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Educational Reform:
In 1880s when Sun Yat-sen was forming his philosophy of Nationalist China he tried to
preach to his contemporaries that the secret of Western success does not lie in the advanced weapons but in the value system
that focuses on development of human resource to its maximum potential. His view was that focus on human development is the
key lesson that China needs to learn from West in order to emerge as a nation equal to other advanced nations in the new world
order. Today we need to re-learn this lesson back in America from the father of the nation of China. I intend to chart out
key pillars that US education system has to focus on in rebuilding our competitive workforce and emerge as a leading nation
in the emerging new world order.
It
is a common practice in contemporary America to assume that quality of our public educational system is a result of a single
variable of the amount of government spending education. This article intends to dispel this perception and lay out the four
key pillars needed in a nation to build a strong education system and world class workforce. These four pillars include (1)
Family Values (2) Cultural Values (3) Education policies and (4) Government funding.
Family Values:
Thomas Alva Edison, the most successful and well known inventor of all times, also know
as “Wizard of Menlo Park, never graduated from College however deep family value of love of learning and his personal
ambitions drove him to learn in the proverbial street lights at night which led him to most successful technology enterprise
of his time...a key morale of Edison’s life or many others from Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and others is that
it is the personal desire of learning and doing far exceeds the learning capabilities that any formal school system can inculcate
in our next generation.
I believe
lack of strong engagement of parents in highlighting the importance of education at home is at the core of declining rates
at which American children are pursuing higher education and especially a dramatic decline in percentage of American children
pursuing education in mathematics, science and technology -- educational pillars necessary for building the competitive workforce
of tomorrow. In addition to formal education, today’s working parents have delegated to schools the responsibility of
playing educational games with kids at the dinner, doing weekend field trips to zoo, factories and other learning opportunities.
The house parties are now controlled by automated iTunes streamed music and MTV reality shows as opposed to education focused
board games (remember pictionary?) and math and memory games.
The first and foremost focus of a nation in building a strong educational system needs to start at
home with parents actively engaged with their kids in making learning a part of every day life and enforcing the importance
of education early in life. No amount of government funding or high quality education system will replace the burning desire
and love of learning that can be kindled at home under the loving care and upbringing of parents. Remember that mind is
not a vessel to be filled but a light to be kindled and it can only be kindled at home.
2 Cultural Values:
In his 2004 book, World is Flat, Thomas Friedman recites a story
about his visit to China and how young teenagers in China were falling over themselves to get into a public speech by Bill
Gates; hoping to learn about his experiences as a world renowned technology leader. Friedman noted that the difference between
contemporary Chinese and American youths is that for Chinese kids Bill Gates is like Brittany Spears and for American youths
Brittany Spears is Brittany Spears!
I
thought the above anecdote highlights very well the decline in cultural values on what the society considers important. In
the 19th and early 20th century our scientist and business men were the national heroes (Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Neil
Arm Strong) but over the last few decades national fascination has shifted to Rap stars and pop stars as the idols that our
young people want to follow. More recently these ideals have further gone away from nation building heroes to stars of reality
TV shows. It is not a surprise that as our children spend most of the time watching Jersey Shore and Real housewives
of New Jersey they dream about becoming Snooki or Mike Sorrentino of Jersey Shore, instead of becoming Edison, Bill Gates
or Steve Jobs of tomorrow.
I
believe it is the responsibility of the society (media, family, government and school system) to build value system where
nation builders (engineers, doctors, businessmen, scientists, teachers and public servants) are revered and idolized. When
such value systems decline in a society, the next generation will follows the decline.
As a society we need to build back our fascination with the true heroes that made this
nation great, and not let our children be fascinated with people who are only famous for just being famous!
Educational Policies:
Educational policies
that adopts learnings from free market systems can be successfully applied to government supported institutions like public
education. A simple model of reward for performance can help rebuild our educational system from entitlement based expectation
of union workers who are now in charge of educating our children to a merit based system where best teachers and schools are
rewarded with higher funding.
There are
numerous policies under debate today and I do not intend to comment on all possible policies, however I want to give an example
of a sample policy to illustrate how minor changes in funding mechanism can help improve the schools without even increasing
a single dollar in educational funding or massively impacting the current benefits or incomes that our current educators receive.
Imagine that instead of public schools getting the funding for children they are educating, we assign/attach the funding to
the child. Let Parents have the freedom to take their child to any school they like. And as long as child is in a particular
school, that school will receive the funding for that child. So if a school is not doing a good job in educating that student,
parent has the flexibility of taking that child out of that school and put her in a better school and the associated funding
will transfer to the new school.
Above
model will create an instant competition for educators, school administrators and teachers to do their best to retain the
funding within their institution. While there are numerous administrative and logistical challenges to implement a model described
above, the intent of this example is to show that even without exorbitant increase in public funding, we can improve our policies
for public funding to nurture merit based educational system as opposed to today’s entitlement based system. I am not
against the teacher unions but I am advocating smart policies that will reward competency and disadvantage incompetency.
Government Funding:
As a nation we
talk about the government funding as the sole variable in improving the educational system in America. I believe our focus
needs to be balanced on all four pillars of building a strong educational system in a nation.
However in addition to a balanced approach to improvements in educational system, it is
imperative for any advanced nation to regard its spending on education and basic research and development and core responsibility
of the public sector.
Sun Yat-Sen’s
insight mentioned at the beginning of this article that the core advantage of Western world is not in their weapons but in
their dedication for development of their citizens to their full potential remains true in the second decade of the 21st century
as it was true in the late 19th century. Today we need a Sun Yat-Sen of America to recognize that core of nation building
is development of its citizens to their highest potential.
