Artificial intelligence can arguably be placed as the most profound technological revolution till date which allows us to leapfrog from deterministic computing to stochastic intelligence. While artificial intelligence is increasingly able to produce and at times exceed human level intelligence capabilities, the intelligence architecture for artificial intelligence is very different when compared to biological intelligence resulting in massive differences in energy efficiency,

A very interesting area of study is the evolution of human progress across history based on the accounts of different historians and understanding what were the various engines that powered the underlying progress. The supremacy of human species was largely initiated by their ability to organize large groups of humans as a collective superorganism creating a force multiplier to perform any required action which was possible as humans could construct shared imagined realities

The human mind is arguably the most complex and awe-inspiring entity among the totality of entities in the world. The most ambitious scientific/technological projects of the present era lies around understanding and emulating the human brain which I have covered to some extent through a previous article - ‘mapping connectome’. The human brain can be defined as the most efficient intelligent information processing system in the world which consumes about 20 watts of power to p

I have had a long-standing interest to understand if there is an underlying objective science behind beauty. The prevailing view on beauty is that beauty is subjective and its perception lies in the eyes of the beholder. However, there appears to be a universal language for beauty which is hard to codify and articulate but invokes a universal resonance among all minds. Beauty is a powerful differentiator in a world that is moving towards an era where it is becoming increasing

The primary purpose of biological organisms and any underlying biological function as theorized by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book the ‘Selfish Gene’ is only to ensure continuous propagation of genetic information i.e. genes with time. Biological evolution is defined as the natural phenomenon where genetic information of organisms get updated through random changes where updated genetic informational codes which encodes more favourable biological features to survive neg

Bayesian modelling is an extremely powerful and sometimes overlooked mathematical concept which serves as a fundamental tool to help understand the nature of reality. Bayesian modelling operates on the core principle of uncertainty of existing knowledge and presents a probabilistic view of modelling reality with a mechanism to continuously update probabilities when encountering new information. The mathematical roots of Bayesian modelling was formulated by mathematician Thoma

A hyper-reductionist view of the universe is that the universe is essentially computation present across different scales and complexity. Ordered information then becomes the true currency of existence where order is defined a sequence of organization that can predictably help serve a complex purpose. If we look at the history of the universe across time-scales, we can observe that information is moving towards a path of increasing order as depicted by technologist Ray Kurzwe

Douglas Hofstadter - a computer scientist who authored a few interesting books most notably the Pulitzer prize winning book ‘Godel, Escher, Bach’, explores the phenomenon of strange loops which are observed in nature through a slightly computational lens. Imagine a system programmed with a certain set of rules that allows for useful computation for someone outside the system. The system could be as simple as a set of symbols which enable useful operations (such as 1+1=2) whic

A major step in the progress of human civilization was the completion of the Human Genome Project which was a 13 year long project undertaken to map and sequence the entire human genetic code. Sequencing the genetic code provided evidence of humans sharing vast amounts of genetic information with apes and also led to useful practical applications from disease prediction/diagnosis via personalized gene analysis to disease treatment via gene therapy which is a method to help el

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which is fundamental for survival and is released when we take actions that ideally enable continued propagation of our genetic information with time. Our brains are hardwired with primitive neural circuits that release dopamine (which is essentially a reward signal) on completion of actions like food consumption, movement, procreation, learning, social cooperation which are all necessary actions for survival. The neural circuits for dopamine re

A very intriguing concept I came across is that of fractals - a term newly coined by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot in the late 20th century, which is defined as a complex geometrical pattern which is surprisingly formed by the continuous repetition of simple self-similar sub-patterns. A few special observations about fractals include : self-similarity (i.e the geometric structure of the pattern remains consistent when viewed across different scales) and ordered complexity o

Just like the food we consume is fuel for our body which effectively dictates our biological actions, the information we consume is fuel for our mind which effectively dictates our life-oriented actions. The information we consume from the very onset of our life dictates our beliefs and in extension our actions. The diversity of information across the world manifests in the form of diverse individuals with diverse belief systems and diverse purpose-driven actions. Just like h

