Siddhartha

Pirates of silicon valley / fountain head

2011-12-26T22:41:00.001-08:00

The holiday vacation in Vancouver gave me the chance to watch two great movies in one day! Really I should have watched these two movies earlier. Had not watched such good movies for a while!

These are the kind of movies when I watch I can feel I made them! It's like, I feel they are showing me stuff I imagine in my head and now, someone else has thought about them and made all the way to produce and make a moving pictures out of them.

The idea that a man must live for his own sake and not to sacrifice himself is such a true idea. Reminds me of a day in my undergrads when I was arguing with a friend over a topic and i made a point that I won't care what other people think of me. I recall him giving me a cliche answer: "don't be such a self-satisfied person". This saying never made sense to me. I replied back: how come a man can not be satisfied of his own thinking? If I am thinking and believing in something, that's me and that implies I am satisfied with it. People who are not satisfied of themselves must be people who say other people's thinking not their own. The state of being dissatisfied of self is an unstable state and a healthy mind would quickly move away from that state to a self-satisfactory one. That's is too obvious to argue about.

Working with Mike in The company has out me through lots of new learnings about how to execute an idea and how important it is to market yourself and your great ideas. This is something university never teaches anyone and and as such, lots of great ideas are buried in schools in research labs or in papers simply because there are not executed into human life.

How to use our brain - 1

2011-12-25T18:35:00.001-08:00

There is something in me, and I suppose in a lot of other people, which keeps reminding me that I need to make a contribution in human society. To make a contribution essentially means to make changes how people think and how people act. And the purpose why we want people change perhaps can be explained by intrinsic evolution in all aspects of life on earth ( and in universe).

In order make contribution, I need to stay healthy mentally and physically. To stay healthy means using brain and body often, and rehearse them regularly. Two to three sessions of swimming per week would not take too much time, and will keep my body up to the level of performance I want.

To keep my brain up to speed all the time is a bit trickier. Depending what kind of profession you are pursuing, you need to expose yourself to certain kind of problems and try to solve them without giving up. Although its good to exercise all regions of your brain on a regular basis, its not always easy abd nay take a lot of time. Moreover, most of us tend to be good at doing a limited types of tasks and bad at doing others due to having a non-balanced brain and its neural structures solidified from birth or during early childhood. So, it might be a better investment to reinforce our strength by doing more of things that requires those strength, and push our brain to perform the tasks that we often don't like to do jut enough that we can survive as become necessary from time to time.

fight and friendship

2011-02-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

I learned a very important lesson regrading a healthy and honest relationship with people: It is very important that you try hard to understand the other party's perspective and arguments and try to see the world from their eyes. But equally important is that you should also express your true opinion back even though your complete disagreement with the other party bring a bitter moment afterwards. Fighting straight forwardly will finally result in a much better ending than hiding your true opinion with the false hope that passing time might cut away the root of the differences.

I have to develop practices how to implement this in my relationship at both work and home.

These days there is a Wiki for everything. Learn how you should fight:)
http://www.wikihow.com/End-a-Fight-with-a-Friend

value-driven relationship

2010-06-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today was a tiring day in our business. One of the customers- who was not the real customer I discovered, and had bought the product and assigned it to someone else to “try” it to see if the product has any use in his class decided to cancel the agreement because the actual user –who had no authority to make a decision if she wanted to use this or not and just was supposed to use it, used the product very poorly. This is the second time that I am realizing we sold the product to someone whom we should have identified at the beginning as not an early adopter of our technology in our start-up.

I now have a much more clear understanding who a real customer is: The real customer is the one, who has a need, and selects a product carefully that does the job he/she wants, and uses it properly and will be often happy (well assuming that the product really does the job it promises it does). If you sign up for a soccer team, for example, and you do not have suitable shoes, you will go to mall, look up available products and buy a pair that helps you play well in the field without sliding and falling. You are a happy costumer for that shoe and the shoe company loves you too.

Sometimes you do not feel you have a need but you buy a product and still are a real customer. Suppose since your childhood, you have been always using knife to chop onions when you cook. You are walking in a mall some day either for fun or just to do regular grocery shopping, and you notice an ad that says if you buy an onion chopper, you will save yourself time and make the job easy. The price tag is there and you know your budget, and decide to try it. You initially did not have a need, but you correctly identified the value of the product and willingly chose to buy.

You may think I am talking obvious, but there is a third group who are poison in the market and you should think twice before selling them your product: If the buyer decided to buy your product because he was afraid of saying “No” to you, he might be ruining the market by badly using the product and spreading negative opinion about your company by giving bad testimonials to others (a bad situation to be for start-ups who have limited number of customers). If he said yes, because he is your friend and is saying “yes” only to do you a favor and probably thinks what you offer “might be” useful somehow in his life at some point, he is in fact ruining your market. And if the buyer did not have a need nor understood the value of your product and yet decided to buy it because she knew that someone else would pay for the cost other than herself, be warned that she can be potentially a dangerous bug for your market.

After the first experience with a bad customer, I knew that I should not approach someone who is willing to setup a meeting with me only because he knows me. That was why I very clearly asked in our meeting that he should feel free to decline if he does not see any value. I knew him personally as someone who never says things unless he believes in it (and in fact I always admired him inside for this side of his characteristic) and I trusted when he told me that he sees value and is not going to waste my time. And he said “yes”. The problem was that the value he saw was not the value we were offering. He just took the technology totally wrong. I was hoping that I could correct him in the next meetings as we normally meet with customers regularly before the actual execution of the project. It turned out that he got too busy to meet me again and my emails in his inbox were his least priority and remained unanswered. After a month and just a few days before the start of the project execution, when I noticed that he is just too busy to meet with me and even not showing any need to get some quick training how to use the product, I saw him in a hallway and told him: Look! I know that we already have spent about 5k for this project and you signed an agreement that you use the system, but I would not mind if you cancel this here. Till this point, I was doing not too bad, but the bad mistake was the email I sent him just one hour after the brief conversation in the hallway. In my email I tried to discourage him to cancel because of the principle we had that a new technology needs some “push” at the beginning, and because we thought we have a sale and have spent resources. Why should one be interested in losing a sale he tried hard to close? Anyways, his final reply was basically that he “makes” someone else to use it. His teaching assistants.

This lesson was probably one of the biggest lessons that I learned since we started this business a year ago. I knew it theoretically before by sitting in marketing seminars and reading books, but now I know what they really mean and how I should talk to customers if I believe I have something that I know has a true value. Remember to build your relationship only upon values and nothing else.

incomplete PhD

2010-03-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

My PhD research is finished. Almost finished. Almost, only because one of my supervisors- who does not really have any plan what goal he is trying to achieve other than publishing papers- is pushing for one more paper by asking me to do something which is essentially a repetition of what I have already done, but in a somewhat new fashion: I have pushed a micro object precisely along a desired trajectory and have shown that adaptive controllers using artificial intelligence can accomplish this task. He asks me to repeat this work to push multiple objects as a proof of concept for micro-assembly, i.e. we can automate the process of positioning different micro objects. At this moment, I don't have any motivation to do that, although it may only take 1 or two months of work to finish that task and get the degree. I tried to convince that supervisor that it is essentially the same piece of research we have done already and that really does not change anything in terms of doing something novel, but he insists that without doing that, he would not consider my work as "complete" and hence I can not defend my PhD.
Anyways, doing something which I do not deem of any immediate value is really hard for me, especially when I have tens of more interesting things to do. So at this point, I keep myself busy doing things I love, rather than those I am supposed to do because of some external force.

PS: You will soon (in a few weeks or months) will read an interesting post here about my ancestry profile and my genealogy. I am only waiting for the price to drop off or I get a bit richer to order this DNA test. I see a tremendous potential for clinical knowledge advancement if more users around the world take the test. Exciting, isn't it?

goal

2009-09-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

My unexpected little progress in the past 10 days has resulted in a deep sadness in my mind. Why? I had high expectation of my progress after working hard for summer and making good progress in THM stuff. I went to the extend that I set a goal on Aug. 20 that I was going to finish the paper by Aug. 28 and I was really positive I would (and I really worked hard on that week too). Things has gone not much since then. Why? I have experienced with my life that a project can be extended forever if you don't decide to wrap it up at some point. I finished my Master thesis one year later than when I should have. And I was overdue for my BSc thesis defense for 8 months too. Was it really because I unnecessarily lingered on working on non-important details? I think so.

If this stage of my research is going to be as important as my Master thesis was (in terms of its effect in life in general and facilitating my path to my destination), then I should really consider wrapping it up faster.

Hold on Mohsen. you are miscalculating your past works. You underestimate the work you did in master thesis. That work was a great piece of research, thu you might not be satisfied yet.

Not feeling of regret. To gurantee the happiness of future, one should try to foresee himself and try to predict what in the future will be seen as mistake which he/she could have avoided committing by studying its effects thoroughly before doing it.

