The Fabric of Reality: theory of everything

This is an interesting proposition that there exists an one single theory what he mentioned as 'theory of everything.' One thing popped up in my head immediately: if such a thing exists where should we look for? or What is the nature of such a thing? What are the characteristics of that theory? My question is even more philosophical I guess! I think I would like to know what are the characteristic the 'theory of everything' must have to consider as a theory of everything? Now the question is there anything exists like that? 

Well, I can play an interesting trick David Deutsch played at the beginning of Fabric of Reality. Let say such a theory exists, and as I understand, the only existence of any theory is through its interpretation. I presume there would be numerous interpretation of such a theory. There would be medical science, physics, chemistry and so on. All these are interpretations of that same unified theory. Now can I say like David Deutsch' Oracle, that such theory indeed exists which is our universe! Universe is the theory that has numerous interpretation in our life.

My second concern about such a theory is even more philosophical. Since he didn't defined the characteristics solution, why some philosophical ideas would not be qualified as candidate solution! One such a solution indeed exists in the history of mankind for many year: religion. Religion indeed presents one single unified theory of everything. What makes the proposition even more interesting is, all consequences and existing phenomena may not be immediately understandable from the theory. Just like, it needs years of work to explain real world using our existing theories, we need years of  work to explain this universe using religion as well. On top that, religion is upgrading day by day. My proposition is: nothing disqualify a religion as a candidate for the theory of everything.

Outliers: the story of success

Wow! I have finished the entire book. Probably this is the only book I finished reading in last year. So you get kind of the idea of my reading practice! That's pretty amazing huh! I used to read a lot! I used to read 4/5 hours a day and now I read one book in entire year! That's an interesting statistics. I used to surf and write a lot too; and now I seldom even write! What the hell I am doing? I don't know! I don't even do the kind of research I used to do. So what the heck I am doing!!! I know photography took a fair share amount of time from my life and so is Lipa. Another fare share goes to cooking and stuff like that, anyway that's the reality. I am not too worried, all are part of life; and the whole thing makes me a little more Shiblee. bla... bla... bla.. Let's go straight to the point, the book "Outliers."

My research area is sort of outliers identification, so I borrowed this book to get kind of a feeling of other people (other than mathematicians) think about the outliers. I wanted to address the most fundamental question of my research, what makes something an outlier? Well I know I can through a bunch of mathematics but none of them makes sense unless the noun Outlier makes any sense to me. So, I borrowed the book. Well my intentions were not fully gratified however it was a good read. In fact it's a very good read.

However, there is a big catch. The book, kind of point out the idea of being a man. I had come up with the idea of I = f(t) quite some time before. What I essentially wanted to tell is, I am changing every moment of my life and every complicated dynamics like social, economical, etc are shaping me in course of being me. The book almost brought up the same idea. What we see in every people is a complex collision and cohesion of intricate dynamics. Every little things make a little difference and end the result is a entirely different story! Let's start with an example.

Think about Shiblee. Shiblee was brought up in a lower middle class family. His family always had enough to eat but that's it. They never had enough money to spend on anything else. So he grew up in a sort of poor neighborhood. Well at least back in those days his neighborhood was fairly poor. Shiblee's mother and father came to Dhaka city around seventies, I presume after independence. Let's start with his mother. His mother used to know a guy named Sekandar Ali. This is guy is particularly important in many respect, because Shiblee's mother used to live in his house when she first came to Dhaka. But he is even more important for another tiny reason. He is the most educated man known by Shiblee's mother and he was very successful in terms of monetary concern; and guess what when Shiblee's mom came into Dhaka and find Mr. Sekandar Ali's upper class lifestyle she was kind of moved. (important note: Shiblee's mom and Mr. Sekandar Ali almost have similar family background). Shiblee's mom almost immediately conclude this is the education that change Mr. Sekandar Ali's lifestyle. So, in rest of her life she was kind of hoping one day her son gonna be like that and the only way known to her was a better education! She almost in her entire life she did numerous sacrifices for her children better education. Now you can imagine how important education was in Shiblee's family and what an enormous push he felt. Apart from eating the only thing was a ritual in his family is study. 

