Don't You Have Time To Think

I read this book in April but had a busy schedule after that, thus, putting entry here very late. Nobel Prize winner physicist Richard P Feynman was very popular among students. The reason is quite clear when you go through any of his books. Don't you have time to Think is collection of letters written by or to Richard P. Feynman. Feynman is famous as a nuclear scientist who worked on first atomic bomb research. He won Nobel Prize for his research work. Add on that, he was also a great teacher. His physics lectures are still used in many colleges to introduce amazing world of physics to newcomer students. As from my experience, there are few professors who know too much about their subjects and there are few who can explain it in a very short & simple way that even a layman can understand the complex theories. These two breeds, normally are very distinct, however, when you have a professor with expertise in both, then its a great experience to study under. RP Feynman was regarded as one of this rare breed, who himself was master of many subjects and also was able to explain it in such a simple language that listeners were spellbound. His talks were hugely popular in student folks as he was highly successful in igniting the flame of interest in the subject which is a rarity.
This book starts from the letters Feynman used to write during his initial student years to his mother. His closeness to his mother is visible from the language he had used. These letters, then, includes his girlfriend, later first wife. This initial part has nothing to do with physics, however gives a great insight about the person Feynman was. The way in which he dealt with his life affairs, just show the dedication and sincerity the man had. Some letters also give a glimpse of how the life was during second world war, working in a secret atomic research lab, staying away from family. Losing loved once and helplessness of human to avoid this parting can be a real lesson in life. RP Feynman after losing his first wife to tuberculosis, left the Atomic research laboratory started teaching. He dedicated himself to his profession. His competitive nature, sense of humor, openness won much kudos from his fellows as well from student community. When he married again he was already an established name in science community. Humbleness with which he received Nobel Prize is also noteworthy. Though, he was famous as a jovial person, his letters were in contrast, very serious.

In the end span of his life, his hunger for learning was exceptional. RPF was expert in Nuclear Physics, Biogenetics, Computers and many more. In last few letters, his comments about aristocracy shows his belief in order of merit. Overall, it’s a great book to read, inspiring stuff. It's not a biography or it doesn't cover all parts of RPF's life, however, it covers his values and beliefs as a great human.

Undercover Economist

Finally, after a long break, I am again on track. Traveling, Wedding, again traveling, I guess total distance covered is more than 5000 Km, partly by plane, by bus, by dad's Travera and by train.
So, after a long time, I was able to seize another book and soak myself with all the gyaan I can get. Don't get the wrong idea, I don't read books for gyaan. If that would have been the case, I might have ended up reading my course books. I read books just because I like their smell. Though, cold doesn't leave my company even in summers, most of the time my nose can't figure out rose from chicken.
Enough, back to basics. While passing from Bombay airport, I made a short visit to the book store located in the terminal. The guy in store was friendly and suggested me few good books. As per him, 'Undercover Economist' (by Tim Harford) was a better read than 'Freakonomics'. So, I bought it paying more than 1000 bucks (sigh..).
When I got some time, I settled down on my couch and started ucovering Undercover Economist. Book starts with really catchy scenario of explaining economics of a coffee!! After that author describes other examples of valuation and price comparison. Finally, he concludes that prices are not decided by just what value we are deriving from the product or cost incured in providing you the product, but also your percieved value of that product and scarcity of that product. Though, its a simple logical thing coming out of common sense, however, many times we ignore this fact out of our laziness. All the examples picked out in the book were from day-to-day life, thus, we can easily relate with them. One example on how Superstores keep their prices to trick people in paying more. Price sensitivity and scarcity, become important factor for setting the prices.
In middle part, author talks about stock market and try to frame an explaination of 1929's market crash by explaining the true value concept using price/earning ratio.
In the later parts of book, author talks about national economies, why poor countries like Cameroon shall remain poor and how China became a superpower. Explainations were not entirely satisfactory, however, were based on detailed analysis. Right incentives to right people and easy flow of true information were the two major criterions, used by author to explain these economies.
Overall, book was a great read, written for mass market. It simplifies economics in layman terms.

Seven Sixes are Forty Three

I got this book from my colleagues, as a parting gift. I was leaving that firm and guys wanted to give me something I like, so, another book. Seven 6s are 43 is a translation of “Saat Sakkam Trechalis”, a marathi novel. Author Kiran Nagarkar is a ‘Sahitya Academy’ Award winner. Translation was done by Subha Slee. It’s an old book actually, first published in 1974. I started reading this, when I boarded in flight for my home and finished it when I came back from home, so, I can term it as a travel book.

The book, itself tells the story of a character Kushank’s journey through life. When I started, I found this novel a little bit vague, abruptly starting, breaking abruptly in between. Author talking about one part of life suddenly jumps to another incident, completely different and thus story appears confusing as a life can be. I didn’t like till I had finished a large portion, say almost 100 pages. After that I had enough idea about the character, so even the hoping of stories didn’t led me to ashtray and I was not able to take it off without finishing the tale.

I remember, a boy in “Catcher in The Rye” by J D Salinger, who starts speaking on one topic but keep on fleeting on different topics, I guess Kiran Nagarkar was that guy. He has, in just one go grasped so many topics that I find it hard to just list them out. Main character, a middle class Indian, going through his memory lane, childhood, college, job struggle, making and breaking of love relationships, growing old, loneliness, loosing loved ones, separation, life, death, struggle to keep himself sane, struggle of villagers to survive, searching water, fighting against a rich landowner, rebellion, Indian caste system and many things which are hard to list down. In simple, its journey of a floating mind through memory lane, ending with a great satire on religious hooliganism of Indians.

Novel, though a little bit vague, have everything you can munch on. It’s more of a ride, in which you take the first turn which fancies you; you ride not for any particular aim but for the wonder of travel. A directionless travel, rough patches, green patches, changing seasons, passing time, growing, suffering, friends, departing, love, aloof, alone, dragging, running, but you never stop for a breather, you keep on riding.

