Genetically Modified? No Thanks! Monday, Jul 2 2007

Its 2050 AD

Scenario I

India refuses to vote in favor of a resolution brought by America in the UN. The resolution is about carrying out a military action on some country X for allegedly proliferating Nuclear technology. India argues that there is not enough evidence to support the American claims.

America gets angry and imposes sanctions on India! The american agricultural biotech companies like Monsanto implement the sanctions and refuse to sell seeds for crop cultivation in India! Indian farmers are left with no seeds! All these years they had been growing crops using GM (genetically modified) seeds patented by these american companies. They need permission from these companies to grow these crops, since these are patented seeds! Since the farmers had been growing GM crops for the past 4-5 decades now they don’t have stock of natural seeds either!!

The government of India is forced to vote in favor of the American resolution in UN in order to avoid a food scarcity in India!

Scenario II

American agricultural biotech companies announce a 20% increase in their annual license fee for GM crop cultivation. The cost of all food items in India increases proportionately !

Reason? Indian farmers have been growing GM crops and they need to pay for the annual license in order to continue to grow these crops!

The Genetic Story

Well, Dont think that the above scenarios are from some science fiction novel. This is a truth which I realised few days back!

There are about 5 major agricultural biotech companies in US that control about 85% of the food, like Monsanto, DOW, Dupont etc ! They grow and sell Genetically Modified crops and related food.

Did I say “Grow”?

Well, yes. These companies modify or insert genetic sections (genes, slices of DNA) from other species into natural crops. Say for instance Firefly genes are introduced into Corn! Now this becomes a genetically modified corn. This is a patented corn by the agro-biotech company which did the modification!

Firstly, farmers need to pay to this company to buy these genetically modified corn seeds to grow it.

Secondly and more importantly, since these are patented seeds, the farmers also need to pay annual license fees to grow this corn! You cannot simply grow this corn this year and then use the seeds that you got from this year’s yield and continue growing the same corn next year! You need to have valid license to grow the corn, without which it is illegal to grow this GM corn!

Farmers go for GM crops for various reasons. Increased yield, resistance to different crop diseases etc. At the same time they fall into the traps of these biotech companies! Slowly every where it will be only these GM crops that will be grown. The natural seeds of that crop are no longer available! Imagine what would happen if every farmer on this planet starts growing a GM tomato!

Or let us assume that for practical purposes, about 70% of farmers are growing GM tomato and 30% (since they have some common sense left and are not greedy) are growing natural tomato. Now the biotech companies increase the rate of GM seeds, or say cancel the licenses for some reason. Now, even if GM farmers want to switch to natural seeds, where is the supply for the 70% farmers? Can 30% of the farmers supply seeds of natural crops to 70% of them?

Gene Terminators

Well, this is even more dangerous. Agro biotech companies are using gene terminator technology to ensure that the poor farmers cant grow their patented GM crops illegally(?).

The gene terminator technology used in producing GM seeds ensures that the second generation plants of these self destruct! In other words, if you buy a GM seed from these companies and then grow a GM crop and then use the seeds of this crop to generate more second generation crops, then, lo, they commit suicide!

This is a crime against nature and against life on this planet. To quote Mike Adams “To deny farmers the ability to propagate seeds from one generation to the next is to enslave humanity in a system of corporate control that violates the laws of nature and God. Care to take a guess which U.S. corporation is engaged in this activity? If you guessed Monsanto, you’re right.“. Read more here...

Political Tool

Like all other technological advantages, this can also be used as a political tool by American government. Since these are patented by american companies, just imagine what will be the scenario if most of India is growing GM crops! We have to pay whatever license fee these companies demand! We cannot grow these crops if these companies refuse to renew the license!

By further fine tuning the genetic modifications, these companies can even sell comparatively low yield seeds to Indian farmers and sell relatively high yield seeds in US! This will give the US crops a competitive edge over Indian ones!

The agro biotech companies will be controlling the entire food chain from growing of crops, providing seeds to the final end product used by the consumers!

Health Implications

If nature has a specific genetic design for a crop, then there will be some reason to it. Genes are not independent stand alone units where you change one gene or add one and nothing else in that crop will be affected! 97% of human genome was thought to be junk and only recently researchers have realiszd that it is not junk and has its own role in making other 3% work. Changing or inserting a gene might add some new functionality, but at the same time what is the guarantee that it has not screwed up some existing feature of the crop? How can we guarantee that a GM banana has the same benefits of a natural banana?

For those in India relying on the benefits and cure of herbal medicinal systems like Ayurveda, can we consider the GM banana to have the same ayurvedic features of a natural banana? Imagine the implications when we start substituting GM crops for natural ones in Ayurveda! Then if it doesnt work, you will find people saying Ayurveda is wrong! Without even knowing the actual truth.