Shiblee however was not one of the brightest kind in the school. Certainly he was not living upto his parents expectation. However everything changed after class nine. The curriculum for nine and ten was massively redesigned during 1996/97. Every text book was re-written and those days the governing body was talking about redesigning the way science is taught. In that situation the teachers who were teaching for quite some years didn't know how to handle the new way of doing science. So people like Shiblee got a break. He was never good of collecting notes from previous years and doing the good in class. The teacher new well about old paper but they had no idea of how to correct their paper. They simply had no standard of which writing should get high score and which not because of the new science. So he did un-expectantly great in his SSC and finally become interested about study. bla.. bla.. bla.. Long story short, he graduated from BUET and doing his PhD. So. the key things are Shiblee's mother enormous push and a break of the curriculum change. Without one of those this story could have been entirely different.

Well that's the idea, Malcolm Gladwell tried to bring that up into the front. Einstein in not an Einstein if you disregard everything around him. The entire purpose of the book was pointing out the minor facts that shaped the successful people in later in their life. It is true: it is always easy to connect the dots backward but the backward connection of Bill Gates could really show the forward path of a kid in Washington today. I know backward connection of dots of the successful mind would not help us anyway, but what we can do is provide a guideline for future generation. Whenever a parent is confused, he or she may look at those dots to get some clue for their kids.

I don't know what was Malcolm Gladwell's intentions about the people itself, but I have no intention to vilify them. All my points were there are something due to the master minds' surroundings too and I wanted to acknowledge it with all due respect to them. Anyway lot of talking about Shiblee and very little about the book but I think I brought the idea of the book in front.

Trouble with physics

I have just finished an interesting book titled, "Trouble with physics" subtitled "The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next." Interesting book indeed. The first part of the book comprises a brief history of particle physics. I like that part most. I would say the author, Lee Smolin described the history of particle physics indeed in an interesting way.

In the second part is also quite interesting as well, in this part the author presented the rise of string theory and unresolved questions! He also criticizes String theory pretty harshly. He pointed out many questions those String theory fails to answer and many conjectures where String might fail. It is difficult for me to comment on this part because what he said is his arguments; I believe the String theorist must have their own explanation for them. But what amazes me most is, the transition from Part I to part II. Part I was written as if the everything is truth and Part II is written on the perspective of Science. I am not a big fan of popular science because sometimes authors write science book as if they are writing Gospel. The best part of this book the author did not present Science as a Gospel.

Part III presents the rival theories of String theory. Again, these all are theories and far from truth. I believe is Part IV is the part where the author made his main point. He pointed the unfair polarization of resources toward String theory. He also pointed some major flaw in doing science. Let me focus on one point, science is something that tempts scientists to think but recent practice is somehow fail to do so. I kind of agree with him; well I don't know very well about Physics but certainly I know about Computer Science. People are not interesting in thinking, they are more interested in doing, doing science. I am not asking to believe me, lets do this way;

Take some paper from recent conferences and journals and read the abstracts. You will certainly see one common thing. Everyone is claiming "In this paper we have solved Mr X's problem (which is the most important problem in this Universe) using the method Y (which is the best even known method to human civilization) in the context of Z (which is the most futuristic emerging research arena)." And most common trend is the authors have no relation with the problem, it is somebody else's problem; the solution is essentially proposed by someone else and finally the context exists only in imagination. There is not sign of think (therefore no science) in the whole process and to me this is very unhealthy.

I like to add one more interesting point. As a human being we are very fond of good and bad; we certainly know there exist two clusters one is called good and another is called bad. Even though we don't have any idea about what are those representing but we certainly know they are very important. Typically, we love good and we hate bad, since we don't know what are those things, we probably love the names. It is difficult to judge the think of a human being, but we have to attach a name with every person; scientists are not different. Hence we change the way of doing science, now the scientists are evaluated based on what they do not what kind of idea they possess. That made a big difference. People from all over the world are now interested about doing; that leads to another problem. Now everyone is doing something and start publishing. This situation gives the rise of publication industry. Now the problem became different, since publication industry became profitable many organization start moving toward it all of a sudden and the scientists start 'doing' in enormous pace. Now everyone becomes equal again with respect to publication and we are having hard time again to cluster. So now we starting clustering publication industries  and so one and this process continues. I don't know what it is bringing to us but certainly it is not taking us to the next step at least not in my view.

