.i.m.a.g.i.n.e.

No. It doesn't exist.

2010-03-07T01:19:00.003+08:00

No. There is no right. There is no wrong.
There is choice. You can be whoever you want to be, as long as you are willing to face the consequences.

No. There is no love. There is no hatred.
There is compromise. Sometimes, and for some people, you're more willing than others.

No. There is no understanding. Between people.
There is empathy, and there is acceptance. And they are only possible if you have walked similar paths, or have walked enough together.

No. There is no escape. From the past.
There are regrets. Some are easier to live with than others. Some define you more strongly than others. Some, you let go of along your way in life. Some you take to your grave.

Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge

2010-01-16T14:16:00.000+08:00

An awe inspiring talk by Kiran Bir Sethi on how she is shaping India by empowering the children. I have believed that children are the way to make a difference in the future...

And here she is, making it happen.

Animation created by sketching on folded paper

2010-01-13T16:55:00.001+08:00

This has to be among the most creative animations I've seen!

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

The Google Story Animated

2010-01-03T10:11:00.002+08:00

I have to admit, this is one of the most amazing timeline presentations I've seen. Extremely creative and thoughtful!

চেয়ে দেখা (Cheye Dekha)

2009-12-11T14:44:00.005+08:00

নদীর ধারে দেখা স্বপ্ন গুলোকে
  চেয়েছিলাম ধরে রাখতে

ধুলোময় তুলিগুলো আবার তুলে
   চেয়েছিলাম তোমায় আকতে

গানের সে সুর তোমার সুনে
   চেয়েছিলাম সুর বাধতে

তোমার চোখের মধ্যে দিয়ে জগতটাকে
   চেয়েছিলাম রঙিন করে দেখতে

জ্যোৎস্নার আলোর চাদর গায়
   চেয়েছিলাম তোমায় কাছে পেতে

আমার জীবনের প্রশ্নগুলোকে
   চেয়েছিলাম তোমায় উত্তর করে আনতে

কবল একবার আমি তোমায়
   চেয়েছিলাম ভালবাসতে

~ ইন্দ্রাদীপ, ৬/১২/২০০৯

(in english transliteration)

Nodir dhare-dekha swapno gulo
cheyechilam dhore rakhte,

Dhulomoy tuli-gulo abar tule,
cheyechilam tomai aakte,

Gaaner se shur tomar shune,
cheyechilam shur baadhte,

Tomar chokhe moddhe-diye jogot take,
cheyechilam rongin kore dekhte,

Jyostnar alor chaador gaye
cheyechilam tomai kaache pete,

Amar jiboner proshnogulike tomai,
cheyechilam uttor kore aante,

Kebal ekbar ami tomai,
cheyechilam bhalobashte.

Reboot

2009-05-29T13:25:00.001+08:00

A nudge of rude awakening
And reality comes creeping through
A familiar plane that dissolves away
Dissipating meaning you hold on to

Reboot.

Addiction stares in the face of an addict
Claiming aloud it's rightful due
An aimless soul is scattered around
Peeks out for novelty to pursue

Reboot.

Chaos was in the foundation of structure
Rubble was not the future it knew
Delicate pieces were once arranged
In fragments they collect the morning dew

Reboot.

Designs made on the fabric of life
Reshaped the future forever to
Sparse rays of the setting dusk
Outline the contours of a fading you

Reboot.

The perfect painting

2009-01-08T07:56:00.005+08:00

A pure white canvas stretched in imagination...
Washed in the shades of generous humanity...
She is painted with the dreamy colours of life...
She wears the gentle wings of empathy...

She stands atop the crest of optimism...
She epitomizes the metaphors for ultimate beauty...
She captivates your soul in her warm embrace...
She pours her heart out in compassionate felicity...

She lets you escape in her painted eyes...
She symphonizes the notes of faith and hope...
She is a testimony of God's craftsmanship...
In this journey of life, she is the perfect consort...

About Me

2009-01-01T16:11:00.012+08:00

I'm presently a part of tenCube Pte. Ltd., a Singapore based technology startup, pioneering in mobile security software. I must admit that the joy in building a product from scratch, and seeing it out there in the world is beyond what words can ever explain!

My job responsibilities include - development (C# & ASP.NET mostly), project management, overseeing general operations, infrastructure management, etc...

