Friday, March 29, 2024
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Attention is all you need
That is a groovy title for a
research paper that revolutionized natural language processing and created deep learning architecture
called Transformer that became the foundation for modern AI -the generative AI.
Previously neural network (Recurrent Neural Network -RNN) process data
sequentially -one word at a time in the order of appearance. Transformer was
able to capitalize on pattern that exist between words without being located in
proximity or are in sequence, this long distance dependencies in words is ‘attention
mechanism’. So, not all words are important only some are, and then you work
the pattern and imprint it simultaneously to get the meaning. This is pretty amazing.
Amazing because that is how I also read, infact all slow readers attempt such
tricks.
There are two steps in trying to comprehend written text. One is to understand basic structure of language, that is, grammar as also meaning of words. Since I really couldn’t understand grammar, I worked it by reading a lot and getting the structure, iterative learning -more you read better you become. So that when you write something wrong you get a feeling of something not quite right, so you pause and evaluate it further to get it right. Meaning of the words are always contextual hence iterative learning works. The more you read better you become while quality reading enhances your intellect. This is precisely how AI also learned language by getting pattern approximation through large data and powerful computation. I have discussed these few years back in context to GPT (https://depalan.blogspot.com/2021/12/human-intelligence-artificial.html). Now that you understand language how do you get the meaning is the second step. There was this big gap between wanting to read and capacity to read. I had racks of books to finish, and I was equally excited to know more as also understand high caliber patterns, but the capacity to read was woefully slow. I really couldn’t read more than few pages in a day, and sometimes I was stuck in word mesh and sentence loop, it is crazy but words tend to jump and play around, it frustrating to hold the words in their places while you try to get the meaning. I figured that there are two types of reading; one is deliberately slow, like for instance if you are reading nuanced writing like Kafka’s story or Dickinson’s poem, the unhinged words too add to depth of meaning, and the other one is fast reading -that is when you are reading nonfiction. The trick for fast reading is to identify signifier words (that encapsulates much meaning- 'holds attention'/tokens) and then to link a pattern to get the meaning. Though less number of words but the one that carry high approximation for meaning, and interestingly jumping words adds to unintended complexity to meaning. This is quite crazy but meaning gets into zone of high probability of not intended and eventual mess up. Probability of success vary with how much comfort you have in the subject; approximation is generally high if you are adept in identifying important signifier words. Indeed, I used to teach fast reading techniques for few years –a kind of job you finish fast with decent money then enough time to focus on real interests.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Game changing superchip
Much of economic growth of western
countries in the last many decades was riding on remarkable prescience of Moore’s
law- periodic increase in density of chip -doubling every two years. A few
years back people thought Moore’s law has hit a dead end -it is getting too
dense that it experiences quantum interference so on. The increased
computational power (apart from large data and neural learning) that led to AI
development has much to do with sophistication in chip -microprocessor. With remarkable
development and increasing computation demands of AI, CPU shifted to exponentially
powerful GPU – a massively parallelized processor suited to transformer parallel architecture. And just when you thought: how much
more can they squeeze in? comes the NVIDIA’s superchip Blackwell -B2100 is a
massive leap in computational power. If you saw the video of introduction by
Jensen Huang he slips in the worth -essentially money spent, that square piece
cost about 10b$. It however doesn’t really solve the problem of massive power consumption,
it is estimated that by 2030 Foundation Models will consume as much as 25% of
world power. Meanwhile Extropic is researching on Entropy computers -a paradigm
shift in basics of computer through unified AI and physics, working in natural
harmony with entropy thus scaling beyond constraints of digital computing and
substantially reduce power consumption. It is an attempt to emulate nature and embrace
chaos and noise into a symbiosis for a probabilistic AI algorithm.
The next AI wave is consolidating
on physical AI ie Robotics -access to multimodal data, which will understand
natural language and emulate movement by observing human action (Terrabytes and Exabytes of videos to tap on) to navigate, adapt and interact, meanwhile reflexive learning and dexterity.
Something akin to AGI is just around the corner. NVIDIA’s Project Grook is the foundational
model for humanoid robot. Let’s be quite clear ‘human like’ will no doubt need breakthrough
in quantum computing but nevertheless this is truly a remarkable achievement. Though
it is a technological breakthrough of many lifetime -that will have significant
impact much beyond work space, the social ramification will be severe. Surely, we
are living in the best of the times, we also have to accept the worst of times
with dangers it possesses. Technology so far is skirting a narrow balance
without major disruption but it sure is going to cascade very soon. Never has technology
so severely impacted society as also the meaning of what is to be a human.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Killer air
Air contains oxygen that is needed for human survival. What happens when this basic need turns toxic? Air pollution kills millions of people, and for millions more it exacerbate other debilitating health conditions, add to it contaminated water, pesticide laced food, and ofcourse mind-numbing noise that characterizes cities. Common people are seriously impacted by air quality, and they die without being counted -that is how agencies deal with problem by not being terribly concerned about collecting data (data is crucial to understand the gravity of the situation and formulate polices to save lives) or else manipulate data. Even short term exposure to polluted air can cause severe reactions -from deeply irritated air passage, persistent cough, headaches, burning eyes, weakness and disorientation, imagine living your whole life in these polluted pits. Human life is pliable to official narration. In a poor and desperate society, it is easily achieved. Fudging data is an art that even AI cannot emulate.
