Life's Algebra

 

Add or subtract,
multiply or divide -
life's algebra
never quite aligns
just right.

Risking It All for 90 Seconds

 It’s not the likelihood of the fall, but the weight of its consequences that demands caution

Arun Kumar

Arun Kumar + AI: A Man Falling on a Busy Road

Summary: During a trip to Geneva, Salim chose to jaywalk instead of waiting 90 seconds at a pedestrian signal. Mid-crossing, he tripped and narrowly avoided an oncoming car. Embarrassed but unharmed, he later reflected on how easily the incident could have ended in serious injury or worse. Salim’s experience is a reminder that decisions with low probability of adverse outcomes can have potentially outsize life-altering consequences.

The incident occurred during a one-week trip to Geneva — an event that, with slightly different outcomes, could have had lifelong repercussions. A small twist of fate, and Salim would have endlessly wished to turn back time, altering the moment that upended his life.

Salim had enjoyed the familiar routine of visiting Geneva and taking the train from the airport to Gare Cornavin. Stepping out of the station, he felt a sense of comfort as familiar sights greeted him: the Hotel Bernina directly ahead and, to its right, Les Brasseurs, where he’d enjoyed many dinners on past trips. Salim often remarked how much easier it was to travel to places he knew well, requiring little preparation and offering a sense of ease.

It was a pleasant evening in early December, uncharacteristically mild for Geneva. Since his arrival, there had been no rain. That evening, at a dinner with colleagues at Little India, Salim had savored his favorite dishes: onion bhaji with tamarind chutney, saag paneer, and, mindful of his blood sugar, just a small portion of rice. Feeling content, he strolled along Rue Lausanne back to his hotel. Rue Lausanne was bustling, as always, with cars streaming in both directions and Tram №15 periodically rattling past.

To reach his hotel, Salim needed to cross Rue Lausanne, a road with multiple stoplights to ensure safe pedestrian crossing. But for reasons he couldn’t later recall, he decided against walking to the nearest crossing. Perhaps the idea of waiting 90 seconds for the pedestrian signal to turn green seemed like an unnecessary delay. Instead, he glanced left and right, judged the traffic, and decided he had enough time to cross.

Things didn’t go as planned. As Salim hurried across, he tripped and fell — right in front of an oncoming car he’d initially deemed far enough away. In his calculations, he hadn’t accounted time for a fall, the need to scramble up, or the panic that would follow.

Luckily, Salim managed to get up in a hurry and reach the opposite curb in time. When there, his first thought wasn’t about potential injuries. Instead, he was mortified by being the object of a socially awkward situation. Desperate to avoid attention, he briskly walked away, pretending as though nothing had happened. It was only after putting a few blocks between himself and the incident location that he began to check for injuries. His knees stung, and his durable blue jeans had torn at the right knee — a testament to the severity of his fall. When he finally reached his hotel room, a body scan revealed scraped knees and a bruised left palm, the latter having borne the brunt of his fall.

Salim couldn’t help but reflect on how much worse things could have been. He might have sustained serious injuries, necessitating medical care in a foreign country. If he had not gotten out of the way quickly, the driver of the oncoming car might have had to slam on the brakes, possibly causing another accident. Worst of all, Salim himself could have been struck by the vehicle.

And all this for the sake of saving 90 seconds.

Those 90 seconds, insignificant as they seemed, could have brought about a lifetime of regret. Even though none of the worst-case scenarios materialized, the incident served as a sobering lesson: saving a few moments isn’t worth the risk of catastrophic consequences. The cost-benefit analysis was clear — even if tripping was an unlikely event, the stakes if it did happen were too high.

To this day, Salim occasionally revisits that memory. He wonders about the thoughts of those who witnessed the scene. Did a mother tell her child to learn from “that man” and always wait for the pedestrian signal? Did someone shake their head, believing Salim deserved the scare for disregarding safety rules? Whatever their thoughts, Salim will never know. He is just thankful that he got away easy.

Ciao, and thanks for reading.

