The Human Brain

I was wondering whether there's a disease that creates pain artificially. The Human mind is the most complex object and a slight malfunction can create diseases such as depression, split personality, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Malfunctions have even created psychos and supermen. The traits of each brain are so varied - Some are overenthusiastic, some are dull and bored, intelligence varies in a very big range among people. Some like Mahatma Gandhi have enough power to say "Hey Ram" even while experiencing the pain of death and some like Don Corleone say "Life is beautiful" at their deathbed. Some of them fight wars for nations, though they know they will die any moment and some never give up while some of them are real big losers. All this happens because of certain parameters that vary in the anatomy of each individual brain. Likewise, I was wondering if there's a part of the human brain thats responsible for processing and sending out signals that create the sensation of pain and if there's a malfunction in this region, will the affected feel pain for no reason at all? Maybe feel the same pain that one feels while getting beaten even though there is no external pain- inducing agent. Does such a disease already exist? If its possible to pin-point the brain tissue responsible for this, is it also possible to suppress it such that no pain is felt even when damage is inflicted. I guess analgesics do this job petty well. The brain is weird. Now, don’t say that I am weird.

ID Software

The dark dungeons of Doom1 have come back to haunt you again in ID Software's new Doom3. The monsters are bigger, better, meaner and scarier and as has been the ID tradition, they have far surpassed all expectations. When you look back into the days of Castle Wolfenstein, you could say that 3D first person shooter games have indeed come a long way in the arena of computer gaming. Castle Wolfenstein was by itself a revolution in the computer gaming industry with its concept of the FPS. Then came the DOOM series, which caused a great stir among the gaming circles. The UAC chambers, the exploding barrels of gunpowder, intelligent aiming, the new monsters and the poison pools enhanced gameplay to an extent never before thought possible. This was later follwed by Doom 2, and for once it felt that the rate of development of computer games was going to exceed the rate of development of the microprocessor.


All school kids got hooked onto this new game that signified the demise of the older 2D games such as commander keen, Bio-menace, prince, GP-Bike and Bricks. The era of computer games with mind-blowing graphics had just began. There were various firms that tried to cash-in on this opportunity, but games like Duke Nukem, Half-life and Hexen have by no means been able to keep up with the creative minds at ID. Just when you though that there could be no further improvements, came the quake series. Better graphics, an increased number of monsters with different weaknesses and huge levels designed to engross a mind for months together and the introduction of a wide range of guns to fit different situations now demanded more skill and creativity from the player. Quake 3 was another revolution. This time ID made Quake open-source and thanks to this, passionate gamers the world-over have written their own extensions and mods to the game. Another development here was the rise to popularity of techniques such as rocket jumping, strafe jumping circle jumping, plasma crawling - all used very extensively by the online gaming community. Mods such as defrag have created another area of interest for those ardent gamers. These modifications required a high degree of skill involved in the co-ordination of mouse movements and keyboard strokes. This game also brought the rail gun to the zenith of its popularity, where running around the levels without a railgun in hand was a passport to a sure and explosive death for the gamer.

Quake 3 was a game where all its bugs were exploited to the utmost degree. Strafe jumping started out as a bug, but no one has cared to correct it because of the popularity it brought to ID software. Strafe Jumping is still considered to be cheating in Half-life and many patches have been developed in an attempt to ban it. For me, Quake 3 has been the game of the decade, especially because playing it on the LAN brought forth all its excellent features. It could easily count as one of the wonders of the modern world. Some of the very important traits for an online gamer - aim, co-ordination, intelligence, alertness, timing and creativity were now called into action to an extent unfathomable and a slight mistake could result in a disastrous defeat which neccessitated an additional trait - perfection.

The recent Doom3 has again created the stir that is characteristic of any ID release. Here is the concept of a story-line which unfolds as the game progresses. You are called in as a marine on a facility in Mars and then things suddenly start going wrong. People begin vanishing and monsters appear as the gates of hell are opened. This time, the creators decided to add an element of fear and this they have been successful in doing. The strange voices caught on the marine's radio, the eerie laughter, sudden appearance of new monsters, noises of faraway growls of monsters and the dark rooms could any day give the opportunity for a person with a weak-heart to rest it forever. This would not be an easy death with fears of a similar hell awaiting them. The "Hell" level is the best level in the game. The discovery of the 2 PDAs with descriptions of the monsters and the fate of the people to whom these PDAs belonged sets the stage for a really scary time of gameplay. The pounding stone in this level, the cries of tortured souls, cages with deadbodies of the monsters and flowing pipes of flesh add a bizzare atmosphere to this level. The soul-cube at the end of this level is another unique addition to the previous versions. All this has ensured that Doom3 is another masterpiece from ID Software and I shall play this game for a few more years though I have already finished it about a year ago.