Today the world air pollution report was released. Out of top 50 most polluted cities in the world 43 are in India. If you look at the number of cities in top 30 it is almost all from India, and these are mostly hellholes of small towns where the development marauders are playing havoc. It is a statement on culture of apathy.
Thursday, March 14, 2024
How market capitalism unleashed development killed a garden city
In the early 2000s I shifted from
polluted, loud and crowded Delhi –a city of ugly uncouth people salivating and
stampeding around power so much so that the character of place percolates in its sinister clutch, to garden city of Bangalore (now Bengaluru). Bangalore
was a welcome respite with charming weather and mostly understated mild mannered
people. During those days even fans weren’t needed in summer. Huge trees dotted
the avenues with cascading flowers and wafting scent in the air. I used to go
for long walks or cycle, stop for warm delicious fluffy idlis, impeccable coffee,
streetside books (I recall picking up rare copy of Pearl Buck), and watch clear
bluest of sky. There were lakes, gardens, birds and butterflies…. there were so
many jungle mynas, purple sunbirds, and as you cycle few kms you could see
Indian rollers, Kingfishers, Drongos, Ibises, (even paradise flycatcher right
in the center of city -Cubbon park)…so on. There was so much diversity in urban
space. Oldtimers will tell you that the city had already started to crumble
with IT influx from late 1990s. Glass houses -ostensibly to keep off air
pollution and noise, and look chic, propping all around the place emulating desert architecture, ended up trapping heat hence began huge demand for air conditioners. Lakes vanished,
and so did the catchment areas and biodiversity (I recall spending time to
visit lakes and writing about it many years ago...please visit https://depalan.blogspot.com/2011/10/dying-lakes-of-bangalore.html), and yes, a quaint culture of care and
compassion. For few years I faced the brunt of polluted traffic as a two-wheeler driver (and surely reduced my life span, I still get wheezing and tremors, and assaulted spinal).
Changes in Bangalore were swift. Very
soon beautiful huge trees were cut, tacky flyovers and underpasses were
constructed, all the while charming buildings resolutely morphed into sickening
glass house clones as the city traffic got louder and louder spewing toxic
smoke. Birds and butterflies have vanished (I used to sit in the garden after
breakfast at NKB, there were so many birds and bees, and now after
ugly Mantri mall and noisy traffic there is nothing. The place is dead). Disease
of development took over the city. They systematically hacked out life from
every nook and corner, and sanitized it with signs of neo liberal progress. Where
once stood inviting Coffee house -overlooking street and garden, is now brick block
of glittery gold jewellery shop. The civilizational loss to market capitalism nurtured
greed and crass values is immense. They are now moving to Mysore like the medieval
marauders. The deadly swarm of development that will barren the land and eviscerate
life.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
P versus NP complexity problem
P
vs NP is a profound problem at the intersection of theoretical computer science,
computing technology and mathematical logic. It is a problem that is vexing
computer scientists, researchers and mathematicians everywhere for many decades
now, and is considered the most important problem of times we live in. Is P=NP?
is indeed a profound question that has enormous significance to humanity. If
P=NP is proved then it will give enormous power over knowledge. World will not
be the same again. There will be no gap between solving a problem and
recognizing the solution. If P equals NP, then you could solve anything as easily as
you could verify it. Fundamentally what it means is that if we can quickly
check that a solution to a problem is correct then we can also solve the
problem quickly. Hence anyone who could drive a vehicle could build one, and
anyone who listen to a symphony could create it like a Mozart. It is crazy but
that’s what it is.
Since it holds course
over fate of humanity let us try to understand what exactly is this problem. It
isn’t that difficult to understand. P stands for Polynomial time
wherein number of computational steps grows as a power of number of variables
rather than exponentially. What it really means is that we can predict the
maximum amount of time it will take to solve the problem. P problem is
therefore is easy and tractable, feasible to solve. Time to compute the
solution is not out of reach. Solution is also easy to verify -that is, to
check whether the answer is correct. So, a computer can solve a P problem in
reasonable amount of time and also verify it instantly. Algorithm exists for
its solution, and the number of steps is bounded by a polynomial function of n.
Polynomial is ‘raised to the power’ or exponential which is also a number
-hence bounded to time, this number is number of inputs to the problem, that
is, number of steps algorithm needs to take is proportional to input size. NP
stands for Non deterministic Polynomial time. Problems that can be verified in polynomial
time but may take exponential number of steps to solve. What it means in simple
terms is problems that take long time to calculate but short time to verify. Solution
can be guessed or verified in polynomial time in a non deterministic way, that
is, no particular rule is followed to make the guess. There are no formulae to
predict how long it will take to solve a NP problem. The only way to solve the
problem is to keep trying the answers until we find one that works. Time
required to solve the problem using any currently known algorithm increases
tremendously as the size of the problem increases hence it may take millions of
years to find the solution using the available computational power. Therefore,
NP problems are those whose answers are relatively easy to verify but there is
no easy way to compute a solution. NP problems take time to solve but are easy
to check once solved. The time taken to find solution grows exponentially as
the size grows. Simple examples of these are puzzles. To solve the puzzle, you
may have to use all your creativity and experience while verifying each step
before finding the solution, and once solution is found verification can be
done easily. Sudoku is an NP problem that takes time and effort to solve but
once it is solved it is easy to check whether it is correct, and the time
required to find solution increases exponentially as the game grid increases. Optimization
problems, scheduling, designing or routing (travelling salesman problem) that searches
for optimal solution are simple examples of NP problems that are easy to check
or verify but difficult to solve. So, P and NP are complexity classes, it also
includes NP Complete (NP-C), these classes are based on how difficult they are
to solve.
Some NP problems are found to be P problems. Like for instance Linear Programming problem was once classified as NP -as the number of steps increases exponentially with size of input, but polynomial time algorithm was discovered for linear programing showing it as P problem. Another example is that of testing whether a number is prime, this was NP class problem but in 2002 clever algorithm showed it to be P class problem. Hardest problem in NP, referred to as NP-C, are never shown in P. These problems are too hard to be solved with current methods. Interestingly if one of the NP-C can be shown to be in P then that means all NP-C are in P. So, P=NP essentially means; Can every problem in NP be solved in polynomial time? Can exponential time problems be solved in polynomial time? Are questions that are verified in polynomial time also solved in polynomial time? What it means is that every problem that can be verified quickly can also be solved quickly. This has profound implication as we can solve anything as easily as we can verify it. Finding solution becomes as easy as verifying that the solution is correct. This also brings in bigger question of how we decipher problems. Do we try to know and then figure it or do we work at the solution before finding it? And if P!=NP (N not equal to NP) then it means that some problems are beyond the ability of computers to solve even with tremendous computing power. Highly abstract nature of problem may need something more nuanced than brute computational power.
PvsNP problem is
essentially asking whether efficient solutions exist for complex problems or
that some problems are inherently difficult to solve quickly. It also raises deeper
questions on nature of knowledge, process of acquiring it and limitations of understanding.
There is a view that PvsNP is a problem beyond mathematics, that the basic
axioms that is accepted are not enough. Checking astronomical number of
possibilities one by one will take millions of years even with brute
computation force algorithm. We do not have any useful information, priori, to
discriminate some solutions hence reduce the set and therefore are forced to
iteratively work all the solutions. If deterministic digital computers have limitations,
then what about quantum computers? Famously Shor has shown that some quantum
computer algorithm is capable to solve NP problem in polynomial time. It is
proved that large prime number based digital encryption could easily be
decrypted by Shor’s algorithm hence the rush for post quantum cryptography (indeed
public key codes that exploit asymmetry in encoding and decoding i.e. encoding
is quick and decoding slow, are equally susceptible to P=NP solution). Shor’s
algorithm was able to use quantum to exploit hidden structure existing in factoring.
But we still don’t know whether such structures exist in NP-C problem. Furthermore,
quantum computer taps on properties of matter that exist simultaneously in
different states, and use these multiple states in parallel to explore
different possibilities, the information is stored in spin of electron but the
observer effect changes the result and also limit access. The difficulty to
prove P=NP means that it is not possible to solve an NP-C problem. Just as Godel’s
incompleteness theorem shows existence of unprovable theorems there may be
intrinsically random problems that lacks logical scheme to solve quickly. Or is
it that level of abstraction and complexity required to solve NP-C problems is difficult
for human mind to comprehend or language to express? Our language to access
reality seems to have shortcomings. Is the language game creating paradoxes that
weaves away from nature, hence the difficulty in accessing? There is a reason
why Turing was frustrated after listening to Wittgenstein lectures!
