I have launched a beta (or perhaps alpha) version of Mangta. It is a web service which will let you search for songs, movies, ebooks, software, games and all other kinds of cool stuff using clever google tricks.

Take a look at it. Click to http://paraschopra.com/mangta/

Alejandro Barreto asked me a few of his philosophical questions. I am reproducing the relevant part of conversation below.

> 1. What is the basis of entire reality? And what does Godel’s Incompleteness
> Theorem got to do with this?

As far as I understand, Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, in general, tells that there is some truth which cannot be proved or disproved…
Alejandro Barreto asked me a few of his philosophical questions. I am reproducing the relevant part of conversation below.

> 1. What is the basis of entire reality? And what does Godel’s Incompleteness
> Theorem got to do with this?

As far as I understand, Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem, in general, tells that there is some truth which cannot be proved or disproved. It isnt that one has any less intelligence to prove or disprove the truth, but it is the general property of the system.

If we apply this theorem to reality, I guess there are certain things which we might never understand. It is IMPOSSIBLE to know every truth.

But, maybe this is my naive interpertation of Godel’s theorem.

> 3. What are your views on the subject-object duality? Do you believe in
> solipsism (that the world exists only for me and everything is my
> imagination) or pure objective science (”I” am only a bunch of hyperactive
> biological units called cells)? Can we even know the foundation of reality?

The more I think about the ultimate reality, the lesser I understand it. I believe out brain was never evolved to understand things such as subject-object duality. It was evolved to make strategies for hunting animals for food. It was evolved to comprehend things in their macro sense. So it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to understand things in thier ultimate reality.

There is no way you can disprove or prove either of these: solipsism or pure objective science. How would you prove a person adhering to solipsism that pure objective science is true. Perhaps, to prove that
world exists without him, you will have to kill him. And by killing him, you can no longer prove (or show) him anything. Similarly, you can never prove a person adhering to pure objective science that solipsism is true.

I believe we can never know the ultimate truth or reality or whatever you might want to call it. We were not evolved for this. The ultimate reality will always remain elusive for, us, philosophers.

I dunno. Maybe I am little egoist; I like express myself even when nobody is listening. Or, maybe this blog will help the person who will write my biography

A new species of bacteria has been discovered with minimalistic genome size having just over 180 genes and less than 200k bp. They say it could be an organelle into making.

I don’t know, for the existence life, what is the limit of the genomic size or, for the matter of fact, even if the genome itself is needed. There might be some exotic types of life forms waiting patiently for us to discover them. I am just hopeful they are discovered within my lifespan.

Nobody knows. Neither anyone would ever know. We are the unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate) consequence of an accident called life. But why should we bear the trouble which we have not chosen.

This is an interesting account of the possibilities of regeneration of environmentally greener earth once the humans are wiped out instantly. Overall, the article, citing optimistic facts, seems to provide enough reasons for us to abandon the earth and let it regrow to its natural condition. It argues that, provided enough time, the earth will eventually get back to its natural condition with no obvious signs of the presence of a previous intelligent life on it.

I think that the article is compelling, but, haven’t they done a (practically) fruitless exercise? We know pretty for sure that no one is going to leave earth sooner and even if we are wiped out by a cataclysm, who would be here to confirm these facts.

The genetically modified bacteria (E. coli) have been successfully engineered to produce biodiesel from glucose and plant oils. This could be used as an alternative to normal diesel fuels, thus off-setting greenhouse emissions. And in contrast to normal biodiesels, huge amount of land is also not needed to cultivate crops as the plant oils can be derived from plant wastes.

See the news here.

In yet another demonstration of weird but appropriate fusion of biology with other scientific areas, researchers have combined tobacco mosaic virus with platinum nanoparticles. This created super-fast transistors.

Click here to read the news story.

Ignorance towards the global warming, population explosion, sadness, terrorism, ozone layer thinning, poverty….

Ignorance towards the fact that our lifespans are insignificant in front of the grander design…

Ignorance towards the purpose of life…

Ignorance towards the serendipity…

Ignorance towards the REAL truth…

Ignorance towards nothingness…

Wah! I just love the bliss of ignorance…