Material Implication and its implications...part 1

Since my life is utterly devoid of any excitement....alright alright I take it back, it has some excitement if you consider solving an equation that you have been staring at for the last fortnight and watch as its result unfold nice inferences, as exciting...well if you do, then you need to Get A Life(apparently gal for short in texting language... hmmm what will they think of next, and NO i did not find that out when some girl told me to do so... picked it up from one of the speakers at the world science festival which btw was awesome!! \m/ he told us he gets that particular msg from his daughter quite often...tch tch!!)
AS i was saying, since my life is utterly devoid of excitement (and plus since I like science thingys) I shall talk continue talking about mathematics and logic. (However I intend to change this soon for i believe you cannot do great things if you are not willing to look like an idiot now and then). Like the title indicates, I have decided  to ramble on about material implication. Material implication is a boolean function with some far reaching consequences. A boolean what you ask?? For those who havent done boolean algebra and logic functions, I will give you a very brief, need-to-know only tutorial. (if you know all these already, you might as well skip the next paras or so)
Consider a binary system with 1(true) and 0(false). A function by definition is something which takes inputs and produces outputs(crudely speaking ie). A logic function does the same, for eg: the AND function has output 0(false) unless both the inputs are 1(true), its a little like multiplication and hence symbolised by the '.' symbol. The OR function is always true(1) unless both the inputs are 0(false), indicated by the '+' symbol. The NOT function takes the input and inverts it. True gives false and false gives true.
A      B      A.B         A       B    A+B
0       0        0            0       0       0
0       1        0            0       1       1
1       0        0            1       0       1                <------This is the truth table!!
1       1        1            1       1       1
Now any other function in boolean logic can be constructed using what are called fundamental or basic gates. Examples of these include NAND( AND followed by a NOT) and NOR(OR followed by a NOT).
We can also describe any possible function using a platform consisting of two functions: the FALSE function (which gives output as 0 for any input) and another function called the 'IMPLICATION' function (also called material implication to distinguish from logical implication) and denoted as 'A IMP B' or more commonly     'A-->B'. (I came across the use of implication as a basis function in a footnote of a paper and not sure how exactly so, so if I am wrong kindly let me know).
Now this implication function A-->B is read "if A then B" ie as the name suggests it implies(though its not wise to literally do this in all cases as it leads to some paradoxes). Before I dive into its actual meaning and its paradoxes, objections,etc I shall quickly tell you what its equivalent to, if expressed using other functions. A IMP B comes out to (NOT A) OR B. Though the intuitive meaning of "if A then B" is not clear, in terms of functions, they are equivalent. The truth table looks like this
A   B    A-->B
T    T        T
T    F        F         ----> T-True   F-False
F    T        T
F    F        T
As we can see the implication function is false only when A is true and B is false. Now in A-->B, A is called the antecedent and B is called the consequent. Though this definition of material implication forms the foundation of advanced study is mathematics and logic, there are some paradoxes that comes along with it. Notice rows 3 and 4, we can see that whenever A is false, the implication is still true. Why is this a paradox you ask? Consider the statment "If the moon is made of yellow cheese, then life exists on earth". Now even though the antecedent("moon is made of cheese") is false, the whole statement is still true as per the definition of material implication. Again look at rows 1 and 3, whenever B is true, the whole statement is considered true. Keeping this in mind, check this statement "If life exists in other planets, then life exists on earth". This statement is true because the consequent("life exists on earth") is true. Well yeah they are not clear cut paradoxes but something about the whole sentence is counter intuitive right??
FINE!!! if its such a problematic definition then why do we stick to it?? Well I was gonna explain that part here but since this post is going on much longer than I expected it to, I am gonna quickly go upstairs and make this part 1 and see you all in part 2.

Cheers
Gnut
....going to do something really really stupid...

Summer Magic

Hey all

For the past 3 years(i think), there is an advance course that has been happening the Ashram from December 27th - Jan 2nd called Winter Break where young people from all around the world gather to meditate, do Seva and Satsang.

I attended my first Winter Break last time, and it was fantastic. I was not participating in it but i was covering the whole event, and i was amazed at the energy levels that was there around me. And it was not only restricted to Meditation, but there was a Youth Forum that was conducted where topics ranging from Indian Classical Dance, Indian History to Entrepreneurship and Finance were discussed. The numbers have been increasing every year and last time we had 1500 people attending the course. And it was so fascinating to see people from the age of 18-30 celebrating life in such a grand manner in a stress free and Satvik environment ( and all of us understand what i mean by stress free). And all i wish is that more and more people come and celebrate life this way.

Since last Winter Break was a grand success(they say it's the best till date), Guruji said that we needed to do this more often. And also there was a huge demand from people saying that they couldn't wait until December for such an event to happen. So Bawa and Dinesh decided that we will have something called the Summer Magic, which as the name conveys will happen during the Summer Break.

Here are the dates:

June 21st: Reporting

June 22nd-24th: Various activities (something on the lines of Winter Break but bigger and better, come and find out)

June 25th, early morning - 29th afternoon: The Advance course

Gowri and myself have done a small promo for the event. We hope that this will give you a really nice outlook as to what we really do over here and how it is to be in the Ashram with people of our age group. :-) :-) :-)

And i also hope that some of you will actually be there as well. :-)

Jai Gurudevaaa!!!

Love

Abhiram

Asuya and Anasuya - Knowledge Sheet 11

Hey all

Here is Knowledge Sheet 11. A really subtle knowledge sheet this one. Imagine that you have done your best work till date(be it a painting, musical composition) and you go and show it your friend. And instead of praising you, he keeps pointing out only the negative parts of your creation. This tendency or nature is called Asuya. And what is Anasuya??? That, i will let you experience when you listen to the Knowledge Sheet. :-) :-) :-)

Hope you guys enjoy it. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudevaaa!!!

Love

Abhiram

Green Chilli Ice Cream Story

Hey all

There were a lot of things that happened during my 4 month stay in Bombay. So i have decided to post some of the interesting ones. And it starts of with the one that happened before we left.

We went to this place called Bachelor’s on Marine Drive in Bombay. And I tell you, this is the bestttttttttt juice shop that I ave ever went to. I mean, the quality of shakes and juices that they have is totally amazing. And the best part is this thing is opened upto 2 A.M in the morning. Such is the demand for this place. It’s a small shop, almost the size of our Bakes and Cakes shop but all you’ve got to do is to park your car on the roadside and they’ll come and take the order. And this happens right on the main road. The pricing is on the higher side, but considering the quality that they provide its worth the money. You cannot go everyday for it, but probably once or twice a week. But if your filthy rich and ready to sponsor for others as well, then you’ve got some good karma in your kitty. :-) :-) :-)

This was the second time I was going to bachelor’s after Bawa took me to the place for the first time on my birthday(that is a completely different story, reserved for later). Since it was our last few days in Bombay, we decided to freak out and were allowed to order whatever we wished for. We were having a ball of a time having all that was there on the menu ranging from milkshakes, to blossoms, to fruits served with whipped cream. And suddenly our HOD JD Bhaiyya(name: Jayesh Daulatjada) came up with a suggestion that we try the Green Chili Ice cream. When asked if he had tried it before, he said no but then said what is wrong in experimenting. So, when it is coming from the Head of Dept, all that you can do is oblige to his request. Gowri and myself were still skeptical about ordering it but then Prasanth said he will go ahead and have it. So we ordered and I was happily digging into my Mango+Ice Cream Milkshake when the unfamiliar ice cream arrived.

We were looking at each other and burst out laughing. It was as though we were waiting for someone to say, “ok, I’ll go ahead and have it…” Since it was Prasanth who ordered it (his talent for eating reminds me ajoy and james) he went and had it. First Reaction: Eyes opened wide. And wide means VERY WIDE!!! AHAHAHAHahahaha.. Gowri and myself were laughing our heads off. HAhhaaha.. It was too funny, his expression was as though, “Who the hell woke me up when I was having a nice nap.” It was unbelievable. And then it was passed onto Gowri who then without saying anything passed it onto me. How do I describe this thing - A Conflicting Dish. I mean an ice cream is something that is supposed to make you enjoy every scoop and cool you down. But what this does is when you have a spoon, it gives you a false impression that it tastes like any other ice cream but once you swallow it, the chili comes into play and it start burning your throat. I mean the whole purpose of an ice cream is lost.

While all this was happening, there was one person who was having fun watching all this. Yes, the person who was responsible for this whole experiment our thalaivar JD Bhaiyya. He played the perfect role of Naradar. Instigating the process and then sit back and watch the fun. But ultimately he also had it but then it was left to Prasanth to finish the rest and he did it without a word.(just like Joy)

So when you are in mood to experiment or if you come across anything that is as weird/conflicting as this let me know, there are people here who are waiting to hear from you. :-) :-) :-)

Jai Gurudevaaa!!!

Love

Abhiram