The Simulation Argument

Today I may make you happy or sad. Some of you may already have thought about the idea which I will put forward in the following article. “the Simulation Argument” is a thought experiment, in which we may imagine ourselves; that is, our life, our experiences, our friends; to be a computer 

simulation.

What?

Imagine playing PUBG, except you aren’t really playing it, you are in it. You don’t have a character, you are the character. So basically, try imagining everything around you as programmed. The chair you are sitting in is programmed to be there, to look how it looks, your job is a series of tasks you are assigned which you must complete (or not), food is essentially a bunch of code.

Catching my drift? No? Then try this. Imagine that the world you are is a program and just like how you are glued to your phone screen, your “creator” is glued to his screen watching you, maybe controlling you.

This is absurd right? Maybe. I’ll make another attempt at convincing you.

Physics has come to a standstill, because we haven’t come up with a theory which explains everything irrespective of size. The theory we have for planets and stars doesn’t apply to atoms and molecules. “String theory” which you may have heard quite a number of times courtesy of the TV show- the Big Bang Theory, is just an attempt at this unification, but it hasn’t been verified.

But if we are in a simulation, then we can easily explain the discrepancies. We could say, that the “creator” or in this case the “programmer” didn’t make the perfect universe. Rather- didn’t code the perfect universe. This could also explain why things start becoming fuzzy as we dive deeper and deeper into physics.

And finally, you have someone to put the blame on. Not just physics. But all your personal problems too, maybe they are simply syntactical errors. Also you got a way of fixing your stage fright. Think of it as a command from your programmer which you must execute. You are not going up on the stage, because you have to; you are doing so because you were instructed to.

There is an interesting after thought. What about death? If we are in a simulation, then perhaps death is “Quit without saving”. Or death could be waking up in a lab full of scientists, with wires and cables connected to your head which transferred all of your consciousness into the simulator.

Obviously, this is just a theory and we have no way of knowing whether or not we are simulated. But here’s the bizarre thing. If simulations as complex as our universe (we’re talking about everything guys. Right from atoms to black holes) are possible, then this will require a CRAZY amount of computing power. And if that kind of power is achievable, then we must not have only one simulation, but many of these made up worlds with billions of simulated people.

And if that’s true, then there is a very high probability, that you are in one right now.

By Arjun Kulshrestha (Guest Author)

(based on the thought experiment done by Nick Bostrom)

Lights...Camera...VFX !

Starting off in an introspective manner....Think for a second , that would you prebook your next avengers infinity war ticket if there's no more action ,no iron man or even thanos with his huge door-sized arms? Would you go to watch the sequel of Jurassic World (new york attack maybe?) if there were no dinosaurs in the movie? ...Of course not..In fact, 23% people watch these kind of movies because of the unimaginable and fantasy-like action and scenes involved which trigger the adrenaline rush!. Game Of Thrones wouldn't be what it is now ..if it hadn't been for those big green screens,CGI and VFX*. So most of you would already have understood that today I am going to give you everything about CGI , VFX and green (also blue sometimes) screens....

VFX (short for visual effects)

                 First and the most important thing to know for everyone..what is it actually? VFX simply means to put up or create a scene in a film/video which can't be achieved during live shooting. For instance you can't just knock down buildings in New York to shoot a Marvel film..?.

                 How do they do this? First step involves the use of green/blue screens (nowadays green are more preferred though). They are used to provide the background scenes with the actors in the front..the screen should be large enough to cover the entire acting..of course who wants camera peaking out by mistake during a hardcore 'save new york' battle.

Showing this scene at the end would have got atleast a 'comedy' tag to the movie

                     Now how this works is that the software instructs the computer to convert all the green/blue pixels in the camera range to transparent so that a new background can be added easily. To clear of any remaining doubts , pixels of the video use only red,blue or green colour to make up a digital image and red is found in large amounts in the actor's skin tone, hence green and blue are considered the most suitable for vfx.