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal". Never take your eyes off your goal and always focus on it. The company could be a temporary target through which your path to final goal passes. How about the research you are doing every single night till past midnight and over all the weekends? Is it along your goal Mohsen? My goal:improving human health and doing research toward fixing the problem of aging. I should be well focused on this Mohsen.....Once you know what you gana get, nothing and no one has the power to stop you from reaching it. It is just recognizing truly what your goal is and what makes you happy ultimately. Lets finish this second paper fast and get to the more interesting stuff for cell manipulation. YES! lets just DO it.

im in love with molecules

2009-09-03T23:26:00.000-07:00

من عاشق ملکولها هستم. من ملکولها رو خیلی‌ دوست دارم. ملکولها کلی چیزای قشنگ میسازن. مثلا، من تمام ملکولهایی که ملیحه رو میسازن رو خیلی‌ دوست دارم. اونها ژنهایی رو درست کردن که باعث میشن ملیحه اینجوری تو همه عکسها بخنده و شاد کنه همه رو، خیلی‌ ملکولهای نازی باید باشن.

من کلا عاشق ملکولها هستم. حتا اونهأی که ژنهای یه میکرب خطرناک رو میسازن که باعث مرگه ما آدما می‌شه. من اون ژن زبرو زرنگ رو خیلی‌ دوست دارم. آخه داره پا به پا آدما با این همه ادعا عقل و هوششون میاد و تسلیم هم نمی‌شه. من ملکولهایی که تسلیم نمیشن رو خیلی‌ دوست دارم. اونایی که تو رقابت نفسگیر با ملکولهای دیگه، برنده و پیروز بیرون میان. راستی‌! من رقابت کردن رو هم تو زندگی‌ خیلی‌ دوست دارم. معتقدم که زیبایی جهان هستی امروزی، نتیجهٔ سالها رقابت تنگاتنگ تمام ملکولهای این هستی‌ با یکدیگه است. البته من اتمها و حتا ذرات ریزتر از اتمها رو هم دوست دارم. قشنگی‌ اونا اینه که اونا هیچ وقت از بین نمیرن. همیشه هستن. اما با این حال، من مسلما ملکولها رو بیشتر از اتمهاشون دوست دارم. کلا ملکولها خیلی‌ دوست داشتنی هستن. میدونی‌ چرا اینو میگم؟ چون اگرچه ممکنه یه ملکول از یه ملکول دیگه شکست بخوره و اتمهاش از هم بپاشه، اما این باعث می‌شه که دفعه بعد این اتمها یاد بگیرن، یه جور دیگه با هم دست به یکی‌ بشن تا یه ملکول زرنگتر بسازن. بعد این ملکول زرنگتر (که همیشه خوشگلتر هم هست و باعث می‌شه که دنیا زیباتر بشه) میره به جنگ اون ملکولی که قبلا ازش شکست خورده بود، و باهاش زورازمایی می‌کنه.

راستی‌، ملکولهای مهدی جانم هم خیلی‌ باحالن. یه سری از این ملکولها که داخل کلهٔ مهدی جانم هستن، یه کاری می‌کنن که ملکولهای تو ماهیچه‌های چشمهای مهدی، برن زوم کنن رو یه سری ملکولها شیطون که معمولا ما آدما خیلی‌ دقت نمی‌کنیم، و از اونا عکس بگیرن. اونوقت ما و خیلی‌ دیگه از آدما بتونیم اون بازی قشنگ ملکولها رو ببینیم و کلی‌ لذت ببریم...

دنیای من این سالها این ملکولها و بازی قشنگشون با هم دیگه است.‌ای ملکولهای دنیا، من واقعا دوستون دارم!

Tissue egineering nerdy notes (to help learn)

2009-08-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

-Scaffolds are used to create a suitable 3D spatial environment for cell growth and assembly of different cells (So, looks like we put various cell seeds in the scaffold? why thu?)

-Scaffolds degrade over time, but cuz cells will deposit their ExtraCellular Matrix (ECM) molecules, it retains its architecture for the tissue.

-Traditional methods of making scaffold don't give the exact designed structure, due to fabrication limitation.

-Scaffold should degrade, not from inside(bulk), but from its surface.

-Looks like hydrogels are a good candidate for scaffold, cuz it is easy to make molecule gradient within them to control the growth of cell. But I dont knw how exactly they make this gradient. But I know that microchannles are used.

-Bioreactor is another term used for a device which makes tissue out of a cell culture.

-Cell shape affect diffrentiation through activating RhoA pathway

Mind management

2009-08-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

That is sad that I have no motivation at night to update this regularly. Keeping self motivated is no easy. Requires concentration, happiness, time managemnet, and most imporantly, mind management. The fact that younger people are faster than me at learning and performing new tasks should not discourage me from pursuing my goals. That is hard of curs, but it is not impossible.

Last week, I had PR interview. Visas, interview, and meeting with two professors at Buffalo all went excellent. That was a positive thing. We at THM also managed to run an experiment in Accelerator center on Thursay last week with about 30 UW students participated! The whole project was finished in 3 days! To the standard of project time management, that is really unheard of. Although the rush affected the quality of the study to some extend, but still the fact that we were able to successfully execute it was to me incomprehensible beforehand. That is certainly the positive side of working in startup: You cant afford to procrassinate. And that will finally bring you success. The cost, thu, is that you enjoy time, summer, and life in the whole less. You sleep less, and feel more stress. Is it worth it? Maybe. At least temporarily it is. ah, to the achievements of the last week, I should add one more thing: Helped Mehdi to finish the Book Chapter. I stayed awake over two nights: One in Buffalo hostel before my Interview (till 4am) and next with Mehdi in the lab and managed to send it to John barely on time. Then an early breakfast at Mel Diner and all nice stories of past we, the two closest brothers in universe maybe, swept with each other. That impact of spending time with Mehdi and laughing at his funny stories was so strong that later at Linda's place, I dreamed about my family and it sounded in the dream that we were the happiest family on earth. Every one wanted to spend time with us for our positiveness and sense of humor. That is important to be liked as you live.

Job

2009-07-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

I looked at the series of RIM buildings when I was passing by them while dragging my tyre-flattened bike into school. And the hundreds of cars in the parking lot. Everything here started from a guys' idea. And on the bus to Conestoga, I watched how many other business buildings are operating in the small town of Waterloo: Where do I fit in this highly-organized chain of various businesses and jobs, all connected together so vitally, directly or indirectly, to make the flow of life possible. And there were buildings of residence, into which the workers of those businesses building get back at night to make babies and to, again, make the flow of the life continuous. How can "having fun" be the mere objective of one's life if this dynamic existence of mankind evolves beautifully as such?

self examination

2009-04-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

AM I on the right track or not? That is most often questioned in my mind. Sitting in a quiet place, completely relaxed from peer pressures, incomplete works, mainstreams and hard-to-resist flow of the society, I once a while sit and think about my goals and the approach I have taken. Regardless of the effectiveness of this time spent on thinking, the main outcome of this introspection is the feeling of “No-regret” in the case of failure in the future maybe. Life is a real game and what makes this game beautiful for some people is the big difference between the two extremes of lose and win: In one end is the aggressive case when you suddenly find yourself in such a big depression that no one can help you stand up back on the track of life and you get kicked out physically from the existence. This is balanced with another extreme case on the plus side where you have a profound feeling of accomplishing your dreams and you remain influential generations after your death (If ever die, to push the extreme even further away!). Fortunately though, far more people end up lying somewhere at the middle than in the extreme ends which is a good news from sociological standpoint. While that remains a pure choice of an individual which point along this lose-win axis one should target at throughout his/her productive life, one can bet no reasonable individual envision to see self below or even at the middle point later at her mid-life stage. Here is a game and no one really plays only for mere fun. There is always a thrust to win in this game for all parties involved.

Forget about possible cases of failure for now. Lets zoom how you can succeed.

One day in shopping

2009-04-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

-"Buggy through...please!" Mumbled to me the cashier lady in Zeller's today when I was checking out.

-"Sorry?" I replied, zooming at her lips to read and guess what she means.

-"Buggy through", she repeated the same unclear way calmly.

"What is buggy?" "What is she trying to convey"? "she doesnt' sound to be offering a especial point card" "No, replying by a mere "NO" is ridiculous in this situation”, “…” those were all thoughts flashed in my head.

-"Um...Yes...These are mine", I responded hesitantly while pointing to the goods I had put on the conveyer to check out, waiting to see her reaction carefully.

-“Ok…buggy through please”, stressed the senior again, this time a bit slowly, so I made almost sure the first word she says exactly spells like “Buggy”. Thanks god, this time I followed her hand gestures which she gave me. She appeared to mean I needed to push my empty shopping cart through so the young lady waiting at the end of the line can upload it back with the articles after check-out.

It was a bit embarrassing. It always is when you just can not grasp some very routine and simple terminology said by native people. What makes it even more uneasy is if you continue with a quiet, serious face, pretending nothing has happened and you of course knew the meaning but just happened not to get the spell correct.

While the ladies were busy dealing with my checking out procedure, I decided to turn this into my advantage. So, what is really buggy after all? I should know.

-“So…buggy is the word you use for that carriage, I suppose?” I shouted out, so that the three ladies including the mid-aged customer who was witnessing all my embarrassment at my back could hear it.

-“Yes. Some people call it Cart. That is the same thing” responded the mid-aged lady smilingly, as if she was anticipating my question.

-“Ahhh..cool, I never noticed this. I always used cart or carriage. Now I know…”

I was feeling consent afterward. I reminded to myself the old wisdom: “Not knowing is not of any shame. It is a shame if you don’t ask for what you don’t know.”

