Warning: A post without structure, theme or composition. Senseless unedited outpouring. Read at your own risk.
Blood, bullets, and deaths. Brutal violence. Screams. Helplessness. Despair. Pain. Courage.
A nation of a billion aspiring to be on the UN Security Council brought to its knees by just ten armed terrorists.
Hundreds died. Thousands wept. Millions panicked. A billion were terrorized.
The killers didn’t distinguish between rich and poor. They did distinguish between foreigners and Indians, Muslims and Jews.
If you think this was insanity, you’re part of the problem. If you think this is simply misguided Religion, you’re part of the problem. This is Evil disguised as Insanity. The gunmen were plucking the flowers and hoping to snatch the fruits of this religious tree. The tree was carefully planted and nurtured by those who were controlling the attackers via phones. Just like it was by those who organized a “rath yatra” 17 years ago.
No method in the madness? There was no method in the response. There was meticulous method in the act. Strategic and careful planning by the perpetrators. Helpless, unprepared, panicked response by India.
Voices of society, columnists, media, bloggers, politicians, and the public louder than the gunshots. The latter achieved their goal, the former didn’t. The latter acted, the former didn’t. The latter didn’t distinguish between the Taj and VT, the former did.
Today, it is Thanksgiving day in the United States. I offer my gratitude to the official and unofficial heroes of 26/11. They were people who acted with reason, in response to the madness around them. Some of them saved many lives. Some of them died. I refuse to believe that they died in vain. Their courage has inspired many people, especially young people. They are saviors of our sanity.
A year later. A fatwa against a patriotic song. The response? A gracious visit by the Home Minister to those issuing it. Zealots from one religion destroying another’s structure, causing mayhem. 17 years later, wounds that have not yet healed. Every religion that has a sizeable following in this “secular” nation has seriously injured it. One man sits in its parliament as the Leader of Opposition, another sits in Pakistan. Does it matter whether the roots of evil grow within the nation or outside it?
But this nation and its billion people continue to believe that religion is actually for the good, it is only misused by a few who are misguided. Continue to nurture the tree, prune it’s misguided branches and it will grow right back again.
Water the tree, nurture it, feed it. Don’t act surprised by the violence, the blood, and the deaths. Don’t blame the gunmen. It was their form of “prayer”, you see? Haven’t we all been taught not to question or doubt another’s form of religion or method of prayer? That is what “secularism” means, right?
Are you protesting about the attack on MLAs or media outlets? You shouldn’t because the attackers were “provoked”. Just like the 26/11 planners & gunmen. You can’t blame one and not the other. Don’t paint nude pictures or draw cartoons of holy figures. Anyone who’s religious sentiments have been provoked have a right to violence.
Want to get votes but have no clue about economics, national growth, infrastructural development, etc.? Religion is your ticket, baby. Either encourage one of them, or claim to embrace all of them. Use it wisely, for it wields enormous power over millions of human beings. They will kill each other for it. Just like they have done so many times, repeatedly.
The intelligentsia? Don’t worry. They will methodically criticize government shortcomings, police inefficiencies, lack of emergency response plans, lack of coordination between security forces, etc. Religion is sacred, it will remain untouched and unharmed, as it has for centuries, even after millions of human beings have been killed by this evil power.
After 26/11, there will be numerous other such dates. There have been many of them over decades, over centuries. Generations have passed, millions of people have died. Religion is the sole survivor. And it will continue to kill, until mankind discovers that Religion is Evil in disguise.
I am now an editor at Techmeme.
Some online friends connected with me on social networks like Twitter and Facebook already know this, but I was waiting for an official announcement before I wrote about it here. You can also read TechCrunch’s coverage here.
If you’re not in the tech field, you’ve probably not heard of Techmeme. It is a news aggregation site that works for technology news where Google News fails. It is a combination of automated aggregation and human editing.
Techmeme is highly regarded in the tech world, and my boss Gabe Rivera was listed as one of the Top 25 Influential People on the Web by Business Week last year.
