Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In an earlier blog, we saw the American attitude towards data and how it became the philosophy of the Internet, simply because the US was the first country on the Net and also its biggest market. Over time, the EU became a big market too. A significant difference in European views is rooted in the fact that few, if any, big Internet companies are European. Thus, the lobbying against data/privacy laws in the EU was far less (though the big American ones do lobby in EU), explains Rahul Matthan in The Third Way .   The EU attitude data is far more citizen-centric. Even before the Internet, that was the case in (Western) Europe largely because of their experience with fascism, Nazism and communism over the past century.   That history culminated in the GDPR doctrine for EU, a “full blown regulation… which became the most advanced data protection framework”. It says (1) all data about an individual belongs to that individual, not the company that collected it, (2) any dat...

The standup comedian Trevor Noah’s autobiography, Born a Crime , is about his life in South Africa only , so it doesn’t talk of his career as a comedian or life in the West. What it describes about the apartheid regime in South Africa is horrifying. Unlike many evils of the West, this is a recent one that continued till the 1990’s. It is thus not something that can be brushed aside as “It was a different era, you can’t apply today’s standards to older times”.   Apartheid was created after “studying” the institutionalized racism of Australia, America and Netherlands.   America, for example, moved the natives to specific areas called “reservations”, practiced slavery and then moved onto segregation. In South Africa, they did all of the above to the same group (blacks). The outcome? “The most advanced system of racial oppression known to man”.   A system built on the idea that races should not mix has to declare inter-racial relations (romance, marriage, children) i...

Many believe that computers and software knowing and monitoring everything about us is a recent phenomenon. Not so, says Rahul Matthan in The Third Way : “Since they were first created, computers have been designed to monitor, categorize and classify us. Everything that followed from there was just the natural consequence of that original objective.”   He elaborates on that. It started in 1890, when the US wanted to conduct its census. By then, it was taking too long to conduct one. By the time they could finish conducting and collating it, it was time for the next census! The task needed to be automated and Herman Hollerith gave it a shot. He first reduced the data into a standard format – age, sex, religion, occupation etc – and second called for it to be digitized by giving census takers a card in which they had to punch holes to indicate answers. He then fed each card into a machine that “read” the information by pressing a set of electrical pins on the card. “The pins ...

War Thunder is a free online video game that goes all out in its simulation of “realistic vehicle and weapon physics ”, writes Rich Stanton here and here . Since the weapons and tanks they have in the game exist in the real world, there are many online arguments “about the accuracy or otherwise of particular hardware”.   In one such incident, the argument was over the French Leclerc Main Battle Tank. Specifically, the question was about exact speed of rotation of the tank’s turret. One participant thought the best way to prove he was right was by (hold your breath) posting portions of the manual of the real tank! So much for such documents being classified material…   It turns out this wasn’t the first or last time classified military material was posted to settle online debates. The site owners are now used to being on the lookout for any material on their forums that may be classified and try to take it down.   This being the Internet, the argument then cha...

The language related AI (the ones that generate text-based responses) are called LLM (Large Language Models) . They “learn” by being trained (by humans) on texts that are fed to them. Over time, once the LLM gets the hang of things, it is let loose on different parts of the Internet to continue to learn on its own.   It is that last part – learning from content on the Internet – that raised the charge of copyright violation from various content provider sites e.g. news agencies, book sites and many authors. Is this a valid charge? LLM supporters say the AI is no different from humans who read content and generate new content that is influenced by, but not a copy of the material they read. The copyright violation brigade responds that humans read a small quantity, whereas LLM’s have changed the game by the sheer volume of content they read, and are thus a risk to the livelihood of the content creators.   Rahul Matthan has an interesting take on the matter. Sure, a lot ...

