My short answer: I'm agnostic about it.

Why?

Think about it. Purpose only make sense in the context of space-time. Is there such a thing as purpose without time? Is there purpose if there is no past or future? What is the purpose of now? What is my purpose during deep sleep?

I suspect that our sense of purpose is part of our individual and collective illusion. If I doubt my own sense of purpose then wouldn't it be too arrogant of me to answer for the universe?

But what do I know? I think you're better off listening to people who have more interesting answer to this question.

What about you? Does the universe have a purpose?

There's an excellent author profile of Nassim Nicholas Taleb on The Sunday Times. I recommend checking it out. Thanks to Whence Bohemia? for the heads up!

According to Sunday Times, "Taleb is now the hottest thinker in the world." I believe so too. Taleb is on my top list of t(h)inkers. I'm no good with numbers and complex statistics but Taleb's kind of skepticial empiricism balances my propensity for integral idealism. I resonate with his attitude on serendipity and serenity.

"You find peace by coming to terms with what you don’t know."

I also find his attitude on religion very interesting.

"Scientists don’t know what they are talking about when they talk about religion. Religion has nothing to do with belief, and I don’t believe it has any negative impact on people’s lives outside of intolerance. Why do I go to church? It’s like asking, why did you marry that woman? You make up reasons, but it’s probably just smell. I love the smell of candles. It’s an aesthetic thing."

I remember reading somewhere that Taleb is also working on (or is interested on writing) a book that tackles religion and belief. I'm looking forward to it. With a $4m book advance fee, his book ought to be promising. It would be cool to see a debate between Taleb and the New Atheists, specifically, Dawkins.

I now have a good idea of where Taleb stands on environmental and ecological issues.

"Don’t disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don’t understand their logic. Don’t pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific ‘evidence’."

However, it's still not clear to me where he stands on the climate change belief spectrum. But I suspect that his attitude on this issue is closer to Michael Crichton than Al Gore.

One of Taleb's top life tips is to maximize serendipity by going to parties.

"Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues."

I don't suffer from agoraphobia but I'm not a party person. I also don't have colleagues to boss around. I like having a small social network of people in meatspace. But in cyberspace, the sky is the limit.   Good thing I have blogging to fall on which compensates for my introversion. But I understand that Taleb is right. Until the advent of fully-immersive telepresence technologies, there's no substitute for human face to face conversations. 

What I like about Taleb is that he is tenaciously confident with what he knows in his practice (e.g. mathematics, complex financial markets), his skeptical attitude towards grand sweeping theories, and his passion for philosophy and epistemology. I'm looking forward to him fleshing out his philosophical views in a future book.

In the meantime, thanks to Nassim Nicholas Taleb (or to his webmaster) for linking to my review of his book, The Black Swan. I'm getting a constant stream of visitors coming from www.fooledbyrandomness.com for the past few weeks now. Now that's another classic case of serendipitous blogging.

"London Heathrow security stopped someone from boarding a plane for wearing a Transformers T-shirt showing a cartoon gun." (via Schneier on Security)

Yep. I could relate to this. My very small Swiss Army keychain "knife" which had been with me for as long as I could remember got confiscated at the airport. My bad. I forgot to check it in. I also lost a brand new Banana Republic perfume because it was bigger than the allowable liquid in a carry on. Bummer. I love that smell. But I bear no grudges with airport security. It's a tough (and thankless) job.

That said, I'd be really pissed if the keffiyeh makes it on the list of fashion security risks. Not that I'm planning to wear one.

Robert Thurman may be the first western Buddhist monk, but he's no poster boy for hippie love and idiot compassion. The guy is very opinionated and sharp with his tongue. Case in point: Check out this The Bwog interview with Robert Thurman. Below are some relevant quotes I find insightful and somewhat entertaining.

On academia:

"It is critical and crucial that in an academic setting that there is objectivity and that people don't proselytize so that religious competition and conflict doesn't happen in the academy. The university should be a place based on pluralism.

"On the other hand, all of the so-called religious traditions have multiple veins. That is to say, there is something like Muslim medicine. Buddhism has its own psychologies and philosophies. When you study Plato in the philosophy department, no one thinks, "This person is proselytizing the worship of Apollo." Plato had his own religious views, but you're studying his thought. Confucius' philosophy should be taught in a philosophy department and so should Buddha's."