Escape Velocity: Transcending Gravity and Mortality

 

Escape velocity is not just about breaking free from a planet’s pull; it’s about breaking free from limitations, fears, and the confines of mortality.

Arun Kumar

Arun Kumar + AI: Escaping Mortality

Summary: Gravity and mortality are ever-present forces shaping existence. While gravity pulls objects toward Earth, mortality incessantly draws life toward death. Just as escape velocity allows freedom from gravity, spiritual experiences offer liberation from mortality’s constraints. Through transcendence and deeper connections, we can momentarily escape life’s limitations, embracing the infinite and timeless.

Gravity and Mortality

In a previous discussion, I highlighted a striking similarity between gravity and mortality: both are ever-present forces, constantly exerting their influence. Unlike electric charges, which can repel or attract, gravity is always an attractive force, pulling masses toward the center of the Earth. Similarly, mortality inexorably draws every living being toward its own center: death. From the moment we are born, we embark on a journey that is inescapably oriented toward the ‘center of gravity’ of mortality. Though we may temporarily resist or evade their effects, both gravity and mortality assert their presence with unrelenting certainty.

Understanding the Pervasive Nature of These Forces

To grasp the ubiquitous nature of these forces, consider the trajectory of a stone thrown upward. Gravity allows the stone to ascend only temporarily; as the influence of the initial force dissipates, gravity takes over, pulling it back to Earth.

In much the same way, the force of birth propels us into life with a burst of vitality. Initially, the horizon of our possibilities expands, and our trajectory appears limitless. But as time progresses, the pull of mortality begins to manifest, gradually narrowing that horizon. Aging, with its attendant physical and cognitive declines, underscores the inevitability of this pull.

The Concept of Escape Velocity

Yet, the realm of gravity offers a loophole: escape velocity. At the Earth’s surface, this velocity is approximately 11.2 kilometers per second. A stone propelled with sufficient force to reach this velocity will overcome Earth’s gravitational pull and journey forever into the void of space.

This observation prompts a question: is there an equivalent “escape velocity” for mortality? Can human beings, seemingly forever bound by the constraints of aging and death, achieve an analogous state of liberation? Could we extend the similarity between gravity and mortality even further? Possibly so.

For mortality, the notion of ‘escape velocity’ may lie not in the physical realm but in the spiritual.

The Spiritual Experience as Escape Velocity

Spiritual experiences have offered individuals a glimpse of something beyond the limits of space and time. These moments of transcendence often reveal an infinite expanse, connecting us to a larger, timeless reality. Mystics, saints, and seekers from various traditions describe a state that transcends the ordinary constraints of life. In such experiences, the boundaries of the self dissolve, and the finite life merges with the infinite.

Consider the teachings of many spiritual traditions. In Hinduism, the concept of moksha represents liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Similarly, in Buddhism, the attainment of nirvana signifies the cessation of suffering and the transcendence of worldly existence. In Christianity, the promise of eternal life through faith offers believers an escape from the finality of mortal death. Across different traditions, the common thread is the belief that through spiritual practice and experience, one can break free from the gravitational pull of mortality.

The spiritual experience that liberates us from the constraints of mortality need not be tied to religious traditions alone. Such moments may arise from listening to music, experiencing a sudden insight during scientific research, or simply gazing at the infinite expanse of the night sky on a clear evening. Spiritual experiences, which momentarily propel us beyond the confines of mortality, can come in any shape, size, or guise. They could be embedded in a grain of salt.

Conclusion

Gravity and mortality are profound forces that shape our existence. While we cannot escape their influence entirely, the analogy of escape velocity offers a framework for understanding how we might transcend their constraints. Through spiritual growth and the pursuit of deeper connections with the infinite, we can break free from the fear of the center of mortality: death. In this way, we become like the stone that, propelled with enough force, escapes the Earth’s gravitational pull to journey endlessly into the cosmos.

Ciao, and thanks for reading.

