Imagine World with No Money

Money is ubiquitous and most used object in the world. People use it for many different reasons. From evaluating their economic condition to exchanging it for goods and services and to store wealth. What if I suggested that money will disappear one day and I don’t mean just paper money but the concept of it. We will no longer need it to survive. You may be thinking that day will never come or I am Trekkie and have watched too many episodes of StarTrek or perhaps I am delusional. I am neither and I truly think that the day when humans will not need money is nearer than any of us think let me explain…

The most common use of money is to buy goods and services. We go to Star Bucks and buy a cup of coffee or go to grocery store and buy bread etc etc. We use money to survive in this world. It provides us means to shelter ourselves, feed and cloth us. All of these products that we consume have cost associated with it “actual cost”.  This cost includes raw material, transportation (needs energy), manufacturing, labor, storage, distribution, marketing and transactional cost. As consumers we pay for all of these costs. Products from its inception to its consumption keeps adding costs to it. Finally when we buy it we end up shouldering all of these costs. We all have heard that bottle of channel perfume cost only $5~$10 and infamous NIKE shoe’s actual cost is only $10. Yet when we go to malls we can easily drop $400 and $200 respectively to buy these products. Question is why do we pay exorbitantly high prices for things?

Tesla Motors just announced model 3 their newest 35K all electric car. In the launch speech Elon Musk also talked about his battery manufacturing plant in Nevada that will produce nickel metal hydride batteries. The total number of batteries produced in this plant alone will match the batteries produced in the entire world. Imagine that one factory producing equal number of batteries that whole world produces. One can easily infer that the cost of these batteries will definitely be less than what is cost now to produce in different parts of the world. Needless to mention producing product that is closer to its consumers will save on logistical costs. These innovations are simply driving the marginal cost of production down and if this trend continues fairly soon we will get to a point of saturation where companies will have to give products away or come up with alternate ways of enticing consumers to use them.

NASA use to transport parts they needed for the space station for break fix projects. This would delay the addition, repair and maintenance of many tasks that were time critical. They will send in a requisition for the part from the space, part would be made on planet earth once it was made they will them transport it to Florida and wait for the next space mission to send it off to space. About 5 years ago NASA took several 3D printer to space station and started printing parts they need at the station on demand. They saved time and money. 3D printers are revolutionizing they way we produce products. A company in China printed 10 homes in one day and it cost $5,000.00 each. These were not toy homes but actual livable 2200 square feet homes. Soon a 3D printer will be part of every household as inkjet or laserjet printers are. The 3d printer will help us print many different things that we use in our house. It will allow us to print cloths, shoes, jewelry, spare parts for automobiles and even food. Again I do not have to tell you that printing your own stuff will be lot less than buying things from the store.

Hydroponics farms are changing the way we have been farming. These farms are so efficient that they do not need any pesticides since it is controlled environment and one tenth water than conventional farms do. Even better they don’t require land since you can grow vegetables vertically  with artificial LED lights. If we dedicate three buildings in Manhattan and convert them in to hydroponic farms. These buildings will produce enough food to feed the population of Manhattan. Since the produce will be farmed in the city you can calculated the savings.

We are living in phenomenal times. Our population growth and advancement in technology has allowed us to accomplish things that were unfathomable a decade ago. This growth in human intelligence and new discoveries in variety of different disciplines is allowing to produce goods and service at a very low price. We have renewable sources of energy where one day our energy cost will be close to zero or zero. Think of robotics if we have a hydroponic farm and have robots working using solar energy and recycled water the cost of the food they produce (after the initial cost) will be close to zero. This trend will not stop at farming we will have robots performing surgeries, mow our lawns, do our laundry and I can go on and on.

Often when I talk to people about this idea they argue that we will not have any motivation to do anything if machines will do all the work. I strongly disagree we don’t always do things to make money. People innovated because they are passionate about what they do. Folks who work for money just do that and are neither innovator nor thinkers. They seldom make a difference even in our current economic system. This wave of technology and innovation is so big that we just cannot wrap our heads around it from self driving cars to drones delivering packages the innovations will revolutionize how we live and function. Ultimately if we get to a point where machines do all the work than humans will have to just sit back innovate explore and enjoy their lives without spending a penny.