One stupid thing, I found on its back page. There was a comment from “Times of India” that author have excellent eye for finding humor in anything, be it fight against rich, death or intercourse. These are not exact words but the comment gave me a view that author writes like ‘Salman Rushdie’, adding sexual intercourse to spice up the story, or may be a satire on Indian society with loads of humor. This was a most foolish comment anybody can give to this novel. It’s hardly humorous, though a little satirical, no comparison with Rushdie’s sex enriched novels.

List of my books

That's not all I have, some are still resting at my home and are not currently with me, also I have lost two out of these.Little bit explaination of notations, I have used:
Genre:
Make me Laugh- Humour, comedy
Somethings to Know- Science, general knowledge or anything interesting to know about
Lessons from life- General life philosophy, biographies, about some person's life, quotes
Imaginary Worlds- Pure fiction, it includes sci-fi
Magic, Dreamland, Grandma's Tales- Fantasy, stories for kids
Everlasting Greats- Classic, it may be fiction, crime, fantasy or poetry, whatever known as great work of literature
Sky is Beautiful- Astronomy, cosmology
Evolving Apes- Anthropology, discussing about human evolution
Numbers Magic- Related to maths
Doing Business- Business related, business history, marketing, strategy
Talk to Me- Communication related, language, etiquettes
Status:
Read in Peace- Have read it
Giving Eggs- Still, not have read
Half Munched- Read it partially, still need to finish
On The Roll- Reading now
Gone with the _____- Lended to someone, with not so bright hopes of getting back soon
Lost Forever- Lended to someone with no hope of return :(

Got it :)

I finally was able get my hands on the selfish genes. Though my body carries innumerous of these but here I am talking about the book 'The Selfish Genes' by Richard Dawkins, which I mentioned in one of my previous post. As a bonus, I also got Feynman Lectures on Physics, all four parts in audio cds.
Though, I will start going through these only after I complete reading the book "Don't you have time to think", by R P Feynman (edited by his daughter, Michelle Feynman). This book is like a break from what all I was reading. This book is a collection of letters written by RP Feynman and if you know RPF's character, these letters contains all his fingerprints. Soem are funny, some serious, some shows an idealist and some shows an emotional being. Collection starts from his college life, letter to mom, his first marriage, atomic bomb, death of wife, death of father, quantum physics, freshman lectures, nobel accolade, then confrontation with authorities. Most fascinating was his comment on love of science, looking a beautiful flower and trying to soak up with nature's little wonder with unfathomable curiosity, wondering and trying to cipher the nature's ways.

Arctic fossils mark move to land

This news was really as part of showing complete progress of fishes evolving in to land animals.

Fossil animals found in Arctic Canada provide a snapshot of fish evolving into land animals, scientists say.
The finds are giving researchers a fascinating insight into this key stage in the evolution of life on Earth.
US palaeontologists have published details of the fossil "missing links" in the prestigious journal Nature.
The 383 million-year-old specimens are described as crocodile-like animals with fins instead of limbs that probably lived in shallow water.

More details here. More links to this story, TIME, Nature, Guardian & NYT.

'The Selfish Genes'

Just read about this book, 'The Selfish Genes' by Richard Dawkins. Now, I have to find it and read it fast. This is just for keep on reminding me about this book.

Here, came the conquerors

Agriculture was accompanied by domestication of animals. Animals helped, not only in ploughing but also provided milk, wool, skin and other products which were treated by early humans as luxury. It can be argued that domestication of milk giving animals preceded agriculture as there is no clear differentiation. But this can be pointed out that domestication of milk giving animals started in the areas where agriculture was tough or non-existent. Animals were already been domesticated for their meat but as humans realized that they can also get milk from these animals, they started keeping these animals at one place. Pigs and fowls were the first animals to be domesticated for meat. Goats followed with cows and buffalos. Horses, camels and elephants were late entrants. But before all these, dogs were the first animals which were domesticated for help in hunting. Dogs were the natural partners to humans as hunter. Cats and other pet animals became habitual to living with humans very late. Cats, as one of the best hunters, initially scarred humans as they were competitors in hunting and became part of many legends. Other animals also had their share of mystrey. Small cats became as for their stealthy nature were good at stealing food from human storages. Initial food storage also faces the problems of rats and small pests. It is argued that agriculture evolved rapidly only when humans had discovered to store grains in closed tanks or containers.
Domestication of horses was one of the biggest factors which transformed early human society completely. Before horses, human were dependent on only their legs for transportation. As for biological constraints, it limited human group's movements and thus limited interactions between different societies. In the circumstances, most of the human societies developed independently and had completely distinct beliefs, customs, social structure and culture. Competitions between adjoining societies were common but this struggle never spread to a particular region, limited by geographical boundaries. Natural habitat for horses is grass plains and they lived in herds. Humans most probably also used to hunt them but might have soon realized that they could also ride them. Domestication of horses had taken a long time as these animals are not so tame like pigs or cows. Also, riding a horse requires certain skills which also had taken a long time to develop. Once the humans were on top of horses, they started spreading rapidly. First human society which domesticated horses is known as 'Aryans'.
Aryans were mainly hunters and used to have huge herds of cows with them for food. Cow was considered sacred as they used to drink cow's milk which was compared to mother's milk. They used to do their most of the property transaction in means of either cows or horses. They were wanderers and kept moving. As being good hunters, they were also great warriors. With the added advantage of fast riding horses, 'Aryans' dominated most of the other societies whom they came in contact. At the time of 'Aryans', agriculture had transformed other societies and there were many human settlements. Aryans in their ride trounced these societies and destroyed their settlement. Commonalities between most of the languages of Asia and Europe are evidence of Aryans' dominance in their time. When Aryans started their victory march, there were many well developed societies existing, like in India, Sumer, Egypt and Mesopotamia. Chinese society was guarded by high Himalayan peaks thus didn't come in the influence of Aryan invasion. India was the first one to face Aryan’s onslaught. Aryans pushed aboriginal Indians further in Indian peninsula and destroyed their cities. Aryans then moved to west and slowly reached Mesopotamia and Sumer. Sumer was razed and Mesopotamia survived with little remains. Egyptians also faced Aryan brunt and were pushed westwards. Aryans then moved north and dissipated. Influence of Aryan society was so strong that even after many years; these regions were occupied with wars and brutal destruction.

