The Law of Conservation of Karma

Karma. The law of cause and effect. Karma literally means action. Everything one does amounts to karma. As the theory goes, positive karma is generated when one does a good deed, and negative, when one commits a bad deed.

The ancient Hindu philosophy (among others) states that karma is always conserved, and the cumulative sum of karma decides one's destiny. Translated to English, it means "Good Karma will return to you as a good turn, Bad Karma will come back and bite you!". This policy is a good rule of thumb for guilt free living.

Many people discard this as oriental hocus-pocus. But on deeper reflection, one can see reason, and a logical explanation. If one does a good thing for someone, the overall goodwill generated (on an average) will be positive and proportional to the goodness of the deed. Inversely, the bad-will generated will be negative and proportional to the badness of the deed.

Good-will or Bad-will is like a gas, in that, it dissipates in the surrounding area fairly quickly. Moods are infectious to some extent and result in creation of a larger area of dissipation of good/bad will. Assuming seven degrees of separation and some threshold chaos, there is formation of non-linear pathways from one point on the globe to another. Dissipation of mood is thus very fast and can be called rapid random mixing.

Thus the overall mood generated by one person quickly dissipates, comes full circle, and affects him indirectly. On analyzing randomized algorithms involving rapid mixing, topological connectivity and social networking, one may, within reasonable limits, show a law of conservation in the long run. This is an interesting (though extremely challenging) exercise in Combinatorial and Markovian analysis, which is left to the reader (It's too hard for me!).

If now, the law holds within reason, to some degree of approximation, we can think of the current state of the universe, and maybe even predict the future, based on the current levels of positive and negative karma, the trends, and the dissipation constant.

The world has been generating increasing amounts of negative karma in this century, than in the last century. There is no quantifying proof for this, but is a reasonable observation based on news, Slashdot and interaction with fellow humans. Given the advent of higher connectivity opportunities like email, Instant Messaging, Cell phones, International travel, the Internet etc, we are decreasing the degrees of separation between two individuals on the globe. This is going to make the effects of the law faster acting and more intense, as the dissipation entropy will be smaller.

Anything man made is clearly karma. But can the law of karma also apply to natural disasters? Is there a logical way to explain this last bout of the manifestation of Nature's fury? Aids, Ebola, Cancer, Tsunamis, Floods, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Hurricanes etc have been explained by some people as "Negative Karma coming and biting you". Their argument seems to justify certain people's losses by saying that they deserved it. Is that fair?

I think, to some extent, we may be generating indirect "negative" karma by pollution causing the hole in the Ozone layer, global warming which causes hurricanes to gather more power. Diseases are attributed to pesticides, chemicals, immoral physical relationships, and bad lifestyle. Mining activity, nuclear explosives testing, large scale building etc. are apparently causes for earthquakes (and thus tsunamis and volcanoes).

Is accumulating Positive karma the solution to all misery? Is it as simple as building a solid Credit History? I do not have answers to these questions, but just a conjuncture. If everyone starts a "Karma Bank Account", and deposits small amounts of positive karma to it daily (those with a Negative karma balance will have to work harder), at the end of say, an year or so, there will be a large population, rich in positive karma.

Since this karma dissipates fast, an year's time will be enough to observe a marked change in the world. Lets all start the Karma-Account and start making deposits today. If enough people perform this experiment, the world will be a better place very soon.

Happy Kumulative Karma Kollection.

The Open-Source Universe

As a Computer Scientist and a nerd, I believe that the Universe is like a gigantic programming construct unfolding in all it's glory. All large programs are hard to reverse engineer, specially at the assembly level! It becomes specially hard when even after centuries of scientific progress, we have only unraveled a small portion of the universal assembly instruction code.

The Universe manifests itself by doing something analogous to invoking a function or subroutine. The same functional block of code is used to do repetitive activities. We, as observers, cannot see the code behind the actions. As we continue debugging the universe, we find increasing amounts of detail, boundary conditions, variables and constants, structures, overloaded functions and even recursive code! However, since we don't have access to higher level routines, we can only postulate their design and structure by extrapolating that of the lower level subroutines.

