Some thoughts and photos - RSS - by nikhil bhatla, nikhil@superfacts.org -
About Me   Jan 9, 2009

Trinkets
C. elegans - Interactive Neural Network
Attack of the Microscopic Vacuum Cleaners

Favorite posts
Survival School

Classes   Summer 2009
• 9.921 Research (C elegans in Horvitz lab)
  Old classes »

Books
e: The Story of a Number
Protocells
All the Mathematics You Missed
  More books »

Videos
Expand Your Mind - Shulgin, Koch, Church...
On Consciousness - Gelernter & Kurzweil
  All videos »

Blogs
Becca Loya
Sachin Agarwal
Omar Khan
250words.org
  All blogs »


First Pics with Canon SD700
Jul 9, 2007, 4:02p - 26 photos

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Hearst Castle & Morro Bay
Jun 18, 2007, 8:25p - 15 photos

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Washington DC
May 10, 2007, 12:09p - 35 photos

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Philadelphia & Longwood Gardens
May 8, 2007, 11:54a - 16 photos

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Manhattan with the 'Rents
May 6, 2007, 11:45a - 8 photos

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Amit & Bianka's Wedding on Long Island
May 5, 2007, 9:56a - 133 photos

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Browse by month »
To Be Conscious in a Body, Frozen
May 16, 2009, 11:21a
It's hard to tell if a thing is conscious. You know, if there is something that it feels like to be that thing. I know it feels like something to be a person, and I think it doesn't feel like anything to be a shoe (unless perhaps I've been smoking some salvia), or to be a dead person. But what ... more »

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Visualizing a Worm's Neural Network
Apr 21, 2009, 11:17p
For almost a year and a half, I've been working in Bob Horvitz' lab at MIT studying the nematode C. elegans. A microscopic worm of diminutive proportions (weighing in at only 1 millimeter in length), a single creature is just smaller than the size of an eyelash. These worms have been studied since the 1970s and much is known ... more »

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You have 2 time travels: Choose wisely
Jan 13, 2009, 8:37p
If you could travel to any 2 points in time, to where and when would you go?

This question popped into my mind as I was wandering the snow-cleared paths of MIT today. I had taken a break from my lab to contemplate the fine points of associative and non-associative learning (with little luck), when I saw a few plump ... more »

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Controlling robots with your mind
Nov 8, 2008, 12:15p
It's the stuff of which sci-fi dreams are made. Mind control, well, not of another person, but of a robot. Want your laundry done? Tell your robot to do it. But not just tell it, think it.

That's the idea, anyway.

Before I applied to grad school, this stuff really intrigued me. While working at Google, so often I ... more »

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Why I believe in God
Nov 6, 2008, 12:12a
Since the 6th grade, I've been a devout atheist. My rationale was pretty straightforward and certainly not unique. The world is such a fucked up place, that between the bad things that happen to good people and the good things that happen to bad people, even if there is a god, he can't be a good one. And if he ... more »

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A Reflection
Sep 28, 2008, 3:23p
"I sometimes ask myself, how did it come that I was the one to develop the Theory of Relativity? The reason, I think, is that a normal adult never stops to think abour problems of space and time. These are things which he has thought of as a child. But my intellectual development was retarded, as a result of which ... more »

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Why I won't vote, and why I will give more to charity
Sep 27, 2008, 11:43a
I'm not going to vote in this upcoming election. I am not registered to vote, and I don't plan on registering. This may come as hearsay, and who am I to avoid the controversial, so on with the explanation.

I don't like either of the candidates. They both feel like fake people to me, almost people without minds of their ... more »

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Knowledge
Aug 28, 2008, 10:16a
I've come to realize something. For much of my previous life, I read for enlightenment. I believed that, somewhere out there, someone knew a truth that would be exactly what I was looking for, would satisfy the search and change my life. I believed that there was a "lost" truth, hidden in the wilderness, discovered long ago but since forgotten; ... more »

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I Know You
Jun 22, 2008, 11:10a
Off the train, riding the escalator, reading my PCR.

An older guy, maybe 5' 5", playing his harmonica. Glance up, then back to my PCR. Make eye contact, he stops playing.

"I know you."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I know where you're from."

"Where am I from?"

"Syria."

"Nope."

"Where are ya from?"

We get on the second escalator, side-by-side.

"Guess ... more »

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Brave New Mescaline
Jun 14, 2008, 3:14p
I just finished reading Aldous Huxley's double-book, "The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven and Hell." It was a welcome break from all the academic papers I've been reading lately. Basically, the book is about Huxley's experiments with mescaline (also known as peyote) in the 1950s. Mescaline is a drug that is known to cause vibrant hallucinations for up to 10 ... more »

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