Do we See Reality As It Is?

I'm fascinated by the greatest unsolved mystery of science, perhaps because it's personal, it involves my being,your being, my existence,your existence,our existence, foundation of everything we do or don't do. It's about who & what we are... Each one of us. The mystery is : What is the relationship between our brain and our conscious experiences, such as our experience of the taste of chocolate or the feeling of shaking hands with a friend or smelling the tresses of our beloved ? In 1868, Thomas Huxley wrote, "How it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comes about as the result of irritating nervous tissue is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the genie when Aladdin rubbed his lamp." Why have we made so little progress? Well, some experts think that we can't solve this problem because we lack the necessary concepts and intelligence. We don't expect monkeys to solve problems in quantum mechanics, and as it happens, we can't expect our species to solve this problem either but is it really like this? Do we see reality as it is? I open my eyes and I have an experience that I describe as a red tomato a meter away. As a result, I come to believe that in reality, there's a red tomato a meter away. I then close my eyes, and my experience changes to a gray field, but is it still the case that in reality, there's a red tomato a meter away? I think so, but could I be wrong? Could I be misinterpreting the nature of my perceptions? We have misinterpreted our perceptions before. We used to think the Earth is flat, because it looks that way. Pythagorus discovered that we were wrong. Then we thought that the Earth is the center of the Universe, again because it looks that way. Copernicus and Galileo discovered, again, that we were wrong. Galileo then wondered if we might be misinterpreting our experiences in other ways. He wrote: "I think that tastes, odors, colors, and so on reside in consciousness. Hence if the living creature were removed, all these qualities would be annihilated." Now, that's a stunning claim. Could Galileo be right? Could we really be misinterpreting our experiences that badly? What does modern science have to say about this? Well, neuroscientists tell us that about a third of the brain's cortex is engaged in vision. When you simply open your eyes and look about this room, billions of neurons and trillions of synapses are engaged. Now, this is a bit surprising, because to the extent that we think about vision at all, we think of it as like a camera. It just takes a picture of objective reality as it is. Now, there is a part of vision that's like a camera: the eye has a lens that focuses an image on the back of the eye where there are 130 million photoreceptors, so the eye is like a 130-megapixel camera. But that doesn't explain the billions of neurons and trillions of synapses that are engaged in vision. What are these neurons up to? Well, neuroscientists tell us that they are creating, in real time, all the shapes, objects, colors, and motions that we see. It feels like we're just taking a snapshot of this room the way it is, but in fact, we're constructing everything that we see. We don't construct the whole world at once. We construct what we need in the moment. Now, there are many demonstrations that are quite compelling that we construct what we see. But neuroscientists go further. They say that we reconstruct reality. So, when I have an experience that I describe as a red tomato, that experience is actually an accurate reconstruction of the properties of a real red tomato that would exist even if I weren't looking. Now, why would neuroscientists say that we don't just construct, we reconstruct? Well, the standard argument given is usually an evolutionary one. Those of our ancestors who saw more accurately had a competitive advantage compared to those who saw less accurately, and therefore they were more likely to pass on their genes. We are the offspring of those who saw more accurately, and so we can be confident that, in the normal case, our perceptions are accurate. You see this in the standard textbooks. One textbook says, for example, "Evolutionarily speaking, vision is useful precisely because it is so accurate."it gives you a survival advantage. Is this the right interpretation of evolutionary theory? And also this raises an important technical question: Does natural selection really favor seeing reality as it is? Fortunately, we don't have to wave our hands and guess; evolution is a mathematically precise theory. We can use the equations of evolution to check this out. We can have various organisms in artificial worlds compete and see which survive and which thrive, which sensory systems are more fit. Some of the organisms see all of the reality, others see just part of the reality, and some see none of the reality, only fitness. Who wins? Latest research has shown that perception of reality goes extinct. In almost every simulation, organisms that see none of reality but are just tuned to fitness drive to extinction all the organisms that perceive reality as it is. So the bottom line is, evolution does not favor vertical, or accurate perceptions. Those perceptions of reality go extinct. How can it be that not seeing the world accurately gives us a survival advantage? That is a bit counter intuitive. But remember that all the insects & animals have survived millions of years, using simple tricks and hacks so what the equations of evolution are telling us is that all organisms, including us, are in the same boat. We do not see reality as it is. We're shaped with tricks and hacks that keep us alive. Similarly, evolution has shaped us with perceptual symbols that are designed to keep us alive. We'd better take them seriously. If you see a snake, don't pick it up. If you see a cliff, don't jump off. They're designed to keep us safe, and we should take them seriously. That does not mean that we should take them literally. That's a logical error. There's nothing really new here. Physicists have told us for a long time that the metal of that train looks solid but really it's mostly empty space with microscopic particles zipping around. we all see the train, therefore none of us constructs the train. We all see a train because we each see the train that we construct, and the same is true of all physical objects. We're inclined to think that perception is like a window on reality as it is. The theory of evolution is telling us that this is an incorrect interpretation of our perceptions. Instead, reality is more like a 3D desktop that's designed to hide the complexity of the real world and guide adaptive behavior. Space as you perceive it is your desktop. Physical objects are just the icons in that desktop. We used to think that the Earth is flat because it looks that way. Then we thought that the Earth is the unmoving center of reality because it looks that way. We were wrong. We had misinterpreted our perceptions. Now we believe that spacetime and objects are the nature of reality as it is. The theory of evolution is telling us that once again, we're wrong. We're misinterpreting the content of our perceptual experiences. There's something that exists when you don't look, but it's not spacetime and physical objects. It's as hard for us to let go of spacetime and objects as it is for us to consciously stop breathing. Why? Because we're blind to our own blindnesses. But we still have an advantage : our science and technology. By peering through the lens of a telescope we discovered that the Earth is not the unmoving center of reality, and by peering through the lens of the theory of evolution we discovered that spacetime and objects are not the nature of reality. When I have a perceptual experience that I describe as a red tomato, I am interacting with reality, but that reality is not a red tomato and is nothing like a red tomato. Similarly, when I have an experience that I describe as a lion or a steak, I'm interacting with reality, but that reality is not a lion or a steak. And here's the kicker: When I have a perceptual experience that I describe as a brain, or neurons, I am interacting with reality, but that reality is not a brain or neurons and is nothing like a brain or neurons. And that reality, whatever it is, is the real source of cause and effect in the world -- not brains, not neurons. Brains and neurons have no causal powers.They cause none of our perceptual experiences, and none of our behavior. Brains and neurons are a species-specific set of symbols, a hack. What does this mean for the mystery of consciousness? Well, it opens up new possibilities. For instance, perhaps reality is some vast machine that causes our conscious experiences. Perhaps reality is some vast, interacting network of conscious agents, simple and complex, that cause each other's conscious experiences. Perhaps any other .... But one thing is for sure that once we let go of our massively intuitive but massively false assumption about the nature of reality, it opens up new ways to think about life's greatest mystery. I bet that reality will end up turning out to be more fascinating and unexpected than we've ever imagined.