AI needs a different kind of specialized chip. So no, it is not just a faster CPU (Central Processing Unit). Rather, it is a specialized variant of CPU called GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) . GPU’s were originally designed ages back for one purpose – video games! What?! The “G” was for Graphical, remember. In a video game, the screen (1) has to be rendered at insane speeds, (2) how to render each pixel involves a combo of RGB values (among other things) which have to be crunched via matrix multiplication, and (3) rendering of pixels can be done in parallel, not in sequence the way traditional computing is done.   Decade later, the raw data for AI needed just such a processor – insane speed, matrix multiplications, and parallel processing. Traditional CPU’s were not designed for that, but these were exactly what GPU’s already did. Ergo, the company that started off decades back with GPU’s for video games pivoted to AI chips and is the world’s most valuable company today – Nv...

India fares very poorly in most sporting competitions (other than cricket, and in recent times, at badminton and chess). The National Sports Governance Bill tabled this monsoon tries to address the root causes for this. Policy Mandala analyses the bill.   What are the problems with the existing system? It is entirely structural: “For decades, India’s sports governance has been plagued by dynastic control, opaque selections, budget leaks, lifetime presidencies, and a culture where politics often trumps performance.”   How does the new sports bill try to fix things? (1) It sets up a National Sports Tribunal to fast-track the closure of sports related disputes. This is indeed important since our civil courts take forever and: “In sports, where careers peak in a handful of years, a delay like this doesn’t just hurt, it ends futures.”   (2) It makes Ethics and Election panels compulsory in every federation to try and root out conflicts of interest. (3) It b...

There’s a disorder called hemochromatosis in which extra iron builds up in the body. One treatment is for such people to donate their blood regularly. The good thing? The extra iron doesn’t come into their blood, so their blood can be infused into recipients without any risk. Nor is there any risk of transfer of genetic diseases.   Sounds perfect, right? Except the American Red Cross has a policy that: “Potential donors are not allowed to receive direct compensation for their donation (beyond the usual orange juice and cookie) .” See how this becomes a problem? “Because people with hemochromatosis would otherwise have to pay for their therapeutic phlebotomies (removing blood from them), they would in effect be getting something of value for being able to donate for free. Thus the Red Cross has ruled that such donations violate their policy. ”   It gets even more weird. When a hemochromatosis patient pays to have his blood removed, most American agencies will thro...

One of the reasons Akbar was “so willing to look beyond Islam for truths and validation” was the relative recency of the conversion of the Mongols to Islam, says Ira Mukhoty in Akbar . Thus, as a group, they were “less tenacious in their allegiance to religion alone”.   As mentioned in an earlier blog, this trend existed from Babur’s time. Babur had pragmatically added many Hindustani noblemen into his court. Very strict adherence to sharia would have been “politically catastrophic”. Being a Muslim was not mandatory to be in the good books of the Mughals.   Further, Akbar encouraged the entry of Persian Shia and Hindu Rajput noblemen into the ranks of the Mughal aristocracy. Why? To reduce the “worrying influence” of one large clan in the existing setup.   Of course, Akbar went far beyond what those reasons alone could explain – he was almost “cavalier” in his attitude towards the ulemas ! This wasn’t entirely because Akbar was, to apply a modern word, secula...

“Old-school bullshit” has been there for ages – it includes lies, rumours and propaganda, write Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West in Calling Bullshit . Their book, though, is about ways in which we can detect a different kind of bullshit: “ New-school bullshit uses the language of math and science and statistics to create the impression of rigour and accuracy.” Is there a difference though between the two kinds? Yes, unlike old-school benefits where one can Google or apply one’s own knowledge, one often has no idea how to question data and numbers: “New-school bullshit can be particularly effective because many of us don’t feel qualified to challenge information that is presented in quantitative form.” The book is about ways to overcome this self-perceived limitation.   The first thing to ask, they point out, is if the data is valid. This is increasingly important since we rely and trust AI and Machine Learning algorithms so much these days. We’d do well to remember that ...

