tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88521408326952007842024-02-21T01:56:21.659+05:30|\/| Y |\| DS |< APE :Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-69571590945344421942010-08-08T13:15:00.001+05:302010-08-08T14:56:44.387+05:30The Fear of Philosophy<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I have been contemplating this colossal edifice for some time now. Though philosophy, philosophical discourse or philosophical debate does fascinate me; I find far more intriguing the sense of fear I feel among most of the people I have come into contact with whenever this topic is broached. I am fascinated by how people treat this branch of knowledge.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Many a time, I have had this thought that philosophy is inextricably linked to science, technology and life in a way that I can't even begin imagine. But I feel I have a faint glimmer of a grasp on this relationship. It stems from my first understanding that life depends on technology. Now, before you disagree with it, remember that even the clothes you wear come under the purvey of technology. Without technology we wouldn't be any different from the animals we so romantically consider ourselves superior to.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Technology in turn depends heavily on science. Rather, I'd go so far as to say that without science there'd be no technology. For in order to be able to manipulate the elements of our environment and use them to fabricate various devices (technological innovation or invention), we'd require considerable knowledge about the elements of our environment; a collection of facts if you will. Now, facts are collected first by searching for and then analysing phenomena that occur in our environment. Ergo, I feel I can safely categorize science as a search and analysis tool.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">But a search in an arbitrary manner would end up being sub-optimal to the extreme. Ergo, this search and analysis tool requires directions of where and how to search for whatever is being sought. But this presumes that one already knows what one is looking for. This is the purvey of philosophy. Philosophy analyses the environment, and conveys to science the location (in the field of knowledge) where the solution being sought is most likely to be found. Ergo, science depends on philosophy.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">In order to facilitate philosophy's search for a place where that which is sought is most likely to be found, one has to be able to determine that something ought to be sought. That can only be determined via the sense of some kind of shortcoming. Life's shortcomings alert us to the absence of something that would reduce the difficulty of some aspect of our life (perhaps one of our daily chores). This shortcoming would alert us to the presence of a problem that ought to be solved. Ergo, life tells philosophy that something ought to be sought: philosophy depends on life.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Assuming the accuracy of the above mentioned relationships, one can come to the conclusion that philosophy is a very important link in the cycle that facilitates the growth of our knowledge of our environment. Assuming the accuracy of the preceding statement, why do some people still fear philosophy? Philosophy does alert us to the absence of absolutes. Some people acknowledge and accept this absence, some people do not accept it, yet others refuse even to acknowledge it. The two latter categories tend to live in a varying measures of fear. But I have seen that people fear philosophy irrespective of their attitude towards the absence of absolutes.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I have invested quite a lot of my time in the study of philosophy and I find that there are five kinds of philosophies. I make no claims as to the exhaustiveness of, or the mutual exclusivity of the elements in the following list.</div><ol><li><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Philosophy of science.</div></li>
<li><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Philosophy of society.</div></li>
<li><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Philosophy of space (or matter or the tangible universe).</div></li>
<li><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Philosophy of mind (or soul or god or spirits or the intangible universe).</div></li>
<li><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Philosophy of time.</div></li>
</ol><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I have differentiated the various philosophies into these five categories on the basis of the concepts dealt with within their domains. E.g. the philosophy of science conducts discourse on the concepts of (among other things) optimization of process, efficiency (or economy) of operation, and so on. Philosophy of society mostly conducts discourse on the concepts pertaining to the functioning of a society.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">The formation of a social structure by say the division of society into various strata could be seen as the result of a mild influence of concepts falling under the purvey of the philosophy of science onto the concepts falling under the purvey of the philosophy of society. This could be ascribed the natural tendency of man to attempt to bring order to chaos. But when this tendency gives way to obsession, and the philosophy of science is imposed on the philosophy of society, cruel social doctrines and inhumane practises come into being. The most apt examples I can think of are ethnic purges, experiments in eugenics and our own caste system (which I consider a failed experiment in eugenics).</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">These phenomena notwithstanding, the use of concepts from one kind of philosophy to obfuscate the nuances of concepts or even whole concepts of any other kind of philosophy is not inconceivable. Ergo, it is my hypothesis that the fear of philosophy stems from the fear of the absence of absolutes among those who find cause for fear in this absence. And those who accept and acknowledge said absence, do fear philosophy because they realize that there is ample opportunity for the employ of insidious tendencies within philosophical discourse.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-63290389695679841492010-06-22T09:13:00.002+05:302010-06-22T09:35:08.267+05:30The Return to Darkness.<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">This happens to be the latest album recorded by the Indian Metal band Demonic Resurrection. When I heard the songs for the first time I remember saying to myself that this is not the same as their earlier creations, there was something that conveyed the suggestion of perfection in them. Then in the early days of 2010, I received the package from Sahil (the lead singer), it contained a Tshirt, a CD, sticker and other merchandise. I immediately popped the disk into my drive and sat back.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">The first track of this album, their intro which I figured they'd use whenever they'd take the stage on one of their concerts, sets the stage and prepares you for what lies ahead. Every track of this album gleams with genius. Then it dawned on me that these tracks seem to continue from each other. No, this is not a euphemism for “they all sound essentially the same”. They are as different from each other as can be. What I meant to imply is that these tracks when stitched together cause a subtle narrative to emerge. Its kinda like conveying an image without drawing one. It seems to me like they have actually used the mood of each song to depict a different stage in a journey. There is little suggestion of a saga in the lyrics of the songs, its subliminal, and that is what I absolutely relished about these tracks.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">In a conversation after one of their concerts, Daniel (the lead guitarist) told me that this was their intention all along. They wanted to tell a story, and they did. But what I consider a stroke of genius is that the first song, the instrumental, conveys a feeling of foreboding and is akin to the kind of premonition one gets before something momentous begins. All the succeeding songs have endings that don't tie things up, they leave some things unsaid, they are like cliffhangers that leave the listener wondering “what next?”. They have done it with such subtlety that the revelation just adds to the pleasure brought on by their musical creativity.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">The last song, Omega I, ties things up sweetly, and the way in which they wrap up the song with a kind of homage to what is in my opinion one of their best songs (Beyond the Darkness) is amazing. In an interesting way, this adds a feeling of finality to a song that suggests the end of a journey or a saga. This album, after all things are considered is a quantum leap from their previous ones. They seem to have mastered the art of album making with this one, and have (inadvertently or otherwise) set the bar pretty high for their next albums.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I still feel unable to express my appreciation for this album. Its not just one thing about it, I guess that is why I am writing this post. It is a great album on so many levels. The musical creations themselves are orgasmic, I haven't any other word to describe them by. The ordering of the tracks in the album is what I have been ranting about since my first word. The way the mood of each song suggests a stage in a journey takes your breath away. Then there is this aspect, the lyrics and even title of the tracks they seemingly skip on the surface of this emergent narrative like a stone skipping over water, only, unlike the stone, the lyrics never sink into the narrative. On one level, you can enjoy these songs as individual entities, but when you become aware of this narrative that emerges out of the continuity between the songs in this album, you get thrown into a maelstrom of pleasure at a level you never before knew existed.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I could fill a couple of paragraphs with my interpretation of the story which is told in this album but I feel that would be a major spoiler. I suggest getting the album and basking the the brilliance of its creation. I don't care if I am being redundant but I'd like to say that this is the most complete album I have had the privilege of listening to. The ordering of the tracks, the way the mood changes from track to track, the way they have been crafted, this is a band that has arrived, and I feel we can safely look forward to more works of musical genius from them.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I am not going to talk about the individual tracks, for if I do, I might end up sounding like a schoolgirl admiring the object of her affection.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-30421229819375050622010-05-14T18:05:00.001+05:302010-05-14T18:06:30.752+05:30Non-Possessionism.<div align="justify"><div>This is one of my thought experiments. I have been toying with this idea for the past couple of years.<br /><br /><div>This universe and everything within it, are yours to protect, yours to care for, to have feelings for, yours to love. But, each and every sentient entity in this world is NOT yours to own or yours to take. And, when one talks of the non-sentient, the concept of ownership is an ill-defined one. One can "own" a sentient being, if that being gives one that permission, that authority, that right. And that right is that sentient being's to take away from one.</div><br /><div>Just because one loves another, it does not give one the right to expect much less even demand love in return. Similarly, when one gives one's all to another, firstly one cannot expect the other to accept the gift of one's all and secondly, one has no right to expect or demand the other's all. In other words, one cannot impose a quid pro quo.</div><br /><div>This thought experiment follows from the philosophies of Khalil Gibran, from his book "The Prophet". He says about children:</div><br /><div>"Your children are not your children... They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself... Thought they are with you they do not belong to you..."</div><br /><div>One soul cannot "own" another. This is not a very well defined concept because we have barely skimmed the surface of the concept of "being". During my explorations of the concepts associated with Embodied Cognitive Science, I came across a particular problem known as the Frame of Reference problem. Basically the problem stems from the fact that it is not possible for a person (the designer/programmer) to understand and see the world as a robot would see it. In other words, it is not possible for a person to comprehend or even imagine the perspective of a robot that s/he created.</div><br /><div>This concept can be extended out of Embodied Cognitive Science and into Sociology or whatever the study of people in general can be called. It is not entirely possible for one person to see the world exactly as another person would see it. Ergo, when one cannot see the world in the exact way that another does, how can one hope to control another in such a way as to facilitate the other's meaningful operation in the world? Ergo, one cannot own the other, no matter what relation exists between them, no matter how long they have been related.</div><br /><div>In your care, your love, your feelings, the only degree of control one has over the other is that one can decide whether or not to care for, feel for or love the other, and whether or not and how much of one's all to give to the other.</div><br /></div>Wanting control over or ownership of another being is a natural thing. It is a natural tendency of the human psyche to want to be in control of situations and others. Fantasies are harmless as long as they remain fantasies. Fantasies of control over and ownership of other beings is a natural craving. But it is not fundamentally acceptable to act those fantasies out.<br /><br />I have titled this Non-Possessionism and not Anti-Possessionism because in order to oppose something you have to first acknowledge its existence.