Is there life after death?

Is there life after death? Is death one of the most pleasurable experiences in life? At death, do departed souls re-unite? Is this body a mere temporary shell for the soul to reside for a short period?

Well… all these questions could look a bit old fashioned and illogical.

But I recently read a book named ‘On life after death’ by Elizabeth Kubler Ross (EKR). I would have concluded it as ‘pulp fiction’ had I not seen in Wikipedia that EKR is one of the pillars of modern psychology. She was a medical doctor, a psychiatrist who has received honorary doctorates for her work from 23 universities!!!. If that is not enough, she has authored over 20 books and was the creator of the famous Kubler-Ross Model on dying which is well accepted in her field of science.

The questions I mentioned in the first paragraph were discussed with research data in the book and the answer to every one of those questions is a firm YES!!!.

EKR sites numerous episodes where, at Near Death Experiences (NDE) or while dying, patients tell the name of people who are waiting to receive him/her. These are always dead people and never was there an instance of a living person. Often, the information of death of some of them has not even reached the doctor because some of them might have just died in another room. The dying patient always sees only the dead. An example is five family members in a car crash all fighting for life in the hospital. One of them at death correctly meets all those who died before him, even by few minutes!!! How does he know that?

Another case is ‘out of the body experience’ in NDE scenarios. Even blind patients clearly explain who were trying to bring them back from the dead (defibrillator, resuscitation etc.), who was doing what and so on. This happens even when the brain activity is recorded as absolute zero!!! How does that happen? How could the blind see…that too without brain?

Thus, based on a large pile of research data EKR concludes YES to all my questions.

How about you?

-Ashok-

Astrology, Behavioral Genetics and me...

Do you believe in astrology?...... Gosh No!!!!
OK …Do you believe in behavioral Genetics?.....Well mmm….
What has Behavioral Genetics to do with Astrology? Here is my theory…..and you be the judge….

One of the offshoots of Human Genome project is a field of science called Behavioral Genetics. It is rooted on the assumption that Human Behavior and pre-dispositions are often coded in his/her genes, although environmental factors do help mold some of them. The fallout of this postulate is that looking at a human being’s gene one can predict his behavioral traits and interests to a large extent. These traits range from alcoholism, to sexual inclinations.
Another field of genetics similarly posits that proneness to certain diseases like cancer can be predicted by analyzing genes. Scientists can even say what form of cancer one is susceptible to and when in the life span it can hit him or her. For e.g. looking at a gene, soon scientists would be able to say that the person is likely to be affected by Colon cancer when he/she is about 30. (This gene is yet to be identified)

Now take one step back….It looks like scientists can make all this predictions by taking a cell sample from the embryo of a baby yet to be born. Or in other words scientists can write your ‘Horoscope’ in good detail before you are even born…

That is where my question of Astrology comes in…

Astrology looks at star configurations at birth and predicts your future (or writes your Horoscope). Scientists look at the gene and do the same thing. Palmists do the same by looking at the lines on the palm of your hand…
Here are my connectors…
Do stars at birth (or while in womb) influence your genes?
Do lines on your palm reflects your gene in some way?
For these two questions, I do not have answers?

So let me ask my original question again….Do I believe in Astrology?....Well….mmmm

Do you?

-Ashok-

Dangerous Ideas!!!

A very interesting site named ‘Edge’ (http://www.edge.org) purportedly brings together people working at the edge of a broad range of scientific and technical fields, and has them ask each other questions they are asking themselves. One of the traditions of this site is to pose a question every year that makes some of the best thinkers in the world to come out with clear unambiguous answers. Considering that the questions are asked by none other than John Brockman (The founder of the site and the author of such books as The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution, The New Humanists: Science at the Edge, and What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty.), the answers tend to be interesting and thought-worthy to say the least.

This year John asked contributors for "dangerous ideas". "The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious," he writes. "What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?"

Now I would suggest you to take a moment or two off and write three ideas you think as belonging to this category before proceeding further. (After all, who does not want to test his/her wits against people who matter?!.)

I have found many of the ideas interesting and some of them really scary; As John puts it, “scary not because it is not like to come true but because they are very likely to come true”.

