The Origin Of The Creator

Language is one of the cornerstones of our human civilization. Animals, other than humans, have the ability to communicate via signals and sounds to alert and acknowledge their fellow beings. That kind of communication is sufficed to the survival of the organism. However, we humans don't merely survive. As we tend to have a more innovative set of skills and abilities. 

Language is one of those skills that somehow evolved extensively in early human. The cognitive evolution of human mind gave early humans the ability to make up stories and tell stories. This was an upper-hand and offered them an opportunity to come together as a species.

With the ability to exchange ideas and stories came along the stories about the creation and the creator. Language helped in forming stories about the origin of humans such stories helped building the society as we know it today. It can be debatable whether, without religion and creation stories, the course of human history would have been the same. The rise of human and his dominating the planet is a benefit of creation stories.

Human children have relatively longer nurturing requirements. A human child needs years of parental involvement for food and protection. Under such circumstances, Humans are bound to be emotionally and psychologically attached to their parents. Thus the idea of creation centers a parent figure to humans collectively. The grander parental figures serve as a source of comfort and a sense of well-being. 

This faith in the higher beings enforced a relation amongst human with the advent of culture and a state of law-ness. It transpired the state of authority over human actions. Thus, brings a state of cooperation amongst beings.  People believed in the same set of gods had a firm belief that 'someone' is keeping track of their actions and society turned more trusting towards each other. 

The gaps in human knowledge were filled by the idea of gods controlling the world. If there was a natural calamity they knew whom to calm and pray to. The communities got bigger and organized; this strengthened the species against predators. It was because of the idea of God that early men organized thousands of individual in a single band. This association was the result of a firm and mutual belief in the same divine story. 

This capacity of storytelling and basing the social organization on the same belief worked amazingly. In ancient days the polytheistic religion prevailed. This added the benefit of inclusion of more and more people together by acknowledging each other's Gods. This is a thing Romans were known to be doing. They included the local Gods of the conquered areas into their own Gods.  This accommodation could not work with monotheistic belief.  With the passage of time rise of monotheism replaced the polytheistic with Constantine's conversion to monotheistic Christianity and dilution of paganism. That led to a new era of the God. Today our world is predominantly monotheistic. 

The oldest surviving religion, Hinduism, have traversed into a monotheistic origin of various Gods and Goddesses. To me, the ardent survival of it is quite fascinating. The flexibility and ability to reform have been the key to bolstering its own self. Ahem Ahem! * Looking at you the contemporary Hindutva agenda.* 

History is evident that, as the time passes the idea of God/Gods are bound to alter. Thinking that it will remain as it is, is a myopic point of view. It will change into something that is more suitable as per the need of time. 

Any theories on how the world's religion will be in 2000 years? Assuming, the human race will survive the imminent climate change. Let me know your thought in the comment section below.

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A Poem About Nothingness

Zero-Fucking-Kelvin

 There is something dark

So dark

It creeps in at times and spread

like rain water when it hits the ground

It blankets every nook, every corner

of my mind with iniquity.

At such times I struggle to justify to myself

the vibration of every string

I am whispering to myself for the string to halt

Stop stop stop. Stop existing

I hate Entropy, you know,

When Musk said “It’s not on our side”

I thought to myself: At last, someone understands me.

I arrange things in a prudent order

as an act of mutiny

I know, I am not significant to the laws that govern the universe

and my rebellion will not spark a revolution

The sun will not sit on the beach with me to sip iced tea

It will keep fucking spinning

It is not about the sun, but me

I never claimed to be a  law abiding citizen of this ridiculous mad house.

I like to think of myself as a solipsist

Would it be too wrong if it is all about me?

I would like the strings to stop vibrating

and it is in my capacity as a solipsist

to make it halt.

Zero Fucking Kelvin

If I am a solipsist I can do it

I have not figured out how, though.

- Karnika Kapoor

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This poem was originally posted on my Tumblr blog.

Eudaimonia: The Upbeat Background Emotion

The material possessions and things that we achieve in life don’t give us the consistent feeling of happiness. The foreground happiness is fragile, as it should be. I mean, who would want to be happy all the time? I don’t! I want to feel all the possible fragments of emotions throughout the duration of my life. None of them should entirely cloud my emotional state throughout. 

Still, in the vaguest way, we all desire something in life. Something that is not quite tangible ... it is a state of mind that gives us the ultimate satisfaction of a life well-lived. The euphoria of getting a new possession dies out in a couple of days, you may think you got used to your new Car. It just doesn't make you feel the same as the moment you first bought it. Likewise. sometimes, relationships fade off to routine after a span of time especially when they are not taken care of routinely by people involved. Regardless the start of it gives us a sense of satisfaction. As if these things are some sort of instant and short -lived doses of that very desire. 

Satisfaction, perhaps, or the pursuit of happiness may be the nearest translation of the greek word Eudaimonia. It cannot be quite translated to the exact sense of the word but we get the gist of it. The state of emotion that we seek in life that makes us feel happy regardless of the instantaneous foreground emotion that we may be tackling. 

