Book Review: American Poverty

'American Poverty: Why America’s Treatment of the Poor Undermines its Authority as a World Power' By Laurel A. Rockefeller is a historian's view of the current global play of power and why USA is not vocal as it should be. 

Western imperialism in its many forms. From the atrocities committed by the United States against virtually every human being living inside or just beyond its borders, to the profit-motivated colonization and exploitation of the British Empire through its East India Company, and beyond, the West has a shameful human rights record that its former victims have hardly forgotten.It was peoples' voice, the author says, that ushered in changes. Whether it is women gaining the right to vote or, how slaves were freed in the United States, or how civil disobedience led to landmark civil rights legislation, the efforts taken by the masses had a lot to do. "We can do it again when it comes to poverty in America. We can and must do better', the book exhorts.

In Part one is presented some essays exploring the many facets of poverty in our society. How our emphasis on self reliance resulted in the erosion of social consciousness, making a society which is progressively losing empathy. "Most of those on welfare were on welfare because they made bad decisions."  How humans lose humanity as a consequence, comes next. Our idea of unemployment is changing, author says, we are all making a conscious effort to make it look more demeaning than it is. More than that, next essay on 'blurred sexual lines' proclaim, our approach to poverty is changing our notion about human dignity, especially when it comes to poor women.

Part two is about addressing poverty, where the many facets of poverty in America is shown, in search of solutions. Learning civility, especially with those different from us, is perhaps the first step towards re-establishing empathy and, by extension, giving a good fight to poverty.

Part three, the final  chapters explore how four of the United States’ most trusted allies look at and deal with poverty in their own  countries, contrasting this with poverty in America. Finally, a discussion about how, these differences affect America’s sphere of influence, reputation, and effectiveness as a world power. While ending, the book says, "The only people in the dark about any of this are Americans themselves, many of them content to be, as if by closing our eyes and humming hymns we can erase everyone and everything we do not like about ourselves and each other. America has no problems with human rights. America has no problem with the poor. The poor are poor because they are lazy", which I think, is a global feeling.

Future, again!

 Is another industrial revolution is in the offing? It seems, if the discussions during the meeting of the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of USA, concerning the expected salient features, namely, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and the internet of things, is anything to go by.
The meeting homed on the main principles that may characerize the future revolution, as the following:
1.Think about Systems, not Technologies. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will have civilization-changing impact—on species, on the planet, on geopolitics, and on the global economy. Also, wealth creation and aggregation supported by this phase of technological innovation may challenge societal commitments to accessibility, inclusivity, and fairness and create the need for relentless worker re-education or re-deployment.
2. Technology to Empower, not to Determine. This is a strong possibility, since we are in mastering the use of technology to further our interests, than be caught in its force.
3. A Future, as we design. As inter governmental co-operation is on the increase, this is a likely scenario. Discussions about these topics shall cross national boundaries and other interests.
4. Value as a designed feature than an Accedental Gift. The experience of living thus far and meeting the challenges we have faced would have made us learn the most important requirements of a good life, namely, preseving common good, minding environment, and giving primacy to human dignity.
Those who take leadership in these areas are poised to take the leadership of the world of the coming generations.

Book Review: 'Killing Sacred Cows'

'Killing Sacred Cows', by Garrett B. Gunderson,
 is a book trying to identify and overcome the subtle and destructive myths, lies, and fallacies about money that are perpetuated through social programming and unquestioned traditions, which in fact are crippling us, both individually and in societal way. It begins with a claim - 'everything you thought you knew to be true about money and finances was actually completely false'. And these wrong ideas happened to become solidi?ed by financial institutions that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Then comes the first myth, wealth is a limited commodity, and here the book makes clear, prosperity is not at others' expense, it is in fact, with others. The second myth follows, that the longer you save, better the yield. Where the book asks, "What good is money if we don’t use it?" After examining a few options of putting money that was resting in long term deposits to use, the third myth is confronted. That we diverting from real wealth when we look at it as numeric entries on a balance sheet, rather than prosperity and happiness. Next myth follows: Financial security means steady paychecks and benefits. We’re entitled to protection and benefits from a corporation, the government, or someone else. Which is contrasted with reality: We are ourselves the only source of security in this life, but unlike those who depend on external forces, we can make ourselves truly secure. To achieve this, the book exhorts all to become producers rather than consumers. Next myth is also on finance: that one has to have money to make money. It is evil but it has  power. The reality here is unique: Money is nothing more than an expression and a byproduct of value created by people.