Tribute to Steve Jobs Steve was born in 1955, same year when world lost Einstein
and Steve's loss is not less significant than Einstein. A while a go I wrote an article with the title of "What is the Meaning
of Life" ... in this article I proposed that the meaning of life is "Creative Action" -- Every life creates,
most "create" biologically, but humans create at a higher level and they bring order from chaos and designed from
the raw. To me creation is the core of the meaning of life. According to that definition Steve lived one of the most meaningful
lives of our times. He achieved more than what many can not achieve in generations. I am hard pressed to find
another figure in history that transformed, not one but at least 5 industries over a single life time. Steve first transformed
the personal computing industry, then moved on to PIxar and transformed the movie making industry, then with iTunes and iPod
he redefined the music industry. iPhone created the current smartphone and mobild revolution and with iPads and MacAirs he
recreated the personal computing industry!
Today we mourn for the person and the creator. But we know that his legacy and his ideals will
inspire and drive many generations and in that sense he will be more alive amongst us than most people who are "alive".
A Salute to Steve Jobs.
Manufacturing - source of the
next generation of growth
Manufacturing or making things out of raw resources has been the source of industrial
revolution. Today we continue to see manufacturing as a low margin business with minimal growth opportunities and therefore
focus on high margin opportunities. Many times in the past I have spoken the importance of a balanced economy where a healthy
manufacturing sector can help launch the next generation of growth opportunities for a nation or a geographical region. Today
I want to highlight an underlying characteristics or skills that we have enhance to deliver on next generation of industries. When
I talk about manufacturing I do not intend to limit myself to the industrial manufacturing but production of all physical
goods. For example manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals, new materials used in high quality construction (say cheap graphene), construction of nano-materials for embedded medical tablets, nano-materials (eg. Polymer non-composites or metal matrix non-composites), as well as new generation of construction around robotics, personal manufacturing (e.g.
3D printers).
While the above
technologies do not fall under the umbrella of traditional manufacturing, these are at the bases of next generation of physical
goods that will likely be consumed by the future customers. In the upcoming industries of nano-technology manufacturing for
smart tools for medical and industrial production as well as alternative energy products and smart materials based production
of current products (e.g. temperature controlled clothing), these manufacturing technologies will play a major role. And just
like having the know how in silicon chip manufacturing helped US retain a lead during the PC revolution of late eighties,
nineties and first decade of this century, maintaining deep know how in these technologies will help US retain lead in the
coming decades.
So in summary, I
remain extremely supportive of US to continue chasing the higher and higher margin industries, in IT services, finance, insurance,
software (I myself squarely belong in the software industry). However at the same time to ensure readiness for emergence of
new technologies and to be able to play key role in next generation industries we need to maintain a balanced approach of
skills and competency development in our economy. Otherwise we expose ourselves to the risk of getting stuck in the local
maxima of high margin industries of today and missing out the global maximas of future growth opportunities.
Debt Ceiling Compromise ... E Pluribus Eunum ... Anyone?
Deal that made everybody
equally unhappy!
Summary
The deal on the debt ceiling reached in Washington this week has two parts:
Part 1:
In summary deal reached in the Washington allowed for a debt ceiling to be raised by $1T while at the
same committed to $917B in spending reductions over 10 years. These 917B are roughly come from $350B cuts in military (read
Republican compromise) and 391B come from other discretionary programs (read Democratic compromise) and rest comes from interest
savings.
Part 2:
Additionally deal requires that additional $1.3T in savings
have to be agreed upon and passed as a law by the end of November. If agreement is not reached by the end of November than
automatic reduction will be enacted that will be painful for both parties. Automatic reduction includes $500B reduction in
military spending (read painful to GOP) and $500B reduction in entitlement programs, like Medicare (read painful to Democrats)
and $200B interest savings.
Needless
to say automatic triggering of savings which spreads equal power to both parties is my favorite part as it will create strong
incentive for both parties to come up with a sensible compromise without putting national credibility at stake again.
In summary the deal will reduce the deficit by roughly $2.3T
over next ten years.
Basic Implications for GOP, Democrats and Tea Party:
GOP: The apparent winner in the debate got the upper hand by forcing the no tax hike. But also put at
stake military spending and hence the funding of current wars.
Democrats: While looking like getting a slightly losing hand, they were able to push the discussions of
any further debt ceiling to past 2012 elections and came out looking like a party that would like to compromise to move things
forward.
Tea Party: Biggest winner
in terms of political clout. Not only Tea Party asserted its tremendous influence in the Congress but also woke up even parts
of GOP about the potential threat it can pose to GOP itself.
Broader Implications
Putting aside the details of the deal, which are mildly interesting,
lets discuss what does this mean for US and the world. First and foremost this whole discussion on debt ceiling was a internally
focused political facade. This was not a debt problem similar to the problem that Greece or maybe even Italy is facing. US
debt is still highly in demand and US still owes significant portion of its debt to itself. In other words there was not a
real market situation where US can not sell its treasury bonds or investors were demanding heavy interest increases on US
bonds. Highly sought after US debt is still in demand and debt ceiling is an internal self control mechanism to ensure that
US does not put itself into excessive debt.To put it in perspective we have raised the debt ceiling 102 times in the past...
or roughly once every year. So in the scheme of things this is a common everyday business. Especially when you have inflation
of 2-3%, it makes sense that your debt will go up at least at a similar rate or the nation will be under leveraged. So as
opposed to some underlying economical problem, the focus of this debate was political to position both parties as big bold
decision makers for the 2012 election.
Having
made the strong point above, let me state that US debt has mushroomed at an alarming rate in last 15 years and it does need
to be controlled. Therefore this debate was timely and healthy topic that needed to take place. However problem started with
how this debate progressed and how it undermined the confidence of the whole world in the US political system and its ability
to manage itself in a reliable and mature manner.