The mating game

I am going through this book now; "The mating game" by John Gribbin and Jeremy Cherfas. Author explains that why humans have two sexes and why sexual reproduction is advantageous to asexual reproduction. Nature has given us large brains and shared its own power of selection with us. Darwin suggested a theory of sexual selection after his all famous theory of natural selection. Sexual selection theory, appears to be a subset of the grand natural selection process. Sexual selection just give humans little bit more control over their biological destiny. Survivors will be the ones whom people love. I, initially put this last sentance as "survivors will be the ones whom girls love" but then realised that whats true for boys selection its the boys for selecting girls. So, both sexes choose better attributes in opposite sexes and mate to produce offsprings which have desired characterstics. If it has been just one sex, nature would have been only criteria to discard disadvantageous features. Nature built its toys such that these toys filter out any disadvantageous features in themselves and keep on surviving.
Here, this system also have some deficiencies, human mind doesn't always think rationally and true to our ignorance we have hard time in differentiating our natural instincts and fantasies. Giving in to your instincts is submitting to nature but humans are built in such to tough competitor. First time, I think we share the "Nature's Grandeur", if only if..!!!

Religion and Social Evolution

Religion as defined by many is a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny. Some define it as an institution to express belief in a divine power. One more definition which includes most of the variations is from wikipedia:
"Religion is commonly defined as a group of beliefs concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. It is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system. In the course of the development of religion, it has taken many forms in various cultures and individuals."
Religion played a major part in uniting diverse small societies and helping in peaceful existence. Initially, faith or worshiping a god or gods was limited in smaller societies and served as to provide some rationality to the existence. As initial societies had a very close relationship with their surrounding nature, their deities were mainly derived from the nature only. Sun, trees, fire, wind, rocks and water were essential part of their religious practices. As the development of language, it became easier to propagate one faith from one group to another. Also with this competition arose rationalization by illusion or fantasies. People, in quest of proving their faith to be superior to others, turned to fantasies and used arguments based on just imagination.
Before, talking more about religion, I should go back on the emergence of human settlements and differentiation between public and private. In apes, there is not much difference between public and private domain. Apes share everything with group and sometimes use force to increase their share. Sometimes, they also show meanness in reserving some new food find for themselves. In terms of relationships, they have strong hierarchy system. This system is mainly decided by force, meaning powerful apes are regarded superior that their weaker counterpart. Females mostly are not part of this system and their social standing is determined by the standing of their male mate. In most of the apes, there is no definite pairing thus all males and females are free to have relation with anyone. In some apes, like baboons, couples have lifelong relationships. The need of pairing can be considered as a solution to provide care for infants. An infant needing more help in its development requires support from its parents and group. Human infants for a long duration are completely dependent on their parents. Group can't provide personal care for this long. Marriage or socially acceptable pairing evolved as a mean of providing more care to the human infants. When settlements started evolving, ownership of land and property became major issue. Society started recognizing private space and boundaries between public and private was introduced. Conflicts between two parties on the ownership of a land or property needed to be resolved in social parameters. This need gave rise to a social structure which had some strict set of rules agreed by all and to be followed by all.

Religion became a tool to solve the conflicts between two parties in initial human settlement. Priest or whoever considered as an authority figure on religious practices, became powerful and was regarded with respect from followers. In earlier towns, priest evolved into a ruling class and they started using religion as a tool for rationalizing their authority over others. These towns were agricultural societies and spread over some specific fertile regions. As the interaction between these societies increased new communities like traders evolved. Wars also became more frequent and a separate warrior class evolved in some societies. People of one faith spread their religion by means of war or trade. Initially, cause of the wars was territorial rights, religion was used only as a mean to provide law and divide labor in the society. It was used as only a managerial concept.

As human groups from different regions started interacting, religion became part of person's identity. Different groups trying to prove their superiority over other started using religion as part of this conflict. With the evolution of modern religions, this difference also became more distinct. In some way, modern religions with their differences from other existing religions, provided people a solution to this confrontation of identity. People realized the similarities between different existing religions and it confused them as which version to believe. Modern religions with their strict rules and differentiated identity gave them a moral solution to their ethnic confusion. Modern religion thus evolved were not based on toleration and accepting of different beliefs but were a strict vision of some few, so called prophets or thinkers. They defined their own doctrines to accommodate every human in their time and region. Popularity of these doctrines served as a common medium which united different people, thus reducing confrontations.
Religion was and is evolving as a set of rules and regulations adhered by a society. Modern religions can be compared to corporates [I have also put a post on this topic on my other blog]. In the same context, religions were and are used unite people similar to nationalism. Nationalism evolved recently in Europe as to unite people from multi-ethnic society. Religion and culture are distinct but as the society is developing this difference is subsiding.