Z’s Reading List

  • Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters – by Omit Safi

  • God: A Human History (Random House Large Print) Paperback – Large Print, November 7, 2017 Reza Aslan

  • Zealot Reza Aslan
  • Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think Steven Kotler, Peter H. Diamandis
  • The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt
  • The Case for God  The Case for God

50 Things Men Should Know

1 Knowledge is Power.
2. Somebody has already learnt what you need to know.
3. The best move lies very close to the worst.
4. Sometimes you just have to turn it off.
5. Never hope against hope.
6. Never trust a weeping man.
7. No honest man go unpunished.
8. You are just like your old man.
9. Know your way home.
10. Always stand on ceremony.
11. Dogs are good.
12. Less is more.
13. Sports proverbs are profound and existentially useful.
14. Sports proverbs are banal and make little sense.
15. Some men just never learn.
16. Sometimes a women can be one of the boyz.
17. We like to watch.
18. Fashion is fleeting but style is eternal.
19. The grass may look greener on the other side, but its just as hard to cut. Little Richard.
20. All the glory in the world fits in a kernel of corn. Fidel Castro.
21. If there is miscommunication blame yourself not the audience. You are the message. Roger Ailes.
22. All good work is done in defiance of management. Bob Woodward.
23. Attack power with wisdom
24. Have a sense of humor about your appearance.
25. Word are deeds.
26. Don’t watch TV.
27. Its a small world but not if you have to clean it.
28. Winning and losing – both are confusing.
29. Always unzip your fly before you take a leak.
30. Admit Nothing.
31. A long shot pays more that the odds.
32. Be the brother you never had.
33. Get off first, finish tough, and get away clean.
34. Great poem make good prayers.
35. The future is bright.
36. The future is bleak.
37. Leave no friend untested.
38. No women is convinced of her beauty.
39. Sex is still worth it.
40. Work well with others.
41. You gotta have soul.
42. It doesn’t count if you don’t keep score.
43. love thy enemy.
44. Know where you money goes.
45. You can’t eat honor.
46. The best things in life aren’t free.
47. You only live once.
48. You only die once.
49. You might as well laugh.
50. Don’t worry be happy.

My Philosophy of Happiness – His Will

My Philosophy of Happiness – His Will

I should, first of all, advise my heirs to learn to desire the thing that happens, and not try to mould events to their desires. It was silly of the poet Omar to write:

‘Ah love, could you and I with Him conspire, to grasp this sorry scheme of things entire. Would we not shatter it to bits, and then remold it nearer to the heart’s desire?’

That way lies unhappiness, destruction. It is not sorry scheme of things, and the business, the duty of man, is to get himself into harmony with it.

I would counsel my heirs to seek satisfaction, not in the flux of circumstances, but within themselves; I would have them resolute, self-controlled, independent but not rebellious. Let them seek communion with that Eternal Reality which I call Allah and you call God! For that is the twin problem of existence…to be at once entirely yourself and altogether at one with the Eternal.”

I say that you should endeavor to suit your desire to the event and not the event to your desire. If a wall tumbles down and crushes my foot I must say: “That is the best thing that could happen to me.”

An uncle of mine had a son who was killed. The father gave thanks to Allah for the event. You think that he did not love his son! You are wrong. He loved him dearly. I confess that I may not yet have risen to such a spiritual height. But I believe that I shall rise to it. I know that this is the way to happiness.

I should have a word to say to those who deem themselves unfortunate from a worldly point of view. I should say to them, do not look up and lament that you are not as well off as those above you, look down and congratulate yourself that you are better off than those below you.

