Catapulting concern of alignment issue

 

The other day I was watching this movie Primer (2004), I stumbled on it while random scrolling. Reminds me of the time when you end up in the library to escape the heat and randomly search for something to read -dustier part where not many people access is a better place, and end up reading something valuable like Whitman or Naipaul. With internet random reading has significantly reduced and has shifted to random watching -mostly lowest common denominator eyeball trash -I am told attention seeking doom economy is where capitalism is moving with neoliberal alacrity! Primer is a low budget movie that has attained cult status. It is about a bunch of engineers/innovators who dabble with technology in their basement to stumble upon something exceeding their wildest expectations -the machine to make thing to weigh less ends up into time machine capabilities. What is compelling is the director, producer, screen writer, and lead actor and technician of the movie Shane Carruth is also a mathematician and works as an engineer, doesn’t dumb down the language for the audience like most science fiction do. And what is remarkable is when they realize their breakthrough they don’t turn cartwheel or jump up triumphally fisting in the air, they are stunned which is a plausible expectation when you are dealing with mindboggling complexities and pioneer portal. The scared deadpan expression of enormity is compelling realistic watch and indeed respite from usual cringe that you are used to watch. There are few takeaways for contemporary context when we are discussing fast evolving Cambrian scene of AI. Once the protagonists realized the potential of their invention, they upscale it for human size with full knowledge of their recklessness: "I can think of no way in which this thing can be considered remotely safe," says one. The enormity of their creation simultaneously presents human flaws into sharp focus. They become untrustworthy and greedy, and use it for immediate financial gain by playing the stock market and betting on college basketball games, and later for personal aggrandizement, when one of them tries to reverse-engineer the events at a party in order to make himself the hero. Carruth says “I saw these guys as scientifically accomplished but ethically, morons. They never had any reasons before to have ethical questions. So, when they’re hit with this device, they’re blindsided by it. The first thing they do is make money with it. They’re not talking about the ethics of altering your former self…”.

Some of the antics of AI techies, faced with enormity of what they are handling, one cannot but cringe and agree with the description ‘ethical morons’, as also capitalism framework of greed that is fueling to reckless lowest common denominator to grab market. There surely is an alignment issue -need for AI to align with basic ethical framework, which smarter concerned people have already flagged and are working on institutional mechanism before it creates catastrophic impact. There are spectrum of risk, and existential risk of AGI is the farthest -indeed farfetched at this moment, so is the issue of loss of control -runaway AI. Threat to idea of truth as collective deal is breached by algorithm. AI is simulating its own world. Deepfakes, misinformation and disinformation can severely impact democratic institutions. There is a need for mechanism of digital authentication so that people are aware and have choice. AI is distilled version of collective hence biases are common, and gets amplified and is exacerbated. Centuries of work by remarkable people to mainstream and consolidate egalitarian humanist value system is being challenged by powerful rogue technology in the hands of ethical morons.

Face by face the answers seem uncertain
Young and old, proud icons are dismissed
Can machines ever see my queens as I view them?
Can machines ever see our grandmothers as we knew them?                                                                            (from poem AI, Ain't I A Woman by Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League) 

AI humanoid with female face are gendered within regressive frame of male gaze stereotype. All knowing humanoid that is simultaneously a know nothing nubile seductress. Privacy is another matter that needs attention -studies shows that AI will help leaders with dictatorial tendencies to consolidate and authoritarian regimes to control. Weaponized AI triggered by black box decisions is a grievous matter hence call for strict human oversight despite apprehension of losing superior AI reasoning over human. There are calls for regulations without impeding innovation, that is, transparency and oversight on foundational models but regulating start up that are fine tuning these and interfacing with public. Which brings in an important issue of public sector investment in AI. Foundational models are prohibitively expensive (the other day it was reported that Meta bought 30b$ worth GPUs from Nvidia) and are monopolized by few big private players. Much of the world will not have access to these latest innovations and will be dependent on BigTech. There is a need for international foundational model, preferably under UN AI that is accessible to all member state for research and so on.

There is also immediate need for high level expert group on AI in UN that will provide alliance and framework for regulation of AI which is dynamically synced with ever changing challenging dimensions of AI and its implications that is increasingly difficult to predict as also cumulative complexities with breakthroughs in other fields.

Mad Max saga continues!

 

There are very few movies that I watch more than once, also not much into 'action' movies -mindless nonsense with spectacle of gore and violence with flimsy story line or characters (we are no longer in the age of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan when action was art and fun to watch). But Mad Max series is different genre altogether. Raw and compelling. Crazy guitar playing fire spewing maniac in battle field rough chase in desert like alien terrain is motif of an epic. "Witness"!    

How creative is AI?

 I am quite enamored by scientific breakthroughs and understanding, as also interesting applications through technologies. Mindboggling AI development in the last few years, and even months, is happening realtime. This ‘general-purpose technology’ has the potential to quantitatively change world, and unlike previous general purpose technologies that impacted human society (for instance printing press, steam engine, electricity, telephone, automobile, transistors, internet etc.) AI is tremendous in its scale and speed. With deep learning neural network and geometrically progressed transistor intense computational power (scaling through GPUs) churning on internet created stupendously large data AI has suddenly come alive. Transistor architecture worked LLMs into generative AI. With multimodal inputs AI has started to experience the world, and moving from 2D language inputs to 3D awareness with ever refining sense data that is expected to move from one domain to another effortlessly. Recent history of technology was about manipulating atoms -from tools to machines, hydrocarbons to electricity, materials to medicine, the primary driver of new technologies was material -manipulation of atomic elements. In the last few decades technology moved towards sophistication and abstraction. “Information as core property of universe. It can be encoded in a binary format and is, in the form of DNA, at the core of life operates” (The Coming Wave, Mustafa Suleyman). So, bits (increasingly genes and soon qubits) has replaced atoms as force of innovations and inventions. Breathtaking speed at which other equally significant technologies like synthetic biology, quantum computing, robotics, nanotechnology, fusion energy etc. are evolving parallelly creates an exciting though extremely unpredictable ecosystem.