If the universe is Open-Source, we will have the opportunity to read it and understand it, and thus gain insight into the design and implementation of the Universe. We will then be able to design extensions or plugins that allow us to exploit the power of the universal code base to our own advantage. Time Travel, Tapping into the energy of a black hole, warp drive, Anti-Gravity etc could all be plugins! Evolving into a Type 3 Civilization could be achieved in a time many orders of magnitude shorter, with access to this source code.

Universal routines for climate, combustion, natural disasters, chemical composition etc could be tweaked. Energy generation, transmission and efficiency could be tuned to global maxima. The very fabric of space-time might be programmable. We might be able to device search engines for particular code patterns, code analyzers and a cross-reference for the universal code. Instant messaging could now take place across galaxies. Science fiction concepts like warp drive, ram-drives, Ringworld, teletransportation, etc. will be science, but no longer fiction! Space-Time Utilizing Programmable Intelligent Devices (STUPID) shaped like long thin rods that can alter space time dynamically, could be a reality. Harry Potter and Dumbeldore will no longer be special as Muggles will carry STUPID wands!

We need a more powerful programming construct to express large systems like the Universe. I postulate, that the construct will exist in higher dimensions, allowing a larger and a more complex structure to be expressed concisely. This might require a more powerful form of grammar along with a new complexity theory and mathematical constructs.

Computationally, we might be able to use the universal processing power to speed up computation by many orders of magnitudes. Parallel Universal Multidimensional Processing (PUMP) will become the buzzword of the future. NP (non-polynomial) problems will become P (polynomial), and suddenly, a new realm of problems that was previously forbidden, will open up for us to solve. Scientists will be able to pump data into the universal processor to solve very complex problems.

Nerds from intelligent civilizations in the Universe will be able to submit patches to the Open-Source-Universe project and repair faulty routines or improve the code quality. Bugs like disease, exploding volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, radiation, meteorite showers, etc could be repaired by a patch.

Genetic Biologists have been partially successful in digging into the quaternary level code of the body, whose assembler instructions are in the form of gene sequences forming the DNA. Each combination of 3 base pairs of nucleotides forms a codon, which is the unit operational code (opcode) of the body's assembly code. However, we are still in the dark as the routines and modules coded in some higher level language which then get compiled to the DNA code!

If we could understand the higher level subroutines in the universe, life would be so much easier! Imagine that we discover a subroutine called do_age(int increment), we could reprogram it either with an increment of zero, or call a different subroutine in its place. Similarly, we could substitute functions like execute_cancer(type_t cancer_type, location_t location, double intensity), cause_hairline_to_recede(double length), gain_weight(double weight), by more pleasing substitutes. AIDS, Ebola, diabetes, and other viral fevers could simply be eradicated by reconfiguring the body's firewall. Conceptually, we could reprogram the main loop do_live(void) to include the function be_healthy(void).

However, what if human (or alien) hackers now start writing viruses and worms for the Universe instead of just computer systems? That would be orders of magnitude more scary! Today the worse a hacker can do is shut off the Internet for a day or two, or delete all my data. But imagine if someone writes a worm for the Universe that, when installed, causes random explosions in the Universe, causes planets to go off orbit and spiral into the Sun, or creates intelligent, virulent new diseases in the galaxy. Bio-security and Anti-Virus companies will spring up everywhere providing patches to the human genome to repair some security flaw that got exploited. Companies like Googlalaxy, Intergalactic BioSecurity Machines (IBM), NanoSoft, Neutron-Sun etc. will control galactic computing resources.

The negative side of understanding the universal code is inevitable given that humans are often evil and selfish. The only consolation is that if the Universe is open source, understanding of the flaws and security hazards will be tremendously easy.

The only question in my mind is, that even if by some miracle, we hit upon the developer's repository of the Universal Source Code, which big corporation will try to patent it first?!

Life is nicer with a background score

I am a musician. An Indian Classical singer. I have been singing for a tad less than two decades now. Many think, that singing, by definition must be audible. That is a misconception. I can sing in my head, and in fact that is exactly what I do for most of the day.

