Free Will - Sam Harris

Free will is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. It is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, and other judgments which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition. Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame (Source: Wikipedia)

All the above virtues and vices are attached to a person, with an assumption that one has Free Will. But, does one really have Free Will? Is one totally responsible for one's actions? Is a person responsible for every decision taken and every action that resulted out of those decisions? Are we the authors of our thoughts? Or, are we the victims of circumstances?

Will two individuals, who had gone through different kinds of upbringing and exposed to different kinds of societies, think/react similarly in a similar situation, though they don't have any different external influences whatsoever at that particular point of time to influence their reaction one way or the other? They usually don't. That implies, they are the sum total of their experiences. Does that imply existence of any Free Will?

These are some of the questions that Sam Harris, an American author, philosopher and neuroscientist, discusses in this book. He concludes that Free Will is an illusion. 

We don't have control on our thought process. Unconscious events determine our thoughts and actions, which themselves are determined by prior events, which we are not consciously aware of. Martin Heisenberg (Son of Werner Heisenberg - Uncertainty Principle), a neurobiologist, observed a different kind of uncertainty in brain - Certain processes in brain occur at random with no external influence. Though this implies that the resultant thoughts are generated without any external influence, this can't be called Free Will as this doesn't mean someone has control on it.

Some of the criminal justice systems in the world seems to divest criminals of their crime, if they found to be victims of their biology. For example, if a brain tumour or abnormal secretion of Serotonin (a neurotransmitter) in brain is proven to have caused a person to behave in a certain way (which is criminal), the person can't be held totally responsible for his malicious actions. Victims of their biology are exonerated of their wrongdoings, considering that they don't have Free Will while committing the crimes. What about victims of circumstances? Do they have control on circumstances and Free Will, while acting in a certain way? That's a pretty deep question.

When we break the origins of a thought into two simple parts, genetic and environmental, one doesn't seem to have control on either. One doesn't choose place of birth, parents, religion, society (at least not until adulthood), neighbourhood while growing up etc., As they are the foundations of one's thought process, one hardly has any Free Will.

I would summarise the takeaways from the book as follows: It's hard to digest the proposition that a person doesn't have any control on his/her thoughts, and one just acts as per the result of some unknown algorithm working on some unknown data. But, trying to appreciate the fact that people are, more often, victims of circumstances that are not in their control, helps us treat each other better.

Will appreciating lack of Free Will cleanses one of any guilt for one's wrongdoings and leads to a chaotic, immoral, unpredictable and dangerous society? That's a philosophical question that overlaps with questions like, whether the world would become unlivable if majority of people stop believing in Gods and super-nature!  

The Road to 42

The journey that started innocuously in 2009 in Hyderabad is about to cross an interesting milestone. It would be my 42nd Marathon, if I cross the finish line tomorrow in Bengaluru Marathon within the time set by the organisers.

Why is 42nd significant? Isn't it just a random number? Apparently, it's not so random for distance runners. 42 KM is roughly the distance between Marathónas and Athens in Greece. The legend has it that, it's the distance run by Pheidippides in 490 BC to convey the news of Greek victory over Persians at the Battle of Marathon.  And, after a few corrections over a period of time, 42.195 KM has become the official Marathon distance.

I have come across a few runners with some grand plans around 42. One runner is running 42 KM every weekend for 42 consecutive weekends to celebrate his 42nd birthday and also to spread a message about safe and healthy living.  Another runner has plans to bring down his 10 KM run time to 42 minutes, when he turns 42.

I don't have any such grand plans around it. But, I won't be as harsh as Dilbert, and would still take out some time to travel back and forth in time, to relive and cherish the journey. 

The first few years of my Marathon life, I was mostly on my own, in all my training runs and also in most of the events. Not that I didn't get a chance to socialise and network with all those amazing runners at running events, but, I was inherently antisocial. May be, I still am, though may not be in it's true sense.

While I was on one of those solo overseas ventures, I ended up meeting a couple of runners, who are at the other end of the spectrum, when it comes to being social. That led to the genesis of Runners For Ever, an amateur runners club that comprises of people in early 20s to early 50s from various walks of life, with a common thread being their love for distance running.



