Einstein on socialism

 Why socialism?  By Albert Einstein.

Wikipedia discussion

What we can learn from John B.Calhoun's rodent experiments

 What Humans Can Learn

"When all needs are accounted for, and no conflict exists, the act of living is stripped to its barest physiological essentials of food and sleep. In Calhoun's view:

Herein is the paradox of a life without work or conflict.

When all sense of necessity is stripped from the life of an individual, life ceases to have purpose.

The individual dies in spirit." 

Another review THE BEHAVIORAL SINK The mouse universes of John B. Calhoun

"Death of the establishment leads to spiritual death

= loss of capacity to engage in behaviors essential to species survival

....

No matter how sophisticated we considered ourselves to be, once the number of individuals capable of filling roles greatly exceeded the number of roles,

only violence and disruption of social organization can follow. ... Individuals born under these circumstances will be so out of touch with reality as to be incapable even of alienation. Their most complex behaviors will become fragmented. Acquisition, creation and utilization of ideas appropriate for life in a post-industrial cultural-conceptual-technological society will have been blocked."

on Stuart Hall

Politics without guarantees by Asad Haider

The unravelling of a conspiracy in India

The unravelling of a conpiracy by Siddharha Deb

In 2018, Indian police claimed to have uncovered a shocking plan to bring down the government. But there is mounting evidence that the initial conspiracy was a fiction – and the accused are victims of an elaborate plot.

Probably Freeman Dyson's last article

 Biological and cultural evolution: six characters in search of an author in Edge.org

Long read, a review of three books from 2010, mostly about George Price

 On George Price by Miriam Markowitz

A quote towards the end:

"If we know that altruism makes one feel good and useful—that, at least, has been tested in the laboratory of human emotion—then perhaps altruism evolved because it increases the fitness of the individual by protecting him from the desire to die. Life is hard; we know that as moderns, and it seems likely that it was as well for our predecessors. Perhaps, in her omniscience, Nature understood that she could not rely solely on the survival instinct to ensure the propagation of her magisterial creations; that occasionally one might grow disillusioned with this life, despite its beauties, and want to end it. Feeling that one is needed by others might just prevent this defection. Altruism, pure or not, may be a lifeboat, a dinghy we row. Within its confines, we experience the subtle brotherhood of men, and let it warm us."

Fifty years of Price Equation

 Fifty years of Price equation from Philosophical Transactions of thevRoyal SocietyB. Several interesting essays free online.

Introducing 'Khabar Lahariya'

 From The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/29/stop-patronising-me-and-give-me-an-interview-the-female-journalists-speaking-up-for-indias-poor?fbclid=IwAR2nEOZhINdjVkNuV7BdsShMECnPaijU3myrKhJWpNwjlN92BhRbZ92FQIs

"Khabar Lahariya is India’s only all-female news organisation. Based in Uttar Pradesh, its journalists passionately believe in reporting rural issues through a feminist lens."

From 'The natural selection of bad science'

 Seems applicable to other areas as well.

"The requirements for natural selection to produce design are easy to satisfy. Darwin outlined the logic of natural selection as requiring three conditions:

(i) There must be variation.

(ii) That variation must have consequences for survival or reproduction.

(iii) Variation must be heritable.

In this case, there are no biological traits being passed from scientific mentors to apprentices. However, research practices do vary. That variation has consequences—habits that lead to publication lead to obtaining highly competitive research positions. And variation in practice is partly heritable, in the sense that apprentices acquire research habits and statistical procedures from mentors and peers. Researchers also acquire research practice from successful role models in their fields, even if they do not personally know them. Therefore, when researchers are rewarded primarily for publishing, then habits which promote publication are naturally selected. Unfortunately, such habits can directly undermine scientific progress." 

