From as early as our species obtained the ability to question and reason, and to this day, we have yearned to understand the world around us. Yet such a complicated task proved to be impossible.

In attempts to at the very least get nearer to the ultimate truth, ultimate understanding, we employed our favourite tactic. Divide and conquer. Take a subset of the problem and divide it again. And while the struggles were mostly futile, some things that came of it could be considered in every sense of the word — beautiful.

One of such unintended consequences is the game of chess. An ancient game believed to have roamed this land for over a millennium. Never would I believe that drowning in a puddle was actually possible had I not learned it.

How could an idea for a board game capture the individual so accurately? It almost feels as if you could see into the soul of the player moving the pieces with their fingers. How they move, how they sit, how they speak. And most importantly how they think over the board tells you as much about the person as sharing a cup of tea with them, or even more.

How could a seemingly insignificant board game determine the future of entire nations as it did in 1972 in the midst of the Cold War?

How could a set of straightforward rules a child can understand forever bind the soul of those playing?

How could an objectively finite recreational game imitate our lives?

I’ll let you find out for yourself.

While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists — Marcel Duchamp

Legend as old as day

“What a lovely day today, is it not?” the king addressed his servants.

“Truly marvellous.” quickly replied those around him, waiting to see how the king would entertain himself this day.

“Such a day requires something special, doesn’t it?” the king started pondering. “Ah yes. I know what would make this day ever more enjoyable. You, you, and you” he said pointing at the first bunch he could see. “Go out there and find me the most fascinating, the most interesting, the most … the most … the best game you can find. Bring it to me. Go. Now.”

And so the three ventured into the city to commence their search. Not having much time to spare they began asking every man, woman, and child they encountered about a game that would satisfy the king.

To their surprise, luck was on their side that day as they met a wandering traveller, who just happened to have recently invented a never-heard-before game. Furthermore, the traveller seemed rather interested in presenting his little invention to the king and agreed to come without much convincing.

The horses got saddled. The traveller got escorted to the palace. The heavy doors got opened and the king greeted the new guest in anticipation of what he had prepared for him.

The game that the traveller presented had a peculiar name — Chess. A small board of eight times eight squares. Two armies on each side. And a single objective — The scalp of the enemy king.

The king was no stranger to battle and quickly learned the rules although his play was rather aggressive and oftentimes reckless. Nonetheless, he fell in love with the game. Such a simple idea yet it leads to endless possibilities.

Under the influence of the game, the king decided to award the traveller for his invention. “What do you want, my friend? Anything. Just say the word.”

“I would like some rice if you don’t mind.” the traveller replied. “And in the tradition of the game, I would like a grain of rice for the first square on the chessboard. Two grains for the second. Four for the third. And double for each following square on the board until the last square has been reached.”

Slightly puzzled, yet prepared to fulfil his promise, the king waved his hand to get the rice bags and count exactly the amount requested. Minutes later, however, it became clear that the task of counting the rice grains was out of their hands. There simply wasn’t enough rice in the world.

Satisfied with his clever demonstration, the traveller smiled, accepted several bags full of gold, and carried on with his journey leaving it to the king to spread the word of chess.

I originally posted this on Medium

1991 — Independence 🇺🇦

The summer was reaching its close. So was the twentieth century, over which the world has lived through an unprecedented amount of development as well as some of the worst events in the history of mankind.

The world was changing fast and so was the Soviet Union with three of its largest founding members making the decision to part ways. On the 1st of December 1991, a nationwide referendum was held in the country previously known as Ukrainian SSR, which resulted in over 90% of votes in favour of independence.

And so began the tale of a nation under the blue and yellow flag. Blue symbolising the depth of the sky. And yellow the endless wheat fields.

The path ahead was thorned with challenges and uncertainty. Yet the unstoppable desire for a free, and prosperous future which is eternally engraved into the golden trident spoke to these people on a deeper level.

1994 — Renunciation of nuclear weapon

Three years have passed since the declaration of independence. The economy was facing major difficulties and GDP kept falling. But the idea of a strong country that is part of a new, and flourishing world acted as the light at the end of the tunnel for these people.

At this point in time, Ukraine was in possession of the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world as well as significant means of its production. WWII has shown us what this weaponry is capable of and the Cold War standoff further highlighted its potential threat to the world. Even when used for good, it can lead to catastrophic and long-lasting effects if insufficient safety precautions are taken, as seen during the Chornobyl disaster.