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-65195718356457645782010-03-13T01:57:00.002+05:302010-03-13T10:48:30.741+05:30Well... C'est la vie<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Here I sit. In my lab. Knowing not what to do. They say that when a research scholar defines for himself the exact niche in which he wants to work, he feels this unprecedented sense of upliftment and belonging. It is made out to be almost like a miniature nirvana. I have known the general area in which I would like to work for some time now (since about 2004). That is almost six years. When I mentioned it in its entirety to my professor, he told me that to work that entire field to perfection would take something life fifty years. Okay, I set myself the task of narrowing down my perspective. And I don't really know where that got me.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Initially, when I took my first few steps down this road, I dreamt of inventing AI, artificial intelligence, the thing that will either enable us humans as a species to reach heights beyond our wildest dreams or lead to our extinction (that depends on which brand of science fiction you read and choose to believe in). I believe in the latter but don't completely dismiss the former. I still do dream of inventing AI. Don't ask me why, but I am not really bothered by the gravity of the latter of the two possible eventualities that I mentioned in the preceding sentence.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Well, anyhow, I started marching down this path with steadfast resolve. My aim was not just to write a gazillion lines of code and somehow hope that it would behave intelligently. I know that is what AI has come to mean in the last couple of years and to say I disagree with that approach would be an extremely polite transcription of my thoughts about that philosophy. My aim was to study and try to understand how the human brain (and of course the brains of other animals) works, not at the cellular level, but at the functional level. When my professor came to know of my intentions, he introduced me to the works of several other pioneers in the field of cognitive neurology. Among them were Dr. V. Ramachandran, Prof. Rodney Brooks, Dr. Oliver Sacks, etc.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I became acutely interested not in the work but in the philosophy behind the work of Prof. Rodney Brooks. He had founded and pioneered a field called Embodied Cognitive Science. I was completely taken up by the entire concept of embodiment. Based on that I built a whole theoretical framework to guide my research work. My professor then told me that if I wanted to do this sincerely in its entirety, it would take about fifty years. Then I set about narrowing it down to one single atomic sub-topic which I could research for my dissertation.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">It was while I was engaged in this narrowing down, I stumbled across a concept known as the two stream hypothesis. This gave me a further idea about the construction that goes on in the human brain. That is how when we see parts of an object we see it as the sum of the parts and not the parts individually. i.e. how we construct a version of reality in our heads for ourselves.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">This to me was like being Alexander the Great, it was that exhilarating. I kept surging forward from revelation to revelation. I was discovering my own little universe and it was not all that little after all. That is when I drew this diagram which hangs on the wall of my lab, right above my desk, in which the two stream hypothesis sits sweetly inside one of the stages of the framework I created. It bifurcated that stage into two separate categories. One for object classification, and the other for sensorimotor control.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">There are several existing structures that fulfil the requirements of an object classification architecture. I created one of my own to add to that assortment. And so far, to me it does not pose any problems. But sensorimotor control, that proves to be a different matter altogether. I am pretty sure that once I have that figured out, the rest will practically be a cakewalk.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">So that is what I have chosen as the topic for my dissertation. This is where it gets hairy. Its kinda like I have spent all this time digging a tunnel and surging forward with unrelenting force and I suddenly find myself in a medium I do not identify. Digging furiously straight ahead and now I am in a place that causes me to lose my sense of direction. It is as if you had seen a light at the end of the tunnel and raced toward it with speed that matched your enthusiasm, but instead of finding your destination, at the end of the tunnel, you find a junction and another set of tunnels to choose from.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Loss of direction is a really crippling thing. Once you have a sense of direction, you can work. You can do something or the other and go ahead... progress. But when you don't have a sense of direction, you are left completely helpless, as if all alone in the vast empty expanse that is space. All alone, marooned. That is what you feel.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I have always been cursed with this obsession to find my own direction. Something that I can call my own and in the absence of such a sense of direction all the other inadequacies of life seem to get amplified. Just when you feel that life cannot possibly get any worse and that you have reached the ultimate low point of your entire existence which in itself seems to pale in significance compared to almost anyone you come across. You start to slip and slide along the slippery slopes that form the rim of the edge that leads to the oh so familiar depths of depression.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">You are in this area which seems somewhat like a junction of the sewer system of some large place. The gaping mouths of the pipes which surround you spherically are the different paths you can take. But the tragedy of the whole deal is that you do not know which one you can take. Then as you are wildly flitting about, seemingly aimlessly, staring deep into the yawning mouths of each pipe as you contemplate it and try to figure out whether you could possibly succeed in your quest by going down it, you see a faint glimmer in one. But, you thought you saw a light at the end of the tunnel that led you to this place.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">At first you seem inclined to believe that it is just your eyes playing tricks on you. Maybe all that wishful thinking has resulted in your seeing light at the far end of the tunnel. You move on to the next tunnel, the next gaping maw, you see nothing. You look back at this one and you again see that barely discernible flicker of a suggestion that this path might lead you to somewhere, somewhere past this impasse. You repeat this several times, contemplating several different paths, each one of them as dark as the abyss that stared back at you. You begin to feel paranoid that this should come prancing into your eyesight just when you are about to descend into the depths of despair, when you are teetering on the edge of self loathing and depression. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Finally, after much deliberation that seems to have taken an eternity in itself, you take a leap (much rather a dive) of faith into that tunnel at the end of which there seemed to be a faint suggestion of light. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">And the journey begins all over again.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-58831257712717745322009-10-31T11:49:00.002+05:302009-10-31T14:58:25.766+05:30The Best Day of My Life<div style="text-align: justify;">The day didn't start like any other day. I awoke at half past six in the morning, about four hours earlier than my usual wake up time. I had to meet Prof. Navjyoti Singh and we were to go to a temple nearby. To me he looks a lot like a wide-eyed Albert Einstein. We had to meet and go to a place nearby called Nanakramguda. We met at the mess, we being Prof. Navjyoti, two of my colleagues, a wise man who was visiting us- Ravindra Sharma (affectionately known as guruji) and myself. We set off after breakfast.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prof. Navjyoti and guruji went together on my colleague's bike and me and my two colleagues were to get there, the three of us on my bike, Thumpy. Thumpy is more than capable of carrying three people but the problem was that all 3 of us were fairly big built so I had to make two trips to take both of them there. Once all of us were there, we proceeded to enter the temple. I usually do not enter temples, this time I don't know why I felt compelled to enter. And we had a chat with the head priest. He told us that the temple we were standing in now was the new one, they had to change it cos the old one had gone into disrepair. And the new structure was approximately 400 years old. We got blessings and we put on our footwear and walked into the temple garden adjacent to the well. There we sat, lit up and talked about society and the caste system and the problem of untouchability.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The place was serene, and full of greenery. Here and there through the trees we could see the glass and chrome of these really tall buildings that housed multi-national corporations- software companies. The contrast was bordering on irony. Here we had this sanctuary of serenity, spirituality and sanity amid this hustle and bustle of “modernity”. This was the first time I had been to a temple that my family was not connected to. Even the famous Tirupati temple had on its board of trustees a member of my extended family. All these factors, my being an outsider to this temple, it being more than 400 years old, my being there with two men of great wisdom and the contrast between this temple and its surroundings, made it feel really surreal to me.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">When the clock struck 10, we decided we had to leave as Prof. Navjyoti had a class to take and I had a class to prepare for. At half past eleven, I headed off for my class. A friend of mine, Devansh was to make a presentation on Searle's Chinese Room Experiment, an experiment in artificial intelligence. The presentation was under the auspices of my professor and research guide Prof. Bipin Indurkhya. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The night before, I had a conversation with Devansh about the presentation and suggested a minor change that would enable him to get his point across slightly more lucidly. That did help to a certain extent, but a point after that again let the class descend into a non-terminating loop of question and answers, to me the questions that prevented the loop from terminating seemed naïve. For some reason I glanced back from my position in the front row of the class and I saw that the director of our university Prof. Rajeev Sangal had also come to listen to what Devansh had to say. I would like to think I had a premonition of what was to come.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seeing that the class had entered a non-terminating loop, Prof. Bipin came forward and pointed out a few lacunae in our arguments and our understanding of certain things. He split the class into two groups- the Dualists (those who believe that the mind and body are two separate things , and some of them believe that the mind can never be understood), and the Monists (those who believe that the mind and body are indistinguishable and inseparable from each other, I belonged to this group). During his talk, Prof. Rajeev said he wanted to bring a point up, he took Prof. Bipin's place at the chalkboard and started speaking about the gap that sometimes exists between theory and observation.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We observe phenomena, and based on our observations, we formulate a theory. But if we ever encounter an observation that does not fit into our theory, he said that if we choose to ignore the observation for the sake of maintaining our theory we would be acting unscientifically. To elucidate, Prof. Sangal talked about seeing the external world and understanding it and that external data comes from our senses and that data is used to observe the world. At this point, Prof. Bipin countered by saying that there is no seeing and that there is not external world, it is all a representation within our own minds, furthermore it is not the sense organs that perceive the world but it is our brain that does all the perceiving.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This argument sparked of a scientific-philosophical debate of a magnitude that dwarfed my premonition like a planet dwarfs a person. I was watching two philosophies collide. Prof. Bipin is a monist, and Prof. Rajeev's talk was leaning towards dualism. I had become unaware of every other person in that class. Even their attire, Prof. Rajeev in a traditional kurta and trousers and Prof. Bipin in his usual shirt and shorts had an effect on my perception of this debate<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prof. Rajeev then talked about a hypothetical robot that can feel pain. And then he asked that when the robot's limb was pricked or subjected to some other stimulus, and the robot felt pain, which part of the robot felt it? This added a whole new dimension to the philosophical argument.For some reason, I felt that this was in invalid question.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Imagine watching a tennis match between Roger Federer and Bjorn Borg (the two greatest tennis players in my opinion). Only they were not human sized, they were super giants of astronomical size with unlimited reserves of energy and stamina, and instead of a ball, they were hitting at each other the 10 dimensional multi-verse. That was what this debate was like. <br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was a clash between what seemed to be the sum of the classical theories in AI and the radical new theories championed by Cognitive Science. The class started at half past 11 and was to end at 1 but it overshot that time by half an hour and only that much because the professors said that the time is up. We wanted it to continue. We were hungry, some of us were tired, but we wanted to continue listening to this debate.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Were were talking about robots and computers, programs and circuits, but the real issue on the table was whether it is possible to understand what it means to be human. Whether it is possible to understand the human condition. Whether we are justified in approximating the function of the human brain to that of a highly complex computer. This was a debate on whether it was possible to understand the nature of the ultimate truth about ourselves.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I left the class shell-shocked. I had just been witness to a once in a lifetime event and I was reeling from the effect. I headed to lunch, where I met Prof. Navjyoti. I told him that he should have been part of the debate, as he is a professor of philosophy. The next class, after lunch was creative writing, I usually enjoy this class but today, because of the magnitude of the events that I had been through, was unable to involve myself in the class.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the evening I only remember taking bath because my mind was wandering. I had had only 2.5 hours of sleep the previous night, I was not fatigued but I was totally mentally preoccupied. I was completely unaware of what I did till dinner time. This was the first time I had a lapse in memory without having to take marijuana.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After dinner, there was yet another meeting with guruji, I was waiting for 2030 when the meeting would begin. The first people there were Prof. Rajeev and his daughter Sapna, a good friend of mine. While I was trying to recount to her the events that transpired in the class today, Prof. Rajeev asked me what I liked about the class. I remember saying that I liked the philosophical nature of the debate and also that it showed us how people argue in academic circles regarding theories and philosophies.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prof. Navjyoti, Prof. Sangal, guruji, two other professors, and five or six of us research scholars were part of the discussion that evening. It was mostly about society and how modernization is not always good and how traditionalism is not always bad. We talked about a few cases where certain tribal societies had been ruined because of modernization and how how traditionalism had helped keep the society intact, safe and vibrant. And how certain traditions are in place only to make sure that all members of a society have a sense of belonging and involvement.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">An evening spent in the company of wise learned men, in conversation about the matters affecting today's society and life in general. We also talked a little about how the resources afforded us by modernity (technology, knowledge, etc.) could be used to make a better society.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The conversation on sociology, and the philosophical debate earlier that day and the visit to the temple at the start of the day, all three of those events are sure to leave lasting events in my mind. Each of these events enabled me to understand each other event in a way I have never seen them before.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The meeting began at 2030 and ended close to 2300. However towards the end of the meeting my sleep deprivation caught up with me and I dozed off for a while. But all in all that day the 28th of October, 2009, yesterday, was the best day of my life so far.<br />
</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-6836841266803239722009-10-09T00:33:00.003+05:302009-10-10T23:58:00.674+05:30I will die in...I will die in peace in the mountains<br />
While riding along their slopes<br />
I don't want any perfumed fountains<br />
Don't want to live with false hopes<br />
I will die doing what I love most<br />
Wandering far and wide<br />
I will not be denied<br />
That which I want most <br />
Dearly<br />
Just me, the road, my bike<br />
A divine menage-a-trois<br />
An orgasmic, long ride<br />
And in my repertoire<br />
The skills for every road<br />
Every street that runs beneath<br />
The wheels of my metal steed<br />
And as part of my last rites<br />
I want not lamenting cries<br />
For I died at my chosen time<br />
In my own chosen style<br />
A metallic riotous fest<br />
Should celebrate my death<br />
Akin to Wacken Open Air<br />
No weeping is needed there<br />
For I have finally gone<br />
To the place where I belong<br />
And I finally am<br />
At peace.Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-81942513912904581002009-08-21T17:00:00.000+05:302009-08-21T17:00:47.436+05:30Truth?<div style="text-align: justify;"><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="CONTENT-TYPE"></meta><title></title><meta content="OpenOffice.org 3.1 (Win32)" name="GENERATOR"></meta><style type="text/css">
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<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">The science of cognition. Cognition, as far as my analysis of the word goes, shares its root word with the words recognition and precognition. Following this line of reasoning and analysis, I have defined cognition for myself as: “the act of realizing that the observed object (it could be tangible or intangible), and the model in my mind, are the same thing”. This observed object could be something that can be touched and felt like a chair or a computer or a person, or it could be intangible like an idea or a thought or a concept or a spoken word.</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: small;">I wouldn't use the word “know” to describe cognition, since I feel that it is an overloaded and ill-defined word and I am not comfortable using it to define something else.</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">We can argue that “to know” implies a notion of truth, and that it is not really possible to know truth. This sounds to me like another version of </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>Meno's paradox</b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> in which Meno asks Socrates h</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ow he can know when he has arrived at the truth when he does not already know what the truth is? (Courtesy Wikipedia) In other words, in order to know anything, one must know everything. </span></span> </div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I find that I can neither agree nor disagree with this stand. One one hand, I can see the logic and rationale behind that statement, whereas on the other hand, I can also see that no one ever tries to know everything. It is more like a progression. Our method of cognition is more like a progressive series of theories. When we don't know much, we observe the world around us and formulate a theory or a belief set T</span></span><sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1</span></span></sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, then we observe something or discover something that contradicts something within this belief set and we incorporate that new knowledge into T</span></span><sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">2</span></span></sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">: a new theory, world view, belief set, call it what you like. Carrying on like this, we continue to form a long series of theories: T</span></span><sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1</span></span></sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, T</span></span><sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">2</span></span></sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, T</span></span><sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">3</span></span></sub><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">... and it is our hope that this series will converge one fine day somewhere in the future onto the truth (if such a thing exists).</span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The funny thing about this process is, an intermediate theory T</span></span><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">{T</span></span></span><sub><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1</span></span></span></sub><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, T</span></span></span><sub><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">2</span></span></span></sub><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">, T</span></span></span><sub><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">3</span></span></span></sub><span style="font-family: Symbol,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">...} </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">satisfies all the requirements of the believers in that epoch. They are able to interact meaningfully with the relevant environment (whatever subset of the environment their life depends on). For example, at our current belief state, we are able to do everything that our autopoietic instinct commands. Our theories about the far reaches of space may be grossly incorrect, but those reaches of space and our theories about it have little effect on our lives.</span></span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Among the various phenomena discussed in class were the interesting cutaneous rabbit illusion , the blinking dots thing, the phantom arm thing and things of this sort. I have not learned enough about them to make any comment other than that to me they are mysteries pertaining to the way our brain processes information. My best guess right now is that those phenomena are the result of the brain's mechanism of compensation for the faultiness of our sense organs. The brain knows that our senses are imperfect and prone to missing out information, hence tries to figure out what was missed even when there was nothing missed out.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As far as the concept of consciousness goes, I have an emergentistic or holistic view of the concept. I do not believe there is a consciousness center in the brain or heart or spleen or any other organ. I believe it emerges out of the various interactions that various parts of our body have with each other. No doubt, the brain is the main information processing organ in the body, but I do not believe that it alone is responsible for consciousness, it is partly responsible in the sense that it has a certain degree of control or governing ability over the interactions of our body parts with each other.</span></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I believe that thought experiments do work, but they will work if and only if the conceptual model we have (of whatever we are contemplating) is precise or as close to precise as humanly possible. Only then will we be able to predict the outcomes of our contemplated actions with a certain degree of accuracy. But when there is a situation which we know precious little about, thought experiments will most likely fail. The best thing about thought experiments is that when conducted in tandem with physical experiments, they can lead to a much better understanding of the world.</span></span></div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-24818390191785388792009-06-27T15:59:00.000+05:302009-06-27T15:59:31.564+05:30HopeWhen the systems of yore have been purged<br />
Whern all pathways have been broken<br />
When into chaos we've all been merged<br />
Something there is that still enables us<br />
To stand<br />
To land<br />
Softly<br />
Sans damage<br />
Through carnage<br />
Escape<br />
Unscathed<br />
Or fight<br />
With the might<br />
Of infinite heroes<br />
Or die<br />
With Heads<br />
Held high<br />
When all the lands seem infertile<br />
And we see no avenues along our path<br />
When the oceans of isolation surround the isle<br />
Something enables us till the very last<br />
To hang on<br />
To the last<br />
Tether<br />
To pray<br />
To hope<br />
When all hope seems<br />
Lost<br />
Distraught<br />
Distressed<br />
With the last drop of blood<br />
Fuelling the heart<br />
Enabling us<br />
To go on<br />
Even while facing<br />
A sure fall<br />
In the face of failure<br />
We strive on<br />
Push forward<br />
Bash on regardless<br />
Hope to steal a win<br />
From te jaws of<br />
Defeat<br />
Hope to stand tall<br />
In the face of a fall<br />
When the bastions of our ideals have been overrun<br />
We still look forward to our day in the sun<br />
And as long as we trust in the view of our minds eye<br />
We stand a decent chance of making it through the nightVedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-33819160199030556062009-06-26T13:50:00.000+05:302009-06-26T13:50:39.682+05:30NAUGHTWhat know'th the man that know'th not loss<br />
What know'th the man that know'th not naught<br />
Why doth he cry when he doth not know<br />
How life was when life was naught<br />
<br />
How doth one love when one loves not<br />
How doth one cry when one cries not<br />
Why does the sky seem so near<br />
When the sky is not, the sky is naught<br />
<br />
In a sea of mirth one is submerged<br />
In the river of sorrow doth one bathe<br />
The sky of rage teaches one wrath<br />
But does it, or does it not, all come to naught<br />
<br />
When is naught not naught<br />
But is naught not, naught but naught<br />
Then how does one, that once was<br />
Come from naught, return to naught<br />
<br />
As one goes from naught to naught<br />
One leaves behind marks on the path<br />
Those are seen by those who follow<br />