AI i.e. Artificial Intelligence is already moving into robotics -Physical Intelligence, to be more effective it will have to organically learn, indeed evolve, with complex reality. It is futile to discuss AGI -indeed without even base definition agreement, or consciousness -the computation created binary mode matching human consciousness -which is a byproduct of billions of years of evolution. Artificial Capable Intelligence (ACI) is suitable benchmark wherein AI can achieve complex goals with minimum oversight. This cuts the hype and help to realistically work the challenges humanity face. In this dynamically developing scene it is difficult to keep track, indeed arduous to filter out chaff from substance. Even among the experts, inside voices, there are polarized views on AI. On the one side we have Geoffrey Hinton (AlexNet 2012 deep learning used neural network backpropagation that essentially triggered the present AI revolution) who is deeply worried and then on the other extreme we have Yann LeCun (now with Meta, also forbearer of neural network) who is sceptic of the hype (indeed he even downplayed AlphaGo before it made the breakthrough, so clearly people at helm aren’t sure). You have many significant voices (I have read books, articles, watched videos/talks so on to get the nuances of where the AI is moving) and find likes of Demis Hassabis (heads DeepMind) quite grounded and value at the right place. Hassabis and his team understood the potential of deep generative neural network and used it to solve challenging problems humanity face. Protein folding has been one of science’s grand challenges for half a century. AlphaFold was able to predict how proteins might fold based on their DNA by training on the set of known proteins and extrapolating from them. In just about two years DeepMind uploaded some 200million structures of protein in one go, representing almost all known protein! AlphaFold’s contribution to biological science, medical research, pharmacy and ofcourse insight into process of life is pathbreaking, indeed a paradigm shift. It must be duly recognized.          

So, the question here is how creative AI is? LLM through chat models like GPT, Claude so on is able to do some amazing stuff and converse that may sound almost human. It can even write excellent poems. But then it is only spitting out from the patterns of what it is fed. However, one cannot be dismissive despite narrow frame of language learning. Language makes much of human world. True all other species are intelligent enough to negotiate the world, indeed thrive, without the use of language. But I dare argue surviving is not wholeness of living, and human life epitomizes the meaningfulness of life. Language is an indelible part of human progress, and much of human emotions, awareness, expressions, knowledge and complex thoughts and ideas are embedded in language. So, if AI is ingesting all these literature and writings that was ever written it is but expected that it will have some emergent understanding of what it is to be human. It may not understand much about senses, as a blind person may not about sight, but may have a fair idea of what it means to see by abstracting from knowledge of seeing. You really cannot say there is nothing there except language. If it is able to see patterns that humans are not even capable to then that means it is not merely spitting out or regurgitating. The patterns we don’t decipher or are even aware may crisscross, entangle, interact to create meaning that could be insightful. It is not mere language. It is coded human lives, the collective experiences and understanding of humanity. So, since it is not mere language even hallucination is limited, or else we don’t understand the pattern that it has spotted (except where things are factual because in bigger schemes of things facts are contextual and subjective therefore LLM falters -not in the intent but execution). It clearly is emergent, and is able to connect patterns we are incapable to decipher is by definition creative. DeepMind Co-founder Suleyman sometime back mentioned an interesting take on hallucination as mutation. Information of life coded through genes is in constant interaction with reality hence evolve in a gradual process, but sometimes with epigenetic awareness, a sudden change can creep in, life can take a leap, this response may resonate or falter. AI hallucination i.e. giving out wrong information is a problem in limited context of wrong and right but in a bigger context it is creative emergence.

Even in the limited non LLM context, whether it is AlphaGo or AlphaZero, it is clear that AI is able to see patterns that is way beyond human understanding. Feeding framework rules was enough for it to creatively work the context to bring out patterns that humans playing the game for centuries couldn’t fathom (just watch AlphaZero with Stockfish, you will be mindblown by pawn attack strategy. Not into Go game but move 37 is in the annals of AI wonder). So much so that it was able see relation between molecules to create new antibiotic (halicin), meaning, our science may not be knowing certain aspects of molecular relations that pattern was able to decipher. Soon AI should be able to decipher its own pattern and open up the black box and help us reverse engineer the knowledge in these deep patterns. With multimodal input, studying human actions and perceiving world in more dimensions (3D to start with, god knows how many dimensions are there, and what AI could bring out!) AI will become more capable and discerning with merging of other equally compelling technologies like advancement in precision gene modification through CRIPSRcas9 and DNA printing, and yes quantum computing (everytime it is “within ten years”! but yes Chinese have made massive advancement -being an authoritarian country a cause of concern) the shift from digital to quantum is change of narration from binaries to probables, fusion energy will definitely add to the mix limited by power source as also advances in synthetic data that will create perpetual high quality data source. What is of concern is AI in the hand of bad player, as also channel for deep fakes, disinformation and misinformation. There need to be regulation on AI in limited context ie dealing with right and wrong, binary of facts. Bigger context AI -that is beyond right or wrong, in the realm of subjective, where the probabilities converge to reveal something new, must be kept open. 

Unlike science technology is incentivized by profit hence the path of technological progress is narrow. There is a loss that is unnoticed when BigTech clamor over how to monetize AI. What possibilities are there for that part that is left out, unmonetized AI, and how that could change the world we know is a pertinent thought. In the faster and bigger computation what is also left out is slow thinking, the pause, the still. Will AI ever be able to decipher patternless world of silence?  AI is creative alright but is limited within the framework, as for LLM -within the framework of known human experience (from which it can extrapolate). An entirely new thought, new idea, a Einstein or a Chekov or Dickinson level insight is impossible (new herein can only emerge from entangling of deep patterns, within the frame of known). Human mind is astounding and can see patterns that is based on no known understanding. But AI has its own place, and surely cannot be negated, and is equally astounding in its own way. This comparison is futile. There is an iteration of billions of years with all the senses, critical thinking faculties and intuitions.