                    VFX also plays a huge role in advertising a film through it's trailer. What tickles your bones while watching a trailer that you want to book the tickets so eagerly?...yeah that's it the visual effects. VFX makes the trailer look 'wanting' and that's what that makes your adrenaline flowing. A perfect example can be of the film '2012' whose trailer looked amazing just due to VFX:

CGI (computer generated imagery)

Instead of explaining what is CGI...explaining the difference between CGI and VFX would leave you in a much better off position. CGI as it sounds is the imagery generated through special software which is used in the film through VFX...I hope you are getting my point there. 

Your neighbourhood friend without CGI :)

   

Whoops! spoiler for the end game 

What you must be wondering about the above image are the white dots all over captain america.....they are a part of a process called motion capture. It's called motion capture if we're talking body movements and performance capture for facial expressions.Now most of our knowledge regarding this technology is too naive to get it in one go. So, remain calm..as you may not get everything about this particular technique in one go. The white dots are called 'tracking markers' which help the digital artists to track the actor's position in space and successfully assign a digital character to their bodies. This thing I couldn't have imagined myself and the credit entirely goes to this Quora Article .....although I verified that every bit of information is true in there.  Below I am giving some awsome videos by some YouTube channels:

• Mind Warehouse      

                

• Fame Focus 

 

My intention was never to make anyone lose their interest in any of the films/Tv shows shown in the above video but only to provide you free of cost knowledge about what you are watching on the big screens. We hope that CGI and VFX would continue to provide what I call a visual treat to our eyes in the near future with many more sophistication and improvements. Please Follow, Share and comment.

P.S Game of Thrones has it's own VFX team !

                                        

Update your nuclear knowledge !

**This is to inform everyone reading the blog that the author by any means does not support the use of nuclear power in any form possible for causing harm to any living species or objects**



Well, it's quite a relief to hear that something 'positive' happened at last at the US-NK summit at Singapore. With the buzz that North Korea is going to 'denuclearise' ....people with little or no knowledge regarding the nuclear weapons scenario are willing to know more...which gave me a nice opportunity to present everything on a platter (At least I'll try my best).

Starting with what could be the most absurd(or basic) doubt arising in a noob's mind:

What are nuclear weapons?

In the simplest lingo...they can be defined as bombs or missiles which can be used to cause explosions using Nuclear Power. (of course I am not here to teach primary science !). All other ghots not happy with something simple can just click here → Nuclear Weapons for nerds.

This is what a nuclear missile actually looks like

Again, it's not that simple as it sounds...wait..let me give you a sound (it might be not as loud as you were expecting) Nuclear explosion sound. There are two types of nuclear weapons:

Fission Based 

They derive their energy from Nuclear Fission reactions.

Fusion Based 

They derive their energy of explosions from Nuclear Fusion reactions.

(I tend to write my blog in a user friendly way so that it doesn't seem biased towards people from science background.)

For a country to become a nuclear power, the following criteria should be met: Essential infrastructure like Industrial and electrical support from the government, Financing, Various undertakings etc. 

Countries with nuclear weapons

There are 8 countries that have successfully detonated nuclear weapons out of which five are considered to be nuclear weapon states under the Non Proliferation Treaty ( I would be discussing this further) : 

• US
• Russia 
• UK 
• France
• China

Three countries not under the NPT are : India , Pakistan and North Korea .( North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003)

Source: www.mapsofworld.com

What is NPT?

                     NPT or The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is an international treaty signed by 191 countries (as of August 2016) with the prime objective of  preventing further spread of nuclear weapons and the ultimate goal being complete disarmament.

                      It was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a UN sponsored organisation based in Switzerland.

                     Although majority countries have agreed to this proposal, but still the trust and doubt gap between nations will always exist due to which complete disarmament is possible on only on paper but we're far from that to happen in reality.

So, how much damage can a nuclear warhead cause?

Although a very obvious answer exists for this query with every literate person on Earth every single person is aware of the damage caused by the Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombing....everything within a mile of the centre of explosion was totally finished. For those more interested try Ground Zero, a nuke simulator. 

