Geek Gazette Spring 2016 by Geek Gazette

Geek Gazette SPRING â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 COVER STORY : Heuristics and Symmetry

EDITORIAL A Universe That Wasn't Designed PAGE 28

BIG STORY

Genesis Of Ideas PAGE 14

INTERVIEW

John Koenig PAGE 10

Association For Computing Machinery Indian Institute Of Technology Roorkee

ISSUE 15

CONTENTS The Beholderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prospect

Genesis Of Ideas

Ordering Disarray

Heuristics And Symmetry

Markets In Chaos

The Butterfly's Defect

Featured

STORY

EDITORIAL

interviews

Space Exploration

John Koenig

The Perception Conundrum

P.S. Chani

The Whimsical World Of Japanese Animation

The Myth Of Sisyphus

The Game Theory

A Universe That Wasn't Designed

BIG STORY

GEEK SPEAK As the Editors, we ﬁnd it our responsibility to spearhead the intellectual movement in the campus and elsewhere on behalf of Geek Gazette. We hope that the ideas that we leave behind continue to take new and better forms for the greater good. We hope that the issue will be graciously received by the readers and leave in their mind, a trace of our humble two cents. Over the years, Geek Gazette has evolved in its ideology and approach. The members of the group have witnessed ﬁrst hand, the rise in impact that we have achieved with a focus on topics that are appealing to the masses. We have also experienced the satisfaction in watching our risks turn into successes.

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With every issue, we have been challenged with new ideas whilst simultaneously being reminded of the importance of sticking to our roots. The challenge this time was internal. As editors, how do you appeal to readers and at the same time, quench our thirst to present something fresh and exciting? The answer was to get a theme worthy of our effort and your time. As you will understand from the articles, Symmetry and Chaos are deeply rooted in our habits and preferences. With the issue, we have aimed to enlighten ourselves with them and to present our ﬁndings in the most beautiful fashion we could muster. The topics that have accompanied the theme have been carefully selected as vehicles that showcase the internal progress that we have achieved. There is a sudden need for us to take seemingly obscure topics more seriously, because this helps us sow the seeds of progressive thought for the future. With all that is happening in the world, it is hardly difﬁcult to understand why we need it. Moreover, knowledge has never been more powerful than it is now. Fortunately, there is no limit to stories that we would like to tell you. With this issue, we hope to inspire our mutual inspiration, our institute. facebook.com/geekgazette geekgazette.org

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EDITORIAL

SPACE EXPLORATION T

here have been astronomers long before telescopes were invented. This has been fuelled by our interest in pattern recognition that has been sharpened by evolution. Ever since we, as a species, gained a sufficient level of intelligence, we started to wonder and have been continuously trying to figure out our place in the universe. Once we were good at spotting prey and predator and telling poisonous plants from nurturing ones, we had better chances of survival and reproduction. Now, we had the time and means to look up to the sky for answers. Cultures all around the world looked up to the same stars and found different pictures. All of them, however, used the sky as a calendar for various events and seasons. As our intelligence has grown from that era, we, now, not only use our understanding of space for merely identifying nature, but also for improving life back here on Earth. The very prospect of space research begs many questions. The most important one being “Why should we care about what happens up there when we have got problems down here?”. A quick answer to that question would be that space research has impacted life and culture in more ways than people think it has. Even the technologies used in everyday life, such as water purifier and satellite television originated from the research done by scientists working on a space mission. In fact, if you take a walk through a hospital, almost every technology that you will see there is a modification of the technology that a physicist thought of without having the slightest idea of how that technology would be used in the future. For instance, the physicists who worked out the principle of MRI were simply trying to study the nuclei and atoms in galaxies and how the magnetic fields affected them, all the time being oblivious to the fact that this simple principle would one day be used by an engineer to develop something that could save millions of lives. That is the very intrinsic nature

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of any scientific research. Besides providing technology to our society, a space program has various economic benefits too. This comes in terms of job creation. Every space program involves not only astronauts, but also various physicists and engineers of almost all the fields that one can think of. If we are, for instance, planning to become a multi-planet species, we are definitely going to need the help of experts on the human anatomy i.e. biologists. This is because, in order to be able to reach a destination that no one ever has, we need to build upon everything that we already know and doing this, in turn, has a sure chance for us to stumble upon new aspects of the universe that we do not know already. All materialistic benefits aside, if you observe the universe, you begin to realise that space is not kind to life. We need to continuously monitor space for any incoming asteroids and meteors which have the potential to wipe out life on Earth. Not only has space research made our lives easy, it has had an intellectual impact on our culture as well. It has helped us gain knowledge about how our universe works, thereby making us attempt to answer the fundamental questions about our universe. In doing so, it has made it easier for us to know more about our own origin in the cosmos. No amount of technological benefit is ever going to be comparable to the knowledge that we have gained by such research. It can give people something to dream about, something to be fascinated by. Thus space exploration, like art, music, and literature, has the capacity to amaze and excite, dazzle and bewilder; and it is this aspect — its cultural contribution, to humanity — that is perhaps its most important feature.

EDITORIAL

THE PERCEPTION CONUNDRUM I

n a world where ‘perception’ is used extensively to sync ourselves with other people’s feelings, the same term is what makes most of us live in a sphere of delusion. The need for being different is what eventually makes us stand out from the crowd we perceive as ‘generic’, placing us in a bubble of like-minded, narcissistic individuals. This bubble of similar perceptions automatically regards its intellects, beliefs, and likes as the highest amongst all the other bubbles, which is amusingly how the other bubbles perceive themselves as well. These social spheres can

revolve around almost any common core, from music interests to identical dressing styles. When man becomes aware of his surroundings, he immediately tries to figure out if they are in connection with him or not. This process of judging things at first appearance has become quite easy because of repetition and necessity. Over time, the odds of one finding someone that really fits in their bubble becomes less, as beliefs and interests keep varying with time because of further change in conformation brought by the beliefs of other members in the bubble.

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EDITORIAL The interesting thing to ponder on is our innate tendency to be different. It is true that famous quotes like ‘successful people never think like everybody else’ and ‘think different for success’ do get into our head, as we all want to be successful in life; but more importantly, it is the want to be and feel special that set us apart. As humans, we are told to live a life that would be remembered - a life where you stood out in the crowd instead of being forgotten by blending in, and this is what drives us to be different. We start to develop tastes that are not generic, and set our own rules on living life. And of course, when we find someone with similar interests, we tend to keep them close as there is an instant connection. For example, let’s take a small group of people who only love listening to songs on the billboard chart. So, an outsider who is a fan of Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift would feel more comfortable to be a part of the group than someone who loves progressive rock and metal. In fact, the metal lover would despise their taste in music, and the pop lovers would keep wondering as to how someone could like shouting, roaring and music that sounds displeasing. Surely, metal fans would prefer a different social group, where their taste in music is regarded as the best. Likewise, Manchester United fans would rail on Chelsea fans, and vice versa. Most DOTA fans dislike fans of League of Legends, and the very famous ‘hippie’, ‘gothic’ and ‘punk’ looks clearly made the well dressed man seem generic. These groups of different tastes tend to have almost no interaction with each other, unless circumstances need them to. Hence, in a world where free will prevails, the various groups would have no communication with each other, other than formalities. And as always, stoners don’t care about what’s going on around them. The need to be different has produced various outcomes, an interesting one being increased profits for companies like Apple. Apple has perfected it with their ad campaigning, their most famous slogan being ‘Think different’. Now isn’t that a great way to lure people? Sure, most people buy the product because it’s a great gadget. But the others? Brilliant marketing it is. Reebok’s ‘I am what I am’ and Harley Davidson’s ‘American by birth. Rebel by choice’ create the same perception in the minds of people. Another outcome is narcissism, which has seen a significant increase since the 1980’s. Luckily, not many have come close to the insanity found in an ideal ‘modern’ Narcissus, falling in love with their own social feeds and pinging people to like their pictures because they are ‘awesome’. Yet, this is a serious problem. While healthy self-love can lead to more happiness, the same love when left out of control ends up tormenting the people around.

have been groups that have tried to do this, setting a norm or a culture that is still regarded as cool by most. Hipsters, gamers, goths, punks, nerds; each subculture has tried to redeﬁne the norm. Even though they may be perceived as generic by certain groups, their culture is still unique to everyone else; and that is what’s important to individuals at the end of the day. Perceiving others as unique and respecting their tastes is the correct perception, and this is what we must inculcate in ourselves.

The notion of ‘generic’ being inferior in comparison with the subcultures is a conception present in the minds of most people. The truth is, anything generic is usually undervalued.