Sex and society

Sex, as a natural act which all human are inclined to do, serves many purposes in a society. Jared Diamond in his book "Why sex is fun" has given great detail about monkey's sexual behavior and how monkeys use sex to soothe other members of their group. Monkey's language is very limited and thus they use physical touch, massage and sex as to communicate and build trust in a group. Females use is to appease males and tone down their temper, lower ranking males use this as to get favor from their chief. Sex is not limited between male and female but also in male and male. Though, in the book, their was not much said about female and female sex acts but I presume that sex is also used to keep intimacy in female close groups. Sex, here doesn't serve only as a reproduction act but it also suffices for trust building in a group. Sex's main physical reaction is that the level of intimacy it offers ease down the tensions in the mind and make a person more relax. If you don't agree to this then try masturbating. :)
Sex is used as a tool of communication. Physical touch provides a way to showing trust. In human society, this is also true. Though, in past it was more prominent than now. Presently, humans are dependent on oral communication or speaking for trust building, evolved oratory skills has replaced physical intimacy to a certain extent. Still, in few close relationships humans still use physical touch to communicate and build trust. Sex is very important part of husband-wife relationship. Some of the early towns, as I have already mentioned in my previous post, used to have particular custom to control the reproduction period. (E.g. Sumer)
So, sex has moved down the importance through out the history, but still its effect on body remains the same. We have become more accustom to speaking and expressing ourselves through words rather then our body.
Role of religions in controlling human sexual freedom has also been very important. Romans and Greeks used to have physical contact to show submission and pride. Spartans were famous for their sexual prowess & freedom. As, new religions came to existence, they tried to distance from these early practices. Christians made it a rule; virginity and chastity were highlighted as a good thing. Any other type of sex, other then the between male-female was considered unnatural. Even oral and anal sexes were considered taboo. Muslims, though they came in history very late also had hard restriction on sex. Hindus and other religion though don't put so many restriction but they still don't support sex as trust building exercise. Sex as per religion was just a reproduction act, its benefit as a mean of communication was considered redundant.
In apes and monkeys, sex is used by females to soothe other males and keep their temper down. Males are naturally more aggressive than females and sex acts as a deterrent to this aggression from harming the groups balance. Females have more control over their sexual prowess and they use it effectively to gain some advantage against macho males. Macho males due to their incontrollable appetite for sex serve better to females who can effectively keep a check on their aggression using sex.
Human society also, in its evolution, has been largely dependent on sexual preferences of females. Darwin, in one of his books explored this idea of sexual selection and has explained in great detail how current form of society and particular physical features has been controlled by female’s sexual preferences for her mate. White color of Europeans, black Africans, facial features of East Asians, all have come to prominence due to female’s preference for these features in their mates. These features, as per biology don't serve any purpose or give any advantage for their survival. But still girls love them and choose their mates according to these features, so, male with these features leave more children with the same trait and this trait become so common that become to signify that society.
Here, the question may be why the hell, girls like these features? Is there any biological reason for females to like them or just fancy? Darwin explained that this kind of preference is also common in birds. Some birds like peacock have a long tail, which doesn't give any advantage to the males but act as a burden in escaping from the hunter. Still peahens prefer males having long tails. The reason given by Darwin for this was that males having a long tail and still surviving are seen as a sign of having good skills by females. Meaning, that peacocks having this burden (tail) and are still able to escape from predators must be having other good physical skills. It can be considered as same as a person jumping from a high cliff and still surviving is considered as having extraordinary. A person living on the edge must have good skills to keep a balance or survive. No wonder, girls flocked to army soldiers and drug addict rockers.
In a way, human females led young males to dangerous tasks. Young males who were desperate to have sex, had to prove that they can survive these tasks and it was considered a guarantee of good genes. Males used show their prowess by their hunting skills, fighting wars, consuming life threatening drugs and many more ways just to show that they can live on the edge. I can agree on atleast one part of religious teachings that females can be credited for leading a society in danger. But here I should point out that not only females but some other rituals which are mostly made by males were also life threatening. Some religious rituals contained very painful practices for males. In one custom of red Indians, if mate of some male have any sexual relationship with some other male then her husband perform a painful ritual of piercing himself and standing on a pole for some days. By this practice, a male show that he can withstand pain and can live on the edge thus he is having good genes. This can be considered as an advertisement of his genes for other potential female mates. More specifically, females motivate males to take pain and prove their fitness as a mate. It can be considered as an exam or test for potential mates. Wars and battles were effective ways for males to prove their mettle. Though reasons of wars or battles were mostly product of male's imagination, females played their part as preparing other males of group to join the warring parties. So, for a war, you need just to stupid leaders (mostly males only) to ignite the fire and females will use that fire to select their mates which will act as putting oil on that fire.
Though, females propagate risk taking behavior in males, they also acted in keeping the balance and harmony in smaller groups. They bound small groups together but acted as a deterrent for the formation of larger groups. In a larger group, it was difficult for human females to keep harmony just by their sexual prowess. Also, in large groups of early humans, opportunities for males to show their skills were also limited as numbers of opponent reduced.
One common thing about early large society was that their unity was not dependent on sex or physical intimacy. For a large human group, ideology or common things are better binder than sex. Thus, the need to keep a large society united, limited the role of females in the group as a binder. Evolution of language also provided a better communication medium to share common ideas and build trust. All the larger groups tried to limit sexual freedom as it might led to formation of smaller distinct groups which may lead to disintegration of the larger unity. Females were regarded as trouble maker and threat to the unity of society, their social standing took this hit and fell considerably. Their role in the society was limited to just reproduction. All the religions thus formed as to provide a common cause to formation of a larger group, diminished females role and regarded them as secondary to males.

Early towns

Thinking about how agricultural socities obliterated hunter societies, one thing struck which is still going on presently, NUMBERS. Majority always wins. Larger the group, more chances are that it will destroy the smaller human groups surrounding it. Early towns, also had there wars. Better to put it like continuous fighting. Hunter groups had a option of moving out whereas farming societies didn't have this option. Hunter groups also had there wars but they were more of skirmishes. It would have been more like a gorilla wars, one group will attack another another or just members of other groups. Depending on the conditions, if only a member of enemy group was attack, it was fatal, when two complete groups faught, it was either ended with stallmate or one group leaving the field. Group fights were generally avoided as all groups were of similar sizes with no extra advantage of any fighting skills. Early town changed this balance. Towns had large number of humans to fight which was a huge advantage against smaller hunter societies. So, as more area came under cultivation, hunter societies either became part of agricultural towns or were annihilated. Some of them who survived were located in isolated lands where agriculture was not possible or very difficult.
Victorious is always right as the saying goes. It appeared here also. Though, initially agriculture was not having any significant advantages over hunting but numbers favored them. Numbers led to their victory and the losers lost it all. History then was molded in major advancement in farming and its absolute supremacy for food sourcing.
Early towns evolved first on the gates of africa, mainly in river valleys where land was fertile and water was plenty. This area covers Nile river valley, Tigris and Euphrates river vallies and other areas in between Mediterranean, Black and Caspian sea.

