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.                             

Redacted history

Historical perspective seems to be valued. This despite the fact that history is always redacted by powerful arbitrators to create narration of control. History is subjective to who is in control, hence it is rarely about common people or issues that matters to them or defines the society (nor is it about egalitarian progression of humanity or logical evolution of knowledge or wisdom). History is about control, and it varies with the heuristics of contemporary needs and haggling power. These infect international to national to local, so European history becomes world history while happenings in Delhi or other power centers becomes Indian history. It is as if history of human societies are defined by sociopath dynasties, greedy psychopaths and salivating power brokers who bring in the morals. Shockingly this degraded extrapolated power matrix of few philistine charlatans of past and their narration is postulated as history to evaluate present whether issues of Russian invasion of Ukraine or whatever is the next flash point for eyeballs.

There is an unhealthy importance given to history that often debilitates the present. An oft repeated quote asserts that to understand present we have to understand past. This really is nonsense for two specific reasons. One, as mentioned, history is redacted by power. Secondly, present is too complex with varying influences that is dynamically evolving the reality. Redacted history is invoked by controllers to value narration for influence and to hide their incapacity to evaluate complexities of contemporary hence this stampede to get the historical perspective. They lazily repeat semantics of the past to evaluate the present in the process attempt to freeze the contemporary in the strangulate grip of the past thus exciting the herd to recreate past fractures and replicate patterns of violence. Redacted history is ignited by controllers while they clumsily attempt to evaluate the present. They do immense damage. Primitive people, manipulators with ulterior motives, give importance to history as they lack ingenuity to deal with present. Feudal forces built edifice of past cleverly mixing myths of greatness to invoke fantastical view of present. They pride redacted history and fantasies as they are insecure of the present and lack faculties to deal with future. They are also constant threat to democratic ideals.  

We need to be extremely wary of power play of redacted history into contemporary issues. Fault lines of the past are false narrations for the present. There are no follies in history (since it’s dealing with complexities of the time) but in historians. History cannot really teach us anything (as it is redacted, and devoid of complexities of contemporary context) but can make us aware of immense absences hence must be allowed only minor influence on contemporary discourse. We must also have critical thinking to negate things that never happened and acute sense and wisdom to perceive what is happening. There is a precious space between real and unreal. We shouldn’t be lulled by lazy version of history by equally incompetent contemporary arbitrators worried about eyeballs and attention span hence simplistic version of present. It's impossible to sow fertile imagination of future in the barren land of decrypt past. Dynamic complexities of present make future increasingly vibrant to human ingenuity and uncertain challenges. This is something AI -fed on consolidated history and pattern herein, cannot conceive. It’s this that makes us human. Only humans can attempt to deal complexities of present and speculate vibrant paths of future. 

 

37th move, interesting coincidence

So, in my earlier blog I mentioned about the year 2012, and the coincidence of generative algorithm and CRISPR Cas9, as also add to it the doomed year mayan prediction, apocalyptic movie 2012 so on. It’s quite clear that generative algorithms have potential to create serious havoc in the society, keep in mind how humanity was found wanting to deal primitive recommender algorithm. Generative AI can be pernicious as it weaponize misinformation, disinformation, trust on which facts are exchanged and opinions shared. What is seen as amusing tech toy has potential to create devastating dilution of democratic institutions and fragile setup of social contract on which society hinges. Crispr tech is equally significant, it has revolutionized the dealing with life form, that has amazing benefits and also potential to create havoc -specifically tampering germ cells that can alter offspring as also cripsr gene drive -that can wipe out whole specie (ofcourse fast breeding short life cycle species). These are as significant as atomic energy. There was a world before atomic energy and then world after atomic energy. The world was not the same again. Humanity has acquired the potential to annihilate itself (ofcourse there are benefits of nuclear energy). The world also changed in 2012. There was a world before generative AI and Crispr tech. There is a world after Generative AI and Crispr tech. So that is an interesting coincidence, as also the call by developers of both these tech to stall.   