So, the question essentially
remains the same: How can we access the solution in polynomial time without
going through exponential time frame search? Can we still zoom into solution
where brute computation and quantum seems to fail? Does N!=NP points
to limitation of human reasoning? Is this limitation of nature, as in, ‘laws of
nature’? Does recent innovation in AI holds
some value? It is clear that AI is limited by same constraints as humans, it
cannot really solve problem that requires more resources than are available in physical
universe. Importantly, complexity of PvsNP needs deep mathematical
understanding and creative problem solving abilities which maybe beyond the
capabilities of existing AI algorithms. They really cannot generate novel
solutions as they imitate or reproduce existing proofs. Despite these negative
prognosis and general cynicism AI do hold possibilities. There are enough
examples of emergent abilities and capacity to detect patterns that is simply
astounding. So, it is possible that AI can leverage massive amount of data,
deep learning innovations and powerful computation to explore and extrapolate
large and complex search spaces to come out with something entirely unexpected,
or even efficient algorithm for NP-C problem. AI based evolutionary algorithm
that function in Darwinian like natural selection are being adapted to learn
from existing proofs and algorithms to generate new ones and solve complex
problems. AI is already challenging exclusive human claim on thinking and
access to rationality. And for some it has already blurred P=NP through
DeepMind’s Alphafold by solving ‘protein folding problem’. Protein folding is
an NP-C problem. For some AI didn’t really solve ‘protein problem’, since it
didn’t work out any polynomial time algorithm. It is a optimal heuristic
solution, and that protein probably did not fold to absolute minimum energy but
to local minimum. Global minimum, or absolute minimum, potential energy is NP-C,
and since polynomial time algorithm cannot solve, we have to assume that nature
also cannot (otherwise it will take exponential time, and so nature is
essentially inefficient!) hence it folds to local minimum and not absolute
minimum. There is something serious amiss in this argument. Way back in 2004
there was an attempt to prove P=NP using soap bubble as a mechanism for analog
computer. Soap bubble film naturally align to minimum energy configuration.
*while going through Chinese researchers using GPT for PvsNP I came across interesting prompt engineering that used Socratic questioning and reasoning to generate innovative responses. The problem with GPT is that if your prompt is not creative or cleverly engaging GPT tend to retrieve or regurgitate pre-existing answer or lapse into mainstream template. I found Socratic questioning simple and profound. Similarly, the way GPT learns language also intrigues me (by iterative approximation -essentially Wittgenstein, and not ideal meaning -Plato) it is also the way I learn language. So, I am not surprised GPT makes stupid mistakes!
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Dreading the El Nino spiked heat wave
The world has already entered
unchartered zone of climate that is having detrimental effect on biodiversity
this in turn is putting pressure on resilience of ecosystem eventually food security
and survival of life. Democratic institutions and social cohesive values are
facing severe pressure. Eventually vulnerable population will have to pay a
heavy price while growthism extremist fatten themselves on carcass of arguments.
In disparities driven poor societies desperate people will die in millions while millions more pushed
into worst of living condition, and as expected these will be easily managed and
manipulated into insignificant matter in the mainstream narration. Witness how ‘developed’ country with
high standard of living and awareness like Britain is being dealt by utter
scoundrels as politicians. It is not an accident, these are systemic, and these
very deviant value systems severely damaged fledgling democracies of
post-colonial exploited nations across the world, which in turn infected
international institutions. If this is how critical institutions are framed then how will the world deal with existential
threats? Feudal value systems were actively nurtured into democratic
institutions reducing it to a farce, easily susceptible to nepotism, corruption
and manipulation. From Africa and Asia, the extent to which sun never set,
democratic institutions are being used for control and exploitation. Economists
work out the detail while market media chisel the liberal sounding semantics
for the audience while common people see the world collapse around them. The
wanton colonial hypocrisy of rule of law by racist colonial monarchist christian civilizers became a compelling ideal for local charlatans. Hence democratic
institutions and values of freedom and liberty were curtailed in the
initiations itself. Egalitarian values are sidelined while humanitarian
concerns dealt in posturing. Even amazing possibilities of technology is
reduced to worst of dealing. Humans are actively sought to be dehumanized into
herds for exploitation. Herds happily dull in Huxleyian entertainment while
being told by guardian posers to fear Orwellian incursions. Distraction and
manipulation, and containment, is how history repeats for herds. Charlatans
worked critical debates as juvenile skirmishes of adolescents to keep the
entertainment going. Attention economy is how homo sapiens have collectively
worked to value itself.