There was no looking back after that. Though I still was mostly on my own during overseas runs, almost all the domestic runs have become celebrations to look forward to. Some of the unforgettable things in this journey would be, One of the Auroville runs where our entire group ran together from the start to the finish; A midnight marathon when a bunch of them came to run with, otherwise solo, me for the last 10 KM at 3 AM in the morning; 100 KM Bangalore Ultra where the most knowledgeable runner in our group traveled for a couple of hours to get to the venue, while suffering from high fever, just to ensure that we, the kids, are doing well; Every single training run that led to the enviable Comrades Finish in South Africa; The run at Chiang Mai, Thailand to which my cute little niece accompanied me.

During this journey, I got to touch far west San Francisco, US and far east Mount Fuji, Japan, retraced the steps of Pheidippides between Marathonas and Athens, ran in the unspoilt border mountains between Vietnam and China, ran across US/Canada border at Niagara Falls, experienced torrential rains at Cherrapunjee, got fried in the extreme heat of Phuket, Thailand, was part of the world's largest ultra-marathon where around 20,000 people attempt to run 90 KM in 12 hours in South Africa, got to meet some friends after 20+ years who are living on the other side of the world, made some friends in just one meeting. I don't think I could ask for more!

My non-running friends often ask me, why do I run Marathons? There is always this badass answer - Because, I can! Beyond that, in retrospect, I have many more now. It took me places. It gave me some friends whom I can call at 2 AM, not just to go for a run.

In the grand scheme of things, 42 is, of course, just a random number. But, when one gets a chance to go down the memory lane, that's full of beautiful memories, why miss it! :-)

Comrades Marathon 2016 - An Unforgettable Experience!

Around 8 months back, a couple of members of Runners For Ever, an amateur running club co-founded by me, shared their plans to train for Comrades Marathon - 2016. I simply wished good luck. A couple of minutes later, they started pitching the same to me and were aggressively confident that I too could do it. Though I had 30+ Marathons to my credit and roughly half of them in diverse terrains and weather conditions, I am a cruiser than a speedster. They jumped back and said, that's exactly what Comrades needs. They were not wrong!

A 90 KM run, full of hills, with a 12 hour deadline and 6 intermediate cut-offs, needs a lot of endurance and composure, and none can afford any aggression. Training, of course, dictates the actual pace. But, composure ensures that one reaches the finish line at the planned pace, and finishes strong. We believed in that and prepared our training sheet for 5 months. We managed to finish it strong!

When I registered and started training, I didn't know the stature of Comrades Marathon among distance runners. I took it as just another run as part of My Overseas Marathon Odyssey, which started around 6 years back. Towards the event day, a couple of incidents made me realise the importance of it. One of the finest amateur runners of India mentioned my name along with a runner who holds the record of fastest Indian at Comrades, casually in a conversation about the 2016 participants from India. A marathon runner in my gym suddenly stops during a conversation and asks "what is your name?", when I mentioned that I have been training for Comrades; In the same fashion, as one asks "who the hell are you!", when they hear something incredible.

The moment we entered South Africa, we were part of the elite crowd, right from the airport. While waiting to get into a plane from Johannesburg to Durban, a couple of random guys walk to us and wish us. One of them was travelling to Durban, just to be along the Marathon course and cheer the runners. We lost count of people who approached us, the days after the Marathon, when we were walking around in TShirts with Comrades logo on it. It continued till Bangalore airport.

We made our training plans, keeping 11 hours as our target time to finish. That gives us an hour of buffer for surprises. Being a first timer at Comrades, I had quite a few surprises, though I thought that I studied the course and elevation well. We planned to run at a pace that lets us reach each cut-off 40 to 50 minutes before the official cut-off time. I managed to do that till 3rd cut-off. After that I started using up the buffer time gradually. The course being very wide where one ends up doing a lot of lateral moves, I ended up running 94 KM, roughly 5 KM more than official 89.3 KM. This, along with a late start due to being in the last block of runners (around 7 minutes), ate away around 25 minutes of my time. So, I was left with only 35 minutes of buffer, if I ran at the pace that we planned. I used up around 20 minutes of it, after the 3rd cut-off and managed to reach the finish line in 11:46.