There is another coincidence that really spooked me, this after I watched AlphaGo about five years back, I even wrote about it in the comment section but failed to get traction so ignored it (as also living in a herd churning world which overwhelmingly values nonsensical crude miracles, herd riveting divine crap, religion driven hallucinations/faith, holy book fantastical trash, cheap entertainments that nurture these so on, I was reluctant to pursue this interesting coincidence). In the recent time the spookiness of move 37 is back in the scrutiny so thought of writing about it. In the second GO (a game so complex that there are more possible configurations for pieces than atoms in the observable universe) match of DeepMind’s AlphaGo with Seedol the move 37 in 2nd game was out of the world, Go master Fan Hui said “It’s not a human move. I’ve never seen a human play this move. So beautiful.” (you must see the documentary to get the full impact of the move). The move was counterintuitive that even experts thought it was a mistake but eventually turned out to be decisive, as a commentator wrote insightfully “move 37 condenses the complex undecidability of machine creativity into a single moment”. “The position is not as absurd as it might sound, especially when one considers that Darwinian natural selection is purposeless, directionless, and creatorless, yet it is the most creative force known to science”. This was much before ChatGPT so few us, nontechs, were aware of something incredible in the horizon.  Now, I do follow chess (quite an average player and add to it impulsive tendencies, in recent times atrocious, and I do a replay analysis to study my deteriorating brain! Interestingly I play few games of chess before writing my blog to get into logical serious thinking frame while if I play chess after writing some prose I play wonderfully bad!) and I recall tracking DeepBlue Vs Kasparov in 1996-97, and much discussed match that was won by DeepBlue, not many recall but it was the 2nd game 37^th move, the Bishop c2-e4 -the positional move, not the expected materialistic move from ‘machine’ -Queen f2-b6, that was the most discussed, and for many beginning of AI -optimizing problem to maximize objective function. I also recall reading an article ‘From DeepBlue to DeepMind’ few years tracing the development of AI.  

Watch where this takes

 

Approximation

Approximation 

How much can we approximate, the reality

The truth always eludes, and so it goes on

We live, we die

Bewildered even to recap the scene

The past is ransacked from the fertile imagination of present

We are the alphabets from which new words get written, and erased

  We are the clones from which future is modelled, and approximated   

Bee Day. Bee Day. This an emergency.

 BeeDay BeeDay humans are sinking the biodiversity for their greed and replicating genes. BeeDay BeeDay. This is an emergency. 

Emergent properties or is it “mirage”/“hallucination”/“sparks/glimmer of AGI”?

 