Anyway, go back to the book, "Trouble with Physics." (I have a very bad tendency of roaming around) What I felt about the book is, the main point of the book is not hard to perceive but it is difficult to comment on the specific example "String theory." String theory may find some success in future but it should not consume more resources than it deserves. At the end of the day it is 'just another theory'.

I would like to add some interesting quotes from the book,

• "working on String theory had proved to be a good intellectual training, and some former string theorists are now flourishing in other areas, such as solid-state physics, biology, neuroscience, computers, and banking."
• "String theory itself in need of unification"
• "The community has decided string theory is right and there is nothing you can do about it. You can't fight sociology"
• "After a certain point a successful scientist could easily spend all of his or her time on the politics of who gets hired where"

I have few comments on the very specific topic of the book,

• The things he called package deal (Part II) for String theory appeared same to me the things he called beautiful consequences (Part I)! May be the consequences are not beautiful enough to convince the writer but they are consequences no matter beautiful or ugly.
• The idea of curling up the dimensions and make them imperceptible appear again and again in the history of unification! Is this the same trap where human being are falling again and again or it is the reality? Apparently adding few more dimensions is the easiest mistake we can make.

What do you care what other people think?

I have finished a book today, titled “What do you care what other people think?” - Further Adventure of a Curious Character by Richard Phillips Feynman. This is very similar to his other book, “Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!” - Adventure of a Curious Character. The narratives are based on Arlene (his first wife). There are some letters of him and letters regarding him. And it contains few of his photographs and few of drawings.

Mostly the book is based on the Challenger investigation known as Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. He portrays everything with his usual witty style. This part is all about big shots. Here he white washes the top management of NASA. Finally he gives his observation on the reliability of the space shuttle.

It has an interesting chapter titled “Afterthoughts”. This chapter is composed of few thoughts that might be correct or not. The main theme is finally he come up with some ideas about “What other people may think?” So you the book title tickle the obvious question “Does he care or not?” Anyway this was not my intention to mention this chapter. There is another interesting part discussed about integrity and profession. He was trying to relate the integrity of different people with their profession. And he did it fine. There is always question which comes first, people lose integrity because of profession or people chose profession because they do not require integrity?

Finally he ends with the old dilemma, why all these are for? Good or Bad? Titled “The Value of Science”. This is mostly a philosophical part talking about science. He comes up with a proverb of Buddhist religion: “To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of the hell”. The key may be dangerous to use but the key obviously has some value. Without the key we cannot enter into the heaven. It is not the key responsible for any of the Heaven or Hell.

We are all sad when we think of the wondrous potentialities human beings seems to have, as contrasted with their small accomplishments. Again and again people have thought that we could do much better. Those of the past saw in the nightmare of their times a dream for the future. We, of their future, see that their dreams, in certain ways surpassed, have in many ways remained dreams. The hopes for the future today are, in good share, those of yesterday.

- Richard Phillips Feynman

Nearly everyone dislikes war. Our dream today is peace. In peace, man can develop best the enormous possibilities he seems to have. But maybe future men will find that peace, too, can be good and bad. Perhaps peaceful men will drink out of boredom. Then perhaps drink will become the great problem which seems to keep man from getting all he thinks he should out of his abilities.

- Richard Phillips Feynman

It is our responsibilities as scientists, knowing the great progress which comes from a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, the great progress which is the fruit of freedom of thought, to proclaim the value of this freedom; to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed and discussed; and to demand this freedom as our duty to all coming generations.

- Richard Phillips Feynman

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman

I have just finished one of the best book written by any geek. Well I am sure about the last word. He is not a geek at all he is a scientist not usual one probably he is one of the greatest scientist of twentieth century. His name is Richard P. Feynman. He is most publicly known scientist in the world. I am talking about “Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman”, Adventure of a Curious Character. I heard a lot about this book but for some reason I never got it before.