There are enough signs that
climate systems are collapsing faster than anticipated. Earth is heating at an
unprecedented rate. As the Indian subcontinent moves towards summer this year
El Nino is expected to make it worst. We are facing serious dangers of heat
waves and forest fires. Though one hopes authorities are prepared but I really
don’t see much action. Market media and herd controllers are excited about
elections. Election Commission of India seems to be least concerned about
plight of people, and expect them to come out to vote during heat wave
conditions. It seems officials at EC are incapacitated to anticipate (like cricket
wastrels surprised at rain in the venue during monsoon!). Understandable when all
your life you were manipulating, conniving, genuflecting, for power and
position. Mediocre society lacking intellectual class or tradition of probity or critical thinking also values these petty bureaucrats as reservoir of
wisdom carefully emulating the template of colonial masters. COP28 cosmetic approach includes
‘cool pledge’, a ‘commitment’ to reduce climate impact of cooling sector and
also universal access to life saving cooling. Meanwhile Heat Action Plan are
only guidelines while NDMA initiated ‘Cool Roof’ seems to be the only action taken with some seriousness, ofcourse it is life saver in congested areas of cities, and will reduce
heat island effect. Kerala has taken initiative to create cooling centers, but
converting makeshift pandals into permanent structures in congested areas will
need air-conditioning. AC/refrigeration already contributes to about 7% of
GHGs, and then there is issue of continuous power generation during peak
demand. What is needed is sustainable strategies. Before electric fans were introduced
people in this region had many traditional methods to keep themselves cool that
includes the way buildings were designed. These could be explored, like for
instance, well ventilated high raised ceilings tend to be cooling. I read that some
churches have shown enthusiasm to be converted into cooling centers, the way
churches are designed provides natural cooling. Meanwhile citizens must
make themselves aware of increasing temperature threshold of the region they
are located in. They must take action to create off grid source of power as also natural ventilation and building design with vast resource of
traditional knowledge and latest technology. Devious power structure will seek
attention and keep you distracted as they amass and satisfy their ever burgeoning
greed. When push comes to shove -as it happened during pandemic, you will be abandoned
in the streets to die. Beware people retrieve your humanity from the herd. Technology
is offering transparency and with collective action much can be worked out.
*In the low-lying regions where
water logging has become frequent people have started to construct adaptive
buildings. This I saw on my walk.
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Tuesday, February 06, 2024
Understanding
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Education that murders
Unfortunately, the beggar minded
society values education as a means for acquiring money, power and security,
and not as an outcome but the very reason to educate. For majority of desperate
people, in this unjust nepotism driven corrupt world with acute poverty and characteristic middle class insecurities, this
surely is true and they end up as dehumanized lives chasing little world they are
eternally trapped in. When this becomes defining parameters of society is where
the problem is. Education therefore becomes goal oriented for gains, and the
worst of people pose as motivators to attune impressionable minds and hapless
people into this crude value system as eternal calling. Exams are conducted with much fanfare -the absurd nature of these competitions doesn’t really check the innate strength
or ingenuity (indeed the best educationists have questioned the stupid questions
they ask, as also the exaggerated IITs are tech coolies striving for status quo
world and gaining from opportunities herein to write success stories for herds
back home. It is the worst evaluation of education where humans are reduced to pawns. Ofcourse there are some who gain from better education understanding in West). The failure of education,
and with it potential of human, has much to do with this increasingly crass
control that is encroaching into core of humanity. The beggar minded society
stampeding to authenticate itself through increasingly meaningless competitions
ties itself in knots and strangulates itself. The beauty of life is taken away
and the confused alienated youngsters are evaluated on ugliness of society. Either
they systematically degrade themselves into this ugliness and goal orient for
power, prestige and money, and keep striving as best of herd and act as role
model for crass world, or else face the most important question there is:
whether to live? The goal oriented values and crude education system doesn’t really
factor the awareness of vastness of life and essential existential absurdity. Sisyphus
therefore has to suicide.
What is truly heartbreaking in this suicide note, apart from the soul wrenching innocence, is that the teenaged girl has chosen to write this extremely emotional last message to loved ones in a language that she is evidently not comfortable in. It points to deeper alienating factors, including likely lack of communication with people around. The desolate last line “this is the only option left” -a matter of fact evaluation of life by young mind, is a failure of society at many levels. It should shudder human conscience.
Monday, January 22, 2024
A nation awaits
...there is a mirthful contentment in this ethereal face. Hope it brings the same to millions of believers and make the world a better place. Om shaantih. Let there be peace.
Thursday, January 18, 2024
On the home stretch
Monday, January 15, 2024
Free will and nature of reality
There is/there is no/ free will.
Do we decide what we do? Ofcourse, we do. We are also
responsible for what we do. We are not primitives decided by fate or herd
manipulated by systems or animals driven by instinct. This question is seen as
an insult by most, and affront to their self. There is though complexities
involved. Is what we decide decided by us? Human beings pride themselves for
free will unlike animals who are motivated to action by desires and instinct.
Humans have intellectual capacity to pause their instinct to deliberate and to
choose with their free will. The question though is: Is this decision really
based on free will? Answer is as complex as life itself. Many philosophers
assert that there is no such thing as free will. It is an illusion. We are
driven by chance, or atleast choices are significantly shaped by forces that are
outside our control. While scientific insight into human neural circuitry
points to decision already in action before our free will -that is our mind,
has even decided. We feel we have decided but a subconscious process has
already begun before conscious self claim the free will. Brain activity can
predict a choice before conscious decision is taken. Indeed, UN has even
created framework to protect neuroright as human right. Brain data is valued.