Last few days have been quite bamboozling. The world didn’t know what to make of Geoffrey Hinton’s ominous claims “It is like aliens have landed on our planet and we haven’t quite realized it yet because they speak very good English”, and unbecoming of Wittgenstein these aliens understand us quite well through our languages so as to promptly plot to “wipe out the humanity” -and believe me it does sound chilling in nonchalant british accent. He even quotes French philosopher Blaise Pascal as an afterthought -oh by the way “if you have two alternatives (i.e. AI killing humanity or not) and you have very little understanding of what is going on, then you should say 50 per cent.’ So that’s Geoffrey Hinton, a respected and reputed Turing awarded researcher (incidentally his grandfather George Boole formulated Boolean algebra that lay the foundation for entire digital age), who resigned from Google with this very intention, to warn the unsuspecting world of looming AI apocalypse, something that market media cherishes (atleast here in India they are always ready and looking forward to doomsday scenario, stock pictures and videos of terminators are edited with foreboding soundtrack to rivet the herd). He asserts that we are in new stage of evolution “when biological intelligence gets replaced by digital intelligence”. Hinton is described as godfather of AI, and is behind the recent breakthrough in AI through Large Language Models that is based on neural network and deep learning (back propagation algorithm, which allows AI to refine and extract patterns and concepts on a vast quantity of data, that is, learning based generative AI as against reason/logic based) that changed the way machines see the world. Though neural network has been area of research since 1950s but was at technological dead end, hence mathematical system emulating human brain was considered bewilderingly impossible so much so that even the word “neural network” was seen as offensive. Hinton doggedly pursued with minimum of facilities and research students aiming to create machines that could not only recognize objects but identify spoken words, understand natural language, converse, and solve problems humans couldn’t solve on their own.  In 2012 they presented paper with the breakthrough claim (incidentally 2012 is also the year in which another breakthrough technology, CRIPSR Cas9, paper was presented, and those keen on doomsday a movie named '2012' -mayan calendar whatever). Understanding the significance of this revolutionary technology big tech companies (including the Chinese) bid to acquire through close door auction. Finally, they went with Google but by now others were aware that gamechanger was on the horizon so the world was set for an AI race fueled by generative algorithm. Startup DeepMind was acquired by Google while OpenAI by Microsoft. OpenAI eventually brought out ChatGPT. Those who were keeping abreast with the latest in this field are aware that much before ChatGPT there were indications of something significant at work. I am sure some us have watched the documentary AlphaGo (2017) that defeated world champion in Go game, what was interesting was the emotional response of Lee Sedol -a sensitive fellow who eventually retired from the game, the counter intuitive moves were not accidental but reflection of something deep at work. Anyone who has watched AlphaZero (AI trained by playing with itself instructed on basic rules and objective function of winning with no human input) play with StockFish (till recently the most powerful chess engine that was trained on human games) will know how spectacular neural network based deep learning is. Its counter intuitive strategy makes moves that no human ever made, it brings out pattern beyond human comprehension, and could only be known once the game is over for you to analyze. It’s spell binding.

So, has AI acquired emergent properties? The concept of emergence has been in use in science for decades, it means complex, unpredictable behaviors, emerging from simple natural laws. Emergent phenomena are ubiquitous in nature (indeed nothing in science makes sense without emergence) and a proper grasp of how they come about could hold the key to solving some of our biggest mysteries. Nobel laureate physicist Philip Anderson worked the idea of emergence as quantitative changes that can lead to qualitatively different and unexpected phenomena. For AI LLM systems (which are very large transformer neural networks, often spanning across hundreds of billions of parameters, trained on hundreds of gigabytes of text data) it means abilities not present in smaller models but present in larger models, unexpected and unintended abilities, to elaborate further, impressive abilities gained by programs that they were supposedly never trained to possess, that is, seeking to transcend for new functions. So, as a dampener, a paper (yet to be peer reviewed) by a team of Stanford scientists, argue that the “glimmers of artificial general intelligence (AGI)” we're seeing are all just “an illusion”. They found that when “more data and less specific metrics are brought into the picture, these seemingly unpredictable properties become quite predictable”. The researchers argue that "existing claims of emergent abilities are creations of the researcher's analysis, not fundamental changes in model behavior on specific tasks with scale”. In simple terms it means that it is borne out of inherently flawed metrics. Soon enough some have gone for the attack, this from an article I read the other day “Claiming that complex outputs arising from even more complex inputs is ‘emergent behavior’ is like finding a severed finger in a hot dog and claiming the hot dog factory has learned to create fingers”. “Modern AI chatbots are not magical artifacts without precedent in human history. They are not producing something out of nothing. They do not reveal insights into the laws that govern human consciousness and our physical universe. They are industrial-scale knowledge sausages”. Even the claims of ChatGPT learning new language, Bengali, on its own is being questioned. There are allegations of market ploy to get attention and investors. It surely is getting nasty. Neural network based deep machine learning generative algorithm can provide solutions to lots of our problems, and may even bring out hidden logics of fusion, but to claim that it will provide solutions for climate change or biodiversity loss is spurious. Scientists and researchers have it well documented, AI will only make it much clearer but that shouldn’t be an excuse to distract from fossil fuel. There is already an attempt to distract towards fossil fuel emissions in forthcoming COP28 -a meet which is already doomed.    

