Pranay Sharma

Infinitely small!
What does that mean?
That it is the smallest thing in the world.

Infinitely big!
What does that mean?
That it is the biggest thing in the world.

Sounds simple.

But I reached a weird thought after watching these 2 different documentaries:

1.  PBS - Nova - The Elegant Universe - Part II - Strings the Thing

2. Dangerous Knowledge

A creative idea with no meaning or sense came into my mind on merging the two documentaries.

No matter how big you go, there is something bigger waiting to be explored.

From Earth to Multi-Universe, the moment we understand something, we find something bigger to be explored.
Almost like its unreal or illogical.

Could this be the other way round?
No matter how small we go, there will be something smaller waiting to be explored.
Like a circle of radius X is made up of infinite lines with no gaps in between. lets call the gap between the lines at center 'G' which is nearest to zero.(kind of like derivation).
We increase the radius of circle to X+1 and there is more space for lines, so there is a number between 'G' and zero. And there always will be a number between that and so on.
No matter how small you go, there is something smaller than that. There is no zero. Hence, there is no building block. It sounds absurd, maybe thats what our world is - absurd.

It certainly does not mean we should stop exploring, but what if it IS true?
What if we live in an unreal world.
Black holes, quantum physics all deal with infinity and randomness. Which is illogical.
At both the extreme ends of our world, lies something which cannot be explained using mathematics.
Its like the color band of light and our eyes.
We see only a limited band of wavelength of light through our eyes.
But it does not mean that is all that exists.
There exists more and certainly I believe there exists more beyond what can be explained by mathematics.
But poor us, our brains have developed to live and function in mathematics and logical world.
We cannot percieve beyond that.
Hence we may never know/feel/understand their working even if someone were to lay it down to us.
Just like we cannot imagine/see how a 4 Dimensional cube would look like.

I am not trying to go anywhere with this.
Its just a meaningless random though.
Say, could it be that sky is red and we only see it as blue?
Well certainly if you see it with red glasses, it will look red since it will reflect everything but red light.
But would it mean it is red?

So ya, just a thought.

Can Artificial Intelligence have Creativity.

It all depends how we define Creativity.

Creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. An alternative conception of creativness is that it is simply the act of making something new.

Surely we can just create a machine and have it output random numbers but that would be more like a retard's creativity than an artist's creativity.
In order to complete the process we also need analytical thought which would in-turn judge the application/use of the thought.

As seen in the video, our brains(right side) randomly generate thoughts due to noise generated by heat.
And then these thoughts are processed by our logical analytic part of brain(left side) to decide if it is of any use to process it.

Clearly the logical analytic for humans can be linked to quering from a huge database of knowledge.
New borns do not have that and hence rely on adults to do teach them. Same is the process with AI.

Another key requirement lacking currently is the ability to gain knowledge, learn knowledge and curiosity(interest) to learn.
Again the field of curiosity is again a result of creativity and analysis deciding which field is more beneficial for them on a sub-conscious level.

So, what I believe is that we need to research in generating algorithms for analysis.
I am afraid the organisation "In Its Image" does not seem to have attained it as they claim to have it since 1970's.
It is a complete scam since such a breakthrough in technology is in demand and still researchs are going heavily by huge companies like IBM
and they say that all they have attained so far is the intellegence of a drunken cockroach who takes an 30 minutes to figure out his way out of a room.

But it sure gave me ideas.
Being a software programmer, I do try to write programs that have basic intellegence.

For eg: An operation is being carried out. Error occours. The program retries. Error occours again. If its the same error, it gives it a final try and if it happens again, its informs the tech support by emailing/paging them.
If another error happens, it gives it another try. If different errors happens it tries until 10 errors happened in succession before contacting support.
(Don't worry, its not a critical process that needs attention for every error).
What would be AI in my understanding, it keeps an error log. And refers that everytime an error happens.
If the error log suggests that everytime Error 'X' happened, it kept happening again and again, It would stop and contact support.
Even better would be
If there are any situations that Error 'X' happened and did not happen in second try,
there would have a random bit deciding if it wants to give it a try or not.
The chance of randomness would be affected by number of time Error 'X' happened before and corrected AND number of time Error 'X' happened again.
This process gives the program ability to grow its database.
Since the chance of selecting an error happened earlier depends on previous behaviour, the program keeps getting wiser.