All my music is spontaneous and reflects my state of mind. The music in my head changes with my mood, and the situation. The tempo increases when I am excited, slows down when I am down. The raga [1] (melody, composition) too follows my mood, as does the ornamentation. Alaapi[2] reflects calmness, laziness, relaxation; Sargam[3] reflects excitement, happiness, anxiety and even restlessness; Taans[4] express a high, extra-creative surges, passion and sometimes anger!

I have noticed, that in the mornings, I sing (in my head) morning ragas. Lalit when I am serious, Ahir Bhairav when I am feeling good, Bairagi when I want to get away from it all, Gujri Todi when I am excited or in a hurry, Bilaskhani-todi when I feel serene or devotional and Charukeshi when I feel romantic or enthusiastic.

In the afternoon, my mind renders noon and early evening ragas. Bhimpalas when I can feel the heat, but also feel a cool breeze on my face, Suddha Sarang when I am feeling slightly anxious, Vrindawani Sarang when I feel warm and cheerful, Madhuwanti when I feel the loneliness of dusk, Multani when I feel saddened, or irritated, Yaman when I feel happy, or philosophical, or even sad.

At night, I seem to be capable of a wider spectrum of moods, and my mind spontaneously dives into the raga that expresses it effectively. Baageshri typifies romance, but for me it also expresses everything from sadness to loneliness, amorousness to devotion and happiness to serenity. Malkauns also sweeps through an equally wide spectrum. Kalawati makes me feel at home, Bhinna Shadaj makes me ponder on the deeper nature of things, Marwa is when I long for my loved ones, or am depressed, Puriya Dhanashri , "Puriya Kalyan are quite versatile, expressing a wide range of bitter-sweet blues. Hansadhwani is when I feel helpful, cheerful, selfless and enthusiastic. This list can go on quite a bit, but I am sure you get the picture.

There are some ragas that are seasonal. Malhar and all it's varieties signify the rain, describing everything from nature's glory to the associated fear, romance to thrills and the electric excitement caused by the monsoons. Megh, Ramdasi, Miyaan, Gaud are variations on the basic theme of rain. Basant is sung in Basant ritu, or the season that makes it's appearance around Holi (April), after the Hemant season. This is the season that ushers the blooming of flowers, the singing of birds like Kokila (cuckoo), the humming of the bees, ripening of fruit and harvest etc. From the description of Basant in the ancient poetic compositions, Spring would be it's Western counterpart.

Don't think, that it's a one-to-one relationship; a particular mood doesn't dictate a particular raga, nor the other way around. Every raga is capable of expressing a wide gamut of expressions, and one's mood and many other factors go into the choice of the raga-mood correspondence.

I love to sing out aloud when I am walking, and out of earshot of the other pedestrians, and while driving. In fact, when I rode my motorbike, back in India, the tempo of my singing often matched the speed with which I drove! Sometimes, I sang some really memorable stuff, and at times I would get so engrossed in a particular taan, I often forgot to turn and would crash into a wall, or a fence! Luckily, I wore a helmet. I still remember the taan though!

In conclusion, my life has a musical score that changes with the type, intensity and the mood of the scene being enacted. I think life becomes much more palatable with the background music than without! I think that the music director must be given an award, don't you?

Definitions

[1] Raga: A traditional compositional framework for improvisation in Hindustani Classical music, consisting of a theme that expresses an aspect of emotions, devotion, feelings etc. and sets forth a tonal system on which variations are improvised within a framework of progressions, melodic formulas and rhythmic patterns. Ragas are often based on a temporal classification.

[2] Alaapi (Alap) : The introductory section of any Hindustani music performance. Improvisation based on the rules of the raga being rendered, its length may vary from a few minutes to many hours depending upon the creative ability of the artist.

[3] Sargam: The Hindustani or North Indian equivalent to the western solfege. Explicit intonation (or pronunciation) of the names of the notes (Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni) in patterns of varying tempo.