Aristotle, Greek Philosopher, Places this idea of Eudaimonia in the terms of being virtuous. I find myself in agreement with Aristotle. Doing the right thing is what makes life satisfactory. But what is the right thing? It appears to be obscure to say “Right thing”. Right thing can be presumed to be subjective. 

Aristotle said it to be the virtue of the golden mean. Pursuing the right balance between two extremes. Let’s take an example of criticism. While criticizing, one must find the balance in approach between the two extremes of sycophantically praising the given subject/object and rejecting the subject/object of criticism in a harsh way. The right balance would be between the two that will lead the criticism in a constructive direction and make room for improvement. In doing so the person who is criticizing is not only helping the person towards whom the critic is being made, but also himself. By doing the virtuous thing he/she is living a eudaimonic life. This principle can be applied in almost every aspect under the sun if we give it a thought ... love, relationships, pursue of goals, chores in everyday life. Eudaimonia is not a state that one reaches in life is the way of life that has to constantly be iterated.

I find this ancient Greek philosophy to be very much in sync with the modern psychology. Namely, Maslow's hierarchy of needs in order to attain self-actualization, but that is a topic for another day. 

What is your opinion on the goals of human life? Do you agree with Aristotle's idea of golden mean or do you have some other measures of defining virtue? Let me know in the comments section. 

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Dilemma Of Death

 Death is one of the most ancient philosophical topics. Perhaps the reason of it being one of the most frequented philosophical queries is that we cannot conceive the fact that the universe will keep on going as it is after our death. It is a fact that after our death the earth will still spin and the sun will come up every day. 

What happens to the consciousness when one dies? Is there any afterlife? What even is an afterlife, life-after-death? But, isn't death end of life? How can the end be just a passage to the afterlife? What is Death? The act of dying is the total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an organism. But, what about our mind what about our consciousness? The consciousness, it seems to be so much secluded from the perception of body but, It is, after all, some synapses in our brain. Why do we think of it to be something intangible? With such certainty that expects it to be intact even when our body is dead.

 Is death to be fear? Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher claimed that death is nothing to fear about. He said death is either a dreamless sleep or a passage to the afterlife. If it is a dreamless sleep then there is no consciousness to register that we are gone. No emotions or thoughts to cloud us about the worries of being. On the other hand, if it is a passage to another world, then why worry about it. We as a being will eventually triumph over death in the other world. Likewise, most of the philosophers say that death shouldn’t concern us as we will not be there.

“Why should I fear death?

If I am, then death is not.

If Death is, then I am not.

Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?

Long time men lay oppressed with slavish fear.

Religious tyranny did domineer.

At length the mighty one of Greece

Began to assert the liberty of man.”

― Epicurus

 Irrespective of what they say the fear of death is subjective for each one of us. If not our own death, isn’t the death of our loved ones something we all fear? None of us have experienced death first hand, but we have grieved death and that is the closest we have come to it. The death of a loved one is absolutely heart-breaking. We dread the fact that we cannot see them ever again, cannot feel the warmth of their embrace or feel the kindness we felt in their eyes. Often times we mourn the fact they left us without their presence or the pain that they endured during the end of their life, in the cases of slow painful deaths. Sometimes the tragedy of death is the unlikeliness of its arrival. It makes us sad in the end, despite knowing that it is inevitable.

All the same, when it comes to one's own death, I don't think it matters so much except for the anticipation of pain or panic. It is now known that a dying person's brain secrets dopamine in a large amount. So if anything it will likely be pleasurable. An assumption that we will miss out on things is also there.  However, that is not significant if we are not going to be able to register the missing out. Do you feel deeply saddened by not being present in the history? I doubt it.

Food for thought, Immortality. Since we don't know what lies beyond death. Shouldn't we like to hold on to dear life? Why does immortality somehow seem immoral? Maybe we are conditioned to think it is bad in light to religion's attempt to solve the quandary of not being able to live forever … Because living forever is bad and even worse is to want to live forever.

Perhaps it is why when google launched a venture to "Solve death" everyone thought it was uncanny. No one minds fighting diseases, but heaven forbids if you say immortality. You are asking for things we humans don't deserve. So Google’s venture, Calico, phrase it's mission to solving aging and age-related diseases. Ha! A good paraphrasing can oppress the offense taking.

 Personally, I would pick immortality over death any day. I mean a lot of times I just shrug off chores by considering 'Ugh! We all are going to die. What is the point in anything?" Imagine if that is not the case! Like Death is a thing of past ... I will be able to get a lot of things done. Here comes a classic self-aware epiphany. Bah! After all, someday the sun will swallow the earth and if we live only here we will die. Those chores can do themselves ... if they please. Unless,  if we somehow find technology to go to new solar systems... Or the galaxy becomes navigable or we humans become quite survivable in most unlikely environmental conditions like a robot. Wait! What?