Skills for hunting and farming

Evolution of agriculture brought itself with the formation of cities, as human groups grew and stayed together at one place. This facilitated population explosion even more and cities expanded. One thing I also want to point it out here is the difference between the skills required in agriculture and hunting. A new human child learning his/her lessons in hunting can manage just with either looking or using sign language. New hunters learnt by either looking other hunters or by their own experience. Hunting requires great physical strength and spontaneity, good reflexes and keen eyes, good legs and shoulders are must. All this is possible through only rigorous training or practice. So, hunters learnt their leassons running behind other better hunters and facing different problems in their own ways. Information flow required was simple and small.
Farming also requires physical strength but not as of hunting level. Farmers can manage even with some problem in running, slow reflexes and not so keen eyes. Working at a farm still requires great stamina to toil under the sun, strength for ploughing, harvesting, carrying the produce to other places. Early farm still required human effort for tilling, seeding, irrigation and harvesting. These efforts were as cumbersome as involved in hunting. So, initially, there was not much of incentive for a human to spend his/her energy in farming instead of hunting. Informations flow related to farming was also important as it is now. Due to long seasons and harvesting cycle period, it was difficult to learn the skills required for better farming just by watching or using sign language. Selection of more fertile land and better ways of ploughing or watering are crucial but the time gap between the human input and food output is too long. This effectively hampered the learning process of early humans. Prediction of weather was as it is now very crucial to get any harvest from the farm in the regions where irrigation is solely dependent on rains. These prediction can olny come by many years of experience, even with all the sophisticated devices lately, humans still can't predict the weather with complete surity. Transfer of these skills required some other medium of information flow, rather then just sign language.
Two things which were crucial in agriculture revolution were domestication of animals and use of complex verbal language. Domesticated animals were used to toil in farms, instead of humans. This put agriculture in more favorable possible than hunting in terms of human physical effort. Language made possible that skills learnt by one human generation was passed on to next and also skills or new method deviced by a human were passed on the complete group in short time.
Agriculture in turn gave rise to large scale permanent settlement of human groups which are called cities now. Cities, in turn due to increased interaction between sexes and more luxury time led to population explosion. Increased population again led to scarcity of food and proliferation of agriculture as a food source. Also, large farmers groups dominated over smaller hunter groups, thus sending the weaker in oblivion. This is amazing as one part of a system fed the other part and the system just proliferated on its own.

Hunters vs farmers

Just a note, as I came through one study on Tanzania hunters which describes that a man prefers a group of poor hunters, if he is alone (not maried) as it provides him opportunity to show off his hunting skills. He can be a stand out hunter in the company of poor ones. This prestige issue can help him get better chances of getting a desired female. If a man is married and have a responsibility of a family, then he will prefer a group of good hunters so that food availability is secured. For females, its always a group of good hunters as a choice as this secures the food availability for them as well for their children.
Farming here, must have played a role as a first preference from females. Farming make food availability more constant and secured than hunting. Even a company of good hunters can't provide a constant availability of food whereas farming is much better as it removes the sharp differentiation between skill level. For man having responsibility of a family, farming provides a better option as even without great skill he can make sure that food is available for his family. Also, it helps to save his pride as there is less competition. For poor hunters and females, farming must have been a very good alternative.
Hunting also requires extreme physical fitness which degrades with age progression. So, as a hunter grows old, food become scarce. It also forces him to look for other alternatives for food which are less demanding physically. Thus, it was a surity that as population grew, farming turned out to be much better option and subsequently, only solution for early societies.

Farmers in early societies

Agriculture requires people to settle at a place. It restricts movement, though, it doesn't mean that it requires lesser work. Food supply based on hunting was erratic, depending on the hunting skills, hunt availability and luck of the hunters. Hunters need to move from one place to another in search of their preys. Whereas farmers need to stay at one place till harvest is over. Hunting process is much more dependent on hunting skills rather than amount of effort a hunter put in. Thus, even to learn hunting required considerable time. Agriculture, provided a better alternative for people where hunt was not available in large quantity. Farming requires more effort but lesser movement. Farmers needed to build a small settlement near their farms and took care of their harvest from the wild animals. Farming in this sense was more of a complete day and night work with fewer breaks, whereas hunting expeditions were limited to some part of a day or some part of a month.

Early settlements resulted due to agriculture also resulted in one other side effect. Before agriculture originated, human population was limited by lesser growth rate as human couples were continuously travelling. Movement prohibited long time of courtship or intercourse. Also, pregnant females used to hamper the group movement, thus, this was also in large avoided by the group. Reproduction was usually alligned with seasons of high food availability, as it is even done in other animals. Season with high food availability provided more time for courting couples as group didn't need to move to much in search of food. Females spent long intervals between two consecutive pregnancies, as it ensured that females of the group are in good health to keep in pace with group's speed. Also, it provided human child more care till they grow up enough to move with their groups. Long intervals and restricted time for reproduction ensured that human population maintained a slower growth rate.
Agricultural societies had much more time for reproduction activities. People were staying at one place for a long time, so it was natural that they indulged in sexual activities more frequently. Also, food was available with reasonable surity than there hunters counterparts. Females had no restriction to keep a long interval as movement was not required. This all resulted in population explosion.
Some of the early socities adapted a balance of hunting and farming. Some adapted traveller farmers. They used to clear the land by buring the trees in that place and grow their plants for some seasons till that soil was no longer fertile. There were some highly fertile areas which were located near any river valley or delta region, where soil used to regain its fertile power due to natural processes. These areas were the first to have huge permanent settlements of humans. Early farming societies used allign their reproduction with their harvesting season. Sexual activities were encouraged at a particular time in the year so that birth of babies didn't hamper labour availability during the time when they need to cut their harvest in the farms. Sumerian societies had a priest led system to organise huge orgy to achieve this. Every early agricultural society had rituals having sexual activities to control time of birth of newborns.

