to athletes, sportsmen and academicians. Crazy scientist: a well-known term, used to define some scientists, or rather I should say; used to define every great scientist. I mean come on, if Einstein had hairs like me nobody would have been able to distinguish him, but his ‘bomb-astic’ [no pun intended (sarcasm intended though) ] hair simply make him, weirder. Artists have a knack of being weird, doesn’t that make their paintings better. Most of the classic paintings have literally no meaning to a common man like me. Mona Lisa, to me is just a weird woman. Celebrities tend to be even more weirder than they show themselves to be. Honestly answer this question: don’t you think it’s weird, the way artists switch characters, from deadly serious ones to extremely funny ones. Sir Ian McKellen himself playing Magneto, Gandalf and a 90-year Holmes seems so absurd. I mean this shows the diverse nature of the actor making him one of the best actors…and also weirder. Next, it’s a tad difficult proving how sportsmen can be weird. Some aspects I can think of are their playing styles. A cricketer who ‘invents’ a new shot or a new ball suddenly becomes world famous. Usually that new shot or ball seems weird and unearthly. Really really seriously though now that I come to think of it, sportsmen tend to be less weird. But are sportsmen even successful? That can be sorted some other time, but if you can think of some evidence put it in the comments.

Now, is weirdness the ultimate key to success. Nope. After all my arguments and propositions, I would still venture to state that weirdness is not success by any means. Weirdness is simply a quality. It is not a spot, not something to be ashamed of. It is if utilized and used appropriately a weapon to be influential and cast a longer effect on the other person’s mind.

The purpose of all this blabber is to indoctrinate the idea that weirdness which is actually a good thing to have, but is unfortunately presumed to be a bad thing, should not be concealed. We must all appear as we are. Sometimes our perspective of an object is not enough to determine its status globally. It takes a sound mind and reasoning to know where to put what. I would reinstate the already said words in simpler language that we are all humans. We have weaknesses and strengths. Concealing our weaknesses our flaws just to pretend we are perfect, is simply irrational and sheer foolishness. We are humans, we are supposed to make mistakes. How do you suppose to learn without making mistakes? Every fall has a lesson. Without any fall there won’t be any lesson. So bring out and show the world your true self. Don’t be shy. Initially it may seem whacky but in the end it will all turn out to be cool. After all humans are supposed to humans; full of flaws and yet the best of the beings.

Hard Work is irrelevant

Ever since we were little, a belief was inculcated in our little minds. We were told that hard work is the key to success. We were constantly urged to work hard for this would guarantee success in future. Time passed and things changed. Our little brains were now mature and driven by the fantasies of success, which were fuelled by our hard work. Our hands were no longer soft like a tulip’s petal, they were now like cactus in a dry desert. It was then that I realised hard work is irrelevant, that much of my childhood was driven by a baloney.

Imagine your sorrow, when after intense studying for 17 years, you simply do not get good grades in O’ Levels. You would be dejected and depressed. You might lose belief in the concept of success. You might even categorise yourself as a moron, since you believe that you worked hard but failed and now you will end up in the slums. Actually most people would already argue with me, saying that hard work guarantees success. That’s a false perception. I can quite seriously quote examples and events when I didn’t work hard and still got better grades. This is not only my case, such cases are abundant. Then others would say hard work and luck both are important. Well I would not refute luck’s role in success but I am trying to convey another idea.

For me, true success is winning without working hard. Like seriously, hard work is cheating. For instance, you give a day to 2 students to prepare for a test. One gets the time, prepares and polishes his skills. The other one faced some emergency, he did work the same time as the other one though. Next day, the first student has a better result. Reward obtained by hard work is not the true portrait of your skills. It is the reward of some skills you loaned. A reward without hard work is the true show of your flairs without any artificialness. Another analogy here. Let’s say that there are 2 beautiful women. One of them applies loads and loads of make ups (like heaps of layers of it). The other one does nothing and shows her natural beauty in the perfect manner. Both then appear in a beauty contest. Who, do you think, should win? Now, unless you are the owner of a cosmetic products company, you might probably vote for the latter. Nevertheless, in the heart of enterprises, Silicon Valley, following the example of Netflix, all giants don’t want to see you working around office 24/7. They only want to see a good product at the end of the month, no matter if it took 3 weeks or 3 hours to be made. Hard work has no real value then? It is irrelevant? So, is this a new addition in the lies we tell to little children? Should you rely on hard work merely for future success? I would not comment on any of the question. But I believe that you have the right to exercise your judgement after reading my point of view and I truly honour that. So hard work is irrelevant? You be the judge.

