Inirida: the flower that never dies

...meanwhile 23 targets of the Kunming-Montreal COP15 Biodiversity is not on track...

 

I bear the tide

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, 

I’ll rise…

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise 

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide… 

Wrote indomitable precious Maya Angelou in ‘Still I Rise’. These lines were painted over Rudyard Kipling’s poem by conscientious youngsters in one of the UK university. They argue that “Kipling stands for the opposite of liberation, empowerment and human rights –the things that we students stand for”. They add this act as “a statement on the reclamation of history by those who have been oppressed by the likes of Kipling for so many centuries, and continue to be to this day”. This is what right kind of education and awareness does to young. They consolidate values that stand for what is right, unblemished by cynicism and manipulation of the outside world. Insular, unaware, cynical neoliberal goal oriented youth is death of humanity. Maya Angelou was one of the most significant voices of protest and memory of oppression. I am deeply moved by her writing. I feel she wasn’t adequately recognized by the world outside US despite the fact that she remains immensely popular in articulating voices of subjugated masses and protesting people across the world. Unlike Kipling, who chose to be the voice of colonial power and exploitation, authenticated racism ‘white man’s burden’ -the extractive system (surely it cannot be inclusive), adequately rewarded him (he is also the youngest Nobel laureate in Literature! Incidentally prodigious Chekov was very much alive. No writer has taken me in as much as Chekov). He was born in India (so was one of the greatest writer George Orwell -who’s significance surges each day) at Malabar hills -not to be mistaken for Malabar region in Kerala -that would make Kipling a Keralite (!!), the name traces from spice traders who settled from malabar (Malabar hill in Mumbai -one of the costliest locations in India even has Cochin street, Calicut street so on). Kipling was very much influenced by India, clearly as an extractive abstraction since his writing had many racist references eulogizing british colonial empire, and to justify it in the context of times he lived in estimates him as of low intelligence and exonerate his lack of basic humanity least from an immensely talented writer.    

So, I was reading britishery of british media. Jingo imperialism marches on lacking basic humanity or universal concern, insular in entitlement, continuing arrogance of theatre of medieval absurdity wriggling into modernity. It so happened that british ‘royals’ are visiting (touring is the word used) Australia, and continuing with the anachronistic colonial entitlements they also are head of state. Incidentally British monarchy is head of state of 15 countries, and if you go through the list, except Australia, Canada and New Zealand, all the remaining 12 countries are insignificantly small or too poverty ridden and weak to assert itself. So what is it about Australia, Canada and New Zealand? Well, these are white dominated countries, the same white people who were part of colonial britishers who decided to settle in the land after appropriating resources and decimating original inhabitant into insignificance. They did it in USA too but white americans were enterprisingly independent and self-respecting to seek degrading monarchy. They revolted, and so began one of the most resourceful experimentations with idea of democracy, after French revolution, that catalyzed humanity in significant ways.

To put it in context, imagine if colonizing britishers decimated most of Indians and left us insignificantly less in number and weak, and so the powerful white people with exploitative control and brutal majority decides to continue to have british monarchy as our head of state in India. Imagine that! And now imagine that the same horror perpetrating system (ofcourse nurtured on the foundation of racist exceptionalism) is maintained with same pomp and gala (as if nothing has happened in last few centuries, some kind of bad dream that could be wished away with sway of narration control!) and we are asked to receive the hereditary entitled as head of state on occasional tour. This is what has happened to aboriginal people (semblance of pride through first nation people), indigenous, natives as also sane people who reject these feudal anachronistic theatrics in Australia, Canada and NewZealand. There is a reason why likes of VS Naipaul -a brilliant writer, someone whom I read with great relish and significantly impacted my ideas of writing, chose not to eviscerate monarchy, which he could have easily. Associating and aligning with powerful narration controllers comes with benefits. He cleverly chose to work feudal as stabilizing force, a precursor to consolidating culture and science so on into systems, and if truly competent, appropriating the best from across the world for critical inquiry -as science got consolidated in Britain in an inquisitive inclusive value system of logic and critical thinking ofcourse within the framework of racist and gender discrimination. That doesn’t explain continuation of these extractive systems and degrading values in contemporary world. Silence on these matters is how you trace the control of powerful narrations.  

And so it continues. Linda Thorpe, an indigenous leader, protested at the presence of british monarch in Australia’s parliament. If you know the heartbreaking horror of british history (headed by the monarch) in the region you will empathize with her. But instead, what you see is classic example of britishery. It needs to be recorded to consolidate the idea of britishery (the way they consolidated thuggery, pariah so on with brute force into language). It is quite a sophisticated sophistry, there are two strains of narration going on here, one is how they describe Linda Thorpe -crude unsophisticated ‘new-caught sullen peoples, half devil and half child’, and second is the ‘royals’ -nuanced, ‘nostalgia’(of what?), indeed almost ephemeral apparition in ‘warm bubble’ of kindness unblemished by humanly concerns.                                                                                                                             

Take a look at this pic of news ‘reporting’. They couldn’t get photographs of Ms. Thorpe in snarling sinister angle -that creates revulsions among readers, these are usual tricks neoliberal media use to construct narration in the garb of news. So while ‘royals’ ‘entered’ Thorpe had ‘positioned’, her ‘outburst’ it is assumed ‘created sympathy for the royals’ as she was ‘not being polite to the guests’ (the attempt to ‘decency’ implicit in wording of ‘guest’ must be noted, factually ‘royal’ here is not a ‘guest’ but ‘head of state’ hence head of the parliament). There was a comment on her sartorial choice as also sarcasm over “indigenous sovereignty’, general jokes and banter to keep the ‘royals’ amused by parliamentarians presenting as agreeable plebs, one said ‘People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed. And that’s just the republican’. They all laughed, kind of quaint sea sparkling gallant of saved civilization.  