Evolution of society (continue)

Now, we move to the area surrounding caspian sea and black sea. This region contains many 'stan's born out of broken USSR, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and some east european countries. Though, I think I shouldn't club these two regions together as there features are in sharp contrast to each other. Areas surrounding black sea are highly fertile whereas east of caspian constitutes barren pamir plateau regions. But clubing them together gives a better picture of possible paths, ancient human groups could have followed. Arabian desert, pamir plateau, himalayas make it difficult for a small group of humans mainly travelling on their foots, to move straight eastwards after coming out of africa. It also divides the world in three separate fertile bowls; middle east, India, China.
Black sea region is another fertile bowl which is placed in between middle east, europe and east asia. Caspian sea region effectively diverts the passage from middle east asian areas towards north, black sea region. Black sea region, with huge fertile plains offered another hotspot for dense society. Critical group size here was 100-500. Whereas, caspian sea region had critical group size lying around 20-100. Caspian region didn't present favorable conditions for a permanent settlement as it doesn't even now. Here, human groups had keep on the move in search of green patches, akin to desert nomads. Domestication of animals for transport was necesary for these nomads. Desert human nomads responded it with domesticating camels and nomads around caspian responded it with horses. Black sea region with dense groups population and vantage point, became hotspot for trade.
Human groups entered europe from africa following arab desert, then north, passing in between black and caspian sea, and then turning west. Europe with its fertile soil, dense forests and cold climate presented a kind of paradise for hunter gatherer societies which were coming out from deserts. This might had been a negative boost for permanent settlements and agrarian societies. Farming, initially might not had been favored as preys were abundant. It might had been the same case for human groups living in african forests. Deserts are not favorable for farming anyway. So, fertile plain near black sea were the first areas where agriculture started as it was the only area which present fertile land and scarcity of wild prey animals. Both these factors turned the table in favor of agrarian societies compared to hunting-gatherers. Farming starting from south of black sea spread to north then to other areas in east. Farming might have originated in China separately, as it is too far distanced from black sea region with huge barren landscape in between. Farmers were considered of lower status than hunters, initially. This struggle may be compared to class struggles between european nobles and workers in 14-16th century. Farming might be initiated only by women as hunting in some socities is still considered as manly work. As the growing population increased the importance of agriculture for generating food, farming might have shifted hands from women to slaves. Even in the roman era, slaves were doing work on farms whereas their owners went for wars and hunting.

Evolution of society

As coperation is the best startegy for smaller animals to survive on this planet, many species evolved to utilized their numbers to defend themselves from large predators, to hunt for food and work more efficiently. Example of this, starts from algae to humans.
If an animal is large and strong, coperation takes a back stage and aggression takes its place. Most of the large predators stay alone. For herbivores, even size may not be restriction but for carnivores, its as if a rule that larger you are loner you be. Survival of carnivores depends on their skill to hunt their prey which makes aggression as a necessary trait for them. Aggression is needed to overpower their prey. Thus, more aggressive an animal (carnivores), more will it be able to hunt. This aggression will be a guarantee for a good hunter and thus continuous supply for food. Here, nature plays its part in making aggressive trait as a necessary condition to survive and as time passes, this trait become more and more prominent. Aggression, as negative effect reduces the coperation among the same species.

Now, consider the scenario, when nature was full of life and preys were abundant. Aggressive carnivores flourished and coperation died among them. This scenario may also seems to result in more coperation as competition was non-existent. Herbivores or other animal for whom aggression is not the key may opt for coperation whether competition exists or not. Coperation in herbivores as well in carnivores increases the efficiency of food collection but if this efficiency doesn't offer much advantage then nature doesn't give special preference to this trait. When aggression is selected preferentially than coperation in carnivores with no competition, animal (carnivores) stay alone, as aggression among them result in grouping very difficult.

As the preys go down and competition increases, even a small advantage in collecting food becomes preferential. Competition also results in infighting among species. Advantages of coperation in this case may be counted as defence against the same species, dividing the society in small small groups to defend and fight among each other. Also, hunting in groups, give them advantage than the loners. Nature selects for coperation also and what we get a balance of aggression and coperation among carnivores.

Group psychology differ from a lone hunter. Nature will give preference for stronger groups who can hunt better. Numbers here appears to be an advantage. More the number, more be the hunt. But again, number offers a two way sword, as number rises, need for food also increases. This gives rise to a critical size above which a group looses its advantage of numbers. This critical size depends on the surrounding environment and availability of food. Rough terrains with scarce food available, have smaller critical size than the fertile plains. Here, other factors such as presence of other hostile species may also effect this size.

Now, with this we can prepare a mathematical model for calculating the critical size of a group of particular species which may survive in a particular region. I will not go in maths too much as generating this model will require so much of data which I don't have. I will just compare the different regions and critical size of a human group which may exist their.

I will start from southern african regions which lie near to equator, have warm climate with frequent rains and all weather forests. This climate and rich flora makes this region an ideal place for all herbivores. This also make it a good hunting ground for carnivore animals like humans. Ancestors of humans, apes have this as an ideal place for living. Though food-wise this region seems good, this also attract predators. Rich flora makes this land unaccessible for two leg animals like humans. Apes and monkeys have acrobatic abilities which makes them more suited for this kind of region than humans. Constraints to movement make hunting very difficult for human as well making them a easy prey for four legged predators. Also, there are many small insects and bugs which make life difficult for slow humans in this region. Critical size for a human group which can survive here, comes out very low. This size should be large enough to help humans in hunting for their food, as well defend themselves against different predators. In the same place it should not be too large that it may act as a constraint to movement for a group or make them more visible to attract different predators from large to small. This critical size may lie in between 10 to 50. The density of population also becomes limited as different groups keep on moving and control a large territory.

Now, desert regions of north africa presents a completely different picture of landscape. Scarcity of water and extreme temperatures make life impossible in this region. Flora is scarce and limited to some wet areas which lie in patches throughout the desert with long distance in between them. Large amount of body hairs which act as protection as well keeping a constant body temperature in equator region become a negative trait in dry and hot desert. First, sand particles entangled in hairs result in rashes, second hairs don't allow body to cool down in extremely hot climate. So, humans adapt this will very thin hairs though in larger numbers. Hairs still act as a protection in cold winters and nights of desert. Survival in this region also needs more numbers, so, group can gather food from a larger area. Threat of predator is less here, also, land movement doesn't have any constraint due to two legs. Size and stamina become crucial as these enable humans to cover more area thus collect more food. Group size is only limited by the speed of humans. Even a large group can't cover more area if humans can't walk to that distance. In equator region, movement was necessary for defending against predators but in desert movement becomes necessary for collecting food. Movement in equator regions was limited to a particular territories but in desert, scarcity of food make defined territories impossible. Human group needs to keep on moving in search of food and group shoul be able to gather food from one area in few days. Gathering and saving becomes necessary. Very small group may not guarantee constant supply of food and large groups will not be able to sustain itself with limited food. Here, critical size of a human group may lie in between 25-100. The density of population here is highly restricted as different groups keep on moving for food in a very large territory. Even the different territories often are so far each other that groups don't have any contact with each other.

