Viswanathan K's Thoughts

In Nexus , Yuval Noah Harari uses the phrase “naïve view of information”. What does he mean by that? It is the belief that information is a good thing, and the more of it that we have/get, the better. Information, in this view, leads to truth which then leads to wisdom.   That is not true. Corrupt politicians get re-elected; film stars remain popular no matter what they do… even when the information is available to everyone. It is because, says Harari, people don’t connect to a person; rather, they connect to a story about the person. ~~   The other view of information, throughout history, is that order is critical for humans to thrive. Chaos and anarchy are to be avoided at all costs. For order (and thus governance) to exist, a group of people need to feel some sense of unity. Hard facts rarely serve that purpose. Good fiction, on the other hand, does the job splendidly. Why? Because the truth is always complicated, messy and has its share of dark episodes. “In ...

I realized how little I knew of British India as I read Sam Dalrymple’s Shattered Lands . British India extended from Yemen all the way to Burma, but not as a single continuous landmass, as this map shows. By the end of it all, British India would break into 12 nations, hence the book title.   ~~   The first partition of India was with Burma. As the British came under growing pressure and protests, they considered granting more autonomy to (British) India. But with areas as diverse as Baluchistan, Bengal and Madras: “How would they write a single constitution for a landmass larger and more diverse than Europe?”   It will seem surprising now, but back then, Burma was the largest and richest province in the Raj! So much so that people from all parts of British India flocked to Burma for jobs and better opportunities. Yet Burma was sidelined in Indian politics (it was even called the Cinderella province).   The British felt the Burmese were racially different and felt a...

After the Copper and Bronze Age, Tomas Pueyo goes into the Iron Age . Iron’s melting point is way higher (1538° C) than what those kilns could achieve, which is why it took a long time for iron to be used by humans. As bronze spread and became increasingly important, metallurgy and furnaces improved and we began to stumble upon iron as a byproduct. But: “Iron is harder to smelt, you also can’t work iron cold, and it’s actually softer than bronze! What’s the point, then?”   Iron, unlike the other metals listed so far in the series, is widely available. As opposed to bronze which, remember, needed tin and thus trade lines. Iron has another key property. Mixed with the right amount of carbon, we get steel – stronger, lighter and less corrosive. Since carbon was part of the fuel (wood, coal) used in furnaces, so the chances of stumbling upon steel was reasonable.   Iron and steel “turbocharged” everything bronze had been doing: (1) Tools to clear forests and increase a...

The caste census. Not to be confused with the population census. The last caste census was conducted in 1931 under British rule. If it wasn’t conducted for almost a century, why is it being conducted again now?   Advocates for it say it is necessary to know the right numbers to serve as the basis for upliftment schemes and reservations. Opponents say it would only entrench the caste-based identity even further; that it would foment sub-divisions within caste as each group tries to grab a bigger share of the scheme/reservation pie.   Anand Teltumbde wrote a book on the topic titled The Caste Con Census . I haven’t read it and have only read Pranay Kotasthane’s review of the book . Kotasthane says he read the book because the author is a “data science professor, a Marxist”. In other words, a person who understands data and how it can be used, and with a worldview that most of us (Kotasthane included) do not subscribe to. Always good to read the views of someone you do...

After the Copper Age came the Bronze Age. Again, it was a “mix (of) history, geography, physics, geology, and chemistry”, explains Tomas Pueyo in his post . But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First mankind had to find tin and lead.     Why those two? Again, from chemistry, same column (group) = similar chemical properties. In this case: “Because you can make them in a normal fire pit!” Lead melts at 327° C. A wood fire easily reaches 600-800° C. If the ore of lead found itself in a pit fire, the lead got separated. “But lead is not very useful because it’s heavy and way too soft. It couldn’t work as a tool or as a hand-held weapon.” The common ore of lead, galena, has traces of silver. It is likely that humans began to smelt galena for the silver and lead was just a byproduct. ~~   Tin has an even lower melting point of 232° C. But it is brittle and rare, hardly a candidate for a useful metal. But in many copper mines, tin is also present. And c...