[4] Taan: An improvised phrase, often performed at a fast tempo, based on the raga being performed. Often the most challenging part of the concert. Lengths, tempos and intricacy of patterns are based on the artist's skill.

Olfactory Factory

Do you know what the biggest difference between India and the United States of America is? It's not the economy, standard of living, language, pollution, cleanliness, discipline, etiquette or even the food!

I hit upon this insight yesterday! It’s the smells!

After living in the United States for almost an year, I discovered this subtle olfactory fact! All smells are muted here. It's almost as if all smells were diluted.

As I started thinking about smells, I realized that I have strong memories associated with smell. In fact, I don't remember reminiscing about a memory that was triggered by a scent or being moved by an aroma even once after coming to the US. In fact my initial home sickness may have been associated more with this diminished potency of aromas, than the 3 ‘F’s’ -- Family, Friends and Food!

The wafting spicy scent of “Pav bhaji”, or the rich aroma which emanates from restaurants always triggers memories of great parties with friends and family! Chatting through the night, enjoying great food, and having a great time. On the other hand, restaurants in the US are so clean, that there is only the smell of Lysol -- even that is very mild. No memories there!

The smell of the “mogra-gajras” (a garland worn in the hair by ladies, generally on festive occasions) always takes me back to those amazing Diwali, Ganpati and Holi gatherings. Music, dances, festive lighting, and of course great food! Here, in the US, festive occasions are once in a blue moon, and even then, the predominant fragrance is the resultant of mixing Chanel, Elizabeth Arden and Christian Dior. Talk about subtle!

The smell of fresh rain on the soil always evokes powerful rainy-day memories. Watching the rains swirl around you, the high-bass rumble of thunder, the crazy zig-zagging of lightning, like some drunk driver in the sky, sipping hot ginger tea while enjoying the trees dance to the rhythm of the winds, are all memories that flood the mind. Even this scent is muted in the US. It's very disconcerting not to be able to inhale the invigorating air just after a fresh shower!

Weddings have their own aromatic charm. Gulab-Jal (rose-water), Chandan (Sandalwood), Steaming Pulav, bouquets, ladies wearing copious amounts of perfume, the fried “puris”, all add up to create an atmosphere. Ceremonies in the US are mild (in the olfactory domain) to the extent of being bland!

As winter closes in, and Diwali approaches, there is a distinct change in the overall air. The air carries a smell which invokes excitement and festivity. In fact, the cold air makes the smells in the air more potent, and cause them to linger longer. Here, in the US, winter air is especially odorless! Maybe all that snow absorbs all odors from the air!

Even the flowers in India smell better than those here. Fruits and Vegetables have a better flavor. Tea tastes better. Cheese is tastier, even the water is sweeter!

Maybe its me ... my nose has been extra sharp for as long as i know. But in my opinion, the US may have one of the most leading economies, but it still lacks richness in it’s smells! India on the other hand may still be a developing country, but as far as my nose goes, it's far more advanced in the area of Flavors, than most advanced countries!

