ignoble thoughts

The Blog Has Moved...

2009-06-04T11:18:00.003+05:30

Catch mi on... SudeepBhaumick.Com though i have not started on Doom n Gloom in earnest over there for lack of time... Will soon...

the web of lies - part 2

2008-11-06T15:45:00.003+05:30

ENERGY & ECONOMICS & RESOURCE GATHERING

One of the first things that I came across in my misadventure was that we live in a finite world. Everything has limits to the quantity it is found on the earth; after all we live in a closed system, the ecosystem. But everyone knows that, right ?

In the early days of discussion on this topic Kunal & mi found ourselves quite surprised by the fact that we had forgotten these simple things and later I realized that there were quite a few people around who were in a similar situation. So the question was, why have human beings forgotten that we inhabit a finite world?

I think the answer lies in Economics. Economists assumed after observing, quite correctly in the short term, that if there is a demand for some particular good in the market, then the market will provide it at a proportionate cost.

There are a few assumptions made over here by the economists that are fundamentally out of sync with the dynamics of the real world we inhabit. I would like to go into one (for now) of the five mentioned by Jay Hanson (The creator of DieOff.org) in the article…

FIVE FUNDAMENTAL ERRORS

#2. A fundamentally inverted world view: the economist sees the environment as a subsystem of the economy, rather than the other way around. In other words, economists are trained to believe that natural resources come from "markets" rather than the "environment”.

http://dieoff.org/page241.htm

Economists after assuming this have more or less assumed that at some point in time our economic system shall be spread over the entire universe. But the unfortunate fact remains that so far we live in a closed system and that system is the ecosystem and we should come back to our senses and model our economic system as a subset of the ecosystem and not the other way around.

I say unfortunately because I would have loved to be a space trucker bringing home the precious resources from distant planets, as a child I always wanted to be an explorer and have a life of adventure.

Back to the point, even if we were able to expand our influence over the rest of the universe, we would still end up with a situation where our economy would be a subset of a finite universe. The universe is big, so big that it appears to be infinite, but in the end there is a number which quantifies the total mass of the universe. Does that seem familiar? Of course it does, at one point human beings thought the same of the vastness of planet earth.

As mentioned by Michael Lardelli (Michael Lardelli is Senior Lecturer in Genetics at The University of Adelaide. Since 2004 he has been an activist for spreading awareness on the impact of energy decline resulting from oil depletion.) in his recent article… emphasis added by mi.

EARTH AS A MAGIC PUDDING

“Cornucopians - those who believe the Earth’s resources are boundless - have a clever mental trick to avoid acknowledging that the planet is finite. It is commonly called the “resource pyramid”.

The argument goes like this. When we first begin to extract a substance from a resource we exploit that resource in which the substance is most concentrated (and so easiest to purify) and/or most accessible.

An example of this would be digging large gold nuggets out of riverbanks in the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s or mining phosphate-rich guano on the Pacific island of Nauru by simply scooping it up and bagging it. However, as you probably know, the alluvial gold of Victoria and the guano on Nauru were both mined out many years ago.

You might think that this would lead to a severe shortage of these materials but this is where the resource pyramid works it magic. As these resources begin to become scarce their price rises. The higher price now makes it economically viable to extract the substance from a less accessible and/or less concentrated source. Amazingly, the total amount of the substance present in this lower-grade resource is greater than in the original, most concentrated resource. This pattern repeats. As the less concentrated resource begins to be mined out the price of the substance rises ever higher so that extracting it from an even lower grade/less accessible source becomes economically viable.

The total amount of the substance present in the lowest grade of resource is greater than previously. By this argument we can never run out of a substance because the more we use, the more becomes economically viable to extract. Our planet truly is a magic pudding! This idea can be represented as a pyramid with the small amount of most concentrated/accessible substance at the top and successively larger amounts of the substance in lower grades of ore, and so on, as we move down:

Figure 1: Resource Pyramid for materials

The resource pyramid idea contains a hidden assumption - that energy is cheap and abundant. In fact, it is the price of energy that ultimately determines the base of the resource pyramid. At each step down the resource pyramid the substance sought is less pure and/or accessible and so it requires more energy to extract.

At some point the cost of the energy required to exploit the resource will equal the value of the substance obtained. It is at that moment that exploitation of the resource ends. To date, energy has been so cheap that we have rarely (if at all) been faced with having to end exploitation. (No examples spring to my mind. Maybe readers can suggest some in comments on this article.) The high price of any substance has usually resulted in substitution by something else more abundant.”

When it comes to discussions of oil or other energy sources Cornucopians apply the resource pyramid argument in one form or another. The following comment by the CEO of Exxon Mobil Australia is a good example:

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Earth currently has more than 3 trillion barrels of conventional recoverable resource and so far we’ve produced 1 trillion of that. Conservative estimates of heavy oil and shale oil push the total recoverable resource to over four trillion barrels.

