Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Its too much

It has really become too much. No I am not talking about CAT prep or apping for MS(even though it is a LOT of work)... its the heat in Goa that has inspired me to write this post...its killing me!!

They say, its the hottest October in Goa, and believe me it feels like the hottest October anywhere, anytime on this earth. Sweat is dripping from my forehead as i write this (this is the most useless thing ever but I need to do something besides cat and apping), sitting in the 'centrally air-conditioned' library. I guess they have 'forgotten' to turn on the AC... no not just today, this whole semester (year??)...or else, instead of 22 they have set the temp as 32...I can only make vague guesses...weird things do happen in this place...classrooms are freezing cold when not required (i gave the compres wearing a sweatshirt) and then the killer heat (its a new, kinda slower, smarter(?) way of execution). If all this doesnt work our beloved 'doggie' is just a call away, forever ready to get rid of us...(ya u got that right)

but we wont go down without a fight... so what if we have cat coming up, or a many of us are apping, and these high tempeatures are only making things harder... we will sweat it out till the end (quite literally) :)

Sunday, October 19, 2008

do we really understand?

Humans are classified as the species Homo Sapiens of the genus Homo, in the family Hominidae, in the superfamily Hominoidea, of the infraorder Catarrhini, of the suborder Anthroidea, of the order primates,of the subclass Eutheria, in the class Mammalia, in the superclass Tetrapoda, which is a member of the subphylum Vertebrata, of the phylum Chordata, in the kingdom Animalia, of the domain Eukarya, in the empire of organism (phew!!)
This is just something I was reading the other day (ya ya, its BIO!!) It just set me thinking

Why do we look for order in everything?
What is this desire to understand our surroundings, our behaviour,our friends, and even ourselves?
Why should everything be understood?
Why cant we just let things happen?
Why does chaos have to upset us so much?
Is this quest for learning and finding the unknown ever gonna end?
Is it possible that by classifying and arranging the'data' we actually make it more complicated?
Can we be sure that by 'processing' the 'observations' we arent actually disturbing the natural order of things?
Am i really nuts to think that there exists a possibility that by disturbing this order we are actually making it impossible for us to understand things?
Can we be certain that unpredictibility in not THE underlying principle, the essence of life, the universe?
Is it really preposterous to consider, even if for a second, that things are supposed to be the way they are, there is no simplified model, but a matrix that binds the cosmos together and that it is beyond our comprehension?
How do we know for sure that the way we are spending our resources on research is a wise idea? (...and this leads me to another set of questions - about right and wrong. but thats besides the point)

The point is - how do we know anything for sure? isnt there an inherent bias in all of us? isnt it just our beliefs and feelings (or rational deductions of a prejudiced mind) that have developed the scientific method? cant this 'method' fall short some day, or better(or worse) be destroyed because of some anomalous 'observations' and conclusions? in case we do discover that we have been on a wrong path, what do we do then? do we give up, or do we start at the beginning, again?

Here I am, despite all my wonderings, indulging in the very act i have been questioning - trying to understand...