The support en route was something unmatchable. Except for a few KM, there were supporters through out the course. There were 47 official support stations stocked with water, electrolyte, coke, biscuits, chocolates, boiled potatoes and fruits. Knowing about coke and potatoes in advance, we did a few of our training runs with them. I had more coke that day than all the soda that I had in the last few years put together. Apart from the support stations, there were innumerable people along the course that offer something to drink, munch or just cheer the runners. 

Comrades Marathon alternates between Pietermaritzburg to Durban (Down Run) and Durban to Pietermaritzburg (Up Run) every year. It was a Down Run this year. Contrary to the popular belief, Down Run is not so Down Hill. There were several serious up-hills along the course. It's only around 10-15 KM, between 60 KM and 80 KM, that's down hill, which again is intertwined with some up hills. 

The finish was something unforgettable. The stadium had a million people cheering and making everyone who crosses the finish-line feel so special. The moments towards 11:59 were quite tense. Probably, no matter what is the cut-off, there would be someone who misses it by a few seconds. When the count-down started for 11:59:59, there were several runners who entered the stadium and could see the finish-line a few meters away. That was really heartbreaking. We could see one runner collapse a couple of meters from finish line, who had a few minutes to finish, only if he could stand. Despite the help from fellow runners, he couldn't even stand and couldn't make it. 

After finishing the run, we got out of the stadium and started walking towards our hotel, which was

less than a KM away. It was dark, though it was only 6 pm. We took a couple of wrong turns and quickly lost. There were hardly anyone on the road and almost all shops were closed, that being a Sunday. We finally found an area with a couple of shops open, and a car parked in front of it with someone in driver's seat. As we approached the car, someone started walking from across the road and asking us whether we need any help. We told that we were lost and need to go to our hotel. He offered to drop us at the hotel. We hesitated for a minute, but realised soon that all we had were stinking clothes and Comrades Medal on us and nothing else, and got into the car. Apparently, he was going home from his work, saw medals hanging around our neck, parked his car, and ran across the road to find whether we need any help. When we reached our hotel, the lobby had a few masseurs helping runners relax their tired bodies. Surprised to find that those masseurs were practically everyone who were working in the hotel (kitchen, house-keeping, including a daughter of  someone who takes care of the front desk), just helping the runners relax, free of cost.

Needless to say, we reached Bangalore to receive a heroic and heartening welcome from fellow Runners For Ever, who dared a weekday evening traffic in Bangalore and came all the way to airport to receive us.

Bad Arguments - Ali Almossawi

Argument from consequences

    Quality that's attached to an effect is not transferable to the cause

    Without the existence of an omnipotent God, world would go berserk. Hence, God exists. 

    World may or may not become unliveable, if no one believes in God. But, it still needs to be proven that God exists.

Straw Man

    Misrepresent, misquote, misconstrue - then attack

    
    Kejriwal claims that Narendra Modi lied about his degree.

   Kejriwal says that to be a good PM, one needs a degree (misconstrue).  (Then attack) PM needs vision and leadership, which Modi has, not education and degrees

    The argument should be about whether a PM lied during a constitutional process or not.

Appeal to Irrelevant Authority

    Appeal to an authority who is not an expert on the issue at hand

    GM foods are bad. Our ancestors always recommended natural ways for healthier lives. GM foods have artificially modified DNA

    Ancestors are no authority on effects of food with Genetically Engineered DNA

Equivocation

    Use different meanings of a word to draw desired conclusion

    Science is supposed to explain us 'why' certain things happen. Can it ever explain us 'why' do we exist? It can't. Hence, we need religion.

