Book Review: God Does Not Play Dice

Book Review: God Does Not Play Dice
-- David A. Shiang

I picked it up thinking that it is another Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan kind of books. The author does talk about things like Counter-factual Definiteness, Superdeterminism etc., a lot. But, the similarity ends right there.

Author is an MIT graduate and works for UCB. Though this book is about Physics (and Mathematics) and the author tries to rip of several classical mathematical theories that have been taken for granted for hundreds of years, he is a fellow in English at UCB.

One line summary of the book would be "If one can't understand or explain a particular phenomenon, one shouldn't call that random. Period." Sounds fair enough. 

But, the author doesn't stop there. He extrapolates his above wisdom and takes its aid to criticize Uncertainity Principle, Feynmenn's Nobel prize winning  Sum over Histories idea etc., Once in a while he quotes a statement by Einstein (who, apparently didn't get completely convinced by his won theory of relativity, as he was not ready to accept that "God Does Play Dice, and hence there is randomness all over") and makes fun of Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan as they suggested that "our existence is not by design, but, due to a mere chance and evolution".

If he had limited himself to criticizing Nobel prize winning theories that explain super-complex cosmological phenomenon, people like me would have just turned pages and left intrigued. But, he gets to much more basic stuff and calls probability a farce, proposes a difference between 'probability' and 'frequency'. According to him, when a fair coin is tossed, there is no 50-50 chance of seeing a head. It would either be a head or tail. We just don't know. So, there is some design that we don't understand. So, we shouldn't call it random. What we call 'chance' is in fact 'frequency' of seeing heads, when the experiment (tossing the coin) is repeated for a long time. And, that frequency has nothing to do with the outcome of a single experiment. Sounds right, but, if one has the question, "Probability was never intended to answer the outcome of a single experiment with 100% certainty. So what's your point ?", he doesn't explain any further. He just takes the universal escape route, "there 'may' be an intelligent designer behind all these. We are incapable of understanding. So, let's not call it random".

As per this logic, everything is predetermined. We just don't know. And, he uses this theory as answer to the free will problem as well. He brings retrospective perspective into everything that he discusses, and claims that there indeed is no freewill.

At the end of it, I am not convinced about anything that he talks. But, lot of points to ponder and it makes a good philosophical discussion rather than a scientific breakthrough, contrary to his claims.

Moving on for the next lap: Blue Coat to ...

It is just 2 years since I left ProCurve Networking by Hewlett-Packard and joined Blue Coat. But, Blue Coat decides to call it a day for their Bangalore operations, and I am on my next lap of the journey from next week.

These 2 years have been anything but a roller coaster ride. The domain was something that's close to my forte. Frequent organizational changes kept me constantly in a ramp up phase, and that involved travel and several months of transition time in US/Canada. If it was only about the present, I did enjoy all that and had a great time. But, if it was about delivering something and moving up, there was nothing too significant to cherish. That's indeed a little disappointing.

The best take away would be the opportunity that I got to work with some interesting people. I worked with some people in my earlier work places, who were technologically equally stronger and had better foundations. But, what I could learn from this new set is their attitude. And, they don't stop at arm-chair commentary. Each has an impressive track record. They helped in diffusion of some of the myths that I used to subscribe to, and subtly remind me to get rid of inertia, that's not always apparent. Hopefully, I will put some of that learning in practice, soon enough.

The next lap... will write in another post in a couple of weeks. For now, that would be along with a subset of that new set :)

A Visit to Cambodia

Cambodia ? Where is that ?

Oh ! Africa, this time !

One more Marathon ?

Do you want to loose a limb by stepping on a land-mine ?

Wow ! Will you be visiting Angkor Wat ? Awesome !

Stay only in 5 star hotels, if you don't want to get stranded in an alien country without passport and credit cards.

These are some of the reactions of my friends and colleagues, when I told them about my upcoming visit to Cambodia. Dilip and Mani planned this trip long back and lured me in (with almost no effort) when they got to know that I was fired and jobless.

It was a short 3 day visit to one of the most unglamorous sounding places on earth, Siem Reap, Cambodia, an under developed South East Asian country, located between Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia has several old Hindu temples in ruins, discovered over a period of time, built between 8th and 12th century. Apparently, Cambodia was used as source of slaves by neighbors for 100s of years (after 12th century) till the French invaded and colonized in 19th century. That explains the sorry state of majestic Hindu/Buddhist temples.