In recent times there are documented incidents of racism by british ‘royals’ -put this in context to life of most people in 21^st century who live in much evolved value system, as also elderly people in all possible luxury carrying such mindset, it is not accidental, they 'don't drop from the sky'. These are crucial bearings of feudal values that nurture extractive primitive institutions and devalues humans. They will favour the powerful or contrive narration of benefits. Mr. Charles even supports fatwa by mullahs of Iran on Rushdie (as quoted by Martin Amis). Now juxtapose this with 'disrespectful' Ms. Thorpe. Such is the disconnect. It is natural for primitive feudal institutions to align with oppressor over liberty and freedom. They fancy stability and control over human rights as it threatens their legitimacy. They authenticate and normalize feudal oppressive forces from across the world, and yes also take expensive gifts from equally dubious -surely to influence narrations undermining democratic institutions. Therefore, media can easily be ‘sexed up’ and manipulated when needed. General degradation of Britain and absolute arrogance of its leaders can be traced to these feudal systems. Regressive institutions will create regressive ecosystem, is there a surprise?             

To be fair I don’t use past-history, to evaluate present. Present can be understood with insight of past, the relevance stops there. There are no lessons since the present is not past, it has no parallels unless ofcourse people are herds who have just replicated through time. History repeats when people are herds. Vibrant living humans evolve with contemporary knowledge and understanding, they become better. They are not the same to repeat. History is primed to repeat if you maintain the feudal system from past, a regressive infrastructure, like a virus, activates when conditions are conducive. History, as an understanding and evolving involvement, is lost in morass of revivalism as it galvanizes primal fear and repeats horrors of exceptionalism and supremacist ideas into modern institutions and discourse incapacitated to factor the possibilities of present. The reason why Britain continues to nurture feudal extractive systems that degrades democratic institutions and nurture inegalitarian value system is because they are being cushioned by luxury of colonial extravagance. Their patronizing is from the position of plenty or atleast the arrogance of its memory of exceptionalism -feudal hangover. The extractive feudal ecosystem will eventually set the rot in as it is too compromised to deal with modern values. When reality strikes, they will eventually realize the need to reform and dismantle restrictive institutions with inclusive egalitarian reflecting essentials of democracy and equality.      

*full disclosure: Before I started reading too much and entered murky world of racism, colonialism so on I was quite naïve fellow and really liked 'If' by Kipling (it is quite a nice poem if you don't bring in the context of poet, views and so on) so much so that I got it framed and gifted it to one of the organisation I was part timing for. They put it at the reception. I also liked 'Jungle Book' -didn't read but saw the movie/cartoon serial.         

 

Promethean liberation

 Can we steer the technology is an interesting idea that I accidentally stumbled upon. I was not aware of this aspect of technology. I was doing mandatory peripheral reading of Nobel prize in Economics. Peripheral since I am not too keen on economics ((unlike Physics – quite fascinated about this field since Star Trek and Cosmos, as also Medicine -the only adult book available at home during childhood was Materia Medica that I used to flip through regularly, also gutting insects and studying their entrails. Literature, since I too dabbled in it and realize how difficult it is to express in words (i am reading Han Kang's Human Act -the state brutality is searingly counterbalanced with whispering absences of victims. Amazing creative control) as also new ideas and thoughts through nonfiction and subtleties of poetry so on, though I don’t find some of the choices interesting but mostly they are tremendous and fascinating and I make it a point to read them)) but mandatory as I am inquisitive to know about their contribution. It could be interesting and sometimes new insights that one can relate to. Offhand I recall being introduced to fresh take on ‘tragedy of commons’ (Elinor Ostrom -whom I happen to listen in person at ATREE Bangalore), nudge (Richard Thaler), satisficing (Herbert Simon), asymmetry of information (Stiglitz). While some economists as writers of really interesting books like Gunnar Myrdal, Daniel Kahneman, and to lesser extent regrettable Amartya Sen.

So here I was cursorily going through and very soon latched on to really fascinating, indeed exceedingly relevant, in context to AI. I was watching talks by Daron Acemoglu (as also James Robinson -a well-travelled researcher with lots of insights from different regions of the world, the extractive and inclusive institutions playing role in failure and success of societies) and was riveted to progress of technology from a new perspective. Technology leads to efficiency which increases productivity and benefits percolating to workers. With decades of studies and some insightful examples they argue that although productivity increased it didn’t really benefit the workers (windmills converted peasants into forced laborers, cotton gin made enslaved black people’s life harsher etc). While ‘productivity bandwagon’ (progress hinged on technology) increased wages over the decades it also accentuated disparities instead of ‘shared prosperity’. Workers weren’t getting the share of productivity gains. The result of shift towards centralizing profit (they don’t mention it but we all know the Reagan era consolidation of neoliberal hubris that eventually ensnared the world). Adam Smith’s free market as benign means to a decent society was weaponized into neoliberal free market gargantuan greed. “Social responsibility of business is to increase its profit”, pontificated Milton Freedman, and so workers were dispensable commodity and indeed seen as hindrance for profit maximization. With state aiding and siding with neoliberal forces labour unions lost their power and relevance, were viciously dealt and outlawed by corporates. Invisible hand morphed into clenched fist that threaten against any role of the state. With that they controlled the narration of capitalism as insatiable predatory market. Much of what is being pushed aside, and violently so in recent times, as socialism is infact the core of Adam smith’s conception of capitalism. State has a crucial role to regulate, ensure justice and provide essential services. Regulatory role of state is becoming critical as neoliberal controlled unfettered market greed has vandalized societies, alienated individuals, and destroyed nature.