The alternate Secret

“When you want something, the entire Universe conspires in helping you achieve it”

This sort of statement can only be made by an incurable romantic or an unscrupulous author who wants to sell his book by appealing to the inherent romantic nature of most people. The blatant nature  of this statement is so obvious that it would be almost specious of me to attempt to refute it.

       This entire ideology is built upon the assumption that the universe exists on the laws of 'natural justice'. Ask that from half a million children who died in Iraq due to US hegemony. Put that question to more than 16000 dead & more than 5.5 lakh maimed residents of Bhopal and you will get the answer. Ask that from 6 million Jews who were smothered in gas chambers in Nazi Germany . Please put that question to children in slavery around you, to the billions of human beings living in hopeless squalor, to millions of women forced into prostitution, to a father who cremates his child in war zones all over the world every day. I tell you, if you do that, it will suck the last vestige of hope out of your beaming brain and leave you with the same utter despair that this world is actually experiencing while you have a good time with nice company, fancy cars and glitzy lifestyles.

 The call for the justice of the universe is a cruel joke which makes the fate that all these people met with, all the more tragic and ridiculous, isn’t it? And yet, apparently a lot of addle-headed people actually do believe in this sort of arrant nonsense, which explains the fact of so many. In fact, most people in this world are romantics at heart till they encounter the 'real world'. They believe that the universe is essentially a benign, rosy, Eden of justice, where each of your actions are carefully scrutinised and evaluated and subsequently either rewarded or punished depending on where they lie on the scale starting from infinite goodness and extending to infinite evil. They believe that there’s something called Fate or Destiny that watches over them, takes care of them, and essentially wishes nothing but eventual good for them. All this of course, as a moment’s reflection will show, is total rubbish.