Damage caused at Hiroshima-Nagasaki.....A country should NEVER use nuclear weapons

The Future.

Now North Korea is among the recently 'being considered' as a nuclear-capable state. The future is clear, more and more countries will keep on developing nuclear warheads either undercover or openly (as in the case of North Korea). No matter how many treaties be signed...the seed of doubt has already been planted now in every country's government. It's nothing but the trust gap and open defiance displayed by some countries which force the others to do so....as every state keeps it's security at the top most priority.

The use of nuclear weapons is certainly VERY WRONG. I personally condemn all the countries developing nuclear warheads for destruction. There is no greater loss than that of humanity.

Thanks everyone for reading till here ! . Please follow, comment and share as much as possible.

*Many portions have been directly copied from Wikipedia as I myself sometimes can't rely on the complete authenticity of my knowledge of such detailed facts and hence can't present unauthenticated information to my readers*

Spare Time to Dream !

You kidding me? I know what a dream is !

Dreams could be defined as stories our brains come up with while we sleep (or when math seems too boring), having vivid imagery and real life like situations. They may be about a past experience, your crush, your aspirations and basically anything else your mind can cook up.

Though I didn't know this :

But one thing that leaves me fascinated is that, how can our brains think of such close to real experiences or stories? I mean, sometimes I’m hugely impressed by my dreams. Surely if told to come up with a story while awake, we probably couldn’t do half as good a job as we could while asleep.

The best reason I found so far is the simplest. While we are asleep, our other limbs and body parts require almost no energy. So all this extra energy is guzzled up by our brain in making dreams. So yeah, that’s probably why you were in a live action film last night.

And after doing so much work, what does our mind do? It forgets. Truth is, we remember only 5% of all dreams we’ve ever had. Only the most vivid and hard hitting dreams make it to short term memory, even fewer to long term. And the harder you try to remember your dreams the faster you forget them. If you dreamt just before waking up, then chances are you’ll remember it.

Rapid eye movement in play during a dream....creepy.eh?

Sometimes when you have an important exam to give, you’ll dream both before and after giving it. If your exam went well then you may dream that you screwed it up. But when you wake up, the reassurance you get it is something isn’t it?

Any benefits?

Ok, so are dreams in any way useful? Depends. If you have a problem which you’re desperately trying to solve, then you may actually dream up its possible solutions. The most famous example is that of Kekule. Kekule came up with a cyclic structure for benzene after dreaming of a snake biting its own tail.

And lastly, even though you’d expect it, the best way to end this article would be with the most clichéd line ever -“keep dreaming”.

By Arjun Kulshreshtha (Guest Author)

How do memes make money?

                  Before starting to read this article, do one thing open your social media account ..wait....now what do you see...Yes! exactly there is an 85% chance that you would be given a warm welcome by a meme on your feed. Need of memes nowadays has reached at par with that of having lunch!.....Everyone of us nowadays find it difficult to live without memes (almost an addiction) as they come very close when the point of being relatable to our lives comes up.

So how do they earn?                

                             A very simple basic explanation would be that whenever you come across a meme you click on it, then you are navigated to another webpage where you find loads of other of these attractive things.

                             Next thing you do is that you keep on scrolling down in want for more (before you realise that how your minutes turned into hours)....now during this process of scrolling down you also come across several ads on which you might or might not necessarily click on. 

                             There are fixed rates for everything for example- the website owner earns 'X' amount of money for 'Y' no. of views and the same thing goes on for clicks.Yeah...it's just this much...simple isn't it?? (go start making memes 😜!)

Do meme pages on social media earn anything?