The Journey
I took a break from the cubicle farms of the IT industry last year. After spending some time with my baby daughter & family, I switched gears to working online. As most of my blogger friends know, I started writing for MakeUseOf.com as a contributor, and am now a staff writer. I still needed additional work to completely replace my full-time day job routine and have finally reached that goal with this opportunity.
The Change
In some ways, the change from the IT world to the online Media world is like my shift from Mumbai to Pune. A suburban local train getting delayed in Mumbai because of an accident meant being late for office rather than concern for the possible loss of human life. A team member getting sick meant the project getting delayed rather than concern about my team member. A world where I was a slave to schedules dictated by others, constraints imposed by others, filled with competition like in a rat-race. A world saturated with ambition, stress, pressures, politics, performance-based incentives, frustrations, commuting long-distance in traffic, and sometimes, disillusionment.
Pune is serene, laid-back, and relaxed. In my real and online life, I can focus on value, enjoy my freedom, use my judgment. I choose my own topics. I can express myself the way I like. I can use my editorial judgment to decide what to publish or exclude. Clean air makes you think clearly, and the comfort of working from home relaxes you.
The Job
Because Techmeme is so highly regarded, it is always under the scanner and keenly watched; at times, even criticized.
Being a human editor is thus a great responsibility, and one that I hope to carry well. My diverse experience in IT helps to fathom the spectrum of news that Techmeme deals with every day. I have always been reading and following online tech news since the early days of the Internet even before Google came into existence. Over the years, my appetite for information and ability to consume it refined to the extent that I was already researching and curating information for my CxO bosses in my IT job. Now, this hobby of mine is my work.
Can it get any better than this?
If I were a book, you will put me in a bookshelf after you’ve read me. Later, I’ll probably lie in an attic and find my way to a library. My life would span a few decades, or even more. If I’m exceptionally good, I’ll be a timeless classic.
If I were your personal diary, I will probably last your lifetime, even if you stop using me after a while. You’ll keep me under lock and key, and no one else will read it. You will always treasure me.
If I were a real greeting card, you must have looked at me fondly, caressed me as if I were precious. You may not look at me again for many years, but I’ll be stashed away in some drawer of “memories”. Some day, you will enjoy nostalgia going through that drawer.
If I were a photo from your childhood, I will be stuck in some family album. This family album will be a great source of joy during holidays when the whole family is together.
If I were a blog post, I will live for a few years at best. That is, unless my blog is hacked or accidentally wiped out. I will be happy if your children know the name of my blog.
If I were a JPEG, I’d be one among the millions on Facebook or Flickr. Some people you’ve never met in real life may look at me and write comments. If I offend the sensibilities or political opinions of the owners of such social networks, I may be deleted.
If I were an email, my life in your inbox will be a few hours. After you’ve read me, I will be deleted or archived, and forgotten forever.
If I were a status update on a social network, I’ll be real-time, one among many that flow like fallen leaves in your friends river of feeds. If I’m good, I might be “liked”, extending my life by a few more minutes.
If I were an IM or chat conversation, I am real-time. I exist for a few fleeting minutes. I am usually used just to say Hi, or pass a link. Nobody ever looks at me again, as I vanish from this universe usually without leaving a trace.
If I were a tweet, my value usually lasts a few minutes. I may be short, but I am real-time. If I am any good, I will be passed around, shared among people who don’t know much about each other beyond their 140 character bios.
[Cross-posted from Skeptic Geek]
If evolution ensures survival of the most adaptable species, how did it not vanquish mental depression in humans? This question has been on my mind for several years, and it is time to examine it in the context of a new hypothesis proposed by two scientists.
Background
Between 30 to 50% people suffer from a major depressive episode in their lifetime. It is generally considered to be a disease of the brain, an illness that needs treatment. In the millions of years of human evolution, natural selection was at work, ensuring that the ones among us who were best at surviving, adapting, and reproducing, carried the human species forward. Mental depression reduces ones ability to survive, adapt, and reproduce. It would then be reasonable to expect that those humans afflicted with this disease would have become extinct by now. The genes responsible for, or conducive to depression, should have eroded out of the thriving gene pool. But that, as we know, is far from the truth.