A weapon that instantly disintegrates everything at the point of impact, leaves soil unusable in a radius of many kilometres and causes a global environmental effect that lasts for years to come should not be used under any circumstances. And to achieve this the government has signed an international treaty renouncing its right to nuclear weapons in exchange for the promise of protection in the time of need.

The world has felt the ground shake due to a nuclear disaster before. Let us ensure it doesn’t happen again. — the voice of reason

2013 — Revolution of Dignity

Now we fast forward through years full of ups and downs, changes in governments and economies, world financial crisis and much more. And we find ourselves on the streets of Kyiv. Take a look around. What do we see?

We see almost a million people on their feet dissatisfied and mostly disappointed due to the fact that the preparations for signing the association agreement with the EU have been suspended. All those dreams, all those futures that people believed in, worked towards, that kept people going — they have been shattered.

And what happens when you take away the future from people who have “freedom and willpower” carved out on their hearts? You get a revolution.

Unhappy with the choices of their government, Ukrainian men and women stood up and raised their voices in order to protect what they held dear. After several months of police brutality, senseless violence, and stone-hard will they emerged victorious with then-president Yanukovych fleeing the country.

Over a hundred civilians lost their lives in the fight for their country and to this day they are referred to as “The Heavenly Hundred Heroes”.

2014 — Conflict in the East

Alas, the sweet taste of victory never lasts. Shortly after the events of the 2013s revolution concluded the country got a loud bang on the door from the east. A few old men, pretending to play war games as if it was a kids' endeavour, felt threatened by the Ukrainian movement towards Europe. Which lead to one of the largest military powers in the world being engaged in the fighting at the Crimea peninsula and shortly after in two major cities and surrounding areas of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Lots of blood was spilt on that land. Too much to count. And the result you may ask? — Complete annexation of Crimea which remains under the control of the Russian Federation to this day. Two regions became a constant battlefield where shots could be heard any time of day and night. Countless lives were ruined. The list goes on. Oh, and of course immeasurable satisfaction for the self-proclaimed heroes hiding in their palaces.

There weren’t any Devils on this island. No. Just Humans. — Shingeki no Kyojin

2022 (Today)— Invasion

Today, after months of build-up and increasing tension, a command to invade has been given. A command to breach the border of the neighbouring country of Ukraine. A command to utilise deadly weapons. A command to target key strategic locations and spread chaos. But what stands on the path of a lonely rocket to the airport? Sometimes a hospital. Sometimes an elderly care house.

In war, there are no winners. Intelligence on this planet has evolved sufficiently to comprehend this simple axiom. Yet for every generation, there is still a revolution. For every generation, there is war.

As I write these sentences, more and more people are being drafted into joining military action on both sides of the conflict. Some to protect what they love. Some against their will. Some to hold a gun for the first time.

But what can I do? What can I, sitting here in front of my computer screen, in a country that has nothing to do with the conflict thousands of kilometres from me, can do to help? Alone — nothing. Luckily that's not how our world works. Each person is connected to every other human being on this planet through approximately six orders of connections. We are separated by mountains and oceans, by distance and borders yet there are only six people between you and me. Adhering to this rule, raise your voice my friend and let the world hear you.

We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind… — United Nations Charter

Some Thoughts Out Loud

My internet nickname is “Guy From Planet Earth”. Motivated by the belief that the day shall come when a statement “I am from country X” would have the same or even less meaning than “I like pizza with BBQ sauce on it”. The day when a person’s worth is not evaluated by the colours on their passport, nor any other meaningless form of identity, but by the objective nature of their being. By who they are, what they believe in and what they do in life. And from that day on we can all proudly say — “I am from planet Earth”. Unfortunately, in the light of everything I’ve seen over the course of my life, I don’t think I will live to see the day. But hope dies last as they say )

If you don’t know how to act, act as a human being would. — somebody

I originally posted this on Medium

Transmission Control Protocol and Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP) - a set of rules that define the communication between computational machines.

This day has been marked as the official birth date of the internet. This day computers obtained the ability to communicate with one another.

World Wide Web

static. read

Let’s fast-forward through time to March 1989 and a tiny bit through space from North America to Europe, planet Earth, Milky Way. Computers are reducing in size while at the same time improving in processing power. Yet, if we were to stop a random stranger wandering through the streets of any capital city, they would find it difficult to come up with a use-case for these machines.

