Survival of the Unfittest

Herbert Spencer used the term "Survival of the Fittest" to describe Darwin's theory or Darwinism or Darwin's Theory, a theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others. It states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

Read the last few words again, "compete, survive, and reproduce". A logical interpretation is that it refers to the individuals ability to compete and survive against all species of organisms existing on this planet.  The question I have been pondering on is how do we define fittest. In my mind, this definition has had three broad phases and has undergone 2 major transformations.

1. Physical Strength: In their most primitive form, humans relied primarily on physical strength for survival in the wild. Fighting with wild animals, hunting for food, surviving in the open all called for high levels of physical strength. Simply put, if someone did not have the physical strength for tasks such as those mentioned above, they would NOT survive!

2. Mental Strength: As humans evolved and found smarter ways to survive, the focus shifted to mental strength although physical strength was still a prerequisite for survival. The smarter men started becoming the 'fittest' within the human race as humans started isolating themselves from all other species of organisms in the wild.

3. Monetary Strength: We have now reached a day and age, where all a human needs for survival is money! Ironically, physical strength is the least defining trait of survival in the modern world.

If we look closer at how our interaction with the surrounding species has evolved, we notice that in the good ol' days humans had to fight against all other forms of being for survival. As we started isolating ourselves from the wild, the scope of our survival changed to within our species. We created a boundary within which we survive, and the fight for survival within this boundary is against fellow human beings. By introducing laws against use of physical and mental strength (not completely!), the only differentiating factor among humans is monetary strength. Will we completely negate mental strength as well in the future and make monetary strength the supreme definition of survival?

Imagine a scenario where we have completely negated physical and mental strength as prerequisites for survival. Also imagine that the boundaries that we have created for ourselves to protect us from the wild, break. Are we humans fit to survive in an environment free of these boundaries? Do we have the necessary physical strength?

Humans are getting fitter to survive in an environment comprising of humans. But outside of this environment.....

So then, are we making the human race weaker by encouraging 'Survival of the Unfittest'?

Amo, ergo sum

Cogito, ergo sum. Sure, our thinking proves our existence. But there is more to humans than mere existence! It's our love that proves that we are indeed humans and not any other species. I therefore propose an alternative version of this quote for humans, "Amo, ergo sum" or "I love, therefore I am" 

Unforgiven Too

It was a bright sunny day, the one which gives you hope. The one where you wake up and feel a bubble of energy inside you, a bubble large enough to last the entire day. He was looking forward to spending his day on the beach. It had been a long, cold, dark, and ruthless winter, hundreds had died. The shivering had finally given way to the warmer climes, the darkness to the bright sunshine.

He neatly packed all his jackets and put them deep inside his wardrobe. The tshirts and shorts were in for a front row appearance now. He made a short trip to the pharmacy to buy a sunscreen and then drove to the beach.

The animals in the forests were loving this climate too. They had finally started getting back their bodies to normal routines. A small pond of water had formed on the other side of the freeway. The animals routinely hopped across oblivious to the sounds of the moving cars.

He was a fan of rock music, Metallica being his all-time favorite band. "Lay beside me, tell me what they've done. Speak the words I wanna hear, to make my demons run" blared from the car stereo. He was head-banging and at the corner of his eye he saw a deer approaching the freeway. His brain applied Newton's laws and the imminent crash dawned on him.

His mind panicked and in a knee-jerk reaction, he turned the steering of his car to the right to avoid a collision. He was an animal lover after all and couldn't imagine killing an innocent deer. His car bumped against the median strip and swerved back. He caught a glimpse of a hummer in his rear-view mirror. He closed his eyes and heard the music blare from his stereo "the door cracks open, but there's no sun shining through"

Inner peace

The chaos that the last year was, it has left me wanting for some sanity and peace, inner peace. So what is the secret to inner peace? In my opinion, we seek inner peace in the unknown, not in the known. The known is what causes chaos and insanity in our lives. It is the unknown which provides us with the perfect recluse, to be within ourselves and not be bothered by everything else around us.