On religion:

"Today, we are in this situation where religious fundamentalism has reared its ugly head all over the planet. It's very dangerous and it isn't just as simple as Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins writing some big blast that religion is all crazy.

"It's very important that the clash of these ideas happen in a dialogue form. The department is creating a new center for the critical study of the world religions, which will be a place where basically we'll go after the fundamentalists."

On the New Atheists:

"I like Dawkins and I like Sam Harris. I don't like Hitchens at all—he's just a wannabe. He doesn't know anything about religion. Whatever's trendy he gets in there to try and get himself a bestseller. It's just a pain, but he's a good zinger writer."

I wonder whether Thurman likes or dislikes Dennett. I think Thurman would welcome Dennett's proposal to compulsory teach world religions to children.

Robert Thurman is a good example that Buddhists can kick ass and stay still. For more example of Thurman's passionate opinions, see Robert Thurman's Big Think videos.

I love taking pictures but I'm not comfortable being in front of the camera. I prefer to stay behind the scenes and share with everyone my point of view. But a good friend of mine sent me this photo that he took during the Tulip Festival. I like it because the backdrop blends with one of my favorite logos.

Come to think of it, an SLR camera is like the legendary Sword of Omens which gives its wielder the power to see "Sight Beyond Sight."

John Tierney posted a quick run through of Kurzweil's version of the singularity.

"Do you have trouble sticking to a diet? Have patience. Within 10 years, Dr. Kurzweil explained, there will be a drug that lets you eat whatever you want without gaining weight.

"Worried about greenhouse gas emissions? Have faith. Solar power may look terribly uneconomical at the moment, but with the exponential progress being made in nanoengineering, Dr. Kurzweil calculates that it’ll be cost-competitive with fossil fuels in just five years, and that within 20 years all our energy will come from clean sources.

"Are you depressed by the prospect of dying? Well, if you can hang on another 15 years, your life expectancy will keep rising every year faster than you’re aging. And then, before the century is even half over, you can be around for the Singularity, that revolutionary transition when humans and/or machines start evolving into immortal beings with ever-improving software." [read more]

Speaking of which, IEEE Spectrum has a special report on the Singularity. Check out Ray Kurzweil and Niel Gershenfeld: Two Paths to the Singularity. It's a must-read for every techno and transhumanist geeks :)

"CHICAGO - Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, becoming the first black candidate to lead a major party into a campaign for the White House, according to an Associated Press tally of delegates." [read more]

Will Obama choose Clinton as a running mate? That's the next big issue in this election.

In the meantime, I'll be rooting for Obama more than McCain to lead us in this upside down world.

UPDATE: Here's Obama's winning speech.

I'm in the middle of reading Fareed Zakaria's latest book, The Post-American World. Obama is reading the book too. My attention is focused not only on the excitement of national U.S. politics but equally with the current state of geopolitics. Zakaria is an excellent tour guide when it comes to geopolitics and foreign issues. So It's good to know that he has a new program on CNN called Fareed Zakaria GPS (Global Public Square).

"Fareed Zakaria GPS is an hour-long program that takes a comprehensive look at foreign affairs and the policies shaping our world. Every week we bring you an in-depth interview with a world leader, as well as a panel of international analysts who examine the major global developments of the week. As always, Fareed's emphasis is on new ideas and innovative approaches to solving the world's toughest problems."

I missed the pilot episode but the video is available online. You can watch it here. The first interview is with Tony Blair talking about faith, religion, globalization, and his conversion to Catholicism. Nice. Not only that. The roundtable discussion is very insightful too. This new show looks informative, intelligent, substantial, worldcentric, and very promising.

PZ Myer's just posted a stupid video on creationism. Here's the comment I left on his blog.

with all do respect Mr. Myers. i love your blog and what you're doing to criticize creationism and intelligent design. but i think you're wasting your time (as well as your reader's time, including mine) addressing "appalling ignorance" of some creationists. if you look close enough there are a lot of stupid videos out there on different topics whether be it religion, politics, spirituality, new age, or cooking.

what i want to see is intelligent discussion or debate on religion, science, and philosophy between people like you, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, or Robert Thurman, to name a couple of them.

for example, here's what Taleb says about religion.