The book makes many things clear. Like how the scarcity paradigm, which is at the root of so much common
financial advice, limits our financial success. Like, how the “accumulation theory” of wealth, in fact destroys our potential, or “investing” in the stock market can create real wealth, how we land up with a security dilemma caused by avoiding things they fear, which actually decreases their security. It also explains why, money doesn’t equal real power, why the most lucrative investments are by nature the lowest risk, why the best way to reduce the cost of insurance is to buy the most you possibly can, why value is infinitely more important than price
, and how false beliefs about “getting out of debt” affects our financial freedom. Though the arguments look very convincing, in the absence of examples, all the discussions remain as an abstract dream. I had many doubts about how the proposed abstractions, say the real value of money as opposed its value in exchange, will manifest. Even after completing the book, those doubts remained.

Book Review: Parallel worlds

'Parallel worlds : a journey through creation, higher dimensions, and the future of the cosmos' by Michio Kaku begins with a picture of our universe, and the main themes related to it. Like the two types of cosmologies in religion, the one based on a single moment when God created the universe, and the
other one based on the idea that the universe always was and always will be. Tracing the myths of Buddhism, Hinduism, and other mythologies, the author observes that these mythologies stand in marked contradiction to each other, needing the help of modern science for a possible resolution.
The book begins with a discussion about the theories in vogue. That the universe is made of atoms, each of those is made of tiny strings, which in turn, vibrates at different frequencies and resonances. If we were to pluck this vibrating string, it would change mode and become another subatomic particle, such as a quark. Pluck it again, and it turns into a neutrino. In this way, we can explain the blizzard of subatomic particles as nothing but different musical notes of the string. We can now replace the hundreds of subatomic particles seen in the laboratory with a single object, the string.
Next chapter is about the universe and its riddles. A discussion about Einstein and his brilliance, the birth of a new science, cosmology, and an insight into the theories about the future of the universe, then follow. Future scenarios are rather frightening. "At some point trillions upon trillions of years from now, the stars will cease to shine, their nuclear fires extinguished as they exhaust their fuels, forever darkening the night sky."
The discussion then goes on to the big bang, Hubble and his constant. A good description of rather esoteric topics like phases of the universe, like inflation and phases of the universe takes us to the next part of this book, multiverse.
Discussion about general relativity, black holes, time travel and its converse, chronology protection, negative energy, and a flurry of paradoxes, then follow. (I specially liked here, the grandfather paradox. "You alter the past in a way that makes the present impossible. For example, by going back into the distant past to meet the dinosaurs, you accidentally step on a small, furry mammal that is the original ancestor of humanity. By destroying your ancestor, you cannot logically exist.") More challenging ideas, then follow, like electrons existing simultaneously at many places and making the impnoderables of the world possible, parallel universes, quantum teleportation, and what not.
The book then introduce more such topics, like string theory, m-theory, ten and eleven dimensions, hyperspace, and symmetry. The efforts we are taking to investigate into these abstruse topics are narrated in the final chapters.
The third part of this book, escape into hyperspace, discusses even more complex topics like atom smashers, warp energy and the future possibilities of physics.

This is much more than a science book. Enchanting descriptions, like the one about the secret escape of Bohr to prevent his work on quantum theory from falling into the hands of Nazis, can be seen through out the book. Or the philosophical 'excuse' to the limitations of science, that "we ourselves are part of the mystery we are trying to solve". The book reminds us in the end, "Perhaps the purpose and meaning of the current generation are to make sure that the transition to a type I civilization is a smooth one."

Book Review: The art of logical thinking

'The art of logical thinking, or the art of reasoning' by William Walker Atkinson is about the theoretical and practical aspects of reflective functions of our brain.

The word reason itself is far from being precise in its meaning. In common and popular discourse it denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right from wrong, and by which we are enabled to combine means for the attainment of particular ends.' The processes of reasoning may be said to comprise four general stages or steps, as follows:

L Abstraction, setting aside from an object, person or thing, a quality or attribute, and making of it a distinct object of thought II. Generalization by which is meant the process of forming Concepts or General Idea. III. Judgment, by which is meant the process of comparing two objects to find similarity or difference. IV. Reasoning, to produce further results of comparison.

Next chapter deals with concept, a mental representation of anything. Here explained is the process of forming concepts, how our concepts are determined not only by our simple perceptions, but also materially by our perceptions. Which is followed by a discussion on judgment, or the process of perceiving the agreement or disagreement of two conceptions. Propositions and how they take part in various types of reasoning is then covered. How all these can lead to formation of theories and syllogisms forms the heart of next chapters. Finally, a treatise on the fallacies one can expect in this branch of knowledge, brings the book to a close.

I liked this book. The last sentence, that “all correct reasoning consists in substituting like things for like things^ and inferring that what is true of one will be true of all which are similar to it in the points of resemblance concerned in the matter”, and “all incorrect reasoning consists in putting one thing for another where there is not the requisite likeness” quite beautifully sums up the duty of all who indulge in logical thinking. That it is as simple as this. Even more brilliant is the assertion that “the rules of deductive and inductive logic to enable us to judge as far as possible when we are thus rightly or wrongly reasoning from some things to others”.

Need for Approval, the Root of all Evil?

Human life can be seen as a constant struggle for approval. Even where we disapprove, it is to earn someone's approval. Why? What is its origin? What is the gain? 

Children are taught from a young age to seek approval from their parents or other elders for the things they say or do. Since the need for approval, love and acceptance from our parents is strong, we become conditioned over time. And we learn to seek the approval of someone, unless there are reasons to be otherwise. Whenever we don’t receive approval, whether of our parents, or from someone who is held in awe, we feel a substantial loss. We assume a loss of trust. And there is a strong desire to win it back, which triggers a host of behavioral quirks.

The need for validation fits into this category. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, the desire for validation is one of the strongest motivating forces known to man.
Whose validation do we want?

Well, it all depends on whose opinion we value most. A child wants to feel the approval of their parents, while a teenager generally seeks the validation of their peers. Wives want the approval of their husbands, and vice versa. But it doesn’t stop there!

Employees want to hear the phrase “well done” from their employer, just as authors want to see their readers pleased. The fact is, we all have a longing for validation, and, the feeling of being approved, helps fill that desire.
Why does it matter so much?

Let us see why approval is so important? I think it is pretty basic. Approval feeds our strongest desire. If the strongest of all emotional needs is directly linked to our feelings of approval or disapproval, what is that need?

I agree, in many cases, it is easy to compare the need for approval and the need for love, as in both the cases, the corrective mechanism acts in a similar manner. The need for love is well understood as one of the primary needs of all forms of life. Especially for humans, the first thing people usually think of for effecting any changes, is the need for love. I think, as powerful as love is, in reality it can be seen to be the same as validation, a feeling that one can expect support and blessings for whatever one is planning to do. In which case, love is just the ultimate expression of approval. So love feeds the same core emotional need as approval does. And in a similar way one can say, any behaviour which is contrary to one's identity and purpose, or what conflicts with the core beliefs, is generally done to gain the approval of someone else. In short we can say, approval gives us the sense of additional validation necessary for a thinking being.

Why do we have this strong desire for approval, in the first place?