                            The answer would be NO if you're thinking to earn money directly via Facebook or Instagram. What I mean here is that no social media website has a policy to pay you directly based on your followers or likes which most of the people think they do. (I hope this clears your misconception fellas !). Still for those who had a similar thought in their minds....don't worry as gaining followers on social media by making memes is a very good idea to give a boost to any of your future businesses or startups.
                           However there are many indirect ways to earn from your meme pages like:

• Doing sponsored posts for brands (you need quite a following for that :))
• Becoming an affiliate and making commission (Amazon affiliate is a very good choice)
• Creating/Selling your product
• Providing paid services
  

How to earn money from memes? 👀💲💲

**This portion below does not in any form act as a guarantee to earning from memes. Down below are just some tips which may increase your earnings based on your following**

1. Blogging with AdSense for some extra cash.
2. Apply for some sort of grant.(In 2011,Indiana University got a $1 million grant to study memes)
3. Try to become as innovative and creative you can be. Believe this, there is nothing like original content...(irrespective of the source 😉)
4. Join business support groups. They help you to drive a lot of traffic for your content.

                                         

Remember that it's quite a tough job to solely depend on what you earn online. So don't ever get trapped by this concept which looks quite attractive but in reality is not so.

Is AI taking over us?

Remember the title of this blog next time you say "ok google" or "hey siri" to your phone (or iPhone!). For those who didn't get the word 'AI' here, it stands for artificial intelligence and this creepy yet useful concept is gradually taking over the lives of all the smartphone users (no one left out I hope?). For those who find opening wikipedia a huge task out of laziness, here is the definition : Artificial intelligence (AI, also machine intelligence, MI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence (NI) displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals.

Of course everyone of us remembers Jarvis(don't we?) and if not jarvis, 'Courage the Cowardly dog'is too hard to forget. (Cartoon Network ..eh?).

Coming to the point, is AI really taking over us?, is it good or bad? and why should we care about it? ......I will try to answer the above questions in this blog.

Types of AI

Broadly speaking there are 4 major types of AI currently active in the world: Reactive machines, Limited memory,Theory of mind, and Self awareness. Since this is not a tech blog I am not going to elaborate each one, however if you still want to get your hands on some information you can do that here. 

Some examples to remind you that you're surrounded by AI if you use a smartphone :

1. Google Assistant  (all android users) 
   
2. Siri (time to regret spending $999 👍) 
   
3. Cortana by Microsoft (Ok, not that popular !)
   
4. Bixby by Samsung 
   
5. Alexa by Amazon (welcome the new kid !)
   
   

Is it really taking control?

Frankly speaking, my answer would be "yes" and that too in a lot more ways anybody might have thought of. Now , pay attention as here I am talking a bit more 'globally' as India in terms of AI research is quite far behind other countries. In fact, according to Analytics India Magazine when it comes to R&D, Chinese govt. spends 2% of it's GDP in research while we spend a meagre 0.6% compared to the size of our economy. 

Since many of you would argue the opposite and some of you might even underestimate the power of what AI can do , below here I'm giving out a small clip from the latest Google I/O 2018 : 

Now for some of you (who don't like to keep themselves updated with tech innovations) might have been left out in awe...wondering where technology has reached. This is not the only thing happening around...search the web and you'll find yourself trapped by AI and some people do agree to my point here (Hi Elon Musk !). 

So wrapping it up , I would say that AI could very easily control and prove to be a real threat if  gone under wrong hands but it's still too early to come to a concrete decision. Do tell me what you guys think. down in the comments :)

Why should I care about it?

                         That's the most apt question you should be asking right now. Point is that we may not realise immediately that we are being very slowly being engulfed into the influence of artificial intelligence. With loads of advantages ranging from waking you up to booking your hotel room, these bots don't let you think 'bad' about'em and that's how companies take advantage of human nature. Even small kids at the age of 8 are being involved with these bots which can't be stated as something wrong but there's nothing like spending your childhood in the fields instead of talking to these bots.

                        The debate on weather AI is good or bad is endless with everyone stating their own point of view regardless of the fact that one day we might end up talking to these bots instead of real people. My suggestion would be 'proceed with caution' . Try asking yourself  at the end of the day, "With whom did I spend my more time today, real people or with Siri?" . Most of you might get a very positive answer for some years since AI still hasn't spread to it's maximum potential....but in the near future you'll surely start getting your answer as 'Siri'

*I am not biased with any company regarding AI. I find Google Assistant as good as Alexa or Siri or any other of these machines cum humans*

That's it for this one ...please make sure to leave your comments below and don't forget to follow and share ! :)

                                            

The Endangered Attention span

Our rapidly decreasing attention spans

The reason why there is a high chance of you not being able to finish this article, is your depleting attention span. Our attention span is defined as the length of time for which a person is able to concentrate on a particular activity. So now at least you know why you are lagging behind in your work.