Schopenhauer, one of the world’s prescient philosopher whose
ideas have influenced thinking of best minds over centuries, asserted that
humans have no free will. Human decisions are determined by body’s reactions to
stimuli and causes, and motives. Schopenhauer famously wrote that “we can do
what we want to do, but we cannot choose what we want”, and what we want is
determined by our nature, evolutionary pressures and contexts, causal factors
beyond human control. For free will to exhibit it must be determined by nothing
at all. Since that seems an impossibility does that mean that free will is a
lost cause, and that we are, for all our pretentions, predetermined? He however
adds that with deliberation relative free will is possible, which brings about
a relative freedom from an immediate determination to action. Even one of the
most vibrant mind Einstein admitted “I
claim credit for nothing. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as
the end, by forces over which we have no control”. Einstein adds “I
believe in intuition and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do
not know that I am”. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is
limited while imagination encircles the world. What emerges from brief analysis
of these two brilliant minds is that free will is restricted and needs nothing -no
influence, to exhibit, while intuition and imagination better approximates what
is expected from free will in a given situation. So, although free will is
controlled by forces beyond human control a combination of knowledge,
imagination, intuition, and awareness of nothingness, makes the probabilities
of thought overlapping free will a high possibility, hence human assertion over
unknown factors to decipher the nature of reality.
This gap between
decision and free will is the fertile ground that determines how human mind
evaluates the world and assert its indelible presence. It is difficult to know
whether decision is based on free will, we can only intuit, we feel “we are
right” and only know when the decision is made. This decision is free will. If you
intend to know free will it vanishes. The intention destroys the free will. Since
we know that there are unknown variables, indeed unknowable variables -as the
world is limitless, but we also are aware that these variables are quantified
or addressed when the decision is highest estimation of reality. Free will is
what we decide. At quantum level the world is made up of probabilities of event,
binaries are exhibited when we observe. Non quantifiable reality vanishes in
this observation. To grasp reality is therefore essentially play of words. We
don’t take decision through matrix of binaries but complexities of increasing
probabilities for free will to align to the intricate realities we face. This kind
of high probable estimation of reality can happen when subconscious is
cultivated in nothingness, what Schopenhauer refers to as “determined by
nothing at all”, -so that all fiction driven reality denying externalities of
culture, tradition, influences, habits, reactions so on are negated. You have
to keep an open frame of mind receptive to senses, knowledge, and imagination
that ensues. There are no goals, as goals create intent hence influences the
reality into narrow frame thus away from nothingness that compose much of reality.
It’s an awareness of not trying to get anything out of life. What saint Lao Tzu
-a constant source of wonder for best minds, keep emphasizing wei wu wei
-do not do. In this fertile purposelessness there is an awareness that acts
without acting, action by inaction. (Hindu seer’s ‘detached action’ is coopted into devious overwhelming
degradation without meditative quality or deeper meaning with nothingness -it
works in the frame of ‘duty’). Meditation equips to connect deeper nature of
reality, and all the wise people beginning with Buddha have emphasized on leaving
mind in its state with nature. The presence. Here and now. Just be, the being
that is human. Shoonyatha. Lack of desire must be understood from this context,
and not negation of life. “Don’t try”, you don’t try to create, write a poem (Bukowski)
or work your imagination. Creation originates from accumulated thoughts,
actions and experiences, but can near aesthetics of art and expression of
creator in stillness. Scientific/technological/philosophical/artistic
expressions of quality nurtured in this vacuum before finding
practical/objective ways of expressions (this intent of action is the appearance of objective reality or goal, it collapses all the possibilities into action in awareness). This is also how species evolve. More you travel without purpose more
you are aware; it is an iteration for deeper self with reality. Aim of music is
to listen. Art is to watch. Dance is to dance. Sing is to sing. There is no
goal, not winning or to be best, it limits, the moment it is judged it is lost,
loses the presence hence cannot produce. It is a quantum reality. Miraculous Kabir
looks beyond nothingness, the observer is the ego, the observation tarnishes
the reality with its projection. To have goal is to conform your will thus reducing
your humanity -this precisely what systems like market and religion has done. Religion
tries to equate awareness into its staid futile ways by obfuscating the
semantics of faith and fate into rational and vibrant. They create fear of
‘unknown’ and manipulate immense as ‘power’. They degrade humanity into its
lowest denominator. Power creates and controls binary of success and failure, hell
and heaven, leading to predictable and replication of past. It grants
favour/boon/blessing to control fate denying the everyday complexities and surprises
of life. Goal degraded market value system create hierarchy of merit to pander
and perpetuate the system/program without adding anything meaningful. Striving
for narrowest estimation for highest gain. These impresses herd into limited
controlled imaginations hence overwhelming mediocrity.