The notion of ‘generic’ being inferior in comparison with the subcultures is a conception present in the minds of most people. The truth is, anything generic is usually undervalued. Consider the ‘generic’ IIT guy. He chooses to follow the crowd, solely because he has no idea what his real purpose in life is, at least that’s what society thinks. This generic guy codes, because most people do that; he listens to Coldplay and Katy Perry, because that’s what most people like; and his most played song is ‘Let Her Go’, because he’s a ‘generic’ IITian. Now what’s cool about this generic guy is that even though his tastes, when compared to others, might even be called tasteless, he will eventually get a job, have a stable life and ﬁnally pursue what he was always meant to do. Compare this to the guy who was with his dope gang the whole time leading to a waste years of his life. Being tasteless might even seem to be a pretty sweet deal. As teenagers and young adults, we perceive the people who ‘settle down’ in life to be generic. That’s why most of us tell each other that marriage is not an option, and that traveling the world is the way to go. But as we grow older, the not-so-unique ‘unique’ dreams that we had slowly fade away, and we become the person we had perceived as generic. Perspective is a wonderful thing. But without the willingness to take a deeper look at our lives and ﬁnd our greater purpose of being, we have the potential to witness our own downfall.Perception and Reality are often interpreted as the same thing, and that’s where most of us go wrong.

Everyone wants to be unique, where some just want to stand out more than others. In every generation, there

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EDITORIAL

The Whimsical World of Japanese Animation V

ivid colors, grasping storylines, and universes filled with prodigies: there’s something about anime that sets it apart from regular cinematography. Anime can be considered a form of Japanese art which uses animation to depict a particular story or idea. Whether it be the tenacity of the Z fighters, the madness of Hellsing’s vampires, or the power of Saitama in One-punch man, these animes have all left us with something to be desired. The visually appealing cartoons convey emotions and stories more effectively than traditional cinema could ever convey. Time and again, we have witnessed some amazing films that, in reality, are an adaptation of novels. Movies like Gone Girl, Divergent, and The Fault In Our Stars managed to create magic on the screen, and establishing that a picture paints a thousand words. The relation between manga and anime is very much alike to the novel and book affair. An anime series is usually based on a manga-the comic book version of the anime. Many popular anime like

One-punch man and Attack on Titan have been developed from their manga versions, which in most cases, are far ahead in their storyline than the anime. The wide variety of genres available makes it reasonable to say that there is something for everyone’s taste in the anime world. Pure action animes like One-punch man, Dragonball series, Claymore, and Darker than Black have had a good reception, whereas the mecha genre has animes like Appleseed and Code Geass. It would be unfair to say that these anime are genre speciﬁc and it is nigh impossible to mention all the genres and their examples. Many anime have the ability to make a very powerful impact on our lives, yet for some reason remain almost unheard of. They might, for instance, make us realize the importance of maintaining one’s own individuality in the society, despite differences in thought. We have started depending a lot on technology nowadays in decision making. ‘Psycho Pass’ gives us a glimpse into such a

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EDITORIAL world. The mind of an individual should be powerful enough to form its own set of principles, rather than being influenced by the surroundings. This would help in the evolution of the ideologies of the society, which has been the way humanity has developed into a civilized society from the barbarism that was prevalent before. These concepts have also been discussed through the medium of books such as 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 452, in which the psychology of such a world has been painted quite vividly. Dependency on the technological world can lead to even greater challenges. In ‘Ghost in the Shell’, we see a new kind of cyber-terrorism where people with cyber brains are implanted with false memories, also termed as "ghost hacking". There are other forms of cyber-crimes and several other forms of modifications an individual can undergo in this beautifully created world, which account for the plot of the series. The attention to detail is astounding and one may have to watch it several times to fully understand the storyline. It is also filled with insights into the politics and policies of a post war era in the future, and the influence of artificial intelligence in the development of the same. ‘Cowboy Bebop’ takes us through the adventures of Spike Spiegel, who is a bounty hunter in a reality where humanity has settled itself on the rocky planets of the solar system,

after Earth has been made uninhabitable. Each episode has its own story, and the character development is amazing with some glimpse into the past of the main characters as the series progresses. The series is of universal critical acclaim and is considered by many to be a genre of its own. Talking about anime movies, Akira, considered a cult classic, shows a dystopian version of Tokyo in the year 2019 with a cyberpunk taste. It describes the story of Tetsuo Shima, a bike gang member who receives psychic powers inadvertently, and is unable to control it. As a cult classic, it is considered to have influenced the making of movies such as The Matrix trilogy and Looper. Some of the other animes movies worth mentioning, which give us an insight into the different possibilities of the future include Redline, Animatrix, and Expelled from Paradise. Yet not all anime needs to be sci-ﬁ or even extremely detailed in story to be loved. Watching Inuyasha and Detective School Q on Animax as a kid was the perfect way to spend our childhood. And for those of who’ve continued the tradition, there is no doubt that their tastes and imagination stands out from the crowd. With worlds ﬁlled with a rich history and culture, and personalities with depths that can’t be compared, this unique form of art certainly deserves recognition and admiration.

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INTERVIEW

PERFECTING LANGUAGES WITH JOHN KOENIG A

language in which everything can be captured just by vocabulary, without the use of gestures and vocal tones, is hard to imagine. Even if we come so far as to perfectly develop such a language, memorising and understanding such a language would surely be an inestimable job. While there are many areas of our life where we commonly find our language’s vocabulary to be incomplete to convey the exact meaning, a major area is our feelings and emotions. We commonly find ourselves lacking the exact word for the exact state of our mind. There are so many feelings that one experiences but we associate them to either the state of being happy, sad, or angry. Not all of our sadness is of the same sort, neither is all our happiness. This may be hard to imagine, as we converse in a language which has a limited number of defined emotions. Geek Gazette, during Cognizance ‘16, got the opportunity to catch up with John Koenig, a man who has taken the formidable task of filling the gaps in the language of emotions. He is the author of ‘The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows’. It is a website, a youtube channel, and a soon-to-be published book, in which John tries to define some of the emotions and feelings which we do not have a word for, yet we find ourselves indulged in them quite often. Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

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INTERVIEW Q. In formal and informal introductions, people refer to you as an author. However, in a way, you create and show people things that had been there but required someone to illustrate them, that is something an artist does. So would you call yourself an artist or an author? A. I like artist. It sounds good. *chuckles* I work in a lot of different media now. So, artist does make sense. Q. How have your experiences been while making this dictionary? A. It’s been tremendously fulfilling. Most of the time I publish a text definition or a video, nobody, other than me, has seen it before. It’s literally from the inside of my head. I have no idea what the reaction is going to be. Somebody could get angry for reasons I am not aware of. I show them to my wife well after they are published. And then, people’s reaction to it is an even more gratifying experience, because it is an obscure sorrow. It’s something that I feel, and it turns out that I am not alone. It has happened every time. So, so far, that’s been my experience. I get an echo back that I am not alone. It happens again and again. So, it’s very gratifying. If everyone invented words for their feelings and just throw them out there, I think we’d be in a better shape. People won’t feel as alone as they do. Q. English is quite an incomplete language. Would like to point out some other languages that you think, are closer to serving the purpose of a language, that is, conveying the messages and emotions perfectly through vocabulary only? A. Ancient Greek words are just beautiful. My favourite language to work with is Greek because for example, they have different words for time, Kairos and Chronos, one for the exact point of time and other as the time as an entity itself. German is also good for that, with their boxcar nouns and the endless long words. So, German and Greek come to mind. And then there are random ones like ‘Deunde’, which means ‘soul ache’ in Spanish. That doesn’t really have a proper definition, but in Spain, everyone refers to it in their music. There are many such examples from the world. Q. Do you believe that there could be one such ‘perfect language’, which could convey everything that you want to convey just by the vocabulary? And even if it does exist, do you think we, humans, would have the capacity to wholly understand and remember that language? A. I would love to think that’s true. That’s a good dream to have, I think. Throughout history, you know, we have had tribes which did not even consider the other tribes to be human. We have been slowly discovering humanity of the strangers and other people around us. And if we carry that forward in time, the best case scenario is that it’ll keep going inward and then we’ll discover our own humanity.

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So, I picture something like the Tower of Babel where we build it outside in, in a way. Or we just build a new language that starts with desire and from the heart outward instead of these discrete materialistic things. So, I think it is possible. Q. We hear about this thought experiment a lot of times, imagining a new colour. Do you think we can imagine a new emotion or feeling? Do you think one can experience all the emotions and feelings there are to be experienced in one lifetime? A. I absolutely think that we can imagine a new feeling because we don’t have the access to most of them. The subconscious is out of the field of our view but there are glimmers of that. One of my favourite things is absurdist or surrealist poetry. In that, an image can strike you and you have a reaction that you do not understand. There is a phrase, “An interior sea lighted by turning eagles.” I don’t know what that means but just hearing that phrase, that does something to your body in a weird way. That would be an example of the sorts of a new colour that we’ve not seen but we recognise. That feeling is still undefined but I now know where to go to trigger that, even if I don’t know what it means. Q. It all started with just naming some emotions and feelings that you thought are there but remain undefined. But do you think that in the process, for some people, you’ve managed for them to discover that feeling for the first time, just by reading and listening to the definition of one of your words? A. I think more often, it would be a sense of recognition with something they haven’t had the time to sit down and process that way. Everyone feels that same sort of thing, and then, I crystallise it a little bit and just make it accessible. That’s how I look at it. We’ve all felt these things, it’s just the matter of putting in the time to express it clearly. I think so. I don’t think it’s triggering something new but I think there’s just that glimmer of recognition somewhere. Q.Any future plans on publishing the second volume of the book? A. I don’t think that there’ll be a Volume 2. I have already spent 7 years on this one. I have no idea how I got through these 7 years. I think I’d like to limit it to just one volume so that people could come to it and that is just it. I’d like it to exist for its own sake, not a part of a series or a merchandise. I have other ideas, books and novels. Q.Who has been your biggest inspiration? A. My biggest inspiration in life has been my grandfather’s brother. He was a poet, Robert Bly, some of you may know him. He got me into poetry and languages. To date, he’s been my biggest inspiration.

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL

Myth of Sisyphus S

isyphus, the absurd hero, deﬁed the Gods and put Death in chains so no man would ever die. This infuriated the Gods who immediately freed Death and punished Sisyphus for his atrocious disregard for the eternal design. He was exiled to the mountains where he had to push a rock up to the top only to watch it fall down again and repeat. This was their way of damning his existence and equating it to nothingness, to futility, to the vacuum that death would consume if it were kind. There is no proof of the story. It is a legend and like all knowledge of the past it is meant to teach a lesson: there is no point in defying the wishes of the Almighty. Our lives aren’t damned like that of Sisyphus. We live and breathe because we want to and enjoy because we can. We study and succeed and try and fail and experience all the wonderful emotions that we are capable of. Our religions, our belief in God, our faith in the democratic system and the justice it renders all exemplify the beautiful coordination; that in all uncertainty we exist and coexist as people of one world and act so we may contribute to the greater good. Our lives are precious and we are unique. It takes a lifetime (whatever many years He deems enough) to comprehend everything. It is absurd, however, that some of us feel sad

and question; that some of us argue the very basics that our education asserted long before we could question the coherence or incoherence of our questions. This is simply, absurd. When an actor portrays a character on a stage, he lives and breathes in the skin of a man who spent a lifetime being what he becomes for a few hours. His ephemeral transition moves the audience and reminds them of their own lives without the theatre, living with them in experience and memory long after the play is over. To the man who relates, the actor may be forgotten but the character remains. To the actor, death comes every three or four hours when he ceases to be someone he never was or ever will be. And yet this meaningless repetition is the actor’s life. It is his bread and butter. The actor is thus absurd and his actions are futile. The young man who ﬁghts in a war- blood, toil, tears and sweat; and broken bones and spilled guts and an empty stomach and sleep-deprived eyes- ﬁghts a war he can’t win with certainty and he forgets all reason and logic to act in the present. The young soldier is absurd.

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EDITORIAL Thales, the first philosopher, was a naturalist. He hypothesized that the originating principle of nature and the nature of matter was a single material substance: water. And then he continued by saying, “All things are made of God and God exists in all things.” Did he mean to say that all things were made of water and God or that water was God and God existed at the core of water from which everything arose? He was was a rationalist for he studied what he observed, but he believed in the invisible none the less. As Bertrand Russell puts it, “His science and his philosophy were both crude, but they were such as to stimulate both thought and observation.” Pre-Socratic philosophers had faith amidst the proof of a non-existent God and they were absurd. All philosophers are absurd in clinging onto a religious or secular belief system and in cloaking the absurdity of our world with false hopes. All scientists were essentially naturalists. Newton contributed more to the scientific field than anyone else during his time but he wrote far more words on religion than he did on science. Newton was absurd. His was an ideal philosophical suicide, he was absurd in not being absurd. “All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.” Albert Camus If we are to believe, we need proof. Such is the simple nature of the rational mind. We are made to believe in justice, in religions, in the order of the universe. But we also believe in randomness and chaos and uncertainty. We do not not know what will happen tomorrow. We do not know what we can do to prepare ourselves for tomorrow but all our lives we follow a routine whose sole purpose is to provide a better tomorrow. Is our condition really different from that of Sisyphus? Less severe probably but almost the same, is it not? Camus pictured Sisyphus smiling as he descended the mountain to pick the rock up again while writing his famous essay, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’. He says that when Sisyphus acknowledged the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate he became free to realize the absurdity of his situation and reach a state of contented acceptance. Consider this present day analogy: A man is jailed for a crime he may or may not have committed and is condemned beyond his control to live a certain way. Should he accept his situation or attempt suicide or believe in a completely different entity? He knows there is no point in demanding justice and that he shall die no matter what before he can be freed. Suicide is the only way he can force his choice, his freedom on the people that have wronged him. Religion, the sudden acceptance of Buddha as the only truth, would be his philosophical

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Albert Camus (1913-1960) suicide. He would die as a philosopher and stop questioning the minute he accepts an unreal reality. That could be his redemption. Suicide as an escape is an incoherent solution to the realization that we are searching for meaning in a meaningless universe. Yes, nature is indifferent and answers our questions with a stony impassive silence but this also means that we have the freedom to create our own meaning for the absolutes. This comes from not looking for escapes but from acceptance. And that is absurdity as Camus deﬁnes it. And so our prisoner can scorn his condemnation by accepting the absurdity of his existence and yet not giving in to suicide. Nihilism is not that attractive now because his very existence is the reason he knows how absurd it is and hence his existence isn’t completely futile. This is where Descartes comes in, ‘I think therefore I am’. If the absurdity of our world and its stony impassive silence are intolerable and incorrigible, then so is man’s curiosity and spirit. Therefore in knowing we are not free, can we truly be free and honest. Science and religion are two sides of the same coin. You cannot believe in science without accepting an existent system of belief. They may seem poles apart but they have something common at their core. It is perhaps the inherent nature of man and not nature itself that lands science it’s existential soul. To most the question of the futility of our existence or the absurdity in all things never becomes apparent but to those that it does, they choose either of the paths- suicide or philosophical suicide. But Camus’ sole belief was in honesty, unlike the scientists or the philosophers he did not accept a known existent belief system. His only redemption from his insatiate curiosity was his honesty, the fact that the world is absurd and that he is the absurd man, the stranger and the strange- vivre sans appel- the man who lives without appeal. Can you be the Camus of your time and choose otherwise?

BIG STORY

Genesis of Ideas T

he term ‘idea’ is derived from the Greek word ‘idein’ which means ‘to see’. It is difﬁcult to obtain a general consensus on what an idea actually means to people. Philosophers, much like expert potters, have shaped the concept of ‘Idea’ and passed on the task to the next expert throughout history. Plato, in Theory of Forms, mentions how the domain of ideas is an independent entity, unrelated to the ones who think of these ideas. In his time, the word ‘idea’ was used in its literal sense, i.e to see. The existence of an idea was what converted an opinion into knowledge. Today, centu-

ries have passed and definitions have changed. There are many who consider that having data and figures is proof of your opinion transcending into knowledge. Also, since data is something which can be seen and felt, this hardly goes against what Plato said. An idea, if only for the context of this article, is a thought which changes the state of your mind and takes it into a different direction. It is an entity capable of changing the equation of life in ways both significant and trivial. All of us have, at some point or another, been motivated to start a startup, or invent something new. Then comes the

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BIG STORY inevitable question. What? Where is it that ideas come from? Is there a source of inspiration that a few people living in the Himalayas have an access to? If we were to believe the Greeks, it is the nine Muses daughters of Zeus, the King of the God and Mnemosyne, the Goddess of Memory, which inspire Man in the pursuit of knowledge and creative endeavors like poetry, music and arts. Each of the Muses is a personiﬁcation of a different form of knowledge - Calliope of Poetry, Clio of History, Euterpe of Lyrical Poetry, Thalia of Comedy, Melpomene of Tragedy; and Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, and Urania of other similar traits. There are other stories which change the story of the origin of Muses. Yet other mythological stories change the their number from nine to three. The Greeks themselves were not sure about the parentage or the number of Muses. So, it is pretty much impractical to pray to these Muses in hopes of coming across some inspiration. Instead, there are some writers who make an interesting real person as their 'muse', and search for inspiration in their muses’ daily life. There are also others with different takes on the concept of the search for inspiration. One branch of ideology believes that good ideas generate when people come together and discuss as a community. Steven Johnson, in his inspiring TED talk on “Where good ideas come from”, attributed the emergence of enlightenment to the spread of coffeehouses, as it was a place where people from different backgrounds could interact. Supporting this belief is the fact that many important breakthroughs have not occurred in laboratories, but rather in conferences. Another branch of thought trusts that an individual who attains inner peace would, in a way, be presentfed with a vast lake of knowledge, and thus have a huge potential of coming across new ideas. Research on the effect of group participation on creative thinking was conducted at Yale. The participants were split into two groups. One of the group carried out brainstorming activities and discussions, while the members of the other group simply wrote down ideas of their own. It was found that those who worked individually generally provided more ideas than those who were a part of the brainstorming group. The individuality of each person and the peculiar way in which their mind churns ideas could be a major reason for this striking inconsistency. In fact, it may vary for the same person in different stages of life too. The notion that Benzene could have a ring structure came to Kekule in his dream. Kekule had gotten into a reverie and visualised a snake biting its tail. This was what had inspired him. Nonetheless, sleeping will probably not give you the “Idea of the Decade”, no matter how tempted you are to try it.