So where is the truth? The truth is not in the extremes. There are enough evidences of emergent ability in AI, atleast in narrow discreet setting. Halicin, protein folds so on are some brilliant examples of AI probing reason beyond our comprehension. The brilliance of few simple rules of chess or Go that created unexpected complexities of moves or reasons in black box that we are not privy to. Clearly very complex is being solved with a relatively simple algorithm. This is emergent ability. The problem is when you confine AI/generative algorithm to LLM, as also mess up with claims of AGI, conscious, sentient and what not. On its own LLM models like ChatGPT4, PaLM, BARD so on are quite spectacular achievement, one needn’t spoil it with claims of AGI. There is digital intelligence that is created when billions of parameters and gigabytes are involved, and with multimodal input through everyday talk, videos, converted into texts for LLM, meaning sights and sounds are accessed, and very conceivable for other senses be activated. It is conceivable that LLMs develop an internal complexity that goes well beyond a shallow statistical analysis. It will be certainly much more than a stochastic parrot, and carry complexity to build some representation of the world. Language have evolved through thousands of years of iteration and has logic of thought that is based on simple rules of grammar but meanings are approximation of logic and context that may not be expressible or confined through grammar. Powerful AI is well placed to access this black box logic of thought. Hinton is right there is an alien that is the sum total of our language.

One would also agree with Hinton that digital intelligence is better than biological intelligence but whether biological intelligence is transition towards digital intelligence is questionable. Digital intelligence requires much more energy but is shared across entire networks and can process much more data than we can. It’s efficient hence better that surely doesn’t mean prescient. Biological intelligence is byproduct of millions of years evolution and in necessary iteration through senses to surrounding. Mutualism and symbiotic relations have significantly contributed to evolution of life.  There is a compelling argument that is put forth: if submarines do not swim like fish and airplanes do not fly like birds then why should computers think like humans? Quite true, and black box logic is ample proof of it. But then fishes and birds are not only swimming and flying they also think and live a complex life. Logic is only a part of thinking, and complexity of human thinking is a wonder despite low memory and weak computation. Humans will not be able to identify intricate pattern in complex iteration of powerful computations but they can create complex associations without any pattern, intuit and use emotion to evaluate. Though evolutionary algorithm (also algorithms from nature like swarm intelligence, and for instance light weighting algorithm to optimize energy and resource from as simple an organism as slime mold) adds to complexities of digital intelligence, in few iteration that has millions of years of making, it is fixed on what exist today as determination of collective intelligence pattern on which to iterate learning. This wouldn’t factor breakthrough ideas that define human progress. Nevertheless digital intelligence has lots of possibilities and danger too. It needn’t be smarter than human to create trouble. Consider a virus it doesn’t really have the kind of biological intelligence nor consciousness that humans have but still are lethal and can wipe out substantial human population as also severely strain and collapse human created systems. Even a single cell life form like virus or bacteria that doesn’t match human intelligence have sophisticated attack and defense systems (that even question anthropomorphized ideas of intelligence). You just have to look at amazing array of bacteriophages and bacterial defense like Crispr. Biological intelligence had luxury of billions of years to evolve. Digital intelligence has deep learning memory with unmatched computation power that will grow exponentially it is therefore expected that it delves into complexity of pattern and show emergent ability to generate logic and surprises that takes us closer to nature of reality.               

The CNN syndrome

CNN positions itself as some kind of value-based savior media, we too fall for the ruse forgetting that these are money making enterprise, and like cheapskates positioning as media in India they too are working for next meal or EMI. It’s a miserable life. You can always find relevant news through online platform streamline to your need, as for Indian media I follow the worst references catering to my expectations from Indian media (it’s hilarious the way these dimwits use adjectives as clickbait). There was a time when Pronnoy’s angels cooed with castetva sycophants to save the world, dangerous caste cannibal lacking any discerning skill whatsoever as President of India opened up democratic institutions to honor greatest living Indians, saccharine fizz seller (exploiting groundwater, plastic polluting and ofcourse disease spreading) was right at the top list. If you got into the minds of likes of Pranab for insight you will shudder at the degradation. A tradition of deeply flawed psychopaths like ‘Rajaji’ nurtured by castetva forces, imagine the despicable caste cannibal grabbing Governor General’s position licking the colonials while playing freedom, even snarled for President’s position, snatched the Bharat Ratna, meanwhile presented as CM of TN (the degradation this trash in human form unleashed is still felt). There are streets, colonies even a wildlife sanctuary (that too in Uttarakhand) named after this pus. He is an abiding inspiration for all the manipulators getting up every day morning to manipulate afresh to never give up! 

