Viswanathan K's Thoughts

We think of viruses as being tiny, much tinier than bacteria. But as they say about mutual funds, past performance is not indicative of future results! In 2003, scientists discovered a “giant” virus. A typical virus has around 100 genes, this one had 1262. More giant viruses were found from that point onwards. Pranay Lal points out something startling in Invisible Empire : “Some viruses are so large that they can be parasitized by smaller viruses.” Sounded like Russian dolls.   The discovery of giant viruses reopened the debate on how viruses came to exist. Broadly speaking, there are two schools of theories. The first one says that viruses got started just before or around the same time as life on earth (remember how viruses are said to be on the border of living and non-living? And that viruses need to insert themselves into living cells to kick into action? That is why, in theory at least, they could have gotten started before life got started). The second one says that...

In Invisible Empire , Pranay Lal points out that it was the invention of the microscope that finally proved that “infinitesimally tiny organisms” did exist: “The microscope became a weapon for scientific validation.” The inventor of some of the best microscopes of the time, Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, wrote a lot about the different types of microbes he could see. These came to be called bacteria.   As the microscopes kept getting better, the aim turned from curiosity to trying to identify which bacteria caused particular diseases. Man learnt to even isolate and grow bacteria in culture. In 1857, an unknown agricultural disease hit tobacco. Adolf Mayer found that whatever caused the disease could pass through filter paper. But not through double filter paper. He concluded that the microbe in question was a bacteria, but far tinier than anything that could be seen with the best equipment of the times.   In 1885, Martinus Beijernick was investigating a different tobacco...

Kids use AI for their schoolwork. Plenty of them use it, not as an assistant, but as the entity that does all the work. That is a problem obviously.   This blog is not on a solution for that problem (None exists. Not yet anyway). Instead, this blog is based on a post by college student Maximilian Milovidov on a course called Writing AI . What’s unique about it? “(It) might be the only one on campus where artificial intelligence was not prohibited but, rather,  required .” The spirit of this course is an interesting experiment: “What if we taught students to use AI critically, rather than insisting they ignore it or assume they're using it to cheat?” AI, after all, he says, is here to stay. You can’t wish it away any more than our ancestors could wish away the printing press.   Here’s how the course works. Students have to bring their own ideas and outlines to the class. “We fed drafts into a chatbot while documenting its suggestions and then explaining...

If you want info on questions like how to update your Aadhar card or increase views on your YouTube page, you do a search in all the usual sites like YouTube or Google. All free. So why would anyone pay for videos on such topics. Yet that is exactly what the Indian app named Seekho does. And millions pay for it. Dharmesh BA looks into Seekho . “Why would someone pay for what they could find free? What is it about the product, the design, the psychology of the user journey that turns free content into a subscription business?”   On YouTube, anyone can upload anything. On Seekho , only curated “showrunners” can post stuff. The company picks potential content creators, gives them topics, posts their videos and sees how viewers respond. If it draws clicks, the creator is enlisted (and paid). Else he is dropped. This solves the quality-drowned-in-quantity problem of much of the free Internet.   How much does it cost? ₹1 for the first week, ₹149 per month thereafter (on ...

The war on Iran has created oil shortage and oil price hikes. What I missed, in the middle of the war, was that the International Energy Agency (IEA) — the world’s top energy watchdog — asked India to share its oil with the world!   Wait a minute. Given that India imports 85% of its oil, how can we possibly have oil to share? What was the basis for the IEA ask anyway? Therein lies a tale, explains Nithin Sasikumar.   The story starts way back in 1973, when the Arab countries launched a surprise war on Israel. The US airlifted weapons and supplies to help Israel. The furious Arab states imposed a ban on all oil exports to the US and any Western country that supported Israel. Oil prices in the West quadrupled. Petrol pumps began to run out of oil. The West realized the importance of building an “oil cushion”, oil reserves that could last at least 90 days. They formed the IEA, an agency formed and led by (who else?) the West. “So if a supply disruption were to hit the...