Last month the whole world watched US government trying to resolve its own self imposed or self created crises. And
what the world saw was a painful soap opera of bickering politicians and antics reminiscent of Real Housewives of New Jersey
... full of drama, bickering, and creation of armageddon sounding dramatic antics. Even if you believe it was a necessary
fight, we should be embarrassed that the world saw us making the sausage in the most filthy way.
As Americans we were embarrassed but I feel Chinese, Europeans
and Africans were dumbfounded. They were asking if American political system is this unreliable? Should they really be concerned
about the US debt they are buying? Moreover will America really go into default? These were the questions that were not even
in the lexicon of the world before. The dependency of US debt was so solid that all the financial models in the world are
built around it. We took one thing that the world never ever questioned -- ability of US government to pay its obligations
-- and put it under doubt. In order to make it more dramatic and sensational, media and the politicians played it to the max,
while not realizing that we are putting the trust of the world in US at risk.
They say that one of the main jobs of a leader is to bring certainty and confidence
amidst uncertainty and fear. This is the role America has played during past global financial uncertainties. And in this time
of global financial uncertainty, when many of the Asian and African nations, including China and India, who heavily depend
on the massive American consumption for their growth of the economy were also shaken with the potential American default.
Due the position of the American economy in the world, any default by the US will cause global recession and potential depression
and while we avoided such calamity, the theater that was created to reach a deal caused this nation some credibility as a
leader and we will need to work hard to win it back.
In the end each party may have achieved some political goals, but as a nation we lost our credibility that we have
built over last two centuries. Credit ratings agencies may not downgrade US debt, but the world may be a little more cautious
in buying our debt fearing similar future stand offs in our increasingly divisive political landscape. And therefore result
could be the same as if our credit rating was downgraded!
At the time when Chinese system of market and government interplay is showing an alternative to American model with
fast and continued growth, dysfunction showed by our government over last several weeks and dramatization of it by our media
only weakens America.
In summary I am less concerned about American economy and even our current debt
-- I am a strong believer that American economy will come out of its doldrums and will march along with rigor. However I am
concerned about the political implications of how we are making the new policies and its impact on our perception by the world.
On a positive note:
Regardless
of the negative impact, now that we are past the discussion, it is important to use this deal to kick start strong fiscal
reforms that can bring this nation back to its roots of a growth focused economy. This deal has put some drastic cuts in our
spending and while it puts our economy at risk by not allowing any potential stimulus if needed, I hope our politicians will
use the next round of discussions to put the fiscal plans in place that will help focus the government on where it can help
the country most while making America an attractive place for entrepreneurs and corporations to do business.
Lastly I want to address the naysayers who think that this marks
the beginning of decline of American dominance in world economy. I think nothing can be farther from the truth. Probably these
naysayers don’t remember the same sentiment during 80s about the rise of Japan or the impact of Great Depression. This
nation rose from both events stronger and more powerful. I will write more about why I am still strongly bullish about US
economy and US as the superpower in my next blog entry. Meaning of Life - Last Part
Previous two articles tried to establish that order creation is the ultimate core definition and meaning
of life. Purpose of this article is to bring home this hypothesis to daily life and implications of this concept to how we
should live a meaningful life.
At the core of the process of life, order creation is autonomous and automatic.
We know of this autonomous process as Evolution. Evolution is the algorithm that is applied at the genetic level to create
increasingly sophisticated information management system for creation of kinematic (or non kinematic -- plant life)
self replicating machines. So over time life fulfills it's purpose in two ways: - Increase order by having increasing
numbers of living organisms ( population growth)
- Increase sophistication of each member of the of the specie over
time ( survival of the fittest) to ensure continuation and growth of the specie.
As you will notice the above
two goals of life are performed automatically by all living things, animals, plants and all lifer forms of living including
us. So at a very basic level by just living and procreating we are fulfilling the most basic meaning of life. However
if we stop at this level our life will be basically as meaningful as an animal -- not destructive but if you are reading this
article hopefully you aspire to live a more meaningful life than a moth. The question that this article intends to answer
is how to go beyond this level in living a rich and meaningful life. In the course of human history many individuals
have created more order and organized the world around us better than their peers. We call these people leaders of different
disciplines or creators of disciplines --- philosophers, political leaders, scientists, businessmen, writers, musicians,
artists, engineers. For example Aristotle masterful effort in organizing human knowledge and structured pursuit of truth guided
scientific thought for almost two thousand years. His contribution to creation of structured progress was a higher level creative
action compared to his peers who just lived their lives and died with their offspring as their only contribution to the universe.
Since we identify creative action as the fundamental meaning of life, in our terms Aristotle lived a more meaningful life
than many of his peers. Similarly Beethoven and Mozart lived a more meaningful life than their peers by creating a long lasting
legacy of beautiful music and art of creating harmonized tonal structures out of vibrations of air. In other words people
who create more organized information that aids the world in becoming more sophisticated and information rich live a more
meaningful life by creating more order than their fellow men. As a corollary destructive individuals who bring disorder
or chaos live an opposite of a meaningful life or in essence are embodiment of evil -- names like Hitler, Osama Bin Laden
come to my mind as personification of this trait. Considering the above hypotheses as the basis of applying theory of
creative action to living a meaningful life, what does an average person needs to do to live a good life? Obviously not everyone
is going to be Aristotle, Einstein or Mozart. My proposition in this article is that for an average person the most basic
requirement to live a meaningful life comes down is to at least two key requirements - Raise kids who will be better
creators than he/she is, thus leaving he world with a better forces of creative action - community leaders, scientists, business
leaders, philosophers. Just executing on this principle will make world a better place if each one of our children are brought
up to improvement of ourselves --- I call this directed social evolution.