I think the idea of approval originated like this. In the early days of mankind, when, a lingering state of dissatisfaction, as explained in my book 'The Unsure Male', would have been very common in animal kingdom. The 'post mating agony', the cause for this, would have more acute, and rather enigmatic in the case of humans, as, unlike all other forms of life, the female does not take a violent avenue to release her dissatisfaction. Also, if such situation occur, the male does not accept it as part of life, as other beings do. Rather than accepting it as innate inadequacy, the male would have been on the lookout for a good excuse. And humans being an altruistic animal, such instances of displeasure would have been appearing in a wide variety of expressions, the true cause being lost to the species in a few generations.  As a result, over many generations, humans would have become a race with a lingering feeling of dissatisfaction with all the activities related to mating. The actual reason for this having lost in the time that passed, this dissatisfaction would have been reappearing in the form of a great number of obscure, anti-female traditions, most of which end up putting restrictions to the activities of mating.
Over many generations, humans, especially the male, would have stopped taking part in any activity whatsoever, unless prodded. Thus would have necessitated, the need for approval at every new step. The philosophic discourses that make it great to be doing things with no worry about the result, as one can see, fits here most appropriately as an umbrella of approval for whatever one wishes to do.
https://hubpages.com/politics/Hazy-Origins-of-the-Need-for-Approval

Book Review: Socrates

Book Review: Socrates by Voltaire. This short book describes the last days of Socrates. How, as Socrates say, drinking of poison does not amount to a big thing.
To me, this book made one thing clear. The way Xanthippe, the wife, shows disagreement and reproachful behavior at Socrates's actions, particularly of deeds of benevolence to his friend's daughter, makes this thing quite plain. Domineering is not new for conjugal life, Socrates can vouch for it.
This is followed by a description of his trial and judgement. "Socrates, you are accused of being a bad citizen; of corrupting the youth; of denying the plurality of the gods; of being a heretic, deist, atheist. Answer." How his replies are seen as blashphemy, and how he meets with his end. That is, after telling "Reflecting that pleasure comes from pain. It's in this manner that Eternal Happiness will be born from the miseries of life", he drinks the poison.

Book Review: The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Book Review: The Fourth Industrial Revolution:  Proceedings of a Workshop (NAP)

If the first Industrial Revolution (1784) started production of steam, water, and other mechanical things, the second (1870) ushered in division of labor, mass production, and electricity, and the third (1969) gave us electronics, IT, automation, etc., the fourth could be thought of as Cyber-physical- - systems(?). That, and its implications for manufacturing, as well as its likely social and economic effects, are dealt with in this paper. It explores, the cross-sector collaboration between government, universities, and industry needed to accommodate emerging developments in the key technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, namely artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and the Internet of Things.

The Forum’s perspective on the present and future technological and societal changes is captured in the four principles that characterize the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

One,  Think in terms of systems, not technologies. The systemic impact of various technologies will matter, sometimes for good, but sometimes also in negative ways. Hence the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have civilization-changing impact—on species, on the planet, on geopolitics, and on the global economy. 

Two,  Empowering, not determining. The Fourth Industrial Revolution shall honor existing social principles, and humans shall be shaping them and decide on how they are applied.

Three, The Future will be by design, and not by default. That calls for active governance, an amalgamation of individuals, governments, civil society, companies and, undemocratic, random, and potentially malicious forces to shape the future of technological systems and their impact on people. 

Four, Values as a feature, not a bug. The emphasis shall fall on preserving the common good, delivering multi generational environmental stewardship, and holding the primacy of human dignity, where the organizational culture changes to accommodate these.

This book, though is not suggesting any concrete plans for the future of technology, is giving sufficient signs that all that we see today shall become obsolete sooner than we think. I am sure this is a warning to all societies those are investing heavily in the present day technologies. More needs to be done for encouraging experimentation and development of new ideas for the future.

What is Beyond Einstein program?

Beyond Einstein program by NASA is a bold attack on the deepest mysteries of nature, since, Einstein sought, but never achieved, an understanding of how nature works at its deepest level.  With Beyond Einstein, we seek that next level of understanding, which will employ a series of missions linked by powerful new technologies and complementary approaches to shared science goals. 