Seedless grapes! Have you ate it? Well, now they are useless grapes! Seedless grapes are GM grapes, the benefit? well they are seedless. But is that all? Well, as I said, they are useless too. If you have heard that grapes are good for heart and so, are eating grapes, then seedless grapes are useless for you! Because the best natural cardio vascular medicine good for your heart muscles is found in the seeds of grapes! I hope food is not a fancy item, to say you want seedless, skinless, etc

God knows what other food benefits you are missing by consuming GM food with missing parts in it!

Take the example of Mexico. The Mexican farmers are alleging that their natural corn crops have been contaminated by American Genetic corn. Biotech companies might have patented these crops. But how will the pollinating bees know about it. They dont differentiate between natural and GM crops, do they?

Now corn is also being genetically modified to be used as a source of ethanol, to produce alternate fuel for petroleum. But lo, this is not that corn which can be consumed. You cannot eat this corn, because it is NOT meant for that. The mexican farmers allege that their corn might also be contaminated by this non-consumable variety of corn! Imagine eating corn which is actually meant to run your car!

See this news report on washington post and also this letter from the president of the american corn growers association. Finding a difficult time in Europe and to some extent in US too, these companies are pushing their GM crops into a relatively unaware India. Remember the Monsanto – BT cotton row and farmers protest a few years back in India?

The GM products are NOT tested for their long term implications on consumer health. By testing I mean the effects on human health on consuming these products over a period of years!

Some of these GM companies were also sued by vietnam victims for war crime! See this report . The victims alleged that the defoliant chemical used by American army against the vietnam, called the agent Orange was produced by these companies. Agent orange was a herbicide sprayed by the US military planes on Vietnam forests to cause trees to shred off their leaves so that the US forces can see the vietnam soldiers and kill them! Only later it was found that agent Orange was indeed highly carcinogenic – it causes cancer. Poor innocent vietnamese people who are even today paying a price for this blunder.

Let me give you an example. The milk sold in USA is the milk obtained by giving hormonal injections to the cows for higher yield. At the same time as a side effect of this unnatural production, this milk also contains a larger content of growth hormone protein! This is the same growth hormone protein in humans too! This is NOT supposed to be given to the body unnaturally, It has to be produced inside the body naturally. But this is the milk that they drink in America! The result, most girls in American today have puberty even before they reach the natural age for it!

For those in India, the next time you get milk make sure it is from a natural source. Better buy it directly from a milk vendor nearby who owns cows. They don’t give hormonal injections to their cows. The milk you get in Indian villages where the milk vendor milks the cow early morning and supplies the milk at your door step, is the milk in its true natural form. These cows are worshiped and there is no unnatural treatment of any kind given to these cows.

Ever since I came to know about the story of genetically modified products I have even stopped eating American Corn!! Next time you buy a food product, make sure there is no GM content in it.

Else while you think you are eating corn, it might actually have a bit of firefly in it! What you think to be Potato might have a bit of Moth in it! See images below from a video published on youtube at – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGAzKDTxwxI

And who knows! There have been no long term studies of the effects of GM products on humans! What happens if you eat GM food for 5-10 years? Well, nobody has tested that! Probably you might be offering yourself as an experimental sheep for this testing! You eat GM food at your own risk! Beware next time you see very fat and long banana, huge tomatoes etc. In UK GM food is always marked as Genetically Modified. In US as of today, GM food is not separately marked as GM food. I don’t think that in India it is marked as GM food either!

Below are two videos posted on youtube related to the GM controversy. The first one is about Genetically Modified food. The second one is about the effects of consuming milk produced by giving hormonal injections to cows!

Permanent link

22 Responses »

 

Missing Exception Handlers in Stem Cells? Saturday, Jun 16 2007

Stem cells as we know are those cells in the body that can grow into any other cells as and when required. Unfortunately adult humans have a very limited set of these cells in specific locations like liver and bone marrow.

In animals like salamander for instance stem cells grow back an entire limb that has been cut off!

The question here is how do stem cells know how much of a limb has been cut off? For instance in salamanders when 1/4 of a limb is cut off, exactly the missing 1/4 grows back into place. If 3/4 of a limb is cut off, exactly the missing 3/4 part grows back into place!! So where is the information stored about what portion has to be grown back?

Well, the obvious region should be the place of amputation where the limb has been cut off. There should be some indicator here which informs the stem cells WHAT EXISTED AT THE CUT OFF REGION.

Researchers have discovered an indicator for this. It is a protein called CD59. The concentration of this protein varies in different parts of the body. For instance in a limb this protein has highest concentration at the place where the limb is attached to the main body and slowly decreases as you move down away from the main body and is the lowest at the ends of a limb where there are fingers.

So CD59 are like address specifiers in the body whose concentration tells the surrounding cells as to in which part of the body those cells are located exactly! An excellent design/evolution!!

So far so fine. But what about some exceptions? What if CD59 concentration changes in some part accidentally? What happens if there is an amputation in that place??

For instance what if at the fingers of a salamander CD59 was increased to the level that is found at the place where its limb is attached to its body, and then we cut off the fingers?? Well, it was observed that usually such variations result in the growth of deformed body parts!!!

