From: Sai Hemanth K (saikapila@pune.tcs.co.in)
Date: Sun Jun 27 2004 - 06:48:16 BST
Hi,
I am being doubly foolish here. I am taking the Horse's comment (
Horse: "Perhaps someone could enlighten me regarding the issue of
race.") literally and
attempting to do the same.
( Mainly because the analogy Horse used is potentially trouble some.
Horse : Do we talk about
different races of dogs? Does anyone steer clear of black dogs because
they are more
likely to bite you on the arse? Are red dogs more savage than blond
dogs?
What if the isomorphism between races amongs humans is considered with
the breed of the dog rather than the colour of the dogs ? Most of the
argument falls apart right? We do talk about different 'races' of dogs!
Do we not fear a German-Shepherd or a doberman more than say a terrier
or shih tzu varieties?
)
Human life is some what like a multi-variable mathematical Equation or
a 'function call' in a programming language like C++/JAVA . But only
difference being, the function or method here returns multiple values (
as opposed to the single return variable for a Java method or a C++
function. )
The equation is something like :
< Hv, bhv, fv, pv, kv, lv, wsv,av, hv... > LIFE( possessions,
Knowledge,relationships,skills... )
The Left Hand Side (LHS) of the equation gives the list of the "output"
variables.
Hv happiness Variable (ranges from sad to happy)
fv fame variable; (value of this variable ranges from the state of
being ignored to being famous/notorious )
pv pleasure variable.. (pain to pleasure)
kv knowledge variable..( ignorance to knowledge)
lv love variable; (being hated/ignored to being loved.. again hatin
someone to hating someone and so on..)
wsv work satisfaction variable..
achievement variable (losing to winning)
Health variable..
Art variable... , buddhahood variable and so on...
on the RHS, we have the inputs to the function.. ( they are self
explanatory and ofcourse not exhaustive.)
The equation is very complicated as it involves so many input and output
variables.
As any one who tried to solve an algebraic equation involving four or
more variables would know, solving such an equation is an extremely
tough task.
( By "solving life", I mean, explaining how life is or showing a way of
getting what one wants from it. )
If we remember our college mathematics, we will recollect that one way
of dealing with the complexity is making one or two variables important
and ignoring the rest. So that one can easily manipulate the inputs of
the function and get the 'best' possible value for those one or two
variables.
For eg, I may make achievementVariable as the most imp variable. I can
just concentrate on winning in my chosen arena. I can manipluate my
possessions (money,etc), knowledge, relationships etc so as to make the
value of the achievementVariable the maximum.
Let's call such a variable an LSV ( the Life-Simplyfying Variable)
There are many known LSVs.. : money.. achievement.. knowledge..health..
workSatisfaction..fame.
A drunkard/drug addict might have pleasure as the LSV.
I believe , Every religion/philosophy/whatever tries to offer one or two
LSVs.
Ayn Rand suggests selfishness/sustainingOne'sLife as the LSV. ( This is
an approximate statement, giving only a very broad picture.)
A religion I know ( which got imported into India ) offers
Situation-After-Life as the LSV. ( "you will go to hell if u live like
this and go to heaven if you live like that and choice is yours.." )
Hinduism/Buddhism offers knowledge-Of-Brahman/Buddhahood/enlightenment
as the LSV
What Victor Frankl refers to as the 'meaning of life' is something that
automatically gives us an LSV.
And I think, Cosmotheism/Whatever is offering the solution by making the
"race" as the LSV.
So, if there's any person whose feeling-about-his-race is an important
output variable, well, he has his solution in something like
cosmotheism.
We have an altogether different equation if we make Pirsig's 'Quality' (
as in ZAMM ) as an LSV.
Needless to say,The LSV one chooses depends a lot one's ability to solve
the kind of equations.
Taking the mathematical example,
consider this equation:
x + log(Z) + sin(Y) 3i - 8j + 10k.
If am NOT comfortable with logarithms and trignometry, I would try to
'solve' this equation by making Z 1 and Y 0 so that,
x + log(1) + sin(0) 3i - 8j + 10k
x + 0 + 0 3i - 8j + 10k
or x 3i - 8j + 10k
and now, I know if I my task is to maximize the value of my x, I will
have to increase the values of x and k and decrease the value of j (
and vice versa).
However, I may choose to make x 0 , and Z 1 and deal with
sin(Y) 3i - 8j + 10k which automatically gives me that the maximum
value of my LHS is 1 and minimum value is -1.
Sai Hemanth K
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