Intelligence: Super or Artificial?

It is not “super,” but a comprehensive and autonomous knowledge-processing system, and basically remains a human extension. The very word “artificial” indicates that it is a human creation, something that does not exist naturally but is brought into existence through human knowledge, ingenuity, and action. Artificial intelligence is therefore an exclusively human phenomenon: it arises from the uniquely human capacity to transcend the biological through knowledge, tools, and technology. Calling it “super” is like surrendering to an extension of ourselves and mistaking its power for superiority. Human extensions are meant to serve human safety, flourishing, and each member's autonomy. Yet poor common intelligence has produced a history in which extensions have come to dominate their creators. We must therefore be wary of this possibility.

Niraj Kumar Jha

सत्सभ्यता हेतु तन-धर्म

कहते हैं गांधीजी,
धर्म अर्जन का है,
धन परहित का हेतु हो।
धर्म मन का है,
आचार संवेदना का हो।

कर्म-धर्म से भी ऊपर
कहा और जीया उन्होंने।
वह तन का धर्म है,
रोटी के लिए कम से कम
स्वयं करे मानव श्रम।

वस्त्र-आभूषण और सौष्ठव,
अपनी जगह हैं,
इनसे सब के इतर
शरीर की भी अपनी
प्रतिष्ठा है।

उसका धर्म है,
साफ-सफाई रखना 

और मेहनत करना।

कहते हैं गांधीजी,
साफ-सफाई स्वयं रखो,
सेवा और उत्पादन हेतु
शरीर से उतना श्रम अवश्य करो
जितना मूल्य तुम्हारे
भोजन का हो।

बता गए हैं गांधीजी,
तन-धर्म का पालन भी
बहुत जरूरी है
सत्सभ्यता के पोषण हेतु।

नीरज कुमार झा

The Vocation of Political Theory

Is it about digging out the thoughts of the past? Is it an exercise in esotericism? Is it about speaking of cities of castles suspended in mid-air? Is it talking about exotic-sounding terms and concepts? Is it about shaping and polishing folk-tales? Partly yes, but only as side hustles.

One must bear in mind that political theory is primarily about humanity: municipal affairs figure in it, but they are not its substance. One must not forget the world's interconnectedness and how humanity as a whole affects the denizens of any location, or even those flying high above the ground at any moment, through its epistemological predilections and acts of omission and commission. Theory must address the big questions of the times and must offer something doable for humanity.

Its other side is much more micro: an individual's cognitive toolset and how they do and should conduct themselves. These are the two nodes that must be the primary concern of practitioners of the theory.

In between come the people practitioners encounter in their day-to-day lives. Their thrills and travails must be accounted for, and their implications must be understood. Determining the deeper realities behind them and finding ways to minimise their difficulties in tangible ways must be among the purposes of theory. Fashioning it as ethnic, mysterious, modular, barren, historical-accounting, demolitionist, or agentic-neutral is to undo theory.

Niraj Kumar Jha

The Next Generation of Reforms

Businesses got some semblance of what they needed to function as the lifeblood of society in 1991, when not doing so had brought everything to a halt. It was then that the consequences of mistaken, ideologically driven policies had brought the economy to the bottom of an abyss, leaving it with no choice but to climb back to sanity, with the World Bank imposing the conditions for doing so.

Reforms continued haltingly, with forward and backward movement, and only to the extent that doing so did not lead to a major crisis. And yet, the reforms transformed living standards, accelerated the growth of the national economy, and contributed to the rise in national power and prestige. People old enough, and with a sound memory, can compare the times and know this. The fact remains, however, and it is a worrisome predicament, that there was no public support when reforms first forced themselves upon us, nor was there much public support for them later.

Now, the challenge from not doing enough is truly critical. Today, the greatest challenge is to withstand technological, trade and productivity competition internationally, while building leverage in terms of military and diplomatic prowess to protect national interests. Those who have an edge are relentlessly seeking to extend it further, by fair and foul means. The European nations, once masters of much of the globe, are, for instance, themselves reeling under pressure as they struggle to match the accumulated strength of the old superpower and the kinetic energy of the challenger. How to make the economy competitive is the moot question, and we can avoid it only at our peril.

Citizens must create an ambience supportive of the next generation of reforms so they can drive political parties and governments to talk about and pursue them. All must focus on aiding and supporting reforms, that is, on making it easier to do business sustainably.
Frivolity in our talk and actions may land us in dire straits.

Niraj Kumar Jha

To a Hot Peace

G2 - Cold War to Hot Peace! As the world may move from the Cold War to a hot peace, it must prepare for frostbites from heatwaves.

NKJ

Profit for Social Good

Profiteering is obviously not, but profit is a perfectly legitimate motive. Those who deny its legitimacy often aid, though inadvertently, the devils in their devilry. It is but natural; for instance, poets who sing of the transcendental also have a belly, and they cannot but help themselves by bargaining for a fee, though without recognising the incongruity between the two acts.

Shri Dhirendra Shastri told an interviewer very candidly, and quite rightly, on the issue of babas (holy men) commercialising their holiness: “I deliver moral discourses and receive offerings and spend the same for the needy.” This is perfectly fine.

Niraj Kumar Jha

Life or Scripted Drama?

Capitalism has never been an ideology. It has been, to use a phrase which its very opponent used to define freedom, the recognition of necessity. People recognised what was evolving and useful and articulated it; that, in turn, evolved as humanism, with liberalism as its cognitive script, constituted by democracy in the political sphere and capitalism in the economic domain.

Capitalism does not seek to extract particular human traits from human beings, nor does it question their innate humanity. It rests on the belief, or rather the truism, that human beings are free-willed, autonomous entities and are not meant to act according to a scripted drama. On this basis, they seek harmony of interests.

The irony, and indeed the ontological crisis, afflicting humanity despite its having discovered itself, that is to say, despite its coming to humanism, is that it fancies collectivism as a solution to the crises it often faces. For any problem, it seeks a reversal to the form from which it has evolved. The DNA often works against accumulated knowledge. The educated need to recognise that.

Niraj Kumar Jha