WORLD WAR III

Brace yourselves gentlemen, World War III is coming and you better watch out…

So I am reading this book, “Coming up for air” by George Orwell (he is my favorite author, nowadays). In the book, the protagonist continues to believe that World War II is coming and in fact it really is coming since its 1938 but he sees and believes that the majority of people do not have any idea about it. So maybe I have been influenced by the novel…and you know I have started to think that way…or maybe it really is coming!

This is the 21st century. Countries today, even the smallest, are capable of triggering a chain reaction, to cause another World War. I mean, look if one random European country just goes nuts and wages war on another one, other countries would start taking sides and then there will be BOOM! BOOM! BLAST! You get the picture? On the contrary, I believe this time war is going to initiate from Asia. Indo-Pak war flashbacks? Maybe..well lets go into the details. Let me state some recent conditions which have compelled me to think so.

Speaking of our very own country Pakistan first. Ever since Modi got elected, there have been constant swirls of Pakistan and India suddenly getting neck to neck. Well it used to happen before but it has become more frequent now. There is a constant firing of comments from arsenals of both countries foreign offices. Both countries have scandalized and made a much ado about nothing in various other sectors like films (remember Saif Ali Khan? Or Pakistani people nagging Indian films, saying those contained Anti-Pakistan rubbish and God knows what not), cricket (well it’s always been there) and hockey (I just put it here randomly). Ah, and the ever ticking time bomb; Kashmir. Honestly speaking I have no idea what’s going on, but what I am sure about is, that Kashmir makes it to headlines daily from a week or so……actually it’s just always there; Kashmir problem, with its creepy face and just smiling and saying; “Miss me?”. With both countries becoming more and more advanced in warfare (Pakistan is rumored to have the 3rd largest nuclear arsenal) it’s time for us to fret and worry.

Moving on forward, Russia. Lo! The previously supreme USSR had been out of the bigger world stage since a decade or so, but then guess what? Vladimir Putin, the ever charismatic, makes entry. I mean I really like the guy Putin, somewhat (would love to read his autobiography/biography). With the Ukraine problem in the past, it is evident that Russia no longer wants to sit back and watch. It wants to have a say in the world, and believe me when Putin wants something, he gets it xD. I am sounding like a Putin fan, gosh. Thus, Russia is all geared up.

China…the great. US financial analyst ranging from NPR’s Plant Money to WalStreet’s analyst all say that China’s economy is crashing as its stock exchange did in this summer. What many of them do not see is that, China’s stock exchange crashing doesn’t mean its economy is crashing. Although, China’s economy is slowing down but one must keep this in mind that now China is one heck of a developed country and when a country becomes bigger, progress becomes slower and more difficult to achieve. As simple as that. Getting back to the topic, China is in perhaps the best condition right now, as a nation to threat US dominance. With a couple of good allies, China can shift the flux of power to east. It has a formidable army and sufficient resources. Interestingly China has the upper hand as well in terms of technology as China is literally bustling with teen hackers, who are easily capable of hacking into many of the worlds computers/servers easily.

Then the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries, which have had good years in the past, thanks to their huge oil reserves. Now the oil reserves are no longer as lucrative as the past and so is the interest of Western countries decreasing…These countries might not be superpowers themselves but they have the potential to side with any other country and turn the tide.

Palestine and Israeli conflict, is constantly making world peace vulnerable and I guess not much information is required for the reader to guess that this conflict is probably one of the biggest world issue since a decade or so.

European nations….well they are those serene nations, who just go on and on and on. There are hardly traces of conflicts within them and they being a cause of WWIII seems implausible.

USA, is always prepared for a war. It has the necessary resources, military and the guts to go at war with any of the nations and hope for victory. By improving relations with Cuba, USA has reached a huge milestone and removed a strong hold of communism from the continent more or less.

Till now, we have been talking about countries and nations. Let’s talk about the faction of people who have shaped the world after 1980s. The so called terrorists. By now, terrorists no longer pose a threat like they did in the past. Though Al-Qaeda has been neutralized, ISIS has emerged as another group. However I won’t comment much on these groups and would leave their details and analysis to your own perspective J. What matters is that these people are definitely going to be the commandos if a war ever starts.

However, if war happens. I mean World War III happens as soon as I think it would; then the end is near. Warfare is now no longer limited to gunpowder or missiles. Space, underwater, aerial and God knows how many different weapons and projectiles have been made. No one would be safe. There would be destruction; massive destruction. The technology infused militaries would battle and hardly would the soldiers fight. It would be more like a battle of technology than soldiers and army. I strongly believe that the war might just last some months…because…after just a couple of superpowers use their ‘special attacks’ there would be nothing left to destroyJ.