Here are some examples:

• Karl Sabbagh (Writer and Television Producer; Author, The Riemann Hypothesis) deals with the capability of human brain in his dangerous idea. He states ‘The human brain and its products are incapable of understanding the truths about the universe’. The hypothesis by itself seems fairly simple though not very pleasant. If you really look at the evolution of theoretical Physics investigating various forces in nature from Newton’s days to String Theory, you might find a sound example of our inability to understand and explain the ways of nature. Every time you think you have covered all aspects in the theory, a new dimension opens up and you realize that you are not even back to square one. But I am not yet ready to give in to Karl’s hypothesis. A controversial book published couple of years ago by the Steven Wolfram named ‘A New Kind of Science’ tries to provide a totally different approach to explaining universal laws (I will write about this book in one of the issues in the near future). Though I am not bought on Wolfram’s approaches, it gives me confidence that some day somebody will conceive a method/approach to comprehend the universe and our brain is pretty much up to it.

• Rupert Sheldrake (Biologist, London; Author of The Presence of the Past) hypothesises that humanity might invent a sense of direction involving new scientific principles. At the outset I thought this could be one of those spooky Paranormal Kinetics stuff. But once you read through some of the stuff Rupert has written, you would agree with me that there is meat in the argument. Here are some extracts:
  

…No one knows how pigeons home, or how swallow migrate, or how green turtles find Ascension Island from thousands of miles away to lay their eggs. These kinds of navigation involve more than following familiar landmarks, or orientating in a particular compass direction; they involve an ability to move towards a goal…
…there is a dangerous possibility that animal navigation may not be explicable in terms of present-day physics. Over and above the known senses, some species of animals may have a sense of direction that depends on their being attracted towards their goals through direct field-like connections…
…cannot explain how racing pigeons return across unfamiliar terrain from six hundred miles away, even flying over the sea, as English pigeons do when they are raced from Spain…

Well doesn’t that sounds like a real idea?

• V.S. Ramachandran (Neuroscientist; Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego; Author, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness) expands on Francis Crick’s "astonishing hypothesis" — ‘that even our loftiest thoughts and aspirations are mere by-products of neural activity. We are nothing but a pack of neurons’. Throw in the famous Sherlock Homes assertion ‘I am a brain, my dear Watson, and the rest of me is a mere appendage’, and you have to very well agree with Ramachandran that the whole idea definitely deflates Homosapien’s misplaced confidence on his superior place among living beings.

There are about hundred similar entries on the site, some extremely thought provoking and some not so. If I have succeeded in sufficiently whetting your appetite, please send me your thoughts by writing to ashoktk@gmail.com .

Back to the Future…

In my last write-up, I had discussed the ‘Technology Timeline’, a report released by British Telecom in August 2005 predicting future technology trends in various areas. In that instance, we had a closer look at BT’s predictions for the ‘Artificial Intelligence’.

As I have explained, BT’s report covers all major areas affecting human life including Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, Biotechnology, Health, Business, Education, Home & Office Infrastructure, Life & Leisure, Materials & Electronic Devices, Processing, Memory & Storage, Robotics, Security, Military, Law, Shopping & Money, Space, Telecommunications, Transport & Travel, and Wearable Technology.

This time let us have a go at the predictions relating to the ‘Retail Market Place’

1. In-store positioning systems enable personalised guides (2008-2012), In-store positioning systems with One Centimetre precision (2008-2012)
I think this is an understatement. We do have the technology today itself to set up in-store positioning systems and enable guidance based on the collected position information. The other day, I had a discussion with the CEO of a company named Firetide (http://www.firetide.com ) based in the Silicon Valley whose mesh network product ‘HotPort’ supports location awareness as a function. You just deploy your wireless mesh network in-store using the product (which uses a proprietary protocol) and connect a bunch of RFID readers to the network; you are kind of operational to locate your loyal customers (through RFID tags) with a few feet accuracy. Then you can provide guidance services (e.g. provide a map to reach some specific shelf), push advertisements on to screens near the person (Narrowcasting and CRM at work) and carry out cross selling and up selling. Is this the best way to do this? Not at all.
If you don’t want to mess with mesh you may use location services from your wireless operator (I am not sure of the accuracy levels though). Even better would be a mesh of detectors which can detect the location by resolving signal strengths at two or more sensors w.r.t something the customer is carrying. I can think of plenty of other technologies as well. To cut the long story short, I can envision this being available with some retailers by the 4th quarter of 2006.

I do agree that the One Centimetre precision would take some more time and 2008 could be just right.

2. Immersive VR shopping booths (2008-2012)
I like this one. I had been an ardent follower of VRML and I believe it did not take off because it was too early to come to the market. The hardware available in circa 2000-2001 just did not have the capability to handle VRML. But today with improvements in graphic processing at the hardware level, virtual reality is probably ready to take centre-stage on common man’s computer. If that is the case what can be better than Virtual Reality malls. I can imagine going through the entire mall sitting in my living room and ordering stuff without stepping out even for a second. (My wife may not be too happy on this). What you would miss is the ‘touch’ and ‘smell’ sensations. For most shopping goods ‘smell’ does not matter and there are plenty where ‘touch’ also does not matter. (A few years down we will have technologies to simulate touch and smell as well, anyway). So get ready to try out all the clothes in Macys on your own body (virtually) before making a purchase decision. This is definitely on and 2008 may be quite in the ballpark.