Recently there is a development through liquid neural network that is controllable, adaptable, energy efficient, and contrary to the stampede to scale up the network, it focuses on scaling down with few but richer nodes. They studied simple organism (in this case a worm called c elegans) and how they take decisions to face complexities of life and strategies of survival, and built neural system based on the math of few hundred neurons. Liquid neural network used 19 odd neurons for self-driving cars instead of mess of hundreds and thousands used. The next step for sustainable elegant solutions for technological challenges will have to come nature. Each specie is millions of years of R&D to face the complexities of life. They have survived and thrived means these are successful. Human brain is complex but uses very less energy unlike GPUs that run AI. It is estimated that by 2030 they will consume a quarter of total global energy produced. The recent advancement in Biotech through CRISPRcas9 is using billions of years of survival strategy of bacteria against virus. Technology has been capitalizing on algorithm from nature like evolutionary algorithm, swarm algorithm, or even algorithm from foraging strategy of slime mold that optimizes resources and dynamically interact with changing scenarios (when I first time read about these single cell slime molds -that even lacks neurons, I got goosebumps). There is an organic intelligence at work that is smart, solves problems and survives without as much as a neuron. Next time take a close look at wonderfully arranged hexagonal cells of beehive, it optimizes space, resources and material. Or know about fire beetles that can sense fire from 130km away. The more you know more you will be astounded (I also have a youtube channel that you can search). As technology advances and look for solutions take a closer look at nature. Understand how nature works, the physics, chemistry and maths that life has aligned with, and what Einstein called Spinoza’s god. Extropic.ai intents to revolutionize computation by making a bold move of reimagining the idea of computer. A computer without suppressing natural entropy of world, and leverage it as an asset, in harmony with entropy rather than against it. Nature’s elegant solutions iterates simple into complex.                                    

High human fertility is a serious concern

 

Human population is multiplying at an alarming rate and is having a catastrophic impact on limited and indeed fast vanishing resources of planet earth putting severe existential pressure on other species. While it is equally true that wasteful irresponsible ways of few rich people (and substantial incremental middle class consumption emulating market hedonistic culture) is equally contributing to environmental disasters that we see around. These two reasons are not binary, and devious attempt to make it a class issue (hence high moral posturing) and scuttle the cumulative impact on planet must be resisted.

Poverty puts lots of challenges to human life. With abysmal social and health indices disease and death among infants and children are quite common across the world. The reason why they have high fertility rate, hence even a child is seen as additional earning member and an expendable security in uncertain world. It is failure of government, democratic institutions and society in general. That surely doesn’t explain the need for high fertility rate among lower middle class to richer section. Also, it is criminal to produce more children when the circumstance in which the child is going to survive is increasingly bleak. Each human life adds to consumption requirement even if it is sustained at minimum needs. Human life has long become a burden on planet. Many sane people have decided to be careful with their consumption as also value sustainable lifestyle meanwhile either deciding to have no children or less. Such evolved compassion driven places have low fertility rate and high standard of living giving space to biodiversity to thrive as also contributing to humanity through subtle values, as also integrate efficient technological innovations to sustainable solutions. The crude market media though see it as failing, and try to push in more population as some kind of moral strive. Meanwhile pushing people into prisoner’s dilemma of competing communities to grab the commons by multiplying. This is how the controllers of vicious systems vitiate the situation to bring in worst possibilities while posing as benign arbitrators for benefits. These issues therefore will be downplayed by sinister forces parasiting on people. Market needs more consumers, religion needs more followers, politicians need more voters, and mediocre media and entertainment needs more viewers and clicks. More consuming unthinking humans is better for the system that is nurtured by few while billions strive to be part of it. It has become a self-perpetuating system spiraling into catastrophe while incapacitated to do anything about its own destruction. Common sense seems to have lost connection with reality replaced by sophisticated ruse of grandeur.

Habitats are degraded. Life thriving ecosystems are collapsing. Biodiversity is vanishing at an alarming rate. Forests are fragmented. Ocean is acidifying. Every part of the world is polluted. Plastic is seeping into the blood. Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Climate has changed. Food and water shortages has start to impact the poorest and vulnerable. Something really catastrophic is in the horizon, and every indicator is pointing to serious consequences. Apart from wanton consumption by few and promotion of these values human population growth is severely putting stress on fragile ecosystem that sustains life on earth. But the devious controllers of the system want to suck it to the end before they abandon the hapless populace. With low knowledge of intricate life systems and even low self-awareness many of these arrogant people are coming up with fantastic solution for humanity. Market tutored confidence gives premium to exaggeration and nice talk meanwhile conducting exactly opposite is valued as smart. As they say, acting nice is Moloch's parody of kindness. 

It is important that people holding responsible positions maintain high moral and ethical standards as also exhibit compassion and concern hence sustainable lifestyles (ideally unsustainable values/products should be phased out) as also are critically scrutinized on their life choices that impacts humanity. People with high fertility rate (with more than two children) cannot be allowed to hold responsible positions. It is hypocrisy, ethical breach and moral treason to allow irresponsible narcissistic people in position of influence.  

Arranging elections during heat wave is sinister

 

Atleast nine people died due to exhaustion caused by heat and humidity during elections in Kerala. More number must have been physically debilitated, still more might have decided against stepping out in the sun for voting. Now if this is state of affair in Kerala -that has good health infrastructure, high level of awareness hence transparency, imagine the condition in poverty ridden semiliterate exploited regions of the country (meanwhile politician and TV anchor have fainted). By arranging elections during heat wave there seems to be a sinister attempt at making voting difficult for common people in the country. It is an attempt at weakening democracy by denying democratic right and aspirations of people. As it is democracy is not deep rooted in much of the region hence common people are controlled and evaluated as unthinking herd by corrupt crude system. 