"Scientists don't know what they are talking about when they talk about religion. Religion has nothing to do with belief, and I don't believe it has any negative impact on people's lives outside of intolerance. Why do I go to church? It's like asking, why did you marry that woman? You make up reasons, but it's probably just smell. I love the smell of candles. It's an aesthetic thing."

"Take away religion, he says, and people start believing in nationalism, which has killed far more people. Religion is also a good way of handling uncertainty. It lowers blood pressure. He's convinced that religious people take fewer financial risks."

here's what Thurman says about religion. in essence he agrees with the "New Atheists" but note that Thurman is a western Buddhist monk.

"Today, we are in this situation where religious fundamentalism has reared its ugly head all over the planet. It's very dangerous and it isn't just as simple as Christopher Hitchens or Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins writing some big blast that religion is all crazy.

"It's very important that the clash of these ideas happen in a dialogue form. The department is creating a new center for the critical study of the world religions, which will be a place where basically we'll go after the fundamentalists."

what say you?

it's one thing to make fun of stupid creationist videos. that's so easy. it's another to have real conscientious discussions with people who are as intelligent and evolved as you but don't necessarily agree with your views on religion.

my two cents.

~C

Hilary Rosen on Hillary Clinton @ Huffington Post:

"So, I am also so very disappointed at how she has handled this last week. I know she is exhausted and she had pledged to finish the primaries and let every state vote before any final action. But by the time she got on that podium last night, she knew it was over and that she had lost. I am sure I was not alone in privately urging the campaign over the last two weeks to use the moment to take her due, pass the torch and cement her grace. She had an opportunity to soar and unite. She had a chance to surprise her party and the nation after the day-long denials about expecting any concession and send Obama off on the campaign trail of the general election with the best possible platform. I wrote before how she had a chance for her "Al Gore moment." And if she had done so, the whole country ALL would be talking today about how great she is and give her her due."

Well put. I agree.

UPDATE: "Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is moving to suspend her campaign and endorse Senator Barack Obama on Friday after Democratic members of Congress urged her on Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to unite around Mr. Obama, according to a senior adviser to Mrs. Clinton." [read more]

Finally. We can now all move on to the presidential election. Deep bows to Hillary Clinton for running a memorable and historic campaign, and for eventually doing the right thing.

Will take a break from blogging in the next couple days.

Me and ~myDakini are getting married this weekend.

UPDATE: See our wedding photos here.

Here are some photos from our wedding. Thanks to everyone who sent us their well wishes.

   

Now back to regular blogging...

"Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population." [read more]

Steve Fraser says: "Basically, we left the financial marketplace largely unregulated – a tendency which had begun under Reagan and continued at an accelerated pace all through the years since Reagan, including under the Clinton administration... When push comes to shove, businessmen and their financial enablers may talk the talk about the free market. But when times get tough, they turn to the government to bail them out... That is this close, almost incestuous relationship between business and government."

(via Bill Moyers Journal: The American Dream in Reverse)

See also Steve Fraser on Gilded Ages.

Speaking of big business and inequality, one of the richest people in the world is on the side of the regular working people. Here's what Warren Buffett has to say about this issue:

"Certainly the worst taxes-- is something like a sales tax. I would say that we've got a pretty bad system, when we tax the person who-- who cleans out my office, the receptionist. They are paying 15-- payroll taxes, over 15 percent now, just for openers.

"Most of my income is taxed at 15 percent, and-- and doesn't pay a payroll. Mainly it’s dividends and capital gains. And if you look at the For-- Forbes 400, a bunch of my fellow rich guys-- they will-- their tax rate overall to the federal government will be less than that of their receptionist. And I challenge anybody. If they want to make me a bet on that, and I've urged Congress, both the Senate and the House, to get the figures anonymously from the IRS. Just look at that Forbes 400. Takes a billion three to get on the Forbes 400 this year. And the aggregate wealth is just staggering. And those people are paying less percentage of their total income to the federal government than their receptionists are." [read more]

Ah well, maybe Scott Adams is right. Maybe there really are puppet masters running the United States.

I've always suspected this to be the case.

"Brain scans have provided the most compelling evidence yet that being gay or straight is a biologically fixed trait.

"The scans reveal that in gay people, key structures of the brain governing emotion, mood, anxiety and aggressiveness resemble those in straight people of the opposite sex.