So, where does CNN fit in? We have seen in recent times how BBC has degraded itself, indeed a media that emerges from monarchy feudal and christianity ensconced value system is already compromised. With Fox News asked to pay the due for its wanton misdeeds in the garb of media hence diminished the charlatans at CNN saw an opportunity to fill in the gap. Imagine these scoundrels. They invited former president -space shifting sputum- and this is the least offensive reference I can muster, to balance. They arranged it to fit in the market needs, essentially a jolly affair to keep the herd happy. CNN very well knew herd is now a mob, and the mobster is slick in his turf. Nevertheless, they went ahead, this foolhardy entitled assurance and heuristic salivating is a defining characteristic of the times we live in. Pity. Beware people. Be very careful of these high-end manipulators. They are here to mollycoddle the powerful and least bothered how much misery it causes. They are here to do what benefits them. They are here to prime us to compromise and tolerant to degradation as we loose our world and our sensibilities. These are the entertainers on the deck of sinking ship. These are the foot soldiers of apocalypse. There is nothing else to this template. The system has iterated for narrow gains for too long hence gone crazy. Period.   

Post script: what I have realized over time is that existential issues like climate change or extinction cannot really be tackled with contemporary framework, the market capitalist economy and opportunistic systems that it nurtures. It seems to be futile. These are stampeded by manipulators trying to position for benefit. Prescient youngsters and perceptive indigenous people are only genuine presence, and you can really feel for them. We have failed, the system panders the herd and herd controllers, a self-defeating loop. It has become impossible to take collective action for common good. Sustainable technologies and solutions seem the only way out.   

An open letter to Mr. Charles

 

Dear Mr. Charles,

"We are under no king; let each vindicate himself."-Seneca 

I write this from India, a former colony of Britain that still suffers from after effects of colonial exploitation. Not that it was better off before colonialized, but then we need someone to blame and british raj ticks all the excuses. The reason I am writing in English, and not in Spanish or French, is just as fated. India was waiting to be colonized, and it just happened to be Britain. So, we common people were fated. Your luck. English is an interesting language though, and opened new areas of inquisitiveness unlike Indian languages that were stuck in time warp of unenterprising self-obsessed people. I don’t agree with civilizing mission of racist colonizers nor do I agree on accomplished civilized mission of primitive Indian elite. India was always trapped in worst of outcomes. So, nobody really can be blamed. Some talk of reparation and apology. There is really nothing to apologize for nor any need for reparation. What happened must be seen in the context of time. Line has to be drawn. Few centuries back world was a nasty place. Might and power decided what was right. Most of the world lived in terror of aggression and exploitation. Europeans were efficient and enterprising to create technology to explore the world. While much of the world lacked, it is not that they were non violent or peace loving -indeed societies are brutal and it’s a common feature, they are essentially defined by dominant value systems. Humans are as violent as nature is. For last few decades much of world has created systems of law and order, democratic institutions and justice system, hence spaces of peaceful secure existence for most people.