Election Commission of India (ECI) is liable for the deaths due to heat waves during election process. They must be held responsible. It is amazing that they didn't anticipate this. It is likely that they weren't bothered. It is typical of bureaucrats in this beleaguered nation to lack common sense meanwhile assuming exaggerated self worth. The British system was nurtured to be exceptional -indeed alien, Indians while maintaining exceptional attributes worked it to showcase "intelligance" as youngsters stampede for power and security negating their core competence or meaning and value of education. It is worst outcome of education that has deep debilitating impact on society but a primitive society that evaluates everything with beggar's mindset is certainly incapable to comprehend the loss. It is a Moloch's trap that reinforces worst of possibilities. The blessed bureaucrat is incapacitated to sense dynamic reality and act according. Huge amount of money and infrastructure is spent to maintain this tardy system that is eventually being nurtured to give lessons of fate to common people (technology and right for information are making meaningful impact). There is a need for complete revamp of Indian bureaucracy (diplomacy, police, trade, tax etc. are specialized professions with nothing much in common and shouldn't be left to fate of competitive ranks and lessons on blessings).  

Another diabolical way incompetent bureaucracy deals with crucial issue is by fudging or negating data through sophistry (there used to be a British entertainment 'Yes Minister', meant to be funny, and as I evaluate it again it was not funny at all, in Indian context these normalized worst of people lacking intellect as "intelligant' to showcase common people). So, in India heat waves deaths is actually increasing and decreasing! Data has attained quantum state!! Check this graph to see huge discrepancy, while NCRB data shows heat related death in UP at 764, NDMA data shows 2 deaths! It is indicative of how data can be manipulated to give whatever narration suited. A glimpse of how system works. 

ECI could have anticipated heat wave conditions and conducted election from February end through March to early April. Even Party in power could have pushed this initiative (NDA has not done badly despite ten years of incumbency factor, also opposition is seen as bunch of opportunists hence lacks viable option for people to choose with confidence) if they have created positive impression then more people voting would help them. But then fate driven rustic people might have consulted astrologer charlatans. Pity. The least ECI could do now is to provide cooling centers -state should have invested in this infrastructure, provide free ac transportation. Meanwhile timing of polling be extended to midnight -preference given to women in the afternoon so on. They must take creative initiatives as the situation turns dire, or else they could follow hallowed chalta hai/paklaam traditions of blessed psychopaths.

It is all colours 

It all began when the blues and the greens 

deciding to take the light and free oxygen 

from water.

Life gasped, breathed one inhalation at a time

cells grew, worlds multiplied

On one leg, two legs

...and hell lot of legs.

It swam, it slithered,

it walked, it ran, it danced,

it flew. 

Earth froze, volcanoes erupted, fires engulfed,

Asteroids struck, tsunamis drowned. 

Life survived.

It thrived. 

Then it grew thumbs.

It created.

It thought.

It paused.

Cells and atoms stared at each other

as if meeting the first time.

Conscious probed deeper. 

Subconscious aligned. 

It realized. 

Taxing the Inheritance

Inheritance tax is an important issue. A flawed society with deep inequalities, institutionalized discriminations, lacking ethical or moral context or humanitarian concerns -except as symbolism for selfish good karma for better returns, meanwhile carry high sense of worth and place in universe. If they had compassion they would have worked on egalitarian value system to strengthen democracy. Technically before independence the land belonged to colonial Britain. The nincompoop feudals worked with colonizers to grab meanwhile conduit to exploitations for small titles and land rights. Hence after the socalled independence the state was expected to systematically conduct land reforms. They did attempt on abolishing of Zamindari system, conducted tenancy reforms as also ceiling on land holding so on. Since 'leaders' themselves were part of the cannibalised exploitative system these were performed half heartedly while corrupt and inept values saw to it was made ineffective. Only Kerala seems to be one of the state that was able to effectively work land reforms -an achievement considering that Kerala was a putrid pit of society lacking even basic humanity. It has much to do with revolutionary aspect of Communism. So then why Bengal failed, it too had long hold of communism? Bengal failed because the foundation was consolidated by caste cannibal feudals who saw these revolutionary ideas as only ideas meant for debating points in gentile discussions the nuances of which these primitives learned from long association with colonial masters (remember British colonizing of Indian subcontinent began in Bengal before shifting to Delhi). So when communism eventually took control of Bengal it lacked grassroot involvement hence was easily uprooted and thrown out. Kerala was successful since communism was deep rooted, very much aided by social movements that were nurtured by literacy and awareness through christian missionaries and earlier buddhist influence. Centuries of association with outside world from Rome, to Portuguese, to Chinese, to Arabs...exposed people to new possibilities despite vicious presence of caste cannibals/squatter degradation.  

Not only was egalitarian ideals of land reforms scuttled they used gandhian chicanery to work it as voluntary act of high morals -boodhan andolan. Cesspools of the world were left in this extreme exploitations and appalling negligence, while the litters learned the lessons of inheritance couched in mythical grandeur -these now are projected through mediocre entertainments as land of untold fortune and blessing. These putrid pits with absolute lack of morals is where the worst of humanity exist. Not surprisingly these have social indices worst than regions of sub-Sahara. The latest data (2020) shows one-third of children in India suffer malnourishment, severely impacting their physical development and cognitive abilities. People suffered due to lack of humanity, reflected through corrupt lackadaisical system hence lacked basic infrastructure and appalling negligence. As expected India fare badly on disparity indices, lacking humanist foundation, wealth is usurped by narrow section while trickle down was celebrated as progress. 