    The former 'why' is 'cause'. And, the later 'why' is 'purpose'

False Dilemma

    Create a dilemma, when none actually exists

    POTUS: You are with us or you are with the terrorists

    When in fact, one could have been neutral or could sympathise with both

Not a Cause for a Cause

    After this, therefore because of this

    Petrol prices have gone down in the last few quarters. New Government is doing a great job

   New Government may be doing a great job. But, that doesn't automatically mean that all good things happened are due to that. Neither are all the bad things

Appeal to Fear

    Plays on the fears of an audience by imagining a scary future that would be of their making if some proposition were accepted

    Donald Trump

Hasty Generalization

    Too small or too special sample set, to be representative of a population

    I spoke to a friend from Delhi. After Kejriwal came to power, corruption reduced. I spoke to another friend from Gujrat, Modi did a tremendous job with the infrastructure there.

    Those friends might be right/wrong. But, definitely too small a sample to add any value to an argument.

Appeal to Ignorance

    Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

    All that we see around is a master plan made by God. Come on, how can you say No? Can you prove it wrong? No! So, it's right.

    The burden-of-proof always lies with the person making a claim

No True Scotsman

    A general claim made about a category of things

    Members of party X are communal

    But, Mr A is from that party! He is not communal

    Well, Mr A is not a True X member.

    What exactly is a True member, other than being the member of that party!

Genetic Fallacy

    An argument's origins or the origins of the person making it have no effect whatsoever on the argument's validity

    A member from opposition criticises Government's way of handling a certain issue

    Ah! Just look at him, who is preaching! His party had handled so many things wrong

    His party might have handled so many things badly. But, the current discussion is about an issue that the current Government is handling

Guilt by Association

    Discredit an argument for proposing an idea that is shared by some socially demonized individual or group

    Kejriwal demands central Government to approve a certain thing

    Do you know who else demand it? None other than Maoists

    Whether there is a merit in demand or not is not discussed

Affirming the consequent

    If A then C, C; hence A.

    Congress-men(A) don't talk about Augusta Westland case(C). Kejriwal doesn't talk about it(C). So, he is a congress-man(A)

    C doesn't imply A

Appeal to Hypocrisy

    Counter a charge with a charge

    You are corrupt.

    You too!

Slippery Slope

    Discredit a proposition by arguing that its acceptance will undoubtedly lead to a sequence of events

    We should never allow Homo-sexuality. It kills morality in the society. It creates monsters and will lead to apocalypse

    There is no proof that such sequence of events will happen. But, they apparently are assumed

Appeal to the Bandwagon

    Appeal to people, though it doesn't make any sense whatsoever

    Invite a thousand well to do people, and feed them an expensive and terribly unhealthy food at a wedding, though you can't actually afford it. Because, that's considered as a great thing to do

    It may be a win-win for all, if that's not done. But, never explored. Because, it's not appealing to others

Ad Hominem

    Attacks a person's character rather than what he or she is saying with the intention of diverting the discussion

    CBI raids Kejriwal's office. He calls Modi a coward and psychopath. 

    CBI raid could be with a malicious intention. But, talking about Modi's character won't help the case in hand

Circular Reasoning

    Because X, therefore X

 

    Subramanian Swami's recent tirade against Raghuram Rajan - The consumer price index has not declined because of high retail prices

    A consumer price index (CPI) measures changes in the price level of a market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. So, high CPI and high retail prices are same

Book Review: Free Country - A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain

Free Country - A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain
- George Mahood

George and Ben plan to go on an adventure cycle ride, between two extreme points of United Kingdom, from the most westerly point in England (Lands End) to North-East tip of Scotland (John O' Groats). That's around 1000 miles. The most interesting part of the adventure is, not the ride. They have to do it without spending a penny. That's right. And, that's not all. They can't even start the trip with their own cycles or even clothes. They have to depend entirely on the mercy of people along the route, for practically everything.

They start their trip with just a pair of shorts each, as cover page of the book depicts, at the Lands End. They explain their challenge to the people they meet en route, and request them to part with anything that helps them start their ride. Within a couple of days, they manage to get some abandoned bikes, socks, shoes and some TShirts.