In the last few centuries monarchies in Europe provided for long periods of tranquility within their boundaries, and during these periods most of them encouraged and provided space for best of human expressions and ideas, that accumulated from best of all across the world through time from Greeks to Mesopotamia to Chinese and so on. Much of astounding progress of humanity in the last few decades can be traced to these. It’s not that other part of the world did not contribute. It was sporadic and most were incapable to sustain due to various factors. Britain specifically was responsible for amazing progress in science under the royal patronage. Not that science would not have progressed without royal patronage but taken much longer time (facts are already there, if not Newton someone else). Essentially this would have shifted the trajectory of human progress which we see all around us, and possibly we would still be living in the grip of fate driven fantasies and superstitions in a much-diminished world. So, European monarchies despite committing atrocities all across the world -which ofcourse seems natural in the context of time, have served humanity immensely by creating settled secure space, hence traditions of contemplating into streams of thoughts, consolidating into systematic learning and enquiry, that put foundation to further search and research. Hence thank you to the monarchs who lived during those ages. They guided for better world.

The world has come a long way since then. Humanitarian values have consolidated in most part of the world. We value freedom, equality, liberty and dignity of each individual, and these form the lynchpin of human interactions and foundations for institutions on which humanity’s progress is dependent on. Without these we are back to medieval uncertainties. Reparations and apologies are not needed but systems that sustains feudal values cannot be supported hence must go. Tradition and culture that doesn’t sustain egalitarian values are not progressive hence persistent threat and source for misery. It is therefore important for you to understand that existence of monarchy is an anachronism that is challenging all that is precious to humanity, to each and every of eight billion humans on this planet, particularly to the most vulnerable. How will you explain your position to that bright child negotiating her way to school despite overwhelming odds? Can you answer any of the question that a man working 9-5 for meagre existence has? Will you be able to answer the woman walking in treacherous heat for daily pot of water? You cannot. All your weight of history and tradition is too light to the existential realities of life. Ascriptive exceptionalism is worst of possibilities, it sustains the most degraded humans that live among us and a constant threat whether caste cannibals (hindus) or monster mullah (islam) or racist whites (christians) so on. The world is facing enough serious crisis whether climate change, species extinctions or AI generated polarizing disinformation set to be unleashed etc. and these need immediate attention. What the world is witnessing in Britain is an embarrassing display of medieval theatre of absurdity. It is an assault on humanity. It is exciting the worst kind of people from all across the world, and initiating juvenile binary discussions we don’t need. Adult humans can be better than this. Please grow up. Have a reality check. Abdicate.  

Best wishes

A concerned fellow

From your former colony                           

 

Terrifying reality of Artificially generated fakes

 

Something sinister is taking over the world. Suddenly one is not able to trust one’s senses. This is crucial since it is when we sense things that we can understand, comprehend through complex interactions of knowledge, experience, intuition and critical thinking faculties. This then becomes part of us, our memory, learning and future evaluation reference. If we cannot even trust our senses then situation becomes dire, as it is the world is increasingly nurtured by greedy self-centered people who are looking out to optimize their world view to ensnare people into profit. They are targeting our worst instincts to engage hence nurture addiction and outrage. It’s not that these things were not happening before. In India for instance, that lacks enlightened core to nurture better ways, for decades worst of people degraded possibilities of modern systems. Every new understanding, ideas or gadget became tool to manipulate for greed for power, money and influence. Marketeers and manipulators controlled the system with worst of tradition that became pointers for playing diversity, words were being used devoid of any meaning, they used power blatantly to control narration and give impression to West of liberal and progressive. They morph into best version of what West demands or expects. While ironically West, like Britain, was compromised with monarchy and feudal ways, crucially they controlled far off lands that encouraged corruption through money laundering so on. Attack on Iraq and its blatancy is a study on how deep the rot is. And I am quite sure dark money is pouring to them as gifts, influence, so on to work narration. This is how neo colonialism work. You benefit from framework of colonialism and feudal values with least of effort. These were also setting standards for the world, having amassed wealth and influence through colonial exploitations and slavery. Then the audacity to evaluate.  