And more recently, the chief economist of BP said:

Therefore there will never be a moment when the world runs out of oil because there will always be a price at which the last drop of oil can clear the market. And you can turn anything into oil if you are willing to pay the financial and environmental price.

This contrasts with those convinced that a peak of oil production is imminent who mostly believe that only about 1 trillion barrels of extractable conventional oil remain. (Note - it is worthwhile remembering that the peak oil concept is about the rate of oil extraction, not the total extractable reserves remaining.)

What the Cornucopians do not seem to understand is that energy must be invested to produce energy. If hydrocarbons are being mined for energy then exploration must occur, wells must be drilled, the oil or gas must be extracted and separated into various fuel grades before further distribution to vehicular fuel tanks. (The process is much more complicated than this but you get the general idea.) It is an energy intensive process.

Earlier in the Oil Age when the most easily accessible oil fields were first tapped a relatively small energy investment gave a huge energy profit - by some estimates a profit ratio of 100-fold or greater.

As oil extraction from a field proceeds the pressure drops requiring more and more energy-intensive methods to be used to continue the extraction - such as pumping down gas or water to maintain pressure and/or pumping up the oil. Also, as the Oil Age has proceeded the size/accessibility of oil fields discovered has decreased (since larger and more accessible fields are easier to find and so are found first) and the more intensive exploration and drilling required to exploit the smaller/less accessible oil fields requires more energy.

If we begin to exploit non-conventional sources of oil then the energy inputs required are greater still, meaning that the net energy produced from each energy unit invested decreases. What this means is that as we use up our highest quality/most accessible hydrocarbon resources and begin to consume lower quality/less accessible resources, the net energy produced from each unit invested decreases.

If the object of the mining activity is net energy production (i.e. the actual energy left over after the inputs to mining, processing and distributing it have been subtracted) then the volume of net energy decreases as the resource quality declines, i.e. as we move down the resource “pyramid”.

In fact, the resource pyramid for net energy resembles more a pyramid standing on its apex! This is shown in the figure below where EROEI is the acronym for Energy Returned on Energy Invested. Once net energy production from the extraction process falls to zero (i.e. EROEI = 1) then it is impossible for the activity to continue (unless the activity is subsidised with energy from another source).

Figure 2: Resource Pyramid for energy

It is true that the world possesses hydrocarbon resources equivalent to many trillions of barrels of oil but these will never be harvested for energy production. It may be that they will be mined, for example, for plastics production at some future date but the energy to do the mining will come from elsewhere.

Many readers may believe that technology will solve this net energy problem by providing less energy intensive methods to extract hydrocarbons from difficult resources. While technology can have a marginal impact, there are some minimum levels of energy investment that cannot be circumvented. For example, the molecular forces holding oil within its constraining rock matrix will always require a certain minimum application of energy to overcome and nothing can magically levitate oil at low pressure up from a deposit several kilometres below ground.

Even if all the low quality hydrocarbon resources could be exploited, the rate at which these difficult deposits could be mined would be low and so would be the rate at which we could obtain energy from them.

The ultimate consequence is that, at some point (“peak net energy”) the rate at which we will obtain energy from fossil sources must decline. An interesting example of this is energy production from coal in the USA. While the tonnage of coal mined in the USA is now at record levels, coal quality is declining and the total energy content of the coal has been decreasing since 1998 (PDF 534KB)!

Also, the total rate of oil production is currently on a plateau and may have peaked but we know that the best grades of oil requiring least processing for gasoline/petrol production (“light sweet crude”) peaked by 2004 and that new oil production is increasingly “heavy and sour”. This, combined with the additional energy required to exploit smaller and more remote oil fields means that we must be at, or close to, the peak rate of net energy production from oil.

The resource pyramid is an interesting concept that allows economists to argue that resources are unlimited. However, like so much economic theory, it is only an illusion supported by cheap and abundant energy.

Note: Factors influencing the resource pyramid concept are discussed in detail in a 2002 article in Geotimes. The authors place great significance on advancement of technology for increasing resource availability but they never mention net energy.

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/46956

I will be making a more detailed exploration of the concept of EROEI in the next post.

What this means is that there are only so much resources available at our disposal and as we exploit more it becomes more difficult to continue doing so, till we reach a point where it becomes economically unfeasible for further exploitation.

The economists dream of a future with perpetual growth based on dreamed up assumptions. Based on simple reasoning people are questioning these assumptions, so am I, so should you, after all we and our successors are going to be a part of the nightmare of consequences if this continues.

the web of lies - part 1

2008-10-22T17:18:00.011+05:30

ENERGY & ECONOMICS

The bloodbath of my beliefs started about seven months back and if you remember as I have recollected in the first post it started with my concern over increasing levels of complexity that surrounds us. Complexity in my opinion has become a problem because it does not seem to be solving more problems than it is creating.