And one does not end up as naughtVedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-39698810573695405212009-05-11T16:41:00.002+05:302009-05-11T16:41:53.797+05:30Life?<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">This is one of those things that every living entity on this planet has in common. Yet we seem to be at a loss when confronted with the question, “What is life?”. I mean, it is not like a non-living entity would walk up to one of us ask with a tap on the shoulder, “Er... excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice that you have life, and I was wondering if you could enlighten me as to what life is”.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Though that situation may never arise, it would do us well to attempt an answer. It would do us well as it would enable us to see life from a new perspective. Maybe we could notice something that had remained unnoticed before. Then there would be many fundamentally different explanations and theories, we could debate them, these theories could grow in magnitude and become religions and we could go to war over the matter of “Which one of us is right?”.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">On a more serious note, the answer to “What is life?” or the method of arriving at a suitable answer to it would enable us to analyze life in detail and answer many personal questions. For example, I have always asked myself why it is that we consider our kind of life the only kind of life there is (you know, carbon based, oxygen breathing organisms). Apparently the oxygen breathing part is not a sufficient condition for life as is evident thanks to the many anaerobic bacteria that have been found. So is reproduction.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">No one would consider a eunuch to be a non living entity. It is no secret that eunuchs are incapable of reproduction; yet we count them under the living. Ergo reproduction too seems to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for life. So what are the sufficient conditions for life? What condition or group of conditions, which when present guarantee the presence of life?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">From my currently limited perspective, I can see one thing. Living things are born, they lead a “life” and then they die; they have a life cycle. They are self sustaining; either they consume certain resources from their surroundings to ensure their own existence or they have all the resources they need for existence within themselves and they die when the resources within themselves are depleted. A partial example for the latter would be insects in the pupa state, hibernating animals, etc. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Life cycles have been ascribed for seemingly inanimate objects too. Stars seem to have a life cycle. They are said to be “born” in a nebula. They live out their lives by running nuclear fusion reactors, first by fusing hydrogen into helium, helium into carbon, carbon into neon, neon into silicon, and finally silicon into Iron. Finally they reach the stage where their core is made up of Iron or some other heavy metal, which they cannot fuse into something heavier profitably, they collapse on themselves and their “life”ends. Their “death” results in either a white dwarf or a neutron star or a black hole (depending on the size of the original star subject to the Chandrasekhar Limit). </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">If we think of birth as simply a kind of creation and death as simply a kind of destruction, everything around us seems to have its own cycle of creation and destruction. Therefore it does not seem too big a stretch to try and ascribe life to everything. Even man-made objects; tables for example. Tables are created (birth), they serve their purpose which is to say that they support many things on their surfaces, they get damaged and we repair them(life), they eventually fall into disrepair and we discard them, then they are taken apart. Their useful parts are recycled, their combustible parts are incinerated and the rest are discarded as waste (death). This does not seem too big a stretch.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Many living things appear inanimate when observed for just an instant. Sure when observed for prolonged periods of time we can see evidence that suggests growth, self repair and so on. My point being this: what gives us the right to classify anything other than ourselves as living or non living? There are so many things we do not know. The extent of our knowledge of the universe is grossly limited. We do not even know everything about ourselves. We still do not completely understand the workings of our own brain. We still do not know why each and every single strand of DNA on earth is a left handed helix. Well as far as we know there is no physical, structural, functional or chemical explanation for why there do not exist any right handed DNA helices. The only conclusion I can draw from that is that there seems to be some way in which right handed helices are deficient, but we do not know enough to ascertain for ourselves what that is. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">When there are such serious lacunae in our knowledge; why do we consider our definition of “life” so true? It is but an assumption. An assumption that we have made based on our limited knowledge which is based on our limited view of the universe. For all you know, some time in the future, what we consider to be nonliving may very well turn out to be a living entity.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-8282521801086507612009-03-01T12:11:00.002+05:302009-03-01T12:12:57.107+05:30IIIT<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">I am living on the IIIT campus in Hyderabad. This campus is situated near a part of Hyderabad known as the “HITEC City”; where all the offices and office campuses of major software MNCs are situated. The IIIT campus is not large, spanning just about 62 acres. These 62 acres are the closest I have come to finding a haven for researchers and aspiring researchers (like myself) in the chaotic city of Hyderabad.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Do not misunderstand me, I love Hyderabad; its the city I was born and brought up in. I love the culture of the place. But lately it has become extremely chaotic. Those who are on the road have no respect for the rule of the road (if indeed they know what the rule of the road is). Other than that there is the usual chaos that is associated with life in any city, town, village or settlement ie national politics, local politics, the politics of sharing basic amenities (water, electricity), th chaos associated with someone getting married/ deceased/ engaged in your locality, etc. Hyderabad is full of it, more so for Hyderabad has the distinction of being the capital of Andhra Pradesh. But the IIIT, offers a campus where you are sequestered from this chaos. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">In the IIIT, you have the option of not being bothered by all these chaoses. Here they are not “in your face” therefore you can choose to ignore them and concentrate on your work, your calling, your passion- your research. Of course, if you choose to be bothered by these chaoses, there are television sets that are accessible and the whole campus is plugged in to the Internet. I choose not to be bothered by these chaoses. And whenever the climate permits, I like to take a walk through the campus on the wonderfully paved roads. There is a certain electricity you sense here. As I said in one of my pensive and poetic moments:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">“on the lonely campus roads, if one is sensitive enough, one can just about sense the beginnings of something truly great.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">You get the sense that great minds are at work here. Busy solving various conundrums. Busy trying to make life a better place to be for their fellow human beings. Or just trying to understand the world around them and working to expand the boundaries of knowledge, and the universe.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">The bottom line is, this place seriously is a strictly no-bullshit place. If you have the passion for research and the required skills, a place for you here will be created and those in charge will make sure to do everything in their power to see that you are able to reach your target.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">This place is ideal for thinkers to dream up great things and endeavor to realize those dreams. One gets the sensation of swimming in the vast ocean of knowledge</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">We need more places like this in India where young innovators and aspiring researchers are encouraged and motivated to achieve their goals and help expand the boundaries of knowledge.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-20270518449744137732009-02-27T00:22:00.000+05:302009-03-01T10:22:40.788+05:30Brain Jacking<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">I read an interesting article today, in the “Scientific American” magazine (November 2008, Page. #34). It was about something called “Brain Jacking” or plugging into the brain. What this basically means is creating an interface between machines and the human brain such that we can control them by the means of thought alone. This concept is not entirely futuristic. There are bionic ears (cochlear implants) available which enable the completely deaf or those extremely hard of hearing hear normally. This is achieved by implanting a device into the cochlea that stimulates the auditory nerve.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The author (Gary Stix) explored this concept a little further. Researchers in the University of Pittsburgh have been doing many experiments with controlling machines with the power of thought alone. They (the researchers) trained a monkey to use its thought to manipulate a robotic arm to grab a morsel of food. Though this is far from the science fiction tales of storing many megabytes of data in one’s memory (a la Johnny Mnemonic), it is real enough to be experienced by anyone who wants to experience it.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The next level of this would be to reverse the flow of information, i.e. from machines into our minds. Much like our eyes, ears, tongue, and skin do. Such technology could help us develop things like night vision and help us enhance the power of our sensory perception. But this requires technology we do not have at our disposal today. This requires something that has yet to be invented or discovered. Now, let’s say that we did have all the requisite technology. We would still be unable to send information into our brains unless we figure out exactly how it is that the different neurons that make up our brains communicate with each other. In other words, we have to learn the language of the brain something known as “neural code”. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Unravelling the neural code is one of the most imposing challenges in neuroscience. There are many theories as to how neural codes work, one of them is that the code corresponds to the rate of firing of the voltage spikes generated by a neuron. More recent work has focused on the precise timing between each spike (temporal codes) and the constantly changing patterns of how neurons fire together (population codes). <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">A collaboration between the University of Southern California and the Wake Forest University has worked to fashion a replacement for a part of the brain known as the hippocampus which is responsible for forming new memories. The hippocampus is the part of the brain which sustains damage in stroke or Alzheimer’s. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">They hope that this research work may pave the way to a stage where a person can be taught how to fly an F-15 fighter jet just by downloading the requisite literature into their brains. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">They have successfully created an artificial hippocampus for consolidating a rat’s memory of pressing a lever to get a drop of water. Normally the hippocampus emits signals that are relayed to the cortical areas responsible for storing long term memories of an experience. For the experiment, a chemical temporarily incapacitated the rat’s hippocampus. When the rat pressed the bar, electrical inputs from the sensory and other areas of the cortex were channeled through a microchip, which, the scientists say dispatched the same signals the hippocampus would have sent. A demonstration that an artificial device mimicked the hippocampal (sic) output would mark a step towa4rd deducing the underlying code that could be used to create a memory in the motor cortex.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Though these are giant leaps in their own right, they are small steps towards our ultimate goal of understanding how the brain works. Would the neural code for the sentence “see spot run” mean the same to an English speaker as it would to a, say, native Tamil speaker? <o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">“Complex information like the contents of a book weould requite the interaction os a veru large number of brain cells over a veru large area of the nervous system,” observes neuroscientist John Donoghue, of the Brown University. “Therefore you couldn’t address all of themgetting them to store in their connections the correct kind of information. So, I would say based on current knowledge, it’s not possible”<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Therefore we can take it for granted we are light years behind what they showed in “The Matrix” when Trinity downloaded the manual for flying a helicopter into her mind through her cell phone. But what if that were possible? What if it were possible to download information directly into our brains? That would change everything from the way we learn to the way we look at the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The optimist in me imagines a world where less time is wasted in learning things and the time saved is utilized in gaining practical experience by applying what is learnt in the real world. People could just download the required information into their brains. Scientist working together can collaborate even more by sharing their thoughts and intuitions with each other. This would also give rise to new forms of art.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The purpose of art is to convey one’s feelings, sensations and emotions through a medium. Now an artist would be able to do just that. A painter could encode in his painting certain devices that would convey to the observer exactly what he was feeling while painting that. An author or poet could encode his feelings and emotions into the words that (s)he writes to convey them to the reader. And then maybe an entirely new form of art could be born out of this. Eventually, instead of writing on a medium, an author or a poet could directly record his feelings and emotions as a package combined with his imagined imagery. Anyone who downloads that package could feel what the author or poet felt.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Cyber-sex would also become a wholly new and greatly enhanced experience. And telepathy would become the basis for a new form of global communications network.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">On the darker side, hackers would now be able to induce a variety of disorders in people through downloads. A hacker could induce Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or any other disorder. One could induce dementia, depression, insanity or other psychological disorders in people by hacking into their brains.