One would have thought they would atleast impose inheritance tax. Studies point to inherited wealth growing faster than earned wealth, which is essentially true in unenterprising rent seeking society, and much of big cities are run by rent seeking ancillary economy. Millions of migrants to big cities and tourists to temple towns know how sinister the hold is. Prime spots are occupied by worst of people mostly lacking basic decency or competence, just conniving to exploit and cheat. The undivided Hindu family is an expression of worst, lacking enterprise, expertise in incremental grab and ossifying the society in worst possibilities. They are repositories burdened through regressive culture and degrading traditions, mainstreamed as entertainment. With accumulated wealth they influence elections and policy makers, and are major source of corruption, nepotism and crony capitalism. Inbred and lacking competence they are limited by their own limitations. These value system therefore seeps into all other institutions as vested interests. The reason why Indians have such appalling standards in all field of reckoning. Excellence is rare and essentially an exception.  

India's Gini coefficient -measure of inequality, in 2010s -data accessed, was a high 0.45-0.50 while even disparity ridden US it is 0.41-0.48, EU is 0.30-0.35, Japan 0.32-0.38, S.Korea 0.30-0.35. As it is most Indians don't pay income tax -indeed it is the common people who contribute substantially through indirect tax. They recruit CAs (another of stellar career) to suggest how to avoid taxes and check for loopholes which policymakers so graciously provide. Even in USA 50-60% file tax returns, while in UK it is 90%, Sweden 90%, Germany 85%, it is also substantially high in East Asian countries, and relatively poor Brazil has 25% people paying income tax. And in India a meagre 1.5% file tax returns -and most of them are forced to since they are salaried government employees. Imagine the lack of responsibility, basic sense of collective good or gratitude to society or concern for well being of fellow citizens. Thomas Piketty, economist known for his work on income and wealth inequality, argues that inheritance tax plays a crucial role in addressing the perpetuation of wealth concentration within a small segment of the population. According to Piketty, without a progressive taxation system, inherited wealth tends to accumulate and perpetuate inequality over generations, leading to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few individuals or families. So by taxing large inheritances at progressive rates, governments can mitigate the intergenerational transfer of wealth and promote greater social and economic equality. Now let us look at inheritance tax in capitalist countries. In the UK -from where India has emulated much of its system, inheritance tax is levied on estates above a certain threshold, with rates starting at 40%. USA has a federal estate tax with rates ranging from 18% to 40%, depending on the value of the estate. In France, inheritance tax rates vary from 5% to 45% depending on the relationship between the deceased and the beneficiary, as well as the value of the inheritance. Germany has inheritance tax rates ranging from 7% to 50%. In Japan inheritance tax rates range from 10% to 55% while in Korea inheritance tax rates range from 10% to 50%. The reason why there is hoopla created in India is to do with crony capitalism and sinister hold of corrupt money in the system that scuttles every egalitarian move.

To be fair India did have inheritance tax -known as estate duty, introduced by Nehru in 1953 (despite some valid criticism Nehru did attempt to place egalitarian liberal values as foundation of Indian state despite overwhelming odds). It was abolished by RajivGandhi government in 1985 -one wonders what was the compelling circumstances that forced him to remove this egalitarian law, and this when they had brutal majority wherein they could have introduced many much needed initiatives. In 2016 Modi government finished what little was left by abolishing wealth tax. The devious argument given for abolishing in all the above cases is that cost of collecting the tax was more than the tax collected! Aw poor tax collector.

          

Protest against Israel is not antisemitism

College campuses are space for learning, as also idealism and protest. More vibrant an education space better it is for society and dealing with complexities of future. To classify protest against atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza as anti-semitism is spacious and stretching wrong of history into entirely different context of contemporary. Indeed even protest against Judaism is not against Jews. System and people are entirely different entity. System's hold on people must be resisted while people's choices must be respected ofcourse within the rule of law, values of freedom and liberty. Students have all the right to respond peacefully and vigorously to events around the world. Meanwhile it must be seen that it is not intimidating other students or society in general, importantly it must not provide space for dangerous islamists nor regressive references normalized.       

Castetva snaps Hindutva hops

 For the greed of power the protagonists are viciously trying to impress the herd. The herd meanwhile is trapped in its own miseries, incapacitated of critical thinking and entertained in excess they sense heuristic opportunism in limited frame. Institutions are kept tardy hence herd is tutored great sense of fate. While Castetva cunningly posed as entitled saviors to ameliorate fate Hindutva short stepped to pose religion as savior that the herd found compelling since it echoed with civilizational roots. Castetva is licking the wound, not used to being out of entitled role, is scheming in earnest to get the herd back. Herd meanwhile ricochets in its everyday fate but is firmly tethered to Hindutva. Castetva and its superficial claims finds diminishing takers. Castetva is usurped, Hindutva hence will be central to Indian politics for a long time to come. Even after a decade of power its influence is essentially undiminished. 

Castetva clearly is working to regain aura as saviors. Having degraded the society for 70odds years -ofcourse with incrementally controlled benefits trickled to firmly solidify fate to herd, they nurtured the worst and exacted opportunism as art. Having lost power and facing existential threat they now dusted the egalitarian intentions that sane people pleaded for decades to nurture democratic values and humanitarian concerns in an essentially primitive society. Empathy is a compelling opportunism to influence the fate driven herd, and if you can create a binary of apathetic state the battle is half won. Rusty Hindutva lacking the nuance is falling stock and barrel into the trap. Take for instance inheritance tax -it is something that should have been done long time back, castetva willfully and purposefully scuttled it -as they did for many egalitarian initiatives wherein they could have easily pursued it. Hindutva meanwhile has taken some meaningful initiatives. Imagine if constructing toilets was taken up as pilot project across villages in 1950s and 60s or even 80s, this would've initiated consolidating PHCs and primary education so on. East Asian nations are benefiting from these long term investments. It is not about intent but attitude -the mindset, entitled castetva is incapable to think on these lines while inbreeding incapacitated to be competent. They immensely suited to trickle down, making sure herd understood the play of fate, and their centrality as dispenser. 