I have closely observed manipulators at work. These are the worst kind of humans, and they have spread all across the world. Societies with strong ethical foundations tend to be less compromised, societies that invested on education and care tend to have compassionate value systems, but nevertheless these sinister forces work on the sidelines to pounce on every opportunity, that is essentially targeting weakness of human or system. They are here for money and power whichever way they can grab it. Semantics (without any meaning except as debating point to showcase their liberal bearing and virtue signaling) and control of narration is how they extended their sinister grip. Lacking egalitarian foundation democratic institutions get compromised, and nurture worst of possibilities. It was not an accident that british media went with the lies (‘sexed up’) of Blair and Labour party to attack Iraq and cause deaths and untold suffering to millions of people, and this less than a century ago when they caused horrendous atrocities through colonialism and slavery, the memories of which still flare the collective psyche. Clearly, the system is compromised hence the cosmetic, indeed damaging, attempts at multiculture that encourage worst of others. Religiophilia seems to be the latest strategy by charlatans in West to have upper hand on narration. From this entitled worldview common people are fodder for highest morals. The concerns that will deeply and disproportionately impact them like climate change or flawed economic systems so on will be least of concern. The everyday apprehension is to control the narration till the weekend, and weekend I am told is for partying.    

Now if this is how the world is then imagine the havoc AI generated images, videos, voices and deep fakes are going to unleash on the hapless people. We are living in a world where trust is almost nonexistent. So, we have to go by facts, and take effort to verify from diversity of sources. What we see and hear is an important source of fact, ofcourse these could be cleverly edited to create narration, but now imagine what we see and hear itself is patently fake and still we are not able to discern. Imagine the deep sense of disorientation this creates. This is precisely where the world is entering, and wait with baited breath to see how these will be manipulated by worst of people. Market media has primed us for fake, every product is sold to us through fake narration that targets lowest emotions to part with our money and time. This Ponzi scheme hides under the euphemism of words like democracy, freedom, choices and growth. Worst of people are edging out the best possibilities of democratic institutions, religions and human associations. Everything is graded, classified, and evaluated for profit. Hence, it’s but natural that worst of AI will spread faster. Lies always travel faster but AI generates lies on steroids.  Ofcourse immense possibilities of AI will work in the background through meticulous contribution from best of people with best of intentions. Apart from fakes biases and prejudices are multiplying and being reinforced with machine learning algorithm trained on skewed data. Even the objective function tends to be infected with subjective aspiration embedded in mathematically defined success. The purpose defined for machine learned generative algorithms is sketchy when interfacing with human values, hence the alignment problem.

I as a consumer and a concerned person would like to know what is machine learning goal of the system I am interfacing with? I should have the right to know whether what I am dealing with i.e. seeing or hearing is AI generated. There should be red letter tag AG (Artificially Generated) warning or similar clear indication. You cannot stop AI, you can only regulate with sensible actionable restrictions. Since this is an issue that is not confined to national borders an international law is needed before it’s too late. This powerful technology is developing very fast and worst of people, nurtured into powerful positions by compromised systems, have access to it. This shouldn’t be means to quantify suffering of majority of people into greed for money, power and position for few. If not acted with alacrity AI generated fake world has potential to collapse democracy, and hard-won values of freedom and liberty. The pandemic of misinformation, disinformation, lies and fakes are on AI steroid. They are infecting experiences. There is a significant qualitative shift happening in the creation and presentation of fake in the last few months. The situation really is quite dire, and what is unfolding is indeed terrifying.        

This Man Is Death

 

Look at this man. This man is death. Each cell of his body stinks and each carbon molecule -that hold this assortment of life form, is seeking to escape for better purpose.  

Unless the system that nurtures man like him is called out the world is not going to be OK. He must be dealt. People like him played havoc over the last few decades as they amass wealth and influenced the worst kind of people and narrations into important positions. Their role, specifically in last few years, must be securitized and be held responsible.  

Also, to be noted is that herd churning systems have made people vulnerable to these charlatans all across the world. They easily fall for conspiracy theories, they refuse to use their critical thinking faculties, the ego driven framework -that provides them all fantastical answers, incapacitate them to uniqueness of life nor it exposes them to existential insecurities that essentially awakens senses with primal need to connect to surrounding, to know, to understand. The glitter mirage of safe world arrogance provided by the market capitalism and the nostalgic securities and fantasies that religion presents have made the situation worse. 