- Secondly every should perform their craft
in a way that it is left in a better state than when he/she started. This means doing your job not to just earn a paycheck,
or to perform what you are asked to do, but improve your work/profession from its currrent state.
If everyone
can perform these two tasks than they start to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great creators of humanity by giving the
world two types of order creating forces, first his offspring, that is better than themselves in living a meaningful life
and creating a better world and secondly improving and evolving their craft / profession to new levels. Imagine if everyone
in the world achieved the above two goals (have kids who achieve more than their parents and perform their work better than
before)... The world will quickly become an amazing place within few generations. These two simple goals may sound mundane
but wisdom lies in finding profound within mundane. These two simple goals puts tremendous responsibility on everyone. We
have to take our responsibility as a parent very seriously as we are not just bringing up our children but our children are
our products that we are selling to the world as their citizens. This makes the job of every parent a serious job of creating
a world of tomorrow. Secondly signing all our work with excellence forms the basis of creating value in the world which
is one of the key measurement of how meaningful is your life. Therefore it is important that you should pursue what you love
and what you are good at...not necessarily where you can make the most money. Love your profession not because it is source
of your livelihood but because it is one of the core reasons of why you were out on this earth. I would submit that
we should not hold our ambitions to live a meaningful life to what is laid out above. Instead we should pursue living as richly
meaningful life as possible within our capabilities. What i mean by that is we should sign each day with excellence by doing
best as parents, workers, executives, friends, community members etc. And going beyond that we should aspire to "create"
and "advance" new forms of structure by contributing to world either intellectually (Establishing new theories,
e.g. , Wealth of Nations, Origin of Species, Symposium, Theory of Ralativity, Principia Mathematica etc) politically (forming
first democracies in Greece, abolishing slavery in America to bringing peace and subsequently economic development to middle
east) building (from building great structures to todays power plants and sky scrapers) or inventing (e.g light bulb to computer
to antibiotic). All of the above are examples of creating order where there was disorder before. Disorder of metal, brick,
sand, water is shaped by the hands and minds of creators of the world into sky scrapers and power plants. Similarly
disorder of confused thought, superstitions and jumbled beliefs get structured by thought creators of the world in scientific,
political and economic theories based on which our world works. It is the work of these Maters of Creative Action that
has brought the man out of the cave and into the modern sky scraper. This desire to create order and structure out of every
endeavor of our life is the fundamental driving force of life and the ultimate meaning of life. Most amazingly it can be achieved
by trying to achieve at least two simple goals, raise your children to be better than yourself and perform your profession
with excellence. We all can contribute within our capacities to live a meaningful life and if we all do that world will
be a wonderful place to be. Shadman
Meaning of Life - Part 2 In
my last essay I claimed that "creative action" is the ultimate meaning of life. In this essay I will try to define
few fundamental concepts that I use in the Creative Action theory of meaning of life. I will use these concepts in the next
article to layout what is creative action and how it applies to the life of humans and why it is the ultimate meaning of life.
Time is the fire in which we all burn. Decay and deterioration,
in due time, of every object, animate or inanimate, is irrefutable. Humanity has searched for eternal youth for eons, however
until recently many adventurers seeking the fountain of youth did not realize that they are up against the most fundamental
laws of nature, the second law of thermodynamics. For many scientists second law of thermodynamics comes closest to the absolute
law of nature that governs everything in the universe. The
second law of thermodynamics states that as time progresses, disorder increases in any closed system. This innocuous sounding
statement describes most intimate and profound nature of the universe that we dwell. In essence the statement above defines
the arrow of time and what time does to "stuff" in any closed system. It is the implication of this law that you
can see a cup of water fall down and break into pieces , but will not see broken shards of glass assemble spontaneously into
a cup and jump back on top of the table. Before going
any further, let me explain the second law of thermodynamics via example for those readers who may not be familiar with it.
Imagine an empty room with two partitions, dividing room into two sections. Now fill each section with two different gases,
say oxygen and carbon dioxide respectively. Now remove the partition wall. According to second law of thermodynamics, overtime,
the two gases in the room will not remain in their respective section and will ultimately mix with each other. In other words
the neat order you had created with a separate section for oxygen and carbon dioxide will mix into a single mixture of both
gases. This will happen because matter at the most basic level is in continuos motion making the molecules of different gases
bump and interact with each other and mixing into a single uniform mixture over time. And this is it - this simple and intuitive
concept is the essense of second law of thermodynamics. Hopefully this example will make the smokers think twice before smoking
a cigar in the living room of a non smoker's house, thinking that it will not bother their hosts in their bed room. Generalizing the above example, second law of thermodynamics state
that entropy, also known as the measurement of "disorder", will increase with time in any closed system. In a poetical
sense everything deteriorates with time and we see the results of this when human body mixes back into the ground, ashes to
ashes and dust to dust -- Time will burn the order into chaos and disorder. For those readers who want to get a better appreciation of laws of thermodynamics, I highly recommend
a short book by Peter Atkins, called "Four laws that drive the Universe" It is a reasonably easy read and will give
you a more precise understanding of the second law of thermodynamics than what I am wiling to explain in this short essay. The second law of thermodynamics impacts the working of our universe
at every level. From the working of simple systems like the gas filled room described above to the working of the galaxies,
burning of the stars, breaking water cups and aging of our bodies. Without the second law of thermodynamics we would have
had a happy childhood as anything we mistakenly broke could be reversed before we get a scolding from our parents. In a sense
arrow of time gets defined by this law, thus disallowing us to go back in time, as travel in reverse direction would allow
us to reverse the second law of thermodynamics. (for those of you interested in potential of time travel utilizing theory
of relativity and it's implications of bending time, please wait for my article on the nature of time) Scientist use the second law of thermodynamics to predict the future of the universe
