LIVING....AND DYING. Mahendra Gonsalkorale

LIVING....AND DYING 

Mahendra "Speedy" Gonsalkorale

Yet another member of our batch has passed away, and The Blog is in its last throes -

It is sometimes helpful to think about the unthinkable

This has put me in a reflective mood, and I would like to share my thoughts with my colleagues. Although this may sound doleful at first, it is meant to be celebratory of the lives we have led and a recognition that we must value the past and make the best use of the time left for us.

Life is possible only because it is inexorably linked with death. Although we recognised death from a very early stage in our lives, it was something that was there in the background, and we didn’t pay much attention to it and indeed tended to avoid thinking about it as it was not pleasant to be reminded that you and your loved ones are transient. I use the word transient in a relative sense. What is transient is a matter of perception. Your life is transient compared to the life of the Universe! and almost eternal compared to that of a dragonfly.

I am of the opinion that although there are many reasons for the arising of religion, one powerful stimulus was the desire to “extend” your life. Some sort of afterlife is part of all religious beliefs. It provides some comfort and a basis for moral laws. We all like to see “good” being rewarded and “bad” being punished. When examining this, Man inevitably sees something extraordinary beyond his capacity to understand how this operates. He sees a possible mechanism for this to operate through a God or Gods or some “spiritual law”. This causes problems such as why so much hardship and sadness exists in the presence of a God who is apparently either choosy, hasn’t got the power, or is non-existent. Any doubt about the power He is alleged to have is overcome by a belief or faith that, although it appears so, we cannot appreciate the true nature of the grand design. What we see as His failure is in fact our failure.

Man requires some sort of “immediate” reassurance when in difficulty. The Buddhist concept of Nirvana is too distant and is of little help in these situations, hence the intermingling of mainly Hindu concepts, such as worshipping deities and inanimate objects, such as statutes, throughout the cultural history of Buddhism. They can postpone the attainment of Nirvana for a future birth but do enough good now to keep their merit score high enough not to stray from the path.

What am I leading to? Firstly, to accept that death is real and without it, paradoxically, life is not possible. Secondly, we cannot take our material possessions with us at the journey's end. Thirdly, if human beings have the capacity to determine what the absolute “truth” is, they have not yet done so. If they had done so conclusively, there would be only one Religion. I think we must recognise the importance of faith (saddha), reverence and the comfort it provides to many. We can debate and form our conclusions on an intellectual dimension, but this is separate from aspects of human need.

The final question is whether we have the capacity to understand reality by mere intuition or through rational sifting of evidence through learning. The Buddhist philosophy implies that intuition is possible.

This leads me to believe we should be humble, understand the needs of others, be empathetic, be nonjudgmental, and think beyond the material universe. Death reminds us of our common destiny, the need to live in the present, and the need to cultivate our minds more than our physical aspects.

The End of Scarcity.

The End of Scarcity.

A thought provoking article by Zita Subasinghe Perera based on a BBC Radio 4 programme.¹

The end of scarcity, want, poverty, shortfall, deficiency? I know the above pronouncement will catch the eye of any human being. But it’s exactly the meaning behind a talk on this subject by James Burke on 26-12-2017 on BBC Radio 4. I listened to the recorded version twice as I was fascinated by the idea and now I am sharing it with you as it is thought provoking and it is not too far-fetched. Well, let me get on with it. The idea is one we are familiar with: The present state of science, technology and the advancements during the past, nearly 150 years of industrial revolution, has provided us the means to live without ‘want’. The principle of Mr Burke’s thesis is that ‘necessity sparks, sets off and keeps in motion, Innovation’. So, the lack of ‘Want’ can spell the end of Innovation.

Happily, the first WW in the early 20^th Century gave a spurt of energy to advancement in ‘Innovation’. The piston pump was replaced by the rotary pump, a Glasgow University repairman being credited with this. WW2 in the mid 20^th century gave rise to the need for units like ‘ladies who calculated the angle at which a shot has to be fired to hit the enemy target’ and at that time they were called ‘computers’.

