21st Century and The Fate of Humanity

21^st century is the golden age for all scientific and economic developments .

Particularly the next 30 years would be very important as they have the potential to decide the Fate of Humanity .So presently we are living in the most interesting age of human history , Cheers! .

Let us explore what I mean by it .

The world population is around 7 billion and is expected to grow further in next few years .

This would increase the demand of number of personal and commercial computers and so does the amount of data that is added to the virtual data junk every year. In today's world no matter where you are , you are always surrounded by this cluster of invisible information web .

So what is the purpose and advantage of this big data web ?

Obviously to exchange information from remote computers. But this is not it , in today's economy extracting useful information out of these binary data chunks is a big challenge for humans as well as computers as there is a limit to how much computation we can perform using our modern silicon based computers .Companies use this information to improve their products and services.

Solving optimization problems is another big challenge faced by data scientists today .

To those who are unaware about it let me explain it with an example , lets say you have to travel throughout the world in all the cities and all the countries . What is the shortest route you would take so that you cover the entire journey in minimum time and your expenditure is minimum ? You have to consider hundreds of parameters like fuel cost , environmental impact , duration of stay , and many many more . This is an example of optimization problem in is a big challenge faced by computer scientists today.

Further the problem is divided into two components , first we don't have the hardware to perform these complex computations , second we don't have the perfect algorithm to solve it . In conclusion

it is the most difficult challenge accepted by us in the 21^st century .It is in fact one of the greatest challenge of computational mathematics.

Analysis and making sense out of this big data collection have an interesting application other than

profit making . If an entity can process millions of Tera bytes of data and if could actually compute it the way we want to ,our computers can predict the future . For example , weather forecast ,

computers collect satellite data of both past and present and simulate the the expected results , which are at most times correct . Think about rank analyzers , they make use of data from previous year statistics to predict the rank based on your score this year. You'll find numerous such instances ; actually we're doing it since long back . Big data analysis is just the the same thing but on a much larger scale.

And also if we could do that , we might be able to solve more complex problem like that of Big Bang theory and other deepest mysteries of universe and our existence .

Any major development in building and developing this combination of hardware and software

or any failure here would decide the fate of humanity.The solution to this problem would forever change the way we live , the way we process information, Everything is just a few decades away.

This century will decide whether we'll rule the computers or they'll rule over us!

Million Dollar Idea :Its High Time

While most people daydream every day about striking it rich, only some have been lucky enough to come up with a million dollar idea.

I'm not going to propose any million dollar here but its high time and the next is much awaited indeed . What's next after social networks? What's next after Reliance industries ? What's next after Google ? Is it the end ?

According to a research in the next 20 years or so more than 10 million people in UK itself might lose their jobs due to increased auto motion and development of high performance robots and computer systems . Yes , One day billions of people will become victims of auto motion.

Who would shelter those millions of people in the world under their employment?

This is the high time when young entrepreneurs should come forward with Revolutionary Million Dollar Big Ideas that can employ our next generation. How would it be if your children complete their masters or PhDs and still roaming jobless because machines are smarter than them ? It is “The High Time”.Our future economy needs an idea that can tackle the effects of increased auto motion and at the same time make the best use of technology .

Young entrepreneurs have to work smarter than our previous generations as they won't compete with humans anymore , but with super computers, robots,humanoids.

They would have the challenge to build economies that could shelter those million people . There are no hopes that Moore's Law and advancement in technology would ever come to hault in the next 100 years or so.

The challenges are many and so are the hopes .

A Million Dollar Idea could make the things go differently.

Its perfectly OK to live a life that others don't understand

It’s perfectly OK to choose a career that isn’t “normal''.

It’s perfectly OK to stay up all night, working on something that you care about, even if it isn’t even making you money right now.

It’s perfectly OK to be the freak, the misfit, the outcast.

But what's not OK is to give up your Dreams.

“We are the creators of tomorrow”

Best of Luck!

Can Computers control real world objects ?

This idea may fascinate many of you . But think about it , what if you could call your pen at your study table just by a click on your personal computer ? Sounds like Science fiction right ?