Thinking freely

2009-03-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

In an interesting debate with Yashar at lunch time, I noticed I am not as Liberal as I think I am. And when suddenly I came to the realization that I was too stubborn to accept this at the debate time,-given the fact that I , like all other rational human, had known myself to be “right” in my believes-, I came to this enlightening conclusion that “conservatives” are not really as wrong as I used to believe as a teenager. Aging combined with wisdom make people soft and considerate. In fact, I didn’t change, but I change my perception of myself or, the definition of “being liberal”. Every one needs to understand what “term” he/she should use to describe him/herself, and as all the terms in language are relative to what the society behaves on average, one should as frequently update his/her self-perception of her/his political stand as the society changes.

Putting yourself in other people’s shoes: That takes practice and patience.

And, after all, I still call myself “Liberal” in its traditional definition: because only a liberal person is not afraid of changing his/her stand free-thinkingly.

One-way traffic

2009-03-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

As predicted by experts in the field, once again science-supporting decision makers came to the position to respond positively to deep-rooted human's inquiry of "who we are?" and "can we live longer?". Now it has been for a few decades since answers to those questions started evolving around the chemistry of cell and the mysterious codes it holds inside. I heard this news which allows for the "doers" of us to actively deal with the puzzles of being. That feels good to hear we are less constrained to go after our experiments for the questions we hold in mind since we linked our observations by what we call "logic". That was a great news!

Feel warmer

2009-02-24T17:48:00.000-08:00

Are people colder in western cultures? Yes. Proof? Kids leave parents early; Relatives are not as eager to meet with each other as in Iran; There is much less time spent on talking and chatting with each other in western countries.

But is this “coldness” disease has been evolved only in western societies? Not really. I have witnessed among my families, people tend to spend time with relatives less and less compared to when I was younger. Shall I blame again this damn westernization, or better say, modernization, as the main culprit for spreading this coldness disease into our friendly warm societies? Maybe.

In the era, when kids can easily access the best answers to their questions on the modernization's great gift of internet, the survival aspect of the need to spend longer time with parents is much reduced. Moms used to call up uncles, other relatives, and friends more frequently partially because they knew no better way of acquiring information on how to cope with the rare flu symptoms they would come up with in their beloved little baby. And of course, when one initiates a talk to his/her friend merely to seek some urgent advices, there is whole lot of less important side-information about here-and-there naturally swapped between them making the time fun and enjoyable too. This episode in no different from the one when one come to his/her PC, hitting on the good-looking “e” icon just to quickly check weather cast of the day and find his/herself, one hour later, still staring at explorer, deeply entertained with ten opened pages of different colors.

The need for fun in human life is unquestionable. Most human prefer a short, but full of fun life to the long painful one. This preference is true but only in human semantic cognition; in most species’ behavior, fun usually comes just next to the need for accessing vital information which guarantees our survival in possible dangers in the future.

So, who is the main culprit in making us colder in the new era? The answer lies in the way our fundamental information is accessible nowadays. This is the fruit of modernization which offers us knowledge, but may not necessarily guarantee the fun part of life. Those of us who appreciate knowledge may have less difficulty standing new eras. Or you may even re-define the concept of “coldness” in human relationships by excluding the cases similar to when your friend prefers to surf 3 hours of his day in facebook, while turning down your offer of having a coffee together. You should start appreciating that she/he has gained knowledge several times better and more accurate than if he had chosen to chat with an old friend whom he/she meets regularly, providing that we fairly assume at least 10 percent out of the three hours facebooking has linked him/her to some useful information on the net. And the other 90 percent? Yes! All were certainly fun time by e-hugging friends on facebook! haha

liberty

2009-02-23T19:52:00.000-08:00

writing the paper is hard. Like always in my life, I like not to rush, not to do things cuz I have to do them, but because I enjoy doing them...at the same time, I am aware of the fact no pain no gain. I know learning science was not fun when I was kid and I did it cuz I had to; and now, I do appreciate those past hard times.

Enough excuse Mohsen. You have got to enjoy paper writeup Period.

Feeling of achievement

2009-02-10T22:05:00.000-08:00

Today was the day when a Neural-Network based learning controller could successfully accomplish a complicated task for which very little information was known analytically. This potentially has phenomenal implications in deriving us, the engineers, to make systems intelligent to learn on their own. We can more confidently leave them unsupervised. To my best knowledge, no one else before had used NN in a real time control loop for a complicated task. "Complicated" in a sense that no mathematical modeling of the system was ever introduced. I believe it is not just an Adaptive Controller which learns to adopt its settings only to compensate for graduate changes in the input conditions. It is one degree smarter: It is a kind of adaptive control which can improve its initial performance over time, even if there is no change in its environment. In other words, it is enough only to start with settings based on which the system doesnt go unstable (That little initial info are certainly always needed). Then mere running will help it learn after a couple of runs.

Anyways, I was excited really today. When thought why should I be? I realized that it is good to be excited about your work. That is how this world likes. When I was younger and had an illusion of the "truth' to be something extraordinary and big, no such an achievements were making me excited. I kept them inside, thinking these are nothing compared to real truth. Now, thu, I rather show this to the emotional world so, it can help me take bigger strides next. So, here I am, full of hopes, no fear of loss, and confident of the path I am walking along.

The 5th of Day Spike

2009-01-13T20:26:00.001-08:00

By this event today, you are freely, courageously and consciously choosing to test how well you can perform in potential situations where your cheque has not gone through, your car is crashed in an accident or your plan to buy a land is backfired for any economic reason; Try hard to play your best possible role as a thinking species to get out of those problems safely and learn from them.

The above note was the essence of what I whispered to Malihe and her husband Mehdi Janam, at the end of their wedding together as the "goodbye bachelor!" message. I couldn’t help looking at the wedding pictures over and over again; there was something in there which dedicated me to write something about here; I could clearly see the brightness of hopes in the couple’s eyes. I don’t know why, but that really caught my eyes: Malihe looked the most happiest among others in all the pictures; Smiling, teasing guests, and embracing them warmly. Mehdi Janam was like always calm, and very handsome in his nice suits. He also acted some arts in dancing which was impressive to guests, thu I always guessed he must be a good dancer. The wedding was really warm and full of signs of life.

Good luck happy couple in the friendly battle with the life's problems!

Origin of Love

2008-11-05T05:37:00.000-08:00

I just read Malihe's blog.Yeah. Moms are really kind. And we should all appreciate them. But why people are encouraged to only appreciate their own moms? Isnt it because we instinctively love people who help us survive? And mom is the excellent example of a person who is ready to sacrifice herself for her child? How about if appreciate the mom-ness of the grumpy nosy lady in our workplace who is trying to bookmark our mistakes and show off her talents to get our position? And she definitely does this to earn more money to spend on her lovely kid. That kid is certainly deemed to appreciate this effort of this mom, while the mom’s competitors might not like her as much necessarily.

Beautiful facts of this life.

Why only -2-1 0 +1 +2

2008-10-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

........Our mind, after milion years of experiencing the nature, reasons that if something exists, its opposite must exist as well. If zero has a "front" line along which numbers are counted as 0 1 2 3 ..., then why not having a "back" side too? That is intutive. Well, alright. Lets asuume there are things on the back side of zero, but how can we write and even call them? Another intuition pops up in the incredible minds: Well, since they are in the "opposite side", and given that all opposite forces in the nature appear to have balanced out each other, lets consider the property that they together with the "front-sided" number come to a balance; In other words, as the concept of plus was already invented clearly, one plus X equals zero. And that's exactly the defination of X, the negative numbers, which the "imaginary" mind of our mathematicions has made up. Simple intution. And there is no question why they have proved very handy in solving the problems in a lot of applications; That is because the intution is already based on our experiencing the nature and thus fits well with the way nature works.

It does seem as intuitive, thu, to expect a "left" and a "right" side for zero too. but this imagination only occurs to more prepared and intelligent minds: what if, inspired by the spherical image of a 3D world, we consider all kinds of radial sides for zero, each with different properties? Imaginary axis is only one especial one, perpendicular to the real line, among all the countless other ones...........

Episodes

2008-09-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

My uncle once told me that his granddad (my grand grand dad=GGD) has survived in a bloody battle with a bear or wolf by managing to kill it alone. He was living is a small village called Dezyan which seems to be disappearing now completely due to migration of its habitants to other places. According to what I have heard, Dezyan is hardly an inhabitable place with its salty soil and long period of sever drought. Then why should they choose to settle in there? According to my uncle, one possibility could be that his ancestors had fled to those rocky area from the fear of Genghis Khan’s attack and its cruel generals and stayed there. For whatever reason they did that, that has proved a smart decision today :).

Following imaginary converstations could have happened in the history of civilization:

**********************

Episode 1: my GGD is chatting with a wealthy passenger who has stopped his autorickshaw at Dezyan to take a rest:

- So, how many sons did God give you?
- I have 4 sons, only two of which are here. The other two left me alone for their fortune in Gorgan.
- God keep them safe. That is not bad! People say Gorgan is a big city, a better place to live than this desert. Everyone wishes to get there!
- I am not sure. God has made man and given him muscle to work on the land and grow seeds for his family. My sons have the delusion that they should be comfortable on this earth; they chose instead to take a seat, selling the products of others the entire day. What muscles are then for?
- Um..Maybe...
- Le sigh…we don’t know. As long as they are happy with their family, I will leave them to GOD's hand.

