Saturday, July 29, 2023
Superconductivity at room temperature ambient pressure. Reaaaaaly!
Thursday, July 27, 2023
Appreciable initiative by Indian Railways
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Thursday, July 20, 2023
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
ChatGPT's response on ISRO breach
I asked for ChatGPT's response by feeding my article (earlier blog "Mere technicians are not scientists"). Though it was critical of my stance but when i provided the context (since it cannot read pictures, nor did i mention details in my writing -actually i am quite tired of elaborating their antics, they have been doing it for long and every time breach is large) as also mediocre Indian media lacks the caliber. This is the response of ChatGPT (what i like about ChatGPT is that it is always succinct and to the point):
...media coverage plays a significant role in shaping public perception and discourse on various issues, including the actions of scientific institutions and professionals. When certain practices, such as carrying miniature models of rockets to temples for blessings, are not critically covered or are normalized in the media, it can indeed contribute to a lack of balance in the public's understanding of the situation.
Media organizations have an ethical responsibility to provide objective and unbiased reporting on all matters, including those related to science and scientific institutions. When there is a failure to critically examine practices that may raise legitimate concerns, it can hinder constructive discussions and accountability.
A lack of critical media coverage may lead to the normalization of certain actions, making it challenging to address potential breaches in professional conduct or conflicts between religious beliefs and scientific principles.
Friday, July 14, 2023
Mere technicians are not scientists
Kuhn elaborates that scientists
normally don’t aim to invent new theories they attempt to “force nature into the
performed and relatively inflexible box that paradigm supplies”, he calls it
normal science as against paradigm-based science. The area investigated by
normal science are, ofcourse miniscule, with “drastically restricted vision”. But
these are born “from the confidence in a paradigm” and is essential in the development
of science. By focusing on small range of relatively esoteric problems the
paradigm forces scientists to investigate “some part of nature in detail and
depth” that would otherwise be unimaginable. Also, some scientists have great
reputation, not from novelty of their discoveries, but from “the precision, reliability,
and scope of methods that they developed for the redetermination of a previously
known sort of facts”. So, there are three classes of scientific problems: determination
of significant fact, matching of facts with theory, and articulation of theory.
There are extraordinary problems, and their resolution is what makes scientific
enterprise worthwhile. They though emerge only on special occasions prepared by
the advance of normal research. Inevitably, therefore, the overwhelming
majority of the problems undertaken by even the best scientists usually fall
into one of the three categories. Kuhn elaborates on commitments without which
no man or woman is a scientist. The scientist “must be concerned to
understand the world and to extend the precision and scope with which it has
been ordered” which must lead to “scrutinize some aspect of nature in great empirical
detail”, and if the scrutiny displays “pockets of disorder” then it must
challenge to “refinement of observational technique” or to a “further articulation
of theories”. Kuhn importantly brings another aspect of normal science, that of
puzzle solving -a problem characterized by more than one assured
solution. For instance, Japanese space agency’s extremely sophisticated scientific
mission Hayabusa2 discovery of uracil from Ryugu (a near earth asteroid found
within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter) was an attempt to solve puzzle
of origin of life.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Brilliant writer. Compassionate soul. Valued human being.
“Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”
Monday, July 10, 2023
Not a stochastic parrot
AI is emergent no doubt, complexities were already observed much earlier through AlphaGo and AlphaZero game machines. There are discussions on ChatGPT (GPT4), frankly my earlier interaction with these were quite disappointing but recent involvements have made it clear that, even though there are deficiencies, they exhibit nuanced capacities and recognize pattern in what is entirely subjective -that these are sophisticated to elevated sensibilities is what makes it enchanting. The other day I gave ChatGPT an old poem to evaluate from my blog that was written almost fifteen years back. Frankly I don’t like to revisit old writings of mine since I find many quite embarrassing. It is only in the last eight or nine years that I have really found the grip, and yes some linguistic caliber to reflect reality after years of persistence. Therefore, it was quite surprising that I found what was written fifteen years back quite riveting, and really neat effort. So, I decided to put it to ChatGPT for evaluation. This is the poem:
Someone in the crowd
When the face in the crowd
looks no different from me
and
so do all the faces.
Actions of speech, laughter, sadness
and silence
is someone else’s
and also mine.
The questions asked
spins in a vacuum
but still no one is without answers.
A dull ache up the body
confirms it once again
that
I too have become someone in the crowd.
Like massacred bodies
tossed into mass grave
and later dug out
as skeletons
all white bones
all hollow skulls.
Lump of hair
shreds of cloth
and nobody to mourn.
