Is the Internet making us stupid?

 

Without giving us time to think, it shows us multiple options to choose from

The other day, an over-the-top platform suggested for me a Web series called “How to get away with murder”, based on my recent views. I immediately turned to my trusted adviser, the Internet search, to read reviews about the series. As I started to type the title of the series, the search engine immediately gave me a list of choices to select: “how to get pregnant”, “how to get periods immediately”, “how to get COVID-19 vaccination certificate” and so on. I was attracted towards the third choice since I had not got the certificate yet.

After several minutes of searching and clicking on multiple tabs on COVID certificate, hyperlinks on the state’s pandemic control measures, images on statistics about upcoming COVID waves, the mandatory WHO website and several conspiracy theories about COVID, I realised that I had forgotten my primary intention of searching. It was like going through a cavalcade of many tableaux but not able to focus on any one. It’s the same experience that you get on a conducted tour wherein you get a glimpse of everything, but nothing completely about anything.

Has the Internet made us less intelligent? Possible, since it impedes our thinking process. The Internet prompts and suggests many things, but blinds us with its offerings. Even before we think, it shows us multiple options to choose. Often these choices are the popular ones, or the ones selected based on our previous searches. Our previous selections are usually our favourite ones, which makes us follow the trails like rats following Pied Piper. Even if we stick to watching one, the nefarious “auto-play” feature automatically plays the next video even before we recognise. Or the next episode of the Web series plays within a few seconds even before we come out of the trance. As if a master chef is sending us our favourite delicacies one after the other in sequence.

The Artificial Intelligence of video channels, search engines, social media and OTTs do not allow us to think. After a period of time, like a mind master, it decides on what we want and what we have to watch. Political affiliations, communal hatred, regional and religious biases, fan base and racial prejudices are often promulgated through these Artificial Intelligence networks on social media, leading to outrage and polarisation.

The other feature of the Internet which can hinder our intellectual growth is its plethora of information. This is actually a paradox. While the Internet provides a huge repository of information to build our knowledge, I believe that our intellect is becoming restricted to what we can search on our smartphones, at that particular moment. The Internet spoon-feeds the information but do we assimilate all the information? This is similar to seeking the address of a particular place. Previously, we used to find the way through the many roads by creating a map in our brain. Now, the smart-maps have made us geographically challenged. We don’t bother to remember the directions to a particular place anymore. We follow what the app tutors us to do. Now, without the app, many of us feel lost and handicapped.

Knowledge is accumulation of information and, intelligence is using this knowledge effectively. The brain retains the acquired knowledge by the linkage of neuronal pathways, which get stronger by linking different information. The more relatable and more repeated an information is, it gets strongly wired in our brain, making us remember the information and use them at the appropriate moment. But now we hardly task our brain with such challenges, and we are increasingly dependent on technology for even simpler stuff. Remember the days we used to remember the phone numbers of at least 10 of our family members. Now if one can know the phone number of the spouse, it is an achievement. Simple mathematical functions have been removed from our routine, and have been elegantly replaced by the smartphone calculator. How many birthdays of our beloved ones do we remember now? The pleasure we get by looking forward to that day and wishing them at the stroke of 12 is unparalleled. Now we are prompted by the calendar apps and social media reminders, and wishing a friend on a birthday has become mechanical.

How much do we multi-task our brain? People of the older generation would be running multiple to-do things in their brain while performing a task. But now we keep a “to-do” list app, multiple alarms, email reminders, periodic pop-offs, automated pays, and so on for everything, while keeping the brain idling. Writing a nice email or an article is no longer intuitive and thoughtful, but prompted by suggestions by the AI-driven email app. The in-built dictionary “auto-corrects” our mistakes and we hardly give a thought to the grammatical or spelling correction we made. While perfecting the Artificial Intelligence of our smartphones, our intellectual growth remains stunted.

The biggest strength of humans which allowed us to evolve much rapidly than other animals is the brain. It is a supercomputer with an unparalleled ability to take information, assimilate, correlate, retain and express. Of late, the brain’s job has slowly been taken over by the Internet and smartphones. They have become like our external brain — a hard drive with information in hand. The Internet “knows” more about us than what we know about ourselves based on our search history and views on social media. It knows our likes and dislikes and feeds us more of our “likes”, blinkering us to the other side. It does not allow us to reflect, think and act. I am afraid that we are losing our intellect and knowledge to the Internet. In the past two decades, the Internet has given a huge impetus to human communication and technical growth in every sphere of our lives. But like every other technological innovation, we need to realise the pitfalls of the Internet before it makes our brain redundant.