British Labour leadership is racist

Diane Abbott has done nothing wrong, and a leader of her stature -who spent decades of exemplary service must be celebrated. Let us repeat this in no uncertain term: Religion is not race. Black is a race. You cannot be born into a religion. It’s an option. You can change your religion or better still not believe in the juvenile construct. It’s a choice. Being black is not a choice. It’s your skin color. Prejudices and discrimination associated with your skin color -that is also associated with horrendous history of slavery, is racism. Nobody should be allowed to tamper with this definition, not the least by white men (that too nurtured in monarchy christian system). There are also vicious religions (caste cannibals-hindus, monster mullah-islam) spreading in west, these supremacists want control of semantics, and work it into victim. They want to trap the herd in their demonic control. Religiophilia of the west is increasingly becoming threat to people across the world -the egalitarian humanist traditions.

There is rise in ‘antisemitism’ in west specifically by white christian supremacist, and ofcourse many regions where islam is prominent (there is no “Islamic world”, this is another of lazy western media trope -mysticism/otherness, that has severe ramification). That shouldn’t be reason to be bludgeoned into narration set by few, and that too reflecting realities of last century. As religion is not a race. JEW IS NOT A RACE. This is unacceptable. It is untenable. Ofcourse jews faced horribly under Nazis, genocide of millions of jews is well documented. It’s a painful chapter in human history. Nazis spread the idea of jews being a race, so as to isolate them, degrade them. The idea that was being pushed by nazis was that ‘they are born superior', and this can only work if jews were 'born degraded’. It’s a text book case of bracketing people to demean and isolate. Implicit in this idea is that if somebody is ‘born degraded’ -meaning they cannot be civilized or taught, so the option left is to eliminate. These are lessons on genocide. The first step is to fix religion as race, something that is immutable. It’s a vicious attempt to consolidate prejudices (as Abbott correctly pointed, what religion experiences is prejudice) and biases into something undisputable. Where people are made insignificant, their choice and freedom negotiated for bigger narration by few. So, if someone is born black, and an attempt is made to classify someone born black as ‘degraded’ then it is an assault on soul of humanity.  

Antisemitism has the context of narration of last century. Some devious people want to keep it trapped in time to extract narration that suits them. There are big money and influential people working to control. It must therefore be asserted that there is nothing wrong in being anti-judaism (nor anti-hindu or anti-islam, or anti any other religion or cult), indeed it is an extension of much cherished religiophobia that asserts liberty. Faith cannot be classified as race. Every sane person must resist this attempt. There is a need for new semantics to define the reality of the world we live in that has no semblance with narrations of past. If this is not done then semantics of the past has the power to bring back the narrations of the past. History rides on narrations, and can come alive as protagonists morph into past to repeat. Be very wary.   

In the meanwhile, british intellectuals and civic minded people must protest against the treatment met to Diane Abbott, a Jamaican immigrant, a black woman from a region from where racist colonizers captured people as slaves and unleashed atrocities. Diane Abbott has done remarkably well despite tremendous odds that only a black woman can understand. What she said is much nuanced hence needs to be debated, and must be understood in the context. Diane Abbott doesn’t deserve this. Keir Starmer’s racism must called out, and he should be shunted out. White man’s virtue signaling is well past the expiry date. The world is least interested in carrying white man’s burden, least his narration. Keir Starmer is the worst binary that is being posited as option in polarized british politics. He is thoroughly disliked, and lacks charisma, compassion or intelligence. ‘Leaders’ like him is one the main reasons why buffooneries of Tories get credibility. He is purging the party off its effective leadership. White entitled male like Starmer (nurtured by feudal christian system in the luxury and pomp garnered from slavery and colonial loot, the least that is expected is that they maintain democratic institutions -atleast for redemption sake, the hypocrisy of trying to guide people across the world on democracy and human rights) shouldn’t be allowed to get away with racism, and no amount of virtue signaling should clear this fellow. He must be called out and dealt severely.