Viswanathan K's Thoughts

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...