My Resume: View | Download (.pdf)

To aid the fading memory, I've created a timeline of remarkable events (or what I can call eventful) of my life:

Before optimism

2008-12-18T16:01:00.007+08:00

Having known people of different shades between suicidal to exuberant, and I am increasingly convinced that that people's attitudes on life is a product, more of an innate state of being, than of circumstances that surround them. The following dialogue from the movie Before Sunset still stands clear in my memory (obviously I still had to go back to the film to transcribe the lines).

Ethan Hawke (Jesse): I don't think anybody does [change]... I mean people don't want to admit it, but its like, we have these innate set points... you know like nothing much that happens to us changes our disposition.

Julie Delpy (Celine): Really? You believe that...

Jesse: I read this study where they followed people who'd won the lottery, and people who had become paraplegic... so, you'd think that one extreme is going to make you euphoric, and the other suicidal... but the study shows that after about six months... right as soon as people got used to their new situation, they were more or less the same.

Celine: The same !?

Jesse: Well... yeah. Like if they were an optimistic jovial person, they're now an optimistic jovial person in a wheelchair. If they are petty miserable assholes, they're now a petty miserable asshole with a new cadilac, a house and a boat.

Celine: So, now I'll be forever depressed no matter what great things happen in my life?

Jesse: Definitely (with a smirk)

I guess if I put on my preachy hat, I'd have to say that general happiness, and contentment is something that can only be achieved through within oneself. No amount of materials (consumerism, counseling and anti-depressants will qualify) can bring about real happiness in a human being, for the fact that they are finite and will eventually end (and will follow the pattern set in the dialogue above).

From what I understand of it, the single most important ingredient to happiness is acceptance. Acceptance is an umbrella for a variety of sentiments, which would include 'I don't give a shit', 'Its okay.', 'Who cares!', 'Its all part of life...', and many more.

As a complement to acceptance comes in handy the existential idea of choice and consequence. Wherever one has a choice, it can be exercised to change the circumstances. An when one does not have a choice, one can accept the circumstances in order to eliminate any possible conflicts arising from them.

Again, all this pseudo philosophical mumbo jumbo is a lot harder in practice than in real life as I have found. But, to speak from experience, it does enhance the quality of being, and hence, the quality of life.

Global Imbalance - An imminent Dollar Crisis

2008-11-24T18:06:00.002+08:00

CA M.R. Venkatesh gives a lecture on globalization, and how the current dynamics of economics has led to the crisis we're facing today. He explains the current situation and how it came about in a very lucid manner.

It is a hour-long lecture, but is definitely worth a watch.

The Story of India

2008-11-23T10:55:00.008+08:00

The Story of India is one of the most brilliant documentaries I have seen on India. Michael Wood, the narrator takes us through a journey of India from the pre-historic times of the Indus Valley civilization to India in its modern day.

Thanks to kashsoldier on YouTube, we have this documentary for all to watch online. For viewing ease, all the videos are listed below.

The Story of India - World's Oldest Civilization

Part 1 of 35 :: Beginnings

Part 2 of 35 :: Beginnings

Part 3 of 35 :: Beginnings

Part 4 of 35 :: Beginnings

Part 5 of 35 :: Power of Ideas

Part 6 of 35 :: Power of Ideas

Part 7 of 35 :: Power of Ideas

Part 8 of 35 :: Power of Ideas

Part 9 of 35 :: Power of Ideas

Part 10 of 35 :: Power of Ideas

Part 11 of 35 :: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

Part 12 of 35 :: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

Part 13 of 35 :: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

Part 14 of 35 :: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

Part 15 of 35 :: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

Part 16 of 35 :: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

Part 17 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 18 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 19 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 20 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 21 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 22 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 23 of 35 :: Ages of Gold

Part 24 of 35 :: The Meeting of Two Oceans

Part 25 of 35 :: The Meeting of Two Oceans

Part 26 of 35 :: The Meeting of Two Oceans

Part 27 of 35 :: The Meeting of Two Oceans

Part 28 of 35 :: The Meeting of Two Oceans

Part 29 of 35 :: The Meeting of Two Oceans

Part 30 of 35 :: Freedom and Liberation

Part 31 of 35 :: Freedom and Liberation

Part 32 of 35 :: Freedom and Liberation

Part 33 of 35 :: Freedom and Liberation

Part 34 of 35 :: Freedom and Liberation

Part 35 of 35 :: Freedom and Liberation

From me to You...

