Why we laugh?

"So this suggests strongly it's hard-wired in the brain and this raises an interesting question. Why did it evolve in the brain, OK, how did it evolve through natural selection? When you look at all jokes and humour across societies, the common denominator of all jokes and humour despite all the diversity is that you take a person along a garden path of expectation and at the very end you suddenly introduce au unexpected twist that entails a complete re-interpretation of all the previous facts. That's called a punch-line of the joke. Now obviously that is not sufficient for laughter because then every great scientific discovery or every "paradigm shift" would be funny, and my scientific colleagues wouldn't find it amusing if I said their discoveries were funny.

OK, the key ingredient here is, it's not merely sufficient that you introduce a re-interpretation but the re-interpretation, the new model you have come up with should be inconsequential, it should be of trivial consequence. It sounds a bit abstract so let me illustrate with a concrete example. Here is a portly gentleman walking along, he is trying to reach his destination, but before he does that he slips on a banana peel and falls. And then he breaks his head and blood spills out and obviously you are not going to laugh. You are going to rush to the telephone and call the ambulance. But imagine instead of that, he walks along, slips on the banana peel, falls, wipes off the goo from his face, looks around him everywhere, and and then gets up, then you start laughing. The reason is I claim is because now you know it's inconsequential, you say, oh it's no big deal, there's no real danger here. So what I'm arguing is, laughter is nature's false alarm. Why is this useful from an evolutionary standpoint? So what you are doing with this rhythmic stocatto sound of laughter is informing your kin who share your genes, don't waste your precious resources rushing to this person's aid, it's a false alarm everything is OK. OK, so it's nature's OK signal."

Picked from Reith Lectures 2003 on Emerging Mind by V S Ramachandran, world renowned brain scientist

They are available (both text/audio clips):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/lectures.shtml

Heisenberg uncertainty principle and possessiveness.

The observer effect is often conflated with the Hiesenberg uncertainty principle

"In science, the term observer effect refers to changes that the act of observing will make on the phenomenon being observed. For example, for us to "see" an electron, a photon must first interact with it, and this interaction will change the path of that electron. It is also theoretically possible for other, less direct means of measurement to affect the electron; even if the electron is simply put into a position where observing it is possible, without actual observation taking place, it will still (theoretically) alter its position."
(Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect.)

Exactly, same phenomenon happens when you get a little possessive about anything/anyone. Instantaneously (as early as the laws of physics permit), the object which is being possessive about knows about the obsession and deviates from its original trajectory making it difficult for the obsever. Hence, the only way to guess that the object is on track is to just close the eyes and not make a measurement. May be this is called 'maya' (illusion) in hindu mythology. You can imagine it only with closed eyes, the moment you open your eyes the 'maya' is gone.

What makes my day

For many a smile makes their day.
For me its the smiley that makes my day.

Swalpa Adjust Maadi

I keep comparing humans with circuits all the time. Sometimes the parallels drawn seem so significant to me. I go ahead and force some parameters of a circuit to a person. Lets take some very basic parameters. Any one who has done a basic networks course would definitely agree that any circuit can be approximated to a second order system (two pole systems rings a bell??). So there is a dominant pole frequency and a non dominant pole frequency. They sorta give an indication of what your response would be to a change of inputs. Ofcourse we assume the change in the inputs is within some boundary conditions such that the system behaves in a linear fashion.

Ok am done with the circuits part (couldn't do away with: second order system, pole frequency, linearity. sorry!) of it. Coming to the fantastic feature of human brain. It has hundreds of such systems in parallel and the pole frequencies can be different for each system. Each system is associated with the various objects in his/her life (eg: cricket, sudoku, music, ex-lover, current-girlfriend, future husband whatever). So, the theory is "nothing is permanent".

When the environment around you changes (a new job, flat, friends), humans have this capability to adjust. No matter what the change is (again within the boundary conditions), we adjust to it. Its just a matter of time. Sometimes, it takes few seconds (dim light in a conference room), few minutes (bad odour of shoes), few hours (change of body cycle..jet lag), few days (those moments with buddies who are no longer around), few months (you are married!!), few years (you are still married!!) to adjust. Life always changes our surroundings so that our brains do not get used to the comfort level and are constantly challenged. It comes with the tagline "Swalpa Adjust Maadi" (Adjust a Little, please in kannada).

Common cold, loved ones & pinkfloyd.

There is nothing common about common cold. Apparently there are a hundred viruses that can cause it and thats precisely what makes it the world most infectious ailment. I was reading about it yesterday (after three years of relationship, corner house betrayed me by gifting me common cold wrapped in HCF jr, Cake fudge & Brownie fudge) and bumped into some interesting ways of treating cold.

I believe we have a capability to cure any disease just by thought process. For a change, its the thought that counts here. The way we feel is entirely governed by hormones (that explains the complex mind of a woman: 2 hormones drives the emotions of a man as against 8 in a woman!). Digressing a bit, man is like a digital inverter, yes or no is what he knows. Where as a woman is like a carefully biased 10-stage rail-to-rail (you know the moods swings dontchya?) opamp. You know there is something wrong but can't figure out straight away which stage screwed up!

Anyways anyways...hormones decide the mood! Agreed? Taking it further, any state of being is entirely governed by the levels of hormone at that point of time. Theoritically, it is possible to recreate the same emotional state if the hormones hit that combo again (doesn't it explain how you get nostalgic about your college crush when you flip through the albums or happen to smell her favorite perfume).

So, common cold again! Talking to loved ones (family or friends) and listening to music (the ones which you've listened & liked the most) apparently provides a relief to the jammed nose. Talking helps as it makes you feel that you are cared for, that sense of bonding jacks up the 'feel good' factor. Listening to music gets you into a nice comfortable zone. Both these are proven to rev-up your immune system and eventually beat up the cold virus out of your body. Now you can breath without hearing that low frequency beats from your nose followed by aaahh (sign :-) ).

Acknowledgements:
1) CP, for blogging that none of his regulars are blogging.
2) Ammi's calls.
3) Pink floyd & DW tracks.
4) Psenti sem photo album

Neena! cookingaa! Deevudaa!!

Never knew there are two schools of thought: Milk-first & Milk-last. Read on for 'A Nice Cup of Tea' by George Orwell.
http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

'Find-out-from-Mom-how-to-prepare-these' List:
1) Dum Biryani (naah, not flavoured by MDH masala)
2) Doosakaaya Pappu
3) Paalakuura Pulusu
4) Gutti Vankaaya Kuura
5) Tomato Perugu Pacchadi
6) Beerakaaya pacchadi
8) Sambhar
9) Mukkala Pulusu

Let go.

Let go of the sand from your clutched hand.
Wait for the gold to fall into your hold.
For, the sand that slipped is somebody else's beauty to behold.
And the gold you await will be yours without being told.