***********************

Episode2: my granddad is sitting on its chair, on the counter, selling orange and apple to customers in Gorgan. Meanwhile, he is chatting with an old friend from Dezyan whom he just ran into after a long time…

-what happened to your sons and daughters? Did they find any job in this crowded city?
-Thanks to god, they all went to school and are teachers for the government now. My senior son, thu, left Gorgan.
-Really? Where to? What is he doing? Does he look after you at all?
-Yeah yeah. He found a job in a library in Shahroud, and married a Shahroodian girl. His wife is very good too. She is taking care of me more than my daughters. God bless her.

***********************

Episode3: My dad is in Gorgan to visit his sisters. Now, he has gone to his old friend’s house to have a chat a bit about what life has gone with them so far.

- What a life! I have raised 4 kids. My only two sons are both far far from here, in Canada. And my daughter has married with a guy from south. She is moving to South to live with him too. I practically have one kid.
-ah..but you should be happy! Not everyone can afford living in Canada.
-What if something happens to us here? Who is going to take after me? It is not easy. You just say that.
-That is true. But who knows about future?
-We don’t know. Life is in the hands of god. I just pray for them whatever is good to happen. God knows better.

*************
Episode 4: I am going to play that episode myself in the near future! Stay tuned with me! This is an interesting play!
And : Greta great thanks to all my ….GGGP,GGP,GP and my parents! They are all great and have all played their roles great!! I appreciate all the triumph of them against all the wolves they managed to kill, or else, I wouldn’t be here now. Thank you all so much.

My Letter to my Master Supervisor

2008-07-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Prof. Abdullah,

Ba Salam,

Hope you and your beloved ones are in a very healthy state and things are going well as always with your fundamental projects and research. That night we had together in Tehran and the discussions are still in my mind. I became profoundly pleased to see that, despite all the depressions and disappointment I felt in Iran especially by talking to other close and talented friends, your mind was the strongest and your face was the most cheerful and most positively-looking one I witnessed. It was in fact not a surprise given your unique personality which has inspired and continues to inspire many your students including myself. If Iran is still standing up and alive, it is indeed due to the continuous efforts of some great minds such as you and alike who have chosen to stay in their native land to make it a better place for the current and future generation. I always regard you as the one good example of an individual to whom failure and surrender are only two meaningless words. I really appreciate your being and attitudes.

As I grow older, I learn more. And as I learn more, more and more questions emerging in my views about this existence. I appreciate this time and place, Canada, which has given me much time to learn, think, and appreciate the importance of science and technology in every day's life and enhancing its quality. It is indeed remarkable to experience, as I grow older, the accumulation of knowledge by human and the consequences of the intense works done by scientists and curious men. I highly respect people who pursued their goals and contributed to the comfort and knowledge of today. I can feel clearer and clearer how our brain is made curious to try new things and discover the unknowns. I wish at that night, we had talked more about science and I had questioned your view about some of the very most recent progress of our understanding about ourselves and the universe we are living in. I wish I knew about your comments and point of views on DNA coding, the richest source of data and information which has hard-programmed in us the smartness.

My most remembered teacher in my life, what do you see in scientific advancements which proves everyday stronger than the previous day that we are better explained as a very complicated bio-micro machines of molecules than any vague description of "soul" which our old religious scripts taught us in school? What standing can one take when presented with very unanimously accepted evidences that Big Bang- known lately as fact not theory- was in fact the earliest state of every being which happened by sience-supported calculation at 13.73 ± 0.12 billion years ago? How does that ever change one's old belief of the creation story suggested by holy scripts?

Did you talk to your university professors lately to let them know about your progress and the projects you have successfully accomplished? Does your old physics teacher know that at least one of his student effectively utilized the lessons he learned to increase the productivity of EDM which not only raised at its own capacity the comfort and quality of life, but also will facilitate building more infrastructures for the next generation to even discover more? I really hope one day I could get an opportunity to invite you and walk with you in my workplace where I hopefully have some new systems developed and I can then proudly show them to you and call: Look my teacher! Look this, look how your student has learned from all the lessons you taught him, to integrate such a technology together to make this earth a more enjoyable place to live.

My best wishes,

Mohsen

Who am I?

2008-07-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

While I was biking back home last night, I was again asking myself about "mind" the feeling of "being". Having read some chemical-biological facts about egg fertilization yesterday, I was even more assured than before that what I feel as a unique conscious Mohsen in every single episode of my daily life is an instant state of a distinct combination of billions of activated/inactivated neurons at that specific moment. That specific combination seems to be deterministically driven by three data supplies: genetic information stored in cells, retrieved past information stored in memory and signals received from environment by our sensory organs.
Then I asked myself this old question: If my dad's chromosomes had mated with some other mom's eggs than the current one, would current "Mohsen" still exist? No! What if I had the same parents, but a Sam's dad in South Africa, whom I have never met in my life, had found a sexier wife than his current one, and as a result, had generated another "Sam"? One fact is, I always would still be the same Mohsen as long as I am carrying the same genetic info of my current parents and assuming that in the other universe where mom and dad of Olivier, Mike, Pedram, Linda are some couples different from their lovely ones in this universe, those altered souls of Olivier, Mike, Pedram, Linda would have not changed the environment from the actual one I grew up in this universe. I would be the same Mohsen at least to the point I came to Canada, because these above dudes have had far more affects than negligible into my current state of "Mohsen" since I met them in Canada.
Much evidences in favour of a deterministic life/world.....My puzzlement..

Does buildup of information follow a deterministic pattern?

2008-06-29T17:55:00.001-07:00

Attention to the key role of Information, which I think emerged after discovery of DNA will continue to grow for decades I believe. As for being "deterministic" or otherwise, it appears to me that "physical being" or simply "life" is obeying some fixed governing principles, known as laws of physics which we yet do not know completely. If you want to regard this life to be something more than just your imagination, you ought to believe there is a unique/absolute equetion for everything. If you agree with that, then the information must be building up to reach that "truth" to look at the very big picture. In short terms, however, due to the mistakes inherent in any learning system, there are always some "noises" or "parasites" which are behaving rather unpredictably on this "information path curve." These little, yet long enough for the short lifespan of human, nondeterministic noises are what make us feel we have a free will to choose as we live.

That is according to my personal most-recent understanding of this baffling existence. What do you think?

Saving Information: Heart of Developing Systems

2008-06-28T20:27:00.000-07:00

Today, I got this message on facebok from a thoughtful friend.
"Hi Mohsin,

Recently, one of my professors in the Chemistry Dept. at UTSC died of a cancer that had spread throughout her body. She was in her mid 40's and her sudden passing was quite a shock to me.

I am overcome by a sentimental sense of regret of having so many questions I wanted to ask her, but did not due to time, posturing, pride or simply shyness and ignorance. I realize now that had I asked her imperfect questions, I would have got imperfect answers, but that information - no matter how incomplete or unsatisfactory - would have been better and greater than not knowing anything at all.

As such, i advise you my friend, to never let the opportunity to talk to someone who knows much about what you want to know."

Yeah. I know it is sad. As the foundation of all the complex advanced systems -such as the one in human civilization- is based on the information which is continuously built up from past, I think that is really non-compensateable to let a brain/mind die without maintaining its knowledge and skills which is stored in the form of a complex cross wiring in the brain. Such a fancy useful way complicated “circuit” has taken a life to be formed and we yet don’t know how not to waste it on the occasion of a sudden death unfortunately.

Although to reach a very efficient solution will probably takes much more efforts on brain discoveries, our asking questions from dead-to-be people is definitely a good solution to at least save some of those knowledge. So, my friend is right! We should all really not hesitate about that.

The beginning

2008-06-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have a special feeling: This is an important night. Someone who has been learning and being merely a consumer of the society since birth is going to commence giving out services to the human civilization since tomorrow. This start is certainly a unique moment one can only experience once in his/her life, not less significant than a wedding eve. Also learning process will never end till the very end of the life, feeling of responsibility starts officially since tomorrow. She is going to learn new things, but it is not a purposeless learning. That is a type of learning she is going to get paid for at the end of every two weeks. That means her new leanings must produce out results every two weeks literally. Although her company will show some tolerance if no immediate result is coming out, that is certainly not so long as the past 20 years of her "education" life when her teachers were all patient to her just to experience, make mistakes and only learn. New opportunities and new challenges await Linda and she must take on some new responsibilities. Her brain is sharp enough to deal with them all. We shall evaluate her performance hopefully at the night of her retiredness from work. We will celebrate it and try to conclude her career life. I foresee by that time, beside the contributions she has made to enhancing the human life via her company, she will pass on her experiences and her strength/weaknesses to younger generations hopefully by publishing them down on the sophisticated new press devices invented by that time! Yes! Go! Go Linad! and enjoy it! You are derived forward by your own joy but your footprints are going to stay and have an effect.Good luck and good night!

Imagine it! See it! Conquer it!

2008-05-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yes!! WWT is released today by MS!

Visualization of less-known phenomena is the most essential stride toward discovering them deeper. Take advantage of this! Same software must be made for 3D visualization of the complex biological system of human bodies, cell, and embryo morphogenesis. We need big rich hospitals to volunteer for that. It takes a lot of efforts maybe, but we get paid off indeed by promoting technologies in our health.