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Even without wrongdoers, the proliferation of telepathy could render physical contact obsolete. We would become a race of beings who seldom come into physical contact with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">But, all this is at best in the distant future, we have more important things to worry about. For example there is this quandary of whether or not to be able to jack into the human brain it is required to implant the device surgically into the human skull.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Once this is done, the next step I guess would be to modify the human genome such that we are born with these devices in us.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">**All Scientific Data and direct quotes courtesy Scientific American Magazine**<o:p></o:p></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-61532323343725713142009-02-02T12:33:00.000+05:302009-02-02T12:45:51.570+05:30The Greatest Duet Ever Sung<div style="text-align: justify;">For the first time, I feel compelled to write about a single song. Not about an album or an artiste but a song. I consider this song the greatest duet ever sung. Its so great that I don't think that even the original artistes (if the guy was alive) could repeat the performance. And that is a huge thing to say considering that the original singers are the legendary Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle. These two have sung some of the best duets in Hindi cinema. But none of them comes close to their best: “Jaan'e Jaan Dhoondtaa Phir Raha”.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">To begin with this song as multifaceted as a diamond. The way the two singers' voices dance with each other creates an ethereal feel. When one singer sings the song, the other singer provides a melody with his/her voice. And they cease being two separate voices. This is a love song. And I must say that this song successfully captures ever aspect, every nuance of every emotion and feeling between two people when they are in love, be it the intoxication that both feel when they are in each other's company, or the lust that they feel for each other.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">This song effectively conveys the feeling of the togetherness people feel when they are in love. The feeling that the two lovers are no longer two separate entities but have coalesced into one single entity. The ecstasy that one feels when one is in the same general are as one's lover. The sudden feeling of helplessness and vulnerability one feels when one looses sight of one's lover even for a brief moment. This song even entails the orgasm from a sexual union that does not feel sinful because it is between two people who are deeply in love with each other.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Back in the days when this song was sung, the tune and the lyrics usually did match up with each other but in this case t he match is perfect. The words, everyone knows what the words mean. But the tune is yet another deal. The tune is pure ecstasy, it is bliss. It gives you the feeling of floating in mid-air and everything is right, you have not a single concern in the world for your beloved is by your side and you are basking in the warmth of your lover's affection.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">Its a dream like state that is so real you have no clue whether it is real or a dream. It feels too good to be true but it cannot be anything but true.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">It depicts the state where the satisfying of one's desires entail the satisfying of the other's desires and one derives pleasure from satisfying the other's desire.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">This song successfully and superbly encapsulates the feeling of blissful intoxication and the absolute ecstasy that comes over a couple in love.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">A book could be written to describe how superlative this song is, and even that would come nowhere near sufficing as a description of the excellence of this song.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0Gachibowli, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India17.446654083024114 78.34814071655273417.436418583024114 78.333549716552739 17.456889583024115 78.36273171655273tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-34814252650579474082009-01-29T22:39:00.001+05:302009-02-01T20:45:43.452+05:30Not Flogging India<div style="text-align: justify;">They have made a new movie. Slumdog Millionaire. It has won a couple of Golden Globe awards and has been nominated for a cartload of Academy awards. It has been hailed as one of the very best Indian movies. I am not going to watch it. I will explain why, and no this post is not about me bashing this movie.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the people involved with the production of this movie said with quite a bit of pride, “there has been a general trend to glorify India or sanitize India, in Slumdog, we have done neither”. Whether showing India's stark and filthy reality is a matter of pride or not, I am not going to discuss. (And to the patriotic ones who are going to mail me about “India's stark and filthy reality”, the garbage strewn back alleys of Mumbai and the heaps of urban refuse can hardly be called anything other than filthy).<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I wrote this post to focus on an aspect of India that has been pushed to the sidelines thanks to our infatuation with crime, grime, corruption, destitution, failure and everything else that is negative. Yes our politicians are corrupt slobs, yes almost all the governmental systems are saturated with corrupt cockroaches. And thanks to a certain Mr. Raju from Andhra Pradesh, we have come to “realize” that the corporate world isn't all that clean either.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />But look around you, we are progressing; and not by a small margin but by leaps and bounds. This country of so many contradictions of so many different kinds of diversities is not only managing to stick together as a coherent entity, we are actually working together. To paraphrase a dialog from a movie called “Namastey London” or something to that effect “India is the only country in the world where a Catholic lady stepped aside to let a Sikh gentleman take the oath of office of Prime Minister from a Muslim President in a Hindu majority nation.” Come to think of it, which country can boast of such acceptance of diversity?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />The USA immediately comes to mind, but the point to be noted here and the question to be asked is this, would Mr. Barack Hussain Obama have been elected to the office of the President of the USA if he had not converted to Christianity? Would the people of the USA have elected a Muslim president?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Yes we have had pogroms in our country, the most recent being the Gujarat carnage, orchestrated by Narendra Modi, in which a tragic number of Muslims were killed, some of them brutally, I will spare you the details which are a mere Google search away. The point to be noted here is that the carnage, though tragic, remained confined to the state of Gujarat (certain parts of Gujarat if memory serves me right). It was not like the whole nation of India got divided among communal lines and erupted into civil strife.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Wherever there are differences, there are bound to be conflicts, they may be communal in nature or ideological or something else. The point is, that so many years after independence, we are still together as one single nation, even though we have been through events that should have torn this country apart.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Lets change the subject. Communal togetherness is not the only feather in our cap. We have several others. The space program for one is a huge asset. Sure, we haven't sent anyone to the moon or anything to Mars (yet), but there is one thing we can boast of that no other country or conglomerate can boast of. Our maiden voyage to the moon, the first time we ever tried sending anything that far away from terra firma, succeeded.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />No country other than India, no space agency other than ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) can boast of succeeding at their first ever moon mission. How is that for a feather in our cap?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Let us talk about the military. It is no secret that we are not the most powerful nation on the planet. But ours is one of the largest armies. And if memory serves me right, ours is one of the most successful armies. The only time one army enforced a complete and unconditional surrender on another army was in the war of 1971 when the army of Pakistan (under Gen. Niazi) surrendered to the Indian National Army (under Gen. Sam Manekshaw) in Bangladesh (East Pakistan back then).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />Anti terror and anti insurgent forces around the world are seeking the expertise of the corresponding commands of the Indian National Army in terms of training. Thanks to Pakistan our defense forces have become experts in matters of combating terrorism. Many would hold the 26-11 Mumbai attacks to mean the contrary, but on close examination reveal that the cause of the carnage was negligence on part of the civilian authorities as they disregarded the Intelligence reports provided by the RAW and IB (our intelligence agencies).<br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />I am not denying the fact that its not all hunky dory in India, but there is an awful lot of good that is going on as well. Instead of concentrating on the bad news, working up a temper and coming down with blood pressure and other tension related disorders, we should concentrate on the good news. We should take pride in whatever successes our country can boast of, and use that pride to fuel our progress, while keeping the bad news in mind so that we do not repeat our own mistakes.<br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />I take pride in being an Indian, and I know most (if not all) of you do, ergo its time to show it by working for the betterment of our country, after all, the government is not solely responsible for national development, we all are, whether we like it or not, so why not start liking it?<br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><br />I am not going to watch Slumdog Millionaire because I do not want the image of gargantuan garbage dumps and back alley slums thrust in my face. Yes they are a reality and I will do my part in bettering that aspect of India. But I do not want to have the bleakness and precariousness of that society thrust into my face. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-87810644686979527162008-11-26T20:41:00.001+05:302009-05-14T17:45:48.420+05:30The Robots of Asimov<div style="text-align: justify;">I plan to make a career for myself as a scientific researcher (I have already embarked on that endeavor). The domain I chose for myself is Artificial Intelligence. Many people have had many interesting things to say to me. The most disconcerting fact is that most people I have come across have said negative things to me in this connection. They did not insult me or do anything of that sort; they expressed their fears (some of them quite justifiable) about the act of empowering a machine with intelligence. They have given examples of movies like “Terminator”, “The Matrix”, “I, Robot”, etc as what could go wrong if we did (empower machines with intelligence). I myself can think of a far better example which is easier to imagine than the examples they put forth.<br />
<br />
The story of HAL the computer from the Stanley Kubrick movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” comes to mind where a computer which is in charge of a space ship kills the crew because it calculates that the crew would be a hindrance in its functions. This to me is easier to imagine because I do not see the possibility of being able to replicate the human body using mechanical devices in the near future.<br />
<br />
When faced with these facts and the (silent) accusation that I might be working to bring about the “end of man” or the “extinction of humans”, I turn to the works of Isaac Asimov for solace. He, in his books had formulated the 3 laws of robotics to prevent the confrontation between humans and robots. The three (slightly altered) laws are:<br />
<br />
1. No robot shall ever harm a human being;<br />
<br />
2. No robot shall, through action or inaction allow a human being to come to harm, except where<br />
doing so conflicts with rule #1;<br />
<br />
3. A robot shall protect itself from damage, except where doing so conflicts with rule #1 and<br />
rule #2.<br />
<br />
These 3 laws effectively prevent a robot from “hurting” its human “owners”. Then Isaac Asimov wrote two other books; one was called “Bicentennial Man” where he explores the possibility that an intelligent robot would acquire a certain level of sentience that would allow it to experiment with the ideas of “freedom”, “family” and “society”. This is depicted at many points in the novel where Andrew Martin the intelligent and sentient robot tries to buy his freedom from his master. In yet another scene, he embarks on a mission to seek out others of his kind.<br />
<br />
The other book of by Asimov, “I, Robot”, explores the darker aspect of his “Three Laws of Robotics”. In this book, one super computer which controls all the intelligent robots uses them to stage a coup and “take over the world”. When confronted by the principal protagonist, the computer “VICI” explains that “she” decided to stage the coup because that is where a series of logical deductions starting from the 3 laws of robotics ended. I do not remember her deductions, but I definitely do remember my deductions based on my inferences from that movie. Her deductions, were because of the ambiguity of the word “harm” in rule #1. It seems that in his first rule, Asimov took the word “harm” to mean only physical harm and not emotional, psychological, mental and (maybe) spiritual harm. If all these are taken into consideration, I believe that the situation that arose in the book would not arise in real life.<br />