“Social reality” is a concept that exists only in the human brain, writes Lisa Barrett in Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain . Social reality is anything we consider real though nothing in physics or chemistry would make it real – examples include national borders; or the idea that a specific portion of the earth’s orbit around the sun is January.   Scientists believe that the ability to construct social reality is because of a suite of capabilities of the (human) brain called the Five C’s. Creativity : Someone needs to decide to draw a line and call it the border of a “country”, then define what a country is. That needs creativity. Communication : The idea of a country can be explained to others. Via, say, language. Copying : This refers to the ability to teach and learn the practices of others. Only if newcomers and children can be taught or if one can learn the customs of a new place can social reality continue to exist for very long periods. Cooperation : We ...

“We behave better when we believe we’re being watched”, writes Brian Klass in Corruptible . Today, that line brings to mind CCTV cameras that are all over the place, and government systems that could get info on our online habits. But long, long ago, when policing systems were practically non-existent, how could one make people follow basic rules? This wasn’t just a law and order problem for kings. As we know all too well, if we can’t trust people and there are no systems in place to penalize and punish wrongdoers, then economic activities (and associated prosperity) never get going…   Until policing and judicial systems could be built, the way to build some basis for trust amongst people in most places was the concept of religion: “The world’s major religions are overflowing with reminders that God is watching.” Religion helped build some degree of trust, as long as everyone believed that one would pay, “either in this life or the next”.   Klass humourously calls...

My 14 yo daughter has noticed what I do in my office calls. Unlike my wife, I am usually on group calls, not one-on-one calls. This means that the parts relevant to me in the call can vary wildly. Between hardly needed to needed periodically to being the presenter. Accordingly, how much attention I pay during those calls varies wildly. As you might have guessed, my daughter picked only the data points that made me look inattentive or worse.   Let me elaborate on the “or worse” part. Sometimes, a question will be sprung at me in the middle of a call and I would not even have heard the question! Upon which, I follow the time-tested practice of blaming it on bad network connection, and ask them to repeat the question. Such instances became Exhibit A for the prosecution daughter.   At other times, I have been on my phone during calls, scrolling through various social media. Not only did these become Exhibit B, but they also got me branded (with exaggerated finger wagging ...

  In Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain , Lisa Barrett describes the structure of the brain. The brain is a network of neurons, around 128 billion of them in case of humans. The neurons continuously fire and communicate with other neurons they are connected to. And here’s something not everyone realizes: “Your brain network is always on.” Put differently, that means neurons are not triggered into action only when something happens inside or outside the body. Rather, they are talking with each other continuously. But the strength of the signal will change based on triggering events and also, yes, frequency of usage of those pathways.   A metaphor that Barrett uses to describe the brain is the airport network. Just as every combination of airports don’t have direct flights between them, similarly all neurons don’t communicate with all other neurons. Instead, both have “hubs” – a small number of points that connect to a huge number of other points. The rest (majori...

We understand the importance of perseverance. But, as Seth Godin wrote : “You can pull out every stop, fight every step of the way, mortgage your house and your reputation–and still fail. Or, perhaps, you can quit in a huff at the first feeling of frustration.   The best path is clearly somewhere between the two. And yet, too often, we leave this choice unexamined.”   It is that choice that Annie Duke has written a book about called (what else?) Quit: The Power of Knowing when to Walk Away . I haven’t read the book but her interview with David Epstein was interesting.   The biggest problem to quitting is the sunk cost fallacy: So much time and effort has already been spent, so wouldn’t quitting mean all that effort was in waste? Projects don’t get scrapped even when the cost and delays have spiraled out of control. Stocks that we bought and can’t bring ourselves to sell at a loss. There are endless examples. She has an interesting perspective on that: “Wha...