Rishi Kanna

Source: The Hindu, 26/09/21

Understanding the Taliban for what it is

 

While it is undeniable that the Taliban subscribe to an ideology, they are also playing cynical politics

A realistic assessment of the circumstances in which it has to operate should have induced the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to follow a moderate course. Instead, it has sent out unmistakable signs of a preference for extremism. A peculiar state of mind is almost certainly in play, but to ascribe the dissonance solely to this factor would be a mistake.

The Taliban’s obduracy

Afghanistan desperately needs financial assistance from the international community. This is not only because of the looming food crisis, which could push lakhs of people to the brink of starvation within weeks. Donors will probably provide food aid in time. But the government has no money to pay salaries or get the machinery moving.

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Taliban’s message to the world — We haven’t changed

 

Before the U.S. shut shop in mid-August, it is estimated to have taken care of 80% of public expenditure in Afghanistan. Several billion dollars worth of Afghan government funds have now been frozen by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Other donor countries and the International Monetary Fund have also cut off the flow of finance. Russia, Iran and the Central Asian republics cannot pick up the slack; China believes in loans, not grants; and Pakistan is a near basket case. The only source of revenue that the authorities in Kabul can hope to tap is customs payments and a good part of those could be siphoned off by the militias that control border check posts.

Western countries are not likely to recognise the Taliban regime as the legitimate government — a necessary condition for the loosening of purse strings — unless it fulfils three conditions: Kabul will have to ensure that terrorist groups do not find sanctuary in Afghanistan; the rights of women and minorities must be protected; and the government must be inclusive. But judging by the first steps they took after taking over, the Taliban seem untroubled by these demands or the consequences of non-compliance. In forming a cabinet, the Taliban defiantly signalled that they were inclined to lead their country back to the despotism they had imposed during their earlier stint in power. Hardline Pakhtoons control most ministries, other ethnicities have only token representation, and women have been excluded. Indications about how this lot would rule soon followed. The Education Ministry ordered male teachers and students back to secondary school but made no mention of women educators or girl students. Working women were told they must stay at home until proper systems are in place to ensure their safety. There is no longer a Women’s Ministry; the Taliban have brought back the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. They have banned protests that do not have their approval.

Minor concessions on the demand for inclusiveness of non-Pakhtoons are not likely to satisfy the world or the other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Ministry formation has added another hindrance to the flow of funds. Many in the cabinet figure in the UN’s sanctions list and the U.S.’s terrorism list. The U.S. may even impose sanctions on other countries who provide aid to this Cabinet.

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A first person account from Kabul

 

Given these apparently insurmountable hurdles, why have the Taliban displayed such obduracy? A sensible course would have been to show compliance, obtain recognition in order to establish diplomatic ties and get the funds flowing. Revival of the hardline could have been postponed until the regime’s position as a legitimate entity had been secured. Other governments would have found the rupturing of ties more difficult than withholding recognition from the outset.

A hotchpotch of militias

The general belief is that the Taliban are fanatically devoted to a pre-modern world view. This narrative is designed to embed in the world’s consciousness the idea that the young Talibs form the core of this enterprise and are such strong believers in whatever they have been taught that they will turn against their political leaders if there is any deviation from the world view and policies they espouse. The story goes that any compromise by the elders or nominal superiors will drive these young Talibs to join the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP).