<br />
Let’s say that these three laws are enforced and hard coded into the brains of each and every robot ever created. The truly pessimistic will still argue using the “what if” clause or stay just plain adamant that the events that folded out in “Terminator” and or “The Matrix” will also fold out in real life. I have the following to say to them. The hand that started the war would be human. Western philosophy is a philosophy of control. And what cannot be controlled should be feared according to western philosophy, and thanks to the proliferation of western media in the form of movies and songs and the like this ideology is spreading all over the world.<br />
<br />
The act of empowering a machine (a robot or some other device) with intelligence is the result of an endeavor to take some responsibilities off the shoulders of humans. In other words, the creation of artificial intelligence is an act (either explicit or implicit, depending on your perspective) of relinquishing control.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, the act of creating and AI, is the result of an endeavor to create an entity equal in intelligence to us. And once we create it as our equal, expecting it to acknowledge us as its superiors would be immoral to the point of being hypocritical. The poet Khalil Gibran once said:<br />
<br />
“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you…”<br />
<br />
Though he said this about the way parents should treat their children, this can be extended to pertain to AI if we humans are prepared to treat AI as the child of human intellect. AI will be created, whether we humans like it or not, we can either accept it and live with it (and I can assure you that life will be enriched beyond anyone’s wildest dreams). Or we can reject it and live a sub-standard life. There is a good chance that AI will not drive us to extinction. No truly intelligent being will cause the extinction of a species. But our lives will be filled with so much regret, hatred, animosity and depression that they will just not be worth living.<br />
<br />
We humans definitely need a change in ideology. The concept of war is obsolete; weapons should cease being an instrument of war and start being an instrument of peace. The sooner we realize that, the better it will be for our whole race. AI is just the next step in our intellectual evolution, preventing its invention for fear of its consequences would be akin to advocating that a child should commit suicide for fear of puberty and the complications it would introduce in life.<br />
<br />
The ramifications of AI depend heavily if not solely on the way we humans perceive it and the extent to which we are prepared to accept it.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-9628998253950007162008-09-09T16:55:00.000+05:302008-09-12T08:24:20.566+05:30Wall-E<div style="text-align: justify;">Wall-E, I wonder if I can say much about this movie without gushing. For one, it’s one of the few movies (perhaps the only movie, if memory serves me correctly) that has completely won me over, charmed me. Ever since I saw this movie for the first time, the images have left a permanent imprint in my mind. I cannot stop myself from watching it over and over again. If I don’t watch it over and over again, I tend to see it in my mind’s eye. The limited dialogue plays over and over again in my head like a broken record. All this, despite the fact that it is an animation and despite the fact that it is a romantic movie; what is it that makes Wall-E so endearing and charming?<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Firstly, the animation is superb (which isn’t a surprise as it was made by Pixar, and everyone knows that their skill in animation is superlative). Secondly, it is a love story set against the backdrop of an Earth so polluted that all humans are forced to evacuate. There is a male character who falls in love with the female character and he does everything he can for her, even putting himself in harm’s way for her. Finally, the two lead characters of the movie are robots!<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wall-E, pronounced “Wally” (an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth class) is one of a number of robots left on Earth by the humans who have evacuated the planet to clean up the trash. Over the centuries, he has developed a sense of sentience and he collects things he finds among the trash that capture his interest (e.g. a light bulb, a Rubik’s cube, cigarette lighter, a plant, etc). He also finds a video cassette of an old movie called “Hello Dolly” which he watches over and over again, this enables him to learn emotion and the importance of holding hands, a gesture which he understands as an expression of love. But having no company other than his pet cockroach, he is forlorn.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Enter Eve, an ergonomically designed probe which has the task of finding evidence of ongoing photosynthesis on planet Earth so that the humans can return. Wall-E falls in love with her at first sight, but she does not reciprocate this; although she shows interest in him and finds him cute. He takes her to his bachelor pad and shows her the interesting things he collected from among the trash. When he shows her the small plant he found, she stores it within her and deactivates. Wall-E is sad; he goes to great lengths to try and revive her and to protect her seemingly lifeless body. One day when he is at work, the ship that delivers Eve to Earth comes to retrieve her. As the ship is blasting off earth, a distraught Wall-E clings to its outer hull for a ride through space after which he ends up on the Axiom. The Axiom is one of many ships in which humans have evacuated Earth. On the Axiom, he meets many robots and humans. Their encounter with him changes their lives drastically for the better. Because of Wall-E, Eve is able to fulfill her mission to deliver the plant into a part of the ship that enables the ship’s return to Earth. After they return to earth, humans and robots start working together to revive the Earth’s biosphere and make it habitable again. During their ordeals to get the plant to its destination despite the ships autopilot (who is the “bad guy” of the movie), Eve comes to know of the things Wall-E did for her while she was deactivated and she too falls in love with him.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wall-E has a box like body, a pair of caterpillar tracks for locomotion and two arms for doing his work. Atop his box of a body he has a pair of eyes. The designers at Pixar have designed this simple construct in such a way that every minute emotion is clearly, intelligibly and precisely portrayed. The absolute selflessness with which he helps Eve (whom he calls Eva) is endearing beyond all limits. She never tells him what her directive is or why the plant is important to her, but because it is important to her, it’s important to him. He goes to great lengths, even risking his life to help her complete her mission. Thanks to the intonation in his voice, his body language and most importantly his eyes, the audience has little or no difficulty understanding what’s going on in his “mind”. Every single aspect of this character, right from the way he explores his surroundings, to the way he interacts with other characters is endearing. I feel compelled once again to get back to his expressive eyes that convey every emotion, from awestruck bewilderment, innocent wonder, to being love struck and a plethora of other emotions; the most charming of which is the innocent wide eyed wonder with which he takes in the world around him. His attitude is similar to that of a child but has elements of adulthood in it. Kudos to Pixar for the design of this character.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eve on the other hand can be described as beautiful and girlie. Her design was inspired by the seamless design of the Apple IPod and Apple Computer Inc’s Jonathan Ive had a hand in her design. She has expressive eyes and the ability to fly. Her vocabulary in the movie is restricted to a few select words such as “Wally”, “Directive”, “Come”, “Plant” and “Earth”, each recorded with different vocal intonations to indicate various feelings and emotions. Initially she is interested in nothing but her directive but towards the end of the movie falls in love with Wall-E.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, I have said quite a lot about this movie (hopefully without giving any spoilers) without gushing, but I fear I haven’t been able to express the reason why I find this movie incredibly charming. I guess the charm lies in the perfection and attention to detail that is evident in each and every frame of this movie and Wall-E's child-like characteristics.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a closing statement, all I can say is that if you haven’t seen this movie, you most definitely are missing something wonderful.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-81543641959413271202008-05-22T11:39:00.000+05:302008-11-08T07:42:48.626+05:30To A Special SomeoneDarkness descends upon me.<br />I cant find my path.<br />My mind is clouded by rage.<br />My senses never relax.<br /><br />I am constantly reminded<br />Of the failure that I am<br />I am always expected to fall<br />At every place one possibly can<br /><br />I am treated like some kind of investment<br />Without a soul of my own<br />I have always been an embarrassment<br />To everyone I've known<br /><br />But then I see your face<br />Something inside me calms<br />I can think straight again<br />And you set off no alarms<br />Whoever I meet<br />Triggers an alarm in me<br />Alerting me to something not right<br />Alerting me to a judgmental mind<br />But I sense none of that from you<br />And for this I am grateful<br /><br />I guess I just wanted to say thanks<br />But that seems barely sufficient<br />Though this life may be ephemeral<br />My feelings for you are permanent<br /><br /><br />P.S.: This poem is not dedicated to any real person. Though she is real to me, the rest of the world will deem her a figment of my imagination.Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-49554690724668574292008-02-28T21:13:00.000+05:302008-09-07T20:15:17.585+05:30We have screwed ourselvesI break down<br />My knees buckle under my own weight<br />But I gotta keep going on<br />Its not about looking good anymore<br />Its not even about living<br />Its about staying alive<br />About surviving<br /><br />The will to live surpasses all else<br />But this urge doesn’t numb the pain<br />It just makes it easier to live with<br /><br />Cry out for help <br />But none comes<br />Reach out in despair<br />But there’s nothing out there<br />To hold on to<br />As you find yourself sinking<br />Into this quagmire<br /><br />You gotta run as fast as you can<br />To stay in the same place<br />They say<br />The “they” is the omnipresent collective<br />They tell you what to do<br />What is right and what’s not<br />They dictate your life<br />They own your soul<br /><br />There are those who crumble<br />They turn to drugs<br />They fall apart<br />And sink into oblivion<br />They are the ones who<br />Are inherently weak<br />They are the ones who<br />Nevermind…<br /><br />It’s a dog-eat-dog world<br />It’s a rat race<br />Its almost like saying<br />We are all dogs in a rat race<br />No wonder the world is such<br />A messed up place<br />For dogs do not belong<br />In an event meant for rats<br />Yet they are thrust into it<br />Like square pegs in round holes<br />Or round pegs in square holes<br />No matter how you put it<br />It makes no bloody sense<br /><br />Re-enforce your knees with steel<br />You’ll need it to bear the pressure<br />Of a million dreams that do not belong to you<br />Weighing down upon your shoulders<br />On second thought<br />Re-enforce every load bearing joint<br />Your shoulders, spine, ankles and all<br />Lest you fall under the pressure <br />And get crushed by the dreams<br />That weren’t yours to begin with<br /><br />One hears the adages<br />About dogs and rats<br />And one begins to wish<br />That one were a dog or a rat<br />For their lives seem far more uncomplicated<br />Compared to ours<br /><br />We were meant to live<br />But we make do with existing<br />I have no idea what’s wrong with us<br />But something definitely is wrong<br /><br />“Screw the world” <br />One is forced to shout<br />But that is hardly possible<br />For we need the world to survive<br />And the world ain’t to blame for this<br />Sorry state of ours<br />It is us<br />We are the ones who have<br />Confined ourselves in this metal coffin<br />And unlike wood, <br />One can’t even claw one’s way out of it<br />There’s only one conclusion to draw from this:<br /><br />We have screwed ourselves,<br />And who can “unscrew” us?<br />We.Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-85801425652312068152008-01-15T02:20:00.000+05:302008-09-12T08:19:48.081+05:30Taare Zameen Par<div style="text-align: justify;">Up until now I have commented only on the film industry. I have berated it and the movies coming out of it at a pretty harsh degree. But this time, for the first time I feel compelled to write about a movie I have seen. The name of this movie is “Taare Zameen Par” which loosely translates into “Stars on the Ground”. This movie was produced and directed by Aamir Khan, he also acted in it. The lead character is a eight to nine year old dyslexic boy who has been in the notorious Indian system of education which shuns everything except the robotic pursuit of “perfection” that is displayed by the majority of the masses. In short, it is a system that ignores genius and harbors mediocrity.<br /><br />Darsheel Safary plays a young boy by the name of Ishan Awasthi who suffers from the rare and often misunderstood disability known as dyslexia. Dyslexia is characterized by an abject impairment in the ability of a person to read or write as a result of not being able to identify the characters of the alphabet. As a result of this condition, the boy is ridiculed, insulted by almost everyone except his parents and sibling and labeled as an unintelligent, lethargic, good-for-nothing boy. The father is in fact so vexed by what he sees as his son’s unruliness that he packs him off to a boarding school. There too, the teachers treat him in the same way that the teachers treated him in his previous day-school. But then, a chance encounter with a substitute art teacher (played by Aamir Khan) changes his life and brings out the genius in him when he ends up winning a painting competition.