Elon Musk in his new venture, Neuralinks, wants to link human crain to robot. Mearging human consiousnes with machine. Google’s Calico and Musk's Neuralinks are hinting to the same direction. Humanity is evolving into electronic Gods.

What do you think about death? Do you think we are heading to a kind of immortality? Do you think immortality is ethical? Let me know in the comment section.

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My Cognitive Dissonance With Clockwise.

I have the strangest habit of imagining walking in a place I visit often or have had visited in past. It is almost like a thought simulation running in the backdrop of my consciousness. If I am talking to you over the phone Or performing a task that doesn't require much attention,  an unconscious section in my brain is wandering in a physical location. Taking turns on random streets randomly walking in a pre-visited destination. It's like an unconscious simulation going on in this weird section of my brain. I have spotted my mind randomly in very specific locations and destination. Ugh! I frankly don't know what it is, but my mind has a kind of obsession with places. I am not even sure if other people do that!

Perhaps that is why I often find myself studying maps of locations, that I have been to, on Google earth. Just to get a clearer picture of neighborhoods so when I unconsciously stroll around in those streets in my imagination I know where exactly I am. Sometimes I like to zoom out to the map of the city or country and imagine/observe the mental simulation from distance. It is all just fun and games, a smooth distraction for my brain in not-so-engaging times until I zoom it out to a far reach. To an extent when my imagination is hovering over the north pole of Earth and I can picture the Earth spinning anti-clockwise.

I personally find it very uncomfortable, as if something is wrong with the spin. So one time, I was in my mind hovering over our lonely little Earth and was absorbed in this eerie feeling of distorted discomfort over the direction of Earth's spin from the north pole. I wanted to get to the bottom of it Why does it bother me that the earth is spinning anti-clockwise from the given position? I introspected and came to a conclusion.

The way I learned to decipher a map or globe is north is alway the top and that in my mind should be the reference point or standardize the point-of-view. Nevertheless,  I perceive the forward direction of time as clockwise from the standard analog clocks. Thus, When I imagine my standard reference position and don't find it in accordance with the positive direction of time my brain lands me in a dissonance. I may be the only one to find my mind roam around, but I can't be the only one to adopt this line of thinking, namely taking north as top and clockwise as forwarding in the direction of time. Perhaps If we were taught the maps upside down as a standard reference or We had the clocks running anticlockwise I may haven't had found myself in this disharmony.

So, Why are maps north up? Ancient maps were mostly drawn to the standard of the East on top because the Sun rises from the East and that represents a start. The paradigm shift of contemporary standard maps can't be pointed out on the calendar. It seems that this model was gradually adopted as standard. More likely it is as per the standers of right-hand thumb rule this seems to co-ordinate with the rest of the representative standards. The rotation of the Earth is counter-clockwise, so if we curl our right hand's fingers in counterclockwise fashion the direction our thumbs will be pointing shall be taken as the top. So it makes sense...

Hence the discrepancy lies in the way clocks run. Why were the clocks designed in a 'clockwise' direction? Clocks could run perfectly in the anticlockwise direction. Heck! we define the spin direction from a man-made object. It is like the clocks are the forerunner of the standard of spinning. I find it really fascinating!

Why do we have clocks running in the clockwise direction? The analog clock models were based on the sundial. Sundial is basically an ancient way of keeping track of the time during the day.  Due to the movement of the earth throughout the day, the sun appears to move from east to west on earth. This apparent moment of Sun changes the position of shadows. The sundials use this property, it consists of a flat plate (A dial) and a gnomon (Part that casts the shadow) As the position of the sun changes the shadow changes. Sundials can be dated back to 3000 years and were independently used in most major civilization.

However, this doesn't resolve the clockwise and anti-clockwise issue I had. As the sundial possess duality depending on which hemisphere you live on. In the northern hemisphere, the direction of the shadow cast by sundial moves in the clockwise fashion and in the southern hemisphere, it moves in the counter clockwise fashion. Thus the sundials run counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.

The answer lies in the location where the clocks were designed. Our modern day analog clock was designed in China in 725 AD by Yi Xing, north hemispher. The makers just simply replicated the motion of shadow on the sundial. It was the only rational thing to do from the standpoint of knowledge of that era. That direction became clockwise. Isn't it peculiar that if the clocks were first designed in the southern hemisphere our idea of clockwise and anti-clockwise would have been the absolute opposite! Possibly in some parallel universe, the clock on your wall is ticking in our respective counter-clockwise direction.

In fact, there are some clocks made in Arabic and Hebrew notations that actually run counterclockwise. Simply because the scripts in the Arabic and Hebrew are from right to left, unlike most of the scripts. Despite the natives lands of those two languages are in the northern hemisphere, the clocks are made to accommodate the opposite direction of written scripts. 

What is your opinion on the topic if this blog? Do you have any strange quirky habits or some activities in the backdrop of your mind too? Comment down below and let me know.

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