Obesity of the Mind

What do Artificial Intelligense, Alexa, Siri, and many other devices of similar nature have in common? That these are going to add to our woes.

Let us see how. For the past many years we have been making it more and more convenient to do human chores, effectively eliminating much of manual work. And we landed with troubles too, one of which is obesity. Learning from its consequences, we continue to bring back manual work, of course in disguised form. Calling it planned physical exercises for the body.

Now, the above mentioned techniques and devices replace much of our mental labour. How are we going to compensate for the inactive brain? Is such an issue unlikely?

I think we are already experiencing this. Nowadays, popularity of the irrational is at an all time high. Take a few recent examples.

One, the vehement opposition to the theory of evolution, simply on the grounds that the social status of one of the important elements of the theory, say, is not aristocratic enough. That our dear parents could not have been from a society of monkeys.

Two, interested groups can dictate what should be the content of artistic creations. And people taking it. We know that these essentially are the products of imagination. Are we planning to put a limit there?

Of course people are reacting to this. But only restricted to each specific case, where we get enamoured by the sheer magnitude of the irrational in it, and miss the whole picture. 

What do the whole picture show? That these are not isolated issues. I think it points to mental obesity. 

Right, once Again!

'Career Choices of Female Engineers' by National Academy of Sciences, is a report, which proves my argument of the unsure nature of the male, once again. Here it says, despite decades of government, university, and employer efforts, there exist a gender gap in engineering. And that women make up only 11 percent of practicing engineers in the United States.

The report goes deeper into the likely causes of such things becoming gender dependent. It cites greater likelihood of women selecting management and other streams of engineering that promises wider interactions with others, while men giving preference to technologically harder areas of patenting and fieldwork.

 This substantiates my view that it is the frequent exposition to changes in the working environment, which attracts the male. And the familiar ambience of human oriented transactions keeps the females tied to their choice.

Book Review: Hyperspace

HYPERSPACE: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the Tenth Dimension by Michio Kaku is about the impending defeat of common-sense theories of three or four dimensions and the victory of the theory of hyperspace. And it makes available, for the first time, a scientifically authoritative but accessible account of the current fascinating research on hyperspace. 

Part I gives an insight into the early history of hyperspace, emphasizing the theme that the laws of nature become simpler and more elegant when expressed in higher dimensions. Consequently, the rather obscure laws of the weather are easy to understand once we view the earth from space, and we see that the laws of light and gravity become simpler in five dimensions. 

Part II contnues with the flow, further elaborate on this simple idea. Emphasizing that the hyperspace theory may be able to unify all known laws of nature into one theory. Why the basic forces that hold together the cosmos, gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces differ so greatly, and how the hyperspace theory allows the possibility of explaining the four forces of nature as well as the seemingly random collection of subatomic particles in an elegant manner. That  everything we see around us, from the trees and mountains to the stars themselves, are nothing but vibrations in hyperspace.

Part III brings up even more concepts to make it further clear, introducing vagaries of an expanding universe. Like wormholes, parallel universes and their collissions. And exploring the possibility that, under extreme circumstances, space may be stretched until it rips or tears. 

Part IV concludes with a final, practical question and discussions, about the fate of the universe. If the theory is proved correct, then when will we be able to harness the power of the hyperspace theory? 

I think the book makes a good beginning to explore the intriguing but speculative scientific question of what level of technology is necessary for us to become masters of hyperspace. 

As usual, Michio Kaku has presented a complex sounding subject in a platter. I relished it.

Book Review: Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos

Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: by Committee on the Physics of the Universe, National Research Council

Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century is a study encompassing astrophysical phenomena that give insight into fundamental physics as well as fundamental physics that is relevant to understanding astrophysical phenomena and the structure and evolution of the universe. The study team identified 11 questions and soliciting ideas from the community, prepared the answers for each, as given below.

-What Is Dark Matter?

We know that the objects in the universe are held together by a form of matter different from what we are made of and that gives off no light. Does this matter consist of one or more as-yet-undiscovered elementary particles, and aggregations of it produce the gravitational pull leading to the formation of galaxies and large-scale structures in the universe?

-What Is the Nature of Dark Energy?

We know that the expansion of the universe is speeding up rather than slowing down. This contradicts the fundamental idea that gravity is always attractive. It calls for the presence of a form of energy, dubbed “dark energy,” whose gravity is repulsive and whose nature determines the destiny of our universe.

-How Did the Universe Begin?