BTW, if you have downloaded the WWT, do not miss to explore in and out to the repetitive infinite shapes of "Manderbroat Set". Tell me how you feel!

In Iran-I

2008-03-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

As I am writing this, my family is next to me in the living room. To put it all in a nutshell, things doesn’t seem to have changed a lot, and that worries and comfort me at the same time;

First, it worries me cuz I expected “a bit” more industrialized and developed country after 2.5 years, at least in Tehran. This doesn’t seem to be the case. As an example, planning for a trip is still as primitive as it used to be with zero utilization of Internet and information technology by companies. It was also surprising to observe that spirituality and mysticism have noticeably increased among people, including educated young friends who have found themselves stressed out under an unpredictable life full of pressure, random dangerous mishaps. God is then a concept which helps you withstand it. Unfortunately, my country has experienced a dramatic inflation rate in some very fundamental needs of living such as lands and houses. Although the land is not poor in general and the oil price, the main source of our wealth, have almost doubled in the last three years, you see people working in such a disorganized rush which makes me inclined to call it a chaos dispatched over the country, rather than a purposeful change toward a bright future. Anyhow, having been living comfortably in Canada for near three years, I shall be more careful in the way I am putting a judge on all this, as it is really difficult not to mix my high expectation of an advanced country into the time-consuming process of development with some short term strikes and downs. I just wish human in one spot of the world didn’t have to repeat the same errors as already experienced by people in the other parts.

But, I am comfortable with the fact that people, especially my friends and siblings don’t seem to have “aged” at all. Laughers, dances and jokes are yet the same all as they were before.

I think my brain has switched to Persian style here to fit the life style.

WorldWide Telescope

2008-02-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

Along the same line as other incredible projects and technologies being developed by microsoft lies the most recent tool called "WorldWide Telescope" which will be released in March this year. I just watched the brief introduction in TED. It was not further than only couple of days ago when I was, out of curosity, browsing into GOOGLE EARTH to verify if they have called Persian Gulf as Arabic and then I learned about the cool lately-added feather of "exploring into the sky" and the constellations beside the free-to-download Google Earth!

BTW, How did Galileo prove the earth was not flat?!

Smell your movie-II!

2008-02-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Back to my earlier note entitled "Smell your movie", I am just surprisingly forwarded a link to this 4D Screen Theatre in HK.

What they mean as the 4th dimension seems to be some virtual effects including snowfall, wind, the spray of water, bubbles, fog, lights, and all kinds of smells! This means that not only is our idea been worked on in a research lab, but also is commercialized in a few movie theatres worldwide. I am not too sure to what level this is being accomplished. Keith now is planning to go to HK and pay a visit to this movie theatre soon and I am so curious to hear about his experience.

Moon being eaten with "blood"

2008-02-21T16:33:00.001-08:00

Last night, when watching the full lunar eclipse with some friends, I wondered why the moon was not entirely dark, but reddish. A friend suggested the reddish looking moon was not under a full eclipse when compared to the partial eclipse, we had been watching an hour earlier, in which part of the moon was completely dark. but I was almost certain that it had to do with contrast; i.e. in partial eclipse, our vision is insensitive to the very faint red light which is just by the other shinny dazzling half of the moon.

I followed my curiosity on MSN with a friend who always shares the same passion in science with me. He correctly pointed out to the curvature path of the red light traveling in the earth's shadow to reach moon and color it with red to us. I read up more on the matter on Wikipedia and thought it could be interesting to post it here:

"....The Moon does not completely disappear as it passes through the umbra because of the refraction of sunlight by the Earth's atmosphere into the shadow cone; if the Earth had no atmosphere, the Moon would be completely dark during an eclipse. The red coloring arises because sunlight reaching the Moon must pass through a long and dense layer of the Earth's atmosphere, where it is scattered. Shorter wavelengths are more likely to be scattered by the small particles, and so by the time the light has passed through the atmosphere, the longer wavelengths dominate. This resulting light we perceive as red. This is the same effect that causes sunsets and sunrises to turn the sky a reddish colour; an alternative way of considering the problem is to realise that, as viewed from the Moon, the Sun would appear to be setting (or rising) behind the Earth.

The amount of refracted light depends on the amount of dust or clouds in the atmosphere; this also controls how much light is scattered. In general, the dustier the atmosphere, the more that other wavelengths of light will be removed (compared to red light), leaving the resulting light a deeper red colour. This causes the resulting coppery-red hue of the Moon to vary from one eclipse to the next...."

Will our today's puzzles on the origin of Big Bang/mystery of mind/brain and the baffling way how biological living cells work be solved as simply someday? The only tool needed seems to be true information which is progressively being built up by all the single individuals existing today. Don't you feel any analogy conceivable when you read about Eclipses through the Ages? By the time we have uncovered today's mysteries, what would be our new puzzles we will have to solve?

NB: The shot is taken by Keith Mo, a friend of mine, using a Canon a570. I didn't realize that I could capture the moon by increasing the exposure time of my Kodak.

Dialogue

2008-02-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

I watched the "Democratic Debate :Obama Vs Clinton" on youtube. That is so sweat when you see haw far we smarty mankind have progressed in solving problems and managing our societies. From zero-one logic of competing, the deadful bloody fights to take on the power all the way to this fuzzy-based respectful debate here where, even if again triggered by our fundamentally instictive desire to win and get the most possible, opposing parties apply the builtup information from the past that they can still fight, but in more energy-conservative manner.
That is the ultimate beauty.

Smell your movie!

2008-01-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

Couple of interesting ideas I just thought I like to add in my blog, just because they "used to be" in my ex and my mind only until now that I have found them being tackled (stolen) by others:)

Imagine; If we could digitize odors, then we can first sniff the Pizza we are going to oder online, and then if liked it, we oder it! The media and movie industry will benefit the most from this idea as we can bring the virtual smells right into the noses of audiances! All we should do it to conduct two sets of experiments:

1- Detector: expose some very sensitive materials to different odors and measure their response in term of their properties such as resistance, capacitance, etc. I am not too much into materials, but I would unsuprisingly suggest to start with CarboNano Tubes. There is a link here.

2- Smeller: Find a good (organic) material which can give out the smells corresponding to the electrical signals received. This phase sounds to be more difficult than the above task, but there is no doubt if we understand the chemistry underling the "smells", we certainly can simulate them and copy them on a chip. Such a device can be placed close to the nose and make a virtual smells of the food you are watching on TV ads!

Think! Would you still feel like changing the channel to skip the ads cutting your favorate TV show if you know that there are some lummy foods ads?!

Brainwave

2008-01-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

I have a couple of thoughts half-written as a draft. I have not posted them here, because they are incomplete. What if I am wrong in my analysis? I have been always afraid of being wrong. Being wrong is different from making mistakes. The latter I don't care at all as it can be viewed as a part and parcel of all learning processes.

Tonight I wanted to write about relationship, discrimination, experimental work, and "the principle of self-centeredness". But I rather go to bed to getup earlier tomorrow to work than just think and write. I am these days in the mood of "practical work":)

"It is too bad she can't live; But again, who does?"

2008-01-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

Every time I watch a good movie, I decide to shorten the time intervals between watching movies. Although not all movies worth watching, no one doubts the art and technology of visualizing thoughts dramatically facilitates information transition among minds. Moreover, human memories even in the righty brains, shows more durability in holding graphics than any other serially-connected objects like sounds or words. And this memory plays a significant role in analyzing events, extracting rules and in short, gaining more insight into the subject matter at hand.

Among types of movies appealing to me -but have not watched much of- is science fiction ones. I chose “The Blade Runner” over the currently popular comedy of “JUNO” last night to watch and I couldn’t wait to write about it since I got out of the theatre.

Made in 1982, the film whose story is about genetically designed humanoid “replicants” features a vision into 40 years ahead-since-then when humans have cautiously utilized some more-intelligent –than-themselves creatures for space (called off-world in the film) exploration. Apart from some rather generic attractions such as the beautiful music by Vangelis, actions and plot, what amused me most was how the film makers have depicted LA and the industrial world in 2019. I don’t blame the poor 3D animation given the level of technology at the time but the oddly looking cars and especially airo-vehicles would barely fit the world in 2019 in the way they are shown to be driven. There could also be felt a slight emphasis on the unclearness and untidiness of cities due to the rapid growth of the population which I don’t see is happening now after 25 years. Apart from those points, I was impressed how we have genuinely followed the same direction in some industrial cases as depicted in the movie since it was made. A good example of it was the intelligent screen scanner which was equipped with a very accurate voice recognition algorithm to respond fast and non-erroneously to the commands of the user. To my best knowledge, we have enhanced a lot in voice recognition but still not as efficient as shown in the movie. However, the technology is very likely to turn to reality in less than a decade.

There were questions after questions blowing up to my mind as watching the movie which I yet don’t have a good answer: DEATH and aging? What causes aging? Origin of laugher in human? Why shouldn’t the replicants be laughing? Why having a short 4-year lifespan prevented them from developing emotions? Are we right in what we mostly perceive of a potential next generation of intelligent living thing after human? Have we ever thought about what we expect to get by manipulating human’s genes? They way the replicants were represented in the movie to me was weird, in the way that intelligence had more “physical” characteristic than mental and rationale. Even Roy Batty who was the most intelligent replicant did not show any extraordinary reasoning capability, more than uttering just some wisdom plus his strong physical body.