West of north african region lies arabian desert. This area though have similar climate as of north africa, differs in one aspect. In arabian desert, the density of wet patches is little bit higher than in north africa. There are some river plains, also marshy areas are present in north west and south part of arab. These small patches of fertile lands make it possible to increase the critical group size even further. With the added advantage of farming, critical group size in this region hovers in between 50-500. No wonder, first human cities were evolved here. Due to higher density of fertile patches compared to sahara, population density is little bit higher than sahara region but more or less restricted to some fertile patches only. Though, distance between these patches were less than the saharan thus motivating some group of people here to indulge in continuous trade with different groups.

Moving to indian region presents another variation here. This land is surrounded by rough, cold peaks himalayas from north and sea from south. More of its a bowl of life, with land varing climates existing in short distance. Northern parts are cold and covered with icy peaks of mountains. A short distance in south, lies the sindhu-ganges plains and in east lies full year blooming forests. Below this region, there are Thar desert, arid Kutch, tropical forests. Next level in south have a mix of tropical forests, arid lands, deccan plateau and coastal areas. Deep sputh contains forests and climate similar to equator regions as of africa with added marshy patches near coastal regions. The huge variation in climate makes large movement of human group difficult. Middle plains have large fertile lands which can provide food for large human groups. Deep south also have a fair share of fertile land. But the area in between and extreme north are not supportive for large groups. So, it provides a right mix for large cities and trade by smaller groups. Human groups adapted to desert life are more suited for continuous movement thus making them more adapt for carring out trading. Himalayas and ocean provide a good defense from any incursion from other parts of the world, before the development of other means of transportation. Size of group is only limited here by the human movement. Critical size of human groups lies around 25-500. Here, population density, depending on the area were comparitively higher, specifically large river plains had many groups scattered in that area. Trade also proliferated as different groups were in continuous contact.

Moving in to north china again presents with varing climate from cold and dry north west to fertile south east. This land is also isolated from other parts of world by the hard terrains in north and north west and by ocean in south and east. South-eastern part contains a very fertile land. Southern part extends upto the indonesian archipelago which is covered with tropical forests. In west Himalaya divides the region and in north-west pamir plateau isolate china from rest. North west region have a very rough weather and presents really harsh living conditions. Fertile lands were having critical size of groups around 50-500 and northern parts were having critical group size as 10-100. Southern part, having higher popular density, helped in proliferation of trade.

Ice Age

Reading the book "Ice Age" by John & Mary Gribbin, was really revealing. In this book author have put some light on continuously fluctuating climate of earth. One of the factor mentioned is Earth's movement in space, on its axis, around barycenter, around sun. Barycenter is the center of gravitational center between Earth and the Moon. In layman's language, it will be balancing point of a seesaw, if we put Earth on one side and Moon on other. This center, as you might have already guessed, lies about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) below Earth's surface. Earth rotates on its axis, wobbles around pericenter like a spin top, changes its angle of inclination, revolves around the Sun in an elliptical orbit. This orbit also changes its ellipticity as Sun changes its position from center of ellipse to move in one side. Maximum change in ellipticity in Earth's orbit is considered when Sun moves from the center around five percent of distance between apogee and perigee. Current ellipticity is one percent. After considering all these movements, frequency of ice age comes around 1,00,000 for large cycle and around 11,000 years for smaller cycle.
Still, there are many other motions of Earth which are still not considered in this equation. For example, our solar system itself is moving towards Cygnus constellation, having Denab and one black hole. Our solar system is also revolving around milky way galaxy's center, addition to this solar system is also spinning in and out of milky way plane. Milky way itself is moving. These motions were neglected as it was considered that they don't have much impact on Earth's climate and also at that time, without the computers calculating their effect was too cumbersome. Out of these motions, revolution of solar system around milky way center has a time period of 220 million years. These motions don't have any effect on the heat recieved by the Earth from the Sun but as the equation pointed out that hot summers or cold winters don't make much difference but its the cold summers and warm winters do the trick.
Total heat recieved by the Earth from the Sun doesn't vary much from any of Earth's motion but its the cooling off which varies as the winters or summers enlongate. As per this assumption, even a small change in the Earth's position result in climate variations. One more factor which decide, how much heat will be absorbed by the Earth is which part of Earth is facing Sun. Right now, Earth is tilted 23 and 1/2 degree on its asix, so, parts of the Earth which face direct sunlight lie on 23 1/2 degree North and South latitudes. If this latitude area is covered by land then it will absorb more heat than if it's water. So, here continental plates movement also play a part in climate change.
Outer space, as for simplifications, is considered vacuum but which is not so. Space is filled with rocks, small debris, dust, gases, photons and many other smaller particles. In absolute conditions, outer space temperature should be zero kelvin, but studies have shown that it minimum tempearature lies around 3 degree kelvin. Depending on the distance of the point from nearby stars, size of the the stars, total radiation emitted by the stars temperature will increase. Thus, any change in the position of the solar system will result in slight change in temperature in surrounding space. It will be due to not only Sun but also other nearby stars. This change may result in increase or decrease in rate of colling of Earth. Though I agree, that the difference in temperatures between Earth's atmosphere and outer space is so large that any small change in the space temperature may not have any significant impact.
Other factor which may have some impact is effect of meteors entering the Earth atmosphere. Everyday, we have more than 1,00,000 meteors entering Earth's atmosphere. Out of which very few rocks complete the journey to the Earth's surface. Any temperature change due to this bombardment of debris is ruled out as too minute but what if the rate of bombardment increases manifold? As the Sun keep spinning in and out of the plane on which bulk of the Milky Way galaxy lies, it is apparent that when Sun passed through this plane's axis frequency of meteors falling on Earth will go up. At present, Sun is away from the plane axis but when it will move near the axis, bombardment rate will rise tremendously. Meteors, also have the other effect of increasing particle density in Earth's atmosphere. Again, the impact on climate will be very minute but may not be insignificant.

