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Life Beyond Equations
I have many interests besides computational physics and software. I love to read, specially fantasy and science fiction. My most beloved fantasy book is Lord of the Rings (LoTR) which I have read more than a dozen times. The imaginary world of Middle Earth fascinates me: the tales in the Silmarillion, which form the backdrop for events in the LoTR are a systematic and complete cosmogony, no more or no less real than most religious narratives. I also love to read poetry, specially poems that in a few verses strike a cord in the reader. The Kokinshu, the earliest imperial anthology of Japanese poetry, has many such poems. One is quoted at the head of this page. Another one follows.
I have a strong interest in philosophy, specially in the philosophy of science. Being a humanist it interests me to understand how people perceive science and its role in society. I am motivated in a lot of my reading by Enlightenment ideals, summarized by Immanuel Kant: "Enlightenment is man's exit from his self-incurred minority. Minority is the incapacity to uses one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such minority is self-incurred if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment...." (from What is the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant) If only humans have the courage to use their own intelligence, without the yoke of oppressive religious dogma, the internecine warfare we find ourselves in may come to an end. If we kill all our false gods and treat all our fellow humans as humans and not assign some narrow label to them, maybe we can find a way to live in peace. For many years I ran a Boy Scout troop in my home city of Pune in India. I tried my best, in partnership with a close friend, a brother in spirit if not in blood, Hozefa Mogul, to bring life back into a faltering scouting program. Our attempts were extremely successful. Starting with just Rs.3000 (about $80) we put together one of the finest set of troops in the city, most likely in the country. The activities in our troops were as varied as our interests. Adventure activities, pioneering projects, first-aid, camping, hiking, presentation competitions, fine literature, among other things kept us busy throughout the scouting year. We saw flower, under our influence, many good leaders, whose lives were transformed through experiences in the troops. We followed Baden-Powell's vision and let the older lead the younger, helping them to grow into well rounded young men. As a matter of fact, my own intellectual growth during these years was greatly influenced by my work in the troops. Recently I have developed an interest in learning more about the philosophy of religion and religious philosophy. My primary interests are, at present, in Ismaili philosophical development and its connection to medieval Jewish and Christian thought. I am attempting to read works of Hamid al-din Kirmani, the greatest exponent of Ismaili philosophy, Moayyad Shirazi, another great Ismaili da'i and, Moses Maimonides. I am fascinated by Maimonides' The Guide of the Perplexed as it clearly shows a tendency among Jewish thinkers, as among the Ismaili authors, of constructing a tawil (esoteric exegesis) of scripture. It seems to me that these medieval thinkers were trying to reconcile the anthropomorphic description of the deity in the scriptures, sometimes portrayed as a cruel sadistic tyrant, with a rational, humanist outlook. I love the outdoors. During the years I ran my scout troops I hiked or camped almost every other weekend. Now, I try and spend as much time as possible in the mountains near Seattle and in Washington. |
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