What do you care what other people think?

Lately, I have been thinking about life, the universe, and everything (i know the answer is close to 41 :p ). It's the time of my life when I have to make a choice... which might influence the rest of it.

During this contemplation, I was reminded of this book by Feynman called "What do you care what other people think?" (equally wonderful, but less popular than "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!"). Though the book is just a collage of snippets from his life like the other book, the choice of the title hit me hard and got stuck in my mind eversince I read this book.

I still feel the same awe and burst out "Exactly!" to myself everytime I see the title as if I am seeing it the first time.

I don't see a reason why I have to bother about what other people think of me or my actions? I just have one life. I would rather play my own game, lay my own path, and live my life. New truths are not discovered by following others. We need courage to lose, fight conventions, and break away from bonds to achieve greatness, because success is the prerogative of the brave. I am not saying I will be successful or great. But I will definitely live free doing what I really want to do.

Descartes once said:

"So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there."

I am that curious monkey and I hope that I will never lose will to follow my own path and go where my mind takes me.

The moment you go with the flow mindlessly is also the moment you lost your self.

Dead On Arrival

When I was in school, I loved Somerset Maugham's writings. Back then, I always admired him as a sarcastic short story writer. As I grew up, I started reading his other works and realized that sarcasm and wit are just the foreground he uses to present a more profound truth in the background. One of his quotes which I thought is ridiculously funny when I first read it is...

"The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned."

But then, after a few years and more works of his, I finally found the beauty in it.
(Truth is beautiful!)

The most beautiful work of his that I read is Razor's Edge ( I am yet to read Of Human Bondage ), which is a true masterpiece.
Coming to the topic of the quote, unrequited love seems to be the deepest and the most painful emotion as people say it is. It has inspired a lot of artists and yielded a great lot of literary work over the years and I presume it will as long as evolution supports emotions.

"A mighty pain to love it is,

And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;

But of all pains, the greatest pain

It is to love, but love in vain."

My-Self

Finally, I found the perfect description of myself:

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair."

-Bertrand Russell

Life

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever."
- Gandhi

Beware of biology!

Update: Watch the TED talk about the same.

If you are following the news lately, you must have noticed the much publicized creation of synthetic dna (alternate Times link).

Another important news which didn't get much attention is the invention of yet another technique to transfer dna in to cell (this article concludes with a phrase that is ironically funny: "the equipment needed is simple, inexpensive, and portable." ).

These developments when seen together makes creating bio-forms that can be programmed at genetic level possible (yes, i am desperately waiting to be a life-programmer!). For ppl following the developments in biology, this isn't much of a surprise. And if this sounds scary to you sci-fi readers, fear more coz you can't even take refuge in the supposition that this is all a long way from now and they work only at the level of bacteria.

In fact, there are already patents on how to create synthetic 'virus-like' particles and J. C. Venter Institute filed for patent on synthetic life (bacterium) almost a year ago! If you can't recall the name, this is the institute that first sequenced complete human genome and not surprisingly, it belongs to the founder J. Craig Venter. (keep an eye on JCVI's advances for more exciting news)
We already know how to create viruses for a while now and recently scientist have tweaked bigger life forms (Engineered Mosquitoes Could Wipe Out Dengue Fever).

Before debating on how ethical it is to play with nature, remember that most of our technological advancements either mimic or tweak nature.

Look from the positive side and these technologies offer us new tools to make our lives better. They help in creating new kind of drugs, and more 'natural' ways of production. Craig Venter, in a talk few days ago, confirmed that their institute has at least one strain of bacteria that can convert cellulose to ethanol and they are working on creating other such life forms for mass production of bio-fuels.

Hundreds of researchers in synthetic/systems biology are working day and night to understand and invent new techniques from nature that might sound like sci-fiction even today.

But we should remember one thing. Apart from celebrating or fearing these innovations,
now is also the high time to think about how to control them from getting into bad hands or monopoly of a few firms. We definitely don't want another IBM or Microsoft of biosystems
(imagine reading news like "Microsoft released a new patch to fix bugs in Life 2.0").

The more powerful a technology is, the more potential it has to do good/evil.

And the ability to control life is by no means a negligible power.