as a gray, cold and dark place which would have no structure to it. Over time all energy will be used up, stars will burn
and either turn into black holes or non luminous blobs of matter that will be spread in all directions. Indeed a dark and
depressing picture. Again in a poetical sense I call this structure eating nature of the Universe the ultimate evil - the
destroyer of any discernible structure. A typical physicist
will tell you that there is nothing in the universe that counters the second law of thermodynamics. And while in principle
I agree with that statement, I am proposing in this series of articles that the fundamental nature of life is the core counteractive
force against the chaos generating nature of the universe governed under the second law of thermodynamics. Moreover life is
an instance of an emergent complex dynamical system that will spontaneously emerge in the universe given the physical laws
that govern our current nature - in other words life is not an accident but laws of our universe favor spontaneous, although
relatively rare, creation of life or as some would say that laws of our universe are designed to create life. Before going any further I want to state that this is a hypothesis
and is not based on scientific facts. However I have strong reasons to believe in the general principles that I am laying
out here but above all this is also my belief on which I base many of the core principles of "Creative Action" theory
of meaning of life. Life at it's core is an intricate
organization of matter. Life embodies the ultimate order creation force. First of all life is a sophisticated structure in
of itself, capable of maintaining homeostasis. Additionally, as opposed to other sophisticated inanimate structures in the
universe, e.g. Star systems, life is designed to propagate over time increasingly sophisticated information. In other words
instead of deteriorating over time, life actually evolves to be better and more structured than before. Therefore instead
of deteriorating with time, life creates order and structure and spreads that structure beyond individual organism. For example
first single celled organisms (prokaryotes) evolved into multi cellular organism (Eukaryotes), and the same process created
numerous complex life forms including us. I can hear
some readers saying that this is a violation of second law of thermodynamics that I just described and claimed to be one of
the fundamental laws of nature. This is known as evolution paradox and a careful reader will recognize that this is not a
violation of second law of thermodynamics. Second Law of thermodynamics states that overall disorder increases with time in
a "closed system". This does not prevent order from increasing in part of the system as long as more disorder is
created somewhere else in the system. In other words life might be taking in more energy and creating disorder as its by product
(e.g. global warming) in the over all universe while still creating order in the bio-sphere. Traditionally scientists have viewed emergence of life on a small blue/green planet as a
sheer accident. However having placed life at the same level as the most fundamental law of nature, the obvious question emerges
as to the importance of life in the universe. While in the past considering life as a fundamental feature of the universe
was met with ridicule by serious physicists, however recently this question has received very serious thought and recognition
from all respected thinkers of science, from Stephen Hawkins, Roger Penrose to Lee Smolin and Brian Green. The reason for
serious thinking behind this question emerged from the fact that our Universe seems to reside in a "Golilocks Zone"
of physical laws that are extremely well suited for life (it is called Goldilocks zone because it is neither too cold nor
hot, but just right for the existence of life) If many of the universes constants (charge of electron, gravity between masses,
mass of proton etc) were off by even 0.01% then universe and life in the universe would not have been possible. This gave
rise to the concept of "Anthropic principle", which basically states that we are here because universe is the way
it is. If it were not like this we wont be here and wont be asking these questions. In other words universe as we know is
extremely fine tuned to harbor life and laws of the universe that we inhabit has properties needed to harbor life as deeply
intrinsic as any other physical law .... Or it might even be more fundamental then any other law. For more reading on this
topic I would recommend the reader to read Stephen Hawkins' Grand Design or for a more controvercial views read Robert Lanza's
book called Biocentrism. Given the basic argument on
life's importance in the universe, let me turn attention to the basic property of life that matter to our current area of
discussion - it's creative power for establishing and propagating order. In affect life is a process by which physical structure
gets increasingly organized and over time more and more of the physical substrate will get increasingly organized -- i.e.,
population growth and evolution. Life finds ways to utilize energy to create structure of the substrate it is built on (carbon,
nitrogen, hydrogen etc. ---however substrate could also be silicon or other materials) and the preserves that structure by
passing on that structure on its offspring. And the information is not just perserved but improves the information passed
on either deliberately (cultural evolution) or unconsciously (via natural evolution). Moreover ability of parents to create
large number of offspring enables life to expand its footprint to the available substrate and available resources. So just
like second law of thermodynamics, given an open system of unlimited supply of substrate and resources, life can continue
to grow and create order across the universe. If
a poet were to interpret the above discussion, he or she might say that disorder and decay is the ultimate evil that is destroying
the structure, order and everything beautiful in the universe whereas life is the ultimate good that is creating order and
spreading the beauty of structure. He might also ask so who will ultimately win this war, good or evil? Some scientists will
answer that disorder and decay will win as even life is creating more disorder in the universe under the second law of thermodynamics.
However others might recognize that the answer is not as simple. Second law of thermodynamics is only applicable to closed
systems. And if the universe is infinite then the answer could be quite different. In an open, expanding and infinite universe,
life can continue to spread order and increase order in the universe indefinitely, while the expanding universe will continue
to have more of the universe to draw upon for energy for its order creation process. In other words while in a closed system
second law of thermodynamics will incorporate life and will ultimately win, in an open and infinite system two will at least
have an equal footing. And since today we believe universe could be infinite and expanding, this is a very likely scenario. The above discussion of infinite universe and its implications on
the power of second law of thermodynamics might be confusing to some who are not familiar in dealing with concepts involving
infinities. To help explain how second law of thermodynamics and life can be equal in infinite universe while second law of
thermodynamics contains life processes in a finite universe, I am going to use an example from a simple high school mathematics.
