Superconductivity at room temperature ambient pressure. Reaaaaaly!

 

This is just wow, if it's true (considering that there were some false claims in recent past) and there are reasons to be optimistic. Indications are pointing to a major breakthrough by Korean scientists. Superconductivity is childhood dream come true scene. When I first saw superconductivity explained on TV with that floating resistant free thing moving around I was wonderstruck. During those days -mid 80s, it was hot topic in school (nuclear fusion was another source of intrigue). Then I forgot about it, some occasional mention here and there, nothing much. Just now I came to know about Korean scientists claims (that is being peer reviewed and we will come to know about its veracity in few days), that reputed quantum researchers are involved gives hope (as also credible youtube channel has gone through the paper in detail and asserts that this could be it). The implication of this achievement is paradigm shifting (yes this the appropriate context to use this term!). This is exciting time. How I sincerely hope they have achieved it. Again. Wow and Wow!         

Appreciable initiative by Indian Railways

 

Indian railways has recently taken the decision to provide meals for general coach i.e. unreserved (UR) compartment for 20R (poori-dry aloo with pickle). This is commendable and long awaited. General compartments are where the poorest travel which essentially means majority of Indians, and is almost always many times original capacity. So, wherein normal compartment provides about ninety berths for ninety people, general compartment is occupied by five to six times the capacity therefore about 500 odd people. I have travelled in UR quite often when I was young as I used to travel to nearby small towns of Delhi at short notice. I have also observed how people travel long distance in these hellholes. It’s so packed that once you are in it is quite difficult to move around let alone go out to buy during stoppages, also it’s disconnected so even pantry food don’t reach, so they rely on small time vendors. It is heartbreaking scene, and little care is what matters. Everyday millions of people travel in appalling conditions and it seems nobody was really bothered. So, after so many decades policy makers have taken such decision shows the new ecosystem at work. That someone with compassion proposed this, and instead of silencing him or her and carrying on as if nothing can be done or that it is fated, decision makers decided to work on it is what makes this refreshing. Significantly the choice of the food and pricing also shows that care was taken and the issue deliberated. Poori is what common people generally carry for long distance travel. It is easy and quick to make in large quantity, doesn’t take much space nor gets easily spoiled and lasts long. Ofcourse, aloo/potato spoils hence they generally prefer pickle, and yes sliced onion and green chilies. This is something I have seen many times all across the north and central part of the country. Instead of aloo, pickle will do and therefore more pooris can be added or price reduced -this can be of much help for long distance travelers with limited capacity to spend, also big chunks of onion and chilies could be included. The question of  how it will be delivered remains. Hopefully stalls are placed where the UR compartments stops or these are loaded onto the compartment (arduous task since there is never really any space). Chance of creating artificial shortage hence stampede is quite high. There are people in primitive society who would like to keep fate/blessed binary in tight leash, this is what policy making was all about (lick those above you, kick those below. It’s a squatter authenticated value system). So, instead of genuinely involved and participate with progressive intent, create diversions, delegate misery, find scapegoat and move on (recall mediocre corrupt likes of CR immortalized "paklaam" in the corridor of power as a code for camaraderie. Instead of working out responsive values they even degraded colonial ways with chalta hai). All the parameters impacting practical application must be studied before these steps are taken. Issues related to hygiene and waste disposal are equally important. To understand those entrenched in power matrix don’t assume best of intention, nor use your benign mindset, these are nurtured in worst frameworks and depraved value systems. To know their motivations you have to watch wildlife channels or read about hunter gatherers (to understand likes of Zk I had to work on the umwelt combining sea slug, glow worm and rabid street dog…even then they shock me with their depravities thus giving insight on people whom they pleased -for instance, to nurture a mediocre crude disgust into some kind of state respected artist brand). Hopefully compassion driven policy making is sustained at action level too. This will give millions of extremely poor people travelling in worst of condition some respite. Also, if roofs of compartments have reflectors (or solar panels) this would reduce the temperature significantly.  

Reclaim

 

Pounded for power,

Reshaped for fancies,

Arranged for profit,

Eviscerated for glitter,

Amassed for greed,

Dumped with unwanted,

Used as a prop,

Violated and occupied,

Fed with toxic, much noise and bright.

Earth starts to shrug,

Burn the rot,

Spit the trash,

Shed the skin,

Stamp the arrogance,

Churn the eons,

Reclaim,

Evolve anew,

The thread that knit life and wonder.   

Presence

This fleeting scene is what you get to witness.

It fast folds winding in dark recess of mind,

To be lost.

With that, all the meaning,

All that was lived,

You start anew,

Wrestle with time,

Anchor your presence,

Take in all that you can,

Extract new meaning.

To repeat,

To be lost,

Cat dies,

Ants feast,

Life grows,

Life dies,

The real transcends.

Read this,

I become immortal.

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.

Mere technicians are not scientists

Structure of Scientific Revolution by Thomas Kuhn is a paradigm shifting book (pun intended since this expression was introduced by Kuhn, and has become part of common exchange in market exaggerated world where every product has become revolutionary and every action paradigm shifting. The expression is so misused that Kuhn admitted that he has “lost control of the word”) written almost six decades back. It is a must read for anyone interested to know how science works, “essential determinants of scientific development”, hence it becomes a must read for everyone since science defines significant aspect of humanity and essentially what is to be a human in the world we live in. Kuhn points out scientific research as a “strenuous and devoted attempt to force nature into conceptual boxes supplied by professional education”. While scientific revolution as “tradition shattering compliments to the tradition bound activity of normal science”. Copernicus, Newton, Lavoisier, Maxwell, Einstein so on produced “consequential shift in the problems available for scientific scrutiny” and “transformed the world within which scientific work was done”. He adds “its assimilation requires reconstruction of prior theory and reevaluation prior facts…an intrinsically revolutionary process is seldom completed by single man and never overnight”. Before streamlined education famous classic fulfilled a similar function. Works of Aristotle’s Physica, Ptolemy’s Almagest, Newton’s Principia and Opticks, Franklin’s Electricity, Levoisier’s Chemistry, and Lyell’s Geology -these and many other works served for a time implicitly to “define legitimate problems and methods of research” for succeeding generations of practitioners.