So how to have awareness
and senses attuned to give high probable estimation of reality for meaningful
response or decision or as Einstein says “I sometimes feel that I am right”. A
society that intrinsically value excellence will be better placed than an ignorant
malevolent one. Russell proposes an ‘intellectual culture without emotional
atrophy’. Intelligence needs to be cultivated, it is alert curiosity, an
aptitude for acquiring knowledge, an open minded and inviting mind. He values courage
as “impersonal outlook on life”, that something which takes us beyond self
without effort, where instinct is free and intelligent is active. “Perfection
of courage is found in the man of many interests, who feels his ego to be small
part of the world, not by despising himself, but through valuing much that is
not himself.” Love, knowledge and art holds possibilities for impersonal life. Pleasure
of being alive and inquisitive to surrounding will by its very nature make it
easy for objective study of situation.
Truth is eternal to the approximation of our reality. It is not flawed but not entire. We can only attempt to understand. This humble realization is the wisdom on which we strive everyday reality and the possibilities, and very likely, awareness of better future, a larger truth that encompasses more. A deeper pattern of reality, a better understanding. Perceptive writers like Szymborska refer ‘i don’t know’ as an emphasis to our eternal humility, an apprehension of mystery that we are part. Camus brings in vacuousness hence the beginning of awareness of human condition, the absurdities that create path for comprehending complexities. This moral vacuum is what modern human faces when ‘god is dead’ hence an opportunity to explore emergent reality using critical mind without restrictive priori.
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Wednesday, January 03, 2024
Matter of aukat
Aukat is a term that loosely translate to status or stature in english which is as expected inaccurate since it removes the derogatory intent and sociocultural value system. Aukat is much depraved as it carries the debauched context of primitive society hence loses the meaning in translation, and so caste cannibals easily take patronizing western fattened fluffs for bull ride of egalitarian oasis blessed by mahatmas and pandits. Few centuries back aukat was ordained by devious squatters from sanctum and distributed to bidders. Nincompoops posing as rulers queued up to be authenticated by wastrels so as to control the herd by playing on their faith and insecurities until ofcourse reality struck and were eviscerated in attack, sanctum ransacked and squatter hung on the nearest pole while people went about their fate. Britishers encouraged this crave for ‘intelligent equals’ hence to get into the colonial system, it also kept substantial population of youth from revolting against racist colonizers -they needn’t have worried nincompoops had already placed themselves into elevated next to white people over common people. Caste cannibalism had much in common with racism, they sought parity and pride. It was easy for racist brutes to play on the egos of primitives through titles and cheap sundries hence extend control without much resistance. Aukat was now distributed by racist colonizers. Bureaucrats, as carrier of colonizers legacy, were deemed as having high aukat that expected common people to supplicate. Mere cog in machine who were expected to implement policy, on whom intellect was lost, were valued as intelligent and knowledgeable by primitive society.
These have percolated into the degraded society. Hence dimwit egoist bureaucrats are marker of intelligence for hapless people, unathletic cricketers as sports, nepotistic mediocre movie makers as artist lacking aesthetics or sense of exquisite or deeper meaning, producing art as sentimental to nurture superficial thinking, fickle minds and loose values, cronyism and consumerism as business, herd controller opportunistic cheapskate as local leader. There is least concern for common good but ulterior motive and greed. It is all neatly packed as wonderous diverse society. Meanwhile humbleness is practiced as competitive sports with scores, slights and mishaps keenly recorded as defining factors for future dealing. Humility is not for desire to respect but self abasement to acquire credit, sharpening hypocrisy by falsifying basic human instinct. Self obsessed essentially mediocre in attribute and gross in attitude most are acutely aware of their lack hence stampede for power, position, money, award, records…to authenticate their aukat over teeming herd.