Imagine two set of numbers from 1 to 10. First set, called A has all the numbers from 1 to 10. Therefore A = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}.
While set B only has even numbers from 1 to 10. So B = {2,4,6,8,10}. Clearly B is smaller and is contained within A. In other
words if A and B had a war, A will win over B. While B will kill 2,4,6,8,10, A will be left standing with 1,3,5,7,9 after
B would have exhausted its number-soldiers. Now consider
the same example of set A and B, but this time these sets are infinite. So A = {1,2,3,4,5...forever} and B = {2,4,6,8...forever}.
Now if these sets have a fight who will win? .... Think about it before reading further.... If you answered no one, then give yourself a pat in the back. However if you answered A,
then trust me that the c grade you got in your high school math was well deserved and not a spiteful act on behalf of your
math teacher. If you are still wondering why no one will win, you can solve this by noticing the following. You can assign
the first element of set B to fight the first element of A (2 fighting 1) and second element of B to fight second element
of A (4 fighting 2) ad infinitum. The 10 millionth element of B will fight 5 millionth element of A...since neither will ever
run out of numbers they will keep fighting forever. For every element, say n, in A there is a corresponding element 2n in
B. In other words A and B are exactly equal sets. So while in a closed system or finite settings A wins over B, in infinite
setting they become equals. My argument is that same logic applies to the counterbalancing force of order creating force of
the universe, life and its order destroying force or second law of thermodynamics. At this point we have introduced our protagonist, Life, as the ulitmate creator of order and structure
in the Universe and second law of Thermodynamics as the antagonist in our story of the meaning of life. In my next article
I will use some of these terms to establish the tenets of theory of "Creative Action" and its implications for the
meaning of life as it applies to us as human beings. Note
to reader: I am neither supporting or refuting any religious ideology. The intent of the effort to define the meaning of life
in this manner is to approach it on the basis of universal principles that we can agree on without any specific religious
ideology. I would strongly implore the reader of this article to not read this from religious perspective, especially from
any one specific religious ideology. An Essay on Meaning of Life: Part I What is the meaning of Life? "The
Question " is as timeless as the time itself. From the start of her conscious beginning humanity has been asking this
question in numerous ways. Quest for meaning in our existence is the germination seed of world religions and philosophy. Although
the desire to know the answer and seek the purpose of our existence has driven thousands of years of continuous quest, the
answer remains as elusive today as it was at the beginning of civilization. For some people even an attempt to answer
this question is dangerously close to hubris. However I believe we all answer this question in one way or another in our own
way that gives purpose to our life and a reason to live. My attempt in this essay is to give a framework for the answer to
The Question that is general yet in line with biological, evolutionary, philosophical and or religious thoughts. This is how
I have answered the question and although I believe what is described here is general and objective, some may find this to
be in conflict with their view of the world. I am not proposing this as an objective reality and therefore do not expect unanimous
peer agreement, however I will appreciate constructive feedback and input. My primary effort is seeking the truth
as genuinely as possible and not a new age effort of mixing science and religion, or justifying validity of one or the other
based on insights presented here. First and foremost I will seek the patterns in nature and use those as axioms to build the
case for my answer to the meaning of life. In some cases the answer and the quest will match some faiths and in others it
may go against others. I will not take an extra effort to reconcile established faiths or in some cases may even offend some
current trends in scientific thought. However I do believe that if we reach an agreement on general framework for the answer
than every reader can take the reconciliation with their faith as a personal exercise, if that is important to their inner
harmony. Having said the above you will notice few religious overtones in some arguments and the reason for it is both a personal
preference and in some cases it provides a short cut to reach a long drawn argument – but in general I will not be invoking
divine preference or intent as the basis for argument. Before we begin this quest, let me address an obvious answer
that many believe in – that there is no purpose of life. Life just is; it evolved out of random chemical processes and
asking the meaning of life is meaningless and a vestige of a highly mystical tradition of our civilization. As a scientist
at heart I respect this answer; however I would like to submit that regardless of the origin of life, it is important for
us to seek the answer to this question. Why is it important? Because defining a purpose is a way for us to establish moral
principles of right and wrong and create purpose for our lives. While the reason to seek answer is more fundamental than what
I state here but for brevity sake I will reserve my full explanation of my belief that there is a definable purpose/meaning
of life and it is profoundly important for humanity to seek it so that it can reach its potential. Let me start the
quest by asking The Question again – What is the meaning of life? To some the act of asking this question itself implies
an implicit acceptance of divine being and its pre meditated purpose of life before creation. I believe this is a fallacy
in common thinking and while it is a reasonable and satisfying explanation for some, this is not a valid argument. In general
a "designer" is not necessary for the existence of a purpose of an object in the following sense: evolutionary explanation
of emergence of certain traits in species, say evolution of eye in higher animals describes it as a useful yet random mutation
that gave an advantage to the species for survival by giving them better ability to search for food and avoid danger by the
means of detecting light as the source of information instead of smell, touch or other common sensors. As a result this feature
was preserved and evolved by pure statistical reason. Statistical reason being that the possessor of this feature survived
in larger number than those who did not posses it. Speaking in hindsight we can shorten the above explanation by saying that
eye was "designed" to give its owner ability to seek for food and avoid danger. So I seek meaning of life in the
above sense – what some may call an engineering perspective. In short it determines what function a given object is
performing on its environment and what function it continues to optimize overtime and use that as a working definition of
the purpose of that object. In this essay I define this as engineering perspective on meaning/purpose of objects.Given
above background I will now come to my answer of "the question". However as opposed to general method of building
the case for the answer, I am going to give the answer upfront and then focus on the thought process used to reach the answer.