But for now, life is normal. Enjoy it while you can, because World War III is coming; you like it or not. I would be going; I have to get some rations and make some pre-war arrangements.

Google & Amazon

Google and Amazon, arguably giants but for most people, not at all alike. I read two books, Googled by Ken Auletta and The Everything Store by Brad Stone. Since it is virtually impossible to exactly replicate what I read, nor is it possible to write a summary of the books, because it was not a story. However I felt the need to disseminate information I read in these books. So, following are some points comparing the two companies and some other random events and information.

1. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are the founders of Google while Jeff Bezos (pronounced like Bay-Zos) is the founder and CEO of Amazon. Eric Schmidt is the CEO of Google.

2. The founders of both companies were literally nerds and since childhood were destined to be trend-setters.

3. Amazon had a very humble start. Google on the other hand, of course, started slow but rapidly progressed. Amazon stayed low for many years.

4. Googles motto for many years has been “Don’t be Evil”. Google initially followed this motto in a die-hard way and stuck to it. However, regarding matters of copyrights in Google Books and even video copyrights on YouTube, it had to eventually defy its motto. Google actually wanted major TV Shows to be broadcasted on YouTube. However the TV Channels proposed against it, as then they would lose traffic. Another significant problem for Google has been how to be financially stable. One wonders how a free search engine, no matter what quality can generate income. Well the answer is straight forward. Advertisements. TV Channels and many industries simply survive on the advertisements. Google’s finance is also highly dependent on ads. However Google uses a unique advertisement system. Normally, the companies pay the media center and the media center runs advertisements. In Googles case, Google runs advertisements without payment. However, the number of clicks on the advertisement simply determine the payment the company would have to give. Privacy is the newest and I think the biggest threat to Google. People are now raising concerns on the mere fact that their online life is depicted by a cookie and their every single clicks improves the Google Database. Advertisers then use the Google Database to know which product the customer is interested in. For example, if you are searching for a washing machine on olx but then just decide to leave it there and open google, it is then highly possible that Google would direct washing machine ads to you. Page Rank, an algorithm by Larry Page, ranks the sites and in which order they are supposed to be displayed on Google. This way people only get results which are usually preferred or utilized. Another example here is that…um..ok lets say you search for ‘Mr. Holmes movie’ the results you will get would be the links that most people have visited, which in this case might be IMDB or Wikipedia. However, the backdrop is that, it is not necessary that these links which though are most visited might be the most authentic. So yeah, you search on google is based on visits not relevance. I think that’s more or less Google…Also Eric Schmidt the CEO and the founders had a lot of arguments initially when Eric was hired but now its all cool. Moreover, Google acquired YouTube, just because Eric had the hunch that YouTube would be the next big thing, which it is, as now every single show and event is broadcasted live on YouTube. The video ads generate more income that text ads. About Android, it is (well you all know) the counter part of iOS. I personally have used both…and well to be honest, iOS is damn better than Android. Actually Android is supposed to be a simplistic open source operating system, which can be modified by anyone with mediocre programming skills. This is also why more phones have Android, and also Android is kind of more flexible or rather diverse. Okay too much Google…now Amazon.

5. You know…when Google started Bezos was one of the investors in Google….and it is still unsure if he is still an investor or not.

6. Well there is not a you know serious hostility between the two giants but the biggest possible conflict was way back in 2003-4 when Amazon was doing terrible and its employees were being sucked by the newly-successful Google.

7. Bezos, has some radical measures implemented in Amazon. You work tirelessly there. There is no travel expenses, insurance, café blah blah. Google is quite the contrary. Amazon some years back made its employees work 24/7…yep with no day off. Bezos forbids the use of PowerPoint in meetings and the presenter is supposed to make a thick documentation on a word-pad, and all people who attend the meeting are supposed to read it all. Actually this documentation way was the way, Bezos learned in his High School. Amazon in its earlier years used doors as desks….yes you heard me right. Also Amazon did terrible financially till the mid-2000s. This was because of the innumerable expenses and lawsuits which Amazon has been fighting legally ever since its inception.