Automation replaces worker with efficient reliable technology as has happened in most of manufacturing processes, also there is significant difference between automated tool and AI tool -that works on realtime feedback learning loop. Very soon private public interface will be AI automated. State may refuse to use the technology but you cannot prevent private players. Take the example of ubiquitous humanless ATM, when was the last time you went to crowded bank and wasted time and resources to fill up a form to collect money? Ofcourse this is a benign example that is decades old. World has changed much with AI in the last few years, AI automated interface is inevitable and has already begun with payment through smart phone so on as it consolidates towards multimodal interface. If humanless learning of AlphaZero can revolutionize chess imagine the possibilities. You cannot prevent AI taking jobs of, say, a Radiologists as it is efficient. Radiologist will have much reduced job of complementing AI (possibly overseeing since human lives are concerned, possibilities of hallucination) hence more time for meaningful upgradation. You can unionize for your rights but you cannot prevent AI automation. You may call it techno-determinism but it is using available means for increasing efficiency, or simply not wanting to deal with messy humans who can easily be replaced. How will you prevent this choice? Organisation have right to save money and streamline process, it is a logical option and not as tyrant as maximizing profit at the expense of environment or public health. It is not violating any rights nor is it taking away jobs that is essentially meaningful that needs human ingenuity. Is the humanity ready to strip the layers of hubris and face the existential meaning or do we need more psychiatrists and police force?

Human being is not a resource to be utilized, nor are they cheap labour to create market advantage. Human beings are individuals. Anything that evaluate less than this reality is dehumanizing, whatever maybe the construct or intention. The flaw in the argument is in constructing solution that evaluates human being as economic entity. An entity that needs to be a cog to find meaning in life or is enthusiastic to be labour in a meaningless occupation. A social animal dictated and motivated by social matrix of status and power. These conceptions of primitive societies cannot be defining characteristics of human in modern world. Human must be dealt in entire possibility of his or her being. AI is asking us to reevaluate definitions we have taken for granted. What is the meaning of job? The economic definition of job/work/task (or what they refer around here: "duty" -which I found especially obnoxious) falls short of fulfilling the requirements of humans as individuals. Artificial intelligence is taking away artificial jobs, jobs that are constructed to be kept occupied in an alienating circumstances and dehumanizing value systems. The semantics of economy cannot really contain the reality of being a human. Words will therefore have to find the approximate meaning of this fast changing reality. Words like development, progress, growth so on will have to contain the entirety of human experience and aspiration. Words need to mean what it was really conceived to mean and expand into newer approximation of better possibilities and not appropriated by powerful controllers to reduce the experience and create narrations to perpetuate extractive systems.

Unlike past, where speed and impact of technology was limited, who controls AI is important since its power is far reaching and possibly cataclysmic if not effectively regulated. Such powerful technology cannot be decided by neoliberal narration nor estimated through economic pointers. What direction the AI innovation takes will be influenced by institutions and ecosystems as also rogue states. You cannot control the direction of technology, it will innovate for the opportunistic needs and immediate benefits. Powerful forces will try to dictate but at the end of the day it will have to be used by people or used on people, for traction of profit or control, or else it loses significance. So there is inevitability of technology once it is invented and the potential for use is identified. Nuclear technology went in for all possibilities from benign to sinister eventhough it was monopolized by state unlike AI -many corporate use billion-dollar GPU run Foundational models that provide platform for all kinds of applications. Authoritarian countries like China is using full force of state machinery to seek tech dominance through AI, Quantum and Genetic engineering by whatever means (authoritarian ecosystem doesn't nurture innovation, it just copies. Interestingly ancient China was way ahead in innovation that the state found threatening its stability and order. Song dynasty pushed inwardness and order over free thinking taking China into darkness, the communist dug it further. Great wall of China is a metaphor of Chinese insularity and downgrading). Neoliberal ecosystems and authoritarian states will bring worst out of technology that really doesn’t mean it can be banned. Technology once it finds traction cannot be banned. Institutions must be modified to create ecosystem of egalitarian needs and universal benefits of AI. State must effectively take up the role of regulator with awareness of changing context and technological innovations. Human rights, privacy concerns -liberty, creative control -freedom, data access -equality, so on are potent delimitating and effective tools to streamline AI and align to ethics. Catastrophic possibilities of AI must be strictly regulated with international treaty like for instance the threat of AI automated weapons -the superior inaccessible reasoning makes it extremely tricky to control. Progress of technology is inevitable you cannot ban it; you can regulate it and streamline to international treaties and rule of law.

There is a compelling argument on redirecting technology. A call against blind tech-optimism, as also urgent need to include diverse voices in the debate than confined it to narrow field of tech experts since technology has societal, economical and political implications, and I may add cultural implication too (also some of these Tech heads are clearly showing signs of megalomania, essentially nutcases with enormous power). Ofcourse caution and vigilance is needed against exaggerated claims. It must be understood that humanity’s progress is very much hinged on technological progress. Technology is exposing people to various experiences, ideas, cultures and thinking, and with proper regulation against fake, misinformation and disinformation as also vigilance against corporate recommender algorithm of attention greed into dark regions can be curtailed. It cannot be denied that social media did increase transparency and consolidated democratization of society (fiercely disagree with Acemoglu on this, BigTech mischief like Cambridge Analytica can be dealt with effective regulation and data privacy) by severely undermining legacy institutions and empowering common people by providing them a tool to resist, connect and express. There are two issues here. One, converting these voices and embedding into progressive institutions is a weak link. We saw how Occupy Wall Street movement and Tahrir square protests orchestrated through social media fizzling out, indeed backfired in later case. It was not failure of technology but lack of vibrancy in the institutions that were controlled by feudal regressive interests. Second, fast spreading technology and techno optimism led to slackness in regulations hence neoliberal nurtured corporate undermined democratic institutions and individual privacy. 