It sounds complex, but is no comparison to the calculations that take place in our minds deciding if we want to take Road 'X' to work or Road 'Y'.
But they are on similar grounds.

Still, the technology still has hurdles with space of storing database to speed of processing queries.

And what lacks most is the reliability of human judgement which is achieved by huge database of our experience/knowledge and complex queries we do for our decisions instead of just few like this program.

But creativity is complete different game.
Our program can only decide in case of an event. It does not and figure out way to fix the error.
Hence, all we acheived was analysis, not creativity.

In order to have creativity, we would again need a pre-defined database for quering the usability of the thought.
In the case of our program, it would be like using the existing database, and while the program is running without errors, the program in the background,
searches for most common errors that occour(field of curiosity), keeps making patterns of errors happening in succession(creativity) and then refffering the source code to find out possible causes of errors(It would query another database with list of errors and possible causes and solutions). With a list of possible causes, it would go ahead and implement the changes to a testing program checking to see if it fixes the errors from happening again(analysis) and do some testing, make sure its run a couple of times. And then edit the real source code and save it.

Thats when I think the complete process of creativity would be complete.

But could we device a system that could query the causes of erros and their possible causes & solutions and create solutions for unknown errors?
Means combine, defragment existing solutions and create new better solutions by testing their efficiency.
A constant need to improve. 

Just like this post, every bit was written as it came to my mind.

Let me know what are your thoughts

I was eager to write my own thoughts after watching the documentry: In Its Image

If you were the CEO of a multi-trillion dollar enterprise and you had a division that was making losses for years, diverting resources from more profitable divisions, creating bad press for the organisation and contributing to poor employee morale, what would you do?

India, Inc. is an enterprise in exactly that situation. For sixty years since Independence, Kashmir (or more correctly, the Kashmir province of the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir) has been a black hole consuming endless resources in terms of both money and human life and providing no tangible benefits in return. It's ironic that India, the back-office of the world, which is selling the business benefits of outsourcing to a host of global corporations, has failed to apply the same hard-nosed business principles when it comes to its own affairs. Have the CEO (the PM), his management team (the cabinet) and the board (members of parliament) been managing the enterprise in the best possible way to further the interests of their shareholders (the Indian people)?

This is a case fit for a business school discussion. What should the management do with this chronically loss-making division?

I don't believe the Kashmir question has ever been phrased in business terms before, which is why it has so far been a taboo subject that "patriots" have been expected never to question.

At long last, a section of the intelligentsia has begun to think the unthinkable and voice their thoughts in print. Vir Sanghvi, Jug Suraiya and Swaminathan S Aiyar are 3 prominent columnists who have written up some very eloguent arguments about "letting Kashmir go". I particularly like Vir Sanghvi's article. The well-known activist and author Arundhati Roy (who wrote "The God of Small Things") summed up the collective national fatigue with Kashmir by saying "India needs aazaadi (freedom) from Kashmir as much as - if not more than - Kashmir needs aazaadi from India."

And it's not just a flight of fancy by some elites sitting in their ivory towers. The response to this idea from the general population has been dramatic. A recent poll conducted in 9 Indian cities showed that fully 30% of the country's (urban) population agrees with the idea of letting Kashmir go. So much for an unthinkable idea! I'm sure as time goes on, the idea will gain more supporters. After all, the debate has just begun, and there is already so much pent-up support.

Imagine the benefits that can ensue when a loss-making activity is stopped and funds are immediately available for profit-generating ones instead. India badly needs investment in infrastructure, especially in transport, power and communications. Investment in infrastructure is a multiplier in economic terms. It accelerates economic growth. China has shown the world that growth rates in excess of 10% a year are sustainable. India needs to aim for such a target, and throw every spare resource into achieving that target. The prize is the potential status of being not just the world's largest democracy (already achieved), not just the world's most populous country (projected to happen by 2050), but being nothing less than the world's biggest economy! With a population potentially greater than China's and with more favourable demographics, this is not a pipe-dream. But it requires vision, planning and investment to get there. Worthless diversions like Kashmir are an unaffordable luxury to a country with a far greater tryst with destiny. Kashmir is a needless drain on India's precious resources.

But the idea is still a wrenching one. I grew up in India and the image of the Indian map in my mind is the (untrue) official Indian one with an undivided Kashmir shown as fully Indian territory. That became the "look" of India to me and, I'm sure, to hundreds of millions of Indians. I could almost see a person standing with their left arm around Bangla Desh and face turned westwards. Foreign publications that showed a truer map with the actual line of control as the border were rubber-stamped with the bristly phrase "The external boundaries of India as depicted are neither correct nor authentic", or something of that sort. Yes, the Indian map without Jammu and Kashmir looks admittedly ghastly. It looks like India has been beheaded. That would be my initial, emotional response. A map with Kashmir alone gone would look like India has (literally) lost face. But I can swallow that and look beyond it.

When you analyse and break them down, I guess the only reasons against a sell-off would be national security, logistical complexity, national pride and what I'd call "sunk costs".

The "sunk costs" argument is the easiest to debunk. Essentially, this is saying, "India has spent so much money and sacrificed so many lives to retain Kashmir. If we give up Kashmir now, it will be a waste of all that money and all those brave soldiers would have died in vain." The argument against it is simple: "We should stop throwing good money after bad, and we will prevent even more soldiers from dying unnecessarily by putting a stop to this pointless exercise." After all, the Kashmir situation doesn't look like it is going to turn the corner anytime soon. Why put up with this haemorrhage in good money and good men indefinitely?

National pride is a trickier issue. There's no rationalism here, so it's hard to argue with someone with a strong opinion. However, the issue can be reframed in a number of ways.

1. The prosperity of India is far, far more important than the retention of Kashmir. Our national pride should be in our socio-economic achievements, in bringing prosperity and egalitarianism to an already democratic society. Kashmir is tiny compared to the current and potential achievements of India.
2. Kashmir is needlessly giving India a bad name. We are being equated with a colonial power. We, who struggled to get the British out of India! We, who sympathise with Tibet to the extent that the Dalai Lama and his followers have enjoyed political asylum in India since 1959. We, who are overwhelmingly opposed to the American war in Iraq. How can we now behave the same way as a colonial oppressor and stay on in a place where we're clearly not wanted?
3. Even the Soviet Union allowed its republics to secede. Where is the shame in letting a recalcitrant province go its own way?

I don't know how convincing these arguments will be, but as I said before, the debate has just begun, and there will be more and better arguments.

That leaves national security and logistics.

The main issue which I think India is not letting go is: Giving in to terrorism. If India lets go of Kashmir, it would look like the Terrorist tactics are successful in getting what they want. And this would be a great great moral boost to every terrorist organization in India, making them target one state after another and asking for independence. Like Deccan Mujaheddin. Not giving up to them is an example to others that terrorist activities will not led the nation to give away like a coward. So as much as India wants to get rid of Kashmir, it cannot from the fear of fires igniting all over the country over independence states.
But it would be great to give Kashmir province and have them beg India to become a part. Except they would be out of choice if Pakistan takes them over which would again be bad for India since Pakistan will then Target the next closest state - Jammu and so on until they reach Delhi. Kinda hopeless dream, but they are big time day dreamers ending up loosing everything. So ya.. Great thought.

Finally, the tricky issue of logistics. We remember the horrors of Partition in 1947. The last thing we need is another massacre with the body count running into the millions. India needs to float the idea of a coming "velvet divorce" gently and years in advance. It will allow people to make their plans and execute them without panic. There's also the messy issue of compensation for hundreds of thousands of Indians who have been forced out of Kashmir by the threat of violence. That's actually a tractable problem. Displaced Kashmiris within India can be generously compensated with a fraction of India's budget for Kashmir for a single year.

I know I'm advocating that India should let Kashmir go, but my guess is that most Kashmiris, faced with a stark choice, will vote with their feet and wind up in India anyway. India is the biggest engine for economic growth this side of the Himalayas. The Kashmiris' options are unfortunately quite limited, and uniformly unsatisfactory. They can either create an independent landlocked state for themselves with no resources and no industry and be an instant basket case, or be absorbed into a troubled Pakistan with its sputtering economy, perilous law-and-order situation (which puts it on a collision course with the US over terrorism) and very uncertain prospects overall. As an independent country, they will probably be humiliatingly dependent on India anyway, and the terms they receive will be far less generous. They're probably best off where they are (a much-pampered province within India), but I (just like an increasingly large number of Indians) am now skeptical whether the status quo is in the best interests of India.

