Sunday, June 25, 2006

Realistic perception, perceptual reality

Is perception real or is reality is defined in terms of perception? This definitely reduces to the chicken-egg problem. But many deep philosophical questions are reduced to this problem. This problem is Ph-Complete (Philosophically Complete) that is if this problem is solved then any philosophical question can be answered. Now since we donot have a solution for this problem we have to focus our energies on approximations based on assumptions which is called practicality. We have to live with it. Even computer scientists cannot avoid such situations:) Lookup NP-Completeness.

Now the question I started with, is important in life to do something meanigful and worthy. Since we donot know what is the true definition of reality or perception what we can do is be efficient in balancing both. Dynamic balance of perception and reality is important in life. Live in the present. If you live too much on the past you are giving to much weight to perceptual reality and if you worry too much about future then you are having un-realistic perception. You can see a post that talks about unrealistic perception. Importance of balance in life comes from age-old wisdom. When you don't have any opinion or neither realistic perception nor perceptual reality it does not mean you are balanced - it just means you are ignorant of things around you. One has to constantly progress, do things but maintain balance. Only then balance is meanigful.

Importance of dynamic balance is hinted by Nature in it's every aspect: Earth is round, circle is a unique geometric object, there are cycles in seasons, most cosmic paths are closed even if very large. The heavenly bodies keep moving but are in equilibrium nurturing life and energy.

How can we try to achieve this balance? Science and Art are the answers. Science tries to give us realistic perception and Art contributes by stressing perceptual reality. Thus they both are, equally importantly, helping humanity. Morals, emotions etc. are like software for the hardware built by more objective Science.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Health: Organizing my posts

I have got couple of notes to write more about health. Some of my previous posts on health tips already cover some of these. So thought I will make a post organizing my previous posts.

1. Startup
2. King of nutrition
3. Breaking the habit

For every new health post hence forth I will add a pointer to it's previous one.

Happy journey.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Purpose of purpose

Understanding life has a lot to do with understanding its purpose. Why? Because we don't want to waste one of the most important resource time. Why time is important? Because it is finite. Well I can take more whys in comments if any body is interested.

When we apply for graduate schools or any academic jobs or highlevel jobs we are asked to describe, many times in written or a few times oral, of what our goal or purpose of applying for or working in that position is. This is because only then can they feel justified to invest in both their and our resources for society.

Most people search for their purpose when asked for. This is good and benefitial to society. But on an individual level if one wants to be really successful he needs to clearly understand the purpose of having a purpose in life and only then can he focus his energies effectively which is needed for success. But beware you cannot just describe anything that you want as purpose. You have to add wisdom and rationality for any desire to be called a purpose. This is possible only after considerable experience of the universe.

One essential phase in understanding the purpose of life is not having a purpose and feeling the need for it and honestly and courageously facing it to move forward to the phase of having a purpose. It's like building a bridge/building/subway system etc. We first don't have those, then we feel the necessity of those and then build them strong and effective and it takes lot of honest, courageous effort. The adjectives used for effort are non-scientific (but essential) and the effort would be scientific. The other phase is that it needs reevaluation, maintenance work too:) So the bottom line is just look around yourself in Nature and you will understand what are the phases.

Now what kind of purposes we can have. Based on history and current events we should have a purpose to live happily. For that we have to choose a proper method that will not get in others' purposes. After exploring for a while (for most people around 20-25 years of life - not kidding) choose a specific domain where you know you can contribute and work towards doing that. If that is not very satisfying then have a purpose to prosper because for that you have to do the above. It's just another way of looking at it - probably more common but not very insightful and nevertheless useful. Ofcourse:)