Probably, irrespective of reader this book gives the idea about how far a human being can go. How many things can happen in one life? Those who called life is short probably never heard the name Feynman!!! This is kind of autobiography and he is talking about himself, about his life, about a giant mind. I wander how it becomes possible for a human being to live such a weird life. After reading this book anyone will say this is too much, really too much, probably he was joking. He started from his boyhood. He got tremendous style of writing with colloquial language. You can read the whole book without any break.

He is very good at telling stories. Here he talks about himself. This is a master piece. He tells about himself in such a way that it gives you feel like you could be Feynman if you worked hard a bit more and be more consistent. He is a super genius. I have decided to finish all his books one by one. Let me see how far I can go. But from my point of view everybody should read this book. This book is something special, something very very special.

Here is his official website. Here is Encyclopedia Britannica article about Feynman.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

– Dick Feynman

The Eye of The Prophet

I have completed a book titled “The Eye of The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran. He is one of my favorites and this book (1995) is posthumous collection short essays on different human aspects. All the articles are taken from his prose, poetry and letters but this is a wonderful collection articles. If you are familiar with Khalil Gibran then probably you know about his views. It covers almost every item that could come in your head at very first time.

As he is well known for his controversies there is a high chance that you could like him or completely dislike him. However, I like his view so I like this book.

The name might seem misleading at first glance. The title is chosen as “The Eye of The Prophet” which suggests that content should be views of Prophet on different stuffs or other way how things are seen by the eye of prophet. But actually it is a collection of his views and thoughts. So who is the prophet? Actually he depicts prophet differently. “The prophet is known and loved by people around the world, as an inspirational guide to everyday life it has become a source of strength to millions.” So here is the voice which is source of strength and indeed it is.

I have compiled couple of his article in my blog labeled as Khalil Gibran. Those are very selective fews I like to share with you. I suggest this book as must read.

"The perfect companion to Khalil Gibran."

This is how the publisher depicts!!!

Islam between East and West

I finished another book today, “Islam between East and West” by Alija Izetbegović former president of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He tries to depict the essence of Islam on perspective of humanity. Here the writer shows the contrast between materialistic life and spiritual life and the most obvious repercussion that human beings are composed of both of these. We cannot be fully materialistic like prey and predator in wild life again we cannot be angel as well. We need someone to condemn, we need something to pray.

This is the age of mediocre; all things are approaching towards middle compromising few ideologies from both extreme. Writer shows how communism accounts spiritual values and catholicism values materialistic life, both of them approaching middle. And finally he tries to say Islam is the composed of both of these from the very beginning of its history. He tries to show the evolution of Catholicism towards Islam and the same to Communism.

Another most remarkable thing that I found interesting is his definition about humanity. Humanity is something that helps human being to decide against himself which is merely impossible for a machine or an animal. And there are few other essays on Culture, Civilization, idealism and so on. Overall I suggest it as a good read.

Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman

Currently I am reading another interesting book titled, “Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman” by W. Montgomery Watt. Here the author gives a pessimistic view of Muhammad’s life. Major focus of this book on Historical background of born of new religion-Islam, Historical background of Muhammad as Prophet, Influence of Jews and Christians on Islam and few other things still I didn’t explore.

Besides this it is good source of few historic phenomenons. Author analyzes the Hijrah and the first constitution of Medina on the basis of post war disturbed situation on Medina. Here he comes up with few pessimistic repercussions. I guess they might provide few good sources of thoughts.

Writer makes few guess about the profession of Muhammad on Medina. He is not sure about all of them I guess; at least there is no clear indication, evidence or background for his proclaim. Here he shows Muhammad as an aggressor. Sometime he becomes more offensive, like “In our peace-conscious age it is difficult to understand how a religious leader could thus engage in offensive war and become almost an aggressor.” Interestingly in the following paragraph he tries to mediate with “the raid or razzia was a normal feature of Arab desert life.”

Writer use “Strive” as the synonym of “Jihad”. I am not pretty sure about the transformation but he mentioned few verse of Quran those encourage for “Aggression” with the help this word. And finally he criticizes the expansion of Muslim Empire within one century. According to him this is only possible because of “Jihad”. Pretty interesting remarks indeed.

I have not completed this book yet. These are few things I have shared with you because I found them most noticeable. No other intensions…