While animals are also known to experience depression, it is still an emerging field of research, and I am skeptic whether their sadness is just a rational response to external circumstances or is full-blown causeless depression like in humans.
Meredith Small, an anthropologist at Cornell wrote last year:
The capacity to feel presumably helps us solve problems and survive, and is essential for group living, and perhaps inconsolable depression is simply emotional baggage that tags along with the good stuff. Or maybe unhappiness and a tendency towards suicide is the product of the uncontrolled nature of our quicksilver minds. We think a lot, and our wondering minds are just as likely to think sad as happy.
LiveScience quotes Meredith in Why Did Evolution Produce Depression, along with Paul Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., who have argued in Scientific American that “depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.”
The Hypotheses
The two scientists have published their views in a Scientific American article “Depression’s Evolutionary Roots”. The key points:
- Depression should not be thought of as a disorder at all. They argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.
- One reason to suspect that depression is an adaptation, not a malfunction, comes from research into a molecule in the brain known as the 5HT1A receptor….The ability to “turn on” depression would seem to be important, not an accident.
- Depressed people often think intensely about their problems. These thoughts are analytical and persistent. Depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. This analytical style of thought, of course, can be very productive and can help you solve the problem causing the depression.
- Analysis requires a lot of uninterrupted thought, and depression coordinates many changes in the body to help people analyze their problems without getting distracted.
- Symptoms of depression make sense in light of the idea that analysis must be uninterrupted. The desire for social isolation helps the depressed person avoid situations that would require thinking about other things. Inability to derive pleasure from sex or other activities prevents the depressed person from engaging in activities that could distract him or her from the problem. Even the loss of appetite could be viewed as promoting analysis because chewing and other oral activity interferes with the brain’s ability to process information.
- If depressive rumination were harmful, then bouts of depression should be slower to resolve when people are given interventions that encourage rumination, such as having them write about their strongest thoughts and feelings. However, the opposite appears to be true. Several studies have found that expressive writing promotes quicker resolution of depression, and they suggest that this is because depressed people gain insight into their problems.
- There is another suggestive line of evidence. Various studies have found that people in depressed mood states are better at solving social dilemmas.
- Depression is nature’s way of telling you that you’ve got complex social problems that the mind is intent on solving. Therapies should try to encourage depressive rumination rather than try to stop it, and they should focus on trying to help people solve the problems that trigger their bouts of depression.
Critique of An Unquiet Mind
- The semantic difference between “disorder” and “adaptation” has huge ramifications and consequences in how society treats depressed people. These gentlemen have perhaps not thought through these ramifications. By their own account, they describe the unhealthy, self-destructive, treatment-worthy behavior of people in this state of mind, so what goals do we achieve by terming them an adaptation rather than an illness, disease, or disorder?
- I am not sure if this is “missing the wood for the trees”. Humanity would benefit greatly if scientists studying the brain and depression focus on their excellence at dealing with trees and not try to paint the woods.
- Analytical and persistent thinking in depression is usually in the form of obsession and brooding – two words, often associated with depression, conspicuously missing in the article. The obsessive nature of thinking in depression is rarely productive, and often self-destructive.
- Dealing with lack of distraction in the next point, here I would like to point out the conspicuous absence of the discussion of anxiety in the article. Most forms of depression are closely associated with anxiety, and there is no discussion of whether anxiety also contributes to “productive analytical thinking”.
- Uninterrupted “analysis” often leads to suicide. Not eating leads to serious physical harm. Substance abuse is also a serious problem with those afflicted with the illness of depression. The idea that suicide, starvation, and substance abuse “can be viewed as promoting analysis” is not just ridiculous, but very insensitive. The brains ability to process information is not enhanced by any of these activities.
- The studies confirm that emotional expression is an important healing factor in depression. It is not just the writing, but the family, friends, consultation and therapy that follows it, which is often crucial for resolving issues.
- The first study is of whether mood influences level of cooperation in people and had just two experiments. The second examines how family relationships are relevant to adolescent depression. The notion that people with depression are better at solving social dilemmas is again, preposterous and highly insensitive.