NASA’s program Structure and Evolution of the Universe (SEU) has identified and prioritized the science objectives in space astrophysics:

1. Find out what powered the Big Bang;

2. Observe how black holes manipulate space, time, and matter;

3. Identify the mysterious dark energy pulling the Universe apart;

4. Explore the cycles of matter and energy in the evolving Universe; and

5. Understand the development of structure in the Universe.

The prioritized roadmap is in good accord with the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, including the Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium and Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos reports.  Guided by the concerted efforts of the space astrophysics community, this roadmap puts forward a single integrated program of five missions, technology, research, and education, to address the highest priority objectives.  

This is the Beyond Einstein program. And over the next decade, the Beyond Einstein missions will answer fundamental questions about the origin of the Universe and the nature of space and time.

A Recipe for Peace

Why are we agitated? What is wrong with our society? Nothing, but the inappropriate choice of our actions to various triggers. If so, what can we do to correct it? Easy. Let every form of response flourish. The one most suitable will naturally survive.

Without Comments

History of Humans: from an extra-terrestrial's notebook

Human history can be studied by dividing it into three stages. Ancient, quasi-modern, and modern. These can be differentiated by the methods, people have been using widely, to keep themselves busy. (Why they need to do so, is another topic that merits attention)

As it is well known by all except perhaps the humans, the above mentioned need is served better by the irrational. In ancient times, members of human race, the common people, might have had quite a free life, since every different opinion stood to be equally irrational. Since people in those times would have been entertaining many colorful ideas about natural and magical entities like plants, animals, and other objects of interest, there would have been no dearth of such ideas. Obviously, there was no difficulty in keeping themselves busy.

As time went by, some of those (irrational) thoughts could have turned into real, effectively making those ideas useless, posing a formidable challenge. Well, human race met the challenge, and their incessant efforts to replace those lost (irrational) ideas resulted in magnificent thoughts and great things. (Which effectively is nothing but locating an irrational element in everything rational!) This long period of struggle, where human race seems to have excelled in every sphere of social life, arts or science, or, war or peace, can be termed as the quasi-modern era. And humans started leaving behind signs of their existence, since they started to resort to such things as professions and pastimes to keep themselves busy.

Now comes the modern era, when the race is rather free to enjoy the fruits of past centuries of labour. But no, they won't. The developed society is far short of irrational ideas, the excellence of previous eras having wiped off many well serving ideas of such nature. Having no fresh ideas of this genre, those people resort to reinforcing whatever irrational thoughts remain. In that process, they might make their own condition more and more unbearable, leading to extermination of the race altogether. Of course they can investigate deep into the need for the irrational, that is, the need to keep themselves perpetually busy. By doing so, a good solution may be arrived at, which perhaps will alter the race for ever. Human race is now faced with that choice. They need to react before the irrational engulfs them fully.

(As evolution is a continuous process, re-appearance of human race will occur, even if it perishes. And the cycle shall go on to perpetuity)

The human future illustrated by Scientific American: 
Well you can see, it doesn't disagree at all, with the above!

Book Review: MASTERY OF SPEECH

MASTERY OF SPEECH by FREDERICK HOUK LAW, Ph.D. (Book 3), 1918.

The author begins with a witty anecdote of a public speech, when he was greeted with a warning. "In the first two rows there’s a gang come to break up the lecture. Don’t try to start the lecture now". "I laughed, because I really liked the Situation. Here was an audience that wouldn't go to Sleep, whatever else it did." And that is followed by more gems. "A steady, direct look makes speech doubly effective, for it invariably carries the impression of manliness and of power". Or, "When you speak in public let your face light and change with all the emotions of what you say, and make a double appeal to your audience." 

How to Be a Leader in Speech, How to Make a Point of Contact in Speech (eg., by talking about things in which you and your hearers are alike interested), How to Take Advantage of the Light While Speaking,  How to Master Unforeseen Circumstances (eg. Expect the unexpected, and meet conditions gladly, Continue to speak as though you had expected the situation..), and How to Maintain Good Nature in Speech, and many other troublesome spots are cleared one after the other. Well, there can't be many situations one could face while giving a speech, other than those discussed here, that too with intelligent suggestions and adequate remedial measures. Like, when the discussion is about the necessity to Be a Good Listener, the book tells, while speaking, know that "In the first place, everybody likes to be heard". 