And as a last point, it is always good to think about some decades ahead and try to foresee what will be our next challenges. What do you really think life is going to look like in 2050? It is not an easy question given the numerous parallel way of investing on: Energy shortage? Climate and global warming? New material and polymers? More computer science and information technology and networking? MEMS and micromechanical systems? Space traveling and making our ways into another liveable planet? Genetics and developing higher IQs? Brain studies and making the current electromechanical systems as intelligent as having a brain? Biology, curing diseases and aging and increasing human’s lifespan? Or maybe politics will tragically seize everything all with a nuclear war? Which way is worth investing on?!!! To my opinion, it could be any of them, depending on how seriousely our "individuals" will work on their path. This is our determined hardworking individuls who make the path for others.

Feedback on my opinions and English is much appreciated! BTW, the title is the voiceover quote at the end of the movie when the inspiring vangelis music started.:)

For whom life has got to have a meaning

2008-01-04T00:11:00.001-08:00

There is only a slight difference between active happy people with misrable passive ones. Active people choose to encounter new problems to challenge and solve, whereas passive ones always wish there were no problem and choose to avoid problems as much as they can. Read this interveiw, think, and try to understand what the point of Jason's adventure is. An example of a person who chose to be different and never gaveup till he made it.

Symmetricity in Evolution

2007-12-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

Anyone knows any reference or answer to why living things had to evolve so symmetrically? For example, what was the need that we should have exactly two similar hands with the symmetricity of all fingers to the highest extend possible? Is there any living animal which has asymmetric features in his body? I am convinced from the mathematical point of veiw, being symmetric is the most optimum way for keeping the balance. In physics it also results in the most smooth movement which is ultimately beneficial for saving energy. But why is it that nature has already found this optimum feature? Or is that that our organs are not yet “perfectly” symmetric in submicron scale? For instance, maybe the number, size and orientation of the cells in left/right side of the body are very slightly different? It sounds absurd to me but maybe I don’t know much in biology. A quick googling didn’t bring up much relevant pages, so I thought I need maybe some better key words or direction.

Is the old BIG question still a big one?

2007-12-16T21:10:00.000-08:00

Consider a survey in which you select a completely random sample of 1000 people in Ontario, lets say, covering fairly both genders, all ages (from 25 and above), all levels of educations, all ethnicity, and in one word, a sample which best represents the population of Ontario (only +25) as a typical modern city of the world. You don’t let them know they have been selected in the survey. Suppose you somehow have found the buddy of each of them with whom they spend most of the time to enjoy swapping ideas about different stuff. Having trained them how, you ask each buddy secretly that next time he/she finds a chance to go to a bar, Tim Horton, party or wherever they can most seriously discuss with his/her friend, the selected one in the sample, he/she bring up the issue of GOD under a topic like “Does any super natural creator of world, so-called God, exist or not” ,taking the opposite side as his/her mate and gently continue the debate for as long as possible in such a way the argument goes most naturally and comfortably. What do you expect would happen? How many of the members of the sample, you think, will find the topic interesting and will continue it not any shorter than 30 minutes? More importantly, how many of the individuals in the sample will respectfully, to the extent expected from a true seeker of truth, listen to the arguments given by the trained opponents?

Well, for those of you who, unlike me, have a very strong belief in either existence or non-existence of GOD, this survey may not make any sense, but I am suspicious even thinking/rethinking over this topic may sound too useless and boring to kill some time on to majority of people in modern societies. But why I am stressing this old rather hard issue? Does any answer help you in any sense? Does it make you rich? Does that cure cancers and diseases we are struggling with? Does it eradicate poverty and make societies more prosperous? Well, I personally don’t know what type of benefit the answer may give, but I am asking for a very simple reason: That is a big fundamental question and I suppose thinking about the question by itself is giving me a good direction of where to go and what to do. You may wonder how thinking about such a question helps without even finding any answer? Um… I may write about it later.

BTW, I know my English is poor. You have done a great great favour for me if could point out to at least 3 errors or suggest any better structure to put across my opinions.

The fitness of harmony

2007-12-11T21:53:00.001-08:00

Dance, sing, and laugh like a drain uncontrollably. Dance with the harmony of life and see how it can let you flow through irresistfully.

Evolution as theory or fact?

2007-11-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

For most of us who have been grown up and educated in a religious atmosphere, the marvel of the well-known "evolution" is yet not comprehended. This link may give some insight to the creation of the universe in a rather lyrical way.

Evolution, no matter fact or theory, is deep and beautiful. I wish I had passed a course in school to learn about the chains in evolution. Now that I am writing this, I remember the debate my religion teachers were making against this theory by exemplifying "Vision and Eye" which is, according to them, too complex to be regarded as a random result of a mutation. But I know if I really want to take a side on this debate, I have to read enough about evolution chains. I know I yet can self-study, but how much time do we really have to learn all these man-made lessons? Sometimes I think it is time for me to add a bit to those lessons, rather than just spend time to learn others findings.

Wraping it up in 10 days- Part II

2007-11-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

Mohsen says (7:35 PM):
may i ask you a question? are you busy right now?
Friend says (7:36 PM):
sure u can
and no, i'm not
Mohsen says (7:37 PM):
ok. a philosophical question!! what would you do now if you are certain that your life is going to come to an end in 10 days? what will you choose to do? just curious!!!
Friend says (7:38 PM):

i just talked about this last night
sort of
Mohsen says (7:38 PM):
really??
how come?
Friend says (7:38 PM):
do everything i want to do (that i can do)
Friend says (7:39 PM):
spend some time with some ppl
but the problem is should you tell the person you're spending time with that the world is going to end
maybe they don't want to spend the time with you
Friend says (7:40 PM):
but i think you should tell them and let them decide haha
Mohsen says (7:40 PM):
what do you mean? your life is coming to an end. theirs may not!

Friend says (7:40 PM):
oh, i thought it's world is ending in 10 days

Mohsen says (7:40 PM):
no
it is only you!
Friend says (7:40 PM):
pfft, easy, spend time with ppl i care about and do what i want to do (legally of course )
Friend says (7:41 PM):
i'd still think it's irresponsible of me to adversely affect other ppl even if i know i'm going to die... not exactly how i want to be remembered as
Friend says (7:42 PM):
why'd u think of this question?
Mohsen says (7:48 PM):
i know what you mean. but you said "do what i want to do". you keep playing games? watching TV shows? browsing on Internet?
or you feel there are things you never done and want to accompolish before you actually leave this life?

Mohsen says (7:50 PM):
i will most probably start writing what i feel about the life. not to be remembered. just beacsue i think that is pitty if i die and havent left my memory for any possible use for next people. it is sort of waste.
and i think you better do the same! cuz your brain is full of incredible info
and life will benefit from it if you keep a record of it

Friend says (8:00 PM):
haha, my brain is useless
Mohsen says (8:00 PM):
it is not. it is incredible
Friend says (8:01 PM):
lol, no, u know much more than me already
Mohsen says (8:01 PM):
i always wish i could transfer the data from your brain to mine using a uSB
Friend says (8:01 PM):
so ur brain is enough, dun need mine
lolol
Mohsen says (8:02 PM):
it sure does man! what do you mean! our brain is unfortunately too small to comprehend everything
Friend says (8:02 PM):
i said u know more than me, so just examining ur brain is enough
Mohsen says (8:03 PM):
it is not true. everyone knows according to his/her age and experience.
and knowing more never release man from learning [even] more
even more
Friend says (8:03 PM):
i'm sure my experiences aren't that useful for mankind
Friend says (8:04 PM):
i think as long as i'm known to be good, tried to do well, i'm happy
Mohsen says (8:04 PM):
i dont care how you percieve your brain. i just need the info saved in your brain! your perception is different
Friend says (8:05 PM):

why not just ask me
it's less painful for me that way
Mohsen says (8:05 PM):
cuz you are always busy

well, i do ask. but you know
i cant waste ppl's life!
Friend says (8:06 PM):
lolol
Mohsen says (8:06 PM):
you are alive and want to enjoy it for yourself
but if i knew you were going to die in 10 days, i would keep bombarding you with my questions!!!
Friend says (8:06 PM):
hmmm, u raise an interesting point
Friend says (8:07 PM):
is it selfish to keep my knowledge to myself only
Mohsen says (8:08 PM):
it sure is! you can keep it as long as you think you can use them. but once you realized you are passing away, you are responsible to pass it on to next ppl
Friend says (8:08 PM):
hmmmmm
Mohsen says (8:09 PM):
i think knowledge belongs to all humanity or life. we can possess them only for a short time. that is what i think
Friend says (8:10 PM):
i must admit i never considered that
Friend says (8:11 PM):
but i never really considered knowledge to be ownable/possessable...
if it can be learned, it can be learned again
just... it'll be a waste of time...
Friend says (8:12 PM):
but maybe the act of learning will allow for something new... instead of just transfering info
Mohsen says (8:14 PM):
ya. all matters of time. knowledge can be learned again. true. but we all want to accumolate knowledger to become more knowledable. and our life span is short!
Friend says (8:14 PM):
or is the person who wants to learn too greedy want everyone else to share
Mohsen says (8:16 PM):
i personally agree with IP. ppl have the right not to shre their knowledge as far as they think that knowledge is used by them. but if they just keep it in a file, and never have time and desire to do, they are surely greedy and it is not good.
Friend says (8:17 PM):
hehe, well, all ip goes out
Friend says (8:18 PM):
aftre some time
Mohsen says (8:19 PM):
which is a good thing. but it requires everyone, i the first place, to record them. not simply keep them in their mind!
Mohsen says (8:20 PM):
record them on a reusable materails
reusable manner i meant
Friend says (8:21 PM):
so was this thinking that led u to the dying soon question?
Friend says (8:22 PM):
dun think u answered me on what made u think of the question
Mohsen says (8:25 PM):
um..i am just trying to make sure i am on a right track. i am just clearing my path. was thinking about next steps after my comp. heh
Friend says (8:27 PM):
so u know what u want to do?
Mohsen says (8:29 PM):
no one exactly knows of course. all i know is that we are adding to the general knowledge of life. so, i just wanted to share thoughts with a friend to make sure this is a correct, or better to say, reasonable perception of our being.
Friend says (8:32 PM):
lolol
well, u definitely brought up an interesting point

