Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

Mars as Bright as Venus Dear Readers, I find this poem of John Updike deeply stirring. Sixty thousand years ago, when Mars came close to earth, our world was a very different place. John Updike describes: Men saw, but did not understand, the sky a depthless spatter then; goddess of love and god of war were inklings in the gut for them. And now after countless, senseless wars, deaths, destructions amid the constant struggle for love and goodness, the brown star has come so close again, “burning in the east”, while this world of ours twirls in storm of events. Sixty thousand years from now, when the mars return to our closest proximity, what would be the state of this world? The poet describes the cosmic truth: Small dry red planet, when you loom again, this world will be much changed: our loves and wars, at rest, as one, and all our atoms rearranged. “All our atoms rearranged” and “our loves and wars” at rest sixty thousand years from now. A changed world. ...

Reality in the Melting Pot Dear Readers, What would it be like being in a nested multiverse simulations, that is similar to Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburne acted movie, The Matrix, the blockbuster hit of the summer? Paul Davies writes, “In the Tegmark multiverse of all possible worlds, some worlds will have intelligent civilisations with computers powerful enough to create authentic-looking virtual worlds. Like in the movie The Matrix, it may be almost impossible for an observer to know which is the real world and which is a simulation. And if the simulation is good enough, is there any fundamental difference between the two anyway?” In multiverse theory, all bets are off. “Mathematicians have proved that a universal computing machine can create an artificial world that is itself capable of simulating its own world, and so on ad infinitum. In other words, simulations nest inside simulations inside simulations ... Because fake worlds can outnumber real ones withou...

Economic Woes and 9/11 Dear Readers, For the last two years we all have been hearing the catastrophic effects of September 11 attack on economy. Particularly, Republicans are all embracing when they come to explain the not-so-good economy under Bush policy. Lee Price, who is the director of Research at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C., writes that the terrorists’ revolting goal of disrupting American economy by their murderous acts, is failed. He writes, “it’s hard to find an economic indicator that supports the notion that today’s economic troubles can be properly explained as the backwash from 9/11. That claim simply does not withstand close scrutiny. While pockets of the U.S. economy remain worse off as a result of 9/11, the net effect on total GDP today is negligible and may well be positive.” Perhaps we provide unnecessary satisfaction to the terrorists and their sympathizers by linking today’s economic trouble with September 11 attacks. And the most ...

Is Free Trade War? Dear MuktoChinta Readers, How plausible it is that Naomi Klein’s opinion might be true? If she is then the world is indeed in great mess more than we can imagine. Yes, there are pro and cons on the volatile issue of globalization. Thousands of anti-globalization protesters are trying to make aware of the invisible issues, buried under the hodgepodge of tanks and missiles, in Middle East and in other parts of the world. Where the poor can’t even afford the basic amenities, like water, IMF is demanding price hike, making water, the lifeblood of human civilization, like ordinary commodity. If you have money, you can buy honey; if not, get lost. In this case, without water, without drinkable water within people’s affordability, millions and millions will perish in the countryside where there are no spectacular “shock and awe” kinds of televised events getting unfold. Perhaps all the world events, the gravely disturbing ones are occurring due to the...