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Another peculiar aspect about the oncoming of ideas is how it sometimes strikes two different people, who have nothing at all in common with each other, in nearly the same timeframe. There have been countless cases of researchers having performed the same type of experiments independently in different parts of the globe at the same time. In fact, this is so common in science, that the word “multiple discovery” is formally used to refer to this phenomenon. If you think for sometime, you will remember at least one such time, where someone did something new which you had thought of doing yourself. This deﬁnitely feels like a part of a major conspiracy of Nature. The same thread of realisation and knowledge weaves around multiple people living miles apart at almost the same time. Only a few who can see this thread get to claim the glory. New and groundbreaking research is not often attributed to a single scientist or a team. It is usually built on existing ideas. Or as Inception might make you believe, there is nothing like an original idea. Time has led to stagnation in the world of breakthroughs. A famous statement, though misquoted, is “Whatever could be discovered, has already been discovered”. New ideas are scarce now. You will, unconditionally, get all the answers on Google. “StackOverflowers” have a hard time posting questions (“Hey! A duplicate question already exists!”). Other, more ambitious parties, haughtily claim that ideas just cannot stop. There will always be something new to be done, seen, heard, discovered or made.

There will always be something new to be done, seen, heard, discovered or made.

In a way, the genesis of ideas is a chaotic function. A nap or a bath could bring about a “Eureka” moment for one person, while the same settings could lead to a fleeting sense of inspiration which fades to nothing, when tried to grasp. It depends a lot on the surrounding environment and the person in concern. We need to be simulated in one way or another. So rather than cleansing our environment and stripping ourselves of distractions, we could try creating disorder and chaos. The catch lies in just how much chaos to add, in order to get a good Martini.

FEATURED tion to the human mind. Symmetries are deeply embedded in the classical symphonies of Beethoven and Mozart. Music, before being played, exists as an idea or a plan in the mind of the composer. Mozart composed much of his music in his head, according to a single formula that expanded his music by a factor of ten. He repeated short musical themes and used his genius to modify and disguise the repetitions. These themes were modified by the use of various mathematical and musical symmetries such as inversions and harmonic changes. Beethoven used his intuitive understanding of group theory, the mathematical theory of symmetry, to compose his 5th symphony. A great work of art, a play with its balanced structure of beginning, middle, and end, exhibits a sense of symmetry. These symmetric things, with a balance inherited within them, are pleasing to us instinctively, and it comes from the farthest reaches within the halls of time. Whenever this balance is lost, we know that it is. Just like the tasting of fine wine, we are not able to find out as to why the things we love interest us at all.

THE BEHOLDER’S PROSPECT S

ymmetry is a fascinating concept. It is a formal and structural pattern, found in an inﬁnite number of living things as well as non-living things, and is fundamental to human thought. There are some entities which are as systematically organized as a pure crystal, and there are some even more haphazard than an atom of gas in Brownian Motion. At the fundamental level, Nature, for reasons unknown, prefers beauty and seems to be marvellously imaginative in inventing new forms of it. Spider webs, honeycombs, and snowflakes awe the human mind by their intricate symmetries. A clear lake which reflects the mountains, and the sun and the birds flying overhead is a beautiful sight to behold. Mornings start with the shuffle of feet against the symmetrical tiled floor. Our tendency to choose symmetrical structures depicts the realisation of beauty in symmetry by the human. The façade of a cathedral, two thousand year old feats of Egyptian architecture, in fact almost all religious places of worship have their own geometrical beauty which can be seen as a manifestation of the symmetry which is inherent to them. Symmetry is something mystical, which gives peace and satisfac-

But till what extent does this sense of order pleases our senses, and at what state it starts appearing to be unpleasant rigidness? The art movements in the last decade have brought all of the traditional aesthetic rules into question. Art develops with symmetry as a more primitive and simpler form of portrayal, which evolves with all the connotations of progress, into asymmetry, a formless chaos, on which we can impose our ideas. The asymmetrical design has a pull, a thrust or weightiness in some direction. Because of this, it implies movement, which can be either funny, or scary, or even torturous. It is used in dance to produce dynamism in its moments of highest interest, with symmetry being used for contrast and for the points of closure. Often, in artwork, what gives the impulse towards the discovery of the new is the rejection of the rules of symmetry. All exemplary modernist buildings celebrate asymmetry. It is also being used in web designs to draw attention and break the monotony. The leaning tower of Pisa has elements of asymmetry in its design with a shift from the vertical. The evolution of life can neither occur in the stiffness of complete standstill, nor in the equally terrifying formlessness of chaos. The original symmetries are still discernible, but new possibilities are also emerging. Without occasional asymmetry, all the angles and curves start to look the same. Maybe today’s expressionist fashion will bring symmetry back and lose it again, and somewhere between these two extremes, every individual, every style, every artwork will ﬁnd its own particular place.

GEEK GAZETTE

FEATURED

ORDERING DISARRAY C

haos and order are the two exact opposites in the literary realm. But the line seems to be waned when we really think about it. Humans love order and yet we are enthused by the idea of chaos. Chaos might seem to portray the feeling of something unpleasant and messy when we think of it but yet the illustrations of it in the real life are galvanising. The Joker in The Dark Knight awed the part of our brain with a secret veneration for chaos. The image of the night sky with a chaotic arrangement of stars never ceases to astonish us. So, what makes chaos so beautiful? How different is it really from order? Before delving into it, a scientiﬁc understanding of chaos is needed. Chaos, in a strict terms, is a property of functions. A chaotic function is one in which even the tiniest of the change in initial value may have huge reciprocations as the function proceeds. A classic example of chaotic functions would be the weather. The weather is a highly unpredictable phenomenon. The excessive unpredictability of the weather arises not from the inability to identify the functions which control the weather but the technological incapacity to measure the variables with absolutely no errors. In spite of world-class tools and technologies, the measurements are accurate only enough for predictions correct upto 10 days. Chaos may seems to be unnecessary nuisance here, but it actually is a wonderful thing. The beauty of human life and the universe arise from all the chaos. The uncertain and indeterministic nature of the universe, the beauty and grandeur of galaxies and nebulae, the wonders of human mind - all spawn from chaos. The universe is nothing but a chaotic mess of stars, galaxies and nebulae. There is no particular discernable order in the universe. Even the tiniest of changes, millions of year ago, would have reciprocations of unimaginable degree in the present universe.

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We adore chaos because we love to produce order MC Escher

When The Big Bang happened, the probability of the universe turning out to be the way it did was close to none. Yet, it did. We are born out of chaos. Given a certain stimuli, be it the sight of an exquisite waterfall or the sound of a car horn, an electrochemical signal is generated in our brain and the concerned neuron is fired. The path of the electrochemical signal may seem to be a predictable one from the initial look, but the vast network of gazillions of neurons and the chaotic nature of the electrochemical process make the path highly unpredictable. A simple sight of a spoon lying on the ground may take our thoughts to an awe-inspiring idea, much like the Butterfly Effect. This chaos is what creates the beauty and mystery of human mind, sets everyone apart and gives one his/her uniqueness. However, the thing that incites us about chaos is not the randomness. It is the hidden order in it, which beautifies chaos. The infinite and widely diverse possibilities and opportunities that fall our way form among themselves, the ordered story of our life. The chaos of unending and sometimes extremely unrelated and random thoughts in our mind collectively form the order of our unique opinions and personality. Weather, though being highly chaotic in nature, still converges towards a well-ordered pattern of climate. And this randomness and chaos in the universe collectively forms the cosmos. Every disorder and chaos forms a secret order. There is no fine line between order and chaos. We are not awed by chaos or order but the art, the amalgamate and the mysterious beauty that these two opposite and mighty forces bring us. Everything around us is the outcome of the interplay between these two forces. We just need to look at them that way. Chaos and Order are the Yin and Yang of the universe.

