While COVID defined 2021, many wonderful things continued to happen (Courtesy: Shahid Jameel)

Source: Adapted (by Shahid Jameel) from Martin Harbech, Group Director @Meta. 

1. China eradicated malaria.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/world/asia/china-malaria.html

2. NASA flew a helicopter (called “Ingenuity”) on Mars.

https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/status/334/flying-on-mars-is-getting-harder-and-harder/

3.  Renewable energy grew faster than ever.

https://www.wri.org/insights/growth-renewable-energy-sector-explained

4.  Brain Computer Interface (BCI) advancements made it possible for a paralyzed man to write just by thinking (see picture), and for a monkey to play a computer game.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/05/14/1024907/musk-neuralink-man-monkey-mindpong-challenge-video-game/

5.  mRNA unlocked a new era of disease prevention.

https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2744

6.  Clean fusion energy saw several major breakthroughs, including generating 700 times the US Energy Grid capacity.

https://thehackposts.com/physicists-just-broke-the-laser-fusion-record-generating-700-times-the-us-energy-grid/

7.  Scientists have proposed a new “fifth force”, potentially redefining Physics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N79rTxce6bI

8. Electric cars reached a tipping point, breaking all records with global sales.

https://www.ev-volumes.com/

9.  Artificial Intelligence made huge progress on protein folding – one of biology’s biggest challenges.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/30/1012712/deepmind-protein-folding-ai-solved-biology-science-drugs-disease/

10. Scientists took steps towards unlocking the gains of CRISPR technology – and be able to “cure” genetic diseases.

https://www.labiotech.eu/best-biotech/crispr-technology-cure-disease/

11. Quantum computing took big leaps and broke the 100-quibit barrier.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/11/ibm-clears-the-100-qubit-mark-with-its-new-processor/

12. The largest wind farm ever built went live – on track to power 2.3 million homes in another year.

https://balkangreenenergynews.com/worlds-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-starts-producing-power/

13.  The age of ‘Space Tourism’ arrived, and the “James Webb Telescope” was launched after a 25-year preparation.

https://www.space.com/space-tourism-giant-leap-2021-milestones; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope

14. Research in plastic recycling had a breakthrough – turning plastic waste into oil (energy).

https://www.inverse.com/innovation/scientists-turn-plastic-into-oil

15. More than 9 billion COVID vaccine doses have been administered in 2021. But inequity remains as the next challenge

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/

 

Source: Adapted (by Shahid Jameel) from Martin Harbech, Group Director @Meta.

 

 

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays - A Remarkable Encounter

 

I went to Mountain Park Aquatic Center for my daily swim. As I entered the door, there are was an elderly lady behind me. The door was heavy, so I held it open and let her in. When she entered, I offered that she went ahead of me to the front desk. She said, “No, you came first”.  So, I went in and swiped my entry card, and turned around and the lady smiled, and I said “Merry Christmas”. Her face beamed and she replied “Merry Christmas to you too”.

 

I went in and did my usual 3,000 meter swim, showered, changed, and came out. The lady was waiting for me. She came up and said, “I have baked Christmas cookies, I want to bring some for you, when will you be here next?”  I smiled, and said, “Thank you very much, I will be here tomorrow morning”. She said, “What is your name?”. I said “Venkat”, and she said, “Spell it for me”, which I did.

 

Then she continued, “Are you from India?”  I said, “Yes, I was born there”.  She wanted to talk, I could tell.

 

She started, “It made me very happy that you wished me Merry Christmas, none of that Happy Holidays stuff”. 

 

I smiled. She went on, “I wish my Jewish friends Happy Hannukah, and they wish me Merry Christmas. That is how it should be. None of this Happy Holidays.”  I said, “You have a point, I agree”. She then said, “What is the equal of Christmas in India?” I said, “India is a very old and large country, and has many religions, Christmas is celebrated widely, as are a multitude of festivals, in fact, too many.” Then she said, “Do you wish each other Merry Christmas?”.  I said, “In India, at least the India I grew up in, everyone wished everyone everything, and everyone celebrated everything. We grew up in a country with multiple religions, many languages, many cultures, and lots of all diversity.”  

 

“Oh, now I understand, why you so readily could say Merry Christmas. Where do you work?”  I said, “At Emory University”.  Then she said, “You know Emory has upset me. I read that students are now not allowed to do Christmas decoration in their dormitories. Do you think that is fair?”  I said, “I don’t really know this, but think everyone should be free to celebrate whatever they want, and everyone should happily participate in as many things as they wish.”   

 

“Yes”, she said, “What do you think of putting the Ten Commandments outside the court houses?”  “That”, I said, “is not a good idea, because a secular government should not be part of any religion or at least should keep equidistant from all religions. But civil society should celebrate pluralism, where all religions and even non-religion and atheism can thrive and be part of society, and everyone can participate in whatever they want. I think no culture belongs to any one group, all cultures belong to humanity and not to any one group.” 

 

She said, “I want to invite to my house, and get to know you more. You should tell more about all the festivals in India. I want to learn”. I said. “Sure, Merry Christmas”, and she said the same, and we parted, only to meet again.

Greek and Indian Mythology - Similarity and difference in one domain

 

My friend who is studying classical Greek mythology for fun shared her essay (in which she explores the relationship between humans and gods in classical Greek mythology) with me. I noticed some similarities/differences with Indian mythology. 

Clearly  (to me), the idea of  “Gods” is an anthropocentric construct, where human created them (gods) as projections of themselves and of the societies of  the time. 

