Curriculum Vitae

Humayun Ahmed

I have been thinking about writing about Humayun Ahmed lately. Well another Humayun Ahmed post! I know the entire Bangladesh is in Humayun fever. But in my view this guy truly deserve some attention from many of us, well maybe from most of us. So I think adding one more buzz to the Humayun fever is well justified and not only that, if I don't do it, I am probably not giving enough respect where it is indeed due. Am I a Humayun Ahmed fan? Well fan is rather extreme word for me; technically I am not fan of anybody but I enjoyed reading some of his early novels.

When I heard that he passed away the first thing came into my mind is there will be no 'Himu.' There will be no 'Misir Ali' or 'Shuvro.' Really, that means when a writer leaves he basically leaves with all of his characters. So does it mean all of them also passed away? Well I don't know! Did he have intellectual right for those character? Is there any such thing? or Some other guy can start writing about Himu now? Anyway, until then all of them are gone.

In my view Humayun Ahmed's greatest creation is the juxtaposition of 'what we are' and 'what we want to be'. Bengali literature after Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was revolving around 'what we are.' Humayun Ahmed was the first man who introduced 'what we wanna be' inside too many 'what we are.' His characters were very strong. Back in 90s and 00s it is hard to find a young adult who does not have little bit of Himu, who does not dream being of Misir Ali, who does not long for the pristine mind of Shuvro. It does not matter we agree or not Humayun Ahmed has an strong impact on all of our life. I am not going to explain how these small things matters Neurologically (if you are interested find Sam Harris on free will), but they do matter and they do change the course of our life.

Let me wrap up the entire thing with a little story. The story goes back in 2004. I don't remember very well but one night I was bored at my dorm room and thinking of going out for fresh air. So I get out of my room and ambling around Dhaka University campus. And after some time I found myself walking unconsciously in the pedestrian path for quite some time. I was a bit surprised when I realized I was walking for some time and I reached Biman Bondor! Apparently the story has nothing to with Humayun Ahmed, really? I have been thinking of that day for quite some time. The only reasonable explanation that hit my mind is I was Himu for that night. I wanted to be Himu knowingly, unknowingly! How come I not write anything about Humayun Ahmed. He was the man of our time, it was impossible to ignore him. 

Image courtesy Radio Foorti. A collage from a picture of Faisal Masum.

me! me!! me!!!

Content credit: Lipa

Don't hate me

Yesterday, my paper has been rejected from CIKM. Well, nothing new in their. My papers had been rejected before. But what is interesting is the comments. It seems like one reviewer really hated me and he didn't even comment anything about the paper rather he sort of comment on my overall character. Yes I mean 'my character.' Interesting thing is CIKM follows double blind review process and the reviewer  somehow manages to find me from my reference list and other things (I don't know why did he take such pain). And then he comment on my research not on my paper! It seems like he has some kind of hatred against me! I don't know what I did wrong to him/her but if I did any I am truly sorry. I had not intention for that. It is probably my ignorance not my intention. Please don't hate me.

Age of Information

If you don't buy my previous argument about age of information. Here is a new one. Leonard Susskind argues that information are indestructible. He calls it -1th law of physics. If something is indestructible, no wonder this is the age of that stuff; in fact all age are age of that stuff.  Leonard Susskind backed his idea with lot of other interesting ideas. I have yet to read his book "The Black Hole War."

Age of Information

I always wondered why this era is called 'the age of information.' Still I am looking for the answer but nothing convincing emerged. I went to wiki and it says all sorts of gibberish which does not make sense to me at all. This is age of information because computers are ubiquitous, information can be transferred freely so and so. I am sorry all these sound stupid to me. Then I stumbled upon the idea this morning (partially coined by zafar). Human being has trouble living without worshiping anything and in this era guess what we worship :)

Atheist view

Sometimes atheist posses similar view as organized religions. Atheists never try to understand religions rather they somehow share similar idea as theists. The theist idea about religion is everything, every bit of it is from God and therefore is correct. So whenever theists argue with atheists they point out the scientific flaws. They imagine science in similar way. The idea is fundamentally wrong, because science does not work that way. Surprisingly atheists often take the similar narrow approach to fight against theists. If such and such of your God is not correct or something written in your holy book is not correct therefore God does not exists! Well this may work well for the sake argument but scientifically this does not prove anything, yet they claim God does not exists! funny! More importantly they never look those books as book rather they look at it the same way theists do.