Heuristics and Symmetry

COVER STORY

xistence, Logic, Reality, Laws, Simultaneity, Symmetry, Good, Evil, Knowledge, Life. Such are the words that have fascinated humankind since ever. They remain central to the human thought even though their conceptions have been modified by us. A natural conclusion would be that each of these ideas points towards some deeper elements of the truth that humans have been fixated upon. We try to make sense of the world around us, in terms of these concepts. They have helped us model the structure of our thoughts so effectively that it seems logical to have them make predictions, trivial or not. This approach has been doing great so far and thus has become an important tool in our kit to explore the universe of thoughts. It seems almost clear that logic, directly or indirectly, is the fundamental driving element of our entire heuristic endeavour. Certain conceptions and the ways of thinking based on them that we, the humans, have developed are some of the ultimate forms of human logic. Symmetry is probably the most striking of them. Symmetry manifests itself in several forms. The most basic idea of symmetry arises from the visual manifestation of symmetry. It was something that captured human attention because of its alluring beauty. But philosophers soon started to realize that symmetry was a deeper notion than just the geometrical property of objects. Symmetry has something to do with causality. They realized that if there is no parameter - no reason on the basis of which one can distinguish between two things for the ascription of some particular idea then one can call them symmetric in the context of that idea. The notion of causality is so deeply engrossed in this definition of symmetry that the reasoning, purely based on symmetry, can be employed to make predictions about the outcome of an experiment! This clearly means that symmetry is not just a mathematical idea with an arbitrary definition but is rather a definite physical concept developed from the observation of Nature. But the idea of symmetry, at least during a first examination, seems too abstract to make meaningful and definite predictions about the natural world. And the same fact has led to the formulation of some of the most interesting paradoxes. The famous French philosopher Buridan has noted: "If a hungry ass were placed exactly between two haystacks in every respect equal, it would starve to death because there would be no motive why it should go to one rather than to the other.”. At the first look, this might seem silly but it starts to make sense after a while. The logic behind Buridan’s argument is that there has to exist a reason to choose either the right or the left haystack, because according to the principle of causality, without any reason nothing can happen. Now since the two haystacks are exactly identical and are situated at

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exactly symmetric positions, there is absolutely no reason to pick any one of them! Of course, the above paradox arises because of the ignorance of several facts. One of them being that even if the cakes are identical and their arrangement follow left-right symmetry with respect to the ass, the ass itself is not a structure that has left-right symmetry. The internal structure of the animals are not at all left-right symmetric and thus the ass certainly will have a reason to chose the either one of the haystacks. But the problems related to this kind of symmetry thicken when we try to solve the following puzzle which is closely related to the foundations of modern physics: How can one possibly explain to an alien friend what is left and what is right just through audio communication? Any experiment that one can think of will most probably fail to do so. This leads to the idea that the universe exhibits left - right symmetry. And intuitively, it seems to be something that ought to be. But as it turned out, it was not the whole story. There are certain subatomic interactions which do not exhibit left - right symmetry. Which means that one can tell an alien friend to observe a particular subatomic interaction and on the basis of the outcome of this interaction, one can unambiguously deﬁne what is left and what is right.

The notion of causality is so deeply engrossed in this deﬁnition of symmetry that the reasoning, purely based on symmetry, can be employed to make predictions about the outcome of an experiment!

This dictates that the atoms that our world is made of can certainly construct a strong reason to believe that our universe has an inherent asymmetry. But as it turns out, this apparent asymmetry arises from a one-sided view of an even deeper symmetry. Physicist P.A.M. Dirac predicted the existence of antimatter as a theoretical requirement for a consistent theory of relativistic quantum mechanics and the theory is very clear about the fact that the subatomic interactions inside the atoms made out of this antimatter should exhibit the exact opposite left-right bias as compared to the left-right bias in the atoms made out of the matter! These ideas ultimately condense to form a

COVER STORY pivotal feature of the modern particle physics that if a person doesn’t know at least two of the followings: (1) Whether he is moving ‘forward’ in time or ‘backward’ in time. (2) Whether the material he is experimenting with is ‘matter’ or ‘antimatter’. (3) Which hand is ‘left’ and which one is ‘right’ then there absolutely does not exist any subatomic experiment that can give him information about the unknowns among the three. This symmetry is called CPT Symmetry and is very fundamental in the formulation of our conception of the universe. Symmetry has often led physicists to better formulations of the laws of Nature. Einstein, when there was absolutely no hope for the possibility of ﬁnding a way to express the laws for inertial and noninertial frames in a single framework, could keep on ﬁnding them just because of the realization of symmetry between these frames of references that he had felt. The whole beautiful theory of General Relativity is just a manifestation of symmetry! And why just Relativity? Almost the whole of modern Physics is expressed in the terms of a bunch of symmetry statements. Also, this endeavour of understanding the Nature in the terms of symmetry has, in turn, led us to a deeper

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THAT CUTE CHOREO GIRL?

and more general definition of symmetry - If some aspect of an entity is invariant under a set of operations made on the entity then that entity is symmetric about that particular aspect, under that set of operations. In modern physics, physicists consider the symmetry statements as one of the most fundamental laws and all the conservation laws follow from the same. We have been observing the Nature and have been trying to figure out how does it function. In our entire journey, the elegance of the theories made on the basis of symmetry is incredible. Not just the mathematical elegance, but elegance in the terms of how it fits into human heuristics. Symmetry is the most natural state that we can think of for any system, intuitively. We have to have some reason, some parameter that will introduce a bias in the system. If there is no such parameter then it seems only logical that there will be symmetry. Our ability to express our conceptions about Nature in the terms of symmetry is really a great hope. A hope that we will understand the actual way in which the whole of Nature works as an intuitive equivalence of ‘the existence’. As Feynman said, “One day we will understand the actual machinery of Nature and we won’t require abstract mathematical ideas to describe the same.”

MAN! I DON‛T TALK ABOUT GIRLS ANYMORE.

YEAH. I JUST DID YOU PUT DON‛T LOOK AT THE K-PAX ON PROGRESS BAR THE DOWNLOAD? ANYMORE.

DAISY BELL

I WONDER WHAT YOUR CGPA IS!

THAT‛S OUTRIGHT NUTS, YOU VILE CONTROLLING MONSTER!

ONLY I KEEP TRACK OF ALL MY FRIEND‛S CGPA‛s.

#%$# @$&

WHAT QUANTUM ZENO EFFECT DOES TO YOU! 20

GEEK GAZETTE

EDITORIAL

THE GAMING THEORY T

here is no denying that video games like Mario and Sonic will remain in the hearts and minds of kids and young adults for years to come. Lacking superior graphics and audio, these games were often perceived as irritating and dumb by the kids’ parents; of course. There was some sort of connection - something that could relate to that little Italian trying to save the princess from a dragon that never could be explained since there was no backstory to it. That allowed everyone to create their own backstory that they can relate to the most. No words other than “it just felt awesome” can describe the feeling. On the other hand, today’s video games, like Killzone, Shadowfall, Call of Duty, and Ghost Recon have tons of advantages over their predecessors; not only do they have tons of plot content, but also cutting edge graphics and sound that are so immersive that it almost seems real. Nevertheless, people find a hard time relating to them, and most don’t feel like playing any game second time over. This remains true, even though many of the new games are dedicated to simulating actual events. So how did games become less interesting over the years? The first and the most obvious reason is the introduction of the many of the non vital elements within the game. Video games were originally intended to be played by almost everyone, with only a few buttons as controls. It mostly depended on the skill of the players that determined how much they go through the game. This was why games from the past were fun to play, even multiple times, from the moment they were turned on right up until they were turned off. More recent and enhanced games, however, just don’t feel the same. There are way too many complications with them, each requiring read-ups of tedious and frustrating upgrade systems to finally get something that actually suits the player. On the other hand, if he plays Mario, there is not a single thing which

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allows him to quit playing momentarily to consider his options. He knows that he has one direction to go, and also how to traverse the obstacles that lay before him. Furthermore, games back in the day couldn’t rely heavily on graphics and surround sound. So, developers needed good gameplay to overcome the apparent shortcomings. Today, graphics and sound are the first things reviewed about any game that seeks to fill the shelves of any avid gamer. It has become more about presentation than actual function. Most videogames in a genre are almost the same. Shoot, move, chain attacks, or build an army all standard gameplay depending on the genre. This is why games that do something different from the rest in terms of gameplay always stand a band apart. Handheld games for smartphones are quickly becoming a preferred pastime because of the fact that they are more about gameplay. If a game is played for its presentation and technologically enhanced aesthetics, it quickly becomes more of a movie that can be experienced as one of the actors. There is not much to go in again unless there are alternate plots to it. On the other hand, if the gameplay is fun, even if the final boss is defeated for the thousandth time, the mind of the gamer screams out,”That was fun. Let’s go one more time!” As video games have progressed, so have the gamers. Gaming today is not only an extremely popular pastime but rather a culture, a society which can include anyone. Each can have his own preference, but it all comes down to how you feel like when you press that Start button and enter a virtual realm. By pushing for good gameplay, there is virtually no limit to how many more hours of fun are guaranteed. After all, we still have to beat the last level in Dangerous Dave.