Of course the Universe is governed by laws. But they are not laws of justice. They are impersonal, implacable laws like Gravity, Thermodynamics, Relativity and other shit that is found in Physics and Chemistry. And I’m perfectly sure that none of these laws is remotely interested in us individually or as a species.

But I see that you are sill not convinced. This is because you believe in someone called God. The God who supposedly created this Universe and its laws, made the conditions that made life on Earth possible, and who wants us all to be good, sweet, kind, creative and loving human beings. You believe that this God wants justice to reign in the Universe, to ensure that goodness, industry and talent are rewarded while evil, slack and cunning are punished. This God stands like the final wall of defense protecting the rosy bubble of your romanticism in which you dreamily float through existence.

Life is governed by the rules of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (and of course your wife). It is like a regular bollywood movie – without any script. No higher force watches over you or takes care of you. There is no inherent justice in the world, poetic or otherwise. All the events in your life are either random or brought about by either the conscious planning of your mind or the subconscious undercurrents of it.

Goodness seldom triumphs in the world and even when it does, it is as random as the throw of a dice. Cruel, cunning savages like Genghis Khan, Stalin and Mao rule it. Good people like Gandhi are revered as saints or Gods while they are useful to the Nehrus of the world – thereafter only their statues survive as empty shells of their heritage while their souls are discarded into the dustbin of history. There is nothing good or bad about this process – it’s just the way of the world.

Movies and novels make us believe in romance and destiny – that an innate sense of justice is woven into the fabric of the universe. Authors of motivational books also reinforce this belief. Because they all want a piece of your money, your bloody money. They are selling you a psychological crutch to help you wobble your way through the senselessness and brutality of life, a sort of magical trick that conjures up a bubble of apparent security around you. They fool you, and they succeed because you are willing to be fooled.

The Universe is not a benign, loving place which exists to help you find your desires. It’s an impersonal, grand theatre that gives you a stage on which you can prance and caper for a while if you are lucky enough to survive any random holocaust or catastrophe , until it’s time to give way to other actors like you. There is no script in this play. Nobody directs it, except you and your fellow actors. And it’s a brutal, bloody, senseless, meaningless play.

So dear romantics, you better understand that the glasses with which you see the world aren’t actually rosy– they are actually RED with the splattered gore of the bloody passage of history.

Confessions of a Seemingly Unlikely Misanthrope

I think Dale Carnegie started this shit with his book 'How To Win Friends and Influence People'. I read it very late fortunately and by the time i had overgrown my desires to seek approval from others, atleast consciously. I guess, every modern young man or woman reads that book partially or fully some time in their late teens or young adulthood because it’s the basic instruction manual on how to suck up to people by pretending to like them. It promises to turn you from a thinking, emotionally variable, evolving (or devolving) LIVE human being into a super-friendly, tail-wagging dog so that other people are forced to pet you. And this book is lapped up by impressionable youngsters because it is assumed that making people like you is the most important prerequisite of a 'bone' called success and bone is after all what dogs are after unlike human beings who have a certain enigma called consciousness . They call it ‘soft skills’ in business schools. (And people actually pay lakhs of rupees to learn this sort of stuff in B schools.) Now I have nothing against it if you wish to spend your life tail-wagging to people. I might even admire you if you become a devious, manipulative asshole who wrings the dough out of a man’s nose by claiming to devote your life to his welfare and happiness. But I can’t do this shit. Fact is: I don’t like people, not that I hate them but still, you know, i will be very happy left to myself. Disliking people is not something that I decided to do after performing a lengthy process of reasoning and concluding. It was always a gut feeling with me. But over a period of years (decades actually – why try to hide my age ?), I peered inside the murky depths of my own soul and discovered the reasons for this tendency. For one, people expect you to go out and meet them. They just don’t leave you alone. Every day someone was born a few decades back and wants to celebrate the day with everyone he/she knows. If not that, someone is getting married and wants to bribe you with dinner for giving them social sanction for fornicating the brains out of each other. Or somebody has got a new car and wants to show it off because he cannot show off his, you know what... And in any case, his is probably too small . I mean, if you’re happy and you want to celebrate, just do it with the people you love and who care for you. I don’t care for you. Don't you get it by now bhai !! People have this strange concept, especially in India, that your life does not belong to you but to the society. You’re expected to be ever ready to meet people’s expectations from you. They don’t understand that I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to be of any use to society. I just wanna have my bit of the earth and the sky over it and just do my thing. I don’t want to disturb you, or harm you, or kill you unless you come in my way. I just want to be left alone. Here I am in a party sitting in a corner enjoying my beer and lost in the world of my own ideas and thoughts and suddenly an uncle would come up unannounced and start asking me about the latest interest rates and all the rubbish that I left behind to get back to my life. Arre uncle! Only if you would remember that being a banker, 'my interest' only awakens when and if, is there something accruing to me and here, at this place, you thought that you would catch me off guard just because I had a couple of beers! Huh! Boy you should sometime come over to my pad!! I will get you there... Then at other times, people would fawn on you for all kinds of loans & kiss your ass when they get it , they would go on cribbing for their entire life that they were fleeced & nobody listens to them now that I'm not there. What dya' think man ? Is it that when I was there, I embossed their names in silver in Chairman's 'bootlick list'?. Now if this article has conveyed the impression that I’m a misanthrope who hates people, then I will pat myself on my back for having successfully conveyed to my readers what I wished to convey. So don’t invite me to your birthday bash and anniversary bash. Unless you have alcohol . Then you better invite me over. Because man is a social animal, and I take the animal part very seriously ;)