For what purpose has the brain evolved? As humans, we are biased when we encounter that question, writes Lisa Barrett in Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain . We wrongly assume that the purpose of the brain is to think: “After all, thinking is the human superpower, right?”   Wrong, says Barrett. Long, long ago, unicellular life found itself in competition with others over limited resources, the importance of any capability to sense what lay where was an evolutionary advantage – Did XYZ lie to the left or right? Gradually though, raw sense organ signals weren’t enough. Choices had to be made – was it likely one could catch the prey? Make a wrong choice repeatedly and one would die of starvation. Thus: “Energy efficiency was a key to survival.”   So Barrett concludes: “Your brain’s most important job is to control your body… by predicting energy needs before they arise so you can efficiently make worthwhile movements and survive.”   But this created...

During Trump’s last term, he declared war on Huawei, the Chinese telecom equipment (and phone) manufacturer saying they were installing backdoors and spying. So how secure are telecom networks? That is the topic Jordan Schneider discussed with his panellists and it is very interesting.   Since Huawei got banned in the West, China instead went after Western telecom providers and hacked them to get access to all kinds of data! No, they can’t hear what you say. No, they can’t read what you type on encrypted chat apps like WhatsApp. But: “The telcos have the location data, call records, voicemails, and they can do many things without our knowledge or control.”   Everyone carries and uses their smartphone everywhere. Even soldiers (except in specific areas or operations where they are forbidden). Why? Well, to stay in touch with family and friends. Plus, telecom networks are far better than military telecom infra anyway in terms of coverage! This creates new scenarios, not just wr...

In the recent budget, there was a reference to “multidimensional poverty”. What exactly does that mean? Nithin Sasikumar explains it well. Note : As is his style, he is explaining what the concept is; not assessing the data used to come to any conclusion on poverty levels in the country.   When we think of poverty, we think of income, whether it is enough to cover basic expenses ( roti, kapada, makaan ). This is the classical definition of absolute poverty – below a certain income, one is considered BPL (Below the Poverty Line). The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t look at other aspects: “ But, say you live in a house with a leaking roof, you don’t have access to clean water, there’s no electricity, and you have a child who hasn’t seen a classroom in months because the nearest school is too far off. Are you not poor?”   It is to include these other aspects (besides income) that the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was created. So what is it exactly? “India’s...

Since I work on anesthesia machines, I loved this fascinating piece by Devansh Malik on anesthestic agents and what exactly happens when anesthetized.   The story starts in the 1840’s, when a popular pastime (in the West) was to inhale ether or nitrous oxide at what was called the “laughing gas parties”: “You’d inhale a bit, feel euphoric, do something embarrassing and everyone would laugh. Simple pleasures of life.”   Then people noticed something weird – people inhaling these gases didn’t experience pain (even when they hurt themselves badly). This led a dentist named Horace Wells to wonder if it might have the same effect on the tooth. He had a colleague extract his tooth under nitrous oxide and was happy he didn’t feel any pain. A public demonstration unfortunately didn’t work and the patient did experience pain. Another dentist named William Morton tried it again, with ether during a tooth extraction. It worked. “ Shortly after, a surgeon there removed a tumo...

In his book, Corruptible , Brian Klass interviews former Thailand PM, Abhisit Vejjajiva. In early 2010, protestors numbering 1,20,000 gathered in the streets of Bangkok demanding his resignation. When the government sent in soldiers to clear the area, they (the soldiers, not the protestors) were met with bullets and grenades. The soldiers fired back, and 26 were killed, a thousand injured.   The heavily armed protestors started speaking of civil war. Sporadic gunfire in the streets started to become commonplace. Vejjajiva had helicopters drop pamphlets declaring some areas of the city as buffer zones between protestors and government troops. Anyone entering the buffer zone risked getting shot, said the leaflets. Eventually, troops were told to break through the barricades and go after the protestors. The protest was finally put down, at a cost of 87 killed.   Was Vejjajiva the stereotype ruler who tried to hold onto power at all costs? Maybe. But also listen to Vejjaji...