Evolution is a theory that was proposed to explain structural biological changes observed in species over time and how certain classes of species survive extinction over others. We can use the microscopic lens of genomics to explain the manifestation of evolutionary phenomenon in living organisms. Genes (as I have covered in a previous article - dissecting genetic code) are essentially biochemical structures that have the ability to make copies of itself in certain environmen

Genetics is a very interesting branch of science as it provides a root-level explanation of biological phenomenon and opens very new frontiers for impactful intervention to help combat a lot of biological banalities that have plagued us throughout history. Genome (which I have covered in a previous article - dissecting genetic code) is essentially an organized molecular structure that holds biological instructions or code which get executed by special computer-analogous biolo

Health is a very broad and foundational element of human life which is silently interconnected with every other aspect of our life that we may hold in deep regard. Longevity i.e. the concept of extending both life span (duration of life) and health span (quality of life) has deeply intrigued me for a long time where I have tried to develop a more refreshed perspective on personal healthcare. I came across a voluminous book on longevity called ‘Outlive’ authored by Peter Attia

‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’ is a highly revered business book published by late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen which illustrates a surprising pattern consistently observed among established businesses based on a maze of rich historical data he gathered. The surprising pattern observed among the established businesses which performed really well on various business metrics is that they ended up failing at a later point in time in spite of adopting all the

Apple has visibly remained a powerful disruptive force in the tech industry that has maintained its market leadership for a significant period of time which is statistically uncharacteristic based on the history of past market leaders. While nearing a 4 trillion-dollar market capitalization (at the time of writing), Apple has been an outlier in terms of the free cash flow it generates and the disproportionately high profit margins it commands when benchmarked against competit

A groundbreaking announcement of 2024 was the Nobel Prize in chemistry being awarded to two AI researchers from Google DeepMind along with a biochemist working at the University of Washington, for their work in developing an AI model called AlphaFold which can have a disruptive impact on the healthcare industry moving forward. This announcement is a strong testament to the wave of transformation that AI is set to bring forth which I had highlighted in a previous article I pen

‘Stealing Fire’ is a very interesting book recommendation I received, which dives deep into ecstasis which is basically an altered state of mental consciousness that is synonymous with the probably more popular term called the ‘flow state’. Ecstasis is characterized by a non-normal heightened state of mental activity, which in ancient times is said to have been accessible by few outliers only through mystic spiritual experiences but ecstasis is now a lot more democratized in

The hooked model (showcased in the book ‘Hooked’ authored by Nir Eyal) is a very interesting framework for analyzing successful digital products and the psychological drivers behind their success. The hooked model is a way to design digital products that hack the neural system of consumers which is responsible for forming habitual actions i.e. actions that can be performed with less mental energy expenditure due to specialized construction of certain neural pathways in the br

We are naturally and very easily able to distinguish between the living and non-living entities of the world. A deeper question to ask though is what exactly causes this dichotomy of entities i.e. what is it exactly that makes a living entity living per se which is so distinctly different from the non-living? After all, from the point of view of chemistry and physics, the internal composition of both the living and non-living ultimately boils down to same basic atomic element

Quantum physics is a relatively new development in science which entails a radically new understanding of the world along with the potential to unlock very new technological innovations. Laws of classical physics i.e. Newtons laws of motion beautifully (and intuitively) explain the physical phenomenon of objects we observe in our day-to-day life at a macroscopic level. For example, we can imagine two wide slits (i.e. wide enough to allow a tennis ball to pass) placed before a

I recently started reading a very interesting book authored by physicist David Deutsch called ‘The Fabric of Reality’. The early chapters of the book explores the concept of epistemology i.e. the theory of knowledge which is basically how we observe and make sense of the world. The ideas shared in this book felt like an insightful addition to an article I penned earlier i.e. rigid theorization problem which was based on insights of Nassim Taleb’s book ‘The Black Swan’ which h

Energy is a fundamental requirement for the world to function and it forms the bedrock on which almost all other technology functions. At present, we are heavily dependent on unsustainable sources of energy to meet our consumption needs. Hence, a shift towards harnessing more sustainable forms of energy is a must. Sustainable energy sources like solar or wind is abundantly available but comes at the cost of being intermittent i.e. discontinuous which is a major disadvantage o