2008-09-29T00:17:00.004+08:00

Tangled up in my masks,
It is myself I seek,
To comprehend the convoluted,
It is a little simplicity I seek,
To contain the aggravation within,
It is a little peace I seek,
To survive this unempathizing world,
It is a little disconnection I seek,
To break the monotony of solitude,
It is a little love I seek,
To pour out the miseries untold,
It is a tear-drop I seek,
To share myself with You,
It is Your warm embrace I seek,
To give meaning to my existence,
It is only You I seek.

Touching the humanity within

2008-09-10T20:51:00.002+08:00

Chris Albani gives a touching speech at TED Talks on the humanity we share with each other. He cites stories from his life and his experiences of the rites of the Igbo tribe in Southern Nigeria.

A will that fell...

2008-06-14T15:02:00.001+08:00

Drifting away,
On and indifferent plane,
Seeking to connect,
A perusal in vain.

Life flashes,
In a glorified darkness,
A helpless spectator,
Complies in numbness.

Deafening noise,
Yet the absence of sound,
The desire to desire,
Cannot be found.

Idealism lost,
Surrendered to reality,
A will that fell,
To the veneration of vanity.

When we were made of earth...

2008-04-02T00:21:00.000+08:00

I can still recount those days when we used to be made of water and earth. We were kids of seven and five. While being the older one, I used to get to boss my little brother around. He is, by far, the best support I have ever known.

Those languid Sundays, when the breeze was too lethargic to move around the neatly swept lawn, we would get to work with our cast-iron soil scoop and the blunt sickle. The far right corner, just beside the Tulis plant where my grandmother use to light the evening lamp, was our favorite excavation spot.

Digging a pond was not enough to fulfill our fancy; the goal used to be to dig a one which would be wider and deeper than the one dug before. I would be lying if I claim that the thorough beating we used to get for creating a muddy mess did not deter us. But once the iron hit the earth, and the cool water drawn from the cranky deep tube well mixed with the fine mud of the lawn, the fear of the punishment was almost instantly forgotten.

In Berhampore, the early afternoon just after lunch, was the quietest and most peaceful time of the day. It was when the housewives took their little naps, shops remained closed, the only papers that fluttered in the public offices were the pages of the local newspaper, in between sips of hot tea from small scratched glasses. Over a period of time, we had discovered this safe window to carry out our mischievous entertainment activities.

As brothers, we were relatively fair (in spite of the fact that I had added advantages of bossing around) in our conduct. While one of us dug, the other was fetching water from the tube well, the art of working which I give ourselves credit for till this day. Because of the sinking water levels, the pipes had been deepened by a solid forty meters the year before. For some reason, it came as a blessing in disguise. When we would raise the handlebar, and hang from it, much like hanging from a tree branch. Our weight would slowly pull the lever down, drawing a mug-full of water with it by the time our folded feet touched the ground.

Over a couple of hours, we would excavate rocks, pieces of broken mud-pots, random roots, and sometimes, when we are really lucky, earthworms. All the earthworms we ever found got a special, or more precisely, an honorary ritualistic treatment. They were instantly split in half, and then the halves into halves again, and so on, till it could not be divided any further. I know it sounds rather brutal in retrospect, but I assure you, at that time and state of mind, it was the most entertaining thing in the world to watch the earthworm trying to run for its life and curl and shimmer as it was split.

Drawing water never stopped, because every time we would fill up our little pond, in a matter of minutes, much of the water would be soaked up the earth below. Since we did not want our paper boats to hit rock bottom, we had no choice but to keep replenishing.

Obviously by this time, we would be relatively covered in clay till our elbows and knees. When boredom would start lurking around the corners of the garden that oversaw the lawn, we would begin our the attempts to make the excavation interesting – mudslinging. I mean literally. By the time mom would intervene and tear us apart, no part of our body, even the ear canals would have been spared. My mom, furiously burning bright red, would start the cleaning up with two tight slaps across our cheeks. We would take it jovially; after all, we had been preparing for it for the from the minute we added the water to the loose mud!

The maid would be instructed to immediately set two pans of water on the stove for heating (we were weak kids then, relatively susceptible to cold). Many tumblers of water would be cranked out the deep tube well, mixed with the boiling water from the pan to the temperature that would just about make us shiver in the orange evening sunset. Ton always went first. He was the easier one to manage – no frills. He didn’t move, run away, throw water back on mom, or dive back into the puddle while being bathed. I, on the contrary, had to be under the constant curfew of my mother’s right hand.