We think that during its earliest moments the universe underwent a tremendous burst of expansion, known as inflation. The underlying physical cause of this inflation is a mystery.

-Did Einstein Have the Last Word on Gravity?

Black holes are ubiquitous in the universe, and their intense gravity can be explored further. 

-What Are the Masses of the Neutrinos, and How Have They Shaped the Evolution of the Universe?

We think of neutrinos as abundantly present in the universe today. Physicists have found evidence that they have a small mass, which implies that cosmic neutrinos account for as much mass as do stars. The pattern of neutrino masses can reveal much about how nature’s forces are unified, how the elements in the periodic table were made, and possibly even the origin of ordinary matter.

-How Do Cosmic Accelerators Work and What Are They Accelerating?

We are seeing an amazing variety of energetic phenomena in the universe, including beams of particles of unexpectedly high energy but of unknown origin. In laboratory accelerators, we can produce beams of energetic particles, but the energy of these cosmic beams far exceeds any energies produced on Earth.

-Are Protons Unstable?

The matter of which we are made is the tiny residue of the annihilation of matter and antimatter that emerged from the earliest universe, and in not-quite-equal amounts. The existence of this tiny imbalance may be tied to a hypothesized instability of protons, the simplest form of matter, and to a slight preference for the formation of matter over antimatter built into the laws of physics.

-What Are the New States of Matter at Exceedingly High Density and Temperature?

The theory of how protons and neutrons form the atomic nuclei of the chemical elements is well developed. At higher densities, neutrons and protons may dissolve into an undifferentiated soup of quarks and gluons, which can be probed in heavy-ion accelerators. Densities beyond nuclear densities occur and can be probed in neutron stars, and still higher densities and temperatures existed in the early universe.

-Are There Additional Space-Time Dimensions?

In trying to extend Einstein’s theory and to understand the quantum nature of gravity, particle physicists have posited the existence of space time dimensions beyond those that we know. Their existence could have implications for the birth and evolution of the universe, could affect the interactions of the fundamental particles, and could alter the force of gravity at short distances.

-How Were the Elements from Iron to Uranium Made?

Scientists’ understanding of the production of elements up to iron in stars and supernovae is fairly complete. Important details concerning the production of the elements from iron to uranium remain puzzling.

-Is a New Theory of Matter and Light Needed at the Highest Energies?

Matter and radiation in the laboratory appear to be extraordinarily well described by the laws of quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, and their unification as quantum electrodynamics. The universe presents us with places and objects, such as neutron stars and the sources of gamma ray bursts, where the conditions are far more extreme than anything we can reproduce on Earth that can be used to test these basic theories.

True Prediction?

Another progressive state is choosing to go more illiberal. One more proof that we are moving forward to the 'age of the irrational', especially when this is read along with the freedom, Saudi Arabia is going to let her female population enjoy.  

"It’s ugly and on the rise; and it’s hard to see how it can end well. The global rise of conservative nationalism with the aim of creating “national communities” – directed by an unchallengeable leader to defend special national values, controlling borders against the virus of immigrants and “foreign” influence – is the menace of our times."..

Book Review: Thinking Skills

Thinking Skills: Using Your Brain in the Information Age by Eric Garner is an interesting book. It lays bare the art, craft, and the popular tools of thinking, familiarizing us with the benefits and pitfalls one can come across. It goes on to discuss seven pragmatic ways to enhance one capacity to recollect events, followed by a review of major obstacles to effective thinking. Tips like 'Don’t have a monopoly on how things are', 'Things aren't always what they seem', 'Culturally accepted ways of thinking can sometimes limit us to thinking in familiar ways', or 'Be ready to consider other points of view', add value to its reader-friendly nature. Next chapter examines the logical approach to thinking, which more or less denotes the state of the art. Left brain thinking, Right brain thinking, Managerial views, SMART goals, Conscious and the Subconscious are some of the areas covered here. The discussion goes on to examine other facets, like creativity, curiosity, out of the box ideas, lack of logic, enlightenment, humor, and irreverence.

 Then discussed are some of the ways to implement thinking. Like brain storming, sleeping over a problem, or Occam's Razor.

This is a short, valuable guide about thinking. Especially in this Information Age, where brain has replaced brawn, and strength in thinking has replaced strength in muscles. 

No matter what kind of business, one work for, nor what kind of job one does, today one is expected to apply a range of  thinking skills to the work, including using one's judgment; collecting, using, and analyzing information; and being creative about how one can function better.

This book covers all of these skills. It can enable one to develop thinking skills to meet the needs of the modern world.