When a civilization is at its high, it can dominate the neighbourhood literally and figuratively. Often via force (or threat of force). But also by influence and admiration. What we call hard power and soft power .   While the causes for the eventual decline of hard power are talked about, what about the decline of soft power? Arnold Toynbee believed the cause for that was entirely social . Which makes sense, since soft power is social after all. So what was Toynbee’s theory?   Initially and for a long time, the “creative minority” within that civilization is the driver of new ideas, new technologies, new achievements. But at some point, they “lose their creative power, turn self-obsessed and focus all their energies on self-preservation”. The word used in modern lingo to describe this group is “elites” . The majority begins to lose faith in the creative minority and with that, the splintering of the civilization begins.   Toynbee goes into the details of the...

The price of medicines are controlled to varying degrees by the Indian government. We aren’t the only country that regulates the prices of various medicines. I had assumed this is a practice of poorer countries only .   Not true, I learnt as I read Alex Tabarrok’s post . But first, why do pharma companies (including Western giants with political clout) agree to such reduced pricing? Because of the nature of their product – coming up with a new medicine is very, very costly (research, clinical trials, regulatory clearances, making doctors aware). But the manufacturing cost of each pill in and of itself is very tiny (in most cases). Therein lies the answer to our question. “Not because firms are charitable, but because a high price means poorer countries buy nothing, while any price above marginal cost is still profit.” Thus: “This type of price discrimination is good for poorer countries, good for pharma, and (indirectly) good for the United States: more profits mean more ...

The Partition was supposed to have been a solution for the Hindu-Muslim animosity, writes Sam Dalrymple in Shattered Lands . Splitting into separate countries for each was supposed to avoid bloodshed.   But it didn’t help that the line was drawn by Radcliffe, a man who had never even been to India. Plus, Mountbatten insisted the boundary be made public a few days after the British left “in order to divert odium from the British”.   In Punjab, it led to widespread mutual killings (Gandhi’s presence and threats to commit suicide kept Bengal at relative peace), the very thing Partition was intended to avoid… ~~   Then Pakistan, now formed, declared that Muslims deep inside India, well, they were not Pakistan’s concern! So much for the nation for Muslims idea. Conversely, Muslims who moved to Pakistan found themselves not accepted, treated as outsiders, a problem that continues even today. ~~   The savage blood-letting of Partition would harden Pate...

Is AI over-hyped? Or is it going to transform the landscape so drastically that it would be unrecognizable? Like how electricity did a century back?   If it will/does shake up the job market drastically, how quickly/slowly would that happen? At the pace of electricity (quite fast, but nowhere close to overnight)? Or much slower? Or way, way faster?   It was in the context of these questions that (right or wrong) China’s approach being so different from the US is worth checking out.   AI, if it were to be as transformative as some say (fear?), would cause massive job losses and social upheaval, the backdrop to every revolution. Which is why the Chinese government (single-party rule system) is wary. On the other hand, China can’t ignore AI, given how much potential it has, plus the risk of its arch-rival running too far ahead. Therein lies China’s AI dilemma. What then is China’s AI approach?   Since 2023, all public facing AI models must be filed with...

I have great sympathy for the teachers of kids my daughter’s generation. After all, these Gen Z kids (born between 1997 and 2012) consider themselves to be peers of everyone – their parents, their teachers – and treat all those folks with the same derisiveness. This drives parents up a wall (and worse), but those teachers have to suffer this fate at the hands of so many kids. Plus, while parental love can help tide over such treatment, what about the poor teacher? It turns out the teachers have found ways to cope with such, er, abuse. ~~   Now that my daughter has entered the feared board exam year (10 th ), the teachers try to, er, motivate the kids by telling them that they are going to end up on the streets, so it is time to shape up.   One kid responded to this (separately, out of class) pointing out that she lived in a 4 BHK, had a Mercedes, so she was definitely not homeless. Upon which a classmate cheerfully corrected her saying that the teacher’s comment wasn’t about h...