Controlling the speed of thought

This just in! Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have demonstrated successfully that they can not only slow down the speed of light, but also increase it beyond the universal constant 'c'. This is tremendous news, not only for the telecommunication and microprocessor industry, but also because it motivates similar lines of thinking in other areas.
Imagine for a moment if we could control the speed of thoughts. An electro-enzymatic gadget embedded in our inner cortex, controlled using a specific thought controlled neural circuit. This would be the next big thing after nano-tubules and aerogel! This device could usher the age of docility and good relationships!
If we could speed up our thoughts, we could see more people solve complex problems quickly. Slow learners could catch up with the rest of the crowd. People could think "on their feet", and think their way out of tight spots. Scientists could find patterns in the world that they previously lacked the "processing power" to do before. Basically, humans would now be able to perform activities, as if fitted with a faster processor!
Now, if we could slow down our thoughts, then we could have more time to react to an insult. Impulse driven, adrenaline induced, emotionally charged actions will instead give way to thoughtful speech and actions. Surges of rage will now be less as intense affecting directly the quality of relationships. Virtues like compassion, respect, selflessness, empathy will become more pronounced in society. Just like missile tracking technology, we would have time to analyze the path of a thought and prevent any destruction that may lie in it's path.
Slowing down our thoughts would also allow other thoughts to get "scheduled" in the brain for processing, allowing us to analyze our thoughts clearly. Creation of new thoughts will happen more frequently as obsessive thoughts have been slowed down enough. In essence we could have highly effective thought monitors in the brain that monitor, profile and prevent thoughts from crashing, and preventing a debilitating brain-freeze! (forgive the analogy between multi-threading, process scheduling and kernel crashes, but thats an occupational hazard!)
This technology would also allow us to control the speed of individual thoughts. Thats like having a media-player-like interface to thoughts. Controls like "pause", "half speed", "fast forward", "next track" etc will now be available per thought. We will be able to select which thoughts we want to progress, and retard the development of certain other thoughts.
A very scary thought is if the government creates and enforces a "thought control" policy, where certain thoughts are censored, and others are encouraged, there is a speed limit for thoughts, and zones, where certain thoughts are not allowed. Of course, the government will certainly censor this scary thought the first! Lets hope that the government doesn't enforce mandatory thought control on its population. Well, maybe just the delinquents and law-breakers!
What if now, we could now control individual thoughts by programming such policies into the device. We could then have a XML configuration script that looks like the following sample script :

<thoughts>
<encourage>
    happy thoughts, erotic thoughts, lazy thoughts,
    creative thoughts
</encourage>
<discourage>
    studious thoughts, helpful thoughts, selfless thoughts,
    depressive thoughts
</discourage>
</thoughts>

I think this device will need parental control! Talk about meta-control!
Lets now attempt a thought exercise (forgive the pun). Thought "Tai Chi", and Thought “weight training”. Energizing the thoughts by slowly and consciously allowing thoughts to flow, and guiding them along certain paths. By Weight-training, we can strengthen thoughts by strenuous activity. Of course one could achieve the same effect by meditation and calculus! Using the device for thought "workouts" will be like using machines instead of free-weights!
Let us reduce the speed of thoughts even further. Standstill thoughts. Or rather, no active thoughts coursing through your brain. This state of mind is rather rare, and very powerful. If one was able to shut of thoughts as wanted, peace of mind would not remain a pipe dream anymore. Deep, dreamless sleep would be just a button-click away. Anxiety, restlessness, worry, tension, anger and other Pandora's box's psycho-disruptive residents will be boxed -- once more. Psychosomatic diseases will essentially disappear. Everyone except Pandora will be happy!
For centuries, ancient Indian sages have used a technique to control the speed of thoughts, that DARPA will not fund as a research proposal any time soon! Meditation and yoga. Meditation has been maligned by misinformed practitioners. In this age of Razars, IPods and Tivos, meditation has become a status symbol. Many believe that meditation and yoga is just oriental occultism, others believe its Hollywood hocus-pocus. In reality, its a powerful technique to control one's thoughts. If practiced correctly and passionately, this century might be the one in which humans progress the most – not towards Jupiter and space colonies – towards peace of mind and happiness.
In the final stages of mediation, the expert practitioner can slow down not only individual thoughts, but also the rate of their creation. It's the ultimate mind-body control through thought. Hunger, thirst, pain, emotions, disease etc are just the physical manifestation of thought. Meditation also allows one to peer deep into one's subconscious without being distracted by flocks of fleeting thoughts. Thoughts are like ripples on the surface of the mind, without which one can peer deep into the depths of a calm mind.
So, as part of the exercise routine, we could strengthen thoughts and even stop them altogether. Not that this is easy ... its one of the most difficult things one could attempt. But the attempt itself, even if unsuccessful, will teach a lot. It will gives insight not only into the attributes of individual thoughts, but the chain of thoughts that lead to it. The metamorphosis of one thought into another, and the evolution of distinct thoughts is clearly visible. So, even if we are unable to stop all thought, we will still be able to predict the direction of evolution, and guide it. This ability is quite a powerful tool to posses!
So, let us all give some thought to this “control", and some “control” to these thoughts.