To a man who looks with such eyes upon the world it is not a prison but a garden. A marvelous garden – the garden of the Lord. I shall invite my heirs to feast their eyes on the miraculous beauty of the earth; rivers and seas to slake the earth’s eternal thirst, hills like the tents of a great encampment, forests like an army with banners; wide open spaces, dawns and sunsets the indomitable arch of the sky.

All these great gifts are freely given to the man with open eyes, open hands and open heart. But the eyes must be clear, the hands and heart be strong. I would impress upon my heirs the absolute need to be healthy. If they neglect their body, they will be at odds with the universe.

Aim at Absolute Fitness

Therefore I say: Keep your bodies clean – bathe them frequently, wear clean clothes, eat clean food, drink clean water breathe clean air. I know that society may make it difficult for some of its citizens to get these things. Instead it should make it easy.

But we are not, as individuals, to put the onus on society. As I have said, it is our business to “use” events, conditions, limitations. If we cannot be as fit as an as Achilles champion, we may aim at absolute fitness and be well content with the fitness we achieve.”

Never forget this: The society in which we live cannot give a man happiness. If we miss that you miss my point altogether. Society can give a man space to breathe and freedom to move in it; it can afford him the means of keeping himself healthy and making himself strong. But happiness never depends on one’s surroundings; it depends altogether and exclusively on oneself.

Of course, health is not static, but dynamic. I can only judge a race horse for example when I have seen it in motion. Therefore I shall speak to my heirs of the vital importance of exercise. And since to take joy in your activities is one of the secrets of health, I should counsel them to play games.

Naturally my heirs will be riders of horses. That is in the blood. The ‘Horse and the rider’ have been the sign manual of my race for a thousand years. But I speak of concerted games.

Knowing something of tennis and a little golf I can advise them to play those games. Knowing very little of cricket except as a spectator, I must be content to regard that great game with benevolent neutrality. But play games! Play them joyfully, vehemently, with all your heart.

Civilized Society

My final word would be to civilized society at large. I have already suggested that society should give a man space and means to make himself healthy. Now pursue the implication and tell society that it should give the individual peace. That is what a government is for, it is the final test; if a government cannot give us that, it is not worth having. I am a pacifist.

I would have the whole world unite to defend itself against aggression. Your nationalist instincts may be opposed to this. But see what those instincts have done for you! You have broken Germany. Yes! but you have broken yourselves. I don’t say that you were at fault, I don’t say that you could have avoided doing what you did. For the pre-war Prussian was – no, not criminal, impossible. But I do say that war is always a ghastly mistake, and that this last war was almost the death-blow to civilization.

And so in my testament I should say to the rulers of the earth. Prove yourselves: Prove that you are worth having: give the world peace!

Published by the Ismailia Association of Pakistan, 1977

Lailatul Qadr

Lailatu Qadr is the night of power and evidently we do not have a certain date it falls  on. Most Muslims pray all through the last ten days of the Ramadan. Some have fixed dates which range from 21st  through the 27th  and some believe that the last ten days are the most powerful of the entire month.

I always wonder what these events should do and how we can make them special for us. One perspective which is the obvious one is that these special days are a reminder for forgetting minds. Humans greatest quality and perhaps the weakest one is forgetting. Greatest since it will be devastating to remember all the undesirable events that happen in our lives and weakest since in the name of forgetful beings we attribute all our short comings to the fact that we do not remember. Laitul Qadr and other such events are just a jolt in the course of our lives to remind us that we need to contemplate live here after and give it some thought. In the hustle bustle of our lives we are always trying to balance evrything that we do and often times we are unable to see through the wide angle lense.

I would suggest that when we pray one or several night during Ramadan just ask ourselves what do I believe and and where I want to go? Contemplating like this will hopefully give us sense of direction and we will perhaps remember our purpose a bit longer.

Navroz Mubarak

Today is the Navroz it is also the first day of spring. It was wintry condition in Dallas we had quite a bit of snow (ya snow) last night and it almost felt like winter. The forecast is better for the coming days. Navroz had been also a day when I feel that the winter is over and life will begin again. I wish the new year to be the best for all the people I know and don’t know.