The first mechanical Computer

And now in the mid to late 20^th century, the innovative geniuses produced the first ‘computer,’ a machine to handle the multiple calculations which were earlier done by the ladies of WW1.Mr Burke refersto this as ‘the intention to give humans a means to do complex activities in a very short time and expense.’

Big Data

The computer has the ability to hold big numbers- called Big Data which big companies use for ‘predictive analyses. Big Data leaves a footprint whenever and wherever we do something ‘online’ and companies use this to send us adverts and pressurise us to buy stuff. Big data uses our smart phones in our pockets to learn where we are and prompt us what to buy things and even the payment can be done instantaneously by connecting us to our bank accounts. It happens already in certain Big Stores the whole process being calledGrab and Go.

The Start of the end of Scarcity

In the 1950s they were able to predict that if we went on with ‘business as usual ‘and scarcity gradually ended we’ll face economic collapse by the end of the 21^st century as the stimulus of Scarcity to bring about Innovation would not be there. Early to Mid 20^th C saw the start of over population, industrialisation, starvation and resource depletion driven by our consumer life style. The international political reaction to this was putting the brakes on fossil fuels and cutting back on urban expansion and industrialisation, almost Apocalypse Now!

Making machines smaller the answer?

Fortunately, the innovative thinker in the form of Nobel Prize winner Richard Fyneman comes to the fore. He thought the answer is to make machines as small as possible. It turns out that it is possible to make each ‘bit’ (a piece of info) as small as one atom long. It took a while to get things moving but in 1987 two IBM ers invented the scanning, tunnelling microscope to make molecules. There are ‘gazillions of molecules everywhere, an inexhaustible resource’. Using this new device, one could put atoms and molecules together and you could produce anything you want even a cup of tea! These machines were in nanometres (the width of a hair is 80 nanometres.) This Nano processor is also called a moat a word derived from a ‘moat of dust’ as that is the size of this machine!

Nanoproducts and Nanotechnology

These products, called Nano-products, are already being made in about 2000 labs around the world! Nano particles are found in cosmetics, bacterial bandaging and wrinkle free, water-proof clothing. Using a Nano processor,one could ‘stick the end of a straw into dirty water and drink clean water at the other end’. Nano technology can be used to produce solar cells enabling the consumerisation of the 8 billion people of the earth in one giant economy therefore costing no fuel but just the energy of the sun in the solar cell. Many big Institutes around the world are working flat out to achieve this.

Replication

 Like in ‘Star Trek’ we are making the road map to Replication, i.e. to replicate anything. You can call this ‘merging computation and communication with fabrication to bring the programmability of the digital world over to our analogue world’. But remember, you are making what you CAN make and not what you NEED to make. And you can end up with a surplus.

Digitising designs and materials.

So, as told above, onecan digitise designs.

The next is to digitise materials using elements H, O, C, N and 20 amino acids. That is all you need. This is anyway what man has done in the past 4 billion years or so of evolution. Difference? Now it will be so much faster. These machines called moats do away with the need to cultivate the land and harvest or work in factories. It’s all there in a machine at atomic level giving you all you need. And all you need to do is talk to it. Yes, you actually ‘talk to it’. Science fiction? No! It’s Fact and it happens now!

End of Innovation and Isolation of man

The problem is that the End of Scarcity spells the End of Innovation, stand- still and isolation of man.  Family is not necessary, under this scheme. Socialisation? No! You can have your grandma and your pals and treat them to a slap-up dinner. You can tell your Moat and it will enable you to talk to them and they will come as 3D holograms so real that you forget they are not. You’ll never be lonely or bored.

Spending time with Nature

Want to visit the countryside? You can create it where you are, with all the features you want, a river, a farm, anything you like. All you do is tell your moat to do it. Sounds like winning the lottery? Well Yes and No! Read on and you will see the reason.

What’s awaiting mankind

You send a Nano factory to every city country and village and they make all the extra ones they need and make one available to every family, even every individual. There would be no need for money, or a job, no need for taxes, in fact, no need for governments as what they do is spend our tax money to maintain the infrastructure.

Education and Health?

Moats controlling the medical devices made at home can look after health. As for Education: education for what? In today’s world with robots taking over our jobs, and education is to make us creative, one can ask, creative for what purpose?