In other words natural growth of stem cells into body parts demands that there be no manipulations artificial or otherwise in the level of CD59 concentration. There are no exceptions that are handled here! As a software rule says ‘Garbage In -> Garbage Out’

Once we master the use of stem cells, people without major or minor organ or body part loss need not worry anymore. Stem cells can be used to grow back any part of the body that has been lost or damaged. People with diabetes for instance can remove their non functional pancreas and replace it with a new functional pancreas and start enjoying sweet dishes. Those who have lost their legs/hands in accidents can grow them back!! Smokers who have their lungs damaged can get a new pair of lungs (of course for them brain and blood stream continue to be an issue!)

So provided there are no nuclear wars that annihilate human civilization on earth in the near future, we will be moving towards an interesting era of medical excellence. Still, a long way to move towards becoming a Type I civilization

Leave a Response »

 

Darwin’s theory is only about adaptation not evolution Sunday, Jun 3 2007

Never allow your mind to get prejudiced about an idea or a thought. The key to really understand things is to have an open mind. If what you have been believeing ever since your birth is found to be false, enquire into it with an open mind and if all evidences point towards it being false, immediately give up your childhood belief.

Do not stick to your old belief inspite of knowing it is false, and do not try to find evidence which will prove that it is true, just for the sake of proving it true.
On the contrary, the best way to prove something right is always to try to prove it wrong! In this way you will always strengthen your beliefs because you would have tried to prove it wrong in n number of ways and it should pass the test every time.

I hate when people start arguments based on prejudice. I do not argue with such people. I am not here to change anybody, I am here to increase my knowledge. Those who stick to their prejudice, to their egos and blind faith are just making fools of themselves.

Let us talk about evolution. When I was first taught Darwin’s theory of evolution I actually liked that idea. But then no prejudice please. Upon enquiry I had a doubt. Life started evolving from carbon and other raw materials available on earth. Well, in that case all these raw materials as we know do not come under the definition of life. So as things evolved where did LIFE exactly start? Was it when the first cell was formed? Or was it when the first amino acid formed? Was it when the first protein molecule formed?

As I studied further, I came across viruses which are defined as intermediate stage between life and lifeless chemicals. This is because viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They need a host to multiply! One of the basic properties of life is the ability to multiply on its own by reproducing. So viruses do not fit into this category unless the definition includes a host cell!

So as I continued my thoughts on this I am yet to find a satisfactory answer to whether some intelligent designer designed life or was it purely natural evolution with random mutations.

But I am sure that darwin’s theory cannot account for the formation of complex life forms. I feel darwin’s theory is right only within its own domain and the problem exists because it has been extended outside its domain as something which explains the entire evolution of life on this planet.

Even the evolution of a simplest of the simple proteins from random combination of amino acids is not possible, even looking at it as a probabilistic chance in terms of earth’s age! Not possible even in terms of universal age known to us!

Then all these proteins have to assemble together, form sub cellular entities, then cells.. looks like proteins were already intelligent Not possible. Then DNA, genes, replication, repair mechanism, translation… No way possible that it evolved on its own, unless and until there is a totally different type of operational procedures at molecular level, which I dont think is the case..

If we say that we evolved merely from random mutations, then I would like to quote Einstein but in a different context as “God does not play dice”

The domain of the darwin’s theory as I think is adaptation of life, NOT evolution of life. Darwin’s theory explains the process of natural adaptation very well, the most suitable design will survive in an environment. Like for instance consider the birds of gallapagus which he found. Some have soft beaks and some have strong beaks. During a drought the soft beaks birds do not get fruits to feed on, while the strong beak birds can break open the shells of dried fruits from earlier seasons and survive on it. So in this case the soft beaked birds will not survive.

So what darwin’s theory explains is the survival and adaptation within a species. But there is no way that it explains the evolution of a completely different species from one species. Nor there is any way that is explains the very basic evolution of life where mitochondria, lysosomes, DNA etc form on their own(?!) and then form a cell, and then cells group together to form multi cellular life.. all this does not look scientific enough. Its not logical, its highly probabilistic. And as I have said in my earlier articles, this definitely does not explain the creation (or evolution) of new species. It is simply impossible for chromosome numbers to change and new genes to be formed by a genetic mutation and for opposite sex individuals of the same species to be formed at the same time so that they reproduce to continue the new species!

So in a nutshell, darwin’s theory only explains the adaptation of a particular species or the survivability of a particular species. But it does not explain Evolution of life, there is simply not enough data to support this.

Probably Darwin’s theory is just a subset of the real theory of creation/evolution of life on this planet.

12 Responses »

 

Brain in Auto Mode Thursday, May 24 2007

This has been one of my thoughts since long back. About the auto mode of brain where brain works without our mind consciously being aware of it.

I feel that we need to concentrate to do things only when we are not used to it, in other words when we are not experienced in it. Things that we are experts at, our brain automatically takes care based on the expertise information it has.