It is in this unknown that one can live the way one wants to, without ever being judged or commented upon. There is no history or baggage that we carry along in the company of the unknown. Maybe that is why we love to explore unknown places, meet new people, try new things.

Maybe that's why I found scuba diving to calm me down (as did Hrithik in ZNMD). Maybe that's why twitter has become such a big hit, your followers are mostly unknown people and you can do as you please. Maybe that's why a trip to the Himalayas can rejuvenate one. And it is this solo trip to the Himalayas that I crave so badly right now.

Roaming alone in the majestic beauty of the royal mountains, interacting and living with strangers who also happen to live the simplest of lives, staying away from internet and social media, interacting with the outside world only when I feel like doing so, can any other place offer me all this?

This leads to a much broader and philosophical question, weren't we all supposed to live life that way until society and its rituals and expectations redefined life for us? Why should we let society dictate our lifestyles, should we be the dictators of our own lives? The common argument is that this attitude will lead to chaos, complete chaos in the world. Are we supposed to sacrifice inner peace for outer peace, the greater peace of this big bad world?

Have we set ourselves standards high benchmarks because we consider ourselves to be at the top of the food chain, to be the most intelligent of species on this planet? Are we putting too many restrictions on our lives just to sound social and intelligent? Other than our own species (humans), which other species considers us to be supreme? Are we engaging in this kinda behavior to self validate our hypothesis that we are superior, to keep boosting our own egos? Have we fallen in some kinda trap that has stopped us from enjoying our lives the way we'd ideally love to?

Too many questions, too few answers, too little time. The time aspect is again a fallout of our own false beliefs and practices. And the fact that we don't have answers reiterates our barriers of intelligence and knowledge. Can we, or any other species, ever break these barriers?

The great Indian traveler

We Indians are paranoid when it comes to boarding aircrafts. I guess it stems from our experiences in boarding buses and trains in our country, especially the local trains in Mumbai. One has to fight for every inch of space, for every mole of O2. I myself have been in situations where am hanging from the door of a train with one hand holding my bag, and the other holding my weight. To make matters worse, the track was circular and the centripetal force started pushing me out of the train, as if the forces applied by other passengers was not enough. Thanks to my stars, and all the temple visits, the almighty was generous enough!

Anyhow, as soon as we Indians hear "We are commencing boarding for Flight AI 884. All passengers are requested to proceed to the boarding gates." we jump out of our seats and run to be the first ones in the queue. I personally think this behavior is based on three flawed assumptions!

1) The Pigeonhole Principle is not applied to seats in an aircraft:

The number of seats in the aircraft is always greater than the number of passengers waiting to board it unlike what we Indians experience daily (in locals and buses)! Little do we realize that its not a Virar fast train that is just reaching Churchgate station and seats will not be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis. We all have a boarding pass with a designated seat number printed on it! Boarding first or last does not change your seat number magically.

2) The buses follow a LIFO system:

Typically airlines take you from the boarding gate to the aircraft in a shuttle service. Ever noticed that the passenger who gets into the shuttle last is actually the first passenger to get out of the shuttle! Voila, the earlier you enter, the later you get out. So, guys and gals, remember, always be the last person to get into the shuttle which implies always be the last person in the queue at the boarding gate.

3) The last passenger is the RDS:

The flight typically does not take-off until the very last passenger has boarded it. So you boarding the aircraft 30 mins before take-off does no good! Relax a bit, take a small nap, read some newspaper, play some game on your phone, but do not, I repeat, do not run to the boarding gate.

On a serious note, let us all show some maturity while traveling and be courteous to our fellow passengers. Every traveler desires a comfortable and peaceful journey.

Point of inflection

In differential calculus, an inflection point, point of inflection, or inflection is a point on a curve at which the curvature (second derivative) changes signs. For a visual illustration of this, refer to the figure. Enough of differential calculus though!

When you meet new people in life, you form certain perceptions about them. These perceptions are based on how they interact with you, how they react to different situations, so on and so forth. As is obvious, these perceptions are limited to the number and kind of observations you make. The more the number of observations, the better your perceptions. The more time you spend with a person, the better you know that person.