Despite far better placed Hindutva is seen hopping to Castetva claps. It is a ridiculous state of affair, and shows lack of maturity and desperation of new entrant. Cunning castetva is desperately banking on these. Ideally Hindutva should have kept quiet on inheritance tax -it is logically rooted to egalitarian values and most 'capitalist' society have much higher inheritance tax and cannot be classified as 'socialism' and ridiculed considering how these work for common people as also consolidates ideas of fate while state as passive nurturer. Castetva could have initiated these decades back, since they couldn't they will not. These are just posturing to capture power they desperately crave. What is shocking is Hindutva found it atmost necessary to react, thus creating a wedge. Most people in this country particularly in cities understand how inheritance creates unfair advantage to few -it has nothing to do with merit indeed it is against the idea of merit and equality. The issue is not that you are taking away inheritance but putting an appropriate tax. If Hindutva thinks it will benefit from this reaction then it is grossly mistaken, and help create class divide while castetva works its sinister caste agenda to keep herds snarling at each other while living in misery. I repeat again: Castetva gaining power -even marginally, is a civilizational loss. Hindutva is the real deal, and response must consolidate around this reality and not make believe superficialities to impress West. Castetva has no role whatsoever except condemned to dustbin of history and a nuisance value (as a reaction egoistic Hindutva will avoid question of inheritance tax altogether -a loss to common people). Meanwhile Hindutva needs to put its act together and show maturity and avoid head butting rant reaction to every time they hear snap. It also puts question mark on quality of Hindutva leadership.   

          

Failure of International community

 It is the failure of International community to not only deescalate perilous situation but also assert its presence as a meaningful arbitrator. It is also a stupendous failure of US (led by Democratic Party). Leaders need to be alert and aware of the pulse of emerging threats and consequences, unfortunately Biden is not really fit -this is not being ageist (I need to point this since placed in devious society with manipulators salivating for opportunity by creating binaries to exploit or degrade). He must realize that situation is grim at many fronts, not to forget Trump charlatan snarling at the door with dire consequences to the world. He has aged -which is natural, hence must realize his limitations, and also be cognizant of the perilous impact these have on common people not only in US but across the world. Biden maybe likeable but his position is untenable, he really doesn't bring any confidence to face the dangerously spiraling contemporary and immense challenges of the future nor represent anything new. Biden must quit the presidential race. He has taken the toxicity of middle east escalation hence a new choice will be seen as a fresh start to the bleak scenario as also introduce much needed vigor that situation demands.

UNPKF must be strengthened. Indeed immediately after October 7 terror attack PKF forces should have worked to deal and clinically eliminate Hamas and rescue hostages. Two nation solution begins with Palestine admitted into UN as an independent country, meanwhile Hamas be declared as terrorist organisation. Theocratic societies are always threat to humanity. Iranian regime poses danger to its own people and world (common Iranians are amazing people like Chinese -who too are oppressed by brutal state -watch out for Chinese origin American writers/techies). Meanwhile incompetent Netanyahu needs to go. There is no place for him in the civilized world.

I was watching BBC, recall in the aftermath of brutal barbarism of Oct7 countries like Britain allowed Islamist to celebrate on the street and blatantly provoke, now the BBC (like their foreign minister) instead of sane voices is inviting warmongers immediately in the aftermath of Israeli action on Iran this morning (the details are not out yet but it is a dangerous escalation). So this fellow with American accent "expected much earlier decisive Israeli action". These kind of narcissist views are product of too much adipose clogging the brain. It's lousy West that continues to use expressions like "Islamic world".

Denting the basic idea of democracy

 It so happens that next week (April 24) is the anniversary of one the most important landmark case decided by SC of India more than 50years back: Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala. The case revolved around the power of Parliament to amend the Constitution. Specifically, it raised the question of whether there were any limitations on this power. The SC, in its decision, introduced the concept of the "Basic Structure Doctrine." This doctrine holds that while Parliament has the authority to amend the Constitution, it cannot alter its basic structure or its essential features. The Court did not explicitly define what constitutes the basic structure but identified certain features that ensures the preservation of fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution. This ruling has profound implication since the basic structure of constitution consolidates foundation of democracy that enshrines liberty and freedom. Though the Parliament cannot tamper with basic structure of constitution, and can be reviewed by SC, but the basic structure of democracy can be dented and degraded by other means that has severe implications. The institutional pillars of democracy must be relentlessly safeguarded and scrutinized. The legislative is compromised by corruption, nepotism, and presence of caste cannibals, regressive religions and feudal patriarchs as leaders. These have severely degraded the democratic value systems and incapacitated grassroot movements and consolidation of liberal humanistic values. Unfortunately even the socalled fourth estate too is compromised through its incompetency, run by inbreds with specific aim to control narration, scyophantic to power, they create nepotistic alliance of greed with politicians and crave power while systematically degrade humans into herds with charming entertainments and distractions. Thankfully technology has become a savior (for this blogger too to get a foothold, otherwise I would be stamped out long time back) and is having robust presence through social media -voicing and consolidating people's concerns over power brokers as also creating transparency and urgency.

What needs immediate attention is Judiciary itself: the safeguards of basic structure of constitution are becoming cause of concern -they are denting basic structure of democracy. In a primitive society where values of democracy has not percolated much propriety is meaningless. Indeed critical matters that strikes at the foundation of democracy must have strict rules. This poverty driven exploitative society has put much faith on Judiciary and has invested huge money on this institution, as also granted much power and independence to see that they are beyond influence and maintain professional probity. They must realize the onerous responsibility as dispenser of justice in an essentially unjust world. Lower courts are tardy and infected with deep malaise that defines the nature of society it is therefore important that higher echelons of judicial system must be beyond shade of doubt and maintain high ethical and professional standards. There must be strict rule against SC and HC judges taking up political position post retirement or by resigning. It severely dents basic idea of democracy. SC Chief Justice taking up political appointment as Governor or Rajya Sabha member, or HC judge resigning to contest elections, are serious transgression on idea of democracy, and if scrutinized closely, an assault on basic structure of constitution since these crucial pillars of democracy get their credence from constitution. A judge (includes CJ) of SC and HC must be debarred from holding position of political power/influence or business interest after retirement.