Dawn was already breaking when we decided to go to sleep, after that first exchange of thoughts on this subject with Kunal. But, sleep I no longer could. The rest as they say is now history. Curiosity killed the Sudeep that everyone knew.

THE ENERGY CRISIS
Soon I found myself sitting on the computer invoking the God of Google. The search string I don’t remember, what I cannot forget and possibly will never be able to was the term ‘Peak Oil’. It was the fourth or fifth result. It glared at mi (later I realized that it was not really glaring at mi, it was written in bold letters) and I clicked. The site that opened was ‘Life After The Oil Crash’ more commonly known as LATOC by Matt Savinar. I read it and my first reaction was one of disdain, I completely ignored it and went back to my original search almost chuckling thinking, another conspiracy theory, lol.

Then I came across, ‘The Thirty Thesis’. There was a particular thesis that really shook mi up titled, Complexity Ensures Collapse and it more or less echoed my thoughts. As I leafed through the collection of thesis I again stumbled across ‘Peak Oil’. Now I was really curious and I invoked Google once again. This time I searched for ‘Peak Oil’. There came a deluge of information I went through some of the results. Now it started making more sense.

But how could this be possible? I used to consider myself well read and aware of the world around mi, how could I have missed such a topic? It was evening by the time I went to sleep. What I remember is a sense of disbelief mixed with a growing level of anxiety.

Peak Oil quickly transformed into Energy Crisis when I learned that it was not only crude oil in short supply but we also seem to be running out of natural gas and quality reserves of coal.

Most of the so called renewable energy sources have their own peculiar problems making them incapable of replacing the, what I like to call ‘Big Three’, crude oil, natural gas and coal.

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
Next came into the picture these, soothsayer like warnings of impending doom of the financial system of the world. A lot of people have been predicting for years now that the financial system of the world led by the Americans has become hollow and that there will soon come a day of reckoning.

After the sub-prime debacle started last year these so called hair-brained gypsy fortunetellers started drooling and saying, things like, “it has started” and “this is it”. Nobody obviously believed them and even I was having a tough time believing. That was after having understood the basics and after agreeing with them. Well that was seven months back… Today I don’t have to believe them neither do you, the facts speak for themselves. The financial systems as we knew it is going through a period that anthropologist call an Extinction Level Event (ELE).

What is the basic problem with our financial world?

Nobody realized that money should represent a unit of energy. An economic system cannot be expected to function forever when there is no correlation between the money that you pay for getting an amount of work done and the energy that was used in doing that work. Particularly when the energy that powers our world comes from non-renewable resources, crude oil, natural gas and coal. And we live in a closed system, i.e. there is no crude-oil coming from the planet CrudeOil in a galaxy far far away.

We were living in an era of cheap, abundant and ever increasing supply of energy, namely, the big three; crude oil, natural gas and coal.

So? What is the connection?

Ok, the whole economic system runs on the principles called debt financing and equity financing. If I don’t have money to buy a car today I will go to a bank and borrow money at a rate of interest. Say I borrow Rs.10,00,000 at a rate of 8% p.a. for one year. It means after 1 year I have to return the bank Rs.10,80,000. But what is not stated over here is the cost of energy at which this transaction was made, say, $ 20 per barrel. I know this is a very simple example; generally these things are more complex and the debtor ends up paying much more.

Scenario 1 : Cost of energy goes up to $ 40 per barrel.
Everything that I buy, food, water, home, electricity, etc. becomes costlier, I have lesser money left with mi to return the loan, I will extend the period of the loan and in the process increase the amount I have to repay.

Scenario 2 : Cost of energy goes up to $ 80 per barrel.
My company which was also running on debt financing, defaulted because its customers, people like mi could not afford to buy the dream vacations that we sell, because like mi they were finding it difficult to buy food, water, pay their home loans, etc. the company filed for bankruptcy and hence I lost my job. Now I am a so-called liability to the society because my government pays mi to buy food and petrol and keep looking for a job. This happens in two ways; in the west they call it unemployment benefits in places like India it is done through farmer loan waiver, seed / pesticide / fertilizer / other subsidy, petrol / diesel / LPG subsidy, water subsidy and so on...

If I am an American I default on my loan and the bank takes away my car, my precious car… an Indian farmer’s crop fails he commits suicide.

Scenario 3 : Availability of energy is under threat.
Oh my God! I hear that Mexico and North Sea have run out of oil. I did not know the fertilizer was made from natural gas and it takes enormous amounts of energy to make pesticides and to water the food crops. It takes enormous amounts of energy to harvest, store, process, pack, market and keep it on the counters of the nearest shop. After all that I have to spend more energy to get to it, to bring it home and cook it and eat it. Oh my God! I did not know that my country does not have the oil reserves to do all of this and now I might have to join the army and fight for oil in some place called Iraq, so that my family and countrymen can continue living this insanely glorified lifestyle.