"Despite incentives for productivity, many scientists employ rigorous methods and learn new things about the world all the time that are validated by replication or by being effectively put into practice. In other words, there is still plenty of good science out there. One reason is that publication volume is rarely the only determinant of the success or failure of a scientist’s career. Other important factors include the importance of one’s research topic, the quality of one’s work, and the esteem of one’s peers. The weight of each factor varies among disciplines, and in some fields such factors may work positively to promote behaviours leading to high-quality research, particularly when selection for those behaviours is enculturated into institutions or disciplinary norms. In such cases, this may be sufficient to counteract the negative effects of incentives for publication volume, and so maintain high levels of research quality. If, on the other hand, success is largely determined by publication output or related quantitative metrics, then those who care about quality research should be on high alert. In which direction the scale tips in one’s own field is a critical question for anyone interested in the future of science."

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303698773_The_Natural_Selection_of_Bad_Science?fbclid=IwAR1zn5t6CzzuO2hGOYmWOAPYbtZxM5ggEXL8fybNJ0xmUHdjya-1G4j_Iqo

Victor Toth on entanglement

 No man is an island.

Victor Toth in Quora about entanglement:

Well, actually, that is precisely the point. Most of the time, everything is entangled with everything else.

When we talk about, say, creating an entangled pair of particles, the point is not to get them entangled with each other; the point is to reduce or eliminate their entanglement with everything else to the extent possible, for as long as possible. That is to say, make sure that the pair are isolated from the environment.

That’s the hard part. Not entangling them with each other; that’s a given.

The original question:

If interacting particles become entangled, why isn't everything entangled with everything else from the big bang?

A comment from Dan Kervick

 Dan Kervick comments in a Doug Henwood post;

Seems like leftists of various kinds and degrees are always bemoaning the failure of the masses to develop a consciousness of their “true” material interests, and their susceptibility to fake or fraudulent cultural, religious, identity or moral concerns. (What’s the matter with Kansas?)

Is it possible that, after many decades of failure, these kinds of leftists might want to reconsider their own flat, two-inch deep understanding of human nature and what they understand as its “real” material interests.

People actually care about their spiritual lives, their loves and friendships and family lives, their linguistic heritage and the cultural riches embodied in it, and their sense of justice and morality. Leftist philistines who think all of this is fake, false consciousness need to expand their own intellectual and spiritual horizons, and then might understand why they have failed, over and over and over, to gain much of a foothold.

The socialist vision of society is ancient and rich and varied. It is exalted. It has a noble artistic, moral and religious heritage. It didn’t begin in the cold, smoggy and mechanical mid-nineteenth century and isn’t solely the product of the satanic mills and what a handful of modernist urban European thinkers thought about them.

The plight of migrants

 The plight of twenty first century migrants by Mit Ali Husseni 

"But those who want to approach the question of migration truthfully must ask the question which Arendt asked about the Greek democracy but failed to answer when it came to the United States. To what extent does our freedom from the necessities of life rely, and has historically relied, on the labor of people living thousands of miles away? Just as America’s political ideals were founded on enslaved people’s labor, just as Europe was enriched by looting the colonies, today too, our freedom relies, at least partly, on exploiting other parts of the world.

So, as it turns out, to be a “Dane” does in fact have a meaning. The price of Denmark being named “the happiest country in the world” is paid not just by Danes, but also by others whom the global economy exploits. No political citizenry, despite what Arendt’s consecration of the political presupposes, can be stripped from its enabling social and economic conditions."

Survey of Paul Krugman's development

 The Gatekeeper by Adam Tooze

Survey of gene-culture evolution

Long-term gene–culture coevolution and the human evolutionary transition 

Abstract

It has been suggested that the human species may be undergoing an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI). But there is disagreement about how to apply the ETI framework to our species, and whether culture is implicated as either cause or consequence. Long-term gene–culture coevolution (GCC) is also poorly understood. Some have argued that culture steers human evolution, while others proposed that genes hold culture on a leash. We review the literature and evidence on long-term GCC in humans and find a set of common themes. First, culture appears to hold greater adaptive potential than genetic inheritance and is probably driving human evolution. The evolutionary impact of culture occurs mainly through culturally organized groups, which have come to dominate human affairs in recent millennia. Second, the role of culture appears to be growing, increasingly bypassing genetic evolution and weakening genetic adaptive potential. Taken together, these findings suggest that human long-term GCC is characterized by an evolutionary transition in inheritance (from genes to culture) which entails a transition in individuality (from genetic individual to cultural group). