Technology Tomorrow?

I was talking to a friend the other day about the next generation technologies that our kids are going to see. Interesting as it is, probably the two most interesting fields which are going to see grave accomplishments are the space technology and of course, computer science. But then the obvious question arises: are we going to have a fun trip to a different solar system? Will we be able to find life on a different planet than Earth? Will we be able to build the ultimate intelligent robot? Will we have the perfect intelligent home where we don't have to do anything by ourselves?
Questions like this are beyond doubt, very exciting. Nevertheless, as cliched as it can be, these questions are not something bolt from the blue. They have been around forever and have always been a perrennial source of figurative imagination to us all.
We have climbed novel heights today and so cliched it is to ask a question where we just laugh into thin air that "yeah, there cannot be an ultimate super human-being like intelligent robot..." But can we still answer these questions above?

The Identity of a PhD Student...

Last week was probably one of the most interesting weeks since I came to the US! It was more the ‘American way’, and much less the ‘PhD way’. So while these may sound as some weird buzzwords, let me clarify the two. Before that, let us justify the ‘meaning’ of life in the US as to me. Life can be described by two words: work and party. In the two years of my stay, I have not been able to explore other majorly engrossing avenues of passing time than these two! The ‘American way’ means in short, living for partying and for fun. Day starts with party and ends with party again. No big headaches with work, no panic, no tensions with deadlines to meet, just a chill way to lead life. Work is only done to an extent as needed and as and when the necessity arises. It is believe me, extremely alluring! The ‘PhD way’ I am sure you would say, something abnormal; more because people hold the PhD students to be something not earthly! So here comes the ‘PhD way’, of course heading to be judged the same! The ‘PhD way’ means in short, living for work and papers. There is little scope for fun, especially with too many deadlines to meet when you have a few courses to do too. The only fun is the fun at work. Although few of you would agree, but research can actually be fun!

I was mostly leading the latter life, though occasionally the former too, but strictly in the weekends. This week due to an extended deadline for a paper, got to explore the ‘American way’. So partying on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! I was very much excited to see how this works. It started off very well, but by Saturday got bored. But the contrast in my thoughts is worth interesting enough to discuss here!

I was sick of the stereotype life. Working on weekdays and then probably sometimes going out on weekends or cooking food at home. That used to be mostly my weekend activities. This weekend was a wonderful break, a much awaited change from a monotonous life! But food for thought: will you like such a life always? Probably no! They say, “You know happiness because you know sorrow…” There it goes…