Showing posts with label Tidbits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tidbits. Show all posts

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Non-theorems // Tea club funnies

From tea club WhatsApp group, an image of a notice possibly from some coffee club in some other physics institute of department, as part of a WhatsApp forwad post which said:

Please DO NOT move coffee machine. It will change settings. -- Engineers

Please DO NOT observe coffee machine. It will change quantum states. -- Physicists with a sense of humour.

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“A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems" -- Dipan K Ghosh, retired colleague of Ghosh-Majumdar model same, quoting Paul Erdos (Hungarian mathematician)

Then what is a physicist...?  -- narimus the non-seeker

Turning theorems into good coffee. -- Urjit Yajnik, former colleague. 

.... After some additional local tea coffee club history related banter ....

Turning coffee and tea into non-theorems...? @⁨Urjit Yajnik⁩ @⁨Dipan K Ghosh⁩ -- narimus the non-seeker

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For a possible meaning of non-theorems, see here.



Non-X is neither X nor Not-X

Non-X would normally be considered logically separate than X in common parlance, e.g. take X to be "sense" or "profit". However it is not quite Not-X either and can be a meaningful construction in the following way that is different than Not-X:

Say we want to refer to an activity or thing not by an affirmation, but by a negation. This is generally not necessary but sometimes can be useful. For example when I do not desire to give the activity or thing an affirmative name, yet I still want to refer to it somehow for my own mental organization and categorization. By using the non-X construction, I can indicate to myself that it is not X, but it lies in the vicinity of the X concept.

For example, when I want to refer to my activities that require hard work and thought, but they are not quite part of my professional sphere or even part of my "serious" work. Then I refer to it is non-work these days. This tells me that it is not standard "professional" or "serious" work and is more in the "fun" or "recreation" or "hobby" category. However the actual amount of serious work required to make the activity work for me as a meaningful activity (excuse the puns and self-referentiality) also pushes me to not categorize it as not-work since it requires a good amount of work! Thus non-work. The construction invokes the idea of serious work without having to be too serious about it nicely for me :) An example of not-work is for example banter over dinner and drinks with friends. Such relaxed conversations can of course fluidly shift categories like anything in lived experiences, go from not-work to non-work to work, etc. as many of us would recognize. Other cases where I have found the Non-X construction useful are "non-seeking", "non-professional" which is basically same as "non-work", and "non-theorems" for the time being.

Also the starting point of the logical separateness of X and Not-X is an axiom only in classical Boolean logic which is not an absolute concept or framework to understand our lived experiences. For example, are dreaming, coma, etc. states of living beings active states or inactive states? Say taking a break from work, is it not working or is it a recovery part during work, e.g. when a professional footballer is not sprinting and regaining breath during a match or even a break from intense training for general recovery? Of course the axiom is clearly useful in standard arithmetic and mathematics more generally, and in fact needed for progess.

None of the ideas above are not new. Zen koans, the use of the dreaming state to illustrate many things in advaita vedanta, etc. show how binary logic is not the only way to appreciate our lived experiences. Even from the view of classical logic say coming from western philosophical traditions, it has been realized that classical logic and natural language are not always in tandem. More currently, the subject of logic itself is moving beyond classical X and Not-X notions of truth values of statements prompted by the state of affairs for which quantum physics is absolutely necessary to make progress.

Tuesday, April 22, 2025

What are you on?

Recently a colleague asked me, "Who is your dealer? It seems you are on something since some time...".

I more-than-half-seriously replied, "Yes I am high on life! And the universe is my dealer."

The colleague likely didn't believe me :)

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Some vedic variations on Descartes' famous maxim

Cogito ergo sum -- Descartes
(I think therefore I am -- Descartes)

I am conscious therefore I am -- Chalmers

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I think therefore nothing very special follows -- narimus the non-seeker 
OR
I think like a human therefore I must have a human brain -- narimus the non-seeker 

I think I am going towards I am that -- jnana yogi

I love therefore I am that -- some bhakti yogi 

I love therefore I am part of that -- bhakta 

I work therefore I am become that -- karma yogi

I am that = tat tvam asi -- that

Om -- 

   --

Thursday, March 6, 2025

AI fears // funnies

Early common men lived by the laws of the jungle - survival of the fittest

Till recently common men lived by the laws of analog technology - survival of the skillfulest?

We live in a tech jungle now - survival of the savviest!?

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The uncommon men can of course bypass these laws :)

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Riffing on the theme of an Oscar season movie

We need a Pope who doubts - paraphrasing the movie theme ("Conclave")

Religious:
Faith without an open mind is mere righteousness.

Human condition:
Men who forgot the art of greeting are not quite themselves.

Seeker:
Certainty is the breeding ground of errors. 





Saturday, March 1, 2025

Aphoristic one-liners at van Gogh's museum

Weather is half the mood.

There is no second-guessing yourself in art.

Be so skilled that you need not rely on your sanity for your creations.




Saturday, January 25, 2025

Variations on the Groucho Marx club quote

Please join my club of sensible nonsense. The only criterion to join my club is that you shan’t want to be part of any club that wants you.

I belong to a club of one and I am planning to leave it. 

I was an army of one and I lost the war heavily.

I am a great clown act 
In an empty auditorium.

I am a very tall person 
In the eyes of my mother.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Funnies + Campus + Early middle age


I noticed a good pile of dog shit today while walking to the office on campus, and marveled at how nicely cylindrical and well-held together it was.


Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Funnies + average + down

Today I realized how average I am: even when feeling down about it, there was no great hysteria, no severe depression, no suicidal thoughts. Just a dull background pall that could almost be ignored with some effort.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Teaching + Funnies

I am so much interested in concepts, that I don't bother with calculations

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reprise: Experimentalist making fun of theorist:
The theorist is so advanced at experiments, that he does only thought experiments.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

On knowledge

 For the humble man, the knowledge that they have knowledge forms a source of great pleasure and not vanity.

--

v2:

For the right man, the knowledge that they have knowledge forms a source of great pleasure and not vanity.


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Follow-up:

For any man, the knowledge of possessing understanding should be THE source of greatest pleasure.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Funnies + Trouble + Father's Day

Many people in times of distress, anxiety often turn to black crafts and the like to make sense of the helplessness. In good times they may be perfectly rational, not requiring the supernatural.

In my bad times, on the other hand, I have talked to my father. 

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Funnies + Snobbery

Regular person : Oh, I judged them too quickly there ...

Snob : There is no such thing as judging too quickly.

Credit : Nisheeta Desai

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Thursday, January 21, 2016

Lovebirds + Funnies

Sparks flew between confused lovers as they kissed; it was the dry winter air.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Lovebirds + Funnies

My loved one is so sweet; they brings me a sachet of sugar every time !

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PS : http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2016/01/12/thats-just-what-they-would-say/

Monday, November 9, 2015

Untitled

Beautiful Places exist
To make the lonely ones
Believe in forgetting
To make the lucky ones
Rejoice in the other.


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Kentucky Theatre, Downtown Lexington

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not - Samuel Johnson


Variations :

Kindness can be practiced even when fondness eludes.

That annoying kid you can't stop cursing at becomes that annoying person you don't think about.

Smile genuinely in genuine quietness.

Cupping the bug, throwing out the window, using nets, not killer sprays.

Monday, July 6, 2015

On Gentleness

Goodness Emanates,
No Theatrics,
Limber Esthetics,
Never Effacing,
Serving Strength.