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Behind Imran Khan's defence of the Taliban at the UN | In Focus podcast

 

It is time to call this bluff. Young Talibs, whether drawn from the villages or the refugee camps, are probably all true Muslims and most might have some respect for their mullahs. But they are not as unexposed to the world as the generation preceding them. According to reports, they have had no inhibitions in posing for photographs or listening to music, activities frowned upon by the strictly conservative. The earlier generation of Talibs might have respected Osama bin Laden for sacrificing a life of luxury to join the jihad. But that did not motivate them to join al Qaeda even though bin Laden made an oath of allegiance to their revered leader, Mullah Omar. After all, there were no Afghans among the 19 militants associated with 9/11. If that was the case in the heyday of jihadism, there seems to be little reason to think that these young men will now drift towards the IS-KP. Are the extremists who have cornered the plum posts in the cabinet likely to make common cause with the IS-KP if they are thwarted from implementing their policies? They do subscribe to an ideology that is a mix of Pakhtoonwali (the old tribal code) and a paternalistic interpretation of the Shariah. Devotion to the cause did not prevent them from diverting aid meant for refugees to investments in the Gulf and luxury housing in Quetta. They are certainly conservative and ruthless. But their proclamation of intent to establish a system based on their own interpretation of selected Islamic texts appears nothing more than cynical politics.

Overall, the impression sought to be created is that the Taliban movement is an extremist-controlled monolith and unstoppable. Actually, the Taliban are a hotchpotch of militias, which are constantly repositioning themselves in relation to one another. Designations such as Defence Minister have little meaning when the army no longer exists, and Mullah Yaqoob has full control only over the men raised from his locality. Other militias co-opted to serve with his men could drift away over time. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has gained possession of the intelligence dossiers in his Interior Ministry, and who has the power to appoint governors, might be the only real winner here. Resistance to his appointment might have been a factor that led Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed to intervene directly in Afghan’s ministry formation. Haqqani’s ascendancy certainly advances Pakistan’s agenda. But the road ahead is fraught in Afghanistan where fault lines run every which way. Pakistan knows that it faces a tough task inside the territory of its western neighbour. Meanwhile, it seems intent on garnering what benefits it can. In prompting its protégés to be intransigent, Pakistan can present itself before the world as the only entity capable of controlling the crazies.

Kesava Menon 

Source: The Hindu, 4/10/21

Current Affairs-October 5, 2021

 

INDIA

– Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launches delivery of COVID-19 vaccine by drone in Bishnupur district of Manipur

– Defence Ministry launches website (www.indianrdc.mod.gov.in) for 2022 Republic Day Celebrations

– Meghalaya: Vice-President lays foundation for upgrading a road that connects capital Shillong with Dawki town

– Assam: Vice President inaugurates Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre in Guwahati

– “Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah” actor Ghanashyam Nayak dies

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Reserve Bank supersedes boards of Srei Infrastructure, Srei Equipment Finance

– SBI and Indian Navy launch SBI’s NAV-eCash card onboard aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya

– 40th India International Trade Fair 2021 to be organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) from November 14-27 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi; theme: “Atmanirbhar Bharat”

– Defence Minister Rajnath Singh presents awards to winners of ‘Dare to Dream 2.0’ Contest of DRDO

WORLD

– US-based scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discovery of the receptors that allow humans to feel temperature and touch

– World Animal Day celebrated on October 4; marks the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals

– World Habitat Day celebrated on October 4, theme: Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world

– World Space Week being celebrated from October 4 to 10; theme: “Women in Space”

– Russia tests Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile from a submarine for the 1st time

– Oman: Death toll from Cyclone Shaheen rises to 5

– Japan’s parliament elects Fumio Kishida as new Prime Minister

– Ethiopia: PM Abiy Ahmed sworn in for second five-year term

– Small plane crashes into an empty building in Milan; All eight people on board killed

SPORTS

– Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei (women’s) and Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma (men’s) win races at London Marathon

– Asian table tennis championships in Doha: South Korea (men’s) and Japan (women’s) win gold in team events; India gets bronze in men’s team

– Asian table tennis championships in Doha: India win two bronze medals in men’s doubles

– Russia win FIDE World women’s team chess title in Spain

– FC Goa beat Mohammedan Sporting in final 1-0 to win Durand Cup football title in Kolkata

NOAA report: August 2021 is the 6th-warmest in 142 years

 As per NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information analysis, August 2021 was the 6^th hottest month on the Earth, despite the fact that, Central Texas went through a cooler than average month.

Highlights

• August 2021 was the 6th warmest month in 142 years.
• While analysing the August’s heat, scientists found that the average global land & ocean surface temperature was 1.62 degrees F more than the average of 20th-century.
• North America witnessed its top-10 warmest August.
• Asia had its 2nd warmest August while Africa had 3rd warmest August.
• Since 2009, 9 out of 10 warmest Augusts on Earth have happened.