Grievous escalation

Netanyahu must resign/sacked/removed. West cannot keep encouraging this incompetent megalomaniacal mass murderer. Enough of this.  

It is not a mela

 

Devious people posing as savior have worked the narration of elections as a mela -an exotic cliché that is meant to awe the West. Elections are not mela, it is a serious matter that is crucial for democracy and must be taken with all the gravity. The reason why Indian democracy has not spread its roots as defining aspect of liberty and freedom is because of these devious cannibalistic manipulators who not only worked it as lighter matter but also used narrative control to define it in terms of issues that has nothing to do with bleak reality hence tardy policy making -reflected through decades of heartbreaking HDI indices and biased compromised system. Hence it is very important that all elections are combined to be held once in five years. They should have complete freedom to implement, as also focus on long term policy making, rather than moving from one election to another which only helps manipulators as also worst in the media to gain attention and barter for position as narration controllers. 

Manipulators use control to convert common people into infighting herds -while extolling to see it as diversity -the depravity of it. Castetva has well entrenched traps for Hindutva to fall, the society is degraded with Castetva onslaught for last many decades since they exchanged power from colonizer. These pitfalls include exaggeration as leader, a unique gift to humanity -an avatar, hence unhinged from reality into heightened ego and self worth, that is miraculously passed on to litters. Nepotism is another of assault on democracy that is assiduously worked. This entitled worldview is uniquely Castetva framework. Since inbred mediocres are threatened by competence hence will promote the worst -who expertise in sycophancy and various art of manipulations to thrive -this then is expected behavior down the hierarchy nurturing a nepotistic corrupt value system. These are hoisted/airdropped onto common people and are elected as 'leaders', these then infect democratic institutions as also place sycophants in media to work the narration and crony capitalisms to invest. 

Hindutva is quite comfortably placed to win the elections, and it should, it is a civilizational evolution that is close to Indian reality. Egalitarian opposition must arise as a reaction to Hindutva, an expression of humanitarian concerns that religion sorely misses -indeed negates. Any going back to Castetva will be a civilizational loss, indeed Castetva is not even suited as an opposition since it is programmed to degrade to capture back -what they dearly hold as entitlements, and will try to push herd concerns for manipulation ease rather than grievous matters of common people. It is not an accident that India has the worst HDI indices as also these were/are actively neglected (unlike manipulated 'happiness index' by international moneybags, HDI are objective). Majority of Indians were always in worst of possibilities while word defecators worked out narrations of awe. 

Unfortunately Hindutva is falling for civilizational traps -something Castetva assiduously nurtured, that is meant to excite herd and divert from real concerns. This nonveg/veg purity crap is castetva nurtured, they very well know the nuance to play -it comes with unbridled power for decades and incompetency that seek devious means for herd control since they are incapable to be competent and incapacitated to gain characteristics of empathy. Being a new entrant Hindutva lacks nuance of dealing -this is precisely what cunning Castetva is banking on: the Hindutva hooligans, to showcase themselves in stellar light as liberal saviors -whom the herd mistakenly rejected and now realize their mistake! (they may even be expecting an apology from common people! Such is the sense of entitlement).  

Lack of critical balance

 

If you are responsible then you will be concerned. Concerned without bias and prejudice, no malice and favoritism or greed. What affects humanity affects you. It is quite clear that religion is problematic and in the recent times is source of serious nuisance across the world.  Religion seems seriously ill-equipped to factor fast changing and challenging contemporary reality hence followers are reduced to stuttering herds easily manipulated or carry heightened sense of worth and supremacism over life. Religion is reduced to a system that keeps humans trapped in fantastical world increasingly isolated from critical thinking faculty and what is essential to be a human. In a world where much was unknown religion gave solace and functioned as communitarian value. With increased awareness of the world as also of self, simultaneous woeful mismatch, ridiculous claims and inadequacy, religion is reduced to an anachronistic nuisance, a pitiable presence that is deviously worked by sociopaths to trap people.

Not all religions are equal, many have seen reforms, revolt, some actively try to ameliorate suffering of people simultaneously factoring changing reality while some societies have evolved to understand futility of religion hence secular humanistic values as anchor to deal with life. Some religions are seeing market spiked regressive revivalism. Some have remained crude while some are anchored to primitive -hinged in time space bypassing all the modern values and egalitarian intents. So, religion cannot be really be equated in the same frame and condemned but what is clear is that they must face equal full force of critical scrutiny and evolved understanding that sync with democratic ideals, freedom and liberty -these are not subjective and is an indelible aspect of being a human. Denying this is denying humanity, a serious violation. Religion affects society, and as a concerned human we must be free to critically scrutinize and question what affects humanity. No religion or system is immune from critical scrutiny or ridicule (ofcourse within the aesthetic frame that is essentially expected to be evolved and empathetic).    