From then on, their routine is pretty much same for the next 18 days. They cover around 50 miles a day. For breakfast/lunch/dinner, they knock doors of random places en route, explain their challenge and request some food, and offer to do some chores in return. Most of the days, they manage to get food without doing any work in return. And, there are days, where they end up helping cleaners in kitchen or even picking up cigarette buts in the front yard of a hotel. By dusk, they reach some town/village and look for pubs/hotels/hostels and play the same record. Some readily offer them a full service room and some offer just some space in parking lot, where they can pitch their tent, again given by someone after listening to their challenge, and some just express their inability to help.

By the end of 19th day, they could confidently say that people of Britain were great, as they didn't go hungry even for one night, and even had a couple of beers almost every night. They had a few interesting places to spend their nights that include, a luxury boat, a barn with cattle, a disorderly house with a drunken self proclaimed hitman, floor of a pub etc., 

For such a long ride without a penny, I expected it to be a bit more eventful. But, despite the pathetic condition of cycles and not even having a pump or a puncture kit, and not so great planning about which town/village en route to spend the next night, they manage to have an almost smooth ride. Some of the conversations that they had over free beers make good reads.

A Few Months Towards Comrades Ultra Marathon

Comrades Ultra Marathon, an 89 KM road run on a hilly terrain, between 2 cities in South Africa (Pietermaritzburg and Durban), is the world's oldest and largest Ultra Marathon that attracts around 20,000 runners from across the world. It happened first in 1921. The name Comrades is due to the The League of Comrades of The Great War (First World War). Vic Clapham, a soldier, who campaigned for the League dreamt about an endurance race between his home town Pietermaritzburg and Durban, and realised it 3 years later in 1921.

Several months back, a couple of my friends from Runners For Ever, had been bitten by this Comrades bug and decided to take it on in 2016. Allegedly, one of them has been suffering from the bug-bite for several years. There are a few things that make this run particularly challenging. The first one is, of course, the distance. It's 89 KM, which is a little more than 2 Marathons. It should be covered in 12 hours and there are 5 intermediate cut-offs as well. Then comes the icing on the cake, the terrain. Majority of the course is hilly, with some serious elevation gain/loss. Though I am not good at runs that expect a certain pace, and also not much into Ultra Marathons (distance runs that go beyond 42.195 KM), they somehow convinced me that I too should make an attempt.

Comrades Marathon usually happens on the last weekend of May. We started our planned training from Mumbai Marathon in January. 4 months training is quite short for such a run. But, as we are not too young in the world of distance running, we decided to make an attempt. We picked the most challenging routes (Pipeline Road and Nandi Hills) available in Bangalore for some of our weekend runs, that would equip us to handle the hilly terrain of Comrades. We threw a couple of day long cycle rides in the schedule that would make us be on our legs for the whole day. Also, thanks to the growing popularity of distance runs in India, I could fit one organised Marathon every month in the schedule. That made the last four months of journey towards Comrades quite occupied.

Apart from these weekend runs, we added at least one run during weekdays that's 2 hour long. And, of course, strengthening and conditioning through out the week. It's, by no means, a rigorous training. But, a bare minimum one to make a good attempt. We have 3 more weeks to go and we just started tapering down. All of us have 5+ years of running and a lot of Marathons and a few Ultra Marathons to our credit. Hope, all that experience and the bodies that have been used to enduring time & distances would be of help!

Book Review: A Guy on the Sidewalk

A Guy on the Sidewalk
-- Bharath Krishna

It's a self-narrated story of a guy, as ordinary as the title sounds. Just another guy on the sidewalk. What makes it interesting is the connect that one can make with the protagonist. 

A smart but not studious guy; His friendship with a girl in college, which he was not sure how to handle; A routine, mediocre, boring and unplanned career, which he couldn't take for too long; His reluctance to go with the flow; His eccentricity in taking every major decision in life; Introspection at the back of his mind, without a pause; Being devoid of irrational fears that usually keep one from straying - that pretty much sums up the story.

I particularly liked the relationship between Jay, the protagonist and Siri, a single mother who had been through a bad patch and appears to be living a reclusive life, for people who get judgmental too soon. Also, the friendship between Jay and Venkat, his childhood friend, is so realistic that I could establish a connect with it, instantly.