8. Amazon only started as a book-selling online company, but later expanded further. However Bezos is well-known for his rashness. The company surged forward at incredible speed in other categories but lost money in the end in the dot com bursts. Bezos is famous for his laugh. This is such a screeching, lively and unique laugh, that it is said that he uses this laugh, to make the situation awkward and turn the tide during meetings. That is to say he uses this as a diplomatic weapon. Bezos is radical. And the people who follow him 100% percent, not to get bonus (there is little concept of bonus in Amazon) but just because of his radical ideology attracts them are known as JeffBots. Emails from employee that require something more or are contain incomplete or unsatisfactory work get a one digit reply from the CEO: ?. Just a question mark. Also Jeff has no secretary and sees his email himself. He believes that no time should be wasted in work.

9. Type www.relentless.com and see the magic.

10. Jeff wants Amazon to become ‘the everything store’. The company has almost become it. Amazon now also sells cloud computing storage and space i.e. cloud space. It means that many free websites that operate now online, exist due to the benevolence of Amazon, which has given them space to operate, not in the physical world but the virtual one. Amazon even sells terabytes of memory space to its customer. Amazon’s main income is from Cloud Computing Centers, its Premium Customers and somewhat the Kindle. Actually there were some negotiations between Amazon and Apple regarding the music industry, however after Apple dominated the music industry through the iTunes services, Jeff knew that they had to dominate the book selling industry. For this it was necessary to make a platform which could provide books to its customers. So LAB126 was formed. Here what became later known as Kindle was made. Initially the Kindle looked horrible but promising. Inside Amazon, it was referred to as the over-grown calculator. Fortunately, Kindle was a success later on and Amazon did indeed dominate the book market. Nevertheless Amazon still had to fight many lawsuits regarding putting books online as the publishers were against it. Still Amazon did some sort of business treachery and successfully put books online. An interesting fact here that LAB126, had this name not for no reason.

Jeff wanted every single book to be on the Kindle. For this, he said he wanted ‘all books, A-Z’. Interestingly, A is the 1st letter of alphabet and Z is the 26th. That is why the place was named LAB126.

11. Amazon was called Amazon.com till a long time. Employees who would say that ‘I work in Amazon’ were literally fired. Instead they were supposed to say ‘I work in Amazon.com’.

12. Amazon never played the angelic company part like Google. From its inception, Amazon faced threats from local giants like Barnes and Noble who were a big name in the book category. Their fights spanned many years but was concluded when Barnes and Noble realized they couldn’t make an online book store as good as Amazon. Then when Amazon expanded it poked the sleeping bear of Walmart. Amazon scooped many Walmart employees and this was a further source of tension. Later on Amazon also developed hostilities with Apple and Google. Amazon as I have already mentioned was very..evil. I will quote just one example and it will suffice you. While Amazon was expanding full speed in various categories, a new website Diapers.com emerged on the horizon. This website home-delivered diapers to mom, who were too lazy to go buy diapers. Amazon also sold diapers. But the thing was that Amazon’s Diaper customers were now inclining towards Diapers.com. Bezos took an initiative. After the Diapers.com dudes refused to give over their company no matter what, the war begun. The very next day, they had to face the consequences. Amazon reduced diapers price by 50%. Customers rushed to Amazon. Bezos again asked if Diapers.com wanted to sell themselves. When they refused, Amazon was selling diapers at 70% off. After an outcry from Diapers.com, to stop, Bezos enthusiastically replied: “I would run the prices of the diapers to the floor unless you sell yourselves.” Diapers.com…still refused. Amazon was then selling free diapers xD yep free, totally free. Though all this was giving loss to Amazon, but it did eliminate their enemy as Diapers.com went bankrupt and Amazon did buy it…and then finished it…yep…after moving all the diapers to its warehouses, the site was closed and except some employees all else were fired. So this was the end of Diapers Chronicle.

13. Amazon has a theory for customer-care and product quality. Amazon’s system have an algorithm by which the prices on Amazon are the lowest than any other retailer or shop who is selling either online or offline. It means that the product on Amazon will always be cheaper. Jeff believes that low price will attract more customers and hence more net profit. However due to this many high-brand companies hesitate before placing their products online on Amazon.

14. Another thing, Google has another theory as well. Google doesn’t want its users to spend time on Google. This is their main objective, to re-direct their users as quickly as possible to their desired location. Any other site who pulls its users to stay at their site only, is automatically Googles foe, let it be Facebook or anything else.

15. Jeff, as a child wanted to go to space and even now has a space exploration company Blue, which was a secret only some knew, a decade back. His company had some launch or something but there was some accident. I don’t exactly remember what, but yes it didn’t go off as planned.

This is it….These were the kinda most important stuff and interesting things. I personally think Amazon is way cooler than Google, also Jeff Bezos has made his way into my inspirational peoples list but…it might be that Ken Auletta doesn’t write as good as Brad Stone. You never know…hope you liked it.