"The differences are likely to have been forged in the womb or in early infancy, says Ivanka Savic, who conducted the study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

"This is the most robust measure so far of cerebral differences between homosexual and heterosexual subjects," she says." [read more]

I also notice that homosexuality runs in the family. For example, it's more likely to have homosexuals in families with history of homosexuality. I have gay friends who swear that they knew their sexuality to be different since their early childhood. So a big part of being gay could be genetic along with other psychological factors. I wonder how this study would impact the attitude of homophobic religious groups who are still brainwashed in the belief that homosexuality is a "sin."

Speaking of homosexuality, check out Joe Perez's dialogue with Ken Wilber. Joe is the author of the book, Soulfully Gay.

Al Gore is a bit late to the party.

"After remaining neutral throughout the Democratic primary season, former Vice President Al Gore is officially backing Barack Obama's presidential run, and will appear with him at a Michigan campaign event Monday night." [read more]

I'm disappointed that Gore made the safe choice (instead of a bold one based on the candidate's energy and Climate Change policies) now that the Democratic primary is over. Ah well, politics. But Gore's endorsement of Obama is still a big help with Obama's bid for the presidency, especially with energy and climate change being one of the top issues in this election.

I'm interested to see if Gore would explain why Obama's energy and climate change policies are better than McCain's.

UPDATE: Here's the video of Al Gore's endorsement.

"Climate "skepticism" is not a morally defensible position. The debate is over, and it's been over for quite some time, especially on this blog.

"We will delete comments which deny the absolutely overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, just as we would delete comments which questioned the reality of the Holocaust or the equal mental capacities and worth of human beings of different ethnic groups. Such "debates" are merely the morally indefensible trying to cover itself in the cloth of intellectual tolerance." [read more]

Ah, well...

Anyway, for those who still get their fix from debating over the man-made cause of Climate Change, there's Climate Debate Daily and National Review Online for your enjoyment. And you can always use your own blogs fer Chrissakes! ;)

"According to the latest polls, the economy is the biggest issue for voters. So I ask myself which candidate for president has the most support from economists. And my answer is...um...I don't know.

"Now here's the interesting part about that particular piece of ignorance: I follow the news more than most people. So why don't I know the answer to the most important question in this election?" [read more]

I've upgraded to Firefox 3.0 yesterday, on Download Day 2008. (I hope Mozilla set the Guinness World Record. Firefox sets a new Guiness World Record!) My experience with Firefox 3.0 so far? Just pure awesomeness!

Previous version sucked memory (and diskspace) and was erratic on my Mac. But Firefox 3's overall performance rocks. The speed improvement is amazing. No more memory hogging. No more crashing. So far so good. Gaia Community members love it. I can now do my work almost twice a fast! (The browser can now keep up with my flying fingers and mouse clicks.) It's a must upgrade for all Firefox lovers; another reason to switch to the best browser, ever!

You don't have to take my word for it, even the Lifehacker peeps are oogling over it.

Lifehacker’s Top 10 Firefox 3 features

Lifehacker’s Power User’s guide to Firefox 3

I just hooked up my Gmail.

Kudos to all the developers who worked on Firefox 3.0. Thanks for making our web experience more pleasant, safe, and for lack of a better word, simply awesome.

NOTE: To all Gaia Community members, once you've upgraded to Firefox 3.0 please use this thread for your feedback. Thanks!

"According to Tegmark, “there is only mathematics; that is all that exists.” In his theory, the mathematical universe hypothesis, he updates quantum physics and cosmology with the concept of many parallel universes inhabiting multiple levels of space and time. By posing his hypothesis at the crossroads of philosophy and physics, Tegmark is harking back to the ancient Greeks with the oldest of the old questions: What is real?" [read more]

Is Tegmark reducing everything to mathematics? As a non-mathematician I find Tegmark's assertion hard to swallow. But with further reading Tegmark do make distinctions between interior and exterior.

"To understand the concept, you have to distinguish two ways of viewing reality. The first is from the outside, like the overview of a physicist studying its mathematical structure. The second way is the inside view of an observer living in the structure. You can think of a frog living in the landscape as the inside view and a high-flying bird surveying the landscape as the outside view. These two perspectives are connected to each other through time."

Then again Tegmark sounds more like a philosopher or a mystic whenever he talks about ultimate reality. He reminds me of an Advaita mystic who reduces everything to consciousness, e.g. "Consciousness is all there is." After all, without consciousness, would there be mathematics? And that's our Zen koan for the day.