“They can store information? So can books. And they smell nice. They can do calculations? My grandma can do it too and she’s turning 70 this year. Nothing special these computers of yours.” - a random stranger

But a few people in Europes largest nuclear research facility decided to disagree with such an evaluation. While the actual conversations happening between the researchers were not recorded, let us imagine what it could have gone like. No. Let’s go one better and recreate it. Take a pen or anything that can leave a trail on a piece of paper, and draw a dot. This dot will represent a single computational machine. Now draw another dot and connect them with a line. The line will represent a communication network between these two dots. And let’s write down an axiom. Each line, the communication system will follow the aforementioned TCP/IP rules. Two dots, one line, one axiom and a mathematical mind. Now put down that pen and try to imagine what your piece of paper would look like if it showcased not two but 100 000 computers and respective communication between them. Remind you of anything? Looks a lot like the web in the furthest corner of the attic. Or so it looked to Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau who are both credited with the invention of what is known today as the World Wide Web.

Store data of any kind on any machine and access it via the internet - an idea. Uniquely identify the data you want to access - URL. Standardise the data representation using a simple yet powerful language markup language - HTML. And define rules for this data transfer built on top of universally accepted TCP/IP - HTTP.

Web 2.0 - The Present

interactive. read, write

The years go by and we turn our eye to the beginning of the 21st century. Computers are more powerful than ever, the Web is growing, more and more people get access to this wondrous technology. Any information we could want can be accessed from the comfort of our personal computer standing on the desk in the living room. The Web has become The Library of Alexandria of the modern world. So what happened next is no wonder considering it has been happening since the dawn of time. Given large enough sample space and the ability to mutate and change, evolution is inevitable. And so did the Web evolve when exposes to millions of people worldwide.

It is difficult to trace its exact origin but the term Web 2.0 was first popularised in 2004 even tho things like MySpace, a popular social network at the time, were already out there. It refers to the second generation of the Web, built on top of the first one, it extends current capabilities to enable an average user not only to read but to modify the data on the Web.

And so began an era of creation. As years passed by, it became almost effortless to create and share ideas with the world. And with each day the number of users kept growing. We were once confined to the borders of our mind, borders of our town, borders of our country, but for the first time in humanities history, a borderless society emerged. Not without flaws, not without drawbacks. But a step in the right direction nonetheless. As history has shown us time and time again, human beings perform at their best when working together towards a common goal.

Web 3.0 - The Future

verifiable. read, write, trust

The deeper we go in exploration of our digital world the more complex and unpredictable it becomes. Due to this reason if we were to ask people for a definition of Web 3.0 we would most likely get a bunch of different answers, ranging from blockchains to digital identity. Two things, however, would be in common across all of them. First, no one denies it is happening. You can’t deny evolution when it’s happening right in front of your eyes (even though I’m sure some would disagree). And second is the idea of immutability. Idea older than the world, which states that an immutable entity can not be tampered with or modified in any way after its creation. Web 3.0 is being built on top of this idea.

Applications and utilities built with this notion in mind have the fascinating property of being verifiable. Since all the data has been recorded permanently, it becomes impossible for a given digital entity to go back on a claim they made in the past.

Another reason why this step in evolution has so much weight and meaning behind it is the current state of the Web, where the majority of the data is owned by an oligopoly of large tech firms. But as my high school history teacher told me - “For every power, there is an even greater power”.

It is difficult to see where this movement will take us. A great deal of ideas is being brought to life every day. Even more, are discarded on an hourly basis. The goal we are moving towards, however, remains unchanged. Freedom. Righteousness. Equity.

Web 4.0 - Endless Possibilities

concious. create

Just before we part ways, I would like to invite you to join me on a journey across the Realm of Possibilities. Across all the realms this one is my favourite. There are no binding contracts, no certainty, no rules. Everything and nothing is possible at the same time. True freedom if you ask me. Anyways, I digress. Let us collect what we know thus far.

We already have a network of networks of computers. Each individual node in this network has immense processing power. And these nodes can communicate with each other freely and efficiently. This top-level network deals with data. We can read this data. We can write to, or over, this data. We can trust this data, although this one is a “work in progress”. Where do we go from here? Is it even worth pondering or shall we leave it to the chance as we did for the past six million years?

Since we are in the best realm of them all I shall share a few ideas that have been circulating in my head for a while. While rather rhetorical, hopefully, they will bring you some joy and excitement for what the future holds.

• Connecting our brains to a computer or even the Web itself. We have long possessed these ‘computational’ devices inside of us. Can we utilise them to their full potential?

• A computer capable of generating data. Not just images, or music, or videos. But ideas that have meaning.

• Complete control over ones’ digital self. The data belongs to a person.

• Duplicate of the real world. If there is a machine capable of impersonating the physics of the real world - we are looking at it right now.