There is a sinister game being played by devious people in West so as to control international narration hence continue to occupy moral space as entitled arbitrators. They gained from colonial comforts and actively tapped neo colonial forces hence exaggerated presence. They nurture feudal institutions and values with impunity and amazing hypocrisy that grievously impact democratic ideals and humanitarian concerns. They are part of neoliberal ecosystem and market media, hence actively play role in policy matters and molding public opinion. Exploitative neo liberal and crony capitalism caters to their greed and wanton consumerism. They channelize resource from all across the world in a complex liberal sounding ruse that see them as perpetual winners. They also readily ‘sex up’, when needed, to attack other countries, mass kill, maim and mutilate hapless people, for resources and use destruction as strategy to extend influence through state. Apart from controlling narration they also nurture feudal institutions in the garb of democracy for ease of exploitation. They chose and install corrupt leaders and narcissist puppets, and remove them as they fancy. They encourage lowest denominator to keep people into manipulatable herds. Much of the world that contains fossil fuel are predominantly 'Islamic nations', essentially means that human beings are systematically degraded so that democratic institutions cannot be nurtured or else easily crumble despite best efforts of common people (as we saw in the aftermath of ‘Arab spring’). The state falls in the trap of self-defeating theocracy or impudent hedonistic feudals -giving the impression as liberal, as a binary. Common people are not factored when West deal with these ‘representatives’ –who become point people for wanton consumption, corruption and conduit of exploitation -West has worked out such neocolonial ecosystem all across the world. In this deal the back story for people is showcased with Islam as a pawn for West to play liberal. So, while they orchestrate exploitation of resources and common people -indeed mostly muslims, there is a blood protection deal for Islam. International institutions are extension of West’s narrative grip; hence ‘Islamophobia will not be tolerated’ celebration to appease islamists and embolden obscurantist keenly watching from the fence, while essentially lighten hardship of feudal controllers in their conduit in exploitation. Let’s be clear there is nothing wrong in hating religion (indeed one must) considering the damage it has done/doing to the contemporary world even sidetracking critical existential concerns. Hating religion is not hating people. Hating system is an attempt at liberating people from its sinister hold. And yes, Islam is major source of misery. Its growth must be viewed with serious concern. The carte blanche extended to Islam by devious West as a redemption deal is a gross violation. It also monoculturise the vibrant diversity and resistive culture within the religion into what West deem into power matrix for easy deal, or they have agreed with feudals as convenience barter. Islam cannot be given special protection because devious West wants to showcase its benevolence essentially at the expense of common people while feeding the worst, or possible black mailed through unleashing vicious herd. Islam must be criticized while ordinary people/muslims must be protected. Every religion and belief must be open to critical scrutiny and ridicule while every human being must be protected under rule of law and enjoy freedom and liberty. Religion is a subjective system and cannot be extended protection over indelible aspect of what it means to be a human being. Any attempt is a serious transgression with severe ramification. Meanwhile countries like Britain -with over exaggerated presence in international scene, must be taken to task for degradation and sickening savior patronizing stance (indeed compulsive islamophilia cringe as a recent extension of white people’s burden) that has least value for life or liberty. Colonial control has seen to that people located in Britain/language/accent have overwhelming control over international narration, hence many acts as mercenaries to authenticate narration (post-colonial societies have exaggerated presence of word defecating vermins working their call center accent to influence herd as sterling intellect while litters are awe struck by turn of sentence and kept amused with vocabulary!). A nation that wallows in the luxury of colonial abuse, nurtures feudal institutions and presents Christianity as moral foundation of democracy is severely compromised hence is easily susceptible to degrading systems and is incapacitated to critically scrutiny nor perceive the danger. Taking high moral grounds and over playing liberal is no substitute for responsibility. Colonial Britain has done immense damage across the world -but then those were brutal times and they were better equipped and smarter to deal. But the damage post-colonial Britain has done, and continues to do, to the contemporary world is immense which needs deeper study and response consolidation.           

Such a brilliant presence

 

Hello there!

These Rangoon creepers they are in a hurry

The vines clasp whatever is handy (in this case an unsettled ficus) and entwin to tall places

Just as instantly spray flowers from wild mesh of green

pendulating trumpets like bleeding wound that end in petals and fragrance

they aren’t sure though what color to display

White? not really. Pink, maybe. Ah bright red. Eventually settling for deep maroon. Waiting.

See here

this is what I got

all colours

all fragrance

and some poison -just in case.

Deal with me I am at your window.  

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.

Finding signifier words and linking it to get the meaning is precisely how ‘attention mechanism’ works -transformer parallelization, powerful AI makes it instantaneous. Since human mind is relatively slow, we take words sequentially, this is the problem with language we have trapped reality into linear time sequence hence the meaning get dispersed and is rarely able to express the holistic moment. Sometime back I discussed (https://depalan.blogspot.com/2021/07/story-of-your-life.html) about this amazing short story “Story of your life” (Ted Chiang) as also movie ‘Arrival’ on aliens who use complex symbols capsulating time to be understood as a whole. With parallelized computation through powerful GPU’s generative AI maybe we are at the cusp of nuanced meaning of the moment in great writings that has so far eluded us. Van Gogh impressions oscillates with our meditative being since it catches the essence.         

           

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.       

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.

I have travelled most of these places, even few kms away from nation’s capital these disappear from radar of any concern of power salivating officials, market media and corrupt ecosystem of nepotistic control and crony capitalism (ofcourse in recent time there is a focus on hygiene by constructing unprecedented number of toilets for common people, which surely has reduced number of deaths due to communicable diseases). Third rated Indian media -mostly occupied by different versions of psychopaths and devious slimy thick-skinned ectoplasts, stampede where the power, money and influence is. They create mythical cozy world of self-fulfilling desires and opulence, while stampede to represent desperate dying people around them. Fed and fattened they cultivate and percolate their own reflection of slimy creatures into the ecosystem as opinion makers and influencers, these appalling mediocres are then courted by feudal politicians with least connect with any reality except to control the herd. You look at the list of polluted cities and you will be mortified by the conditions under which millions of fellow Indians live around you. This is what neocapitalist development has done to the land. Death churning ecosystem is how progress is consolidated by market capitalism. The herd sink deeper into fate muck while herd controllers create bubbles of sanitized world to project their version of reality for herd to gawk.    

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.  

Even in 2018, an international report had given dire warning that Bengaluru is one of the 11 cities in the world that will run out of water in few years. Did the policy makers take note of it? Ofcourse not. This when the worst summer -that is going to be hottest ever for human on earth, is yet to begin.