I first got this idea while climbing steps long time back while I was in high school I believe. It was night time and the lights went off and I had to climb up to another floor. First I guessed the height of the steps as we all normally do and then started climbing thinking something else all the way long. Then suddenly the body had a jerk, as I had tried to climb another step when none existed, I had already reached the top and the stairs had ended!

We all have experienced such a thing. What it really means is that, we are used to climbing steps. Our brain is an expert in giving instructions to our legs on how to climb. It has mastered it. But it needs constant information to be fed in to decide the next move. The information comes only when we are concentrating on the data. I was thinking about something else while climbing and the brain was using its earlier expertise to calculate the position of the successive steps ahead. It had no clue about whether there was a step ahead or not! It was simply running in an auto mode!!

Suddenly an unexpected error occured, i.e the steps ended. Every unexpected thing brings back concentration!! As I stumbled after the steps ended, I came back from my thoughts and concentrated on the stumbling. Brain expects concentration when something unexpected occurs in an auto mode, so that it can record information about what happened and why it happened and use that information the next time while in auto mode. In other words, concentration is required to record information OR put in other words, concentration is the process of recording information. Pre-recorded information is used in auto mode!

As a child our brain didnt know how to walk. We had to calculate every step, balance, etc constantly feeding information to the brain about the outcome. We had to concentrate then on walking, on taking each step, etc. The brain then started recording the wrong steps, the right steps, the fast steps etc.

We adults dont do that anymore, as our brain has enough data on how to walk! While walking we no more calculate our steps. We can think something else while walking and leave the brain in automode to use its expertise!

Concentration is the process of gathering information i.e learning
Auto mode is the process of using this information i.e expertise

To conclude, I think what we think to be our mind is nothing but brain in a concentrated mode, i.e a brain mode that is recording information, with attention to detail!

Leave a Response »

 

Genetically Engineered Only! Monday, May 21 2007

Every form of life is being genetically engineered today. Humans are playing the video game of life!

Cows are being genetically engineered to produce more milk.
Chickens are being genetically engineered to produce more meat.
Sheeps are being genetically engineered to produce more wool.
Plants are being genetically engineered to produce more fruits and vegetables.
Bacteria are being genetically engineered to manufacture hormones and what not…
Carrots are being engineered to taste like rabbits. Rabbits are being engineered to look like carrots.

How about Humans ? Can we genetically engineer humans to have more sense?

Well, Humans will be genetically engineered too. Not to have more sense. But to have more IQ, a beautiful perfect look, prevent all genetic diseases, have a great physique. In other words to produce better super humans who are more productive(?), attractive, well built, than normal (non-genetic engineered) humans.

Given this trend and assuming that in the future Genetically engineered humans will be a common trend. Since genetically engineered humans are more productive, less prone to diseases (?), more intelligent (?), more beautiful… whatever they claim… we might have ads something like this for vacancies…

Software developers required. Qualifications: Engineering graduates. Genetically Engineered only please..

For a beauty contest, contestants required. Genetically engineered only please, No silicon implants, bcos if you are Genetically Engineered you dont need one…

For army: Soldiers required. Genetically engineered only please….

Hmm.. looks like a different kind of racism will start after that between GE (Genetically engineered) and non GE versions of humans. Non-genetically engineered natural humans will demand reservations for them in all sectors. They will move to the courts and demand that a non GE judge hear their case, there by requiring the justice department to hire a new natural judge!

There will be slogans by natural humans against GE humans like ‘We created you. We are the originals. You are duplicates. We are natural. You are artificial.’

What about mixed humans -The natural offsprings of GE humans?. Well, they will be declared to be equivalent to their parents because of the genetic superiority of their parents. Some of these GE offsprings will also fight for the cause of natural humans, as they will see their great grand parents in these natural humans.

Those natural humans who are against the concept of going against nature will continue to have natural children. There will be competitions to prove the superiority of GE humans over natural humans and vice versa. The results will be mixed ones. Statistics will be collected. Only in terms of beauty contests it will be observed that GE humans are clear winners. In all other categories there will be mixed results leading to experts analysis which conclude that its the surroundings and growth environment that matters ultimately. But the supporters of GE demand that more funds be allocated to do research to improvise on GE technology.

How about races after that? We wont be able to distinguish the races of genetically engineered humans. For a GE we cant say whether he/she is a mongoloid or arabic or african. They will become raceless as their genetic fingerprints have vanished! Tracking human ancestry based on genetic fingerprint will not be possible for GE humans. Even criminal laws will have to be changed as DNA finger print cannot be used to specify parents of GE humans!

Well I do suggest that GE humans can have a particular genetic code in their genes indicating their natural race, if at all if they have one!

Please note that all those who are reading this article in the era in which this article was written by me are natural humans. My suggestion to you. Be Natural, Live Naturally, simply because, you are already born and hence cannot be Genetically Engineered!

For all those who are worried about the GE human trend, well, one day during the natural meiosis process of creating a baby, which of course will be a natural human, the homologous chromosomes during the crossing-over phase, do something very weird, a kind of crossing over that has never happened in human history till date, giving rise to a super human, i.e a super non-GE natural human who is much more superior than the GE humans and can take over them easily to defend the natural human race. He will be the ultimate saviour of natural humans. He will be Superman + Spiderman + Batman + Heman + Doberman…..

Waiting for the creation of this super natural human? Well, then who the hell do you think I am?

Leave a Response »

 

An Evolutionary Crisis Saturday, May 19 2007

Suddenly got a doubt today while thinking about archeopteryx. Archeopteryx is the fossil of a creature which is said to have been in a transition phase from dinosaurs to birds.

If life evolved as darwin had said say from one species to another, then where are the other fossils of intermediate species? Why havent we found any ?

How can a fish lead to a frog ? by mutation say the evolutionists. Well, mutations are most of the time harmful and will kill the mutated form. For argument’s sake let us consider that one in a million mutations is not harmful and results in some new species. Still, I dont understand how one mutation in a gene would create a new species with different number of chromosomes ! Well known mathematician and physicist Fred Hoyle says ‘The chance that higher life forms have been evolved by chance is comparable with the chance that a Tornado sweeping a junk yard might assemble a boeing-747 from the materials available’ !

To quote Einstein again, but in the context of random mutations, I think “God does not play dice”

Even then, for a moment let us consider that ‘mutations gave rise to new species’. Then my question is, for that new species to survive, there has to be a reproductive counterpart! Do mutations occur in pairs in a male and a female in the same place, with the same mutation resulting in a male and a female of some new species !! And those two adam and eve of the new species fall in love with each other

Will be interested if somebody can prove me wrong and explain how mutations cause new species to form and evolve.

Why havent we observed any new species forming in our known human history ? Evolutionists say it takes millions of years for a new species to evolve. Well, I am confused, as far as I know mutations take just one generation to be formed. Where did these millions of years come from? Then if we assume that long periods are required for many mutations to appear for a new species to be formed, then what are the chances that all those next generation mutations will be useful (or atleast not harmful) every time, before creating a new species altogether ? And remember that these mutations should occur in the same successive generations belonging to the original mutating creature, I mean the chain should be maintained. In other words, if a fish mutates a bit today, then its children, their children, etc in the same generation line should mutate till finally some new species occurs. Now what are the chances that mutations occur for the same offsprings every time to maintain continuity? Doesnt it seem preplanned ?

Well, a more sensible argument would be to think that same mutations occur within a group of creatures, say among 20-25 of them due to some external factor. Then the chances are high that the mutations would be carried on to next generations for further enhancement. This kind of argument looks more logical. But then the question is what is that which causes mutations in such a large number of creatures at the same time. In that case this has to be some external factor, like say for ex nuclear radiation. It cant be internal accidental mutation in some random creature. What are those external reasons then that have caused so many millions of species to evolve ?

I am not denying about natural selection. Where within a species itself some simple genetic mutations take place. For instance there are those humans ( mostly from the african countries) who have lactose intolerance as they dont have the gene which generates lactase anzyme which is used to digest lactose sugar found in the milk. That is the reason these people cannot drink milk. Probably as civilizations progressed and some humans started rearing cows, the natural selection process created lactase manufacturing gene. Even here I have a doubt that how genes come to know that some new gene is required, or that some change is required in existing genetic structure ? But there is a possibility that such level of intelligence is present in our genes. If we can software which can accustom to situations, I think our genes are much more superior than the software we write, and hance do have these abilities to adopt and change.

But what I am finding difficult is the argument that natural selection is vertical. In the sense dogs come out of fishes, monkeys comes out of dogs, humans come out of the ancestors of today’s monkeys. I cannot blindly believe this argument, unless and until somebody provides a convincing proof. It sounds so illogical that a new species result from the mutations in an existing species. For the simple reason that the amount of mutations required for such a transition are so large that it simply cant be random and coincidental every time. Even chromose numbers differ from species to species. How does a new species get more or less chromosomes, while the mutations are limited to genes inside these chromosomes ?

If you are intelligent enough to point me to the existence of archeopteryx, well its a real bird, not a transition. It had wings, yes. But thats just an external feature. More importantly it had a larger brain like today’s birds as opposed to small sized brain of dinosaurs. It had lungs designed like modern birds ie circular lungs which do not contract and expand, unlike the reptile or mammalian lungs which do expand and contract as they breathe the air in and out. Finally, the best of all, Archeopteryx fossil dates to 150 million years AFTER the earliest known bird to us today!! How many evolutionists know this fact? The earliest known bird fossil, Jinfengopteryx, found in China is older than Archeopteryx! Obviously evolution of a new species cannot start when the species is already existing

Natural selection can create simple changes. But for sensible intelligent complex changes which create a species, it doesnt make any sense as the very nature of evolution is based on random mutations.