Falling on the Stage: Why Social Perception Trumps Pain

 

Embarrassment is the price of admission for a life fully lived.” — Susan David

Arun Kumar

Arun Kumar + AI: Trauma of Social Embarrassment 

Summary: The aversion to public embarrassment is a universal human experience, likely rooted in evolutionary survival instincts. Social acceptance was vital for early humans, and public missteps threatened group cohesion. Two personal incidents — one as an observer, the other as the protagonist — highlighted how embarrassment often takes precedence over physical discomfort. This behavior is probably further reinforced by cultural conditioning.

In our shared human experience, few phenomena are as universally relatable as the aversion to public embarrassment.

Consider a scene we have all witnessed or experienced: in a communal setting, a person stumbles and falls — perhaps from stepping on a misplaced stone or missing a step. The cause of the fall is irrelevant; what is striking is the almost reflexive reaction of the fallen individual to scan their surroundings for people who may have witnessed the fall. We are often more preoccupied with the social repercussions of our missteps than with the physical injury we may have incurred. It is only when we are away from the place where the incident occurred that we start to scan our body for possible injuries.

This tendency to prioritize avoiding psychological embarrassment over attending to immediate physical discomfort recently became more palpable to me through two closely linked incidents. Both occurred during a trip to Geneva, where I was attending a professional meeting. These events not only reminded me of the deep-seated nature of this phenomenon but also spurred reflection on its potential evolutionary roots.

The first incident placed me in the role of an observer. As I returned to my hotel after dinner, I walked past a doorway leading to a lobby with a few steps to an elevator. A man entered the doorway, engrossed in his smartphone, and perhaps distracted, misjudged a step and fell. His immediate reaction was not to examine his injuries but to glance through the doorway toward the street to determine if anyone had seen him fall. From his reaction it was clear his concern centered more on the possibility of social embarrassment.

In the second incident I was the protagonist. Another evening, I found myself crossing a road near my hotel. Impatient to wait for the traffic light, I checked both directions and decided to cross. Midway across, I tripped and fell in the middle of the road. The urgency of oncoming traffic activated my survival instincts, and I scrambled to my feet and hurried to the safety of the sidewalk. Yet, the moment I was out of harm’s way, my primary concern shifted. I wasn’t thinking about my bruises or potential injuries; I wondered how many people had witnessed my fall and were still looking at me. Only after walking a few minutes from the scene I began to assess whether I was physically hurt.

These two incidents aptly illustrate a shared human preoccupation: the fear of becoming the centerpiece of public embarrassment. They got me wondering why are we so deeply averse to finding ourselves in such socially compromising situations? Could there be an evolutionary explanation for this ingrained behavior?

Possibly so.

From an evolutionary perspective, the need for social acceptance and cohesion has been argued to be beneficial for survival. Early humans lived in tight-knit communities where being ostracized or ridiculed could have dire consequences, such as reduced access to shared resources, protection, and mating opportunities. Public embarrassment, even in seemingly trivial situations, might have been perceived as a threat to one’s social standing and, by extension, survival prospects. Consequently, humans may have developed a heightened sensitivity to behaviors that could attract negative attention.

Ultimately the desire to avoid social embarrassment may have been imprinted in our brain’s wiring. I have been told that the amygdala, a part of the brain associated with processing emotions, plays a significant role in our fear responses. Social embarrassment triggers a stress response similar to physical danger, as the brain interprets the potential loss of social standing as a threat. This response could explain why the man in the doorway and I both reacted to our falls by prioritizing social perception over physical well-being.

It is also conceivable that cultural conditioning reinforces this innate instinct. From a young age, we are taught to value social decorum and avoid actions that might draw negative attention. Embarrassing moments are often met with laughter or ridicule, further cementing our aversion to such experiences.

In conclusion, the instinctive reaction to prioritize avoiding social embarrassment over addressing physical discomfort is a deeply rooted and an instinctive human behavior. Rooted in our evolutionary history and reinforced by cultural norms, the fear of social embarrassment underscores the desire for social acceptance in our lives.

I know, next time I trip in a public place, or tip a glass of white wine in a restaurant, my first reaction would be still to look around and see if someone saw what happened. It is hard to be free from evolutionary constraints.

Ciao, and thanks for reading.