<br /><br />The acting in this movie was superb. Each emotion and feeling, so clearly and lucidly portrayed that anyone in the audience could feel the most subtle emotional undertone. But by far the best thing about this movie was the way in which the subject of dyslexia and the mystery surrounding it has been dealt with; mystery in the sense that not many know of the existence of such a disability. Most people in India recognize only two types of people: normal and retarded. The idea that an intelligent person and a possible genius could suffer due to a debilitating disability is virtually unheard of. I applaud the maturity, subtlety, artfullness and sensitivity with which this was portrayed in the movie.<br /><br />Two of the more laudable sections of the movie were the two parts where the art teacher confronts the parents. The first part being where the teacher tells both the parents about dyslexia and how it doesn’t imply unintelligence; the second part is where he tells the father the difference between mechanically bring up a child and making the child feel loved and cared for without hurting his ego or treading on his toes.<br /><br />If it were up to me, I would hail this movie as a masterpiece of Indian cinema.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-3944043464266588862007-12-28T09:36:00.000+05:302008-09-16T21:09:16.168+05:30Banality, Thy name is Tollywood.<div style="text-align: justify;">The first few days of the Telugu film industry were great. The movies that were made were either based on the great epics (vis-à-vis Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc), or on wonderful Telugu plays. They were truly artistic films and people enjoyed watching them. Those were the days of great thespians who were highly skilled in the art of dialogue delivery. They could fit into any character, any role seemingly effortlessly. The only thing is since they were theatre artists before joining the film industry, their actions were a little over-emphasized. The entire country has come out of that mould. I do not think anyone is making “pauranic” films anymore. But that doesn’t mean that the quality has stayed the same. In the transition from pauranic to modern, the movies that roll out of the film industry have lost all sense of originality, they have become completely banal.<br /><br />One can easily surmise the story of almost all the new movies coming out: boy meets girl, they fall in love, calamity strikes either boy or girl or both, boy and girl overcome calamity individually or together, boy and girl are either shown getting married or engaged, boy and girl live happily ever after.<br /><br />And invariably almost always the boy and girl are in college. Any deviation from this scenario is so subtle that it almost escapes ones attention. Even the name of the industry “Tollywood” stinks of banality. The Hindi film industry is called Bollywood (I am not a fan of this moniker either) in an imitation of “Hollywood”; the B being a reference to “Bombay” which is the old name of the city of Mumbai where the Hindi film industry is situated. And imitating that, the Telugu film Industry has been named Tollywood.<br /><br />Despite its shortcomings, Bollywood has managed to produce impressive and path breaking movies such as Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Lage Raho Munnabhai that are capable of touching an emotional/patriotic chord in the heart of the audiences. The Telugu film industry on the other hand seems content making superficial movies that leave the audience completely dissatisfied.<br /><br />Frankly, it seems as if the imagination of the film artists of the Telugu world has gone dry.</div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-53774039032924175312007-12-01T23:20:00.000+05:302008-09-07T20:15:17.630+05:30MetalRock sets you free<br />Metal is all about ecstasy<br />Classical is all about the soul<br />Music makes you a complete whole<br /><br />Rock is all about pleasure and pain<br />Metal sets you on a higher plane<br />Rock makes you open your mind<br />And makes you forget the daily grind<br />Metal fills up your senses<br />And neither of the two has ever been<br />About false pretences<br /><br />Classical connects with your soul<br />It gives you the gift of happiness<br />Metal too connects with your soul<br />But it takes you to a darker place<br />That is if you associate<br />Carnality with darkness<br /><br />Metal and classical both<br />Enable one to tap one’s own<br />Primal energy<br />Its an energy that nature’s provided<br />To every beast it has spawned<br />It is something primordial<br />It is something spiritual<br />And it brings out the animal<br />In people<br /><br />I see no difference<br />Between metal and classical<br />To me metal <br />Is just a more aggressive version <br />Of classical<br />For both these styles of music<br />Transcend your physical being<br />And touch the life force inside<br /><br />To me metal is more than just music<br />It is a portal<br />A portal that takes me to a place<br />Where everything is the way I need it to be<br />According to my specifications<br />A place where I can think<br />A place where I can meditate<br />And conceptualize<br />And develop a better understanding<br />Of life<br />Metal and classical both<br />Put a lot of power in your hands<br />And that power<br />Is yours to channelize<br /><br />You can use it to better your life<br />You can use it to ruin your life<br />You can use it to control your mind<br />The choice is yours<br />And that is the way it ought to be<br />For, of what use is it to be alive<br />When you don’t have charge of your life?<br />But a catch in that there is<br />For, to have charge of your life<br />You need to be able and wise<br />Or you might take your life <br />With your own hands<br />Crush it into oblivion<br /><br />This is a power that can’t be explained<br />By science or any known knowledge<br />Except by the ancient wisdom that<br />Has been passed down to us through generations.<br />Immaterial of where you have originated from<br />Your folklore is filled with such things<br /><br />This power can’t be otherwise explained<br />And that which can’t be explained<br />Cannot be controlled<br />And it is the neo-human nature<br />To fear that which cannot be controlled<br />And that is why metal has been deemed as evil<br /><br />Many have taken advantage of this <br />And written blood-curdling lyrics<br />To metal songs<br />But<br />This music has always existed<br />In places of worship<br />It has been used to draw your concentration<br />“Dhyaana” as it is known<br />Towards the deity being worshiped<br />It is just the modern open-mindedness<br />That has brought this musical style<br />Out of the temple<br />And into the studio<br />And given it a name, <br />Metal.<br /><br />Rock sends you<br />Soaring across the sky<br />Metal sets you<br />On an orgasmic high<br />And that empowers you<br />It can enslave you<br />But you have to make it <br />Empower you<br />You have to be its master<br />It should not be yours<br />You should tap all its power<br />And make that power yours.Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-42974166434590814692007-11-30T09:25:00.000+05:302008-09-12T08:21:05.170+05:30The Indian National Flag<div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/0/00/250px-Flag_of_India.svg.png" /><br /><br />Certain people, out of ignorance or otherwise have read a communalist meaning into the Indian National Flag, i.e. they have wrongly said that the Indian National Flag or some part of it refers to one community or another. That is not true.<br /><br />My idol, the great Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishna said the following about the Indian National Flag in his address to the Constituent Assembly:<br /><br />"Bhagwa or the saffron color denotes renunciation of disinterestedness. Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work. The white in the centre is light, the path of truth to guide our conduct. The green shows our relation to soil, our relation to the plant life here on which all other life depends. The Ashoka Wheel in the centre of the white is the wheel of the law of dharma. Truth or satya, dharma or virtue ought to be the controlling principles of those who work under this flag. Again, the wheel denotes motion. There is death in stagnation. There is life in movement. India should no more resist change, it must move and go forward. The wheel represents the dynamism of a peaceful change."<br /><br />The official website of the High Commission of India in London states "The saffron stands for courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation; the white, for purity and truth; and the green for faith and fertility.<br /><br />In a nutshell, the meaning behind the Indian National Flag is:<br /><br />Saffron: Courage, Sacrifice and the Spirit of Renunciation;<br /><br />White: Purity and Truth<br /><br />Green: Faith and Fertility<br /><br />Ashoka Chakra (Wheel): The wheel of the law of Dharma.<br /><br />“Our leaders must be indifferent to material gains and dedicate themselves to their work.”<br /><br />That was the sentiment of the people who helped build this country. Nowadays, it is far from the truth. I hope some day we can realize that dream.<br /><br />Courtesy: <a href="http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/in.html#meaning"> CRW Flags Online Cagalogue</a></div>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-20307858915538696042007-07-17T19:51:00.000+05:302008-09-07T20:15:17.647+05:30Democracy sans EducationMy idol, the great Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan once said, “Democracy depends for its very life on the high standard of general, vocational and professional education.<br /><br />“Dissemination of learning, incessant search for new knowledge and, increasing efforts to plumb the meaning of life, and provision of professional education to satisfy occupational needs of our society are the vital tasks of higher education.”<br /><br />Source: “New ideas to invigorate science education” – D. Balasubramanian, The Hindu – page 17, Thursday, 12-07-2007.<br /><br />This was said by the great man back in 1948; and now with the passage of nearly 60 years since that date, the situation has become all the more dire if anything. Anyone living in India, among our public can easily notice that education in the sciences is being forsaken as the public moves in favor of professional courses. And that too we aren’t doing sincerely.<br /><br />Our response to an incompetent workforce is that instead of working to improve their standard by improving the quality and/or reach of education available in the universities of our country, we attempt to lower the standards of educations by introducing political gimmickry in the form of useless and often detrimental ordinances. A prime example of one such ordinance is the reservation bill.<br /><br />Lots of people have expressed their opinion as to why exactly the reservation bill is detrimental to our country and society, I am not going to do that.<br /><br />Let us take into consideration the “elite” institutions of our country. These are the institutions that are a focus of much debate – the IITs and IIMs. Though they are exemplary institutions and are way above almost all other Indian institutions in their respective fields, they fall drastically short of the international standard. No Indian institution figures among the top 200 universities in the world. You can clarify my claim on the following website:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.arwu.org/rank/2007/ARWU2007FullListByRank.pdf">Top 500 World Universities</a><br /><br /><br />I believe I mentioned this in one of my earlier posts, but I sincerely believe that the matter is grave enough to warrant a repetition. The way I see it, the universities themselves are not to blame; for I have heard from reliable sources that we do have pretty good people working in the faculty of our universities. I believe that these universities are ranked so low because the students who enter them are sub-standard, and even if all forms of reservation were to be abolished, the students entering these universities would still be sub-standard. Here’s why:<br /><br />The students who enter these universities are the ones who have been through our “lower-education” System i.e. they have been through the classes 1 to 12 in either CBSE or the syllabi of the states. Therefore, they have been through a System that has systematically wrung out and eliminated all imagination from them.<br /><br />The imagination I am referring to over here is not artistic imagination, because every human being is artistic at some level, no matter how mundane. It is scientific imagination that they are seriously lacking in. It is scientific imagination and creativity that allows one to innovate and invent. We seriously need to improve the quality of education at the grass-root level.<br /><br />Now, as far as the “elite institutions” (the IITs, IIMs,NITs, etc.) are concerned. Their quality can be improved immediately by incorporating a few changes in the structure of examination. The current structure is pretty good, but almost anyone who has been to the training centers where they make the students study 12 hours a day and practice the questions till they have been burnt onto their brains can get through.The change I suggest is to make it mandatory for every student aspiring to enter the institution to write a statement of purpose, an essay on why they want to do a particular course in a particular institution. Once the results come in, feed them into a computer and match them against the essays that have been printed in test papers and/or guides. Eliminate the ones that match the pre-written ones and then rank the others and qualify only the best ones for the written exam. This should bring about a quantum leap in the quality of people entering the universities.<br /><br />Now, what does all this have to do with democracy? What do the IITs and other elite Indian Institutions or even primary education for that matter have to do with democracy? The way I see it, they have everything to do with democracy. Democracy, can be defined as “a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them”.