So the answer to the big question is "meaning of life is to perform creative action."How do we
discuss this answer from engineering point of view? Well first we have to go to the basis of life and study its purpose. In
order to keep our study objective and as simple as possible we will study amoeba, a single cell organisms which is one of
the simplest form of life and then study upwards to more complex life forms. What is Amoeba’s purpose in life?
From birth Amoeba primarily performs three functions, exploration for food or better living conditions, consume food for sustenance
and then procreate by dividing itself into two daughter amoebae. Studying as an outside observer the purpose of each
amoeba is to survive until it can transmit its genetic information into a next generation of daughter amoebae. Survival activities,
including quest for food, consumption of food and search for better environment seems to be means to an end. From engineering
point of view primary purpose of amoeba is continuation and betterment of its species. In other words reverse engineering
amoeba leaves us with "biological creative action" that supports continuation of its species. A counter
argument can be raised that Amoeba may fit into a larger role of the eco system of earth’s biosphere and therefore deducing
its role based on impact to its own species may not be valid. I agree with this argument and we will pick this argument when
we have covered longer list of life forms so that we can discuss a "systems" approach of symbiotic meaning of life.
We can apply similar arguments to slightly more sophisticated animals – fish, lizards, chicken and frogs. However
as we leap to our higher animals who have some level of consciousness thinking in place – dog, cat, dolphin and monkey,
or nest building birds, a more detailed investigation is warranted. We will start our mammalian meaning of life question
with a dog. Dog is an intelligent animal that has a high level of social interactivity. Also in wild dogs tend to form groups
for hunting and live in loosely formed packs. Although basic processes of quest for food, better living environment
and search for sex for reproduction remains similar in canine mammals, more sophisticated behaviors are also exhibited that
need to be taken into account when defining the purpose of a dog’s life. Dogs perform some functions that are not in
direct benefit of procreation – for example alerting the pack with barking when a predator is detected nearby. By barking
dogs attract attention of the predator to himself; a more selfish step would be to quietly run away and let the predator attack
the other unsuspecting members of the pack. In this selfless act of good we notice the workings of Dawkins’ "Selfish
Gene". As studied and proposed via mathematical studies that dogs or even squirrels alert their packs or families by
putting itself in danger when the chances of survival of animals own gene is higher if pack survives even at the cost of the
life of the animal. For example in his book, Moral Animal, writer describes an experiment where if a squirrel scream and attract
attention of a potential predator if it has three or more siblings in vicinity, since each sibling shares 50% of its gene
with the squirrel, so if three siblings survive then 150% of squirrel’s genes will survive and therefore squirrel will
put itself in danger to save 3 siblings. However if there is only one sibling then squirrel will not squeal and will try to
evade the predator quitely. This kind of study has been done in squirrels (Moral Animal) and it would be interesting to see
if someone will perform similar study for other animals (open request to behavioral zoologists).So in addition to
procreation canine animals also work on creating better living conditions for new offspring, via group dynamics, marking territory
and creating a safe community guarded by canine brotherhood. In the end canine animals perform creative actions of procreating
offspring, creating stable life environment and social structure for procreation and continued development of the pack. Note
our engineering point of view that will see the end result and deduce the purpose of the object in the larger course of action.
Studying dogs and squirrels it becomes obvious that the meaning of life is continuation of species while creating better environment
to improve the likelihood of species evolution and survival. So far we have seen that animal’s primary purpose
is some kind of creative action – either direct procreation of species as in amoebae or additionally creation of environment
where young ones can develop safely for further continuation of the species. I believe few people will debate the
previous conclusions about the purpose of life from single celled to more sophisticated animals. Now we will try to examine
human from similar framework. Obviously at a very high level all humans perform basic acts of ‘biological creation"
by having offspring. While we can end our quest here and say that is the meaning of life for humans. However taking the engineering
point of view we notice that humans are exceptionally driven towards higher purpose activities in addition to procreation.
Based on the evidence of human civilization and its continued march towards higher ordered philosophical, political and technological
growth I believe human life has more depth than creation of offspring. And this is what we will focus on next. In
addition to what we discussed with canine and single celled animals humans have a capacity to create complex social structures,
philosophical frameworks and scientific and literary milestones that may not seem obvious as biological creative actions.
My proposition is that higher forms of "order " as a derivative of building complex structures is the basis of meaning
of human existence. Let me start with some examples of higher order creative actions. Political pursuit to create
a stable, prosperous state that can continue to improve the quality of life of its citizens is a political creative action.
When Greeks were practicing and defining democracy or when Marx was establishing the tenants of socialism, they were fulfilling
the purpose of their life by creating political systems that they believed will create better states. Similarly when Shakespeare,
Homer or Ovid were creating timeless masterpieces they were serving their higher purpose of life – a body of literature
that will provide guidance and learning and will serve as a source of education about human emotion and relationships. Similar
purpose was served by religious leaders, scientific leaders and inventors. Regardless of the type of pursuit, when
human action starts to create structure from chaos, she has engaged in a higher order creative action and is fulfilling her
meaning of life more richly then a mere mammal. Creative action in this essay is defined as an activity that creates
order from chaos. Note that biologically life itself is an order creating process. All the chaotic soup of different chemicals
that are in our body can exist in a jar but it will not be alive. In order for that material to be alive, intricate order
has to be in place for cells to form and DNA to replicate to provide the substrate of life. So this basic form of creative
action is encoded in our DNA that drives us to perform at least the basic creative action. Same is true for all other living
beings – flora or fauna.In order to rise above the biological creative action, humans have to rise to the next
level of contribution in creation of order. In this sense our leaders in different fields (science, philosophy, politics,
technology, literature etc.) live a more meaningful life than those of us who do not pursue those endeavors. What
does this mean for us in our daily lives? Why order is preferable over chaos? What are the implications of different faiths?