Social mobilization and government policy initiatives to shift from fossil fuel technology to renewable energy technology is quite successful model to emulate. International treaties, subsidies, regulations and pressure from civil society can play progressive role in directing technology. But it is not really changing direction of technology and surely is not applicable to AI nor can AI be redirected -it can be regulated through transparency of foundational model data so on but then what with synthetic data -what pattern it is iterating in the loop? Technology will find as many paths as there are possibilities and what aspect of technology is nurtured too depends on myriad factors. Shifting technology from fossil fuel to sustainable is based on scientific consensus of irretrievable damage on climate. Also, it is shifting of alternative -they are meant to perform same task. Indeed the shift is slow due to slack efficiency in progress of sustainable -especially battery technology, energy density so on -ofcourse things are changing fast. There is no parallel nor alternative to AI. It is a genie that is out of the box, and all possible alternative will be explored for monetization, for control, for superiority. It will expose humanity in every possible way.       

AI is not ‘new technology’, as in incremental addition to the past, this is a paradigm shifting technology hence cannot be fitted and streamlined into past narrations and extrapolated. There are exaggerations in AI but there isn’t any doubt that this is paradigm shifting at two levels. One, in the very idea and scope of technology. AI automation is not staid instruction based fixed mechanized tool but a dynamic, thinking (within the narrow framework), partner in the task with ambiguous evolving goals. This artificial intelligence, in limited frame of assigned task, is much superior to human in its assimilation and reasoning. It’s a breathtaking leap and must be acknowledged in all its gravity. Second, AI automation raises the important question of the very definition of work. These two compelling reasons makes it disconnect from past. So the claim that this is just an extension of continuing struggle between ‘technology and prosperity’ for thousands of years is profoundly troubling estimation. Implication on society maybe tenuously similar but nor the technology nor the seismic shift in understanding of job/work is same as also human evolve in modern understandings exposed to contemporary humanistic concerns and awareness. Ossified ideas of role of human and what keeps him or her occupied miss the holistic aspects of what modernity presents and how humanity has evolved in globalized world. We need to even question regressive system appropriated semantics -understanding of words like prosperity and its exaggerated influence on society. Wellbeing is a comprehensive understanding (ofcourse Kahneman places it on memory!) and to hinge it on jobs and status is a regressive valuation of society and fixed motivational frame assigned to humans. Herd need to be kept occupied or else they slip into dire is the patronizing reasoning that emerge from feudal extractive ecosystem. Humans are free souls and they will find their reasons if systems and institutions are sensitive to seek their potential as unique individuals. It is elitist to assume workers will find meaning in meaningless jobs. This may threaten the status quo of control hence these elaborate ruse.        

There is a realistic evaluation of something really profound in this technological leap. How humanity utilizes these depends on the ecosystems on which it is nurtured and regulated so as to contain the threat to humanity. The ecosystem that enhances human capacity through technology is a way forward. Meanwhile it needs to be kept in mind superior technology cannot be undermined for the need of human employment, it can only synergize, and AI presents unique unprecedented challenges that has no parallel. AI challenges us to redefine society so as to enhance egalitarian values so that technology synergize into development. It asks us to rethink ideas of job, how we spent our time and what we value. AI presents mirror on humanity and asks uncomfortable question on what it is to be human. Buried in institutions (which helped us to evolve from extractive to inclusive), jargons, and much hubris of centuries, it is time to extricate and evaluate the human. Surely neoliberal capitalism is woefully incapable to undertake this responsibility, nor will it be allowed to usurp these concerns into its fold and vitiate crucial issue with meaningless jargons and word play to please the status quo. Trapped, as it is, in ossified institutions and meanings entombed to an age which has no similarities to the contemporary. History creates awareness, ofcourse limited to the context of time and space, to extrapolate that into present is to miss the complexity of history and evolved reality of contemporary. It is to trap human into lowest estimation as herd. History is not about knowing but understanding. Understanding the limitations. 

Institutions are subjective construct that helped to stabilize societies and surely cannot reckon existential realities. AI is the Prometheus humans have conceived to think deeper into nature of things. AI is a promethean technology liberation for humanity and a challenge to powerful narrations. To work is to be a creator, an artisan. Job is chiseling of skill to represent one’s unique presence and voice of diversity in a synchrony of humanity. Clearly economist’s estimation of human is limited so is their assumption of safety nets like UBI and understanding of human motivation. ‘Shared prosperity’ needs to update with contemporary reality. Patriarchal egoistic valuation of work as meaningless hardwork (referencing physical machoism relic of hunter gatherer mismatch) compensation as ‘breadwinner for the family’ doesn’t fit into contemporary society. There are meaningful ways to spent precious time nor is there any need to be bothered about fragile male ego defining jobs that economists have taken seriously -essentially to prevent the collapse of crucial façade of outdated theories and complacency to factor in changed reality. Shared prosperity means sharing the prosperity. UBI and safety nets are very much concerns of justice within the ambit of Adam Smith conception before these were vandalized by Reagan-Thatcher plot. Socialist concerns of capitalism therefore must be retrieved from neoliberal degradation of capitalism. When the idea and definition of growth is questioned then neoliberal degrowth is possible. What is not inevitable is destructive march of neoliberal capitalism. It is not the direction of technology that matters -as pointed out it cannot be controlled but regulated, it the ecosystem that nurture these that matters. Hence extractive crony capitalistic neoliberal ecosystem and authoritarian regime will produce worst possibilities of technology. So the attention need to be on the ecosystem (egalitarian institution, democratic ideals, socialist capitalist state as dispenser of crucial services and infrastructure of equity and freedom, value education so on) and not on technology. State has crucial role in “sharing prosperity” through safety nets and subsidized services. State has a vital responsibility in the AI augmented inevitable world. Neoliberal value system cannot be allowed to undermine state, democratic institutions and principles.                        

You cannot assume Sisyphus to be happy. You have to nurture systems and institutions evolved to the contemporary reality and semantics that approximates the dynamic. Prometheus will have to share the burden of existential absurdity.  

