Ananthasayanam Thesis

    The Ananthasayanam Thesis



They were always in a hurry, the think big do it now guys. Planning, universal planning five Yuga plans was the name of the game. I tried telling them that planning has been tried before but something unexpected comes along to upset every thing, who even tries to listen. You did not have the computers we do and there are these huge planet sized bio-computers they will make all the difference they said. I still expressed my doubts, but who values experience. The bald man’s comb experience they laughed.



Oh, they were so full of themselves. “We now have a self –maintaining system which will continually expand to meet our needs”. They went about setting up these planet sized things ,seeded them and waited impatiently to get them going and start using them Things did not go quite according to plan they needed more computing power .The computer itself was used to design the improvements.



What was needed was not a small number of large organisms, rather a large number of smaller organisms. One of these would control and re-engineer the rest to constantly optimize the system. They also claimed to have invented something revolutionary called sleep. While half the system would sleep and work for us while the rest would refurbish and maintain the system. Instead of two types of organisms the same organism would alternate between the two jobs.



They got their results, the computer was better than they anticipitated, old fogies like me were forgotten. Now they wanted more power and the computer was used to redesign itself.



The computer power expanded and the maintenance power expanded in parallel. Maintenance did not require the capacity available. This excess capacity is what that has caused all the trouble. It has turned into curiosity on part of the components, curiosity about their origins etc... They have also developed record keeping methods and communicate over generations. They even have built computers of their own. They are beginning to guess as to what really happens when they sleep and dream. they are beginning to realize that what they interpret  as dreams is their brain activity working for us.



Well all sorts of fudges have been tried. They have been given God, philosophy, psychoanalyses, but nothing seems to work. Find out what they are they will sooner or later. They will realize that they are merely parts of a gigantic computer. What then? The do it now guys have no answer. They do agree that they would have an unpredictable system and what use an unpredictable computer.



Enough is enough I say let it self-destruct as it already seems to be on the verge of doing. We got along fine without our planning we got into unplanned messes lets go back to them instead of these planed messes. As for this sentimental suggestion that we preserve it as a kind of museum piece forget it let it blow up I vote.



I woke up amidst visions of nuclear holocaust and utter destruction .Yet the core of it was comforting the world has been compared to a Turing machine but now there was an explanation for its function. The dream explained so much, it had so many answers. It explained life explained evolution it explained dream. It revealed God may be not God almighty but still god our creator.



Dreams have its true have provided many a scientific insight and has led to many advances, I rejected this explanation for life dreams and sleep. It was however too attractive to give up with out some gesture of celebration, so I went back to sleep to dream some more.



It was down to earth this time. The world knew its true purpose. There were of course some initial doubters who maintained that man was meant for better things than sleeping. The dream faction won in the end when our computers confirmed things by analyzing millions of dreams.



A strike against the gods was tried, amphetamine usage soared, but in the end mankind decided to do its duty, it decided to sleep well.



It was easier said than done, You could not sleep hungry, you could not sleep without a certain level of comfort, you could not sleep angry, you could not sleep with the looming threat of war, you could not sleep if …….



It took a long time and they started small, banning loudspeakers and car horns. Slowly bit by bit all causes of a good nights sleep supplemented in most places with a siesta in the afternoon were removed... Man started doing his duty well he began sleeping well.



A few pockets of insomnia persisted especially among the scientific community would they too in their dreams stumble upon some thing as earthshaking, earthshaking is the wrong word something as sublime as “The Ananthasyanam Thesis.



I woke up again It was wishful thinking I wished it were true if only to relish the silence of no traffic and horns. If publication could make it somehow true I decided to publish



Excerpted from “Good Night & Sweet Dreams”

The autobiography of P. Ananthasyanam

The First Sleeper in Chief of United Earth