3. Most books sold on-line (2008-2012)
This is a no-brainer. My extension on this prediction is that by 2009 we would have book like contraptions (with pages which can be turned!!) where the book content can be loaded just like loading a CD in a CD player. Once you finish reading the book insert a different CD (not literally) in and lo and behold! - You have the new book. The instrument will have the same look and feel of a 20th century best seller (in print).

4. Paper and coins largely replaced by electronic cash (2011-2015)
Why so late!!!. Who is using paper and coins anyway for shopping even now? (I am not talking grocery here). If the spread of plastic money in the past and the current growth of mobile phones are indicators, we can safely assume that the ‘Wallet’ software available in most mobile phones would provide the electronic cash support before 2006 end and we will be walking with electronic cash in our phones before 2008 end.

5. Personal taxation at point of sale (2011-2015)
Do you think the tax man will wait till 2011!! Big hope . With the current level of technology it may be available in 18 months time in selected countries in the developed world, I bet!

Forward to future with BT

A few years back I got an opportunity to work with Mark R. Anderson, CEO of Anderson Consulting Group (http://www.acgroup.org/pages/395707/) based in Montgomery, TX, whose title on the visiting card read Healthcare IT Futurist. I was sort of intrigued by the title at that time. One of my friends then told me that organizations like British Telecom (BT) do hire Technology Futurists by the dozen to do crystal ball gazing. Based on that, the title made perfect sense, but I do not still know whether it is true. If it is true, these futurists are doing some tremendous jobs in BT. “Technology Timeline,” a report released by British Telecom in August 2005, stands testimony to that.

BT’s report covers all major areas affecting human life including Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, Biotechnology, Health, Business, Education, Home & Office Infrastructure, Life & Leisure, Materials & Electronic Devices, Processing, Memory & Storage, Robotics, Security, Military, Law, Shopping & Money, Space, Telecommunications, Transport & Travel, and Wearable Technology.

I will try to discuss some of the predictions here with my own views on implementation approaches, timeframes and value. The BT list contains probably about thousand predictions. Selecting a few for discussion is really tough. So I decided to start with Artificial Intelligence. (I have also decided to limit myself to five predictions being very considerate of the readers.)

Synthetic voices pop band gets in top 20 (2006-2010)
I think today’s technologies themselves are capable of producing songs which can reach top of the charts. Already synthetic voices emulating famous figures are being sold by many TTS product sellers. I have been in a Scansoft presentation where they got its TTS engine to read a paragraph in the voice and style of Bill Clinton. Hence flexibility of synthetic voices, I would say, is beyond question. Marrying it to AI and creating a band may be the only activity which is likely to take time.

First species brought back from extinction (2006-2010)
Here again, with cloning success rates fairly high, I cannot see a major technology bottleneck. But after having read and watched Jurassic Park I am not sure about the need or desirability of doing this.

Mood-sensitive home décor (2008-2012)
This would be fun to have. Some time back I had come across a gadget which if kept in your hand could change color if you are tense or angry. It has been scientifically proved that your moods can generate chemical and electrical signs which can be recognized and measured. What with Bluetooth and other technologies, changing the home décor based on your moods is only an integration and provisioning issue. Ofcourse it could be costly to begin with.

Addiction to on-line games seen as a national problem (2008-2012)
In the second week of August 2005, A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure, minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet café. Apparently, the 28 year old man - Lee -had planted himself in front of a computer monitor to play online games on Aug. 3. He left his seat over the next three days only to go to the toilet and take brief naps on a makeshift bed. The cause of death was presumed to be heart failure stemming from exhaustion
So this is not a prediction anymore. It is a reality. Something especially developing countries (Where the young population is more than the old) should be really worried about.

Computers that write most of their own software (2013-2017)
Most software written by machine (2013-2017)
Well, as per the prediction we IT employees have some more time left before going jobless. But my premonition is that we could be hit as early as 2010. Already many of the MDA (Model Driven Architecture) based products are capable of doing half your work (It is true that most of us have successfully thwarted the introduction of these by refusing to use them on silly objections!). But mind you the day is not far away…

I will be back with more…

An act of conviction

In a rather dramatic act, the gentleman in his fifties picked up the potion and gulped it down !!!. (The act was very similar in many ways to the one performed by Socrates millenniums back) The potion contained a concoction of Bacteria which many of his peers believed could not survive the digestive acids in his stomach. Most of them also believed that they are not going to do any harm to his digestive system. In such a case this was neither an act of courage nor had any associated risk.