- Many forms of human depression have no cause in the external world. It is not a rational response to an external social problem. It is often causeless and intrinsic or inborn. The scientists view of depression seems to be very narrow minded.
Conclusion
It is clear that we do not have any definite answer yet. Though Depression has been studied in all cultures, we do not know if it existed in early stages of evolution. If it didn’t, and we find that it has developed in recent history (in evolutionary terms), I’m sure natural selection will eventually eliminate it.
Meanwhile, it does not behoove Scientific American to publish such articles. If you want to learn about mental depression, here is the best place to start.
A few blog posts and conversations with friends have made me unquiet about the concept of Divinity: What is Divinity and what does it mean?
Background
My friend Asuph wrote about Divinity in 2004, when I had not even started blogging. He uses Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality from Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to describe what happens when we experience divinity. In my opinion, Pirsig’s Chautauqua is another example after Immanuel Kant, of how philosophizing can lead to general unintelligibility if you continue to seek metaphysical truths without getting your epistemology right. Leaving Pirsig aside, Asuph makes interesting observations and asks very pertinent questions.
The discourse has recently been over divinity in art and specifically, in music.
In Music Divine, Atul describes music that makes a direct connection to the divine, and pontificates about the role of divine intervention in the creation of such music and art in general. If you read my response, or are familiar with my blog, you can see that I disagree with the concept of divine intervention leading to the creation of anything, let alone artistic works. This idea essentially harks back to Evolution vs. Creationism at the metaphysical level.
Asuph then elucidates his take on divinity in music in the beautiful post – The Musical Language. He says that for him, the formless, nameless territory of divinity is ruled by music alone. If it were possible to consider an objective perspective on divinity, the question in my mind is: how do deaf (and further, blind) people experience divinity?
Sudheendra Kulkarni has touched upon a similar theme in a recent column: Why Sachin’s bat speaks to him. He uses the Sanskrit tanmay and talleen (self-immersed, engrossed) to describe the same things that Atul and Amit describe in their posts. Surprisingly, leaving his right-wing ideological background, Kulkarni turns to the work of psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who architected the theory of “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience”, and calls it a “psychological theory of karma”, whatever that means.
Using An Epistemological Razor on Divinity
What, then, is Divinity? As Wikipedia correctly notes, it is a loosely-defined term. One should be extra-careful with loosely defined concepts since they are a slippery slope from an epistemological perspective. Einstein played on this slope when he wrote to Max Born that “He does not throw dice”, a phrase commonly paraphrased in other words.
Continuing with the Wikipedia entry: The root of the word means “God-like”. It is used to refer to powers or forces that are universal or transcend human capacities or to qualities of individuals who are considered to have a special relationship to the divine.
In essence, anything that appears to transcend human understanding in general appears divine to us. This is what remains after applying the razor.
Experiencing The Divine
Are divine experiences limited to the sense of sound as they seem to be for Asuph?
Does a newborn baby experience divinity in its mother’s bosom? Did quantum physics scientists experience divinity when they observed sub-atomic particles defying all known laws of the universe? Can divinity be experienced by touch? Can you feel it when you see something?
I believe the answer to all the above questions is a resounding yes, because by definition, what we think lies beyond human understanding is a subjective interpretation.
Other than the common divine musical experiences, I experienced divinity when I had my first sexual orgasm. I felt it when I saw the Andromeda Galaxy for the first time through a telescope. I felt it the first time I closed my eyes and dipped a finger into liquid mercury, awed at how such a metal element could remain in a stable state in nature. I lived in it for many days during my trip to the Himalayas.
What is Divinity?
Asuph correctly identifies divinity as a state of mind. And that is what it is. Like many other aspects of the human mind, there is a lot we still don’t understand about it. I suspect it has a lot to do with a state of mind where the amygdala and the temporal lobes of our brain are in harmony, but those are hypotheses best left to neural scientists. I’m comfortable knowing what we don’t know at present.
Becoming a spiritual guru is not as difficult as it may seem.