Sitting in the breezy fourteenth floor balcony of a posh Singapore condominium, l almost feel disconnected from the not so distant past. I wonder if in us, we will be able to preserve the bond we share with the earth, which is fading fast, everyday…

Contact Me

2008-01-01T16:20:00.000+08:00

Drop me a line at
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/indradeepbiswas
Twitter: http://twitter.com/indradeep
Linked In: http://sg.linkedin.com/in/indradeepbiswas

We always settle for the second best...

2007-06-13T18:59:00.001+08:00

Lets face the facts, we are all afraid of not being good enough. When we are passionate about something, we often hold high expectations of ourselves when we are involved in it. The fear of not being able to meet our own expectations when following our passion, that drives us to pursue something next to what we are passionate about, and not the subject of passion itself.

To pursue the second best is far easier to digest and less complicated to handle. Since there is not as much respect associated to the subject of pursuit, we can easily excuse ourselves when we fall short, or make mistakes. We often rationalize it with an innate shortcoming, or disability we associate with the subject to the core. It is the inherently lower expectation we have from ourselves when we associate with the second best, that makes the pursuit of the second best so much more lucrative.

Let us look at the our choices of work, or modes of making a living. Most of the people I know who have studied engineering, and doing a faceless job are people who are passionate about something else in life. Be it art, literature, music, sports, etc, their true interest does not lie in their current field of work. They are often dissatisfied with the work, or their performance at it, but they accept it never the less.

One of the major driving force behind this choice is that it is far easier to be a no-one that a someone. We are afraid of not being able to shine if we follow our passion. Most of all, I think what we lack is faith and belief. We are not strong enough to believe that we can be really good at something if we are passionate about it and pursue it at the same time.

Why jobs, we do the same when it comes to relationships. In our lives, we do come across people who we have fantastic connections with, and who seem to understand us completely without a word being said. These are the people who can feel us inside out, and who complete us in ways we never thought possible.

And yet, most of us do not end up with such partners. This often has to do with the fear of unhappiness, of grief, of being hurt. When we are in a average / mediocre relationship, and the basic needs of a relationship such as caring for each other, companionship, sex, etc, it fills a certain piece of the puzzle of standard living. Once we have these basics, and there is nothing more, we look at other avenues for fulfillment, such as work, hobbies, etc.

Another reason why we choose the second best relationship is 'pain'. It works in two ways...you're afraid of getting hurt by the other person, because you have such high expectations from your partner. But above that, you're afraid of hurting your partner because you know what they mean to you, and how much you respect them, and you won't be able to deal with yourself if you inflict pain upon your partner because of your shortcomings or mistakes. This fear leads us to forego the best option, and opt for something less so that we don't have to deal with the fear.

I suppose there is only one way out of this naturally vicious cycle - belief. It is important to believe in ourselves, and our capacity. We cannot be afraid of disappointing the people around us with our choices. But if they are our well wishers, they will soon empathize. Life is all about choices, and we must know that whatever we choose, we're right, as long as we follow our heart.

EPIC 2014: A conjecture not too far off

2007-02-15T16:34:00.001+08:00

Epic 2014 was suggested to me by an an intern of ours. Well, as I watched the flash movie based documentary produced by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson of the Poynter University, it occurred to me that the future might not be too far off from how they conceive it.

Watch the movie on:

You can find the summary / time line of the movie at:

When I watched the movie, there are few things which struck me as being completely in line with the academic research / ideas that are being pursued today. I shall highlight them in the following paragraphs.

Grid Computing

Grid computing is a concept in computing where by resources are distributed across a cluster of computers connected together. These computers solve problems by distributing computational and storage load across the nodes connected to the cluster.

Google's applications run on the Google Grid. Google's search queries are broken down, processed by several inexpensive PCs simultaneously, and then combined to create the search result we see. On this distributed infrastructure (Grid), Google runs GMail, Google Docs, and many other applications of their own.

If you come to think of it, it is almost like the mainframe days, where many people would use a single powerful computer with using multiple terminals. Only now, the single large powerful unit has been replaced by a farm of inexpensive PCs, and our terminal to the grid is the browser.

My networking professor used to say that we might see a day when we plug our terminals into the wall and use computing resources like we used power from the sockets today. That day may not be too far off.

Semantic Web

Semantic web aims to represent the information on the World Wide Web so that the meaning of what is represented can be understood by machines.

Today, almost all web content is designed to be read by human beings. The technologies like Google News, and other automated information compilers use linguistic heuristics to process textual information, without having any understanding of what the information means.