Culture

What about the culture we shared? Well, we’ll never again need to group together to survive.

Abundance

We know how to deal with scarcity, i.e. Innovate! But abundance? We have little experience of that. But all this will take no more than 50 years to hit us. Is all this a figment of the imagination? Well, even if some of it happens to be, surely, we ought to think about it?

The final outcome

In the popular joke, a man drops from the top of a sky scraper and as he is passing the 50^th floor you ask him how he’s doing. And he says ‘So far so good!’ But you know ‘hitting the bottom’ is not far away!

-          The End!-

Reference:1. James Burk (B B C Radio 4 on 26 12 2017) End of Scarcity

The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

By Rohini Anandaraja

The world has ceased to be a secure place to live in, least of all to bring up future generations.
Children are the most vulnerable in societies, and the effects of poverty, environmental degradation and violence compound their vulnerability. How can we as adults  mitigate and reverse these trends, and give future generations the best environments to thrive in?

If one looks back through history, or the pasts of antisocial elements, it becomes apparent that most, if not all, have suffered neglect, injustice, violence, or other trauma in their young lives.
It follows that, if these can be eliminated and  children are brought up in secure and loving environments from the very beginning, brought up to respect others, and to protect their environments, we could hope to make the world a safer place for future generations.

Women bring children into this world, and are closest to, and spend the most time with them in their formative years. Though a mother by her very nature is caring towards her offspring, other factors such as inadequate basic physical / environmental needs, postpartum hormonal imbalances, inadequate partner / other family support ,and other life stresses can impair her ability to optimally care for and nurture her young.

If it is possible to have a solid framework for supporting the welfare of all mothers in whatever area of need, it might be possible, not merely to ensure the innate caring and nurturing a mother is capable of, and give her the best chance to mentor her children and bring up a mentally and physically healthy generation of educated men and women.

Simplistic as it may sound, this may be where the focus now needs to be, where high level politics, legal systems and religions have failed to ensure a peaceful world.

New mothers however cannot be expected to engineer this alone at a time when she not only has to cope with her own emotional, hormonal and physical needs, but also needs to care for her totally dependent newborn. She needs support from those around her.

Historically this support has been forthcoming from extended family when community living has been the norm.
In this day of nuclear families  this support has to come from the spouse. It follows that the spouse has to be educated as well, on the Importance of the support  needed, and  to participate fully in the provision of the safe and loving  environment needed for optimum raring of the young.

It is accepted that significant moulding of character occurs in the first three years of life. Hence education has to commence in the earliest years of childhood for both genders. Each person in the family has to be educated from their earliest days, to behave with kindness, compassion, respect, and with integrity at all times, treating everyone as they themselves would like to be treated, so it becomes ingrained, and becomes second nature as they grow up.

Children learn from what they are exposed to! No amount of lecturing  teaches them better than what they see adults do! Hence they need to be in an environment where kindness and respect prevails, and be made to understand that violence and bullying are not options and cannot be tolerated. They need to grow up with gender and race equality, and be taught to safeguard their environments.

It doesn't seem adequate to leave this education to teachers in schools. By the time they attend Preschool,or kindergarten it is already late. By this time children need to have learnt which behaviours are acceptable, how to socialize courteously and kindly. They need to be equipped to negotiate the social world of other kids, negotiate disagreements peacefully, to deal with apparent injustices, eg of one pupil seeming to be favoured! and be able to regulate their own actions in the absence of parental intervention when away from home - a huge task for a young child. It shows how important what they see and learn at home in their early years becomes.

As well as feeling safe physically, they should be able to share their innermost fears, in a home where support and accurate information is available, with reassurance that kindness and good behaviour are valued ahead of academia and performance.

It most often befalls the mother to provide this safe haven and guidance to the children at this young age, and whatever support she can be provided with to fulfill this important role cannot but carve a path to a better world.

I do not pretend to have a simple solution to the problems of the world today, but if as adults we can help achieve these goals in our own little communities in our own little corners of the earth, even by supporting available networks, we can at least hope to make some positive change, so that by our inaction we do not let our children and our world be destroyed.