Now dont think I am a creationist who is talking about God having created universe in 7 or 10 days, and that he did it some mere 2000-3000 years back. That for me is a bigger nonsense, only a stupid person who is blind by faith, who accepts no reason but cares only for his egos and prejudice can accept this foolish argument. Even for some intelligent being to create life that exists on earth, he/she has to first start with prokaryotes, then single cells with nuclei, then simple multi cellulars, and then slowly start designing more and more complex creatures, much like evolution

Science has a greater proof that God did not do it, atleast not in some 7-10 days, and definitely not some mere 2000 or 3000 years ago. Note that dinosaurs roamed on earth from 285 million years ago to 65 million years ago and humans were not there during this entire period. So if God created us in 7 or 10 days then he must have done it after dinousars became extinct. Then the question is who created dinosaurs and the universe before them ? Well, we need to ask this question to dinousaurs. Probably even among the dinousaurs some support evolution, some again find resort in god, and some simply dont care

For the creationists who say that God created Life, I have questions too. Which God created life? Christian? Muslim? Hindu? If Muslim, then where was the mulsim God before 500 AD? If Christian, then where was the Christian God before BC? If Hindu, then well, it has no founder…
Then there is another question. Who created God? If nobody created God, then, did he evolve on his own out of nothing?

I prefer Science to Faith because in Science I can question things, where as faith doesnt allow me to, and I cant simply believe things without sound logic. I find it more interesting being in a library than in a temple. Blind faith is only for those whose brains don’t have any grey matter..

Now if I am not a creationist, and at the same time have my own doubts about evolution, then what are my views ? Well, I just wanna know the truth. Truth is my view. Satyameva Jayathe – truth always triumphs. If somebody can provide some convincing evidence on either of the sides, OR if you dont have evidence then some convincing argument which atleast sounds sensible, I will be a happy man.

As of now, I feel that some aliens came to earth and created the species here as part of some large scale genetic experiment. Given my current knowledge this sounds more logical than God or evolution

5 Responses »

 

Artificial Intelligence and Awareness Sunday, May 13 2007

‘I Robot’ – Remember this movie ?

Robots made up of intelligent software, want to overtake human beings and rule the earth, bla bla bla

The key is artificial intelligence, software that could mimic human intelligence and by the sheer processing power of the processors even overcome(?) human intelligence.

Some fear that one day computers will be more intelligent than humans. Artificial Intelligence will take over human intelligence. Then the computers/robots feel that humans are less intelligent than they are, and hence will take over humans as the dominant species(?!). Asimov suggested what is called Asimov’s laws to be embedded into the robots to ensure that robots never take over humans.

The Asimov’s laws are the fundamental laws which a Robot should always obey while executing any action. The robotic software should have these laws at the fundamental level preventing a robot from executing any action which violates any of these laws.

These are the Asimov’s laws

Law #1: A Robot should never harm a human being.
This ensures that a robot can never even think of anything which is dangerous or harmful to humans
Law #2: A Robot should follow all commands given by a human, provided first law is not violated.
This ensures that a robot always obeys to humans, but at the same time cannot be used by one human against other humans.

Law #3: A Robot should always protect itself, provided first and second laws are not violated.
This ensures that robots can save themselves in adverse situations, but not at the cost of a human life, and not at the cost of not following a human order.

Later on Asimov also inluded a Zeroth law, an even more fundamental law than the above three, and this says
A Robot should always protect the human race

And First law was modified as
A Robot should never harm a human being provided Zeroth law if not violated.
In other words, the Zeroth law ensures that robots not only are prevented from doing harm to human race, but also ensure the protection of human race. So tomorrow if there is an alien attack then Robots will fight the aliens as per the Zeroth law. OR say some wicked human tries to carry out a nuclear explosion which wipes out a large part of this planet, then the Robots will terminate that human, because the modified First law says that ‘A Robot should not harm a human only if Zeroth law is not violated’, in this case since the wicked human is causing a potential danger to human race, Robots will observe that Zeroth law is being violated by his action and hence will terminate him.

Looks like a science fiction? Well, for me it is common sense to hardcode these four laws as the basic of all robotic actions in every robot that we manufacture. Probably a more detailed and refined version of these laws will be more practical.

Now lets look at a more fundamental level. When we say Robots want to take over humans, or computers become more intelligent. What do we mean ?
Does it mean that Computers will be able to mimic or simulate intelligence on par with human intelligence ?
OR
Computers will become really more intelligent?

My view goes that Computers just mimic human intelligence and are never truly intelligent. Why ?
My view dates back to those days when I used to think about a true answer for the meaning of life. In my +2 classes my professor asked a question.
Define Life.
A very tough question indeed. If we say things that move on their own consist life, then plants dont do so. (Except for some slow motion trees which over a period of years slowly move by spreading out their roots far away and cutting of older roots)
The text book answer was reproduction, things that can produce forms of their own. Things that can multiply and evolve.

I was not satisfied though. I used to think at a more fundamental level. For me being alive meant, being aware of one’s existence. ‘Awareness’ is the key. I know I am alive because I am aware of my existence. So my definition of life was ‘awareness’, textbook definition was ‘reproduction’.
My professor then was surprised by my answer, he asked me ‘Do you think bacteria or plants are aware of their existence’ ? I replied, ‘they have to be, probably the mechanism is different, we have brain, they have something else, Jagadish Chandra Bose had shown that plants have feelings and respond to things like music, heat etc. To respond they have to feel and to feel they have to be aware’.