The royal women’s hajj in 1575 turned out to be an event of significance, writes Ira Mukhoty in Akbar . Concerns arose of the safety of the women since the departure port would be Surat, an area under Portuguese control. The Mughals, remember, were not a naval power, whereas the Portuguese were. An uneasy truce existed, but what if the Portuguese attacked the royal harem?   Eventually, the women did go for the hajj. Since the journey was so long and unlikely to be repeated, they stayed on in the holy lands for years. They participated in the communal events of the places they went to, and distributed the enormous wealth Akbar had given them for the trip. “The wealth was so ostentatious that it would cause a sharp reaction from the Ottoman authorities.”   The Ottoman sultan complained bitterly to the authorities at Mecca about the “extended stay” of the Mughal women, and their “anti-sharia activities”. He railed about the overcrowding caused by the huge retinue that ...

One of the first uses of the word “terrorism” was by Thomas Jefferson in 1795, says Steven Johnson in Enemy of all Mankind . He used it in for what was happening in Paris several years after the French Revolution, the so called Reign of Terror. “Robespierre’s terror took the state’s legal monopoly on violence to devastating extremes.”   Today, the meaning of the term has flipped on one significant aspect: “(Modern terrorism) grants a disproportionate power to small bands of insurgents and shadow networks.” And who were the first practitioners in its modern form? Pirates! “Extreme violence carried out by non-state actors, creating disproportionate effects through media dissemination.”   Media dissemination? Yes, even back then, the tabloid culture had begun to flourish – across “pamphlets, newspapers, magazines and books”.   “Dead men tell no tales” – it’s the pirate mantra we’ve all heard. We associate it with ruthlessness. But pirates also took that sta...

We think of Akbar a certain way today. But people change and evolve with time. That is even more true for emperors who rule for very long periods, like Akbar. And lastly, a boy king almost feels “compelled” to exert and demonstrate his authority, to enemies and courtiers alike.   After Akbar became the Padshah, he could see a major structural risk to himself, writes Ira Mukhoty in Akbar . One was that certain clans, like the Turanis, held too much power. How did he neutralize this? Over a decade, Akbar would purposefully promote more Persians and Rajputs into the nobility, thereby reducing the clout of the Turanis.   He also aggressively expanded the empire because he feared anyone at the borders could become a challenger. Defeat them before they became a threat became his motto.   The Rajputs had the practice of giving a daughter in marriage as a sign of subjugation. This is how Akbar got started with his Rajput wives. What he did differently was to allow the...

Timur (the Lame) was the most famous ancestor of the group that would come to be known as the Mughals. He was not a descendant of Genghis Khan himself, but had married women from Genghis’ line so he could claim Chingizid heritage.   When still in Central Asia, Babur was kicked out of his kingdom by the Uzbeks, who claimed Chingizid blood, writes Ira Mukhoty in her biography of the Mughal emperor, Akbar . No surprise that Babur hated the Chingizid. Obviously, he did not want to be called a Chingizid. Instead, he preferred to be known as a Timurid (descendant of Timur). It is ironic that when they came to rule India, Babur’s line came to be known as the Mughals, the Persian word for Mongols (Chingizid), not as the Timurids! Even the victors don’t get to decide what they are called.   Being kingdom-less also explains why Babur came to India to settle, not just loot and return the way Timur and so many other Central Asians had in the past. It also explains Babur’s tolera...

I remember our history books mentioning many famines in India. I always assumed it was tragic but unavoidable for that era. Which is why I was taken aback when I read Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness .   Here is a startling contrast. During British rule, between 30 to 35 million Indians died due to famines. Post independence, no famines have taken place. Even though our own governments were inefficient, corrupt and not exactly quick to respond. How come? Because in democracies with a free press, governments are held more accountable, which then triggers effective response. “Lack of (true) democracy and public accountability, however, is what was characterized British rule in India.”   Lack of accountability aside, the British had 3 considerations that drove them to intervene as minimally as possible to famine. (1) They believed in letting the market forces decide (demand and supply), (2) the Malthusian doctrine (overpopulation was the cause and the famine was na...