    

 

Nurturing extractive systems

 

Imagine the kind of degradation that express such views and then britishery of the media that conceives these cringe headlines (the marketing intention of these are to imprint on herd while they may not read the details, it’s about attracting attention and take away value system). Such sickness, and these very colonial minded patronize the ‘third world’ with their angst industry, with thyselves in the central role as arbitrators and dispensers. After depleting resources and severely infecting fledgling democracies with feudal values they select genuflecting degraded feudals from outside Europe to shower their largesse. They also select few as representing poorer societies, or those they assume need their guidance, the burden they carry seep out as angst. Meanwhile the sleek representors study the needs and nuances of their benefactors and act accordingly, and usurp benefits that comes from hallowed position of representing diversity and gain gravitas to guide us in the ‘third world’. These are to represent the other world, the exotic, and worst references they are (caste cannibal’s hypocritical sleaze and monster mullah’s barbarian values) the better for their positioning. The scale of difference will have to be stretched for assurance of deal. The problem is that, thanks to technology, this quaint world of debauchery and hedonist orgy of constructed ideas of diversity that is dumped on people is being breached. People are not usable for grander narrations. That likes of Trump is even having a fighting chance is clearly a failure of democracy and serious indictment of power hungry elite who controlled the narration. It’s an opportunist mix of arrogance and complacency. Even if Harris wins US democracy is already compromised. 

Countries like Britain have not only degraded the world with their colonial excess (which ofcourse I am not terribly concerned since these were done century back, in the time frame when brutal power mattered and that nincompoop and inbred mediocres were incapable to respond shows their lack, what matters is systems that exist now). Colonial structures and administrative mechanism were spinoff benefits of transfer of power as it provided stability on which democratic institution could be built. This however couldn’t work since the feudal british nurtured their replicants leading to wanton corruption, crony capitalism and nepotistic consolidation. Feudal values created deference to authority and crave for power. Britishery infected values of fledgling democracies muting their possibilities. Meanwhile the arrogance of west morphed into self-flagellating angst. Self here is cleverly extended to common people on whom this burden is pushed. West will not be allowed to control narration, nor with its selected minions as representors. It is not about people but systems that is being nurtured (to take the example from pic here, these two are probably nice people but that is not the point at all and we aren’t bothered). Feudal values create extractive systems. It nurture exploitative systems in whatever form it arise and extinguishes possibilities of inclusive values (except under the theatrics of feudal patronage or orchestrated largesse of feudals controlling state machinery). It undermines democracy and degrade humanity. It is a dead end for ethics. Abyss of hopelessness.       

                                    

Evening birding

Today is World Migratory Day (second Saturday of October -this year’s focus is ‘Protect insects to protect birds’) and so decided to go for evening walk along the nearby wetland extending to paddy field. It was overcast sky, it rained quite heavily in the morning. Birds were quite active. Mostly resident species as migratory season is about to begin. Spotted early migrant Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and its characteristic nervous oscillating tail as he busied himself along the waterbody.  

Following birds were spotted: 

Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) 

Asian openbill Stork (Anastomus oscitans) 

Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) 

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) 

Oriental Darter (Anhinga melanogaster) 

Blue-tailed Bee eater (Merops philippinus) 

Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) 

Spotted Munia (Lonchura punctulata)

Red-backed Kite (Haliastur indus) -‘Brahminy’ is an offensive reference and must be expunged 

Yellow-billed Babbler (Argya affinis) 

Purple-rumped Sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) 

Indian Pond heron (Ardeola grayii) 

Black Drango (Dicrurus macrocercus) 

Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) 

As also little cormorants, common crows, common mynas, egrets (cattle, great, intermediate, little). Calls of Peacocks, White-cheeked Barbets and Tailorbirds (or is it Prinia?)

Hibakusha poems: expressing the inexpressible

 

I was aware of hibakusha -survivors of atomic bombing by US on Japan in 1945, watched documentaries and videos of this horrific atrocity and read extensively, recently (thanks to technology) I have done virtual visits to Hiroshima peace memorial and park around it. I read that night lighting of the surviving dome in eerie green and orange inside conveys appropriate emotions of dread and horror. I wasn’t aware of hibakusha poems -poems by survivors, and so today evening I was reading. These experiences are too traumatic, and it takes extraordinary human fortitude to even begin articulating what one likes to forget as a nightmare and move away with any semblance of life. This is what trauma does it leaves unfathomable silence. I was reading how trauma get carried epigenetically to next generation. The brutality is not confined to memories of individual or society but traces through the genes, through bodies, into future generations. There are many communities around the world reeling in indescribable trauma carrying the dread of past in their everyday life expressed in small details which they aren’t even aware. Indeed, much of humanity is continuing trauma of surviving the past as hunter gatherers, the reason why most humans are effortlessly innovative and independent while carrying empathy and generosity. What makes some societies exceptionally cruel or tolerant to cruelty cannot really be brushed under the euphemism of relativism. We live in globalized world hence the narrations and sensitivities (indeed sensibilities) of 20^th century has limited significance, essentially anachronistic nuisance in most case nurtured by sinister forces for control. Truth needs to be spoken clearly with logic and evidence. Some regions of world are exceptionally violent and unsettled, apart from controlling systems that nurture these, effective outlets of traumas of communities is an issue that cannot be negated.

Hibakusha poems broke the silence through stillness of haiku and tanka while they detached into meditative universality of pain. Soon, as the life start to flow and vigor returned, they became aware of the responsibility of unique experience. This unique voice that has witnessed the horrors of atomic bombs vaporizing happy thriving lives into nothing in an instant and are now forced to witness the ignominy of forgetfulness of humanity -of some arrogant humans, as they dabble in nuclear bombs with horrifying carelessness incapacitated to understand the devastating consequences. Hibakusha free verse poems are visceral in its simplicity and overwhelming in its impact. Truth is always in sincere, and trauma carries the urgency of earnest description. Language is stripped bared to its basic necessity so as to keep the experience palpable and immediate. You feel as if you are there as a witness as each line grip you into immense suffering. This urgency of trauma maybe the reason why many survivors live longer (i have seen these with holocaust survivors too) probably the prolonged life as a persistent reminder to a witness to human stupidity, to temper their tall claims.      