This is an excellent guide for daily reference, in addition to being a source of masterly advices on public speaking. I wish I came across this book earlier, that would have been saving much time and effort spent on clearing the misunderstanding I frequently happen to cause.

Rational is Self Centered?

All beings looks after itself, well. We demean looking after ourselves well, calling it selfishness. Is it a wonder that human race is constantly under some threat?

In a larger sense, selfishness is nothing but the acute fear one has of losing whatever one has. Naturally, this fear can occur in one, only when one has something to lose. And such people knows very well, what they are going to miss, if they lose what they have. Hence they are very careful, which, other people who can afford to be less careful, find difficult to understand. But when it comes to other people, they naturally look at the well off with certain jealousy, as, compared to the common people, the well off are noticeably better off. And the common people tend to read the behavioral facets specific to all others differently, mostly with negative connotations. For example, the 'careful nature' we saw above may get christened as an undesirable trait, selfish behavior. Of course there may be a few cases that richly deserve a dressing down, from both the well off and the others. 

However, in the majority of instances, those termed as selfish may only be acting (perhaps offensively) careful.

Making, 'being rather offensively careful' into a social stigma, and an accepted excuse to unleash one's misgivings with impunity, as far as rest of the people go, can lead to something more.

This also results in certain philosophical differences, between those who are well off and the others, leading to a state of natural mistrust between them. Anything that the rich does, becomes a suspect in the eyes of common people, and vice versa. Human society, rather than directing all its energy in meeting whatever problems are there to be solved, gets busy with such internal, unproductive scuffles. And we fail to notice the tell tale signs of social strife, harbingers of impending disasters. Consequently, a problem is attended to, only when it becomes impossible to neglect it. 

Perhaps all the challenges we face today, like global warming, AIDS, or other disasters, owe their frightening look to such a cavalier attittude. That is, these issues wouldn't have been there, had we been able to use the full might of the human race to address each and every difficulty, as and when the initial signs could be seen. And it would have been thus, hadn't we been busy with personal sqabbles on such issues like selfishness.

Book Review: Science, Evolution, and Creationism

Many people continue to have questions about our knowledge of biological evolution.  They perhaps believe that scientific understanding of evolution is incomplete, incorrect, or in doubt. Or may wonder if it is possible to accept evolution and still adhere to religious beliefs. 'Science, Evolution, and Creationism' by National Academy of Sciences, speaks to those questions. 

The book begins with a discussion about evolution and the nature of science, where the scientific understanding of biological evolution is underscored. Further, it explains the composition of the present world, and how evolution leads to it. Each species that lives on Earth today is the product of an evolutionary lineage 

of more than one species. The common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was a species estimated to have lived 6 to 7 million years ago, whereas the common ancestor of humans and the puffer fish was an ancient fish that lived in the Earth’s oceans more than 400 million years ago. Thus, humans are not descended from chimpanzees or from any other ape living today but from a species that no longer exists.

An insight into creationism then follows. It explains how, various views of creationism typically have been promoted by small groups of politically active religious fundamentalists who believe that only a supernatural entity could account for the physical changes in the universe and for the biological diversity of life on Earth.  How these creationists hold very different views, while citing what they claim to be an incomplete or conflicting fossil record as evidence that living things were created in their modern forms.  

However, the book puts these matters to rest.  The sequence of fossils across Earth’s sediments points unambiguously toward the occurrence of evolution.

 A good set of questions and answers at the end makes this even more clear, where, some of the questions answered are: 

Aren’t evolution and religion opposing ideas? Isn’t belief in evolution also a matter of faith? What evidence is there that the universe is billions of years old? 

This is a short, good guide and, a fitting retort to all irrational souls. This can make one feel confident and happy that the basic components of evolution will continue to be supported by new evidence, as they have been for the past 150 years.