Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Why?

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
-Douglas Adams

And came adolescence. From that hormone filled roller coaster ride onwards, almost all of our actions have been directed towards fulfilling the singular purpose: to pass our genes in the pool. Men are drawn to women with waist to hip ratio of 0.7; like moths are drawn to light. Evolution programmed men's brains to calculate that without the aid of any external tool. Women are inevitably drawn to "providers"; you know, the ones with dollops of moolah, or the ones with a potential to earn bucks, in the form of inheritance/intelligence. Women are born with the concept of "commitment" and "long term" - which is mostly foreign to men. After all, their provider should be willing to help them out with the entire process of raising the offspring, which is the sole purpose of their existence. Oops, did I just answer the question asked by men all over the world: "Why do women want marriage, then children, as soon as possible?"

I think not, I think I just asked the question to the supreme creator; 'God' for the believers, 'Evolution' for the atheists like me.

I am nobody to ask this question. I am only a part of the 6 X 10^18 kgs of the mass on this earth that is different than the rest of it by a factor of 4 letters, "life". Yet, today, I dare ask the question, "Why are we here?" "Where are you headed?"

We have all been fascinated by the question of our origins. We have dug deep for million year old bones for answers. We have sent giant telescopes out of atmospheric disturbance to look at the darkest corners of our Universe to give us a clue of the big-bang, the supposed beginning of "time". But I think the correct thing to ask right now is "Why is God/Evolution making us do what we are doing?" Why is every species spending all the effort to procreate (All the fight/amongst males for "dominance") then protect the young ones (The supernatural urge to protect "children" first; in case of an emergency; and the attention that these "cute" ones draw from all adults)

How many times have we heard that a proportionate face represents a lineage of sexual health? (And hence, the feature that attracts one first). That 'Love' is nothing but a trick that nature plays on us so that we procreate? It is a poor explanation, in my opinion , to explain why you can't get that "special one" out of your head for the first 4-12 months. But what the chemical reactions don't explain is the purpose. Why are we fighting to get the 'perfect' partner? Why do we (animals/plants included in 'we') die after our purpose is served? In some cases the male of the species dies as soon as the purpose is served.

So we are all refining the pool, increasing its quality with every generation, and multiplying relentlessly. Evolution is throwing new designs, testing permutations every now and then. It started with 16/18 basic designs in prehistoric oceans. It killed off the ones it didn't think appropriate. It killed off the mighty dinosaurs too. It reduced the size of the bodies of animals whose area of roaming reduced. It introduced - balance, food-chain/web, diseases. For what? What is it trying to achieve?

There are many theories that suggest what will happen in the end. The most wiely accepted one, it seems, is this one. The universe is in the expansion stage, and will reach the limit eventually. It will shrink once it hits the bounds. All the rules regarding entropy, enthalpy will be reversed. Imagine keeping a cup of cold coffee on your desk to find it heating up by itself to boiling point. But if one exists in that stage, it will be difficult for her to imagine what happens "normally" for us. What will evolution do then? Move back to unicellular life?

When we look around ourselves, we find that things are changing. We carry remnants of our own species that suggest presence of Evolution. Our Vestigial organs like ear muscles and appendix are enough to prompt us to think. I just hope that sometime in future we are able to answer this question, like we have answered so many. What are your views?

10 comments:

Chitra Nayak said...

HMPH x-(
meine bilkul dekha tak nahi aapka blog..ye uss se pehle ka taana hai

HMPH x-(

Rajat said...

wow! The kinda stuff I love :).

I don't know what the ultimate purpose is, but I sure do know right now the purpose of humanity it to discover that purpose. And possibly, that's the only purpose, who knows? :P.

Anyways, who the hell cares about purpose other than that 3 pound mass of jelly like something stuffed in an apparently insignificantly part of our body (Yes, it helps in taking headers at times, but that's about it :P). To assume that we are asking the right question is the first error this brain makes by near successfully contemplating the vastness of the cosmos but unsatisfactorily explaining its own working, he he. I can myself go on writing a blog in reply to this, so I'll better brake here :D.