Wraping it up in 10 days- Part I

2007-11-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

Tonight, at the end of a good day with a good progress on work, it suddenly occurred to me: What would different people plan to do if became certain they were going to die in 10 days from now? It was an exciting topic. I signed onto both my MSN and Y! Messenger and scanned through my contacts. A handful number of my good friends were on, although some had tagged "busy" or "away".

I started first with Frnd1. She first became worried that i might have been feeling miserable or unhappy and feeling like killing myself that I even thought about this question. So, I learned that for the next contacts i should start the question first with some friendly ordinary lines not to make them worry. She expressed she would keep doing the same things as she is doing now and that she lives like everyday is her last day. I challenged her what if she is not interested in doing what she is routinely doing and would she keep on finishing the assignments which she has been complaining much about? She stressed YES if she likes them. (i wondered here if there is any assignment of his/her most favorite course on earth any student ever liked to do, let alone those of boring courses). She was also honest enough to utter that she would try to be herself, not others, and forget about responsibilities and do whatever she likes to do herself. I was about to make her address my question more clearly that she set a condition “you must answer the same question yourself first”. I reluctantly talked about what I would do and when I came to a point where I mentioned about "contribution", she reproached she would rather live for her own survival than contribute to the humanity. I thought I had a goal set almost in the same direction when I were younger. I discontinued chatting with her, thinking I got the answer of my question.

Then I popped up parallel windows with three of my male friends. “Let see if this question has a gender-related answer” I wondered. I had to make it short because it seemed to me they were all sort of busy, somewhere at the middle of a development process in their life. Frnd2 said he would rather travel around the world with his family. “What is this decision based on? Joy? Learning? Helping? “, I asked curiously. “No real reason”, was his response transmitted to me with little interest of him. “It can't be” I snapped at him to myself, “no decision can be made without any reason, either instinctly inspired or rationally reasoned.” Then I soon became convinced that traveling brings us the most joy among all the other exciting things. He admitted, though, that he would stop writing any more academic papers had he seen no benefit would reach him out of it in 10 days. That was all from Frnd2.

A new type of answers was being received from Frnd3 in the meanwhile. He claimed, similar to Frnd1, he would opt to try things he had been always afraid of because of other peoples judgments. Although he did not explicitly point to any clear example, I thought I really hadn’t expected a number of younger friends still are dreaming about some normal doings of human beings which soon or late will happen. For example, I thought of having sex. I did not regard “having sex” a great contribution to the life, as it is normally coming to our life without making much effort. To the same eyes of myself when I was younger, I remember, sex was obviously a big desire. It was through this observation that I concluded: the greatest contribution of us in the life is having sex. And this blooms in us at an early stage of our life. In fact, it was an indication of the fact that bringing another fresh preson to this world is by itself a contribution.

I decided to chat with another female friend who was also busy. Kidding or serious, her first reaction to my question was that she would go get pregnant! “why thought?” I surprisingly asked. “Just to try what every adult is supposed to try, and for its joy”. Becoming pregnant only takes one night, according to her(I have no clue about this stuff!!!) and she probably needs to think about the other 9 nights! While admitting the sense of joke clearly seen in her response, it was yet interesting how a typical answer of a female is different from that of a guy, and yet both serve the same need. I am to continue the talk with her sometime later maybe.

Trying to convey he is not afraid of death, Frnd4 indifferently said he would just stay at home, watch TV, and continue routine life. “Why don’t you do more exciting things, like traveling, dancing with and kissing girls, or so forth” I pushed him to answer. His response was too impulsive to be based on a real thought when he suddenly said: “you don’t enjoy anything unless you believe in it” and I assumed he meant traveling is not fun when he knows he is going to die soon.

I could catch one of my old smart friends,Frnd5 who is now studying at a very good university in US. Her response was that she would surely quite the school, come back home and stay the rest with her family. Her reason for that was just to enjoy and have fun. When asked what the difference is between the cases when she is and she is not likely to die soon, she said she plans her next steps according to how many years she foresees she can live. For her, dying out when she is not normally supposed to is sort of “failing to reach a goal.”, though honorable.

Frnd6 was one of the most intelligent boys I have ever met. He can give you the answer to any puzzles you can think of in a flash. He had a religious view on the topic and believed he would ask his God to forgive him. I persisted “why should you stop your great research and good work even for a day,” he replied it wouldn't benefit anyone in such a “short” time, rather, he needs to sort out the possible issues in his life time and get prepared for an eternal life.

Frnd7 was a nice married guy with a wife and two cute kids: A boy and a girl. It came to me very evident when, as a father, he confidently reacted that he would deal with his kids and try to arrange all the necessary elements which guarantee his kids’ future life and education. To my “why” question, his single answer was highlighting a “responsibility” matter. It sounded a reasonable answer, but knowing he was atheist, I intended to make matters even clearer, so I asked, “Does it matter for you what your kids would do and how earth would look like if you don’t exist”? “It is my responsibility, my friend. My fatherly responsibility as a living father.” I took his word but continued: “and what if you are doing a very promising research on your project whose outcome can benefit a society of 1000 people, say an advanced surgery device for people with heart disease, and it can be finished in 10 days? Wouldn’t you choose to spend time on things which will make bigger contribution to the life in a bigger picture than your two little kids who would anyways survive by the help of their mom?” He calmly said:” No, my young friend! all those sick 1000 people have someone to take care after them. I just know my responsibility as a dad for these two kids. And I am not a Saint to live for the sake of others.” “Makes a complete sense!” I finished the talk while bewildered with a lot new questions in mind.

I came back to my desk and saw Frnd8 had finally replied my "hey" in MSN. "Are you kidding me, Mohsen? Why are you asking this question? I dont want to think about death" he replied uneasily. " I am so sorry! Never intended to thrill you. I have been asking this question from my close friends, just out of curosity" I tried to ease him. After a delay he uttered he didnt know what to answer, but he talked how in a SciFic book he had read as a child he had imagined his dead body moving in space. He was the second person who asked back about my opinion and I told him about my profound desire of returning back to Iran soon just to see my grandmom once more before losing her and all her legends and information. Our converstation ended up with his emotional reaction when he friendly let me know that he just cried beacuse he was reminded of his family and how much he loved them. I really didnt anticipate this question would spark such a strong raection but thought soon or late every young person would once think about this important subject.

Rationality in Arguments vs Fights

2007-09-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Being honest to oneself is not that easy, the thing that I have tried to accomplish. The reason I am very receptive-and consequently very soft and not firm ,sort of groundless, in my mind, to any ideas receiving from my friends and any "human" is that I don’t want to foolishly stick to my initial opinion even if the other person looks totally irrational at the very first glance. I never liked, from my childhood, the stubborn guys who never really listened to the opposite views and just kept saying the same thing from the start till the end of argument, because they want to be the winner and they think from the beginning they are. This was not to me a rational argument, but more like a FIGHT! I was about 15 when i defined to myself an argument as follows:

"A valid argument is the one that I never participate unless I have first truly put myself in a neutral position and have considered probability, no matter how small, for the opponent to win."

I was very much interested in analyzing the roots of fights and arguments between adults when I was a very optimistic little boy. I believe not genetics, but my exposure to fights and arguments in the society and family and my very concentration on how people are thinking has made me be pretty much open to anything. I like all foods, all kind of weathers, all kind of people, all religions and anti-religions and atheist, all genders, all jobs, all personalities and all ice creams. I have no preference in what I want to do.
There is only one goal I want to reach. Learning and answering the questions which come up to my mind every day. I know I should take an action to personally do research and find at least an answer to one of the millions question marks in my mind. But there is sometime something really disappointing: what is the point if out of 1000 problems, my only contribution is insignificantly finding one answer of them and that is all! Then I think: well, all the others who have passed away have contributed to today’s modern life, though very little in their time, but very significant in the big picture.

Cure Gossip or Gossip Cure?

