Unreal Blog

The fifth post on the philosophy of death looks at another notion of continuity. Even for those who believe in no soul or god of any kind, the physical world is real and continuous. No sane person would think the world comes to an end with his death. Then again, nobody has accused me of sanity.

Read the rest of "Does the World Go on?"

What is soul, and why do we need one? Philosophy of death is surely incomplete without a discussion of this matter. Here is the fourth post in this series.

Read the rest of "Primal Soul"

The severity of a pain is not merely its intensity, but its duration as well. Given that death puts a definitive end to our worldly durations, how does it affect our notion of punishment commensurate with crime? Here is the third post on the philosophy of death.

Read the rest of "From Here to Eternity"

This second post on my series on the philosophy of death deals with the connection between morality and death.

Read the rest of "Why Should I Be Good?"

I thought I would write a short piece on the philosophy death, but it turned out to be a fairly big essay. It was to be expected, I guess, for death is not an easy or simple topic. I will post my thoughts here in parts. The first part looks at the taboo nature of the topic of death.

Read the rest of "The Taboo Topic"

Here is an article defending (to some extent) the insane salary expectations of the elite bankers and traders. And quants. This piece will appear in my regular column in Wilmott Magazine.

Read the rest of "In Our Defense"

Economists have too many hands. On the one hand, they may declare something good. On the other hand, they may say, “well, not so much.” Some of them may have even a third or fourth hand. My ex-boss, an economist himself, once remarked that he wished he could chop off some of these hands. [...]

Read the rest of "Food Prices and Terrible Choices"

A frank, but strange, look at global warming. Are we a virus on the earth? And is the global warming a bout of fever? Published in the Singaporean newspaper, Today, on 1 Dec 2008.

[...] The end result of a viral infection is always gloomy. Either the host succumbs or the virus gets beaten by the host’s immune systems. If we are the virus, both these eventualities are unpalatable. We don’t want to kill the Earth. And we certainly don’t want to be exterminated by the Earth. But those are the only possible outcomes of our viral-like activity here. It is unlikely that we will get exterminated; we are far too sophisticated for that. In all likelihood, we will make our planet uninhabitable. We may, by then, have our technological means of migrating to other planetary systems. In other words, if we are lucky, we may be contagious! [...]

Read the rest of "Human Virus"

This concluding part of the philosophy of money (to appear as a column in the May issue of the Wilmott Magazine) shares my private disappointment that whatever I wrote up may not have been as original as I expected it to be. But the concept of money has been around for a long time now, so I should not dwell on it too much.

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – IV"

Having looked at the how of money in the last post, here is the why of money in this third post in the my mini-series. Why do we want it so bad?

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – III"

This second post of the mini series based on my upcoming column in the Wilmott Magazine looks at how people make money in a scalable fashion. It was posted earlier in this blog.

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – II"

Here is another mini series of posts based on an upcoming column of mine in the Wilmott Magazine to appear in their May issue. I have posted similar ideas here before, but this series will put them together, hopefully as a cohesive whole. This first post of the series looks at the unphysical nature of money.

Read the rest of "Philosophy of Money – I"

If you are not quite sure how to live your life, let me tell you how. Just kidding, it is not my place to decide for you what your life should be. Then again, I can certainly share my thoughts on the issue on my blog, right?

Read the rest of "How to Live Your Life"

Are our lives just moving along on their own preordained paths, while we, like the epiphenomenal froth, think that we have control and free will?

Read the rest of "Free Will — An Illusion?"

Mind and matter is a problem in philsophy — how does a non-material mind make changes to the material world around us? Of course, it is a problem only in philsophy. We all know how to move about and do physical stuff, no mystery there. Still…

Read the rest of "Mind over Matter"

What is the purpose of philosophy? And why are philosophers paupers?

Read the rest of "Love of Wisdom"

On what is important in life. And what is not.

Read the rest of "Midlife Crisis"

Some beliefs are superstitions, while some others are scientific theories. What exactly is the difference between them? Let’s listen to what Pirsig has to say about it.

Read the rest of "Ghost of Gravity"

Here is an unreal look at the what and why of time. Why do we have a sense of time when none of our five senses can sense it?

Read the rest of "Only a Matter of Time"

When philosophers look at anything, it becomes a bit technical. Their technical analysis may sound boring and irrelevant. Here is an attempt to tilt things in their favor.

Read the rest of "Half a Bucket of Water"