We could visit Angkor Wat, the largest Hindu temple in the world with Ramayana and Ksheera Sagara Manthanam carved on walls along its infinite corridors, Bayon, a temple that's a mix of Hindu and Buddhist traditions with 216 faces carved on its majestic towers, Ta Prohm and Beng Mealea, some of the temples that were left as they were found with huge banyan trees grown randomly all over the place as a result of centuries of neglect. Tomb Raider used Ta Prohm as one of the locations. An interesting thing among several others that we could see was a carving on the walls of Ta Prohm that resembles a Stegosaurus, a type of dinosaur lived 150 million years ago in North America and Europe. Several countries, including India, are extending their help to restore some of these temples. It seems, it takes 3 full days to just visit all the major temples in Siem Reap area.

We concluded the first day with a visit to a Fishermen's village that apparently floats on water from Tonle Sap and attached to a mangrove forest. Tonle Sap is the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia with a size varying between 2700 sq. KM to 16000 sq. KM depending on the season. When our boat took us suddenly from a narrow canal into Tonle Sap, we couldn't believe that it's just a lake and not sea, as we couldn't see the other end in any of the 3 directions.

We spent one full day doing Dirt Biking in the Cambodian country side with Hidden Cambodia Tours. Though we had done lot of long bike rides earlier, Dirt Bikes were new to all of us. So, we started the ride a bit carefully. But, soon enough we discovered the fun of high raised and fully suspended Dirt Bikes and the way they love uneven roads and sandy stretches. We were ecstatic by the end of the day and Mani could end the ride only with a promise to come back and do at least a 5 day ride. The good part of Cambodia is except for one main road, every other road is a dirt trail and that makes it a great place for such rides.

We spent the evenings in pub street in old market area of Siem Reap city. Old Market area stands out of place with western styled pubs and restaurants to entertain tourists. Night life of Pub Street in particular is comparable to any happening European city, except that it goes very light on one's pocket. The area has a lot of massage parlors mimicking the popular massage culture of neighboring Thailand. But, we found that they are just poor mimics.

Though several friends and colleagues warned us about the safety of the place, it turned out to be quite a safe place. We could roam around on our own, even late in the nights, after finding several tourists from the west doing the same confidently. We stayed at Sam So Guest House, close to old market area, at a throw away price of 54 USD for 3 people for 3 nights that includes a good breakfast, airport pickup, excellent Wi-Fi and air-conditioning. Sam So couple routinely go out of their way to make their guests feel at home.

As I posted earlier, it turned out to be more than just an interesting visit, after visiting a lot of pompous west. Thanks to Dilip and Mani for the excellent company and  not giving up when I first said no to the trip :-)


 Photos...

Year 2011 - Fun Continues

The fun and travel legacy carried forward from 2010 has been taken care of well by 2011, and is being forwarded to its successor in a much better shape.

As usual, the year started with a fantastic run at Mumbai Marathon, where I could clock my personal best. And, the year ended with 3 more Marathons in 3 Months in 3 different Continents (Berlin/Europe, Niagara Falls/North America, Singapore/Asia). Though I couldn't improve much in terms of pace, I could sustain higher frequency.

As far as travel is concerned, this year is the best so far. Spent a month in California and planned every weekend in advance and executed the plan perfectly. Drove 5000 KM in 4 weekends, which include drives to Yosemite, Tahoe/Reno, Pacific Coast and Las Vegas. Visit to the Grand Canyons during the Las Vegas visit left me wanting, and Grand Canyons got added to the to-do list. Late in the year, traveled to Germany for Berlin Marathon. After the run, spent a week visiting Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels. Just a couple of weeks after that, work took me to Canada and I spent a month there. I could manage to do a very long drive to New York, besides the Marathon at Niagara Falls, during that month. Another coupe of weeks later, spent a few days in Singapore. Last quarter of the year has been hectic with lots of travel and runs.

This year has been better with Bike too. No, not cycle, its about the Bullet. Riding started with a trip to Pondicherry in February and ended only on 31st December with a 5 day long ride to west coast covering Gokarna, Murudeshwar and Jog Falls. With a great gang of friends, did a couple of memorable rides to Coorg and Chikmagalur. Besides those, did a solo ride to Ooty with just Bullet and Kindle.

Cycling took a hit this year with absolutely no cycling outside cycle-to-work, which will also be ending right from the first day of 2012, as I am shifting to a house which is around 200 meters away from office, and I will be doing walk-to-work. But, that gives me a lot of time and I can renew my pleasure rides. BTW, I just finished 4 years of cycle-to-work and people at work refer to me as Cycle-Srini :)


Lastly, about work... I am at a kind of cross roads in my career. Nothing significant happened by the end of this year and am looking forward to next year for something interesting. Nevertheless, I achieved something. When they had a chance to say something about me, my team said, "Whatever the quirks, we all love our Cycle-Srini". And, that indeed is significant.

My Epitaph - by My-Team@Work

Epitaph. I am no Yeats to compose a beautiful epitaph to be engraved on my own tomb stone. But, despite being a fan of Richard Feynman and one of his many amazing books, What Do You Care, What Others Think?, I would definitely be curious to know what would people around me write on my epitaph, given a chance.

Yes, that's a bit too philosophical and far fetched. The context here is much lighter. My team had a chance to write something about me in the last month's news letter at work, and this is what they wrote:


For people in Bangalore office, Srinivas don't need any kind of introduction. For those across the oceans, Srinivas is the star of the XYZ team. He is as cool as a cucumber and never gets agitated (non-sober modes - see K for Kabini and S for Serai - are excluded here :) ). He is always very passionate about anything he does - be it book reading or doing tech talk or bug fixing or running marathons or going on long road trips. Some people believe that his skills as image consultant or PR person is very under utilized! Introduction on Srinivas won't be complete if there was no mention of his strong atheist belief and his hatred for God Men (or God). He also presents this dual personality wherein he is fully vegetarian within India and stays away from vegetables when he is abroad. He could be afraid of our 'holy cows' or maybe it is the synthetic vegetables in the West that scares him to eat non-veg. Whatever the quirks, we all love our "Cycle Sini" :)

Kabini & Serai were two places, where our office took us for over-night outings in the last one year. Naturally, there was a big opportunity to commit some chemical sins and a chance to put up some show after that.

I always struggle to fill 'about me' that shows up in social networking or blogging accounts. It was nice to get it written by others. Thanks team, particularly for the last few words. :)

My Recent Marathons: Berlin & Niagara Falls

Berlin Marathon

I registered for Berlin Marathon-2011 in Nov 2010, around 10 months in advance, but, still missed the early bird discount. That explains the popularity of the event. Berlin is one of the BIG-5 Marathons, the other 4 being, London, Boston, Chicago and New York, in no particular order. Boston stands out as the Marathon with the toughest entry criteria (one needs to have finished a recognized Marathon under 3 hr 30 min to be considered for Boston). If I ever become eligible for Boston, and if I ever have grand children, they and even their grand children can brag about that :)

Having run Athens and San Francisco last year, I was eager to see what makes a run so popular and keeps it apart from others. Though, I read news articles about last year run in Berlin claiming that there were 1 million spectators and innumerable bands to cheer the runners, it was hard to imagine. But, once the run started, it was quickly evident, why it is so popular. There were 40000 runners. Still, no scaling issues. The arrangements were just perfect. There was not even a 100 meter stretch that I can recall now, which doesn't have crowd to cheer or which doesn't have live-music. Slow runners like me also received the same warm reception as the winners would have received, which is, of course, typical to most distance runs.

Niagara Falls Marathon

Just 2 weeks after finishing Berlin, I got to know that I would be in Waterloo, Canada for a week (which later got extended to a month) on a business trip. As usual, I just searched for Marathons near-by. Luckily, it was the season for Marathons and there were two, on consecutive weekends, which are just 100 KM away from the place that I was going to visit. One in Toronto and another in Niagara. A quick search revealed the uniqueness of Niagara, as the only Marathon in the world that starts in one country(US) and ends in another(Canada). And, I happened to have Visas for both the countries, and the registration for the run was still open. I got the tickets booked to accommodate the Niagara one, and registered for it.