2007-09-06T11:49:00.000-07:00

I don’t like my childhood teachers. They didn’t do their job properly. I also dislike the useless wrong lessons I learned by all adults of my childhood time including my parents. Most of them never taught me what the real world is. I don’t understand why? Why they were all afraid of us, the kids, to know the facts? For example, I clearly remember the great extend of hatred which would grow in me against some very normal behaviours of mankind such as gossiping, being nosey, being jealous, so forth, whenever my parents were involved in one of them, in the shape of either passive or active. It makes no sense to me why they did not like them or at least accept them as the intrinsic properties of our beings.
They all must have been aware of the obvious findings of researchers that men’s satisfactory level of salary is not an absolute matter but is determined by their knowledge about how much their friends are earning and that is why they feel richer when they earn only $50K, $20K more than their friends than when they make $100K, and it is only 90 percent of what their friends are making . And if, based on this fact, our childhood teachers were yet arguing that the less knowledge we have, the happier we would be (I heard this stupid statement frequently from a handy number of persons around me when I was a child) and hence we shouldn’t be nosey about our colleagues‘life, they must have totally ignored that we were a social animal, living together and interacting with each other. It is this fundamental need of seeing ourselves and self-evaluating in the mirror constructed on our friends that derives us to nosily sneak into our friends’ facebook profile to see what they do, whom they date, where they go and how they look like. Knowing these facts helps us to feel jealous about the success of some; this instinct useful feeling will consequently drives our smart and capable ones to strive harder to make ourselves better, or in case it is too hard for some of us to make it, the mental health mechanism would operate wisely and make us gossipingly put our fingers on negative points of the seemingly more successful friends where we possess some strength compared to them.
I can't see what point of this beautifully evolved mechanism looks evil that my teachers never told me anything about it. I dot know why? That's really odd.

Whose finger should be on the botton?

2007-08-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

It is just so relaxing when I am alone, on a trip, among strangers, in places I haven’t visited before, and with cultures I am not accustomed to. Although relying on wireless, and accessing the flow of information on worldwide network has made finding my route in a new city much easier, being a stranger always brings me an exciting chance to face new problems and learn how I can very calmly handle all of them, without losing temper. It can not be put in any words how pleasant it is when i have survived after all (well, unless the problem is really one of the unexpected rare situations which i have physiologically not capable of fighting against and neurocognitively not learned how to cope with! Lets hope my life is short enough not to come across one of these scary rare events=)). I have done a good job individually.
But what if I am with a group? As far as I have an understanding of myself, I have not attempted to be the decision maker when I am with my girl friend, mostly yielding to what she think is the best to proceed (if you think my gf is a lucky girl for that matter, you are wrong!! i have recently found out that decisive strong guys are more attractive to beautiful girls:)); let alone when I am on camping with a group of friends, especially guys who all want to be the unique leader!
Not to get too far from the core idea, i was just imagining how a good husband and dad would I be, should i have married and lived with a wife (only one wife of course!) and two kids, say!!! With this mentality that I have now(like I rather evade conflicts and arguments and shelter to my solitude), i wont be able to manage a happy family!!The kids of the current myself would enjoy being ultimately free to what their neurons naturally trigger them to do (if not restricted by their realistic mom of course, which is not mostly the case!) Their demanding should also not exceed the budget of family (umm..There you go! That is just like a normal family I just figured out!). If only we could be happy alone without a need of having family! Damned to this slow evolution! we yet need to get married, even if critical information to survive in modern life are becoming more and more easily accessible with least interaction with emotional humans...damned!:))

(I got the above shot during my last flight of the series of unforgetful flights I had for the past 10 days. It is beautiful. Isnt it?)

What kind of stability does the universe have?

2007-08-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Like all the systems that we try to design in such a way not to diverge, this universe looks to me to be stable. Individual minds may not be literally stable, all losing short-term profits, being sometime a part of a failure, and dying out some day while passing their knowledge and findings to the next set of generations- a thing similar to what I see in mathematical feedback control theories. There are chaos and sometimes a sudden sharp unexpected-by-mind changes to the life on the earth. How does my belief accommodate this fact then! ?

BTW, I took the above brilliant shot on my flying above the flat lands of States.

Are we designed to exist?

2007-08-05T23:15:00.001-07:00

Two big questions has yet remained unanswered: Origin of Big Bang? Origin of life on the earth? Anyone knows of any link or resources? Plesae let me know.

Who needs my help really?

2007-08-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

Today i got Motahare's Konkoor result: 11,600. not that disappointing, as it was expected by her capabilities. She herself did not also look down and miserable, unlike Malihe at her time, for her results and was not comparing herself with other counterfriends. One of the main reasons could be of her basic talent; But this is not the whole story, i suppose. Since she got to SAMPAD, she was not among the top, and maybe she lost her confidence. She was all top student, as far as i remember, up to grade 8 when she was somewhat pushed to get into SAMPAD by her brothers and sister. At the time, it was hard for us to accept her reasons why SAMPAD is not a good school: "They put too much pressure on students!" she would say. She must be wrongly terrified by other low-talented friends probably. that was in our perspectives. Although she got accepted, by the efforts Mehdi and I made to prepare her for the exam, and she has been since grateful to us in her sayings, she could never keep up the stand after she was left alone home with all of her brothers and sister studying in another city. Wait..I am not too sure. I dont know why i try to model her! in any case, she is smart, and she is living happily, pretty much independently and with less stress from others probably. That is too bad i am not in her mind, and thus I do not exactly know how she feels inside. My judgement is just based on what I see, and I believe I am not misled by her possible convincing pretence. I may have to conclude that, independence and working and deciding stand-alone is what the new generations need more, when Internet and ease of access to information can lessen significantly direct helps by others. There was also a point i realized some days ago: Our desire to give advices to our beloved is triggered from our own satisfaction; If i love my job and have a set goal and tasks which is undoubtedly directing me to an attainable bright future, i practically give less advices to my beloved (regardless of my emotional feeling such that I am theoretically more qualified to help others, and i should do it LATER!) , because the amount of satisfaction i would gain in taking the time on continuing my current job is more than that of giving advices to others. We of course live for own satisfaction.

Problems: Life Vs Mind

2007-07-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

"All bumps happen to appear on the way of a broken-legged man!" , "Problems usually come all together", "This is not my day. Everything goes wrong today"...
Have you been in situations in which one of the above expressions can best describe your states? Well, I may, as a fan of science, not surprised if one day, and only one day of my life, I observe all failures are coming in row, one after another; there should, however, be something wrong with my reasoning if I am finding myself left grumpy in such a frustrating days more often than that! Problems are distributed homogeneously in our days, and among all people. Life does not gain anything by putting more troubles into your ways than others, neither by blessing you favourably over others. It makes only very little sense, on the other hand, that you could be of any exception by nature compared to public, if you retain this "exceptionary feeling" for longer than "instances"! Then what is this that has made a big difference in favour of some people compared to others? Staying faithful to the fact that there are no such big differences between people; No differences which is imposed unjustly and abnormally by external matter generally and poorly called "Life"...

Big differences are made by "Minds" only and only. SO, make up your MIND and that is it!

The Loop of Life

2007-07-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

An average salary of a normal Engineer is 4000CN$/ month = 3milion va 200 hezar toman. Deduce, $1000 for renting a nice house, plus $500 for food and drink for a couple plus $500 for entertainment and buying daily stuff (short trip to other cities, cinema, museum, cloth, shoes, etc...). You will save about 2000$/month=1 million va sheshsad hezar toman in minimum. Having worked for 3 months, you have enough money to buy your military (5 million toman), plus you have gained work experience, have learned new things which will help you progress even faster. Now, in Iran, you can spend 3 months to follow up your case in Bonyade Nokhbegan. We assume you can get exempted from military service at the best chance ( It is not still guaranteed yet, while the 2000$ saving here is well guaranteed and there is no need to get your mind busy to find an alternative way, so no stress) What you have learned after this 3 months is : you have learned how to treat Iranians officials (gods) and plea them best to help you with your problem. You have learned how you get your work done through other ppl, rather than finding yourself independent to solve a problem. It will never give you any learning skill of real scientific and technical issues to help you promote the life for ppl who will come next. It just teach you how to resolve the problems that you, in the first place, learned to create for yourself!!!That is the loop of life in Iran....

Here are less "gods" above you from whom you should plea the solutions. So, you feel pretty much alone to think and solve problems. You have more time to think, and you take less time to transfer data verbally to other ppl. You rather write, type and digitally leave the info in a big web where all the ppl would selectively pick up the info they need. There is another big difference as well. As you have more time to think and do whatever you like by using tools, you engineer the world more than manipulating other people. You make new tools, new devices and instruments which will help uncover the puzzles of the life one after another. This is then not a loop if you think this way. It is heading forward every moment...

Fireworks

2007-07-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

Canada Day! The most beautiful scene of today which has remained like a shot in my mind is the fabulous Firework where i imagined the creation of galaxies after galaxies from a center point, expanding spherically all in different directions. I was also thinking the amount of thoughts and works that had been taken to design the lightening bullets, test them, make them and also organizing them so well in front of the eyes' of 60000 crowd watching them...How interesting a society is!!! the crowd was cheering, singing and sharing a social sense of happiness and being a member of one single community....That was just so interesting...Even in Canada, where ppl are from different nations, who presumably do not have any root in this land, would enjoy rising the red maple flag and cheering the Canada Day! Then it struck to my mind that, part of human is socializing, and to socialize, the only thing that all these different people have in common is the place where they inhabit..So, it does not really matter what the occasion is. what matter is they need to celebrate something, to firework, to sing and be happy. They use Canada just as the common ground which all can feel they have something related to...