Though the story is largely event-less and highly predictable, I loved the simple and yet gripping narration. I felt as if I was listening to a long lost friend narrating his story, where I don't mind excruciating details. This might be partially due to the author being a good friend of mine in Agricultural college. As I read somewhere, first time authors tend to bring a lot of auto-biographical elements into their book. This being the first book by Bharath, he too might have done a bit of that. If that's the case, it only made it better!

Corbett Marathon

Corbett Marathon-2016 is the 6th edition of Corbett Marathon, organised by Running and Living. I got to know about Running and Living for the first time, when I was searching for some information on how to choose the right running shoe, several years back. They still have that article online, which introduced the word pronation to me. I have been following their runs since then, but never got a chance to run one. March to June/July are kind of dry months for Marathon runners in India. As I look forward to doing one Marathon every month, I ended up checking all the runs in India, and Corbett Marathon in March did fit the bill. 

 

The location of the run is quite unique and remote for someone in Bangalore. I flew to Delhi and got into an overnight train to Ramnagar, a small town in Uttarakhand, that's a gateway to Jim Corbett National Park. Though I am not a wild life enthusiast, I love walks/treks/safaris in forests to just enjoy the serenity. So, I got into a Jeep right at Ramnagar railway station for a few hours of safari into Jhirna Range of Jim Corbett. Apparently, Jhirna was one of the man-animal conflict zones till a few years ago and people from this village have been completely relocated now to other places, and left that area to animals. There are still some remnants of the village. Despite the very high numbers of wild life boasted by safari guide, we couldn't spot much animals during our ride.

Marathon expo and start/end points were at Mapple Resort, around 10 KM from Ramnagar station, towards entry gate of National Park. I checked into a cozy room, right next to Mapple in Parfait the Roar. When I went to collect my bib, I was surprised to see just 6 registrations for Full Marathon (with no-show and on the spot registrations, it turned out to be 7 by the next morning), and some 50-60 for Half Marathon. Most of our regular weekend runs have more runners than that. It may be due to the Holi weekend, which people in the north may prefer to celebrate with families/friends than with elephants/tigers. But, that didn't deter the organisers and they received us with full enthusiasm.

It was a 10.55 KM loop and Full Marathon runners had to do 4 loops. Run started at 5 AM, while it was still pitch-dark. 3 cars were arranged to help us, with their headlights on, during the first loop. It was the most interesting 10 KM run for me. It was completely dark (but for the headlights of a slow moving car behind me), on a road that cuts across a thick forest (outside the Safari entry gate of course, but not sure whether animals know about that). We could hear various sounds that are typical to a forest, in the early morning chill as it's winter/summer transition. Just 7 of us cruised through, immersed in our respective worlds. Weather was great for the next 2 loops too. I had to face a bit of heat for the last loop. Well stocked support stations reflected that the organisers themselves are runners and understand what a runner needs on the course. Later on, I found that Rahul, founder of Running and Living, has run 37 Marathons across several continents. 

Along with a couple of Runners for Ever friends, I have been training for Comrades Ultra Marathon, an 89 KM road run in a hilly terrain, on May 29 in South Africa. The last few months of training seems to have helped me, as I was very consistent through out the 42 KM course, without the usual drop in pace that I used to experience towards the end.

There was a post-run brunch at Mapple, where I could interact with a few crazy runners with varied interests. One of them is a local guy, who got to know that there was a Marathon and just came and ran. It was his first Marathon and he finished in an enviable 3 hr 34 min. But then, he is a Lieutenant Colonel in Indian Army. Respect! Another one is a 50 year old guy, running 4 Marathons a month. He had another Marathon in Delhi on the following day, and was traveling to Delhi right after the run. One guy flew from Bahrain for the run, who is training for London Marathon in April, and this is just one of the training runs for him.

It was a long travel to get there and get back to Bangalore. But, at the end of it, I felt it was worth it. I will be looking forward to more runs by Running and Living in much more exotic locations.