After spending sufficient amount of time with a person, you begin to think that you know that person inside out! But is that ever the case? Well, sometimes it is and sometimes it is not! There are certain moments or certain actions which can completely change your perception about that person whom you claim to know inside out! I call these moments/actions as the points of inflection. These can be simple gestures or statements. The points of inflection are the moments/actions wherein a person reacts in complete contrast to your expectations. These points of inflection bring about a complete reversal of your perceptions. Your perception about that person changes implying that as per your frame of reference, the person's nature has changed.

One thing to bear in mind is that this can be cyclic (Now you know why I chose the sinusoidal curve for the graphical illustration!). As the nature of this curve changes from convex to concave and then convex again; so does your perspective about the nature of that person. This can give rise to false assumptions. Remember, the nature of the person might remain the same, its your perspective which has changed!

Awesomeness Redefined

In August 2009, I'd gone for a trek to Hemkund Sahib, the religious Sikh shrine. It's located at an altitude of 14,000 ft! Whilst enjoying the view from the top, I actually wondered how much time it would take for one to free fall from such an altitude. Assuming uniform gravity and no drag, the time turns out to be roughly 30 seconds. That is it!

Fast forward to September 2009, and I am about to sky dive from an airplane at 14,500 ft! So on 27th September, my friend and I decided to go skydiving. We booked a slot for 2 pm, the charges were $322 per person ($190 for the dive + $90 for the video + $44 service charges). We rented a car (none of us had ever driven in the US before!) and headed off for Wisconsin! It was a 50 mile drive and using Google Maps on our blackberry, we somehow managed to reach the place only to find out that due to bad weather, skydiving was on stay. We waited for a few hours, after which we were issued rain checks valid for a year! The disappointment was obvious but there was hope as I had one more free weekend in US!

The weather got worse during the week but the prediction for Sunday was good. I convinced two other friends of mine and we rented a car again and this time left at 9 in the morning! We reached there at 10 only to find out that the skydiving is on hold again coz of bad weather! As time passed by, hope started diminishing. We had lunch and then coffee, by now it was 4 pm and we were hoping against hope. The clouds seemed to hover exactly above us, everywhere else the sky was blue! Seemed like I was destined for it. Just as we were about to give up and head back, the weather cleared up! We were drinking our coffee and the next thing we knew, we were all geared up and inside the airplane.

I did get a scare the first time I saw the ground from 14,500 ft and I said to myself, what the heck! But there was no stopping from there on. Ready, steady go and there I was, falling freely under the influence of gravity! The first few seconds were literally free fall! I had no clue which side was earth and which side was the sky. All I knew was that I had an instructor along with me and if not for my life, at least he would want to save his own life. That was my consoling factor! After 2-3 seconds of falling free and tumbling around in the sky (now I can imagine what birds would feel like), the instructor deployed the primary parachute and things became stable all of a sudden.

Once the primary parachute is deployed, the instructor makes you go round in circles and performs some other maneuvers. In the meantime, the video guy is capturing all of this live! You are falling @ 200 kph and the only adjective that comes close to describing this experience is 'awesome'. Right below me (10,000 ft below), I could see the run way. In the far background, was the beautiful and serene Lake Michigan. I just felt like this should never end. Flying is the best thing that can ever happen to mankind!

By the time we reached 4,000 ft, I was supposed to pull the trigger for the main canopy to open. In the excitement of it all, I forgot. But then, what was the instructor there for. After all, I did pay him $200 for something, right? So he pulled the canopy and all of a sudden, I felt a jerk and the free fall stopped! I felt as if I have switched from a Ferrari F1 car to a Maruti 800! Paragliding seemed like peanuts in front of sky diving. And as is the case with all good things, even this came to an end after a few minutes of gliding around.

So there I was, with my feet firmly on the ground (:D), literally! This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and you have to experience it to understand what I mean! I am sure that even if I go for skydiving again, it won't be the same as the first time; but still I would wanna do it again. So all ya adventure buffs, what you waiting for? Go out there and jump!

To watch a video of this awesome skydiving experience, click here.