When the Semantic Web comes to life in its full glory, machines will be able to process linguistic representations in a more meaningful way than it is conceivable today. Searches will be more focused and even ads will be more directed! Computers will be able to assimilate information from disparate sources and compile them into meaningful information and analysis.

Newsbotster (as conceived in EPIC 2014) will not be too far from reality then.

User Generated Content

With the advancements in web technologies such as AJAX, CSS 2.0, Web Feeds, and Flash, new websites have sprung up which provide rich user interfaces. These applications allowe the user to easily create content, and share them with individuals and communities.

Websites like Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Newsvine are examples of Web 2.0 applications. These applications have revolutionized how online users perceive content altogether. During the London Bombings, the latest images of the scene were shot by the people in the vicinity with their mobile phones, and were available on Flickr, even before the traditional news media covered it.

These empowered users of today will shape the online content of the future. It is, therefore, absolutely conceivable that among these users/consumers will be content creators, content editors, supported by automated content filters and aggregaters. They will be the brains behind the information available to us tomorrow.

Online Identity

When the internet was founded, users accessed the information online anonymously. When content was designed to be made available to users, the concept of credentials came into picture to give users identity.

Since then, we have seen the standard registrations and logins on websites. Microsoft attempted to create a single identity for each user which could be shared across applications. It was called Microsoft Passport, which now, has evolved into Windows Live Id. Google has integrated its services and it lets the user access all its services using a single Google Account. This could easily be extended beyond to other application providers.

Dick Hardt, the found and CEO of Identity 2.0 suggests an open source initiative to approach the idea of online identity. I recommend you to watch his keynote speech at OSCON 2005.

We now see that more and more information is being captured about our usage patterns - likes, dislikes, interests, etc., and often, this information is being used to deliver relevant advertisements, search results. Soon, all kinds of content that we reach out to will be customized based on our profile and usage pattern information.

Reflection

The strive for relevance is on in a big way. We want to find what is important to us and we want to find it fast. We will soon be delivered exactly what we need, and will hear exactly what we want to hear. EPIC (Evolving Personalized Information Construct), as suggested by EPIC 2014 is likely to emerge if we follow the chain of developments in technology and media online.

Like the documentary had mentioned, there are always two sides of the coin. The trade off will be that with increasing depth, we'd lose breadth. The onus now lies on each individual to decide how personalized their outlook to be!

References

A leap of faith...

2007-02-14T00:22:00.000+08:00

An actor leapt out of the moving frames, and joined the audience. He examined the screen with woe and disdain. New to the world he had stepped into, all he knew was that he had tried.

The world in the frames was drafted in rules scripted by an author. The world was meant for a purpose of representing an idea that belonged to the author, and the actors were created with the sole purpose of living that script for as long as the world of the film rolled.

On every run, the actors got better acquainted with the script and internalized the character he depicted beyond separation. He assumed the identity of the character, and lived (happily) as that persona as long as the film lived.

Winston Smith could never understand why no one ever challenged the idea. After all, it seemed ridiculous to repeat the same mistakes again, commit the same crimes again, or have a heart-break the same way again!

He had, on several occasions tried to improvise on his role, to make a better persona, to influence his world to a state of greater well being, but they all had been in vain. He had been punished and penalized on every such occasion, but his determination grew stronger with every disappointment.

Many screenings and unsuccessful attempts later, he realized what the other actors were not at fault. They were simply following the mandates of the director and the script writer. They had internalized their characters too deeply to sense an identity of their own; a thought of their own, which was different from that of the character.

And with this realization, he leapt out of the frames to reach out to the director and the script writer. He knew nothing of the unknown world he had stepped into. All he knew that he had tried, and that he will keep trying till the very end.

My gracious moon...

2007-01-20T15:05:00.000+08:00

On a brisk afternoon, a languid soul wonders...
Why are the stars saved for darkness?
For they wait for the sun to set...
To find a place next to my gracious moon.

Why do you play hide and seek with me?
The gray clouds conspire with a smirk...
You do not know how I feel.
But hope shall await patiently for eternity,
For my voice to win you over.

SMS Character Set & Sending special charcters

2007-01-04T02:14:00.001+08:00

Like they say necessity is the mother of invention, today, i was forced to understand the GSM SMS standards. I was trying to send a range of special characters in my message. After hours of grueling work and debugging, I realized only a handful of special characters are allowed.

