Would you like to go on a Holiday ?
I guess everyone enjoys being asked that question. Except perhaps those guys at the tourism services. For them the above question probably implies going back to work !
I was also asked this question. And I did not enjoy it. Not because I would not like to go on a holiday ! But because the person asking the question was doing a sales pitch. He wanted me to hear out the “whole deal” about timesharing of holidays. Well he had his job to do and I had to listen so that I could get a “gift” at the end. But while I was “listening” I decided to think about how it must feel to be a sales person for these holiday deals.
A few minutes into the presentation he started showing us slides about the resorts and their amenities. He had a laptop on which a PPT sideshow was flashing images from the resorts. Very fervently he described the various resources available for the holidayer. He showed the swimming pool and the jacuzzi. He also showed us the bar, events in the bar as well as the “beautiful” toilet. Just in a manner of conversation – I asked him if he had ever gone to any of these resorts. He confidently replied that he had not – maybe he could if he accumulated enough “points” by the end of the year.
That I felt was the most poignant moment in the presentation. Here was a guy waxing eloquent about the “beautiful” resort and he had never gone to any one of them. The first thing that happened after the revelation – he lost almost all his credibility for the rest of the conversation. The second thing that happened – I became really pensive thinking about how utterly phony all this must seem to this poor guy. He must be wistfully looking at those photographs in between the pitches and wishing that he had the money to go on these trips. But most certainly he was very far from achieving that dream.
One man can put another in the most strangest of situations in life. His “manager” was a suave sales guy who would come in between the conversation and give “tips” to me. He was also monitoring the effect of the pitch on me and was trying permutations and combinations in his head – mainly to give me a set of “numbers” that would make me sign up. The methods he was choosing to convince me amused me more than ever. Let me give you an example.
Manager: So how much did you spend last year on holidays
Me : About 2500/- per day for four days
Manager : And how many times you go on a holiday in a year ?
Me: Twice a year !
Manager : That means …(some scribbling on paper) …ummm …. around 40000/- a year
Me : Hmmm … (thinking how the hell he got that number)
Well there were a few more of these “mathematical” errors before the final most beautiful number. To sum it all up I had to pay around 2.75 lacs for a 25yr validity of 7 days of holiday per year. Along with this, on offer, was a plot of land just because “It is our twentieth anniversary”. I asked him where this plot of land was. He showed me a beautiful map of the place with neat rectangles draw all over it. Basically there was nothing on the land except the rectangles.
Shabby Promotions !
A little more shabby was the appearance of his promotional materials. There was a magazine which looked fit to be used as a toilet paper. There were a few laptops with lots of pictures. ( He was changing the laptop every ten minutes – the other tables also required the services of the laptop ! I wondered if they would figure out a laptop sharing “deal” … ). Also the a4 sheets he was using for his “figures” looked like from the refuse heaps. The table was a glass top … the chairs were plastic. Loud music played in the background and there was a huge blow up of one of their “castle” resorts on one wall. Another wall had a huge photo of the founder of the business. He looked positively like a goon, fat cheeks, mustache and dark shades. The sales guy kept pointing out the photo when referring to the “founder”. I was wondering how his appearance could make/break my holiday. I definitely would not want to have him in the next room to me ! Even if it was paradise all around !
The whole setup felt like a cheap coffee house with loud music. The people felt like they had barely been able to “sell’ anything at all. They looked tired and behind the sheen of “enthusiasm” I could sense a bit of desperation to get out and breathe fresh air ! For a pitch to sell a 2.75 lac commodity (for the same price you can buy two Nano cars and fit them with speakers and halogen lamps !) … they sure screwed up big time. They had the right words – they could make you feel the pressure to sign up. But the rest of the story had fallen apart. And without the rest the words appeared really hollow.
There was a brief clapping episode in the middle when a family “signed up”. I wondered if they knew what they were getting into. For I know … cause I have already signed up with the competitor. The service after you sign up is not just bad – its offensive. The common perception among the employees of these businesses is that they have done you a great favor by giving “so much for so little”. But its not their fault. They have only seen the seedy side of the business. They were never sent on any of the resorts to get a first hand view – not even for one day. They only see the “customers” complain about their “bad holiday”. They probably feel that “the guy is just asking for too much … look at me … I haven’t even been to any of them and I have to praise them to the sky !!”
So much for the “Holiday” !
Sugar for the Brain !
Evolution is such an amazing concept, that its implications are often unfathomable from a distance. Its only with a bit of science that we realize the beauty of the logic behind this most controversial process ever described.
There was once a universe without life. And within this world was a multitude of atoms in clusters of various sizes, strewed all across eternity. Expanding into empty space these clusters did not have anyway to relate to reality, other than the most passive way of just existing. In this world came an extraordinary event. And everything changed after that singular event. No its wasn’t the Big Bang – it was a chance coming together of several atoms in a way that they could replicate their existence from the matter strewn around them. And from there came life …
Life is about organization. It is an example of how from inanimate pieces of matter a pattern of immense value can suddenly come to existence. But the story of evolution is not about the birth of life. Its about what happened after that !
As life “evolved” it got better and better at its inherent objective – to exist. So the permutations and combinations continued till there were multicellular organisms and even then it did not stop. On top of this pile of multicellular organisms evolved another layer of life – it was called consciousness. This was by far the most interesting development from the beginning of time. Conscious life is different from bacteria or other forms of life. Conscious life is a layer of abstraction (to use a technical term). But why is this layer of abstraction exciting ?
To answer that question one needs to understand the “organization” called life. Up until conscious life arrived on the planet everything existed as an experiment. Patterns of DNA competed with each other to be the most successful at continuing to exist. But once there is consciousness the rules change. Now any pattern can become the more “successful” provided it is “valuable” for the conscious life forms. The stage is set for the arrival of the “experimenters” ! Initially this must have been a hindrance to life itself – as the under developed conscious life forms may have actually selected harmful DNA patterns in their naiveté. But as the consciousness evolved so did its alignment with the process of evolution itself.
We have over time learned to select the most correct patterns that help us preserve life. An example of this is the recent world frenzy about global warming. As our science has improved so has our ability to compute future possibilities. In the multitude of outcomes that can result from our present behavior, we have learned to select those outcomes that keep us “safe” from”harm”. In other words we have selected those strategies that give us the best chance to continue existing. Finally our brain has come a full circle.
Consciousness
But is conscious evolution better than the passive one ? It is a question that will be answered in another few hundred years. Passive evolution has happened over eons. Time has been merciful at least on earth. We have been spared calamitous ends by sheer chance ! However conscious evolution will not require as much time. We have already seen how over the past few centuries our abilities have grown exponentially with respect to the passive evolutionary process. It is not far fetched to believe that in another hundred years or so we may be able to “simulate” evolutionary cycles and produce “jumps” in evolution itself. We may be in fact learn to make better versions of ourselves. As well as better versions of organized and “conscious” matter. My belief is that our conscious selection procedures will extend till we manage to create “artificial” intelligence. And after that we may have to just sit down and watch !
For all of you wondering about the title of this post … do you know what is the sugar for your brain ? Sugar is a source of carbohydrates and carbohydrates are the central energy source for most life. Therefore we are “programmed” to like sugar. You will rarely find an individual who hates sugar . Almost no one will turn up their nose in disgust after consuming some sugar ! That is because sugar has a hardwire to our brain. The set of events that happen after we consume sugar release pleasure chemicals like dopamine in the brain. This release can also be achieved by “doing” things like copulation and a multitude of other activities which may have (as yet) unexplained reasons for having a positive impact on our longevity. But these are the passive evolutionary “wires” in our brain. There is another set of wires which are more “active”. These are the learned behaviors. We can program ourselves to please ourselves when we do a certain activity. So for a baby a bungy-jump may be positively scary, but not for the seasoned jumper. The seasoned adventure freak has programmed himself to get a dopamine rush every time he jumps off a high perch. Some of it may be a case of passive evolution at work ( he may have got some “adventure” genes which make him like jumping so much). But most of it is learned behavior. You have only to see the smile on his face when others are cheering “bravo” around him to understand how potent our “conscious” evolution is.
So lets the ask the question to ourselves as a community – what do we want to be the “sugar for our collective brain” ? This question may actually hold the key to unlock our ability to exist as conscious beings beyond the limits specified by the physics of our world !