There are one or two guides already written on the web, but after my popular Rulebook for Indian TV News Producers, I thought I would write my own guide to becoming a Spiritual Guru.
- Appear knowledgeable about at least one ancient philosophy and way of life. Hinduism and Buddhism have been milked by numerous stalwarts already, so you might lose the race if you start afresh now. Try Mayan, Incan, or Aztec. Find your own niche if you want to be popular, just like in blogging.
- Appear to be calm and serene at all times. Vent out your frustrations and anger in private if necessary, never in public.
- Detach yourself from current affairs so that you appear to be living the myth that this world is a myth and you’re already “beyond” it.
- You may wisely make rare exceptions to #3 to take advantage of marketing opportunities in case of popular public concerns. Claim that your way of life can cure whatever the current malady that has caught the public unawares and is at the center of media attention – AIDS, bird flu, swine flu, etc.
- Veterans in the field have gone beyond #4 to claim cures for non-existent maladies, but you are advised not to follow in their footsteps unless you are already an acknowledged guru.
- Do not contradict or blatantly deny any scientific theories. Rather, subtly suggest that there are limits to what science can understand or achieve. If you appear to be against a scientific approach, you risk losing a lot of followers.
- Do not focus heavily on God. If your followers were God-obsessed, they would already be flocking to religious leaders. Those people are not your target market. Instead, focus on other abstract “stuff”, like cosmic events, natural elements (fire, water, etc.), meditation, yin-yang, energy, oneness, etc.
- Conduct workshops, seminars, retreats. Your followers have busy, stressful, professional lives. These breaks rejuvenate them, but the reason behind the rejuvenation would be your spiritual guidance, not the breaks themselves.
- Use the power of music. In your seminars and workshops, use hymns, chants, and mantras. Hypnotic, stress-relieving, soothing powers of music are well-known and are not the exclusive privilege of spirituality, but your followers don’t know that.
- Research conspiracy or doomsday theories and exploit one to your advantage. You can use the Polar Shift, Nostradamus’ predictions, 2012, or whatever. You need a tangible, real, FEAR of something to attract people to you. Of course, don’t tell them that fear is a real human emotion.
- Your doomsday event should be sufficiently far into the future but not too far. It should be towards the end of your followers lifetimes, or better still, right in the middle of their children’s lives. Before that time, you should be sufficiently rich to be sunbathing on your own private island.
- Embrace, integrate, mix concepts from various disciplines, philosophies, and civilizations, even if they were developed independently of each other in vastly different geographies and eras. Your predecessors have built a wealth of resources that you can reuse. By mixing them all up, you appear “holistic”, show that everything is “connected” to everything else, and that you are the sole person able to understand it “all”, whatever that means.
Do you have any other tips to share?
When I was in school, I was asked to participate in a debate: “Science: A Cure Or A Disease?”. Yes, my school sucked.
Since then, I’ve been observing how the discipline of science remains largely misunderstood or not understood at all.
New Scientist has just published “13 more things that don’t make sense”, a sequel to their highly popular “13 things that don’t make sense” article in 2005. Both the articles give you a brief glimpse of phenomena that science has yet to understand and are an interesting read for knowing more about cutting-edge experiments and yet-to-be-formulated theories.
If you observe the domain of the “13 things”, they deal with
- Issues of time, space, mind and body
- The world beyond human sensory perception either on a micro or macro scale
- Time spans vastly beyond that of human life
Is this surprising in the least? If you contrast how long science has been in existence compared to the universe, life on earth, and the beginning of homo sapiens, to say that nature has an unfair advantage would be a huge understatement.
On the one hand, I am happy that articles like these catch popular attention. They serve to generate interest in science among the general populace. Carl Sagan is best known for his misquoted phrase “billions and billions”, though he never uttered it in the entire Cosmos series. Catchphrases work and are sometimes justified.
On the other hand, I dislike the lame attempt at sensationalization. How many times have you heard or read “unexplained”, “mysteries”, “unanswered” in the context of science? There are no mysteries in science, only in nature.