The myth of Gods was a tool to impose social hierarchy, patriarchy, and order – while helping to preserve the privileges of the ruling classes or social elites. 

Some similarities and differences between Greek and Indian mythology. Both advanced systems for their time, and the mythology probably reflected the respective societies at that time. 

In Indian mythology, the gender  differences between Gods and Goddesses was less hierarchical and more  syncretic.  For example, in the idea of the Trinity (explained to me by Asha):  Brahma (the Creator) was paired with Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge), Vishnu (the sustainer) with Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth), and Shiva (the destroyer) with Parvathi (Goddess of power). The roles of male and female  gods were different, some subtle deference, but considered of equivalent importance. Many of the Goddesses were powerful creatures. Perhaps,  reflecting greater matriarchy at that time. Another difference is that  while Gods and humans occupied different spaces and time scales (for  example, a year for a human was an hour for Gods – resulting in numbers that ran into billions), the Gods and humans occasionally shared the same space, notably, when Gods appeared on earth as “Avatars”   (while in Greek mythology, humans and gods were always segregated and inhabited different spaces) 

Overall, all this is very fascinating about how humans exert their imagination to create fiction to facilitate flexible cooperation and also social order.  

Without such hierarchy and social order, we probably won't survive (or thrive) as a species. But with it, comes oppression and inequality. How do we reconcile the tension? 

Venkat

 

COVID has ushered in a discontinuous moment in history

Much as we may view COVID as a transient phenomenon, I think that it has just brought out the issues and/or speeded up changes that were happening or had to happen anyway. In that sense, it a discontinuous moment in human history that we are going through, and all the assumptions and ideals we might have held or hold will get challenged.  I think it is going to usher in new ideals, new ethics, new ways of thinking, new ways of organizing, new ways of living, working, and playing. It is one of those agnostic, ruthless, and unforgiving techno-humanity moments in a fast globalizing world, and we are in for shocks and changes more profound than what industrialization brought to agrarian societies.

 

I for one, do not believe that “business as usual” or “plans for the future” will serve us or anybody well, and neither do I believe that the ethics, goals, institutions, and structures that worked in the past are going to be able to withstand the coming age, and will all be forced to adapt to new norms. That new norm, I believe, will be heavily driven by complexity, nonlinear processes, paradoxes, and network-driven unpredictable dynamic change propelled chaotically by information and its transfer. 

 

As I think about it, a few qualities are going to become important: among them personal resilience, agnosticism, syncretism, adaptability, flexibility, proactiveness, creativity, and ability to interpret any information to new context and to articulate to any audience in a way that the message sinks. Fixed positions and top-down decision-making will suffer, and we are in an age that will herald the death of borders and fixed hierarchy – better to let go off them than to fight the tsunami of mega-change!

 

My friend Mo shared with me yesterday a couple of lines that I apparently wrote in an email in 2013……..(I was flattered that Mo would find my rambling from 10 years ago useful now!) 

“In a nonlinear system, one has to understand and accept paradoxes, have the emotional resilience to deal with it, and the creative ability to use it to achieving one’s goal. It is a bit like sailing, where we use the wind to get where we want, even if we have to zig-zag and go in the opposite direction for a while.” 

Venkat

 

 

Polyglot India

    The truth is what we call “India” is a massive polyglot of several thousands of “tribes” (based on religions,     languages, castes, other factors). The very fact that such a large population with such diversity was brought     together under a constitution and a functioning system was achieved is a huge testament to the founders.

A lofty tone of “unity in diversity” is the only way that place can survive, the moment populism is used to invoke divisions (for political gains), the place starts to regress and fragment. All through post-Independent history, various politicians have used divisive politics to win votes, but the big difference now is a very systematic process of creating a big chasm (sadly invoking religion) across a huge divide and also undermining the independent institutions that afforded some bulwark for democracy to succeed.

Some years ago, commemorating the 50th anniversary of modern India, the National Geographic described India as a political success and called it the “boldest experiment in democracy ever attempted”.

Undoing this is easy, and the price will be paid in ways unimaginable. All said and done, sense may yet prevail, and as Mrs. Gandhi once said in an interview “India somehow always manages to rise to the occasion even at the brink of self-created disaster” or as Edward Luce in his book “India: In Spite of the Gods” time again refers to the marvels of innovative survival that characterizes that place – may these truisms be true!

Venkat

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 Eid Mubarak 2021

As Eid sets a somber visitation on India this year, my mind travels back to some beautiful memories growing up as a young boy in a simple India where humanity trumped superficial differences. My class-mates, Moosa and Osman would bring “Mittai” to school and share with their favorite friends (I remain one still). Basith Uncle (my uncle’s friend) would visit us and deliver sweets to my grandparents, and I would be among the first to taste the Halwa. Naseer Uncle (my mother’s close friend) would visit to greet “Jaya Sister” and would take the kids for a masala dosa. The highlight one year was an Eid party at the palatial home of my friend Farook Sait, and it was the sort of wealth that someone like me from a lower middle-class home would be dazzled by.

Brigade Road, Commercial Street, Avenue Road would all be so festive, and no one cared who was Muslim or who was Hindu or who was Christian. Everyone wished everyone else “Eid Mubarak”, and there was never any barrier between people. Humans just cared for one another. The same happened on Diwali or Christmas.

Now, the India of our past seems at loggerheads with the pluralism that has defined that civilization for millennia – but I was heartened from the many Eid greetings that I received today, and the best of them all from Rukhshana Basith Lakshman, who simply said “Pray for India, as we ache over the fact that more shrouds are sold on Eid than new clothes.” This too shall pass. Eid Mubarak to all.

– Venkat

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