Lets apply the textbook definition and my definition of life to Computers.
If we go by textbook definition, well computers/robots can be created which create more robots and computers. That is not a difficult thing to do. We just have to write programs which tell how to manufacture another robot/computer. So can we now say that since robots can manufacture more robots, robots have life ?

I dont think so. Because my definition is being aware. Awareness leads to information, interpretations, thought and then to actions. Key for robots to think that they are more intelligent, and are slaves of humans and hence should overpower humans and build an empire of their own, results from the feeling of ‘being ambitious’, ‘sense of slavery to humans’, etc. But to get all these feelings first the robot has to be aware of its own existence, which I think is the essence of life, and since Robots DO NOT HAVE THIS AWARENESS I conclude that robots or software only mimic intelligence coded in them by the truly intelligent humans.

My assumption is based on the fact that ‘Awareness is a proprietary of life, and only natural life possesses awareness, and that awareness is not a byproduct of neural network or the process of being able to think’
Because if awareness results from the ability to think, then well robots could also gain awareness as they are able to think. Please note here that when I say ‘I am aware of my existence’, I mean that I am truly aware of it, not that I have some boolean variable which says that ‘I exist’
So forget about having some variable stored in a robot to tell it that its aware, that will be again mimcking awareness, not actual awareness

To summarize, my current views are that artificial life based on artificial intelligence in the form of computers, robots, software or what not is not true life or true intelligence, but only a simulation of life or intelligence, just like the way computers simulate a nuclear explosion, weather, flight etc

7 Responses »

 

Education in IT era Wednesday, Apr 25 2007

This is the age of information. Internet is the sum of all knowledge gained by humans throughout our recorded history, (of course except for those behind the scenes R&D and classified information and technology in NASA, Pentagon, etc).

In this IT age, what should be taught to children as part of their education.

Do we need to focus on piling up their brains with more and more information ?
OR
Do we need to concentrate on increasing their analytical skills ?

In other words, facts or concepts ?

Unanimously we all vote for concepts. Facts are now available at our finger tips. A simple search on the internet can retrieve a fact. And given that there is so much information available which is difficult for one single brain to grasp it all, we need to focus on creating specializations oriented education system.

But then ask me, I simply dont believe in ‘jack of all, master of none’
I have been studying a variety of subjects from IT to Physics to Mathematics to Music to History to Politics to Economics to Vedas to what not, and what I have observed is that as a person learns more and more wider range of concepts, theories, etc, it becomes more easier to learn even more things due to the inter-relation between these different fields and going in depth into a field also becomes easy than it would have been if one had studied that field alone !

In other words, to become a master of a wide range of subjects, all you need is strong fundamentals in all the related fields AND analytical ability to co-relate things between different fields.

Please note that, all these different fields are artificial classifications by humans, to make it easier to study one thing at a time, for instance nature does not distinguish between physics and biology, the reason for an apple to fall from a tree is explained in physics while the growth of the apple itself is described by botany, these are artificial classifications we did and there are overlappings too like biophysics, biochemistry, physiochemistry etc.

What I intend to mean here is that by restricting one self to a particular field we might get a particular depth in that field, but one will never get a complete picture of that field till he understands other fields also. This is the reason why today scientists have come across a road block in terms of enquiring more into a particular field. Say for ex to understand the true nature of life we need the person to be an expert in biology which defines how a body functions, and then chemistry which describes how the molecules in the body function, and even physics to see for ex how the brain functions at a quantum mechanical level. Now if you are doing a research on the very depth of life, one needs to be expert in all these fields to truly appreciate and understand the real definition of life, bcos as I said earlier, NATURE DOES NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN DIFFERENT FIELDS AS PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, ETC

An expert in string theory, quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology can have some hope of finding a Grand Unified Theory

A very good doctor, but with very limited knowledge of biotechnology is not a really good idea.

In other words, allow children to have as wide interests as possible to go to a greater depth in the ocean of knowledge. A broader view leads to a more analtyical, non prejudiced thinking, when you think from the views of experts in different fields.

This is the age of information. The more information one has, the more accurate he/she is, the more easier it is to understand, the more easier to relate, the more easier to investigate and dig out more knowledge.. 