The run was not popular outside the US and Canada. As these are friendly nations with each other, apparently, their citizens in border areas routinely drive across the border. I am one of the very few registered runners who needs a Visa and an I-94 (Arrival/Departure record maintained by the US) to enter into the US. So, before even giving me my running number, organizers needed an I-94. Again luckily, I had a car, and I just drove into the US and got the document and drove back into Canada, in time to collect the running number. All this took less than 45 minutes. Impressive.

On the big day, we were asked to report 3 hours before the start of the run (to keep some time for document verification while crossing the border), and were transported to the start line in buses, which is in Buffalo, New York. The run started at 10 AM. Albright-Knox Art Gallery allowed us to wait inside and keep ourselves warm till the start of the run. Temperature was in single digits through out, but, it was at least sunny. So, I could venture out in my regular shorts and tees. First 7-8 KM of the course was in the US. We entered Canada through Peace Bridge. In the middle of the bridge, a small line with flags of the US and Canada on either side depicts international border. After entering Canada, till we reached Niagara Falls, the course was right next to a river (the same water that reaches the falls). Unlike Berlin, there were absolutely no crowds or music to cheer. But, the organizers made sure that there was a support station with water and electrolytes at every KM with out fail, till the last runner(I swear!, it's not me :) ) was out of the course.

The finish line was right next to the falls. As the number of runners was very less (less than 2000, I guess), they were reading out the details of each runner touching the finish line. While I approached the finish, I could hear "Mr.Guntupalli from Bangalore, India. Wow! India !". I could see only one more Indian among the runners (who appeared to be a seasoned runner and an NRI). So, India must have been announced only for me. Not sure, whether I did any good (Indians also participated in Niagara Falls Marathon) or bad (Indians run so slow !, as there was a big clock showing my finish time :) ).

Book Review: The Secret of the Nagas

The Secret of the Nagas
--- Amish Tripathi

I rarely look forward to sequels, be it films or books. But, The Secret of the Nagas (Book TWO of the Shiva Trilogy) is an exception. When I reluctantly picked up The Immortals of Meluha (Book ONE) from a colleague, little did I know that I was about to discover a brilliant story teller in Amish Tripathi. It is not an exaggeration to say that I forgot many times whether I was reading a book or watching a movie. An ardent fan of Indian Mythology in me (of course, when it is limited to admiring the masterminds behind such never ending, well intertwined stories) might also be one reason behind this appreciation. I hardly read 2-3 books per month and am not of the sort who finishes books in a couple of sittings (definitely not after buying this smart-phone, which pricks me to pick it up and check those all-important Facebook/Google+ updates, every few minutes). This book is an exception there too.

My only complaint about the Book ONE was, that's not very eventful, as the author had to spend a good part of the book in setting up the stage, that is India in 1900 BC with Suryavamshis (the conservatives following Lord Ram's principles in letter and spirit) and Chandravamshis (liberals) ruling the northern part of India, and south of the Vindhyas left to Nagas, the cursed and dreaded ones, each of them with their own value systems, life styles, apprehensions and perspectives about others. The only thing that is common among them is the belief in the legend of Neelkanth, the savior. Now, as the stage is set, Book TWO gave a perfect platform for the performance.

Hero of the story, The Lord Neelkanth, discovers at the end of the first episode, how wrong could one's perspectives get, when one doesn't attempt to get into the shoes of the other party. But, that knowledge comes with a cost, a full fledged war between two kingdoms. Neelkanth continues his exploration of India and search for finding the ultimate evil, that he believes is the root cause of all the disturbance. Neelkanth gets wiser and wiser during this exploration, as every new discovery blows away his prejudice. Every step he takes to get a closer look at the evil only reveals that it is the prejudice that made him see that as evil. And, he goes on and on to find the ultimate one.

Author introduced a few more characters in this part, all from Indian Mythology, while keeping their original nature from Mythology and tweaking them here and there to fit in his grand story. There are enough twists and turns and suspense of a typical thriller, unlike the first book. It is good to notice that the author delivered a better book in second part, though he must be under pressure, after the success of the first book. I am eagerly waiting for Book III: The Oath of the Vayuputras.