If the Kashmiris finally get what they have been agitating for, it could turn out to be their worst nightmare, and India's lasting relief.

Recently bought a HP Pavilion Elite m9250f

Configuration:

• 64-bit Motherboard
  
• Intel Core2 Quad Q6700 2.66GHz
• 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM (Exp. Up To 8GB)
• 1 TB (2 x 500) 7200 RPM SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec)
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 512MB
• TV tuner card with FM tunerwith USB infrared remote for Media Center
  
• 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive
• Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g
• Integrated 10/100/1000 Base-T networking interface
• Realtek ALC 888S chipset up to 8 audio channels
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit SP1
  

Details can be found on:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01374062&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&product=3688702&os=2093&lang=en

The only downfall was that it came with  Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit SP1 which is useless for me since my work is Xp for client and 2003 for server based programming.

Getting it to downgrade was not an easy task. Took me around 24hrs of research and 24hrs on the machine itself to run Xp smoothly.

To make the task easier for brothers out there like me, here is everything in a nutshell.

First, You need to disable SATA from BIOS so that Xp can detect the hard drives by changing SATA1 Controller from AHCI to IDE.
For that you need to Press F10 when the computer boots up to enter BIOS.
When you are under BIOS, Go to Advanced and make sure the settings are:
SATA1 Controller: Enabled
SATA1 Controller Mode: IDE
SATA2 Controller Enabled

Then Save and Exit setup.

Now you can install Xp without any troubles.

Regarding drivers,
Here are the basic drivers for Windows Xp SP2: 

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/dotnetfx.exe

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/MotherBoard.rar

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/LAN.rar

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/Audio Driver.rar

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/Wireless LAN.exe

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/TV Tuner.rar

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/Wireless KeyBoard Mouse.exe

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/Modem.exe (Did not work for me, worked for friend)

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/Graphics Card.exe

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/Sm Bus Controlerl.rar

Driver Not Included/Found by me yet:

Infrared Reciever for Media Center Remote Control

Cause: The Infrared Remote is supported on on Windows Xp Media Center, which is based on Windows Xp Home Edition, So, Pro enthusiasts cannot achieve that.

For Media Center users, here is the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?FamilyID=b39d53f1-0ac9-433b-b488-4cab82f31dc8&displaylang=en

DO NOT TRY AND INSTALL THIS ON WINDOWS Xp PRO ELSE IT MAY CRASH.(Try booting from XP with "Last Known Good Configuration" if you did it anyways)

Finally!
Found the missing peice in the puzzle.
SATA Driver for installing Windows Xp without changing SATA1 Controller from AHCI to IDE.
The driver is ICH9R

http://www.gouravsharma.com/pranay/drivers/f6flpy32_85.zip

In order to use this driver, either you need to plug external floppy drive, install internal floppy drive and provide the driver in the floppy by pressing F6 when Xp boots up.

Or slipstream Driver in Xp Cd  using nLite.

nLite:

• Install Nlite
• Insert your XP Disk into the cd drive
• Run Nlite, it will ask you where your xp installation is. Chose the drive the XP disk is in, and it should recognise it.
• Next, it will ask you where you would like to save your installation.
• Next, Task Selection Screen should come up. Make sure you check Drivers, and Bootable ISO. I also like to check Unattended, so I have less work to do during the installation
• Next, you have the chance to insert the SATA Driver. Click Insert > Single Driver. From the f6flpy32_85.zip, chose iaAHCI.inf, it will open up a screen of the contraining drivers. Select the Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller
• Next, you have the options to change the default values of the XP install, you can pre-insert your serial number so you never have to type it in at installation, add desktop themes... you can toy around with some of the settings that you're familiar with at this point.
• Next, it will build your install of windows. Click yes if it asks : do you want to start the process
• Next, the final step. You have the option to either burn your install to a disk or write it as an image file.

DONE!!

Now you can install Xp without changing BIOS and you can DUAL BOOT with VISTA.

Tip:

For increasing performance, install Xp on a bare 5-10GB partition.(C:)

Using nLite, Select options to install folders like "Program Files", "Document and Settings" in different partition(D:)

leaving C: with only one folder "Windows"

This will boost the performance of your Windows to Max.

The partitions need to be setup and formatted before you install Xp or it will use the default (C:)

ENJOY!

Serj Tankian