I will be addressing these questions in my next essay. America will emerge stronger -- Current
Economic Crisis...it is just a standard event in the larger economic cycles Today media, wall street and main street
is going crazy these days talking about the current economic cycle being the end of times and harbinger of fundamental changes
to how the world is going to be in 21st centure.
However if we take a step back then we will be able to see that
this is just a part of larger boom abd bust cycle of the world economy that runs over ~80. Since most of us alive do not remember
from personal memory 80 year cycles it is easy to think that this is a unique event that will change the world forever. Be
it 1930 great depression or 1850+ civil war or 1770s independence war, just this nation has seen siginificant changes happening
every 80 plus years that changes its face for the coming generation.
While in each of the past major cycles, people
at the time thought that this cycle will bring the doom of this nation, American nation has risen each time stronger with
brighter future than before and I do not think that this time is going to be any different. ... stay tuned for my next blog
on why I think so.. .
Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell's new "book"
I like Malcolm, I really do. However I can not endorse with clear conscience his recent book. This book is
fraught with incomplete and sometimes downright inaccurate statistics that are made up to make the point that Malcolm is trying
to make (see some examples below).
I think the fundamental problem is as follows; Malcolm's intended
audience for this book were public policy makers but most of his readers are the general public. Malcolm wants to convince
policy makers that by providing opportunities for all of our population, we can create a nation of more successful people
and hence a more successful nation -- a fine thesis that no one in their right mind will disagree. Problem starts in the book
when he starts to make up statistics to make his point repeatedly. Additionally while he is addressing the policy makers on
why equal opportunity is important for higher rates of success, he forgets that most of his readers are going to be general
public. As a result his book is giving a bad advice to the general public that right opportunities and not their efforts are
responsible for their success in life.
Problem 1 with the book: bad journalism and false statistics to support
writer's arguments: Malcolm expounds a theory that in computer /software industry wild success is primarily based on when
you were born and if you were not born within some magic years which put you at the right age when computer industry took
off then you are out of luck. To support his theory he repeatedly gives examples of well known computer industry success stories
like Bill Gates, Bill Joy. Afterwards he claims that no one became a billionaire in software industry if they were born outside
those magic years within 9 years of Bill Gates birth date. If you were not engaged in software industry you will probably
believe him as well. However for anyone remotely in tune with software industry will notice obvious misses of Google's Larry
Page, Sergey Brim, or Facebook's Mark Zukerberg or Netscape's Mark Andreesen or Skype's Ahti Heinla, Kazaa's Niklas Zenntrom
and the list goes on and on. This was a prime example of lying with statistics that we hope our journalists and educators
avoid at all costs. For the untrained minds this is the most pernicious lies as they are supported with numbers.
Malcolm was using his statistics to make a point that external factors play a determining role in our success. While his
secondary point that in addition of being born at the right time, you must have had 10,000 hours of computer programming training
by the late 70s to be well at the right time and in the right place with the right training. His argument about 10,000 hours
of training to become an expert in any field is well supported by third party research. However neither one of his points
take into account the personal ambition, motivation, vision, resolve and doggedness that successful people showed to make
it big. After all hundreds of other kids were born in those same years and had similar amount of training in computer programming
but for some reason only two names really stood out.
While I can forgive the mistake of not emphasizing the importance
of personal ambition and effort but I can not endorse a successful writer massaging statistical data to make a point. If data
does not directly support our thesis then it is our responsibility to either propose theory as our opinion, conjecture or
a theory as opposed to a statistical truth that conveniently avoids accounting for counterpoints to our opinion.
Problem 2: Bad Messaging:
It is writer's job to judge and speak to his audience and talk in an appropriate language
to get the right message across. In the process writer is supposed to bring peer reviewed research, his own opinions or his
strong convincing power to put across his points. However is writer misjudges who is his audience he stands the risk of speaking
to the unintended audience. In the best case that makes his writing ineffective but in the worst case it can actually give
the unintended wrong message to the unintended audience.
As I mentioned earlier, this book was intended for public
policy makers to convince them the importance of policies like `no child left behind'. To make his point Malcolm obviously
had to convey the point that external factors that can be affected by good public policy are determining factors for success
of individuals. However as majority of the readers of outliers are general public, the message real message that is being
taken away from the book is that individual effort is not the determining factor of individual success and person has to depend
on external factors for their ultimate success.
Needless to say that a good reader will not take the messages
as negatively as I mentioned above but I state them more strongly than probably warranted to ensure that reader is warned.
Economic Crisis bringing back better values In
any case I was wondering today that each down turn does bring some sobering but correcting mechanisms with it that makes us
better as people and society. Last time when dot come bubble busted people became more rational about having business models
and making real money before trying to sell their company stocks ... out of which came Google, Amazon and Yahoo...money making
internet engines.
I feel this time the lesson is going to be about conspicuous consumption. It is true that as
a society we have been too enamored with conspicuous consumption. Luxury items as opposed to necessary items have taken the
center of national attention. MTV shows like "Cribs" is a tribute to this culture of loving exorbitant spending.
I hope that the current downturn will bring back the ethical values back of sensible and reasonable living.
It
is wonderful to pursue dreams of riches, but it is not reasonable to waste world’s resources as if there is no tomorrow.
If we as a nation have more than we need then we need to spend it in research of future growth, sustainability and genetic
research not on hilariously larger houses, toilets of gold and diamond studded cars. I hope Brian Greene, Warren Buffet, Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs will become our heroes again as opposed to Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Puff Daddy. I hope more progressive
spirit will return to the masses as it did when we decided to put man on the moon in a decade.
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