Hottest summer in Northern Hemisphere

Year 2021 was also the 2nd hottest summer on record in Northern Hemisphere.  Year 2020 witnessed the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere. August end also wrapped up meteorological summer, a summer which was tied with 2019 as second hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere.

Meteorological summer in Northern Hemisphere

June-August is known as meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere. June-August was the 4th warmest on record for Earth while Southern Hemisphere was going through winter. Global temperatures were recorded as 1.62 degrees F above the 20th Century.

6^th warmest month

January-August ranks as the 6th warmest period ever recorded on Earth. The temperatures were 1.48 degrees F warmer as compared to 20th-century average.

Sea ice extent

In August, Arctic Sea ice witnessed the 10th smallest extent in 43-year records while Antarctic Sea ice coverage was 5th highest.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

NOAA is an American scientific and regulatory agency working under the “United States Department of Commerce”, that forecasts weather, charts the sea, monitors oceanic & atmospheric conditions, conducts deep sea exploration, besides managing fishing & protecting marine mammals.

Why India’s ancient republics need to be recognised for their place in world history

 

Abhishek Banerjee, Sumedha Verma Ojha write: An India that sees its own democracy as a pale imitation of an Anglo-American system is neither good for itself nor the world.

On September 25, while addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an important historical point: India is not just the world’s largest democracy, but also the “mother of democracy”. This assertion would unsettle several long-held Western notions about our world, and it should. The existence of proto forms of democracy and republicanism in ancient India is part of humanity’s common heritage and deserves an important place in our shared view of the past.

There are two pillars of the modern world. The first is science-based rational thinking, and the second is democracy. It is also telling that both are often believed to be Western inventions, reflecting Western ascendancy over our world.

In recent years, there has been a move to recognise advances in science made in the past by non-Western societies. The Pythagorean theorem, for instance, was well known in ancient India. It would be more historically accurate to refer to the Fibonacci numbers perhaps as Pingala’s numbers or Hemachandra’s numbers. But old beliefs and the assumptions that go with them are still strong. As Joe Biden noted last year, they don’t tell you how a black man contributed to the making of the electric bulb. In a similar vein, it is time to fix the historical record on the origins of democracy.

The evidence for republics in ancient India has always been available in plain sight. In the Mahabharata’s Shanti Parva, republics (ganas) are mentioned along with the essential features of administering them. The Vedas describe at least two forms of republican governance. The first would consist of elected kings. This has always been seen as an early form of democracy, later practised in Europe, especially in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th-18th centuries.

The second form described in the Vedas is that of rule without a monarch, with power vested in a council or sabha. The membership of such sabhas was not always determined by birth, but they often comprised people who had distinguished themselves by their actions. There is even a hint of the modern bicameral system of legislatures, with the sabha often sharing power with the samiti, which was made up of common people. The “vidhaata”, or the assembly of people for debating policy, military matters and important issues impacting all, has been mentioned more than a hundred times in the Rig Veda. Both women and men took part in these deliberations, a far cry from the Greeks who did not admit women (or slaves) as full citizens of their “democracies”.

Other sources appear in the Ashtadhyayi of Panini, the Arthashastra of Kautilya, as well as a variety of ancient Buddhist and Jain writings. Buddhist and Jain texts list 16 powerful states or mahajanapadas of the time. After Alexander’s invasion in 327 BCE, Greek historians also record Indian states that did not have kings. The Lichchavi state of Vaishali, in particular, deserves special mention. Buddhist writings describe in detail Vaishali’s rivalry with neighbouring Magadha, which was a monarchy. The long battle of attrition between Magadha and Vaishali, which the former won, was a fight also between two systems of governance, ganatantra and rajatantra. Had the Lichchavis won, the trajectory of governance may well have been non-monarchical in the Subcontinent.

Was the rajatantra an “off with his head” kind of system with concentration of powers in one person? No. Instead, any state is thought of as composed of seven elements. The first three, according to Kautilya, are swami or the king, amatya or the ministers (administration) and janapada or the people. The king must function on the advice of the amatyas for the good of the people. The ministers are appointed from amongst the people (the Arthashastra also mentions entrance tests). As per the Arthashastra, in the happiness and benefit of his people lies the happiness and benefit of the King. Isn’t this the lodestone of democracy?