Last December, the chaos and flight disruptions created by IndiGo were enormous and terrible. The penalty imposed on them was a paltry ₹22 crore (no prizes for guessing what must have transpired behind the scenes).   The root cause identified by the DGCA (Directorate General for Civil Aviation) though did make sense: “an overriding focus on maximising utilisation of crew, aircraft, and network resources”. Such an (over)emphasis then “significantly reduced roster buffer margins” and “adversely impacted operational resilience”.   But, while the above reason is valid, it wasn’t complete. IndiGo had clearly assumed the new regulations (on rest hours between flights) would not be enforced by the government and therefore had not prepared to meet them (by reducing flights or hiring more pilots/crew). And why did they make that assumption? Because they held a 65% market share, and they assumed that if they couldn’t/wouldn’t meet the new regulations, well, surely the governmen...

Tomas Pueyo wrote this excellent post on how metals shaped human civilization. A “mix of history, geography, physics, geology, and chemistry”, as he calls it. The first 3 metals used by humans were… he points to the Periodic Table!   Gold, silver and copper. Why those three? Because, to recap chemistry, same column (group) = similar chemical properties. The similar property of relevance here is that they can all be found in “native” form, i.e., pure form. ~~   When rocks erode, the heavier and inert gold gets left behind, which is why we found gold first. Gold was valuable because it is rare, malleable, doesn’t oxidize, found in nuggets, and yes, shiny. All those characteristics meant it became a store of value. But it was too heavy, too malleable, so it was of no use to make tools.   Silver is more common than gold. But it tarnishes (it reacts with other things). Which is why it is harder to find in native form. Again, not of much practical use.   ...

In an earlier blog , we saw how a coin tester was responsible for the “discovery” of Ashoka. The story we know today goes like this. Conquers Kalinga in a brutal war. Experiences extreme remorse. Converts to Buddhism. Spends the rest of his rule in positive acts of governance.   But is that what really happened? Devansh Malik explores the question. One , Ashoka lived 2,300 years ago and there are very few sources of info. Two , those famous inscriptions on rocks and pillars, well, Ashoka got them done, so can we be sure that they weren’t just “ancient press releases - public messages carefully crafted to shape his image”? Three , Buddhist descriptions of him were written centuries later, so how accurate were they?   To make matters worse, the different sources don’t always agree. In fact, they often flat out contradict each other! One thing they do agree on is that as a prince, Ashoka was very capable at administration and at military strategy. But he wasn’t the favou...

It was a British coin tester who found out that the emperor Ashoka even existed! His name was James Princep, writes Devansh Malik. Before 1837, sure, there were references to Ashoka in some Buddhist texts, but were they historical fact? Or just stories? “There was no historical proof, no documented history, nothing.”   Princep was born to rich parents and seemingly destined to be an architect in Britain. Then, at age 20, a severe eye infection struck damaging his eyes so badly that architecture was no longer an option. His father used his wealth and connections to get James the job of testing coins in Calcutta. It was at the Calcutta mint that Princep met Horace Wilson, a Sanskrit scholar who had translated the Rig Veda. “Through Wilson, James developed a deep fascination with Indian history and culture.”   When he moved to the mint in Varanasi, Princep began to notice something about the older coins of India. First came the punch-marked coins (any odd shape, but ...

K N Hari Kumar, a former editor of Deccan Herald wrote 3 articles on how/why India has manged to stay a democracy. Take all our neighbours, he says – Nepal’s Gen Z triggered overthrow of the government, Bangladesh ousting Sheikh Hasina, Pakistan in eternal army rule mode, the meltdown of the Sri Lankan government, and Myanmar always under military rule – and you see why the question of the stability of Indian democracy arises.   He then turns to the US. The very man who refused to accept an electoral defeat, initiated riots, came back to become President again 4 years later. So much for a “centuries-old, stable democracy”. And everything the man is doing now disproves the idea that “the advanced Western nations were immune to the kind of instability and radical transformations”.   Sure, he acknowledges, there has been a lot of “democratic backsliding” in India in recent times – Ram Mandir, lynchings of Muslims, CAA act, the purge of “urban Naxals”, removing Article 37...

Why did humans develop hierarchies? Why couldn’t everyone stay equal to everyone else in the group? Brian Klass looks into the commonly accepted theories on the topic in his book, Corruptible .   The first theory is the one most of us are familiar with. Once humans discovered agriculture, they began to have surpluses. By definition, some people had more surplus than others – inequality had gotten started. Further, agricultural surpluses in turn required storage systems, accounting systems (to maintain records of who had how much excess), and protection systems (to protect the surplus) all of which led to specialists in different roles – hierarchies had begun. Klass calls this the “peas theory” (pun intended) – it all began with agriculture.   The other theory is more nuanced. Assume two groups of hunter-gatherers. One lived in the Amazon basin where food was plentiful in all directions. If someone forced you off your land, no big deal – you just moved somewhere else an...