The hand that rocks the cradle has the key to the child's world at a time when he/she is most receptive, with opportunity to fashion their psyche and behaviour in favorable ways, so they grow up to be caring, responsible citizens, able to safeguard their future in a safer world for all.

Needless to say, the attendant issues to making this a reality are many. Dealing with poverty, ensuring education for all women globally, promoting gender/race equality etc all need to be addressed, and unless we keep these in mind and act, the problems will continue.

This is not an aim for superiority of one gender over another, to favour one gender over another, or to sideline the important role fathers play in bringing up children, but to highlight the role incumbent on mothers to play in the home, as guardians of these young minds - a role often overlooked and undervalued. It is so men and women can work, not in competition, but in supportive partnerships, to bring up generations of caring and responsible men and women to ensure a safer and better world for all.

Too long have we relied on government agencies, law enforcement agencies, religious groups, corrections facilities to ensure a safe world, which they have failed to deliver. Let us start from the beginning, and give the hand that rocks the cradle the support and education it needs to bring about a new mindset for a safer world.

The hand that rocks the cradle needs a hand. Let us all do our part.

Consciousness, "I", a "person". Mahendra Gonsalkorale

Consciousness, "I", a "person". Mahendra Gonsalkorale

I do believe that we cannot be ourselves with our store of memories, attitudes, beliefs, fears, apprehensions, exhilarations, sadness, happiness, relationships, puzzlement, amazement, confusion, wonderment, and a whole host of other things without our physical Brain. Not having a properly functioning physical brain is like having a computer without its processor and memory. I, therefore, believe that the physical brain is a sine qua non for consciousness and self-awareness. 

I base this on our knowledge of how we change when parts of our brain are damaged by injury or disease. The range of effects seen are enormous and dependent on which areas are affected. It can be just a loss of memory of varying degrees to a total change of personality so that the person "now" is totally different from the person "then". But both are conscious in the sense that they are alive and aware with all the bodily functions, responds to questions and exhibit behaviours. They sleep, they wake up, they laugh, they cry, they show happiness and sadness but they could be totally different although the physical likeness is preserved. We, therefore, have a body in which there appears to be now a virtually totally different person. We see this in frontal, fronto-temporal and hippocampal damage for example. Or take a disease like Alzheimer's which can be so devastating in change of personality. To me, this means that our brains when functioning as a whole organ give us a sense of being a "person" and the notion or person is conditioned by what is stored in our brains and what is produced in the brain by the various neuronal circuits interacting with each other. In this case, the sum is greater than the addition of individual parts. A symphony is a collection of music on different instruments but the effect it produces is above and beyond its parts. There is absolutely no evidence that the person who "was" before the cerebral insult is lurking somewhere within him trapped in a physical form beyond his control. If this is the case, this sad person has a "hidden original me" with a "new me" that arose within the same body after the damage. I don't think that is possible. 

But slightly digressing, our concept of being a person is so dependent on what goes on in our brains at any one time that even a "person" can be different "persons" at different times depending on situations, time etc. In a way, there is no "person" as such but a succession of experiences of being a person. We think we are the same because the change is gradual and occurs within a physical body we can see and feel. but we need to only take our minds back a few years and find that in many ways, we are now different, and in some cases, massively so.

So to sum it up, our functioning brain continuously informs us that there is an "I" (consciousness, awareness) and this I believe functions even when we are asleep but as sleep shuts us off from experiencing impulses from our "outer senses" (such as vision, touch, smell, hearing), we are not aware or "conscious" as in the wakeful state but we are there, and our brains are working producing all sorts of activity which can even result in playback of a "video" constructed from true past life experiences and totally "computer generated" images of things which never really happened and we call this dreaming.

"I" arises from brain activity giving us a self-awareness. No brain - no self-awareness -no consciousness!

Just to complicate matters, if we blow up any living being through a zoom with massive capability, you will just see at first a collection of cells and then as you zoom further you will see  molecules -->  atoms --> fundamental particles --> wave forms and within all this, as much as 90% is empty space!

I hope my article will stimulate an useful and interesting discussion. I have purposely kept Religion away from it although this may have resulted in an incomplete view.

Speedy

BA's note: (The writer - Dr. Mahendra Gonsalkorale is a Neurologist cum Geriatrician)