What's Indian parenting got to do with our VIP culture & lack of civic sense

Just two days back there was an accident involving two cars , an Alto belonging to a 'COMMONER' and a Mercedes belonging of course to a VIP . It led to the death of a small child but the Headlines in electronic as well as print media were screaming about a few minor cuts to the VIP. Then an outrage began on social media which focused on the travesty of the situation which was again ironical because they were the first to report the news highlighting the VIP part whereas on an average 50-100 deaths occur in road accidents all over India getting hardly, if ever, a mention anywhere. More than two thirds of people jailed in India are under trials while a VIP accused not only gets a bail but eats away the headlines for days on end just because ... Because you know why ...
                   What has gotten into us to make us the most UNEQUAL nation in the entire world. It has to do with the  'VIP culture' which is as big a hallmark of India as The Taj Mahal .

VIP cultures do not develop in a vacuum. They come from the attitudes we inculcate in our children and young adults at home and school.
I believe that we are a poorly parented people prone to indiscipline and indulgence. We over indulge our children – and for that matter our household pets also– and do nothing to teach them manners, good civic behaviour, and basic discipline. We thus learn to be served and treated like kings when we have done nothing to deserve this and which in turn leads to our non-existent civic sense.
    How many of us are 'Really' willing to wait in queues if we can find a way around them? How many of us use the front door to get a work done if a back door is available? How many of us  observe road rules when no one is looking?  How many of us treat people less fortunate than ourselves – the hotel waiter, the driver, the rickshawallah – as equals? Consider how we behave on the road: we honk like loonies to ask other cars and vehicles to get out of way and when stuck in a jam, the honking goes overboard as if that alone will clear the traffic.

And to think of it , hardly two generations back, we were reasonably ethical and civic who had good manners, if nothing else. Part of that was the result of a culturally-ingrained respect for elders – which still endures, possibly for the wrong reasons – but as the post-independence generations grew prosperous and able to afford the conveniences of life, our parenting styles changed. We suddenly loosened up on basic responsibilities, hoping that schools or someone else will do the job on our behalf even as we chased careers, and the good life for ourselves and our progenies .

Indian parenting loses out when we are afraid to offer tough love to our children, as a result of which they grow into self-indulgent, uncaring, ill-mannered kids who demand attention and instant gratification even if it is at someone else's cost.
The next time you are on a flight or in train (be it upscale Rajdhani , shatabdi or any ordinary one ) or in any other public place like a cinema hall, just observe how Indian kids behave and the western ones (if you happen to find them )do. More likely than not, the Indian kid will be busy screaming or running down the aisles and making a nuisance ; the western one will be restrained and would just not bother anyone else, least of all their parents. Also Check how parents sit at a hotel, fussing about feeding their child, even while the kid is getting on everybody else's nerve by howling and clamouring for something else.

One can speculate on why this is so, but I can think of three tentative reasons.

First, the two or three post-independence generations India produced, somehow dropped their guards on effective parenting. As we moved from scarcity and poverty to prosperity, we invested less in parenting as we tried to get ahead of the pack and improve our economic lot. We chose economic advancement over parenting, and expected our parents, our maids, our schools and just about anybody else to do our parenting for us but at the same time we also developed a huge guilt trip about this. We tried to make up for our lack of parenting by over-indulging our children, giving them luxuries without their earning them. Not surprisingly, our kids grew up to demand things as their right, throwing tantrums if they didn't get what they want. Is it any surprise, our VIPs behave just that way? This is what they learnt at home actually, when young.