In case you are still here and have not scrolled down this article, I must congratulate you, as you have crossed the average human attention span, which is roughly 8.25 seconds- 0.75 seconds less than that of a goldfish (not kidding, goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds, look it up if you don’t believe me).

According to study, in 2000 we had an average span of 12 seconds and with technology advancing it will only become lesser. But is that a reason to worry? Probably… but we can’t be sure. Shorter attention spans are a direct consequence of technological advancements, but with every step we take towards the future, we somehow catch up with it (at least that’s how it’s been so far).

The reason I thought of writing this article was that we should at least be aware of it, so here’s a pretty apt example:

Most youtubers these days use a very simple camera trick to make sure users don’t get bored of the video, and watch it till the end instead of closing it midway and engross themselves in a cat video compilation. Instead of taking a continuous shot of a scene, they break it up into a lot of fragments. Whenever they are doing a monologue while directly looking at the camera, they cut it up into a lot of parts and then compile all of it.

I don’t know whether you fully understand what I’m trying to say, but maybe you’ll notice this the next time you search ||Superwoman|| on youtube. I am giving out one of the video where you can notice the trick easily :

What does this have to do with attention spans? Everything. YouTube channels are very aware of the fact that viewers will get bored pretty fast (8.25 seconds to be exact) and hence employ this technique to keep their viewers in their grasp.

It’s a world of instant gratification these days, and so we can’t wait too long for anything. With the surge of content these days, we get bored too easily! How often do you make it to the end of a song you are listening to, without fast forwarding to the next track? How often do you finish reading an article on the net, and registering the minutest details in your mind? How often do you speed read a question on your test and later regret it because you missed the important points?

In closing, I’d like to say that although we really can’t do much about it, its always good to know and be aware of the changes in society and human psychology. And if you truly made it till the end of this article then maybe things aren’t so bad for you.

By Arjun Kulshreshtha (guest author for my blog)😊

Do leave your comments below and please follow and share :)

CAPTCHA : A necessary evil

WHAT IS THIS?

Some of you might think that this is a very stupid question as after arrival of Jio almost everyone in India has internet access and hence there is 90% chance he/she might have gone through the irritating process of CAPTCHA, but let me remind you guys in contrast to the above statement still (late 2017) the rural internet penetration is only 20.26%*.

Now, for some of us who don't know what CAPTCHA is:

It's a kind of challenge -response test which is used to tell humans and bots apart. (Bot: A web robot that runs internet tasks over the internet). 

Also, it has got a pretty long name..So here's what CAPTCHA stands for - Completely Automated  Public  Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.('Turing' was a test developed by Alan Turing..to know more :Turing Test) It was developed by a group of 4 people including Luis von Ahn. {I'm not giving out the other three names cause I want it to remain a blog and not turn it into a wiki and secondly no one gives a damn to the names, do we? :) } (Click for all the four names)

Copyright©www.knowyourmeme.com

You can find CAPTCHA almost everywhere, weather you're booking a movie ticket or making an online transaction.

*(Source:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/internet-users-in-india-expected-to-reach-500-million-by-june-iamai/articleshow/63000198.cms)

WHY CAPTCHA ?

Spam. Everyone familiar with this word (I'm very sorry for others who're not) knows that this four letter word makes life look like hell in your inbox. 

The two main issues CAPTCHA satisfies is Security and Accessibility. Now let's put up some examples so that it can easily fit in our brains :

• It protects the transportation online booking systems from bots which book tickets in thousands later to be sold in black
• Protects users from spam comments on their blogs. (Although at this stage i would still be happy with spam comments  :) )
• Lastly, the most important is that it secures e-mail accounts.(quite familiar)  

TYPES OF CAPTCHA:

• The 'looks kinda easy' type (It even has an audio option !)