So, I dug up the standard for SMS - GSM 03.38. This corresponds to an ISO character set called ISO 8859-1, which is extremely similar to Microsoft's Windows-1252 character set.

Sending a message through Kannel

I was using Kannel, the open source SMS Gateway software to send out the SMSs. Now, Kannel accepts all messages posted over HTTP only in the Windows-1252 encoding.

So if you're using ASP.NET, you must URL encode your text using the Windows-1252 encoding before making the HTTP request to Kannel. Otherwise, the message received on the device on the other end will look like gibberish.

Receiving a message through Kannel (Kannel Post)

When Kannel receives a message, It tries to see if the character encoding matches ISO 8859-1. If it decoding the message fails using the 8-bit character set, it tries 16-bit Unicode Big Endian (UTF-16BE).

If it is configured to post the message to a designated URL, it will first URL Encode the received text using using the determined formatting, and then supply the character set in the URL as a query string parameter.

If you want to receive your messages in ISO 8859-1, it is important to stick to the characters defined in the set. Failing to do so will call your Post URL with Unicode encoded text.

Resources / References:

Kannel: Open Source WAP and SMS gateway
GSM 03.38 Character Set: Ref 1, Ref 2, ISO 8859-1 Mapping
ISO-8859-1 Encoding, Windows 1252 Encoding

... ushering in 2007

2007-01-02T22:08:00.000+08:00

Lets just say that we ushered in 2007 in Teresa Ville with quite a bang. It was Roy's idea all the way. All I had to do was lend my place.

We love having people over at our house... so much so that sometimes we walk into our living room to find someone bunking in our living room who none of us have ever met before. I think the Hospitality club should be quite happy with Akshay's membership.

Anyway, the night started at about 10 + and we kept rolling into 2007 till alcohol took over. Here's the link to the gallery which has the photos. I'll try to put the photo up on youtube soon!

New Year's Eve Party 2007

Photos

2007-01-02T10:43:00.008+08:00

Flickr Gallery | Picasa Gallery

My artwork

2007-01-02T10:42:00.001+08:00

Link to my albums : Paintings, Sketches, Doodles

I still remember my mom waking me up early in the morning, and getting me ready to go to the art class. It used to be a small gathering of kids from 8-10. I guess it was the only phase of my life when I did not oversleep on Sundays!

After a while... I found a whole different sense for art. I am not a brilliant artist, and nor do I know a lot about art. But I am thankful to LIFE for providing me with opportunities that nurtured the artistic self in me. There is an artist in all of us...

Here are the links to my artwork albums :

Paintings - oil, acrylic, pastels
Sketches - pencil, colour pencil
Doodles - pen, pencil, markers

... faces ...
(2003)

...a quest to hold back the hands of time...
(1999)

The matchstick struck

2006-11-01T02:20:00.001+08:00

DEEP THOUGHT, the supercomputer created by novelist Douglas Adams, got there first, but now the astronomer royal has caught up. Professor Sir Martin Rees is to suggest that “life, the universe and everything” may be no more than a giant computer simulation with humans reduced to bits of software.

~ The Sunday Times - Top scientist asks: is life all just a dream?

I suppose I wasn't too far off when I wondered if this universe could be a product of a man in another dimension striking a match to light his cigarette. The big bang occurs as the match flares up, the universe ages as the man lights his cigarette, and then comes the end of the universe, when the match is lit out.

It may not be too difficult to imagine a possibility where by the Matrix is a reality or the earth being a small lab experiment to see how conscious beings develop in a specific environment. The possibilities are endless.

Imagine a world where every man and woman asked the question about creation, existence, purpose, and other unknowns that surround mankind... Would humanity progress, would civilizations flourish, would there be development? Human beings have been asking these questions for as long as the recorded history goes. There have been thinkers who have tried to address these questions in their own way, with the knowledge that any explanation they present would be incomplete.

And these great men, who pondered through their lifetimes, to realize in the end that they are incapable of finding an answer, created God. The creation of God was the one word answer to all that was unanswerable.

The solution worked marvelously, and had a great many effects most of which, these wise men had never imagined. As the stories surrounding God evolved, wars were waged to establish ideologies. Guidelines for living were chalked out. A new social structure emerged which rewarded those who enforced these guidelines. Thought and perception of being as we know has since been irreversibly altered.

We have come a long way since. We have created science. We have augmented our senses, and expanded the horizon of our perceptions. And yet, our thoughts still tend to run on the established rails.

I long for that day when we can break free ... and think beyond ... wonder why... I wonder...