Wittgenstein (the philosophical moorings of AI is undeniably in approximation of meaning, bravo Wittgenstein!) was onto something about limits of language (“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”) but it is ingenuity of humans to cross the confines of logic and describe the indescribable.

This copied from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/hiroshima-poems/

Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing

by Sadako Kurihara, translated by Richard Minear

Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins.
Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room;
It was dark—not even a single candle.
The smell of fresh blood, the stench of death,
The closeness of sweaty people, the moans.
From out of all that, lo and behold, a voice:
"The baby’s coming!"
In that hellish basement,
At that very moment, a young woman had gone into labour.
In the dark, without a single match, what to do?
People forgot their own pains, worried about her.
And then: "I'm a midwife. I’ll help with the birth."
The speaker, seriously injured herself, had been moaning only moments before.
And so new life was born in the dark of that pit of hell.
And so the midwife died before dawn, still bathed in blood.
Let us be midwives!
Let us be midwives!
Even if we lay down our own lives to do so.

Sadako Kurihara (1913 – 2005) was a poet, writer and peace activist who survived the Hiroshima bombing.

                             

Living Planet Index

 

Living Planet Index (LPI) tracks the average trend rather than increases or declines in the total number of animals. The global LPI 2024 shows a decrease of 73%. Imagine that! Common observation, like the birds that we used to see so often have become rare, is an indication of cumulative staggering loss.

The report https://www.livingplanetindex.org/ also elaborates on five tipping points of global significance that we are nearing. 1). Amazon rainforest drying off which will have devastating consequences for people, biodiversity and the global climate. Tipping point will reach if just 20–25% of the Amazon rainforest is destroyed -and as much as 17% has been deforested already. Read that again 17% of amazon forest is already destroyed, and so within a decade or so we could tip into no return scenario. 2). Coral reef die off due to coral bleaching have become frequent. Coral reefs will not be able to function as ecosystem (known as the rainforest of oceans). For instance, Great Barrier Reef have faced mass coral bleaching events in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024, as you can see the frequency and intensity have increased (I have seen videos of desolated coral reef and divers virtually crying for the loss…the more aware you become devastating it is. I too sometimes go into deep depression when I go for walk and don’t see much biodiversity that I used to). 3). Melting ice sheets, two massive ice sheets -in Greenland and the West Antarctic, are at risk of passing a tipping point where melting becomes irreversible disrupting ocean circulation and cause sea levels to rise several metres. 4). Collapse of Atlantic Ocean Circulation would devastate marine ecosystems, disrupt other ocean currents and dramatically change global weather patterns. 5). Permafrost thaw as a result of global warming will release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere further exacerbating the impacts of climate crisis..

Apart from other suggestion the report call for nature-based solutions. One of the most significant sustainable solutions that I have come across few years back was biomimicry (biomimetic solution). It was a life changing experience for me. Having spent lots of time in nature, and trying to work out a career in the field -quite difficult for an outsider in a primitive insecure society, I quite accidentally read about biomimicry (I wouldn’t say accidental since I was watching nature quite closely and so was naturally aligning to understanding) and got into depth of it. Created it as a subject for college students (again it's arduous in this amazingly mediocre ego driven small minded society), it really has so much potential considering that India has such amazing biodiversity unlike West.

Systemic changes can only come from powerful controllers (dubious narration of GDP so on as development) as also more enlightened concerned people -this can only happen with value education as also people not trapped in the rigmarole of daily survival as also society stuck in greed of money and power lacking collective values or concerns. Future of world is in the hands of few enlightened spaces across the world -who nurture some wonderful people (like the one who produce such reports, who explore all across the world to study these). They bring awareness for better world. And thanks to technology common people across the world are able to access these and become aware -trapped as we are in daily vicissitudes of life in increasingly bleak surroundings, these reading does change our mind and receptive for collective action.  

*pic is that of Hoopoe -a spectacular looking little bird, that used to be so common when I was kid. I recall spending lots of time watching these birds -they spent most of their time on ground digging and foraging. These birds have become so rare that I haven't really seen them in years (last rare sighting was probably in Mysore -recall it quite clearly inside open area at Mysore zoo -such a pleasant surprise). Sometimes I have dreams about these birds. These vanishings create such devastation.            

Climate breakdown

 First they denied it, then they call it a hoax, then they ridiculed, and then, when the climate disasters became persistent, they call it conspiracy. Very soon they will abandon vulnerable population as people die in large numbers, property lost and regions become impossible to inhabit. They will very likely call it god's wrath and assign some opportunist reason, incapacitated to take responsibility. Climate migrants will increase and with food security threatened societies will be put in serious pressure. 

Wake up people. Use your mental faculties, become aware, read, ask questions, think, look around, get all the facts of the issue, find pattern, use your sense, understand that life on earth is not going to be normal as before. We are in serious bother. No charade or make believe will work. We are bare. Reality can only be dealt with sincerity. Only collective action can save us.   

*in the latest climate breakdown event US is facing series of dangerous hurricanes, next one is Milton. 