Could also be called 'almost extinct'

• The most common one (also called reCAPTCHA v2)

                           

Yeah , I ain't a robot 

• The newest kid on the block (still under development)

Also called 'reCAPTCHA V3', it's still under development and we all are wondering what more interesting and simple do the folks at google have in their heads !

**Now some you might have at some point in your lives got an opportunity to go through the 'math', 'shapes' or even 'puzzle' CAPTCHA.....but I tend to leave your imaginations to you only as the above mentioned types now only exist in our half heads.**

  

So time to bid adieu. I've tried to cover as much in the simplest way possible .Do leave your suggestions and queries downstairs and also don't forget to Follow my blog for regular updates . Thank You :)

The Coloured Dot Scenario

To be able to understand this article properly...you need to have the following minimum basic qualification:

• Must have read 2-3 newspapers in your lifetime (I put this here as most of don't tend to read them as they seem "boring" in the "modern world")   

Well some people also have an excuse.."Nobody does so why should I?"..Go on a morning walk on Sunday (tough..eh?) and notice the source of morning entertainment for people at your or someone other's balcony.(Yes you guessed it right ..it's newspapers !)..Start reading them now if you still haven't.

Now without deviating further from the topic..let's come straight to the point. When you last read a newspaper you would have surely noticed those "nonsensical" dots (Hearts/Squares/Circles)...at the bottom of almost every page and if you're a normal being, at some point of your life you must have wondered about them. 

Copyright©www.allegationcorner,com

Now can I know the real thing please !

Now coming to the core part, actually these dots are nothing..but alignment marks more popularly known as 'registration marks' among the printing community. Also they are sometimes referred to as CMYK (Cyan,Magenta,Yellow,Black) due to the variety of colours they're usually seen in.

Copyright©www.jagranjosh,com

OK..So, what do they do?

It's quite simple..they are used to align the text while printing.Plates of all these colours are laid out on a page separately and lined up in the same spot while printing. This is necessary to print a full colour image accurately.*

If these dots are not in the same line,the image and hence the print comes out to be blurry..

*(It's like taking an aim in those RPG shooter games ..if you align the sniper rifle correctly ,you get the target or you're dead :) )

• You might as well know that these dots are not only limited to newspapers but are used in almost every material which has printed texts(books,brochures etc.) , the only difference being that they're cut off during binding and that's why you only get to see them in newspapers

How was this important for me?

Many of you might have this question, so i decided to put it up here only. See, what I mentioned in my introduction (previous post :Introduction to my blog) was that what I do here is to answer your daily life queries that might come up in your mind from time to time and that's what i have done. 

(*Speaking otherwise this same question was asked in an IAS interview :)...Might prove useful !)

Thank You and please make sure to leave your comments . Please subscribe if you want an all time aid for your daily queries :)..speaking of queries you can also leave one below...and i'll try to answer it if suitable.

Welcome to my blog !

Welcome to my blog,

In case you're wondering what this whole blog is about...it's actually quite simple.It's gonna consist of some types of articles like : my personal reviews on any trending topic, my answers to curious minds i.e. the questions you ask me in the comments...and at last some daily life (usually forgotten/ignored) but important answers to typical mind boggling queries. What I do on this blog is that I try to answer some of your daily life queries that you might come across but tend to ignore or forget them due to unavailability of  instant source of information at that very moment. Now to explain you better..consider an example : you're sitting in any usual Indian cafe/bar and you notice that the idiot box on the wall keeps on displaying same boring ads again and again , after this I'm sure every one of us would have wondered that how does the particular company who is paying for the add slot actually keep an eye wheather the cafe is displaying the ads or not??....By now you must have understood the real meaining of you are going to see on this blog. So, let me tell you that you would get to savour 2-3 articles a week (which is actually quite less) in the beginning with a promise of increase in the numbers if you guys liked them. Thank You and make sure to leave a comment !