End of the day those are some books and like all other books and theories they have merits and demerits. Why don't atheists see those books that way? They think they refute one verse of it and therefore they have the right to throw away the entire book. Well, that's not scientific that's religious. If that's what they wanna do, they should not bring science in their argument, they should say they just believe in no God.

The Theory of Evolution

Do I believe in evolution? It doesn't matter whether I believe in evolution or not, what matters is: it is a scientific theory. That means it passed some testify able experiments (!). Well there exists much controversy about the experiments and I am not certainly in a position to justify whether those experiments truly validate the theory or not. In a general sense I have the same faith on theory of evolution as I have for other scientific theories. Anyway, I popped up this topic not because I want to glorify it or vilify it; rather I want to introduce my observation. Although my observation is not directly connected to theory of evolution it is somehow revolving around it.

I am amazed to learn that there is no contestant theory of the theory of evolution. There exists a scientific theory unrivaled by nothing! Ooops! Something is wrong! Either nobody finds this area interesting or those who work in this area are very much consumed by the theory of evolution. If that’s not convincing enough then here is the next: the only rival idea (I don't know any right word for it, it is not even an idea) is Intelligent Design (!) which is not even science. So basically evolution is fighting against churches! Really! Seriously! I thought we are in twenty first century and still a scientific theory has to fight against churches! Wow! Something seriously went wrong! Scientific community need to have serious attention in this area. Well, I have an observation:

We are living in the age of atheism. Atheism was never been so popular before. The references of religions are almost as old as the references of human (in its current form). So the idea of religion is approximately 300K+ years old and now all of sudden modern human being is trying to throw it away! This is crazy. 300K+ years are even good enough for evolution to create human from its ancestors! Technically modern human being has evolved along with religion. If so it is not hard to imagine we are already equipped to survive in the world of religion. Now if we throw it away, we human being don't know how we gonna survive! It is our part as we are part of it. Wait-a-bit, what atheism has anything to do with the theory of relativity?

Atheists reject the existence of God and fill the void with theory of evolution. Well! that's why the theory of evolution has to fight against religion not other scientific theories. Some people even use evolution to explain everything (The fabric of reality – David Deutsch). Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins seems declared war against religion. He called religions ‘enemies of reason’. The way he attacks religion remind me the sixteen century churches. I can imagine sixteen century churches surely attacked science in similar way. When did science become so hostile?

Evolution is a scientific theory like other countless scientific theories the only specialty is, it explains the creation. I am sure numerous theories would be published in future regarding the creation and some of them would even explain the creation better than evolution. Wouldn't they laugh at those who put so much emphasis on evolution? There are only two possibilities: (1) other theories exist. In that case putting too much emphasis is just slowing down the progress. (2) They don’t exist. That idea is frightening.

There exists an even greater harm. Atheists sometimes use evolution is such a way that it sounds like a religion and that’s where it creates a hole in science that welcomes things like intelligent design. Maybe intelligent design failed to enter into science in its recent attempts, but someday someone will craft it so well that it would penetrate science. I don’t know what happen then but I don’t see any good. In my view the ubiquitous use of theory of evolution only slowing down science and bringing problems like intelligent design.

Luck, Sheer Luck

I have been thinking about luck lately, what is luck? It's not hard to find a large set of people who believe there is nothing called luck or atleast not in tangible way; another big chunk left it for God. The wikipedia for luck is something beyond one's own intention or control. I believe one more word missing in the definition: perception. Before going deep into the later word lets look at luck a little more.

The word 'Good luck' is in abundance in this miraculous world. What do people really mean, when they say 'Good luck?' Let's try a different perspective to understand what they really mean. I submitted a paper to a conference and send the confirmation to my adviser and she promptly replied 'Good luck'. After couple of months or so the reviewers accepted the paper and sent the acceptance letter to my adviser again and she replied 'Good work'. Interesting! it's not it suppose to be 'thanks luck'? Now what do you think of about luck now? I believe the story is not very uncommon to everyone. People wish good luck to even unknown person before going into an event and the same people appreciate the good work after the successful completion of the same event. So, it is not too optimist to say luck exists before an event and once the event took place luck vanished. Well in some cases luck exits after the event as well, if somebody receive some kind unintended reinforcement during the event! Huh! is this the case wikipedia was talking about? I believe when someone say 'Good luck' what they really mean is I hope you work matches your goal. There are not wishing for any miraculous event. By work I mean to say both tangible and intangible form of work. 

Now take it one step further the and look into 'sheer luck' or the wikipedia definition of luck where something intended happen. Why do think the sheer luck is unintended? One has knowingly no control over sheer luck. My first perception about luck is "knowingly no control does not mean something as miraculous." This what we called probability taken personally :) after all "this universe is queerer than we can suppose." I think probability taken personally is the most common definition of luck in twenty first century. My second perception is even probability does not deserve as much credit as we suppose. Here comes my word perception. We can identify only tangible set of works but beyond that there exits countless intangible set of works as well. Maybe I have a greater impact on the person next me through electro-magnetic wave; just because I don't know it can't be disregarded. Wait a minute! My electro-magnetic wave which have no control influences the person next to me and you are calling it as an intangible work! How it is different from probability?

Interesting? My justification is queerer than I can suppose :) Just because we human being cannot perceive it that does not mean it does not exists, right? Then, here comes the evolution in action. Anything you knowingly and unknowingly have it the result of evolution. And you don't believe luckily you have two hands, do you?. Why your electro-magnetic wave would be considered as luck, it is your trait. This is the trait unknowingly we have so far. Human being have discovered numerous traits inside them in last 30K+ years and I believe there is numerous to come; after all evolution is not in sabbath. Yes and if any unperceived trait gives us upper-hand over other objects then it becomes our trait. I have not problem imagining future human with countless sensory organs sensing everything and pushing luck out of the door. The rest of the part where one has not control is at the end of the day is a function of time. So far we cannot sense the time, if we can I believe luck would have little place to survive.

Life for Rent

I haven't ever really found a place that I call home

I never stick around quite long enough to make it

I apologize once again I'm not in love

But it's not as if I mind

that your heart ain't exactly breaking

It's just a thought, only a thought

But if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy

Well I deserve nothing more than I get

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

I've always thought

that I would love to live by the sea

To travel the world alone

and live more simply

I have no idea what's happened to that dream

Cos there's really nothing left here to stop me

It's just a thought, only a thought

But if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy

Well I deserve nothing more than I get

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy

Well I deserve nothing more than I get

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

While my heart is a shield and I won't let it down

While I am so afraid to fail so I won't even try

Well how can I say I'm alive

If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy

Well I deserve nothing more than I get

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy

Well I deserve nothing more than I get

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

Cos nothing I have is truly mine

[Dido]

A word from heaven

My behavior with Lipa is little different compared to my behavior with other people. I noticed I have a tendency of giving her advice! What makes me think I have the right to give her advice! Interesting I am not a big fan of advice and personally I try not to advice anyone. I believe there exists numerous way of doing things and no one thing is right for all and there is no point of advice! However, I noticed I tried the tone of advice with Lipa many times. That's something interesting! 

I think one possible explanation could be I feel it is my holy duty to correct her, but technically it is not. I know personally nobody likes to listen to free advice. Another explanation could be, advice comes with governing position. I kind of think I am in the driving sit of our family and since I am in the governing position, I have every right to give her any advice! Third explanation could be pure relationship oriented. I do whatever I feel right things to do. So I kind of want her doing the same things; since I think those are the right things to do. Maybe I believe, if she does not do the right things, eventually both of us will suffer.

Another innocent explanation could be (which I think it is) we make so many decisions together for the family that sometimes any of us unknowingly crosses the boundary line of personal interest. I think this is the most plausible explanation. It could be cultural as well. In Bangladesh husbands are always in the driving sit and they feel they have the right to decide for their wife. So I feel it is my holy duty to deliver her the words from heaven that came upon me. In reality she is a different person and she may not like it like other people. If I am so considerate about other people what makes me so inconsiderate about her?

Google Chrome!

At last google released chrome for iOS! I am tired of stupid safari. Safari is dull, boring and stupid. Is there any way it can drain charge faster? Could be because it syncs everything in the cloud. I feel like chrome drains charges faster than safari. Certainly apple wouldn't like it.

So far I liked it, interface seems better than safari, and better responsive than safari as well. However initial loading time seems little longer than safari. The single most import feature is syncing ability across devices; chrome is good in cloud syncing.

I wish if could make it my default browser! Hopefully I'll be able to do that soon, since I am moving to android. I have had enough with iOS. :)