None the less, awesome read. Two very interesting findings:

1. Is that 0.7? Where did we get that from. I thought it should be some devine number like avogadro's or phi. 0.7 sounds too simple for nature to plant in our minds :P.

2. Also, the mass of your earth is off by a factor of 10^6 :P. Time to make some new high jump records, he he ;).

zoobean said...

wow...another great one.....btw either its not 0.7 for u or its not 0.7 for the rest of our group(12thscience)..bcoz we all differed from u or vice-versa...

another thing....this question....does it have anything wjth cat? i guess makes everybody starts thinking along the same lines....or i guess its the reverse...those who start thinking along these lines also think about cat...

anyways great post....great thinking...graet execution...do give a serious thought to writing as a professional....atleast as a part timer...and keep thinking and keep writing....now that cat is over, this blog will see a great many posts...and great ones too

The Junkie said...

@chitra

Since you didn't read the blog, I am assuming you didn't read this reply to your comment also :P
And if you reply to this comment, then it means U did the unimaginable/despicable job of reading :P

@rajat

Nice point regarding "phi". Even I am surprised how is it possible that the living walking talking examples of phi (us humans) have to deal with a lowly 0.7. Hey do the research, you have the brains (the IIT tag doesn't come easy)...maybe 0.7 is related to phi/"e" or something :)

About the constant mass of living things, sigh, that's what happens when you don't find web pages to support your fact, even after searching desperately to verify it. I am still not sure if it is 10^18 but I think it should be much less than the entire mass of earth (10^24)

@zubin

Yaara y r u making me so different from the rest of the 12th science? That 0.7 is true only for the "waist to hip ratio", which is an indirect indicator of the capacity of a woman to bear/carry the child successfully, and it is implanted in practically every male mind, and I have to admit, I am no different in that regard. I think the difference you are speaking of is a little different :P (I know exactly what you meant by the difference, but it is not related to this particular ratio)

The Junkie said...

@zubin

(PS) Hmmm I cannot think of a relation between these two apparently different lines of thinking, so to be safe I shall keep the philosophy part separate from the CAT part. It is more likely to receive a response similar to a "Huh?" if you ask "Do you also think along these lines" to someone preparing for CAT :)

Chitra Nayak said...

hmm..ye cat se related kyu hain iska answer aapne sahi diya : 'huh?'

a really good one. inspires my lazy brains[L n R] to wake up and give a thought to these things.

As u said, we are in a process.
but we are in mid way..and the end that u now see might be one of the illusions of this mid-way state.so we'll are really not sure what wud happen.


Some of the awesome sentences :

"Women are born with the concept of "commitment" and "long term" - which is mostly foreign to men."

"(The supernatural urge to protect "children" first; in case of an emergency; and the attention that these "cute" ones draw from all adults)"

"Evolution is throwing new designs, testing permutations every now and then. It started with 16/18 basic designs in prehistoric oceans. It killed off the ones it didn't think appropriate. It killed off the mighty dinosaurs too."


awesome lines!!

zoobean said...

oho....sorry sorry....

but i'll still stick to what i thought(and not what i wrote)...see paaney ur blogs i praise ur blogs not only for the creative thinking that u do but also for the ability to put them into words....and u do it in a very way that makes it very interesting...thanks chitra for listing a few of them..

coming back, i meant thinking at greater heights (look at the heights to which u've gone....)

i think this makes it clearer....

Rajat said...

@ Zubin bhaiya: I got even more confused (well it wasn't meant for me anyways, he he)

@ Pandeyji: Yes!! Wikipedia rocks! :) Got the numbers. All biomass (mass of living things) on this earth is 0.00000000126% of the total mass of the Earth, which accounts to 6.8 x 10^13 kilograms. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_%28ecology%29.

About the figure of 0.7, as long as it ensures a good figure, who cares, rite? :P. None the less, I'm still curious about the source.

bhagyashree said...

hmmmmmmm...interesting....very interesting!!!;P

The Junkie said...

hain? ye to chitra style comment tha ;)