Second, spousal relationships have not evolved to really genuine partnerships in changing times, and the mother-son dynamic has probably done the most damage. When the spousal relationship is less than equal , the attention of the mother at home tends to focus on children – and sons get the biggest indulgence, with mothers filling the emotional deficit due from the spouse by demanding it from their sons. This is at the root of all 'saas-bahu' problems, as adult men see their partners as lacking in the care they were used to from their over-indulgent  mothers.

Third, in public life, India's extreme diversity has created a society where public office is seen as the route to private profit, or as an opportunity to favour the family and groups we belong to – our caste, our religion, or our ethnic community. The rule of law depends on who is administering it. Little wonder, no one respects the law. It is observed only when convenient.
So that most Indians grow up to be self-indulgent, uncaring, unlawful - and often ill-behaved dolts. This is what we are seeing in the amoral, self-seeking VIP culture of today.

So the ultimate question Is can we really become a better society without getting better at parenting ? Your guess is as good as mine ;)

Argh! Stop Motivating me

6 AM on a holiday morning and my old and trusted aide blackberry wakes up with the inbuilt wake up time and then non-stop notifications  . I peer through the haze of my sleep into the glare of the screen. A "basking in his own glory" relative seems to have gone on a morning jog and decided to announce this fact to all his Whatsapp contacts with the message: “Arise and Shine! Life is too short to spend in slothful slumber! Let’s do something worthwhile!”


It seems everybody these days is busy sending motivational messages to everybody else. From the prime minister to the local goon , everyone is doing it (not that I have received any motivational message from any goon. I just assume that they send such messages too). No social media platform, be it Facebook, Whatsapp or Twitter is free from this plague. But why exactly do people want to motivate other people?

I mean, the way human beings are manufactured, we’re highly self-centered creatures. We mostly think of ourselves and our own needs. For instance, when we wish to defecate, we just sit over the nearest commode and do it. We don’t invite all our friends and acquaintances to do it together. Similarly, when our hormones rage inside us and get us all heated up for sex, we simply reach out to our partners and do it. We do not invite the entire neighbourhood  over to an orgy. So why is it that when we feel the desire to be motivated, we immediately wish to share the desire with everyone we know?

Also, if some quote motivates you to achieve your goals, why should you share the secret with me?after all you seem to revel in your own oneupmanship .  Life is a rat race, a struggle for survival, a Darwinian dog eat dog world where only the fittest will survive and get to the end of the rainbow to find the Ferrari and what not. Some 'friend'  sent me this message the other day:

“Life always offers you a second chance. It is called tomorrow.”

Now why share this extraordinarily important insight with me? Maybe, right now I’m feeling so low and defeated with life that I might have given up all hope and am packing a sparse bag to retire to a quiet hut in Himalayas , leaving you without competition . But now that you’ve given me hope that tomorrow might give me a fresh chance to outdo you, I might just decide to stay and snatch away that promotion from you! Isn’t it?

Also, this motivational stuff usually jumbles up  my brain rather than helping me do things. Here I am, having a lark doing something I thoroughly enjoy when this message comes on my Whatsapp:

“Time can be your Best Friend or your Worst Enemy depending on whether you Use it or Waste it”

And now I start thinking whether I’m wasting my time by doing something that I merely enjoy when I could use that time by doing something that could earn me more money. After a lot of careful deliberation, I convince myself that doing things that make you happy is actually a use of time, but the whole process has taken away the spontaneity of my actions and forced me to find a logical reason for doing something I love. And that has destroyed the purity of my enjoyment, and I find that I no longer enjoy doing that thing so much. That f*****g motivational message has poisoned my happiness.

This, I feel is the biggest problem with motivational messages. If you take them seriously, and try to follow them, you find that your life has been robbed of its spontaneity, and you have become a mere algorithm running on the diesel inside your pipes rather than an organic creature of throbbing heart and pulsating veins.


I think the main reason why people send motivational messages to each other is to remind others of their own existence. Each man is an island in the ocean of life’s misery, and the only way he can communicate with others is by throwing out a bottle with a message in it. And since most people are not really creative enough to actually be able to say anything much, they just take up a quote from the internet and send it across to other human beings. But the real purpose of these motivational messages is not to motivate. The real purpose is to say:

“Hey there guys! I’m alive, and lonely, and miserable. Please notice me you bugger ! "