Every time you take a loan you are betting that there will be more energy in the system in the future than there is when the loan was taken.

• If there is a surplus of energy, that surplus energy is used so as to generate a monetary surplus i.e. saving which is used to repay the loan.

• If the cost of energy goes up the cost of everything goes up and your savings diminish.

• If there is no excess of energy over existing levels there is no way one could generate a saving and begin to repay the loan.

The point being, if there is an increasing, cheap supply of energy the phenomenon of debt financing can work. You take away that basic assumption the financial system would have to crash because nobody will be able to repay their loans, like it has.

This covers debt financing, I will get to equity financing in a later post.

How bad is it?

The countries of the G7 are either are in recession or are headed towards it and every few days they keep extending the time frame for its so-called eventual recovery.

POUND PLUNGES AFTER MERVYN KING WARNS OF RECESSION
The value of the pound has plunged, suffering its sharpest drop in 16 years, after the Governor of the Bank of England warned that Britain is entering a recession.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3239283/Pound-plunges-after-Mervyn-King-warns-of-recession.html

Companies are going bankrupt and merging left, right and centre and this is just the start. I shudder to imagine the jobless numbers by the end of this financial year, even worse for the next one.

Countries are going bankrupt like Iceland who were ranked 4th last year in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and the top ranked county in terms of Human Development Index (HDI)

WHICH COUNTRY WILL SLITHER DOWN THE SLIPPERY SLOPE NEXT?
The threat of a worldwide recession leaves many other countries fearing for their future financial and economic strength. Simon Evans, Mark Leftly and Jesse Loncraine assess the health of 16 states on the 'at risk' list
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/which-country-will-slither-down-the-slippery-slope-next-965956.html

As the title suggests this is the first part of the web of lies there is more to come… I am intentionally not doing an exhaustive sector by sector reporting because it is just too vast. I am just trying to give a summary of the state of affairs, a general view of the surroundings the human race finds itself at the pinnacle of technology and progress.

For the purpose of attribution and suggested further reading I am giving a list of websites / blogs / forums / documentaries…

The Oil Drum
Energy Bulletin
Life After The Oil Crash
Die Off
The Automatic Earth
From The Wilderness
A Crude Awakening : The Oil Crash
The End of Suburbia : Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream

Also those on the list of Essential Readings at the top of the column on the right...

thank you for your thoughts… encouraging or otherwise

2008-10-14T17:11:00.005+05:30

Some people have personally responded with encouragement, critique, suggestions and questions. I would like to thank all for having initiated the process of thought. It would have been even better if they would have made their opinions felt more publicly, but you know what they say, something is better than nothing.

There has been a question raised on the following comment in the previous post.

"Every time you buy you vote. Make your vote count. Buy the right things."

My friend asked mi what exactly I meant by this. I intended to cover this later but I figured it would take a lot of time to reach there, so here it is in advance.

BUY LOCAL

In the U.S., the average grocery store's produce travels nearly 1,500 miles between the farm where it was grown and your refrigerator.ii About 40% of our fruit is produced overseas and, even though broccoli is likely grown within 20 miles of the average American's house, the broccoli we buy at the supermarket travels an average 1,800 miles to get there. Notably, 9% of our red meat comes from foreign countries, including locations as far away as Australia and New Zealand.iii

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/buylocal/

BUY DURABLE & REUSABLE

Consumer items in particular these days are not made to last and we use them without too much care. Ask your parents or grandparents and they will tell you without any doubt that the things they used to buy used to last way longer than the things available in the market today. 'Use and Throw' is the in thing, what we do not realize is that this comes at an enormous cost to the ecosystem we live in. Our manufacturing system creates 32 truckloads of waste for 1 truckload of usable goods. So we can claim that ours is a waste producing system because that is the larger output in terms of sheer quantity. Energy usage is also a concern and so is the consumption of resources. Maybe you are not aware that humankind has depleted most of the resources that were available on this planet. 'Peak Oil' is not the only concern it is more like peak everything.

BUY ENERGY EFFICIENT

The products that we buy should be energy efficient, if they are not then we are directly wasting energy. A good example would be the use of fluorescent light bulbs to save electricity. More efficient transportation systems, instead of going to work alone in your car you should be carpooling. Mass transit systems are without doubt the best alternative. It is not just an economically practical suggestion but also saves the total energy available to us humans.

EVERY TIME YOU PAY YOU VOTE, MAKE IT COUNT

If people moved towards durable, usable, energy efficient goods and services companies can be forced to make products and services that have these qualities. Start buying energy efficient appliances and the corporate world will be forced to adapt and produce energy efficient products or become extinct.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT : THE ROADS IN INDIA

Have you ever thought if all the roads in India would be made better what the result could be ?

1. Higher fuel efficiency of vehicles

2. Lower wear and tear of vehicles thus, lowering the cost of replacement and maintenance

3. Lesser pollution

4. Lower expenditure on repairing and remaking the roads

5. Lesser number of accidents.

6. Lower cost of petroleum imports.

The government doesn't need to give subsidies on fuel at least not the kind of amount it gives. It can spend all that taxpayer money into building better roads and the benefits would increase over time. But that does not happen and it will not happen if left to them. The system needs a push. We need to become less focused on the short term gain and look at the larger picture.

If you think about it all these choices translate into personal actions and a change in personal beliefs. Also one needs to actively try to explain the situation to those around them so that there can be a greater effect.

A very good place to find people involved in such activities is this portal called Celsias…

http://www.celsias.com

Their tag line being "Climate change is not a spectator sport." You can signup over there (for free) and find people fighting climate change, energy depletion and a host of other issues. One of the best features on the portal can be found on this link…

http://www.celsias.com/actions/

On this link you will find actions that you can take to save our planet, simple things that we do in our daily lives. Go check it out; you don't even have to sign up to check out the activities listed. Why I have been encouraging people to have a look at this website is because it gives you an opportunity to be inspired, to be an inspiration or just to find a sense of community. For mi it has been one of those very few groups where one can find likeminded ordinary people trying to do whatever they can do, trying their best to make a conscious choice to improve the situation. Also, just for the record I am not on their payroll, as I have explained in an earlier post I am doing this for myself and consequently for my clan.

Every choice made by every person, family, clan, society and the human race adds up to the consequences that we face today, the out of balance and unsustainable world that we live in today. The stakes could not be higher, as I will attempt to explain in the forthcoming posts, today our civilization stands on the brink of total annihilation, if we do not realize the gravity of the situation and act immediately all will be lost.

choices and consequences...

2008-10-08T16:47:00.006+05:30

People talk about cause and effect. I would rather talk about choices and consequences. To mi, saying cause and effect govern the chain of events in our lives is like talking in the third person. It would be like observing a scientific experiment. Human lives play out in far removed ways from scientific experiments or should I say in ways that are far more involved.

Say, I have friend who hates his job but cannot even dream of quitting because he needs the money to pay his EMIs. Or I could say; my friend chose to take a loan of 40 Lakhs and as a consequence he now pays massive EMIs which only seem to be getting more massive with each passing day, he hates his job but cannot get out of it for he chose to do this to himself.

For once let us get our hands dirty and say choices and consequences and take a little more responsibility for our lives. Maybe my friend wanted to start a family and he was unable to help the cause because his sperms were having some problems. Why? Because perhaps he has been using mobile phones for some time now and that has damaged his sperms. No am not joking, here are news articles that correlate mobile phone usage and declining sperm count / quality.

MOBILES CUT SPERM COUNT, SAYS REPORT

Men who carry mobile phones in their trouser pockets may be at risk of damaging their sperm count, according to research by Hungarian scientists.

Full details of the study will be formally presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Berlin tomorrow. Early reports of the Hungarian work attracted skepticism from other scientists who pointed to the contradictory results of other work on the subject.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/jun/28/sciencenews.health

CELL PHONES CAN AFFECT SPERM QUALITY, RESEARCHER SAYS

(CNN) -- Keeping a cell phone on talk mode in a pocket can decrease sperm quality, according to new research from the Cleveland Clinic.

"We believe that these devices are used because we consider them very safe, but it could cause harmful effects due to the proximity of the phones and the exposure that they are causing to the gonads," says lead researcher Ashok Agarwal, the Director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/09/18/cellphone.sperm/

An interesting note over here is that the first article was published from Berlin on Monday, June 28 2004. The second one is after four years from Cleveland on September 18, 2008.

In these four years we have seen in India and the world in general the exponential rise of mobile phone and other hand held electronic device usage. There are more studies of similar disturbing nature, like cell phones and cell phone towers causing brain tumors, heart problems, etc. The other day there was a front-page news article on Pune Mirror stating that cell phone towers are radiating way past healthy levels. The companies retorted saying blasphemy and since then there has been no coverage of this issue.

I am quite sure that even after knowing that cell phones can have adverse health benefits most people will consider it a birthright of every citizen of this world, even if it decreases the number of births. People will love to have a working cell phone in their pockets or strapped to their bicep or head or whichever particular part they feel they have no use for, because anyways very soon that part will be of no use.

What other adverse effects could cell phones be having on us beyond its physical limits of frying my sperms or brain cells? I know of loss of oxygen for one and biodiversity for two. Don’t get it? Heard of Coltan? I mentioned the ‘Web of Life’ earlier and will dedicate a post to it later but here is a glimpse of it.

COLTAN MINING IN THE CONGO RIVER BASIN

As your cell phone rings and you bring it up to your ear, a tiny mineral piece from Africa is making this call possible: coltan. This commodity, along with other mining products from the Congo River Basin, is contributing to forest loss and unrest in the region.

http://www.wwfint.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/solutions_by_region/congo_basin_forests/problems/mining/coltan_mining/index.cfm

Largely untouched, but slowly gnawed away by a growing population and logging interests, the Congo River Basin forests form the second largest block of rainforest in the world after the Amazon.

http://www.wwfint.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/solutions_by_region/congo_basin_forests/the_area/index.cfm

As the world slowly heads towards a more polluted atmosphere and the vanishing act of another old forest, my poor friend unaware of these looming disasters in the world, perhaps too involved with his personal situation leads a very stressed out life. Eventually though since they wanted to have a child of their own they went for artificial methods.

All hail the Lord of Technology and Swami Swami, the blessings of both have given us a child. I had to force myself to maintain my composure. I wanted to ask was in not the Lord of Technology that fried your sperms?

Anyways for some time there was peace then a few days back I happened to go to their place for dinner. To my surprise there is a mound of plastic bottles and containers outside his door. I ask him dude what just happened here, you guys ok? My friend is very worried and tells mi about this.

PLASTICS INGREDIENT LINKED TO SMALLER PENISES

Exposure of expectant mothers to phthalates, a common ingredient in many plastics, has been linked to smaller penis size and incomplete descent of testicles in their baby boys, according to a new research paper that found the chemical also appears to make the overall genital tracts of boys slightly more feminine.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081007.wlplastic07/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20081007.wlplastic07

One would think that such mutations were only possible after exposure to nuclear radiation. So even if my friend did manage to start a family and something like this was to happen to his or for that matter any child it would be a tragedy.

Can you imagine a world without plastic bottles / containers / sheets? I personally find it quite impossible. But the fact remains that, till sometime back there was no plastic and people managed to drink water, feed their babies and stored food. They must have survived because we are here as a living proof to that. Also my contention is that they led extremely healthy lives.

I have a sneaking doubt, though I cannot possibly publicly claim such a thing without scientific proof (also it would be bad for my self esteem) that, if I at 27 years of age were to do a 100 mts race with my father 66 years of age he might just win. Of course it would be a photo finish, how unfit could I really be?

I would like to point out that I have only talked about cell phones and plastics and at that too not in any sort of detail. There are hundreds and hundreds of products and modern daily life practices hat are not good for our health. I am very sure that you have heard of many of them. Things like radioactive waste, pesticides, conventional petro-agriculture, birth control medicines, antibiotics, paints, aluminum cooking ware… you name it.

I understand that human beings have the need to have children, but we are supposed to be a sapient (wise) species. Hence, I am forced to question the actions of my friend because I am unable to understand, what exactly does he want to give his child?

Costly polluted junk food from GMOs (Geetically Modified Organisms), clothing from plastic and or GMOs, energy that is either unclean or too costly, an educational system that is decaying, an uncertain climate, polluted air to breath, polluted drinking water if any and a whole host of grand technological inventions that are competing to kill you.

In fact I, like many others would like to raise a question, “What has technology given us exactly, more dependence on more technology and an unhealthy and unsustainable life?”

Did I just hear a collective gasp followed by, “Blasphemy !OooOoo… here is a primitive mortal who questions the power of the all-powerful God of Technology! Doom On You!”

Somehow this reminds mi of a scene from the animation movie “Ice Age” where the protagonists come across a flock of Dodos and the Dodos are preparing for the Ice Age. As a part of their preparation they have collected three watermelons. Upon being questioned on the level of preparedness (only three watermelons?) they start chanting “Doom On You!”. An extremely hilarious scene, unfortunately satire and comedy are humorous only when applied to other people. When I think of my clan and human beings in general it sends shivers down my spine.

There are choices we make as individuals, choices we make as a family, choices we make as clans, choices we make as governments and choices we make as human beings as a species. Whatever they be the consequences will follow and whether we like them or not we have to face them.

Please don’t give yourselves the excuse that you, one mere mortal cannot make a difference. I came across a very novel thought the other day, “Every time you buy you vote. Make your vote count. Buy the right things.” It occurs to mi that I might have to completely quit buying. For I stand in front of a moral and scientific dilemma what is right? I will be dealing with these thoughts in the posts to come.

I would just like to quote a wise observation to conclude this post.

"One can evade reality, but one cannot evade the consequences of evading reality" - Ayn Rand.

The choices that we make will define the consequences we face.

That is, if you wish the apple tree give you oranges. Then it is a wish that cannot be fulfilled, you should get off whatever drugs you are on and come back to planet Earth. Or should I be asking, "Mate, how long did you say you have been using your cell phone for?"

hello, this is mi...

2008-10-06T18:20:00.007+05:30

I guess introductions are in order. At first I thought I would give you the usual stuff, you know, name, family background, education, industrial experience and so on, a phenomenon which you can call the resumization of human introductions. That would be too clichéd and I am trying here to invoke the thoughts and we were last talking about ‘a bloodbath of beliefs’. So I thought some more and came out with this. An introduction to mi…

Mi is not a nickname. I don’t have a habit of referring to myself in the third person. If I were to say, “A thought has just occurred to Sudeep” while referring to a thought that has occurred to mi, then that would be referring to myself in the third person. When I say, “A thought has occurred to mi”, it simply means, “A thought has occurred to me.”

No, it is not a typo or a spelling mistake. If it were a typo my friends would have pointed it out and I would have corrected it. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my friends for pointing out typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, particularly Reena. Thank you so much.

So, what is mi all about then?

Mi = Me + I

In my opinion that changes things completely, it turns me into an expression of self, of I. When I use mi instead of me, I feel that much more responsible and involved for every word that I write, since now there is more of I in me. At the same time there are people I have known and still do who claim that I am simply being self-obsessed in a derogatory manner. What is wrong with being self-obsessed?

When I say, I am self-obsessed I don’t mean that I am a person who puts my selfish interest before the greater interest of the clan. I couldn’t dream of such a thing. Why? Human beings are social animals. Human beings cannot live without other human beings. I am very much a human being and I cannot survive without a clan.

I am self-obsessed but I realize that I am a human being and hence I need a clan. What this seeming contradiction yields in my opinion is that, I am so self-obsessed that I will do anything in the best interest of my clan because without my clan I cannot survive.

Why am I talking about clans? Look around you and you will perhaps realize that we still live in clans. Cannot see your clan? Ok, maybe you cannot see your clan. What is a clan?

Dictionary meanings of the word clan can be found here…
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/clan

1. a group of families or households, as among the Scottish Highlanders, the heads of which claim descent from a common ancestor: the Mackenzie clan.

2. a group of people of common descent; family: Our whole clan got together for Thanksgiving.

3. a group of people, as a clique, set, society, or party, esp. as united by some common trait, characteristic, or interest: a clan of actors and directors.

4. Anthropology.

a. the principal social unit of tribal organization, in which descent is reckoned exclusively in either the paternal or the maternal line.

b. a group of people regarded as being descended from a common ancestor.

But it could be anything that you feel strongly for, a clan of photographers, a clan of trekkers, a clan of Counter Strike, a clan of __________ fill in your interest / addictions / passions anything and the people who you share that interest would be your clansmen / clanswomen.

The question is what is their purpose? I think it has two main uses; firstly human beings are social animals and they need other people to satisfy their emotional needs. Secondly, a group of people cooperatively produce better results, the operative word being cooperatively.

Am also intrigued to another definition of clan given above…
4.b. a group of people regarded as being descended from a common ancestor.

So by this definition maybe I owe my allegiance to the ‘Clan of The Human Beings’. We all do have common ancestors in the great apes.

Also I could claim that I owe allegiance to the ‘Clan of The Living Beings’. You know that clan who are bounded by the common passion called Life.

Here, a link to evolution...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_evolution

Of course one amongst the equals the homo sapiens sapiens, decided one day that it was more equal than the others in the zoo of life and decided to make a break for the bank and run away with the loot (read light, sunlight). I am not sure where ‘run away to where’ was or perhaps it was like an evolving plan with no thought applied to the ‘run away to where’ part. Maybe it is Mars or Moon. Little did homo sapiens sapiens realize that we the living, are all connected by ‘Web Of Life’. Made of the essence of, ‘The Principle Of Life’.

I have figured and am quite sure that am a very late arrival at the scene that all living creatures are a clan. We are connected by the complex ‘Web Of Life’ and governed by ‘The Principle Of Life’. More on these later…

Maybe you are wondering that I could have reached here in half or perhaps a third of the words I have used to reach here, wherever here is. Maybe you are wondering why you are reading this at all. If you are not then you can start thinking and questioning now.

I was just trying to get your brain worked up and asking questions and following chains of thought. I think that these are important skills that all human minds should posses. I am just trying to share thoughts, throw them at others so that they can be improved and brought to life.

Why? Because we are human beings and we can think and I would rather have thinking human beings in my clan than non-thinking ones.

Why? My clan and consequently I could suffer greatly if there are too many non-thinking people in it. You see it is not for your good that I am doing this; it is in my own self-interest.

This is the purpose of this blog. So far I have just made introductions. The journey ahead will be an interesting and adventurous one. You are absolutely free to comment / discuss. Just try to keep it as nonviolent as possible.

Follow link to what non-violent communication is all about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_Communication

At this point I would like to clear out some more things before going any further. I am not preaching / teaching anything. I just want people to be a little more thoughtful and I have put myself on the top of that list. I know I am imperfect but that does not stop mi from trying to become better...

Hello! This is mi, who are you?

the bloodbath of beliefs

2008-10-02T22:53:00.002+05:30

The last six months of my life have been the culmination of another cycle of thought and perhaps another stage in my life has passed. The stakes have risen to a new level and my search has entered a totally different dimension. It is time for action.

I have always shared my deepest beliefs and thoughts with anyone close enough and especially those with an open enough mind. For I have always strongly held that a thought which is not thoroughly examined is not worth accepting and what better way of analysis than throwing it around at people. People, because people possess the power to give different perspectives, because people can lead thoughts into uncharted territories, because people can breathe life into thoughts.

I would also like to go ahead on a limb and say that if people stop thinking then they are no longer human beings. By thinking I mean questioning with an open mind and equally importantly looking for answers with an open mind.

Over the past few years I have found myself questioning the basic assumptions of our current human civilization, from our accepted stands on quality of life, progress, continuous growth of economies, to my all time favorite, “why am I here?”

For years I have come tantalizingly close to the truth which led to the conclusion that something is drastically wrong with the human experience. Perhaps I found it so hard to believe that I have looked the other way and avoided taking the final step. To be honest, in the last few years I have been reluctant to pursue these fruitless endeavors, for I have had a relative time of peace and prosperity but the human being in mi, perhaps got the better of mi and for that I thank it.

So it came to pass… on a dark night sitting on my roof after an umpteenth number of cups of coffee. I said to Kunal, “There is something wrong with this ERP, isn’t it supposed to make life easier for all of us?” We were discussing an ERP solution for someone being made by someone else. Well I would not have been so obtuse if I could just name the two parties involved but neither of them was Moving Stones Technologies.

Perhaps introductions are in order here… I am mi (no it is not a nick name, more on mi later). Kunal is my dear friend and partner in crimes against the principle of life… read business partner (principle of life is where the search ended, more on the principle of life later). Moving Stones Technologies is our company, we started it, there were more of us in The Cult of The Stonemovers, but that would be a story in itself.

Kunal went something like, “What do you mean by that?” To which I said, “Making these complex ERP systems is a time consuming thankless job and more often than not you just end up raising the level of complexity. Which basically makes everyone’s life that much more difficult the vendor, the client, the implementation team, the end users and the customers. Don’t you think that life becomes that much more complex for everyone? In effect we make things that much more complicated and claim that progress has been made.” Kunal agreed and I pushed it further, “Why would people make things more complicated than they already are?”

I could hear the whirring of wheels and the tension could be cut with a knife. Just kidding…

He responded after pause, “Because they can.” Well, now after spending a considerable amount of thought, it seems that the same answer applies to a lot of things that we see in the world today and most of them don’t make sense.

I persisted…

Kunal is generally enthusiastic about discussions but on that fateful night he was not, the discussion had started on a point, I for the love of my life cannot recollect. The discussion had dragged on and as if suddenly out of nowhere stood this impasse. Fate was acting out its course of action, I could claim, but that is one of the questions that is yet unresolved, “Is there something called fate?”

I persisted, “Every time we as human beings are cornered by a problem we raise the level of complexity and seemingly solve the problem, but after a while we have to come up with a better and more complex solution to solve the complexity of the already solved problem. Why? And dude… if this continues, there might come a point when we will not be able to solve it. What say?”

“Why don’t you Google this and find out what other people think about this?” said Kunal.

Perfectly reasonable I thought. People all over the Internet write about what they think and it had never before occurred to mi to check such a thing online. I claim myself to be Internet savvy, of course nothing compares to old school mano a mano; and I thought why had this not occurred to mi before? Anyways Kunal did not seem to be in too much of a mood to continue. So we called it a morning, for the dawn was breaking and went off to sleep.

In retrospect, that night, as on other occasions in my life, it appeared that fate was in action and some action it was. What followed in the days to come was a bloodbath of beliefs.

Here today I stand humbled and humiliated forced to confess to you of a tale of us human beings… An orgy of excesses…

Quotes

2008-10-01T00:44:00.006+05:30

This post is basically a collection of quotes that are being used on the "thoughts..." section in the blog (top of the right column). I expect this list to steadily grow...

Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

"All truth passes through three stages...
First, it is ridiculed,
Second, it is violently opposed,
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident"
- Arthur Schopenhauer

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."
- Dr. Albert Bartlett

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
- Aldous Huxley

"Luck favors the prepared."
- Edna Mode