It would be unreasonable to expect republics in ancient India, as with the Greek city of Athens, to have developed full-fledged democratic institutions as we understand them today. As late as the 1780s, when America was founded, voting rights were restricted to (white) males who owned property or paid taxes, which amounted to a mere six percent of the population. The idiosyncrasies of that old system are still visible today. As with scientific advancement, democracy remains and will always be a work in progress.

Another criticism of the idea of India as the “mother of democracy” would be that there is no surviving direct line between the ancient ganas and the modern republic of India. However, the same applies to ancient Greek city-states. If the line survives, it is as a way of thinking. The stability of India’s democratic institutions is more or less an exception among post-colonial states since 1945. This is best explained by an ancient system of thought that contains expressions of democracy.

Why is it so important in the 21st century for us to recognise the origins of democracy in ancient India? There are at least two reasons. First, as a growing power on the world stage, India has to offer its own narrative on world history, as well as provide the world with a vision. We as a nation are not aspiring upstarts. We are the nation that inspired great journeys, from those of Alexander to the voyage of Columbus.

The other reason relates to the general loss of confidence in the US. The power struggles of the near future are becoming clear. It is also a struggle to define history and take it forward. At this time, an India that sees its own democracy as a pale imitation of an Anglo-American system is neither good for itself nor the world.

This column first appeared in the print edition on October 5, 2021 under the title ‘Roots of democracy’. Banerjee is a scientist, columnist and author. Verma Ojha is a historian, author of historical fiction series, ‘Urnabhih’

Source: Indian Express, 5/10/21

Quote of the Day

 

“In dreams, we enter a world that's entirely our own.”
Albus Dumbledore

“अपने सपनों में हम एक ऐसे संसार में प्रवेश करते हैं जो पूर्णतया हमारा होता है।”
एल्बस डम्बलडो

Current Affairs

 

INDIA

– West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wins Bhabanipur seat with a margin of 58, 832 votes

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Power Ministry promulgates Electricity Rules 2021 to regulate Transmission System Planning, Development & Recovery of Inter-State Transmission Charges

WORLD

– 7th G-20 Parliamentary Speakers Summit to be held in Rome, Italy on October 7-8; Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh to participate

– Sri Lanka: Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla visits oil storage facility in port district of Trincomalee

– Qatar: Results of first legislative council election announced, no female candidates elected

INDIA

– India and Sri Lanka holding ‘Mitra Shakti’ military exercise in Ampara (SL) from Oct 4 to 15

– Uttarakhand: India-Nepal joint military exercise Surya Kiran-15 ends in Pithoragarh

– Ladakh: World’s largest khadi national flag, weighing 1,000 kg, unveiled in Leh

– Marta Lucia Ramirez de Rincn, Colombia’s Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, visits India

– Centre for Policy Research, Delhi releases paper titled “India’s Path to Power: Strategy in a World Adrift”

– Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav commences tiger rallies across 51 reserves; theme: “India for Tigers- A Rally on Wheels”

– Under Jal Jeevan Mission, 50 mn houses got water connection since launch in 2019: PM Modi

– Pan-India Legal Awareness and Outreach Campaign of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) inaugurated by President

– Amid tiff between Chirag Paswan, Pashupati Paras factions, EC freezes election symbol of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)

– India Today group announces winners of its Healthgiri Awards 21

– Kangana Ranaut becomes brand ambassador of UP govt’s ‘one district-one product’ (ODOP) scheme

– Process of renunciation of Indian citizenship simplified

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Power and new & renewable energy minister R. K. Singh asks Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd (THDCIL) and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Ltd (NEEPCO) to bid for solar and wind projects

– UIDAI plans to open 166 standalone Aadhar enrolment and update centres

– Merchandise trade deficit jumps 675% to $22.94 billion in April-September 2021

– 9th Meeting of the India-UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments held in Dubai

WORLD

– Renovated Gandhi Museum was inaugurated at Gandhi Ashram Trust at Noakhali, Bangladesh

– Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to retire from politics after his term ends in 2022

– International Day of Non-Violence observed on Oct 2; birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi