I guess the title says it all. Every one of you might have encountered this question either from introspection or external conditions. I am not gonna delve into the meaning of life, the purpose of it because the conversation get derailed into philosophy but if someone interested in my take on that, give this video a try ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14 ). In short, optimistic nihilism. Sure, I combined two antonyms together and that’s the beauty of it. Once again, this is not about philosophy but more practical way of living my life until I cease to exist on this earth. This did not happen in one day or one year, but more like discovering myself and pondering for almost a decade until I finally figured out which brought a stunning clarity and peace and laser determined focus.
Purposefully, I am not gonna talk about hobbies because they come and go. I became a fitness enthusiast because I respect my body and wanna do my best to take care of it. I want to be a story teller because its the preferred medium to share your knowledge to the masses. I love to play music and dance around because that brings joy. Sure, In ten years, it might be something else but the basic foundation is to keep moving, eat less, laugh, spread joy and love all around.
Alright, let’s dive in. There are three major aspects I want to focus my life on for next 20-30 years
Education for All
Providing free and affordable education to the economically backward, underprivileged kids all over the world. I come from a very poor background and through enormous amount of hard work, my parents (especially my mother) strong determination, a bit of luck, I can happily say that I don’t need to worry about money anymore. If I refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy, I am almost at the top. The experience has been surreal and to be honest, I am not aboard with the idea that the world is not fair. Being born in a specic place and time is gonna determine your life unless you put a tremendous amount of work and luck favours you. I would like to change that or atleast try to make a dent on the problem surface. Imagine the world where every child can get free education and resources irrespective of where you are born. The amount of creativity and technological advances we will acheive as a human race will be exponential compared to the everything what has happened so far. I am super excited about this and I already began my journey by taking small steps. I started an Educational fund in India where I am providing financial support for underprivileged kids to continue their education. So far, one kid has started going to school and hopefully many more to follow. This is a lifetime project for me and I will involve every resource and the community to make an impact.
Technology and Robotics
We live in the wonderful times of technological explosion but that also brought us fear and chaos into the world. If I ask whether technology is net positive or negative for the soceity among the group of 100 people, the answer will almost always be 50-50. This is like flipping a coin and science don’t belong in the world of chance. As a technologist, I strongly belive in the advancement of human civilization through technology. Sounds like biased opinion, but I have thousands of years of evidence to back me up. Life expectancy is higher than ever, Less wars, Biological breakthroughs in treating diseases, the list goes on. I am an optimist and the beautiful marriage of computer science and robotics is gonna make our lives much better.
Look around and think about every mundane chore you do which you would be rather spending with your loved ones, fueling your creativity or even doing nothing, Each one of those can be automated. Healthcare, Every day household chores, Transportation, Logistics, Farming and I am barely touching the surface. Sure, there would be a period where the transition is gonna cause some political and societal issues but in the grand scheme of things, Humans will be more free, efficient and live their lives to the fullest. They will do things because they want to but not they are forced to. All bullshit jobs will disappear. This is farfetched and quite bold but this is gonna happen. maybe in next 20, 30 years or 100 years, but this will happen and when this is happening, I want a seat on the stage to watch this beautiful opera of transformation. I am already brewing some ideas in the space which I will introduce when the time arrives.
Last but not least, For anyone who is afraid that the robots are gonna take over the world, Stop listening to media and random people ( I am talking about you, Elon Musk ) and start educating about yourself about the field of artificial intelligence. You don’t need to be a math genius to understand the basics and trust me when you understand the basics, you will understand how dumb and narrow minded the machines are. The current state of artificial intelligence is new and naive and we have a long long way to go to create super intelligence and I highly doubt that’s gonna happen anytime in the next 1000 years.
Longevity and extension of healthy life
After spending some significant amount of time understanding the evolution, the conclusion is that the Nature is brutal. Nature does not have bias. It’s unforgiving and it just obeys the laws of physics. We did not develop consciousness because we are special nor we have a higher purpose. it’s just chance. With our relentless curiosity of asking the question “why?” we developed things from fire to rocketry and now the question extends to death.
The primary objective of any civilization is survival. That’s our primal instinct. No one likes to die. period. I won’t go into philosophical ramble discussing about death here because that’s not the objective. I believe as a civilization, we need to care and take care of ourselves and that means questioning the reasoning behind death. For anyone interested who wants to know more, I highly recommend you to read this article
We have been cheating death and going against nature since last 1000 years or so with the invention of antibiotics, antivirals, vaccines and advanced medical procedures but the crux of the problem is that as time passes, our bodies stop functioning normally and fails to keep up which results in getting old, weak and die. Without going into technical details, the short summary is the reason we age is due to loss of information in our epigenome which results in cells losing their ability fo reproduce and forgetting their functionality. If skin cell stops being skin cell and starts being a brain cell, this results in a tumour aka cancer or if the skin cell stops reproducing completely, the skin starts to fade. Again, If interested more, Watch this ted talk and follow up with David sinclair work.
Based on the current advancements of research in genetics, life extension, Our current generation is bound to live until 150 to 160 years on average. And the next generation, I won’t say 200 to 300 years is not an impossible goal either. 150 years of not just age but 150 years of healthy age without any udnerlying major diseases. I am super excited about the opportunities this brings to this world. Sure, there would be hiccups in the process and I am aware of that but we will figure out a solution like we always do. My contribution for the next 10 years or so would be passive until I gather enough knowledge to make any real contribution in the field.
And for anyone who is inspired by this and already wants to have happy, healthy and a long life. Do the following things. Intense exercise ( HIIT ) 2-3 times per week per 30 minutes each, Eat natural food ( veggies and lean meat ), Eat less ( Intermittent fasting ) and live a stress free life. You will thank me in 30 years.
Remarks
Alright, The prime reason I am publishing this article is to have a self clarity on my own thoughts. That’s why the sentences are simple and quite rough. I didn’t go into technical details because that’s not the objective. This is my introspection and I am happy about the result. Exciting times ahead. Sayonara
– Rohith Uppala