But the gentleman knew better. He knew that the Bacteria would survive; especially the Helicobacter pylori. He knew he was going to be sick…terribly sick. But he had to do it…to convince others…the doubting Thomases of the world who questioned scientific evidence collected painstakingly over a long period of time. He had a point to prove!!!

The gentleman succeeded…He fell ill…very very ill…

Barry J. Marshall who was driven to perform this act has won Nobel Prize for medicine this year along with his colleague J Robbin Warren.

To paraphrase the Press Release by The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet dated 3rd October 2005..

Robin Warren (born 1937), a pathologist from Perth, Australia, observed small curved bacteria colonizing the lower part of the stomach (antrum) in about 50% of patients from which biopsies had been taken. He made the crucial observation that signs of inflammation were always present in the gastric mucosa close to where the bacteria were seen.

Barry Marshall (born 1951), a young clinical fellow, became interested in Warren's findings and together they initiated a study of biopsies from 100 patients. After several attempts, Marshall succeeded in cultivating a hitherto unknown bacterial species (later denoted Helicobacter pylori) from several of these biopsies. Together they found that the organism was present in almost all patients with gastric inflammation, duodenal ulcer or gastric ulcer. Based on these results, they proposed that Helicobacter pylori is involved in the aetiology of these diseases.

Even though peptic ulcers could be healed by inhibiting gastric acid production, they frequently relapsed, since bacteria and chronic inflammation of the stomach remained. In treatment studies, Marshall and Warren as well as others showed that patients could be cured from their peptic ulcer disease only when the bacteria were eradicated from the stomach. Thanks to the pioneering discovery by Marshall and Warren, peptic ulcer disease is no longer a chronic, frequently disabling condition, but a disease that can be cured by a short regimen of antibiotics and acid secretion inhibitors.

It was to prove this Bacterial connection to the skeptic world that Marshall resorted to the heroic act mentioned in the beginning…

Now you must be wondering why I am talking at length on this particular incident!

I think what Marshall showed through his action was his confidence and conviction with respect to his work. That is probably what makes him great…great much beyond his Nobel Prize!

How many of us can say the same about ourselves and our areas of work???

Palindromes, Ambigrams and Dan Brown

Everybody knows who Robert Langdon is; well almost everybody does. He is the hero of Dan Brown’s popular novel ‘The Da Vinci Code’. No, I am not about to join the unending theological debate on the claims in the book. (But I do consider Leonardo Da Vinci as one of the best brains to have set foot on planet Earth with or without Da Vinci Code exposures!!!).

What I am interested in here, is a website by the brilliant Graphic Designer John Langdon who wrote the book 'WordPlay'. I think Dan Browns' character owes his second name to John who had helped Dan on his previous work 'Angels & Demons'. You might wonder what is so special about the personal page of a a Graphic Artist. To say the least, John’s page is different. It is dedicated to interesting stuff like Ambigrams, Wordplay, Paintings, Logos etc.

Take the case of Ambigrams. We are all familiar with Palindromes - those words which read the same from either direction. A good example would be the word ‘Madam’. There are famous Palindromes like ‘Able was I ere I saw Elba’ and ‘Madam I’m Adam’. The first one is apparently set in the context of Napoleon’s exile in the Mediterranean island of Elba and the second is said to be the first full sentence man is said to have ever uttered (Adam telling Eve). Though I am not sure whether Napoleon or Adam spoke really in English to be palindromic in expression, some of my friends believe that Adam’s was not only the first but the last one as well! Closer home, my name of mother tongue written in English is also a Palindrome – MALAYALAM.

My idea here is not to talk about Palindromes. Ambigrams are similar to Palindromes. More precisely, symmetrical Ambigrams are similar to Palindromes. They read the same from both sides. This is not due to the peculiarity in spelling as is the case of Palindromes but due to the calligraphy techniques used. (‘Ambi’ means both and ‘Gram’ means word). Assymetrical Ambigrams reads meaningfully but differently in both directions. Due to copyright issues, I am not in a position to display some samples here ( I am not good enough to design one either). You call learn all about it at http://www.johnlangdon.net/New_Pages/Ambigrams.htm. Infact Dan Brown’s website itself talks about a few Ambigrams (http://www.danbrown.com/secrets/ambigram.html).

You can even generate some for yourself at http://www.ambigram.matic.com/ambigram.htm just like the one I generated for'ASHOK' shown at the top right corner.

Go have a look and enjoy…