INTERVIEW Q. What is the role of symmetry and asymmetry in archi-

tecture and product design? A. The most common form of symmetry is central axial symmetry. It is the balance along a central axis such that the left and right halves can be approximated as mirror images of each other. Classical architecture was dominated by symmetry. The pyramids of Egypt, the buildings in Rome and the Taj Mahal exhibit perfect symmetry. This is because all human beings look for this type of symmetry and intuitively understand it. Asymmetry is the absence of the balance along the central axis. It is found in nature too. I feel that the human eye always seek for a focal point. This happens very subconsciously. A sunrise in an asymmetrical mountain range, with the sun as the focal point is a beautiful example of this phenomena. There is symmetry in asymmetry too. Q. When humans started experimenting with art, they associated beauty with symmetry? Can we use Chaos as a tool to create art or is it more difﬁcult to achieve? A. I believe that nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Fibonacci series occurs in nature in many different ways, from seashells to spiral galaxies to leaves. Before we are able to ﬁgure out the hidden Fibonacci patterns in an object, it seems chaotic to us. Take fractals for example. Though fractals respond to a very strong symmetry, it appears chaotic to human eye.

P. S. Chani is an associate professor at the department of Architecture, IITR. He's a student friendly man who's passionate about design and architecture and who subliminally transfers that energy and curiosity to anyone he shares his knowledge with. His particular interests are Futuristic Architecture and Mies Van Der Rose (Minimalist architecture). Geek Gazette had the privilege of interviewing Prof. Chani at his residence amidst paintings and showpieces of architectural signiﬁcance about his idea of symmetry and where he feels architecture is headed.

a chat with P. S. Chani 22

Q. Is chaos a type of symmetry that human eye cannot understand? A. I think so. That's a great way of putting it actually. Q. Do you believe that beauty is bounded by symmetry? A. Humans do not always consider perfect symmetry to be exceptionally beautiful. Falling water is one of the greatest architectural triumphs of twentieth century. It is perfectly asymmetrical yet beautiful. On the other hand, the Seagram building epitomizes elegance and symmetry. We are not saying that a perfect symmetry is always beautiful. Sometimes the flaws and the asymmetry makes things beautiful. In nature as well as in design both symmetry and asymmetry coexist and beauty is found in both. Q. In order to incorporate symmetry, do we compromise the functionality of an object? A. That is exactly what happened in architecture. In contrast to classical architecture, there is a shift from the dominating role of symmetry to asymmetry. In the twentieth century, the functional requirement of buildings forced them to be asymmetrical in design. Warehouses, corporate ofﬁces, railway station, banks are asymmetrical because of this reason. As a result our ideas about beauty and symmetry have changed overtime.

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INTERVIEW Q. Some artists still use the central axis of symmetry. On the other hand, artists like Khan Jahan Ali do not use symmetry at all but there designs still have a certain awe. If we compare the two, which is better? A. Times are changing. The perception and definition of beauty changes. Thus, the proportions of objects are also modified with the changings trends. There is a gradual rise in asymmetry in products, clothes and architecture as well. Habitat 67 is perfect example of asymmetry. The changing ideas of beauty are the basis of classical architecture's use of symmetry and the modern architecture's use of asymmetry. Q. Do you think it is a big challenge for modern architects to create beauty in asymmetry? A. It is certainly difficult. It is easier to design a building with central axis symmetry but the building won’t be functionally right. So, symmetrical design cannot be associated with modernist architecture and industrial design. Thus, hundred years ago architects came up with the principle- form follows function. The first step is to lay out the function of the building, the form is then evolved from it. Architects spend a lot of time to create form out of asymmetrical spaces. Not just architects, but product designers- watch designers- have also accepted that there is beauty in asymmetry. In a watch, the dials are placed asymmetrically to make it look attractive. The crux of the game is to make an asymmetrical product look beautiful. Q. Is it safe to say anything that is not useful is not beautiful in terms of architecture? A. No. That is not entirely true. In twentieth century, architects were forced to make asymmetrical design to include different functions. Now, the architects from the beginning tend towards an asymmetrical form. There are three stages. The first was, to make symmetrical buildings while the functionality was compromised. Next came the termform follows function. Now we have come to a stage where we are designing an asymmetrical form while keeping the functionality of building in mind. Deriving beauty out of asymmetry is a difficult job. The axis is not there, the heights are varying, and the bulges are varying. An architect of certain genius is required to create such wildly asymmetrical buildings and Jahan Ali is one them. Q. Do you think that this trend of deliberately creating asymmetrical design will continue? Where do you think architecture is headed? A. I see both trends continuing. There will be extremely asymmetric buildings along with flawless symmetric buildings. The trend will not die because of personal preferences. If I were a designer, I would prefer making symmetrical building. I lay out things in a symmetrical

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manner. There are other people who like asymmetry and they will continue to do that. They have the genius to do that. As a buyer, I would always tend for symmetrical design because it appeals to me. If we talk about cars, the Bentley is designed in such a fashion such that the height of the tyre is half the height of the car. These are the hidden features that makes the product attractive. Though why we like a certain architectural design is undeﬁnable. Our emotions, passions, and many a times our childhood experiences influence our likes and dislikes. Q. How do you review the current trend of this Institution’s buildings? A. The older architecture on our campus is deﬁnitely better. The houses, the buildings, the department, the hanger. There is a rhythm in it. There is a beauty in it and that is peaceful. It’s not the beauty of the building you look at, it’s the beauty in terms of climate control, the beauty of daylight, ventilation and rains. Though the architecture of the Biotechnology department is remarkable, the other modern buildings rarely stand up to more classical designs in terms of beauty. Q. In modern architecture, we rely on air conditioned homes rather than traditional temperature-conditioned courtyard houses. What are your thoughts of this changing pattern? A. In India, we need to move back to our conventional ways of design. Traditional buildings incorporate a variety of appropriately designed habitable rooms and spaces around a planted courtyard to suit different seasons. In contrast, inhabitants of modern-style homes stick to the same rooms in all seasons, relying heavily on energy-intensive systems to make their environment comfortable. Because of the energy crisis, architects need to design building while keeping the changing climate in mind. Q. Today our trends are changing so fast that a structure useful today may not be useful tomorrow. Isn’t this a problem for architects? A. This is because of communication. There is such a huge information explosion for architects because of globalisation. Lifestyles are globalised, clothing is globalised, food habits are globalised, and buildings are also globalised. Building in New York, Shanghai, Sydney, and Gurgaon have a similar essence to them. There is no clear identity. Globalisation has given us a language that is very common. This trend will continue to grow till the world appears to become one. It’s an amazing world! Thousands of people are killed because of different divisions in this world, yet it is so symmetrical.

FICTIONAL STORY

THE BUTTERFLY’S DEFECT S

omewhere on a remote island, sudden gusts of wind made a cocoon wobble. The cocoon had been hanging from a low branch and was almost ready to give birth to the butterfly that slept inside. The impromptu disturbance awakened the butterfly from deep slumber, and conscious thoughts began to take shape in her tiny insect brain. “Must be a hurricane,” she thought. The next thing that came to her mind was, “even I can cause hurricanes if I flap my wings”. She knew that if she flapped her wings, it could have far reaching consequences. But afraid of her own abilities, she decided that she won’t ever flap her wings while she lives. She could cause hurricanes and tornadoes and what not, but did not want to take responsibility for such actions. Contemplating on what all she could end up causing, she shrunk even deeper inside her cocoon. She dare not even try! She thought all this when she was just a larva. But soon the larva had grown into a butterfly. She wearily got out of

the cocoon. Careful not to flap her wings, she used just her slender legs to hold on to the leaf the cocoon was hanging from. She opened her eyes and beheld the world in all its breathtaking beauty and wonder. But still, she was afraid. Afraid of what she might end up causing. Afraid of what she might do. Afraid of what she could do. Should she let go of all her worries and fear and rise up in the sky, or should she clip her own wings? After coming out of the cocoon, she was supposed to wait for two or more hours before she could fly (not that she wanted to). New wings are shriveled, so a butterfly has to pump body fluid through it’s wing veins in order to make them get bigger. Then it has to wait for air to replace some fluid. Until this happens, a butterfly cannot fly, and it’s wings are easily damaged. But this particular butterfly had decided not to fly at all, so she skipped all these steps and ended up intentionally damaging her wings.