In an evolved society intelligence
is inquisitiveness and awareness for better world while bureaucrat minor facilitators,
sports display of athletic prowess and delight of physical possibilities and
not money manipulation for lowest denominator herd entertainment, artistic
expressions hold meaning and insight, innovation in latest technology is
business model, enlightened ways and empathy is representation. Aukat hinges on degraded pattern of crude that salivates for more power, more money, bigger records, higher position, glittering awards…constant
salivation, fear of oblivion, ego and pride as meaning of life and transactional human relation as attribute. Highest, biggest, largest, tallest, richest… are
aspiration model. In the aukat defined world even size of chair is a defining
moment and essential lesson to the herd to keep them in their place i.e. aukat.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
On meditative stillness
So I was
trying to find some good writers to read. Reading is an investment of time, presence
and effort; hence you have to choose carefully as if your life depends on it or
else do not read, go for a walk or hang upside down, just don’t degrade
yourself by reading mediocre nonsense that forms much of writing these days. Crass
stampede to get attention, they demean the medium as also devalue humanity. Your
presence is important to life don’t disregard by participating in the orgy of degradation,
the sickness that invades the soul if you are not discerning and vigilant. Your
attention is precious to your being. As I was meticulously flipping through website
to anchor on to the best of writers I was in presence of remarkable human being
and a brilliant writer. I really haven’t heard of Harry Martinson before, and
so here I was trying to find more of his writing. Harry Martinson was a Swedish
writer and poet. He was an orphan who had a tough life, while a teenager he ran
away from foster home and picked up odd menial jobs. He eventually got a job as
a stoker labor, shoveling coal into the boilers firebox to power the engine of
the ship -the same that was used in steam engine of railways that some of us
have seen in old movies. This one of the poems that I happen to read:
Meditative
stillness is unique evolution of human mind and relatively rare communion of
society. It is not chance or providence but unique characteristic that is
patterned in ideas, freedom and expressions that leads to stillness, a deeper
involvement with life. Political and economic stability plays a significant role
but isn’t the defining. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians are examples in its varying
and unique expression of thoughts and aesthetics that survived in unique
strands to emerge as and when society stills and individual meditates. Societies
were not egalitarian but majority enjoyed spaces that had access to meditative
stillness. This stillness is not satisfaction but absence of crave. It is inquisitive
awareness of human condition necessarily hinged on compassion. Primitive
societies survive on fear and crave, they herd to exist. Even with material
comfort and economic security they are trapped in their pathetic life of want
and control. Individual minds remain putrid pits while society becomes sinkhole
that attract the worst. Much of world is trapped in this vicious state, and any
number of opportunities of modern technologies and egalitarian options is
wasted. Their occupations are daily struggles of negation of life and possibilities.
Their crude expressions and stale ideas nurture crass entertainments of want
and inspiration for crave.
Much
of framework for human enterprise and progress stems from meditative stillness
that seeps into all forms of human expressions and thoughts. It needs constant strive
to reach this luxury of stillness. For hundreds and thousands of years nature
provided this stillness for life to thrive. This created brilliant expressions
of biodiversity. With consciousness human mind reach meditative state. Very few
regions of the world have achieved this evolved state that a self-taught man living
in worst of condition could produce such astounding expression of subtlety and
finesse. Such spaces are precious. Ofcourse in the last few years virtual world has created such spaces that is accessible from all across the world.
Harry Martinson also happened to visit Bombay (now Mumbai India) in 1920s while his ship was docked for few days. His observation in those few hours that he spent in Mumbai is a testament to sensibilities that I rarely find in Indian writers who spent lifetime in putrid pit lacking compassion or connection with life except as patronizing or self-justifying redemption of miserable life cloaked in blessing. Martinson writes “Sometimes my whole being shudders at the inconceivability of the throng, at the unimaginability of the multitude of sights”. There is poignant mention of his witnessing ‘dancing girls’ on the streets, compassion as he documents his observations. “Small groups of dancers, the youngest of the dancing girls not more than five years old at the most, wild, tormented, ecstatic, most of the time commanded by an old man, continuously shouting and threatening, ugly and repulsive: a sensational and upsetting contrast to the slender beauty of the whirling little dancers” Martinson writes “Bells are ringing wildly on the ankles of the tiny ballet dancers. He, the ugly one, shouts when the dance shall go over into acrobatics, and the tiny ones go backwards on their hands and feet, their bellies pointing up towards the sky. He shouts, as if he wanted to kill them, and they throw their legs up as they dance on, standing on their hands while he, with a murderous expression, plays on a monotonously humming string instrument; with the form of a fish and the appearance of a museum specimen, prehistorically evil”.... “What if John Bauer had seen you, dear little heart. How happy he would have been. John Bauer was our great fairy tale painter. He drowned in a long, spool-shaped lake called Vättern. He would have painted a dark picture of you, deep as a fairy tale. You would be sitting on an enormous lingonberry tuft within the woods of Holaved, blinking with your eyes, as dark as a wood-mere, so that the mere itself would rumble like thunder down in its mud, rumble out of envy”. Martinson pays money to the man to stop the exploitation, and writes that he wanted to hurt the man but avoided such a confrontation as he was concerned for the girls. “I could never be that cruel, not even if I was so angry with both the entire Brahminism and the vast constipation of the English lord system”. With this prescient line he was able to put his finger on the pulse of this degraded depraved society that generations of mediocre Indian writers nurtured to control narration lacked in moral capacity. And if you glimpse through the literary awards, you will see this urge to control narration as also nepotism of squatter camaraderie breeding the most mediocre but with high sense of self-worth of blessed gift. Like everything else most Indian writers are embarrassment. That they couldn’t sufficiently appreciate writers of caliber, like say, Mohd Basheer speaks of beggar minds haggling for next meal while stampeding for power and connections. Here artists are cheapskates who create slum cakes while marketeers define art. Mediocre nurture crass to justify itself.