New Scientist’s 2005 article remains the most forwarded article in the site’s history. The article’s popularity led to a popular book of the same name. If this were a non-profit organization popularizing science, I wouldn’t have written this post. In Jan 2009, it ran a cover with the title “Darwin was wrong”.
The magazine has been criticized by sci-fi writer Greg Evan:
The combination of a sensationalist bent and a lack of basic knowledge by its writers…is rendering it unreliable often enough to constitute a real threat to the public understanding of science.
And did you notice the use of the number 13?
When I was a kid, I loved to play a game that came in some comics and magazines: What’s wrong with the picture? You had to spot illogical, unreal, mismatched and other such oddities hidden in small details in the picture. The game encouraged attention to details, keen observation, and application of concepts like harmony, logic, etc.
What I want to do in this post, is start enjoying some of the benefits of moving away from Wordpress.com. Here is a panorama I created of a simple scene in Pune.
- To zoom in, click on the image, or use your mouse wheel, or use the +/- buttons
- To move around in the image, simply drag the picture with your mouse
- Use the Home button to reset the view
- Finally – you must try this out – use the rightmost button to switch between normal and Full Screen view. You can still zoom in and move around in the Full Screen view.
The actual photo file size is 2.56 MB, but you download only the parts where you are scrolling and zooming in, so the experience is smooth. For more on this technology, see here.
Now, what makes this picture interesting, you might say? A typical urban scene in India! Let’s play a grownup version of What’s Wrong With This Picture, shall we? Here are my observations:
- The pedestrian sidewalk (footpath) is wide and you can actually walk on it.
- There are benches on the sidewalk where people really sit.
- Clearly visible pedestrian (zebra) crossings and road markers for drivers.
- A non-overflowing trash can on the sidewalk.
- A place to park two-wheelers without obstructing the traffic on the road.
- New trees planted to increase the greenery of the area.
- The new tree saplings are actually watered.
Surprised? Can you guess why so many things are wrong here?
In the discussion surrounding my popular post Religion vs. Gender Equality & Feminism, there was a reference to religion and environmentalism. As if on cue, the Pope has now said:
“Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature’s relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the ‘final authority,’ and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.”
Atheists everywhere are up in arms with the headline “Pope blames atheists for global warming” all over the web. Read this post for a particularly incisive response. When the President of the National Secular Society labeled the Pope’s comments as inflated and self-serving, moderate voices asked whether this is a surprise and should be news in the first place.
If you wish, you can explore www.environmentalism.com and be surprised. I consider the final word on this topic to be of Michael Crichton, who argues that we need to take environmentalism out of the clutches of religion and bring it back to the scientific discipline:
“We know from history that religions tend to kill people, and environmentalism has already killed somewhere between 10-30 million people since the 1970s.”
You read it right. There is no typo in the above quote.
this is the new home for An unquiet mind.
I have taken the plunge and decided to host my own blogs. My web presence will henceforth be at this new domain, where I am planning to maintain two separate blogs.
I was looking to consolidate my geek blog with my personal blog. I spent a lot of time thinking about and searching for a new domain name that would:
- Reflect my personality
- Be appropriate for both An Unquiet Mind’s character as well as a tech blog
- Be available as a .com domain. This was the hardest part.
So finally, I am the proud new owner of www.skepticgeek.com.
The homepage is not yet hosted, since I am still figuring out how to optimally manage two blogs with Wordpress. The current plan is:
- http://skeptic.skepticgeek.com will be An Unquiet Mind
- http://geek.skepticgeek.com will be my geek blog
- www.skepticgeek.com may be either a static page or the home page of my geek blog.
I wanted to enable readers of both types to follow both blogs independently, including subscribing to a separate, specific RSS feed.
The URL redirection from Wordpress.com will be active for 1 year from today, after which I may discontinue it.
I request those of you who have me on their blogroll to update your links to point to http://skeptic.skepticgeek.com instead of http://mahendrap.wordpress.com.
Do let me know if you find any problems whatsoever with commenting, linking, navigating, etc.
How do you like my new domain name? All feedback and suggestions are most welcome, as always!
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An Unquiet Mind by Mahendra Palsule is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