Thoughts over Collapse

Thoughts over Collapse

I had finished reading this book a long time but it was such a thought provoking book that I went on and read all the other books by Jared Diamond. His first book "Fall of third chimpanzee" was on human evolution. Then, there was "Why sex is fun", though title may initiate different dreams but it was perfect for a topic such as sexual evolution of human beings. Then comes another jewel, "Guns, Germs and steel", which covers the next step of human evolution, soical evolution, difference in development of different societies scattered in different continents. If that was not enough, latest one "Collapse" covered the subject of future prediction of our civilization based on past examples. Though past keep on repeating on itself but still their is a probability that end may differ. Future is unpredictable with infinite opportunities and unimaginable scenarios to contemplate. Still, rationality says that with current path certainly leads to the past, not to the future.

After finishing this series, I supplimented my diet with "Shadow of forgotten ancestors" by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. It was again on the same topic of human evolution. The way Sagan build the argument is really breath taking. He covers all the evidences, examples and their different interpretations, then in conclusion finsihes off with his theory. It leaves no doubt on his topic, as well it doesn't leave anyone out of argument. It appears more of welcome dual. This was followed by another Sagan's book "The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence". It was having more scientific arguments than any of the previous books and more insightful. After finishing this, I was forced to buy Charles Darwin's books. Though, I still have to finsih them, I took a small break and ended up with a small book named "Ice age" by John & Mary Gribbin. After digesting all the human evolution, development of sexual and rationality with the topping of imminent danger of natural catastrophe due to global warming, it was heart breaking to let my toppings go away. Toppings just melted of as suggested by author of frozen poles.

Some atoms started the journey, joined some others become molecules. Group is always powerful than individual. Molecules clubbed together to become a self replicating complex. Complex resulted in sprouting unicellular beings. They flourished in the monopoly of species for millions of years. Competition, change in climate forced them again to join forces and form floating colonies of algae. This was again, had drastic effect on earth's atmosphere. We had a toxic gas polluting the environment of this calm world. Competion made these beings to devour each other. Not so tasty, but it was dog eat dog world then. Some survived, developed hard shells around them which was to protect from radiation as well breaking the enemy's teeth. Their armor became their curse. Slow were again devoured by the faster beings, nowadays we call them fish. One whole tribe goes off the chart and other takes over. War was still heating up as well earth. Land become heaven for some smaller beings which were slow due to their body structure. Some colonies moved on earth and put their roots to never let it go. Again monopoly over land gave them unhindered opportunity to grow large and giants. Dinosaurs evolved, slow, giant veggies, ruling over whole land. Competition saw to it that they turn to some high protein diet. Result was some large & mean killing machines. Now, their territory expanded to sea then air. Millions of years they enjoyed this luxurious home which was on a rock standing third from a yellow star. The rock, always spinning, wobbling, rotating got fed with heat and again turned to its cold ways. Now, comes the surprise, as species before dinosaurs also faced the same destiny and perished. We still argue, it was a meteor, supernova or just cold but it was just another failed experiment of mother earth. Some even say, god in the shape of aliens destroyed them with their highly sophisticated ammunition. Imagination doesn't have any boundary. We speculate, proof if exist is lying somewhere under the earth's crust. Till now, iceage explains it much better than any other theory put. Dinosaurs died not a sudden death but perished in slow recurring ritual of earth's history. They ruled the warm days but nights were for shining eyed small mammals. As the days got colder, dinosaurs having low temperature metabolism become lazier and lazier. Its same as some animals go to hibernations in winters. Thats the time for kill and who better hunters than small furry night predators. These we call mammals. They feasted on giants, hiding in trenches or dark places in daytime. Thats the competition, being huge and successful for a long time doesn't mean that you can carry it on and on. There were some dinosaurs who were out of reach of these blood hungry hunters but as time came they were alone. Adaptation took its toll, it made some of them suited to this cold weather with feathers. Birds, flying high, survived with some size reduction. We still have commodo dragons to have a look how those mighty dinosuars looked like.

Party was over for furry beings also as giants finished. They had to come out of their trenches and took hold of their kingdom. It was a sight to behold but time just can't stop. Vampire adapting to new climate spread, fought and exterminated some of their mates. Some grew larger, not as same as their old diet. These mammals were having huge variety, which made them most adaptable to the continuously changing earth's climate. Then come the day when one four legged animal started walking on two, using the other two as hands. Stones, wood, metals started taking different shapes and were used to kill others brutally. Groups formed to survive these fights. Technology evolved to gather their food faster. Food doesn't have any name and survival is the only thing that matter. New ruling dynasty, had a little more than that. They developed their language and strated their reign with extinction of some other species. Competition again got better of them, and they started spreading and killing each other. Better always have the throne till someone topples him. They divided their region, fought for their territory, used different tacts to destroy their enemies. In this mayhem, some got luxury of pondering over all their history and their place in it. Some of them devised god and made their living. Some used it to bind a group with faith. Some used it as a permission to kill other. Depending on the use, different gods originated and worshipped to. Explaination of origin and myth gelled together with imagination and gave a huge number of stories. These two legged, featherless and brutal mammal were called humans. They were happy with their explaination and believed in their faith which they called religion.

Some still had the luxury to denounce the god, doubt the faith and argue. It was natural, more heavier and complex the head, more things to ponder. So, some used rational thinking to justify their killings, which led to futher scrutiny and led to debates. Here, came the realisation of ignorance. Faiths again kept on crumbling and forming afresh. Development caught pace as thinking developed, language also developed with written forms. Humans, using their two hands and big head to carry on their shoulder took control of entire earth and even took short visits outside their cosy home called earth.

Time still continue to march on. Rocks keep on their pace till they collide with some other or devoured by the fire of dieing stars. A negligible span in the history, look upon the stars with hopes of future which have existence of all without the spreading their bloods.