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.    

So, what are the temple hopping regrets at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) posing as? By no stretch of imagination: a scientist. These are technicians, skilled, but in the context of posing -mere technicians. Technicians are cog in the system; they work to make the system function hence useful. Mere technicians are cog for deeper state aspirations. They are torchbearers of nationalism, partake in crude expressions. They activate worst and degrade society. Trained in limited field with narrow use of intellect they are incapable to fathom wider context of the world, and repercussions. These are failure of education. A technician is unlike a craftsman or artisan. A craftsman is a human, and is deeply involved in the craft as expression of human possibility. A technician can easily be replaced by AI working in narrow parameter of predictable repeated outcomes, and hopefully very soon we are devoid of these dimwit dehumanized technicians that are exaggerated in primitive societies. Mere technicians at ISRO are trying to replicate soft landing on moon wherein much more sophisticated feats were achieved more than 50years back by NASA with human landing! They are replicating undervalued version after five decades. They are not trying to solve any scientific problem or bigger question; indeed, they are incapable to even conceive -as it is reflected from their juvenile embarrassing antics. Accepting anachronistic juvenile premise of religion and its fantastical claims has overwhelming influence on social psychology and implicit biases that creeps into choices and mindset. It severely diminishes scope of critical thinking, innovative ideas, egalitarian value systems and scope for scientific inquiry. It negates human progress and tags it into primitive premise. So, are these people genuinely herd minded or are they cleverly planning this ruse to be elevated as herd controllers is the only question that matters here. We are told that we are in “select club of nations”, it’s showcasing “technological prowess”. This truly has nothing to do with science or scientists -who are essentially involved in quieter aspects of scientific research and a subtler approach with unknown, expound critical thinking and are essential hinge for progressive values. They therefore become aspirational ideals for humanity, important reference for younger generation. 

For the largest populated nation in the planet, with painfully limited contribution to humanity, the mediocrity is not an accident it is nurtured, and celebrated since they lack any reference for excellence or compassionate bearing. The effort is to create narration of blessing, and keep the herd in tight control. From this limited worldview science becomes ritual while scientist are ritualist with sanctum dexterity, and space becomes their natural, indeed entitled, area of expertise. At the most they can do is status quo increment with specific intention to save money, nothing much. This also brings in the issue of semantic generalization. The stricter understanding of the word scientist -conceived with care, may not be applicable in primitive society -kept in degrading chaos, uncertainty and fate. Hence these must be undervalued. It is same for art, sports so on mediocre societies undervalues well defined semantics hence spiral into self-obsession with itself since reality would devastate. So, whether ISRO lands on moon or not, Indians have already lost while humanity gawks in wonder at the juvenile antics of philistines in the semantic garb of scientists. Pity.

**The fact that Indian media is incapable to take responsibility to question the socalled scientist's disgraceful regressive behavior shows how much they are compromised, and need herd for survival. While western posers have already put money on compulsive religiophilia for diversity redemption. As degradations are normalized they worry about democracy and patronize for better world by insisting on entitled role as representing common people into paradise and occasion for moral grandstanding.   

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.”

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.      

 

 WE

ARE IN

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

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”). 

The same denial is what you see by the liberal posing narration controllers as open spaces and democratic ideals are assaulted by vicious herds. Open societies are evolutionary outcomes of brilliant minds with humanistic concerns and egalitarian values, it is an outcome of debates, discussion and exchange of ideas for best possibilities. These are based on social contract of collective will and personal accountability. That makes open societies extremely fragile hence the need for constant vigilance as if the soul of humanity is hinged on it. I was reading Open Societies and Its Enemies by Karl Popper, extremely important book for the times we live in where marauding mobs with various excuses and grievances assault humanity’s cherished institutions and egalitarian values while the safeguards collapse under the chicanery of pandering for immediate gains while using narrative control to distract. It must be understood in clear terms that each and every attempt at restriction of open society is a grievous attack on soul of humanity. Karl Popper understood these threats (there is a chapter on how oligarchs tried to scuttle fledging ideas of democracy). “A closed society at its best can be compared to an organism… A closed society resembles a herd in a semi organic unit whose members are held together by semi biological ties” while open societies move towards abstract hence equip to associate with humanistic global concerns and abstract ideas that have universalistic implications the reason why humans have made astounding progress. Quite clearly transformation from closed society to open society was the “deepest revolution” of humanity. Popper hints at existential crisis that individuals encounter, the source for incisive philosophies on human condition from Nietzsche to Camus to creative expression of literature from Dostoevsky to Kafka or art from Von Gogh to Picasso, “It is a strain created by effort which life in an open society continually demands from us -by the endeavor to be rational, to forgo atleast some of our emotional social needs, to look after ourselves, and to accept responsibility”. Popper writes “we must, I believe, bear this strain as the price to be paid for every increase in knowledge, in reasonableness, in cooperation and in mutual help, and consequently in our chance to survival…it is the price we have to pay for being human”.      

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.