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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We Are Not Idiots

Ancient Greece, as per me, is second most fascinating classic civilization. The first is, obviously, Roman civilization I can go on and on about Romans, but some other day. Greece in 500 BC had a democratic government. That basically excluded citizenship to slaves and women and the democracy was basically by the able-aged free men of the population. Still, that was the ancient democracy. The land of great thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. Greeks, back then, talked and debated about the social set up and how should their government run. How to vote... Who can vote and so on.  Being a part of this discussion in politics was an honorable thing.

On the other hand, people who didn't take interest in and contributed to the politics of the land were called Idiots. Idiots didn't have the same meaning as it does in our times. An idiot was someone who was not a part of political democracy. The root of the word originated from the Latin word 'Idios': meaning the self. A private person who didn't get involved in politics was considered to be the default state of being. Opposite of which was basically a citizen. In Athens, the Citizenship was granted by education and involvement, not by birth. Idiots had a lower social status in Athens. However, the current definition of 'Idiot' is a foolish or ignorant person. If you think about the evolution of the word, 'Idiot' it makes sense.

We, the population of the contemporary world, are not 'Idiots' in the ancient sense of the word. In fact, this is the era of political activism. We live in the age of the internet with so much information at our disposal. We get flooded with feeds on our social media. However, those feeds are selectively shown to us by the algorithms of the social media sites. What we get in our feeds depends on our search history and our 'reactions' to the feeds that we come across. This kind of selective partakes lands us in a filter bubble. Due to the iteration of the algorithm, the posts that we receive goes on shifting towards extremes in the spectrum of opinions. Thus, firing up the social and political divide even further.

The result is highly polarized parties. Partially, because of total inability to a casual access to opposing viewpoint. The end is, well, pretty much what we have on political commentary on the internet. Divide, names calling and troll attacks. What I do to not be a part of this Filter bubble is deliberately expose myself to voices from both sides. Listen to what they have to say and form my opinion based on information I receive by my own judgment.

I have my opinion on the political state of the world and I reckon, you have yours. We both come to our conclusions and opinions based on our experiences and lifestyle. I am a classic liberal, and I stress the word classic because I don't agree with some of what contemporary left has to offer.  The range of issues in the political sphere is very large and it is unlikely to fit in two columns. namely right and left.

Furthermore, in present times the divide is pretty much between two options only. The people of one side are expected to be in line with their side on almost all the issues. This is not practical. The effect of this is bitterness amongst people. Yes, It is as ridiculous as it sounds. This election term, be it in India or US people are actually fighting over political opinions. Friendships are turned sour based on whom you support. 

People locked up in their own media bubble, accusing each other of being evil, racist, deluded or even lacking basic intelligence. As my habit of skimming through both sides, I found that each side is dumbing down what other party presents to the discussion. Maybe it is the time we all just give each other a chance to have a different opinion and try to understand each other's viewpoint. Have a civil debate, if you must, or agree to disagree on the grounds that they have all the rights to have their opinions. We can't agree on all the issues and humanity as a whole will never agree on all issues monotonously. If there would be a uniform agreement that would be a very boring world!

On the note of disagreement, currently, in India, a wave of cow vigilantes are bursting in and killing people for possessing "Holy" cow. Such crimes are very much based on religious agenda of Modi's Hindu right-winged political party. The people being lynched by Hindu mob of fanatics are predominantly Muslims. It is a sad state and the government should address it. However, the government is failing to rightly address the issue. No serious efforts are taken to control and punish the criminals. It should be government's priority to protect the people.  

As an adult, I experienced the political situation of/and after Charlie Hebdo terror attack. I remember going on twitter and seeing people (Famous political figures) condemning the cartoons after the attack. Claiming what else to expect if you publish cartoon portraying Muhammad. It was a shocker to me as for the first time in my life I had seen this level of desensitization. I was politically ignorant about the Dutch cartoon aftermath, at that time. But regardless, It is questionable what inspired people to come to the opinion of equating publishing cartoons to inviting death. Ugh! Are they justifying Islamic terror with published satire? If you hold that opinion, I disagree.

In the present time, we have freedom of speech, at least some of us do. I do in my country or do I? (in the light of last year's sedation episode some legal citation needed). I can speak on a range of topics and it will be lawful as long as I am not inciting violence. However, because of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, I do restrain from criticizing things that fall under certain religious texts. Especially after reading holy books I don't rate or review them on public platforms. Not because I don't have a conclusion on such books, (Believe me, I have a lot to talk about) but because I practice self-censorship. No, NOT out of respect, but ... fear for my own well-being. This fear is absolutely legitimate from what I have experienced so far in a socio-political environment. Here is a little vocab lesson I would like to include (for people to read between the lines (wink-wink)) Phobia is an irrational fear. Let us call a spade a spade.