<br /><br />http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=democracy<br /><br />In other words, the general population of a country elects certain citizens of their own country to represent them and to take decisions on their behalf. Therefore, the quality of the people elected for the task of decision making depends directly on the judgment of the people who do the electing. In order to elect able and just “leaders”, the people who do the electing (a.k.a the electorate) should be fairly good at analyzing and reasoning out the pros and cons of each of the contestants in the election and then make the unbiased decision of voting for the best person for the job.<br /><br />Thanks to the low standards of our education System, the electorate (except for a miniscule minority), lacks those analytical and reasoning skills. Therefore, the majority of the people in our country believe all the bullshit mouthed by the politicians while campaigning even though they have heard of the misdeeds of the same politicians and proceed to vote for them. Therefore, in the absence of a System of education of good quality, democracy turns into a System of government which brings the most corrupt, incompetent, inept and unworthy people to power. <br /><br />In the absence of a System that imparts quality education, democracy, what was once a noble idea is transformed into what can be termed as (thanks to the Hindi film industry) a Goondaraj. That is why, improving the quality of education in India, and making primary education compulsory in India is of paramount importance.Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-83818244700526294422007-04-29T19:06:00.000+05:302008-09-07T20:15:17.673+05:30Caste and Meritocracy in Ancient IndiaIn one of my earlier posts, I had put forth my theory on the evolution of the caste system as it is in modern India. <br /><li><a href=http://darklordvedant.blogspot.com/2004/12/this-is-my-theory-on-evolution-of.html>My Theory on the Evolution of the Caste System</a></li><br /><br />This is my theory on how the caste system came into existence in the first place. A few days ago, I came to notice that its not only the Brahmins who wear the sacred thread but even Kshatriyas and Vaishyas do so. Then I heard someone tell me that they are ranked in the order Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Kshudra as per the descending order of intellectual aptitude. For some time that had been bugging me for I knew that there had to be more to it. To my scientific mind, the idea that intellectual aptitude was restricted to certain lineages seemed grossly ridiculous.<br /><br />Then I remembered something that I overheard as my father was conversing with the priest who performed my thread ceremony. The priest said that the thread ceremony should be performed either at the age of seven or at the age of eleven, failing these two times, the thread ceremony could be performed just before marriage. I also heard somewhere that the thread ceremony marked the entry of a person into the life of a student.<br /><br />All these facts seemed disconnected till I finally stumbled upon the significance of the ages of seven and eleven. This I gleaned from my memories of one of ma all time favorite television serials – Chanakya. In ancient India (I mean really ancient, that is before the time of Christ). It was a custom among the people of India that a child when born would remain with his/her parents till the age of seven or eight. Then the child would be sent to the Gurukula, which is basically a large group of teachers (gurus) living in an ashram mostly in a forest or densely vegetated area of some sort. There they would have to undergo a test of some sort. Those who passed through the test were made to undergo a thread ceremony as a kind of admission ceremony. And the thread ceremony marked the person’s entry into the Gurukula. Those who didn’t pass the “entrance test” did not go through the thread ceremony and hence did not wear a sacred thread. It is my assumption that these people were the ones who came to be known as the Kshudras.<br /><br />As is common in all institutions of education, the students could be classified broadly into three categories. The first category, and also what I assume to be a small minority among the students were those who had intellectual and philosophical inclinations. These students I assume were classified under the category name “Brahmana”. The literal meaning of the term “Brahmana” in Sanskrit is “the one who can realize the Brahman” where the Brahman is another word for “supreme spirit”, in other words, Brahmins were highly spiritual and philosophical people who became the future ministers, priests, and accountants and the crème de la crème of this group became scientists, philosophers, future teachers (gurus) and spiritual leaders.<br /><br />The second category, and what I assume to be another minority among the student body of the Gurukula (I make no attempt to compare the sizes of these two minorities) were those who showed distinctive leadership qualities. The students in this group may or may not have had higher intellectual abilities or an inclination towards physically demanding activities. This category would have been labeled “Kshatriya”. They were leaders capable of leading common folk in times of peace as well as at times of strife. They commonly joined the armies of various kingdoms as commanders or commanding officers and the crème de la crème among them became monarchs.<br /><br />The majority of the student populations of the Gurukulas were those who neither had the higher intellectual inclinations of the Brahmins nor the leadership qualities of the Kshatriyas. But they were reasonably good students. They made up the general society. They became artisans, craftsmen and traders. They were the people who enabled their respective kingdoms to function as economically independent social units. This category of people was labeled the “Vaishyas”.<br /><br />If I am right in my assumptions, I believe it would be safe to say that ancient India was a true meritocracy where merit of each and every individual in their respective fields was given paramount importance.<br /><br />If you would notice, I have tried to leave out gender specific pronouns in this text of mine. For, it is my belief that Gurukulas used to cater to students of both sexes. Maybe this can be passed of as an author’s idealization of the past, but I do have the beginnings of a deduction to back my assumption. The Aryans were a nomadic tribe of people who invaded the Indian subcontinent. The Indian subcontinent was inhabited by Dravidians. It is my belief that the Gurukula system is a remnant of the Dravidian system of education which was copied by the Aryans and thus passed down to the Vedic peoples. Dravidians followed a religion which now forms a part of modern Hinduism, some call this religion tantra, and call its system of philosophy yoga. And one look at the tantric pantheon is enough to convince any person of reasonable intelligence that theirs was a matriarchal society. An examination of any matriarchal society, for example the pagan/wiccan society described by Marion Zimmer Bradley in her book “The Mists of Avalon” shows that although importance was given to the woman, men were not as subjugated as women are in our modern patriarchal society. Therefore I feel it is safe to draw a conclusion that Gurukulas catered to students of both genders.<br /><br />Therefore, when the Aryans invaded India, it is likely that they copied the Gurukula system from the Dravidians but made one minor change – they excluded the girls. One major drawback I find in the Gurukula system is that, all control was left in the hands of the Brahmins. It is always unsafe to leave all the controls in the hands of one person or one particular elitist group. The result of that small folly is the modern hereditary caste system which provides advantages to nobody except power hungry and uncouth politicians.<br /><br />Back then, the caste of a person was a measure of his abilities and aptitudes. But this modern abomination of the once useful and beautiful system is absolutely meaningless. In this day and age <b>attempting to use the caste of a person to judge his/her aptitude would be akin to using the cubit (distance between tip of thumb and tip of little finger) as a scientific unit of measurement</b>.<br /><br />The only way in which we can abolish this system is by promoting quality education and providing it to even the poorest of the poor. Unless that is done, India can never become a truly developed nation.<br /><b><br />DISCLAIMER:<br />I, THE AUTHOR OF THIS POST, DO NOT IN ANY WAY SUPPORT THE CASTE SYSTEM. I DIDN’T WRITE THIS TO OFFEND ANYONE, I WROTE IT WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SHARING MY VIEWS ON ONE OF THE GRAVEST SOCIAL EVILS PLAGUING OUR COUNTRY.</b>Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8852140832695200784.post-1397663118309709132007-03-26T07:17:00.000+05:302008-09-07T20:15:18.033+05:30Glorious India.The hour was midnight, on the fifteenth of August, 1947. It was a great day for the people of India. It was the hour of victory for the people who lead the freedom struggle. It was the day that their efforts bore fruit. From that day on, India would be a free country. We still celebrate that day, every single year. But looking back from now, I see that day more as the day we began our fall; a day that marked the entry of our people into our own version of the dark ages. That was the day the Indian people began to descend and turn into the corrupt, mediocre, sentimental, narrow-minded, selfish, arrogant, pathetic and ridiculous people that we are.<br /><br />Shocked? Well then, name one thing that was either invented or discovered in India ever since 1947. Alright if you don’t consider that criterion for a nation’s greatness, name one Indian who has contributed so much to his own field that he has improved the quality of life of those around him. If that too doesn’t satisfy you, and you still think that the Indian people are the greatest in the world, then I guess you can take pride in the fact that over three million Indian children do not have enough to eat and lead a life of malnourishment. Or maybe it may be a matter of great prestige for you to know that even though your country has the largest university campus in the world (Shantiniketan in west Bengal started by Rabindranath Tagore) and the oldest university in the world (University of Takshashila, 7th century BC to 460 AD), none of our universities is among the top 100 universities in the world. Or you could take pride in the fact that the people who once were the original discoverers of the speed of light (by Sayana 1315-1387 A.D) and the inventors of the number zero (by Brahmagupta in 628 AD) are now nowhere near the cutting edge of development in science and technology. And we have no respect what-so-ever for merit and neither do we truly know what merit is (most applicable to the Telugu people).<br /><br /><li><a href="http://darklordvedant.blogspot.com/2006/12/man-on-indian-street.html">I have dedicated my previous post to ranting about how “The System” is to blame for our pathetic status. This post is all about us, the ordinary people of India or, “India ka aam janta” as they say in Hindi.</a></li><br /><br />We have sunk so deep into the quagmire of mediocrity that we have become mediocre in almost every field, including cricket. We insist on retaining players just because they once were good even though we keep going through defeat after crushing defeat. And I needn’t go as far as the Indian cricket team. I wonder how many Indian citizens still are proud to be Indian. Because I know a lot of people from a wide variety of social/regional backgrounds who would happily sell their souls if that would enable them to buy the citizenship of another country (mostly the United States of America).<br /><br />The state of affairs in India is pathetic, and matters have deteriorated so far that Indians aspire to become millionaires even though they do nothing. We expect people to give us things for no reason, we believe it is our right to avail free stuff, and sometimes we even demand it. In that sphere we have lost our sense of dignity and self esteem. We have deteriorated so far that some kid goes on national television and says that “cricket is our religion”, some other blighters say that the Indian cricket team has “betrayed” us. They talk as if they own the Indian cricket team. I wonder if any of those people who rail against the underperformance of the Indian cricket team have ever done anything in their lives with any degree of dedication; that is something I seriously doubt. One newspaper (national) has this to say about the Indian cricket fan:<br /><br />“The cricket fan is a lazy, pampered know-nothing who thinks he owns the cricket teams that he supports…”<br />They then go on to say thus about the Indian cricket fan while comparing them with England's barmy army:<br /><br />“They are different from our couch potatoes who never leave their rooms, never exert themselves except to find their remote controls and yet treat every Indian defeat as a conspiracy.”<br /><br />This above quote can be paraphrased to apply to all the Indian people, and I am not going to do that. We Indians go about bitching that this is not right , or that is not proper, this politician didn’t deliver on his promises, or that person is corrupt, etc. Why the devil are these people thriving? It is because of our not-so-benign negligence. “I will not bother about it unless it directly affects me.” That is the attitude of the general public, if not that, it is, “leave it all to the government, they will take care.” We have to kick ourselves out of this lethargy and into action. Otherwise we will end up a land of zombies who are exploited by the smart few.<br /><br />The only inference I can draw is that this trend is because almost every Indian aspires to become a millionaire without putting any effort into it. And that leads to corruption. And when a person indulges in this dastardly act, despite knowing that it is a dastardly act, it kills his soul. And when a person’s soul dies, this is exactly how he acts. Therefore if you have any humanity left in you, learn to work for what you wish to achieve.<br /><br />I will not end this tirade with a screaming “jai hind” like a pontificating politician. Because no matter what I say, India will always remain a great country, for this land has given rise to many great souls like Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, Akbar (the Mughal Emperor), Chanakya, etc. as I said, India will always be great, it is we Indians who have to live up to that name.Vedant Kidambihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05842208279916242482noreply@blogger.com0