Other people, other groups, other organizations, other countries seem to do it <replace with the topic of your choice> effortlessly. They’re better. They’re having more fun. Those are feelings all of us experience.   Morgan Housel argues that it almost certainly isn’t true. Ask yourself if what you are seeing is the complete picture about that entity. Chances are that it isn’t. “There’s a filter. Skills are advertised, flaws are hidden. ” Even seemingly coherent teams aren’t that way, if only you could pull back the curtain: “All the messy personalities and difficult decisions that you only see when you’re inside, in the trenches. ” And no, others aren’t having a better life than you all the time: “Instagram is full of beach vacation photos, not flight delay photos.”   There’s even a saying about this: “The grass is always greener on the side that’s fertilized with bullshit.”   Occasionally, we do get to learn of the cracks behind the perfe...

We humans have lungs. But ants don’t. Why do some living things need lungs while others don’t?   In So Simple a Beginning , Raghuveer Parthasarathy starts from the basics. All creatures need a way to exchange gases, usually to take in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. The easiest way is for the surface of the creature to do the gas exchange. A tiny creature like an ant does exactly this – the surface areas of its internal tubing is sufficient for gas exchange of its tissues.   Next, take a larger creature. Simple physics kicks in. The surface area of the living thing increases as a square of the increase in its length whereas its volume increases as the cube. If you increase the length by a factor of 3, the area increases by a factor of 3 2 = 9 times while its volume increases by 3 3 = 27 times. The volume, as you see, increases much faster than the area. The larger volume means the creature has a lot more cells, which in turn means, the creature needs a lot more gas...

In China, Kublai did what the Romans did for northern Europe, writes John May in The Mongol Empire . By that, he means the creation of physical artifacts (roads, canals) and systems (efficient taxation, trade, postal-relay). And of course, the introduction of paper money (as an easier, lighter, convenient alternative to coins made of various metals). ~~   By the time Genghis died, the man had created an empire 4 times larger than Alexander’s and twice the size of Rome, ha had not made great inroads into China. His successors doubled that size.   And yet, while the Romans have left a lot of both “hardware” (aqueducts, stadia) and “software” (art, law, language), very little of either survives from the Mongol era. (Other than in China, as we saw in the earlier blog on Kublai). “No buildings, no philosophies, no universities, no moral guidance, no literature for the subject peoples.”   Why the difference? “Because the Romans, the Greeks and the British had something to say, ...

Many say the railways were a positive product of British rule of India. Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness looks into this. In 1843, Governor General Lord Hardinge was at least honest when he said that the railways would be beneficial for the “commerce, government and military control of the country”.   Look at how it was constructed. (1) The British government guaranteed 5% return on bonds (very high for that time) used to raise money to build the railways. And why not? After all, it was taxes on India that would be used to pay the interest, not British taxpayer money. (2) This created a perverse incentive for British companies laying the tracks in India. That 5% interest was on the principal, so the more money the company claimed it needed, the higher the interest payment. Thus, there was no incentive to optimize or reduce costs. The opposite was the case. Each mile in India thus cost £ 18,000. For comparison, a mile at the same time was costing just £ 2,000 in the US. ...

Large organisms don’t look anything like magnified versions of tiny organisms. Why not? Because of the (physics) principle of scaling. And it’s not just limited t0 physical structure. In So Simple a Beginning , Raghuveer Parthasarathy asks an interesting question: Why can’t a bacterium swim like a whale?   Swimming involves pushing the water to move. There are two aspects that make this action hard: inertia and viscosity. The ratio of these two forces is called the Reynolds number. The higher the Reynolds number, the higher the inertia. Which means the liquid appears turbulent to the act of swimming. The lower the Reynolds number, the higher the viscous force.   Wait, it gets trickier. The Reynolds number also depends on the size of the object trying to swim. To a tiny bacterium, the water has a low Reynolds number. But to a whale, the Reynolds number is huge. This has other consequences: “This fact has deep consequences for how aquatic creatures can or cannot move....