I am a proponent of free speech, I believe everything should be up to analysis and criticisms. That shouldn't pardon the most sacred subject in this domain. I find it absolutely dishonorable when governments try to curb that freedom. I find it even more dishonest when zealots and extremists have the power to make me check my speech. I think we should be able to have the comfort of mental and legal freedom of speech. If you cannot name Voldemort, how can you expect to have the courage to fight him? Many Ideas and Ideologies are not apt for current societies and need reform. The reform can come from open dialogs...

Do you have freedom of speech in your country? Do you speak your mind on every issue? Let me know in the comment section below

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Black Hole's Death

In this post, I explain the contribution of Stephen Hawking to the field of science.

The current understanding of the universe implies that the universe had a beginning and so most likely will have an ending. But today is not the day for the life cycle of the universe. Today, I want to write about a magnificent chunk in the universe the Black holes. That, apparently, like to do its own thing. Very introverted part of our space-time. The more we learn about it, the less we know. Black Holes are complex and I understand that you would rather say why should we care? Well, because Homo Sapiens are curious beings and it is a product of our curiosity that we are currently ruling the planet. It is pretty much a basic instinct for humans to understand this world. So I decided to post about how black holes annihilate. Apparently! 

The black hole is a supermassive ex-star. It is so heavy and so tiny that its escape velocity proceeds the velocity of light. and hence nothing can ever escape it not even light. The center of a black hole is considered to be a single dimensionless point where all its mass is concentrated. This center is called Singularity and an imaginary boundary around a black hole beyond which no light can escape is called its Event Horizon. Anything inside the event horizon is basically out of our reach because inside this imaginary area objects are in the clutch of the gravity of black hole. We know nothing about the insides of the black hole.

The black holes are formed from supermassive stars. However, what we are going to explore in this post is the death of black holes. The black holes die by evaporating. I know it seems very unintuitive as nothing can escape from the black holes, not even light! Then how can a black hole evaporate? Here is where Stephen Hawking's work comes into the play. Hawking, in his work, predicted that black hole emits radiations called Hawking Radiations. 

Since black hole sucks in everything falling inside the event horizon. The emission of hawking radiations seems uncanny. What happens at the event horizon of a black hole is something that explains this phenomenon. However, to understand that from the prospect of the current understanding of science we must dip our toes in a bit of Quantum Physics. Yeyyy! 

My main domain is Mechanical Engineering and for that, I don't 'need' to study Quantum Mechanics. The Gravitational Mechanics works just fine for all practical purposes in contemporary stuff. In fact, it kinda works well for almost everyone except the physicists. However, I find myself dipping my toes in the pool of Quantum world every now and then. More than often, I just want to jump in and dive deep in quantum physics because it is just so fucking intriguing one cannot study it and not feel the sense of awe about ... well, basically how nonintuitive the quantum world is from our basic understanding! So, let us begin this is enough fangirling for the day.

The space-time has this constant electromagnetic field all across it. In Fact, there are two fundamental fields in nature: gravitational field and electromagnetic field. Now, The vacuum is a state in the universe where the electromagnetic field is in its lowest energy state. So it is considered empty, as there are no particles, say photons or any matter,  propagating through or present in the field. However, the vacuum that we consider to be empty is not really empty, all the time. In the vacuum of space, there are often many particles popping up into existence. These particles appear in pairs. Each pair consists of a particle and an antiparticle having an equal magnitude of negative and positive mass (Matter and anti-matter, thus matter/mass is not being created.).  They come into existence out of nowhere from the same spot and vanish when they collide with each other. These particles are called Virtual Particle. 

So how do we know these particles exist? We know the presence of virtual particles by the means of Casimir Effect. The recent observation of  Casimir effect can be found here.  Another evidence the existence of virtual particles is Lamb Shift. For more evidence wait until the end of this blog cos that in itself is an implication of the testimony of the existence of Virtual Particles. 

Back to our black hole's event horizon. As these virtual particles get into existence throughout the space-time. They do so at the event horizon as well. Sometimes one of the particles in the pair falls into the black hole and here is when it gets crazy! As the virtual particle falls in the black hole the black hole lose its mass. This loss of mass of a black hole is regarded as its evaporation of black hole. You must be thinking, how can an added particle make the black hole lose mass!

The lost particle leaves its pair right outside the event horizon. The leftover virtual particle then becomes a real particle, in absence of its anti-particle. It gets a mass equivalent to the mass that the black hole loses.  These particles that come into existence at the event horizon of a black hole propagate through the space-time in the form of radiations. From an outside perspective, it appears that the black hole is emitting radiations. These radiations are the Hawking Radiations. Is the matter is being created? Not at all! The physics is not collapsing in this stance. It is only the mass of the black hole being converted into the energy of the radiations. E=mc^2

We haven't yet observed the total annihilation of a black hole, but it is only a matter of time. Moreover, our observation of a real time a black hole is pretty recent via Gravitational lensing (that's a topic for another day). The scientists at CERN lab are working to create a microscopic black hole in the lab to observe it vanish after emitting Hawking's radiations. #WaitForIt

The beauty of hawking's work is that it simply turns the black hole from a massive evil monster to a kind of a recycling center of the universe.  What is your opinion on black holes? Talk nerdy to me in the comment section.

