Anopheles and AI

 I was meeting Anopheles, my winged friend, after a long time. For some reason, her visits to my house had dwindled. Maybe she had found food closer to her own place. 

Anyway, I said hello, and asked her how she'd been. 

'Well, not bad, I'd say. And you?' she replied.

I said our whole world has been upended by this thing called AI. 

'What's that?' she was curious.

"It's like God," I told her. "It's omnipresent, and omnipotent. "

"What on earth does that mean?" she asked, quizzically, arching her eyebrows (in my imagination).

I said, 'Wherever you go, AI follows. You go to a seminar, it's about AI. The news, ditto. You can't turn a page (or scroll one) without AI hitting you in the face, it seems.'

"But what is it, exactly?" she was more mystified than before.

"That I am not so sure about," I was honest. "But I know it's pervasive. Apparently, we humans are about to replace our natural stupidity with this intelligence, which knows everything and can do anything better than we can."

"Well, it doesn't have a lot of competition, I'm afraid. Look at Donald Trump. Even an average mosquito can beat him. You don't need AI to do that." she said drily.

"Forget Trump. What I am most afraid of is that it'll start writing my blog, and telling me what to reply if you ask me a question. What will happen to my grey cells? Will they go into cold storage?"

"You seem pretty proud of your grey cells. Tell me, what's the solution to hunger, in your world, or mine - the mosquito world, I mean.

"A blood bath, for your world," I joked.

"And yours?" she persisted.

"Importing American corn, under threat from Trump, I suppose. " I replied.

Reflecting on that, she bade goodbye, and promised to come and visit more frequently.

Banning Things

 Just thinking aloud.. hopefully no one's listening, like in a class.

What are the new things we can put on the banned list?

1. Intelligent behaviour that can prevent further spread of COVID. Anyway, that seems to be in short supply. Might as well ban it, and enjoy the Tokyo Olympics in a stadium.

2. Surge Fares for cabs/flights. Since there are hardly any customers, this may hardly matter. People are just driving to the nearest hill-stations, it seems like.

3. Hill-stations can be banned. Remove the roads leading to them. Air drop supplies to residents.

4. Population-reduction devices (also known as family planning devices) ..when we have Covid, there's no need for those.

5. Maths- If we have no exams in 10th and 12th, we can help everyone by banning the subject.

6. The coot- Bandicoot! How's that for the closing shot?

Is More IQ Necessarily Better?

I think we prefer uni-dimensional brilliance out here, to the exclusion of other qualities.

For instance, we want kids to score 99.99 percent in all subjects. It is not Ok to be good in one or two or three of them, and below average in all others.

What good is a person who has a very high intelligence (measured academically in the usual way), but has not learnt to co-exist peacefully with others, or to follow the law, or his conscience, or respect humans (and other forms of life)?

Do we want a cynical, mind-numbingly intelligent being? Wouldn't you rather be/have a guy/gal with just enough intelligence of the kind we adore, but an Emotional Quotient that is reasonably high or higher?

There are other forms of intelligence that don't even get measured. Aptitude for art, sport and so on, that someone may have, gets side-lined in the world of uni-dimensional worship that we are all so used to. Could be one reason why the arts in general are seeing a decline. With respect to one art form that I am familiar with, Hindi films, I can vouch for a decline in many areas-writing, lyrics and music. Humour in written form-books, and mainstream films-both Indian and foreign-also has declined in quality.

Hope we take time out and see if we can set our priorities right.

It's Not Just the Wines

We lay too much emphasis on what others tell us is good. It's not just the wines though.

The experts tell us what to do in many spheres of life. And we listen to them. Sometimes they are right. More often, they are wrong. Any person of average intelligence knows what's good for him. But this is clouded by what others (experts or not) keep signaling to us.

You can only do so much to please others. That also ends up not pleasing you. There has to be a balance. " Not listening" to someone- particularly elders- is considered a sin in our society, and the popular refrain of parents is "he/she doesn't listen to me". While the parental anguish is justified when the kid is a kid, this persists when the kid is a grown-up too. That's when he/she needs to discover himself, make a few mistakes of his own, and learn.

In adulthood too, we have know-alls who have a solution to every problem. These guys are dangerous. You need to think for yourself, and this skill can only develop through practice. Who was it that said, " I think, therefore I am?" He was right.