Beware the mockery

 Be very aware. This is not an accident. These two are human shaped attrition of systemic muck. This is what happens when democratic institutions of powerful societies are compromised primarily by complacency and condescending ways of the elites. Institutions crumble while the façade is celebrated. When politics is neatly divided into simplistic (indeed ridiculous) binary for ease of mock fights and power share. This binary is easily taken into extreme by opportunists wherein issues are complex -people’s existential context makes it dynamic and evolving. No issue is fixed in time but with binary politics it is frozen in deep space and used as and when needed without any outcome or resolution but to capitalize on emotions. This is what happens when democracy is reduced to nepotism of powerful people who use and undermine institutions. Lobbying is nothing but crony capitalism that severely undermines democracy. Did they ever try to rectify it? Wanton consumption driven capitalism supported by ecosystems of power and greed see world as resource. The world is limitless resource for their gargantuan greed that kept neoliberal exploitation thriving. They spread these neoliberal values as investment friendly narration onto poorer societies where the charlatans replicate these exploitative frameworks as development. The deceit also kept the war machine churning for profit. They attacked Iraq and destroyed the region for ego satisfaction. Corporate meanwhile presented itself as harbinger of freedom and choice which meant nothing. They took away meaning from meaningful. They emptied and vandalized everything of everlasting value and left mockery. As is the case, to paraphrase Nietzsche, when you deal with mockery all the time mockery stares back at you. US has become a mockery. With all system checks compromised they are imploding. It is saddening considering the potential and the impact on the world.

Trump is a mockery, not only on the idea of democracy, but humanity itself. That US nurtured this colossal BS (there is absolutely no other way to describe this fellow) into leadership position is a mockery on its tall claim as leader of the free world. Musk is a realtime mockery on the idea of capitalism and an exact representation of neoliberal horror. It is not surprising that both lack any redeeming human quality whatsoever, and without the system that nurtures these, they will be utter useless and not even be allowed in any decent human gathering. Most powerful man and richest man are shallow people with underdeveloped adolescent minds is a stark presentation of systemic failure that nurtured these ridicules into topmost reckoning. The lunatic fringe is amplified and mainstreamed. Truth no longer matters. It's a breakdown of sanity and civility. US is a lesson on complacent world. Whatever you cherish could vanish within moment if you are not alert and vigilant.             

Technology activates social change

 

Social movements have had a significant impact on consolidating egalitarian values and humanistic concerns. Education is instrumental in spreading awareness. These urgent pressure of awareness as changing norms get embedded into democratic institutions. This looks like a logical template for social change. Ofcourse it is a successful model but quite limited. In the recent times I am quite convinced that technology is an activator and consolidator of social change and has significant impact than social movements. The much-maligned technology is prime initiator of social change than science could. Eventhough science needs enlightened value framework to nurture and prosper it can work in narrow context of society. Society, or even the scientist, could be feudal or racist while science progress in the midst. Much of science developed and consolidated in this framework. It has claim of superior that fuels justification and refinement of process as inquiry. Superior to mundane worries of society. Humanistic concerns in science are accidental and mostly personal. Vastness of knowledge can be humbling but the system is not driving social change nor aiming a better society -by implication maybe. It is social neutral as much as value neutral. So, ironically science needs egalitarian value system and open mind to sustain but is mostly isolated from social reality. So is the case of technologists but implication of technology on society is cataclysmic.

Technology is application of science for mass consumption. By its very nature it is meant to reach remotest and make the most isolated and vulnerable access the world. The initial stage of technology is always feudal, manipulated by few for greed and gains. As the technology spreads it reaches a saturation stage -commonplace essential, and that is when the real impact of technology as potent means of social change felt. From slow spreading printing press to fast connecting smart phone it brings in a new paradigm of social change through changing minds instead of social physical involvements. A person is virtually exposed to possibilities that were not even conceivable. Once the initial excitement of technology settles it gets to the responsibility of these possibilities. The freedom seeks more awareness of the world. The diversity of ideas, cultures and regions opens to understanding, subconsciously mind is priming for change. It necessarily leads to self-reflection, evolving and associating to better ideas and possibilities. This is the greatest instigator of social change than what was ever possible. It has potential to uproot ossified feudal structures and juvenile control of religion. Atomized awareness reverberates into synchronous collective of better world. Answer to manipulation is more technology, more transparency and more awareness, with a foundation of quality education. Significant social changes have happened in last two decade than in last many centuries. We are still in flux and once the new technology saturates change is expected to consolidate into something better. Each human will access their uniqueness and work the potential herein and connect to wider world. If swarm intelligence could achieve such brilliant feat imagine swarm of each unique intelligence synchronizing into a whole. Imagine that!     

**Thanks to technology I can access anything, anywhere, anytime. And so, I was reading Ursula Le Guin. Le Guin, I am embarrassed to admit, is a late involvement. I love scifi and IsaacAsimov, ArthurClark, HG Wells, PhillipDick many more were my staple, wasn’t much aware of LeGuin. To bracket her as SciFi writer is not doing justice, her concern was using scifi framework to question contemporary social context and philosophical inquiry. Landscape and technology can change but some questions are persistent, here she immerses her charming stories into an entirely different social context to eviscerate contemporary concerns, scifi is an accidental construct. I am reading ‘The Dispossessed’ that explores capitalism, utopia, collectivism so on (I have read poems influenced by Taoism. Taoism, as is the case with Buddhism, is something I too find interesting). ‘The One Who Walks Away from Omelas’ explores the trolley problem ethics, not participating (wu wei -non action) is an option of powerful statement. I haven’t read much but yes ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ has an interesting premise of fictional planet of human with no fixed sex, exploring themes of gender and sexuality. This in an overtly sexualized and gender determined world. I was reading ‘Dreams Must Explain Themselves’, collection of essays. ‘Introducing Myself’ is a hilarious piece about no reference to ‘her’ in mainstream discourse or reporting. The gender is assumed to be him. “If we have anything to learn from politicians it’s that details don’t matter. I am a man, and I want you to believe and accept this as a fact, as I did for many years”… “Women are a very recent invention. I predate the invention of women by decades. Well, if you insist on pedantic accuracy, women have been invented several times in widely varying localities, but the inventors just didn’t know how to sell the product. Their distribution technique were rudimentary and their market research was nil, and so ofcourse the contempt just didn’t go off the ground. Even with a genius behind it an invention has to find its market, and it seemed like for a long time the idea of women just didn’t make it to the bottom line. Models like the Austen and the Bronte were too complicated, and people just laughed at the Suffragette, and Wolfe was way too far ahead of its time”. “So when I was born, there actually were only men. People were men. They all had one pronoun, his pronoun; so that’s who I am. I am the generic he, as in, ‘If anybody needs an abortion he will have to go to another state’, or ‘A writer knows which side of his bread is buttered on’. That’s me, the writer, him. I am a man.”