Brian Klass’ book, Corruptible , has many interesting and, at times, counter-intuitive points on the fact that people in power seem to be (become?) corrupt.   For one, he says people in power often have to make repeated decisions in scenarios where there are no good choices. But if all choices are bad, how does one make a decision, and not let the bad aspect of the decision not haunt one? “(One way is to) disregard compassion and focus on hard-nosed costs and benefits.” Here’s Klass point with all this. Does power attract people who have that mindset to begin with? Do kinder folks avoid power since they don’t have the stomach to pick from among a list of “unbearable moral choices”?   Two, he says, enforcement matters. The same set of people behave differently when the enforcement is strict v/s lax. Think of how the same Indian can behave when in Singapore v/s India.   Three, the system in which the person operates matters: “A decent person inheriting a b...

America’s erratic actions and constant policy shifts make a lot more sense when viewed from the lens of what Noah Millman calls the “Thucydides trap”. “(It refers to) a situation where a rising power and an established power facing a possible power transition each make moves that, while individually rational, ultimately lead to a catastrophic war that proves ruinous to both powers’ fortunes.”   With Obama, America tried a “pivot to Asia” approach to counter China, i.e., increase the focus on China and its neighbouring countries, reduce the focus elsewhere (The pivot to Asia is why the US didn’t do much/anything when Russia invaded Crimea in 2016; why Obama signed the nuclear deal with Iran). Obama was being pragmatic – it was clear that the assumption that the only road to economic prosperity went hand in hand with democracy and other Western systems was not true. China was prospering without democracy; and showing signs of not wanting to be part of a system dominated by the...

Wheat or rice? Here’s how the world production looks on that question, writes Tomas Pueyo (Red = rice; Green = wheat): A key point here: rice and wheat are not harvested in the same places. It is an either/or option. The reason for the distribution? “Rice grows in hot, wet, flat, floodable areas, whereas wheat prefers cooler, drier, better drained areas.”   Another consequential point here: “Rice generates twice as many calories per unit of area. This means that rice nourishes families on half the land that wheat requires. Which means population density in rice areas can be twice as high as in wheat areas.” This explains why (see map above) coastal China, a huge part of the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia are so densely populated.   Rice cultivation requires a lot more work than wheat: “Preparing paddies, raising seedlings in nurseries, transplanting every single seedling by hand into flooded fields, managing water, pumping it, weeding, harvesting, and thr...

Just like TikTok took the US (and world) by storm, Chinese education apps like Gauth and Question.AI have taken the American education app sector, writes Lily Ottinger. Both apps say they can solve problems in “all school subjects”.   Is this encouraging cheating, where kids stop doing homework? And what do equivalent Chinese apps offer in China? Well, for one, the apps for China and the rest of the world are different, even when made by the same Chinese company. Give the two apps (Chinese and non-Chinese), say, an integration question to solve and the Chinese one will list the steps to solve it while the American one will tell the answer, then show the steps. The Chinese one will give hints and tricks to solve such questions, the American ones won’t (unless you upgrade to the paid version). The Chinese apps also graph the problem to make it easier to visualize.   What could be the reasons for the differences? Well, Western education places more emphasis on homework, ...

My wife has been saying for a (long, long) while that we should go re-activate or close or pull out our money in PPF and SBI. We haven’t transacted in either for a long time, so it was almost certain they were dormant. We don’t expect the process to be easy or clear, but finally we decided to initiate the process.   We to the nearby SBI branch. We went in, saw a token generator, and went to get one. It wasn’t working. Ok, so you’d expect a queue somewhere, right? Except the only queue was in a counter to open new accounts! Weirdly, lots of people were seated with no apparent hurry or urgency. Waiting (for what? For who?), filling forms, no urgency, no impatience, no irritation… it was almost surreal.   My wife then saw an employee walking by and asked him how to get a token. He gave a wide smile, you know the kind rural folks give urban denizens when they come to a village… Oh, you poor ignorant people. Then he said, “The token system doesn’t work” and helpfully added,...