Now waiting for Quake 4 and Doom 4.

Journey

My home lay at the foothills of a beautiful mountain. When I was a kid and people used to point to the top of the mountain and say, "Look there!!, the summit lies above those clouds and there you will find heaven", I did not care or actually even understand what the fuss was all about. For me, heaven was where I lived. So many things to discover everyday.

When I grew up, I sat by the river and looked up to the top. I wondered what those clouds
concealed and what it is that attracts all people to the summit. I could not see the summit
and hence used my imagination. I painted pictures of glory and recognition. As I sat there
everyday and wondered, I also noticed that everyday many people would make a journey to the river-bank, just to gaze at the elusive mountain-top. I soon realized that all that lived in the village would come to the river and look for atleast an hour or two a day. This
strengthened my resolve to find out. So, with all the curious people, I set out to on a
trek. "Winter approaches in 5 months", they said. We need to reach there before the snow
falls.

..and thus my journey started. We were a party of 438 people and all started climbing. When we reached the first fork in the path, our party split. Some of them took the swampy path to the right because they had heard of the trees and fruits that grew there. I, along with a few of my friends went to the left because I liked waterfall and wildlife and ancient ruins.

Soon there were many more splits and finally I ended up with 91 of them who made the same decisions as me. The journey was painful because many a time we found ourselves in front of huge vertical rocks and had to retrace long kilometres. So many people I knew since childhood died of snake-bites or fell prey to wild animals. We had already made a lot of ground and no one desired to look back. 3 months had passed since I started my journey and it was already getting cold. The mountain was already covered with snow at the higher altitudes. All this did not bother me.

Sometimes, when there were lesser barricades to vision, I would look down at the river at the foothill and see burning fires and people celebrating. I could turn back any moment but did not want to because I felt the mountain-top enticing me towards it. Still, If I found a waterfall, I would bathe in it or pluck strange fruits from trees just to see how they
tasted. Though I wanted to reach the top, I was in no great hurry in-spite of the telltale
signs of harsh winter looming large. People around me would hurry but I took my time. I was not that slow because I knew quite a lot of people whom I had left behind. Some of us seemed to be in great hurry and would not stop, come what may. They left us behind. Seeing this, some of them hurried but not me, because I wanted to taste water from every cascade and eat every fruit and see every wild animal. Sometime, I would be tensed and move faster ignoring some personal favourites. But then, when the tension settled, I would be slow again.

After 4 months, me and 3 of my friends reached a tunnel and here I was slow again. As I went deeper, it became darker. I thought that this was because sunlight couldn't reach here but some of them knew that it was because of the fast-approaching winter and they kept this to themselves. I knew something was wrong, so I quickened up a bit. Then, finally I caught sight of the end of the tunnel - a bright white dot of light. Knowing that the end was near I slowed down again but my friends were quicker having learnt from previous mistakes. They left me behind.

As I walked alone, I realized that the bright light which was the exit got duller than
brighter as I walked towards it. I quickened up but it grew smaller and smaller now and when I reached it, the light was the same size as it was when I saw it....( I dont remember how many days ago it was that I saw it). The falling snow and the avalanches must have shut the exit. Right now, I am writing from inside this tunnel. Its pitch dark here and I cannot make out anything. I don't even know where the tunnel walls are because when I spread my arms, I can't touch it. It maybe just 5 feet to my left or a kilometre away.

I can see spots of light for 10 hrs everyday. Are they just small holes in a wall close by or are they large exits far away? I walk towards many of them today, but all were small, holes in the tunnel wall, through which the sun infiltrated into the darkness of the tunnel. I saw another light yesterday. This one was slightly brighter than the rest. So, as I am walking towards it, and my hopes are slightly high.

Will this be the end of the journey?
..Or is this another trick of the darkness in the cave where depth perception is almost negligible?
How far is this point?
Will I get out alive?
If I do get out, will I survive the winter cold?
Will I reach the summit and experience heaven for myself?
Is it really true that there is heaven at the summit or was it just some kind of an
unverified rumour?

It is really lonely in here. :(