May be a new generation of computers could do that . Totally different from our classical computers.One day we might be successful in building this new generation of smart and powerful machines that can manipulate not just the motion of one single electron or a small molecule but a group of molecules that form real world objects .

I don't know how far away we are from this generation of computers or how close is it to the possibility of actually building one but its just an idea that evolved a couple of weeks ago.

Researchers in the US have said they want to build a new type of computer that will be able to “control and manipulate” physical matter.

A group of scientists from Stanford University has taken the first step towards this by creating a computer that operates using water. To be precise, the computer that scientist Manu Prakash has created sees water droplets being manipulated with fluid dynamics.

Although these experiments are still very far away from the idea that how one day we might be able to manipulate a 3 dimensional object lying independently at some location instead of lying on a computer chip . The basic challenge would remain the mechanical force required to change the position of object , also there is limit to how much atomic manipulation we can perform.

The fact remains that no object can exert a force on itself so how do we do that ?

Lets say you are sitting on one end of a table and a metal ball is lying on the other end ,

if you could perform enough vibrations on the table , ball will change its position.

So in order to shift the ball towards you what we need is the vibration of table molecules in the perfect orientation so as to move the ball exactly the way we want !

And if the table itself is a large computer chip , then congratulations your problem is reduced to how much vibrations can you produce .

I don't know how much time would it take to build and commercialize this generation of future computers , but what I'm sure of is that possibilities are enough . Our future on Earth is bright after all we are the most creative and intelligent species in the Universe.

Time Machine - Looking Into the Future

                                               The Concept of First Practical Time Machine
                                                                                   -By Ashish Pahwa

A couple of years ago , the idea of mind uploading , i.e uploading the entire human brain into a Super Computer evolved which gained the attention of many computer scientists and futurists across the globe.
In the coming future this might become a reality , then we'll also see the end of Modern Silicon Era.

But would we ever be able to build quantum computers that can predict the future and challenge the mind of God? Well this idea is still in the initial stages of its development but here's the glimpse of how this could be done.First you have to understand that each one of us have a different picture of reality in our brains . Just like every person have different fingerprints , every person have different brain-reality interface.

The very first step is to build a Super Quantum Computer . Big IT firms are already working in this field  and  we already  have our very first D-wave quantum computer by D-Wave Systems, Inc.
The second step , As I mentioned upload the entire human brain of a living person 'A' into that computer , his emotions , memories , behaviour,opinions etc.
Now in one way the computer thinks and sees the world the way A does.
We would  repeat the same process with another person B and upload his brain into the same computer .
Now A of the real world have its own picture of reality, The only person in the universe that could predict his next words  is A himself and this applies to B and  in fact to any living brain.
But our quantum computer will process both the brains simultaneously using its super quantum parallel processors. So we've created an entity that could read both the brains at the same time!
Also that means that this computer can simulate how the two brains interact with each other in the virtual as well as in the real world .
Again we'll repeat the process with C and D to form a family of four . Ultimately we've got four virtual brains and four real ones existing independently in the real world but are a part of the same process in our quantum computer!
The next and the most important step is the simulation ; simulation of how non-living objects interact with different mechanical forces . Well you'll be surprised to know that this technology already exists and we can actually simulate how real world objects respond to different forces in our silicon based computers .

Combining these two technologies we can build a virtual world , exactly similar to ours ,  One you and one me can in one way exist simultaneously inside a computer and in the real world .

So how would this help us to build a Time machine ?
Consider this simple experiment -
A,B,C and D are four people(as mentioned above) who are strangers to each other .
I have  invited them to my house and all of them have accepted the invitation.
Every corner of my house is already programmed into our time machine and so does the brains of A,B,C and D .
Before they actually arrive we'll run our time machine and simulate their interaction with each other    in the virtual world. So what we've now on our computer screens is the Future of A,B,C and D before  they actually arrive .
Now I'll wait for them to actually arrive and keep a watch on them from a hidden camera .
If algorithm works out perfectly ,what I would see would be exactly how the computer simulated it few minutes ago before they actually arrived !



This might be our first step towards building the  first practical Time Machine.
 Though it has some major drawbacks. In the above experiment we've excluded the interference of any other factor like cell phones ,power cut offs. Storms etc that might have  influenced the decisions of  any person . This was a simple experiment conducted in the most isolated environments.But this is just the beginning !In the near future we might be able to simulate the future of a society,a state,a country,the earth, and may be the Universe!
 


Inspiration -

Dr Michio Kaku
http://mkaku.org/

Technological Singularity : Survival of the Smartest

In the mid 19^th century Charles Darwin proposed Survival of the Fittest in the evolution theory . Here I'm going to propose the theory of Survival for the most Intelligent or Smartest . In the near future only the most intelligent people would survive rest would be rejected not by the nature but by the Human race itself.

Human species , we believe is the most intelligent species in the history of Universe as no true evidence of any such life form has been found yet.We have evolved ourselves to the extent that one day we might be able to build machines smarter than ourselves , I am referring to our slow steps towards Technological Singularity .

If you notice machines have already started taking over us . Reason why thousands of employees are fired at young age every year by huge IT firms and other Multi National Corporations is that Computers and smart machines have taken the command over their work and are much more efficient than humans. From big companies to small offices automation is rapidly increasing . Drivers will lose jobs because cars one day would be self driven by computers , gradually Human interference would nullify in most of the service sectors. People with basic skills and knowledge would no longer be required by these huge IT firms . At a more upper level if humanoids become self learners , we won't require programmers to update new skills into the machine. So being good in  programming would not fetch you a high paid job either . According to a report over 10 Million jobs could be taken by computers and robots in UK. You could estimate the same for the world!

If that continues to be the scenario , and you wish to seek a job and survive you have to be smarter than the most advanced computer available at that time or should acquire skills that no machine could ever gain or learn even through the most advanced machine learning algorithms. In conclusion if you have to survive till the end of Technological Singularity in the post human era , you must be smarter than the smartest.

21st Century Youth and the lost Childhood

Yes, it’s true that we're living in a world where competition and money matters — competition of earning more money and respect in the society. I’m sure that you would agree to the fact that we are all together in this chase. We were taught in schools that to achieve something one has to be focused. In fact, it’s quite logical. But a large number of people involve themselves too much in the game; so much so that they acquire a state where nothing matters more than the result, not even the path through which it is achieved.
A day comes when they achieve the only that thing they wanted. It is then that they look back into the past and realise how much they've lost — lost the support, trust, happiness, and the people they once used to have fun with — who they spent their crucial hours with, shared their thoughts. So now they live in a world which is in sharp contrast with their childhood.
It’s a cruel place where one has to deal with variety of people from around the universe. And yes the world out is totally different from the isolated world where many of us grew up in. There is no place for anyone. You have to make one for yourself. Most of us don’t usually land up where we actually wanted to be when we discussed our dreams in the childhood. After all, they were mere dreams.
When it comes to conversation on success, it makes sense to ask people what they have already achieved. A survey was conducted among the top CEOs of various companies and unanimously they rated family and friends their top priority, titles were secondary and money at the bottom position. One's success is not defined by how much time he has for himself but how much time he can serve and listen to the the society, to the people, to friends and family. This take us back to a famous saying “time is money”. But what is important to understand is that the time here refers not to the time you have for yourself, we even get paid for time we spend for others .
Independent existence is impossible. You must have heard your teachers or parents saying "stand on your own feet" but the phrase is often misinterpreted or is taken rather too seriously, it doesn’t imply that you have to be all alone and work just for yourself to earn for yourself . "The 21st century human chain" we've build for ourselves where generations are connected to each other - socially, emotionally, and mentally; we share information at unimaginable fast rates. Every broken link in the human chain closes one door to your success.
One can relate this to global leaders President Barak Obama, or Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and many more who have set up a perfect example to prove my point .
In conclusion I would ask you not to lose your importance to others in greed of winning the race. Don't involve yourself way too much into it, life is not just about earning good grades and working hard to earn for yourself. Always look back into your childhood, no matter how much you grow up, you'll always love to live those days when you were not a part of this competition and had more friends than you have today, more support than you have today, more time to live with others remember you spend your childhood with empty pockets but still enjoyed your life for the money you had was not actually yours. 

How good is a salary of INR 16 lakh p.a. for a 21 year old?

Answer by Anonymous:

I'd like to answer this question a bit differently. I have earned substantially more than this amount (around 8.5 lakhs in 3 months) when I was 21 and got offered around 60 lpa when I was 22 (I am 23 now). And I left it all. Now I earn Rs15,600/month doing research in a humble lab of a humble Science institute in India. Point is, 21-30 is the time to explore, to travel round the world and do things you are really curious about, fall in love (again?), start a revolution (scientific for me) and learn how to play the guitar maybe? For all this, you need one thing: freedom and lots of it.

And I am pretty sure, that an employer who pays you 16 lpa is smart enough to take away all your freedom. I have friends who earn similar figures and who live significantly mundane lives drifting from one weekend to another. You are too young to do that (unless you are constrained by other serious things like, you need money for your poor parents, but then people like that don't ask such questions :D). 16 lakhs is the price of your freedom. 16 lakhs per annum for a 21 year old is the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. And I feel sorry, because you're probably not courageous/confident enough to reject that offer.
I am posting this as anonymous. First, I don't want to sound like a pompous douchebag. Second, I don't want to piss off my "high-earning" friends, I love them and they pay for my food/booze on weekends. :D
PS:
I went through the comments, and I see most people have missed the point I'm trying to make here.

1.Lot's of people seem to be worried about how I made 8.5 lakhs in 3 months and what the 60lpa job was. The entire point of the post was that money does not matter! And it isn't very impressive either. Zuckerberg had a billion dollar company at that age! But then, I live a pretty comfortable life with the 16,000 I earn.
2. There are also people who doubt the veracity of this answer("full of lies?"). I do not care for them, but for the people who have derived even a tiny little bit of inspiration from my experience, I'd like to add this: I am no extraordinary guy, people like me abound in the IITs (I am from one myself). I was working for a US company on consecutive internships and later got offered a job in the same. Top branches in any IIT will have people like this.

3. Some have pointed out that many young people have loads of responsibilities, and I have acknowledged that in my answer. The path I've taken is probably not for them. The post is for the people who are not bound by anything, and yet settle for mediocre jobs wasting their energy trying to please their bosses. If you could get a 16lpa job at 21, you could build a 1.6 billion dollar company as well, that too, doing what you love. Isn't that better?
4. Finally, I'd like to ask you a question which I asked myself a year back. How many IITians do you know who have changed the way you live? Not too many. The problem is with our attitude. Most of us are averse to failure, simply because we've never really seen failure. Most of us will do what our parents, friends and girlfriends want us to do. Most of us do not even think what we really want from our lives! I am urging you to think and act, before age gets the better of you. Either life takes you where it wants, or you take life where you want. Choose wisely.
How good is a salary of INR 16 lakh p.a. for a 21 year old?

What is the reason lots of engineering students can't get a good job in India?

Answer by Rohan Pathak:

Well I see almost everyone is accusing engineers for not utilising their 4 years of graduation in learning anything and they just do engineering for the sake of name? When they achieve marks they think they have learned enough? I will tell you what..

1. System in India has become like that.
in India, there are at least 15 lacs engineers produced each year and almost every parent is so fascinated by this term that each of them wants their son to be one. Most of us were forced by our inner *good son* instinct to fall into engineering while at the end of engineering we realized that we actually didn't want to do it.
2. Knowledge Vs Marks? Sir we are in a country where no one gives a damn about excellence but only about marks.
So this is the bitter truth, 70% of engineers do engineering so that they can work in an IT INDUSTRY no matter if their stream is chemical engineering or mechanical, most of them end up in an IT company because it pays decently good.
3. Don't blame engineers for the failure, blame the faculty of those colleges which still lives in the 19th century.
University of Pune, so called "Oxford of the East" known for its quality education, here in every college(whichever is not in top 3 of course) faculty lives in era or M. Gandhi and PJL Nehru, they still believe in the concept of "master ji" and believe me in almost every normal engineering college of India what we learn is totally outdated, tech has gone beyond those filthy 1000 page books, go to any university and see their syllabus and then compare it with top universities of the US, UK and Canada.
In short, most of the engineers are not literally the engineers, they could have been great philosophers? A great singer? A great cricket player? Some of them could have been good lawyers or good business analysts? a guitarist or a good speaker? Or definitely a good writer?
But... Welcome to India, a place where 1000s of dreams die every year for the sake of term EXPECTATION.
PS- dont come here and answer just for the sake of upvotes just by being sarcastic, go deep and try to find out the actuality of the subject, probably you then will not accuse one for being what he is today.. sometimes its what they made you do, definitely you never got the chance to do what you are good at..
*EDIT* - Wow, Just got a notification that 'Mr. Amit Grover'upvoted my answer.
Its a privilege sir its an absolute privilege that you found this answer worth reading.
For those who do not know who is Amit Grover Please Google "Amit Grover AHA taxi"
Thanks everyone for upvotes. I feel a little rich here now on quora, looks like I can be a good entrepreneur..
haha :)
What is the reason lots of engineering students can't get a good job in India?

What will be the next big idea after social networks, and why?

Answer by Pavan Boob:

Things move so fast that its extremely hard to predict the next big idea. However, its helpful to see how the industry is shifting and what could be next possible low hanging juicy fruits

 

1. Infrastructure is almost commoditized.
A fancy way of saying, infrastructure can now be bought ‘as-you-need-basis’ fairly easily by a common consumer. Platforms like AWS, Heroku initially led the way followed by early stage startups like PagerDuty, http://Neptune.io who are closing the final loops. Simultaneously there has been huge innovation in open-source infrastructure and support providing easier infrastructure setup. Hbase, Kafka, Postgres, Hadoop, Spark, Solr, Elastic Search etc.
Consequently, a company with 10 infrastructure engineers few years ago now employ only 1 person to manage these commoditized products. Also new roles like DevOps have evolved.

2. Apps and UI are on its way to getting commoditized.
Because of infrastructure automation a lot of brain has moved up-the-stack productizing user interfaces and web frameworks. Now, you can create a simple website within minutes using drag-n-drop website creators like Unbounce, Weebly, Launchrock etc. (Checkout SuccessMentors which I made using these)
Its also easier to create full-fledge applications with UI-frameworks like Bootstrap and Web-frameworks like Rails. (Checkout CareerSwitch.me  that I created over few weekends)
WebApps and UI components would get productized much faster rate than infrastructure. Also new roles like UX have evolved.

3.Software is rapidly automating all industries.
Commoditization of infrastructure and applications have sharply reduced the cost of prototyping a web product.
Hence, entrepreneurs can now pursue insane ideas that are automating the heck out of all industries. eg: Uber — calling a cab. Open table — booking a restaurant table. Amazon- Purchasing products. Netflix — renting movies. Welcome to the ‘one-click’ revolution. Who is going to automate 1-click ?
Simultaneously new workflows that never existed are created. eg: Now you can share extra space in your house, share extra-space during your travel,use new form of currency or even create a fake girlfriend!
Basically, software is rapidly changing our everyday-life. Also everyone now calls themselves an entrepreneur ☺

4.Hardware is coming back.
Hardware and Software have changed their status from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘in a relationship’.
There are lot of low hanging opportunities in hardware where time-to-market could be extremely less compared to traditional hardware products. A lot of people are taking advantage of this opportunity. eg: Nest transforms thermostat. August is transforming locks. Fitbit is transforming fitness. This has given rise to a new trend called Internet of things (IoT).
Few years back, software industry went through a phase where smaller well defined problems were solved reliably and productized which eventually lead to the current state one-click data center capabilities and drag- and-drop websites.
Soon hardware products could be prototyped as rapidly as software . HelloRaspberry Pi and 3-D printers. Also embedded software engineers would get back in demand.

5. Mobile growth.
This has happened so rapidly and at scale that everyone knows everything about Page on it.it continues to bring together hardware, software, location in innovative ways. It’s also a special case of Internet-of-Things successfully scaled and commercialized by giants like Apple and Google.
Mobile continues to transform our lives.

6. Data explosion and Insights.
Say it with me “By-product of cars is smoke and by-product of software is data”. Server logs, User data etc
Now think about this: # of websites have rapidly grown, each website tracks a lot more data, everyone has multiple devices, and the world spends huge amount of time online. These factors multiply to create DATA explosions! Now, since its already efficient to store and search data, the industry is racing to derive knowledge from it.
Because of huge amount of data-points about everything, its getting possible to derive statistically significant ‘INSIGHTS’ from data. We are moving into world of predictive technologies (recommendations, classifications etc) — Insights. Yes Google understands you better than your mom.
Academic innovations are making their way into products. Also, new roles like data scientists have evolved. PHDs and statisticians are back into mainstream business.

Do school marks really matter?

Answer by Balaji Viswanathan:

Let's say you go to a gym and work hard. At the end of workout, you would be profusely sweating and your muscles would be aching a lot. If we equate school to a gym, that sweat is the marks you scored.

What is important is not the sweat itself [which is just salt water] but what you did to get the sweating. If you are doing the right way, the sweat indicates that you might be developing endurance and strength in your body. In short, it is that endurance and strength that matters in the gym, which we cannot see and thus use sweat as a proxy.
In the same way, it is your knowledge and reasoning skills you acquire in school that is ultimately important. Unfortunately, we don't have an easy way of seeing that and thus use examinations and marks as proxies [we are slowly developing better proxies both at the gym and at schools].
Just as you can fake sweat [stand near the heater, spray water on yourself, be afraid of something] you can absolutely fake marks without building the mental strength. Many do so. However, sooner or later they end up in courses and careers that they hate. And other times you might not sweat at all [the gym could have been cool] but still might be building the strength.
See your marks just like the sweat. It is useless by itself, but if you are honest to yourself it might indicate that you are developing the knowledge and skills needed for the world. Also, marks might indicate developing only one aspect of endurance. You should also get on to Olympiad and other things that you are passionate about. The school should be the place where you explore yourself and passionately do stuff you care about and equally passionately do stuff that you don't like, but will help in the future.
Do school marks really matter?

Giving Birth To an Atom

We all have grown up learning the fact that atoms can neither be created nor be destroyed and it has been accepted by the scientific community for long time.

No sooner quantum mechanics turned out to be the hot topic amongst the physicist all over the world. The idea was accepted by many and rejected by some .

Now we have something called String theory, Parallel Universe theory , Multiverse theory , The Game model and Super string theory and M-Theory . Gradually we are leaving behind the classical concepts of how we understood nature and reality. Mathematical models show particles can suddenly come out of nothingness into existence and disappear again.

So a question arises can we give birth to a particle without the availability of enough amount of energy as per Special Theory of Relativity ? The answer is probably NO!

May be it sounds impossible but why not explore this further before reaching a conclusion .

Modern Physics and Mathematics predicts the existence of parallel reality , parallel universes ,

the world which is exactly similar to ours , very close to us but unapproachable . To our disappointment we've never seen one but it exists in models , but yes we can feel the gravity.

Now if it exists at all and we if we could make a particle disappear into a parallel universe ,that would be equivalent to giving birth to an atom in parallel reality. Scientists at CERN working in LHC are making all the efforts to prove these theoretical results.

Whatever I've discussed so far (parallel universe , multiverse etc) are out of our physical approach.

So the big idea is why not create one for ourselves ? Yes you heard that right . I'm talking about creating a parallel reality , a parallel universe inside quantum computers. May be today we don't have enough computer power to simulate everything but quantum computers have the potential to simulate the entire Universe. What if we could simulate intelligent species like ours who is intelligent enough to create another parallel universe in their own quantum computers and so on .

Will they ever contact us? Will they control us the same way we're simulating them?

This is like Humanity becoming like God of the Universe that we've created in our super computers .

In my previous post I discussed about uploading the entire humanity into a super computer that could simulate the world exactly like ours.So If I'm smart enough to develop a super computer that can simulate a universe that means my replica in my simulation would be equally smart enough to develop its own inside the computer simulation!

If the cycle continues , we'll have billions and billions of parallel worlds existing one inside another

all inside our computers given that we have no limits on the computer power we can generate in the future .

And if we could simulate the entire universe we might be able to reverse the time and visualize what happened in the beginning of the universe !

All this could be done without breaking even a single physical law ,or without throwing out any theory that we've come across since our childhood. The only physical hurdle that could stop is the amount of Computer power that we can generate!