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FICTIONAL STORY She could now walk on plant branches and on the ground but could never flap her wings. In the beginning she was happy with her decision, and with a smug feeling she started off on a walk to explore the world. She looked around but felt annoyed that her vision was limited as compared to the other butterflies soaring above. Because she could not see the world by flying, to have a better view, she started climbing on a tree. While on her way, other butterflies flew past her and told her about how it felt to fly on a sunny day watching the ground below glide past, thick with flowers of so many colours; to watch the sunset in the evening while perched on a high branch; to fly over the sea on a starry night with the stars reflected beautifully in the water; and to look at the thousands of ﬁreflies glowing on the island like so many small beacons. Our butterfly started feeling gloomier as she heard more and more about this heavenly place that she had been born in as she could not witness what other butterflies could, all because she had been too afraid. She ﬁnally managed to reach a high enough branch but with shaky legs and a drooping head. The butterfly's legs, not made for such strenuous exercise, could not take her any further. She was stuck on that branch. When she raised her head slowly to appreciate the beauty, her antennae became erect in wonder. She could never have even imagined such beauty. It was sunset already, and she

looked at the horizon where the sea met the setting sun the perfect blend of colours in the sky. The guilt and the harshness of her miserable life started growing on her. Earlier, she knew that she could cause hurricanes, but now she could not even flap her wings. Soon enough, the desire to fly became stronger than her desire to live, for what was the point of life if one could not live it to the fullest. She longed to see the world from up high, to feel the wind rushing against her body and live without a care in this world. But it was too late now. In one last hopeless attempt to fly, she dropped down from the branch and tried to open her wings, but they wouldn’t unfurl; they couldn’t unfurl;. She smashed on the rock below with a dull crunch. For the ﬁrst and last time, her wings twitched feebly and she lost consciousness. A gentle disturbance of air that had been caused when her wings had twitched combined with other gusts of wind in an unpredictable manner. It then struck some leaves, then some trees, then rocks, then even more air. The much stronger wind was then caught up by other butterflies, and then birds, and an even stronger wind. This continued till ﬁnally on the other side of the world, on a remote island, a hurricane was triggered, and sudden gusts of wind made a cocoon wobble.

PUZZLE CORNER Sherlock and Watson make their way to an exclusive club. Outside, the guard asks a challenge, and checks the person's response to let them in. When challenged with a 12, the ﬁrst person replies 6 and is allowed to enter. For the next person, the guard challenges with a 6 and lets the person in when he says 3. Feeling conﬁdent, Watson goes next. When challenged with a 10, he obviously replies with a 5 and gets rejected. Sherlock cleverly sees through the chaotic conundrum. What would the answer to the challenge of 18 be?

Send your answers to mail@geekgazette.org

SPRING 2016

FEATURED

MARKETS IN CHAOS E

conomics, in contrast with the ‘pure’ sciences, is a fairly modern subject with its ﬁrst major ideas emerging in the late 18th century. Economists since then have for over 2 centuries tried to come up with a basic set of laws that could predict the complex system of exchange of goods and services mathematically, producing results that are fairly accurate. But then, the question arose: is it possible to model human behavior the way it is possible to model other systems in science, say, the motion of objects? Using Newton’s Laws, it is possible to predict the motion of any macroscopic object under the influence of a force. But what of man? Could we accurately predict how he would react to certain laws or policies? And if we could,

would it then be possible to model the ideal deterministic economic system? One where everyone was well off and one where everything including stock markets could be predicted with reasonable precision? As of today, there is no system yet discovered that can guarantee a good return, or for that matter, even a zero return (no proﬁt, no loss) in the stock market. And this, despite petabytes of data from stock markets around the world with records of every transaction that has ever taken place over centuries. Given enough data to analyze, software today can very accurately determine spam emails, guess the next word you’re going to use while texting, or even recommend which video or song you’d like to watch or listen to next. So, why doesn’t this machine

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FEATURED learning and artificial intelligence and data sciences find itself humbled and ridiculously useless in front of stock market data? The answer lies in chaos. Ever since Adam Smith’s publication of The Wealth of Nations in 1776, economists have tried to come up with laws that closely resemble the ones in Physics. And this trend has continued even to the present day. Most economic theories proposed are linear in nature: every action has a reaction and every economic event is causal in nature, that is, we can link the beginning to the end with a series of intermediate events each being caused by its previous. Of late, this approach has met with considerable criticism. And it was this futile search for a possible marriage of economics to mathematically modelable laws that contributed majorly to what is now known today as chaos theory. Before we try to understand what chaos theory states, let us ask a symmetrical question: why is it that physical laws have proven to be so successful? For a theory to be successful, it must be able to give a reasonably accurate output for a given input. But gaining an absolutely accurate input is impossible. For instance, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle tells us that it is impossible to know the position and momentum of an object simultaneously. So, if a problem requires both the above values to calculate a third, one cannot provide the ideal inputs. But this is where the strength of physical laws lie. It can tolerate errors in calculations. The magnitude of error in output is directly proportional to the inputs’. This, however, isn’t the case with some systems, such as the weather. Like stock markets, it is impossible to predict the weather. Even if we assumed the weather to be completely deterministic (i.e given all the initial conditions, it is possible to predict the future), it wouldn’t be possible to predict the weather accurately. A small error in the input values yields an extremely huge change in the final result. The magnitude of error of output is completely out of proportion to that of the input’s. In the words of mathematician Edward Lorenz, a pioneer of chaos theory, “Chaos is when the present determines the future but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.” Almost every economic theory in existence assumes man to be rational. Every theory assumes that man will take actions that will produce the maximum benefit to him, his family and everyone that he cares about. But this is often not the case. People, contrary to what we might think initially, are not completely rational beings. We often are

SPRING 2016

prone to take decisions based on the kind of emotions that are triggered by the introduction of certain laws. Most other times, we simply act based on already existing ‘rules of thumb’. For instance, it was discovered that people face greater distress losing a certain amount of money than they derive happiness from gaining the same amount. These observations and discoveries led to creation of an entirely new branch of study known as Behavioral Economics. So, even if we assumed that man was reasonably rational, our predictions of his behavior and choices after the introduction of a law might be fairly accurate. But it is impossible to be 100% correct with our predictions. And since economic systems have the ‘butterfly syndrome’, anything less than a 100% simply isn’t good enough. Even minute errors will magnify multiple times and give us results that are totally out of sync with that with the predicted ones. For argument’s sake, let’s say that we did end up building a computer that could predict stock markets with 100% accuracy. And let’s say that the computer was bought by every person who deals in the markets. What would happen then? As you may have guessed, the situation presents itself with a paradox. Stock markets are adversarial in nature. If there’s one person who’s gained millions in some part of the world, it’s extremely possible that someone else may have gone bankrupt in some other part. The net gain or loss of a stock market is zero. If someone gains in the market, someone loses an equal amount. It is impossible to build the ideal AI system in adversarial conditions. It is something like chess. If the rival happens to be more intelligent, it is more likely to lose. So the next time your ﬁnancial advisor asks you to invest in a mutual fund because it would give you ‘guaranteed returns’, you’d know better than to take his word for it. Quite like the uncertainty principle, we can never speak of 100% returns; only of probability of success from a transaction. And this probability cannot be a very encouraging number either. It can be safely said that it is practically impossible to build the ideal stock market predictor. It is beyond our capabilities, at least for the time being, to predict the behavior of emotional beings such as humans. So, even though we can expect and wait for a Grand Uniﬁed Theory to explain everything there is to know in Physics, it might not be the case for economics. If there’s one thing that man might not be able to completely understand, it is man himself.

EDITORIAL

A UNIVERSE THAT WASN’T DESIGNED ‘H

ow did we end up here?’ - a powerful question that invokes the curiosity of both scientists and commoners alike, albeit at different levels of complexities. The very existence of the universe, and everything within it, might seem to be well planned and designed with every physical phenomenon just accurate to support this enormous superstructure. But is it so? There are numerous examples of magniﬁcently complex and independent physical and chemical phenomenon syncing together to produce just the right effect to bring

the world to its present state. From the cooling of the supernova after ‘The Big Bang’ in just the correct amount of time to hold the protons and the neutrons together, to the incredibly exact values of the physical constants that hold the universe together, the possibility of an apparent plan seems obvious. Even the proposed theory of the ever expanding universe implies that at some point the universe would have started expanding from an immensely dense inﬁnitesimal point. And if it is so, how did it start, and how did the mass even come there? Did the ‘designer’ do it?

GEEK GAZETTE

EDITORIAL An even more intriguing happening is the existence of life on Earth. Life grew from simple molecules such as ammonia, methane, and carbon monoxide. In order to begin life on Earth, such simple molecules must join together to form those few molecules that could support life, out of the gazillion other possible molecules. Probabilistically, this seems impossible, but since this article can be read right now, this really did happen. All these pieces of evidence indicate at the existence of a planned design, and in turn, a designer whom the theists call ‘God’, while the atheists who believe this theory just say, “We don’t know!”.

Despite both Strong and Weak Anthropic principle attempting to decipher the birth of universe, neither succeeds in explaining all the possible implications.

Space scientists and cosmologists term this as the Strong Anthropic Principle which states that the universe was designed so that life can emerge and exist on it. This principle, first explained by scientists John Barrow and Frank Tipler, lays stress on the fact that there exists only one possible universe with the objective of generating and sustaining life on it. The theory of a ‘designed’ universe tries to explain almost all intricacies of the universe, but fails to answer the most fundamental questions - the How, and the Why. One alternative answer to this question can be developed by reconsidering how life emerged on Earth. While considering the formation of few specific life-supporting molecules from the set of almost infinite other probable molecules, we tend to ignore the fact that there were also almost infinite fundamental molecules to begin with. Only if the rate of formation of the favorable molecules was higher than the unfavorable ones, their formation can be explained. This is known as Selection Bias. This theory has been verified by observing the behavior of RNA molecules which, apart from being the carriers of genetic information, also act as catalysts. This would mean that every RNA molecule formed would increase the rate of the reaction in favor of formation of other RNA molecules, and ultimately the relative quantity of other molecules would be negligible. When we extrapolate this theory to the universe, the probable existence of infinite number of universes comes into picture. This means that only those universes that had all the accurate values would be able to support life on them. And for life forms observing their own universe, everything would seem to be perfect and designed. The other universes would meet varied fates, collapsing being one of them. This alternative view has been explained by the Australian theoretical physicist Brandon Carter under the term Weak Anthropic Principle. Carter explains that our location (in time as well as space) is privileged to be compatible with our presence as observers on it. This means that there exist other universes where the constants are not favourable to support life and hence there are no observers there.