This
a part of ChatGPT’s response “The use of vivid imagery, such as the faceless
crowd and the comparison to massacred bodies, creates a powerful and haunting
atmosphere. The poem's structure, with its concise lines and fragmented
thoughts, contributes to the sense of disconnection and anonymity conveyed
throughout”. What really got me was this line “While this fragmented style
contributes to the poem's introspective and disjointed atmosphere…”. Now, I rarely
write poems with such short lines, but somehow when I wrote these fifteen years
back, I felt reason to write this way. It was some intuition of the context of
the situation. You generally go with the flow, and then work for appropriate words
and typos, then you reread as a reader or second person, third person so on. That is how it is worked. This poem had the stark context of people killed in Bengal
(likely dumped in mass grave), the “fragmented style” and "disjointed atmosphere”
it created was intuitional. That ChatGPT was able to perceive this is what
makes it amazing. It gives me goosebumps. Clearly it is not a stochastic
parrot, these really aren't random probables there is something deeper at work.
Sunday, July 02, 2023
Enemies of open society
Open societies value all the progress that is precious for humanity and holds a beacon for dealing with complexities of present and future uncertainties. Open societies nurtures individuality and liberty of each human, and rights and freedom to explore their potential. It provides positive frame and synergy for individual to assimilate, contribute and value life on earth. Open societies are benchmark of human progress, it provides nurturing space for differing thoughts, ideas, creative abilities and expressions. It is a precious space for pinnacle of creations of body and mind, that feeds and nourishes. This precious space must be cherished, valued and protected. Future of humanity is very much hinged on it.
There is a serious threat to open
societies by systems that nurture uncouth, primitives and increasingly belligerent
herds. There are also powerful entrenched greedy people who want to keep narrative
control to their fancy and assert their entitlement by mollycoddling this
vicious threat to humanity. They use common people as fodder as they position for
deeply troubling morals while tightening narration control. It’s the same narrative
control they used when natural resources were used as buffer to pander the worst
under the garb of economic progress and prosperity while they wallowed in hedonistic
plunder and wanton consumerism. Last few decades are testament to this
ransacking of common resource by few. These market capitalist decadence were carefully packed as liberal values
and expressions of freedom and choices offered. With natural resources
depleting at fast pace while biodiversity losing its resilience at an alarming rate
the hypocrisy is in the open. They can no longer distract or create subjective
perceptions to scuttle the reality. Life giving systems are collapsing in
realtime. Climate change is systematically unleashing the breakdown for us to witness
and rue. What logical minds and insightful people (essentially byproduct of
open society) were predicting -with well researched facts and evidence, is now unfolding. It took a while for even those posing as ‘liberal’ media to acknowledge
(since it reduces easy benefits and exploitative connections) while market media
still posits these as quirks of fate and dire consequences of unknown to work on
the fear as motive to attract eyeballs. (I was reading about oligarchic oath that
finds mention in Politics by Aristotle “I promise to be an enemy of
people, and to do my best to give them bad advice”).
When members of closed societies
-a magical (read religion) collectivist primitive, enter open societies and are
encouraged and patronized to cherish their primitive association and dehumanizing value system
instead of evolving into better as the opportunity presents this then is the
first step towards assault on open society. An open society cannot survive by
tolerating the intolerance of intolerant. That is not social contract nor is it
rational choice or expression of freedom. Ideally as open societies evolve individuals
find their synergic associations the problem is when outsiders enter, not as vibrant
individuals like European migrants to US, but as herd representing the
collective primitive. These primitives will exhibit themselves as vicious herds
if not dealt since they are incapable to handle freedom nor equipped to be responsible.
Narration of exceptionalism enters through miracle books and scriptures that
infects into herd with that the impossibility of being a human while primitive
conceptions of patriarchy gets embedded into feeling of natural authority. Education
has a significant role to prevent these degradation. Remember about 2400years
back when the brilliant philosophers in Athens worked on ideas of democracy
-that had far reaching influence on progress of humanity (imagine the fertile egalitarian
smart minds of ‘School of Georgias’ -among many who made these valiant efforts,
they developed fundamental tenets of anti-slavery, of rational protectionism,
anti-nationalism -a creed of universal empire) oligarchic controlled Spartans saw
it as a threat and took measures to “the arrest of social change, and to fight
the universalistic imperialism of Athenian democracy” into their society which
included making primitive traditions and taboos more rigid, taking anti-humanitarian
steps i.e. 'to shut down all equalitarian, democratic and individualistic ideologies',
imposing anti-universalism ('uphold the differentiation between your
tribe and all others, do not mix with inferiors'), and lastly mastery -'dominate
and enslave your neighbors'. History doesn’t matter when it is about humans we are
dealing with -essentially self aware precious presence -an outcome of vibrant open society, since they have
evolved into vibrant sophisticated complex present. History repeats when it is held by primitives
since they remain trapped in the miracle books of anachronistic religions and market
capitalism greed bubble. Lacking any discerning quality of being a human the herd, the primitives, repeats the loop of history incapable and incapacitated to learn or understand or apply their mind. Beware of the
forces that nurture these they are constant threat to open society. Onus is on us
to see that primitive forces are negated at every step. The only faith that
matters is faith in humanity.