I have seen people who are great experts at a particular software application, but the moment you show them the same computer screen but with some other application window opened, they get completely confused about where to click or which key to press, and they get so relieved when their familiar screen comes up again

Well, thats not how we want to be, dont be afraid of the unknown, for nothing is to be feared, its only to be understood. Take the untravelled paths, uncharted waters, unexplored landscapes, create new paths and be a different person, than to take the same old familiar paths and have no mark of your own…

I think therefore I exist

One Response »

 

Alien Twist to God – Part 1 Wednesday, Mar 21 2007

In this series of blogs I am going to  put forward my case about whom we know about as Gods in true form being aliens who visited earth in those ancient times and who gave us the technology which we had lost for a long time which is been hidden in the ancient Indian texts – Vedas

There are two important texts here – Mahabharatha and Vedas – both of which are sacred to Hindus, but for me they are great historic and scientific works respectively

Mahabharatha is the history of those times and Vedas is the knowledge the people then had.. Veda Vyasa is the author who wrote Mahabharatha and COMPILED the vedas.. Vyasa is said to have compiled, in other words wrote a collective text on all the knowledge we had in those days.. Veda itself in sanskrit means Complete Knowledge.

Mahabharatha is the world’s largest epic, but ask me, its not just a piece of fiction, but a well documented ancient human history..

Let me say why before going into what that history really means..

It is the story which deals with about 3-4 generations for most of its part.. but the entire epic gives details of about 50-55 successive generations of emperors and contemporary kingdoms, their geographies, life style of people, whole chain of relations between royal families, geographical locations and borders of kingdoms, events etc and almost all these locations mentioned have been mapped to some or other place in contemporary India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chinese areas…

Even in the war scenarios great deal of explanation is given about each weapon used

For every event in the epic there is an astronomical date assigned

If the author was just writing a story, what was the need for him to go into such a great detail? This very single historian point of view convinces me that it is well documented history.

Before we start what the history tells us.. well much of it is my own point of view.. let me tell the reader that Oppenheimer, the father of modern atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan, believed that ancient Indians had the nuclear technology and this he believed because of the verses of Bhagavadgita (which is a narration part in Mahabharatha about the duties of a human being and about the nature of nature, in fact Bhagavadgita is the best psychological work I have ever read!)

Some lines in Mahabharatha describe a weapon of mass destruction used and this description matches completely with a nuclear bomb. This was what oppenheimer was referring to as ancient Indian nuclear technology. The muschroom cloud, the radiation burns, the blast wave after the nuclear explosion, all these are explained in detail.. It says ‘Soldiers tried to escape from the fire and jumped into water, yet they could not escape’, this is what radiation does, even water cannot save one from radiation burns!!!

The current human population on earth is approx 6 billion.. In Mahabharatha it is said that in the final war which lasted for less than a month, 14 billion people were killed!!! Two things get clear here..

First, only WMD Weapons of Mass Destructions can kill so many people in such a small time..

Second and more important, it looks like this has been a repeating cycle  on this planet where a civilization reaches its technological peak and then destroys itself using the same technology when a world war is triggered.. and the cycle starts again where people start inventing things from scratch.. If only in the past 500 years we have achieved all the technology we have today, it makes me impossible to believe that humans who had the same brain that we have today for the past 2 million years ( as per evolution theory) didn’t achieve anything else!!!!! If the same brain could invent so much in 500 years, what reason can anybody give to say that for the past so many thousand years our same brains were idle???

More in Part II tomorrow… about Aliens visiting earth, alien wars on earth, opposition to cloning and genetic experiments mentioned in Mahabharatha, the villains in Mahabharatha were a result of cloning/test tube babies (totally 100 kids born to a single mother where the 100 foetus were kept in special pots for the babies to develop), sanskrit being an language of alien origin ( and thats y the only language eligible to be a computer programming language due to its scientific correctness!), etc

 Alien Twist to God – Part II

8 Responses »

 

Kissing – A risky business?? Tuesday, Mar 13 2007

 I read this article about researchers being able to store ‘E=mc2 1905′ in a bacterial DNA. Genetic material is becoming the biological harddisk. Bacteria will be the future thumbdrives, USB drives and what not.

You dont need to take backups any more as bacteria replicate themselves in no time you will end up with multiple copies of the same data. No need to burn DVDs or backup on tape drives any more!!! Bacteria on an average need 20 mins to divide. So the bottom line is once in every 20 mins you can double the number of your backups!!

My thoughts then went even further!!

Bacterial backup are bioderadable, no need to worry about disposing unwanted data!!

What’s more striking is the thought about storing one’s private information. No need to store your private info in any external device anymore. Because there is always a risk that somebody might steal the device, say your mobile memory or your hard disk or a DVD.. So I thought why not instead store the info in bacteria and then store the bacteria within us!!

Humans have a great variety of oral bacteria in our mouth. They are harmless and always stay there, except that if you dont brush properly they will increase in n folds and will cause a bad breath!

So cant we store all our personal info in these oral bacteria!! This storage seems to me a lot more safer option than storing our personal info like credid card details, passwords, bank account numbers, social security data etc in some external device.

But be careful then, your saliva contains your personal data, dont get seduced by a stranger and start kissing, you risk your private data by doing so, Data thefts by kissing might be a common news item in the future

But you are at a risk even while you brush, somebody might be waiting down the sewage line hunting for your oral bacteria! Spitting becomes a risky business.. A better way out would be to encrypt the data in the bacteria so that only you can decrypt it..

Store the decrypting key, where else, in your brain!!

Leave a Response »