SPRING 2016

Despite both Strong and Weak Anthropic principle attempting to decipher the birth of universe, neither succeeds in explaining all the possible implications. The question of designed universe ultimately leads to the question of the existence of a designer. But the counter argument that might come to everybody’s mind is - if there exists a designer then why evolution and natural selection? If the universe was perfectly designed, so should be every organism living in it! The theory of ‘selection bias’ on the other hand complies with the natural selection phenomenon observed on Earth. However, this theory talks about the existence of multiple universes and with this a natural question arises - what number of multiple universes? Taking the level of fine tuning into consideration, this number would be so large that it will be exponentially larger than the total number of atoms on Earth! This large number thus, naturally, raises some questions about the validity of this phenomenon. Yet, since we are in one of those universes, can we really comprehend something more than everything? There is an equal possibility of either of the theories being the answer to the most fundamental question for every living organism - the question of their existence. There is also a possibility that neither is correct and a completely new theory, such as the Theory of Everything could explain the phenomenon. As a scientific community and the most evolved form of life on Earth, can only strive to work towards the hope that one day we shall find the truth.

RECOMMENDATIONS

GEEK GAZETTE RECOMMENDS BOOK

THE SPEED OF DARK - Elizabeth Moon

n absolutely unforgettable tale of the matters of humanity and normalcy, Elizabeth Moon, in her Nebula Award winning novel - The Speed of Dark, takes one through a whole array of thoughts, feelings, and emotions of a high-functioning autistic adult, Lou Arrendale. Born in the near future, Lou lies exactly in the “wrong” generation - the previous generation remained autistic, and the next generation got cured of autism in their infancy. However, this generation got trained into trying to fit in, and be “normal”. He is one of many others in a pharmaceutical company which requires autistic people in order to make sense of patterns which run their business. Strongly influenced by her own autistic son, Michael, Elizabeth has written this book from the first person narrative of Lou. The small interjections in third-person feel almost intrusive after a while, as one gets absorbed in the story. Over time, we, as readers, realize the hardships Lou needs to go through in order to live in a world that expects everyone to be normal, even as he too realizes that “normal people” aren’t really all that normal. Lou is a person who minds his own business and tries to get through life as normally as is possible. However, Lou’s life goes haywire when news of a treatment for autistic adults comes out. Worse, his company “recommends” the treatment, almost at the point of extortion. The company argues - autistic employees require extra benefits to work which end up dipping into profits. They also argue - who wouldn’t want to be normal?

With the treatment, Lou could really be “normal”, but would he really want to be? He has a good life, a stable paying job, a car, friends, and even might have just started to find out what it means to love someone. Should he risk who he is, his very identity, just to match with society’s expectations of normal? The character development in the book is absolutely marvelous, and one can almost imagine living in Lou’s life. He sees life differently than any of us, asks different questions, ponders about things we consider obvious, and easily does what we find insanely hard. Asking the question, “What is the speed of dark?” might seem pointless and absurd to anyone normal, but is it a rare streak of genius that sees that darkness must be faster than light? Philosophically, does not the obviousness of ignorance grow at a faster rate than knowledge of the world? While Lou questions and ponders over these questions, his world comes shattering down around him. When he becomes the target of vandalism and property damage, with a possible threat on his life, his company starts pushing further for the experimental procedure to “cure” him. Worse still, he has just begun to feel a sense of longing and love for a friend he meets weekly, Marjory. With the procedure, would he still love her? Would she be able to love him? Would things work out? Must he become normal, or must he stay Lou? Read the book to find out.

GEEK GAZETTE

RECOMMENDATIONS

GEEK GAZETTE RECOMMENDS MOVIE

K-PAX Directed By Iain Softley

-PAX is a movie based on Gene Brewer’s book by the same name. Featuring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, it has none of the effects seen in mainstream sci-fi movies like Star Wars. Instead, the movie captures attention by making the audience speculate upon the origin of the man who claims to be from a different planet. Directed by Iain Softley, the movie portrays Spacey as Prot, a man who says he is from the K-PAX, a planet that is a thousand light years away from Earth, and is admitted to the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan. Prot interacts with his psychiatrist, Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges), and gives logical answers to all questions posed to him. When we find that Prot knows the answers to questions which allude even the best astrophysicists, both Dr. Powell and the viewers begin to accept the possibility of Prot actually being ET. The movie makes you believe in one thing, and then another. Even after the movie ends, you are still in the dark, left with the same question you had in the beginning. Is Prot really from K-PAX? K-Pax is one of the few sci-fi movies that revolves around light travel, rather than time travel. Thwarting the suggestion by Dr. Powell that nothing could travel at the speed of light, Prot interprets Einstein in a way a layman might never have imagined. The fact that Einstein said that no body could be accelerated to the speed of light, but a body already travelling at a speed of light could continue to do so, sends all the sci-fi lovers in a state of awe. The movie tries to be realistic in explaining about the planetary

SPRING 2016

motion and life on K-PAX. The movie also paints the image of life without society and politics. Prot keeps pointing out the flaws in human life, and how the system of living in K-PAX is far more superior to that of human beings. The movie has a beautiful play of lights. The diffraction of light brings along an ominous feeling that something supernatural is going to happen. After watching the movie, crystals reflecting light will tempt the viewers fascinated in light travel for days to come. They will also wish they could catch a beam of light by saying ‘adios aloha!’ Along with interpreting what Einstein said in a different way, the movie also tells us more about life and humans. All beings have the capability to save themselves is a knowledge common to a K-PAXian which Prot wanted to pass to his fellow companions at the Psychiatric Institute, and to us. A plagiarism lawsuit and similar movies having come out might be the reason that the movie with a budget of $68 million could only get $65 million from the box ofﬁce. Nonetheless, the movie is worth watching for its credulous psychiatrist, polite K-PAXian, hysterical asylum inmates, and an ending which leaves you thinking.

EDITORIAL EDITORIAL

A DUET OF ART M

usic and architecture have a history that is as glorious as the history of man itself. These two forms of art have evolved, developed branches and sub-domains, become the symbols of human feeling - both spiritual and material, and have inspired generations of people. But above all, they have inspired each other. Music has been immensely inspired by and changed to accommodate the kind of construction it is played in. But the question is, “How?” Does the composer think of the musical set-up during the course of development of music after the idea has taken root? What deﬁnes the inner soundscape of the composer, aural dimensions of music, or the physical structure in which the music is played? The answers to the above questions are not deﬁnite; for creativity and art are not bound by theoretical understandings of the population. But what can be said with certain surety is that music, and the perception of music is affected, in some ways or other, by the kind of set-up it is played in. We all, from our everyday experiences with it, can say that music developed for chapels and churches would not sound as good in open stadiums, which is better suited for high energy concerts. Rise and fall of genres can be related to the physical space in which the music was played and heard. Textural music sounded optimal in the large reverberant halls of churches. The development of smaller halls with lesser reverberation led to results that were more intricate and rhythmic. Technology, in ways similar to architectural establishment, also had its share in affecting the way in which music evolved. With the coming of microphones and radio, the composers got the freedom to include more

delicate effects such as voice modulations in their songs. These devices successfully reduced the physical distance between the performer and the listener. Then came portable music players and headphone, and with these, the listener was totally isolated from any outside disturbance contrary to the congregated concert halls. The composers, now, have the freedom to convey their art without any external noise. These also led to the branching of music into two sections- live and recorded, and each one of them developed their own style. Subsequently, with the blend of music with computers, new forms of music evolved which used computer programs to create music. Critically acclaimed bands such as Radiohead have experimented with music written on software. The computer era subsequently led to the birth of new genres such as techno, house, and jersey club, which became popular under the name EDM or Electronic Dance Music. It is mesmerising how the context in which music is played has affected it in such enormous ways. What’s more fascinating is the fact that forms of art, believed to be independent in their philosophy are so intricately entangled to other elements. It’s the adaptability of music that has helped it remain relevant. These interpretations get interesting when we try to analyse our future based on our insights from the past. What do you suggest would be the next big thing in music? Use of computers, better instruments, and more flexibility in architecture assert immense possibilities. This may lead to an era where new forms of music emerge and norms get broken. And, as always, when conventions break, art flourishes.

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