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Alexandria: The Muser's Hub

If you ask me where would I like to go if I could time travel I would instantly reply to Roman or Greek Empire in the peak of their glory. However, on a second thought, I may take my words back and say "Meh! I am good here in 2017. It is a pretty good time to be a woman and commoner."

Recently I was reading Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. And reading such fine ancient play always takes me back to the library of Alexandria. The event in the ancient history, that I reckon to be most detrimental for human civilization, was the burning of The library of Alexandria in  48 BC and its further obliteration in 642 AD.

The Royal library of Alexandria was one of the most notable libraries of the ancient times. It was a part of the think tank based in Alexandria called the Museum of Alexandria. The Museum was founded and patronaged by the Ptolemaic dynasty in the 300 BC.  It was dedicated to Alexander the great by his right-hand man Ptolemy. The museum was the forerunner of our present day research institutes. A university where scholars from distant lands went to further their study in all sorts of subjects. Museum- a place to muse where philosophers and thinkers gathered and did the thinking and exchanged the ideas. Unlike what we now know to be a museum, a place to display ancient artifacts. The current usage of the word museum was first spotted on in the 1600s. In ancient times Museum was a thinking place.  The royal Museum was also referred as Temple of muses that included idols of pagan Gods. I stress the word "Gods", the polytheistic, good old fashioned Gods because it is kind of a reflection to why we don't have this library today. #Cringe 

The city of Alexandria was situated on a harbor with the most glorious lighthouse of past one of the seven wonders of its time.The traders sailing through the Mediterranean often stopped at this Port. The marines who came to the port were often searched for drugs, did I say drugs? No! books, they searched the sailors and passer-by for the BOOKS. Such was the passion of the Ptolemaic dynasty towards collecting scripts. When the Books (scrolls) were found, they were confiscated and the person carrying books was compensated for the text. The books were then sent to the collection to the library of Alexandria. Alexandria was the hub for its vast collection of information pretty much like our internet. If there was any written material Alexandria probably had a copy of it.

No one knows what was the extent of the collection in the library, but many people believe that its destruction probably threw humanity a century behind in its course for the pursuit of knowledge. One of the most revolutionary inventions was the invention of the Steam Engine in the late 1700s. It changed the course of the human race, as they knew it at that time. In the museum of Alexandria in ancient Egypt scholars such as  Archimedes, Vitruvius, Heron ho Alexandreus, Hypatia and Ctesibius (and many others) were enrolled. Many of them were working on harnessing the energy from steam and wind. One such example is Aeolipile a precursor of the steam engine by Heron. Arguably, the purpose of getting machine power to eliminate human labor may not be the motivation of the engineers of Alexandria ... after all slaves were there to do that! It may have taken humanity some time to up its game on human rights, but regardless the work was in its nascent stage and would have been eventually put to application had the library of Alexandria not been destroyed.

The destruction of the library is often attributed to multiple instants and is disputed over by historians, but one thing is certain the library was completely eliminated by 642 AD. It is not known which of these events is responsible for destroying the library to what degree. However, majorly four recorded events are held responsible for it altogether.

The first destruction is on the hand's Roman republic during the siege of Alexandria in 48 BC.  Julia Caesar burned his own ships to distract his enemy and the fire started by Caesar's soldiers went astray and burned down a section of the library.  It was still not completely destroyed as Alexandria was still the scholar's hub during the time of Augustus of Roman Empire.

The second destruction was an attack on the Alexandria by the Aurelian in the 270 AD, during the fighting of this era the area where the library was situated was destroyed some of the content of the library may have been destroyed.

The third destruction was the order of the Pope/ Emperor Theodosius in 415 AD, under his reign Paganism was made illegal in Rome. During this time the empire was rioting. Every temple was shut down or destroyed by mobs. It was during one of those days when Hypatia, a female Mathematician of Alexandria, was murdered by the mob. After her death, the museum of Alexandria along with the temple was sacked the library was rampaged in the riots.

Lastly, the destruction or the annihilation of whatever was left of the scrolls and books is attributed to the Islamic caliphate of second Caliph Omar/Umar in 642 AD under the command of Amr ibn Al-As during the Muslim conquest of Egypt the fate of library was put to the hands of Caliph by Amr the commander of Arab army. He wrote to the caliph and received a reply (and I quote). ”If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them."

Even if we could not technically advance as a civilization in spite of the great library. As a book nerd, I still would have cherished the ancient plays and literature that is lost in the time. How do you think humanity would have been had we still had the library in its ancient form intact? Comment Down below. Let us muse here in this comment section in memory of The Library of Alexandria.

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PS. I understand that the last destruction by the Caliph is often controversial (Most of them are as I mentioned in the post.) I have provided the link to the sources in that section. The mentioned quote is there on the Wikipedia as well. Moreover, I think I must include this Islamic site that infers more or less the same narration. Please click here to reach the site. This link is already included in the given site so I didn't worry to add while writing but in light of providing the source I must include it as well.