  

Monetizing desperation

 

Primitive societies work on control. Desperation of common people is a potent site for control. Religion is an effective means to capitalize and systematically create followers to assuage desperation and tag it to other worldly cause. They actively create narration of heaven and hell, blessing and fate, to capitalize desperation into morals as control. As humanity progress -thanks to very few spaces around the world that placed systems for nurturing some brilliant empathetic people while much of world remained barbarians, education as consolidation of best of thoughts and ideas from across the world presented a significant means to progress as a human in a free society. Meanwhile awareness creates spiritual meditative space and provide enlightened means to face existential absurdity and everyday gratitude. Associating these wholesome humans create synergic progressive society and diversity of possibility…Well things haven’t really worked out that way. Possibilities of liberty and freedom has created much insecurity in minds incapacitated to value life. Medieval primitive systems are nurtured and consolidated by devious forces capitalizing on people’s insecurities. Feudal structures, while severely degrade democratic institutions, are cunningly presented as stabilizing presence. These too-big-to-fall inviolable chicanery consolidate argument for much sinister neoliberal structures that parasite on people and nature. Ascriptive value systems find ways to exploitative and mediocrity thriving status quo thus severely degrading society and initiating further desperation. Crony capitalism, nepotism and wanton corruption make democratic institutions and progressive values meaningless. Degraded values nurture degraded institutions which in turn foster worst of people into responsible positions thus further demeaning any possibilities of progressive ways. Desperate herd hooked to blessing as expression of authority -of power and money, easily fall for cognitive bias. Lacking critical thinking nor emotionally equipped for empathy and better possibilities of human they desperately bang their heads around to find means to please and improve fate. Desperation is carefully nurtured by sinister sadists. Authority bias actively promote what is bad for individual but good for herd. So as population balloons resources dwindle, consumption increases environment deteriorates…they are incapacitated to connect these dots. They exist disconnected to reality in desperation for more.

Cheap labor is another of neoliberal construction of wanton greed, devaluing human into their lowest possibility as discounted resource for narrow deal. In the ecosystem of greed and crave for money and power desperation is weaponized. Corporate jobs become battle ground for cheap labor and replaceable human commodity who’s ‘resources’ is now well and truly depleted for investor's pleasure and profit. Feudal values undermine democratic institutions hence nurture neoliberal vandalism preventing strict humane rules for working conditions and revaluing resources as individual humans. Compromised state is incapacitated to question narration of capitalism and dubious semantics of development and progress. The investor has to be perpetually pleased for sacredness of economic development. The meaning and intent of which nobody understands or cares while the development collapses life sustaining ecosystem and egalitarian values. Meaningless jobs and reckless systems alienate human being. Many give up, some suicide, while most morph into successful monsters that normalize exploitative narrations.

Dangerous escalation

        Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

        Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

        The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

        The ceremony of innocence is drowned    (The Second Coming by Yeats)

       World is spiraling precariously...of human stupidity, of patriarchy and feudal nurtured value systems that defines nation-state run by religion bartered market defined little egos. Unless humans are free individuals these will keep repeating.

Shadows

The burning trees

Share a kinship with me

There is a network of connection that I don’t recall

It goes back to communion in ocean.

It is another kind of presence

The movement in time of different scale.

I relearn.

I can no longer pretend I cannot vandalize

Conjure the shadows

Of all the dead trees

Arrange it on the hills and valleys

And wait for miracle.  

Need to urgently reevaluate capitalism

This is not a struggle for meaning in a neoliberal vandalized world. This also is not about alienation in a world devoid of ideological contestation or philosophical mooring. We have well passed quaint world of aesthetic nuances and liberal posturing. This is an urgent clarion call in fast changing debilitating reality of climate crisis. The life nurturing world as we know is collapsing around us. Ecosystems are losing resilience at an alarming rate. Biodiversity is vanishing. Biomass has had cataclysmic reduction. Every other day weather records are being broken across the world. We are in dire need for policy makers to attune to reality. The most significant issue that needs attention is understanding of ‘development’ and parameters that define it. We cannot have a model of progress that is eating away life (importantly words like development, progress, growth so on must mean what the definition intends). Humanity cannot be at the mercy of few corporate feudals and blackmailed for the survival of the economic system over its own survival. Influential economists must address this issue urgently and reevaluate framework of economic development and implement it at international institutions and agencies. There is a need for an international summit to reevaluate and redefine capitalism. Indeed in the context of things this seems more urgent than climate summits since it is compromised by these very concerns. This cannot go on. The elephant in the room is getting larger and is having debilitating impact on the world and is severely stretching poorer societies and vulnerable people. It is becoming a lost cause. Much of the world is incapable to respond although they may have better understanding. It is a systemic issue that has international control. It is pertinent to point here that capitalism and socialism are not mutually exclusive as is being made out to be by polarizing powerful narrations of market-controlled media particularly in low attention nurtured shallow and insular mainstream. There are solutions and sustainable interventions available. These need to be mainstreamed and synergized into policy making and institution. Too much is invested on the system, and we can still work it if it is urgently reevaluated and refined. Or else the climate catastrophe will break it down with severe consequences. We are at an unprecedented crossroad. Human beings with their flawed understanding have created systems that is leading to collapse of everything that is valued. Ticking clock is getting louder. This blip on geological time scale is facing its reckoning that universe is least bothered about. Unlike insignificant humans universe has that luxury.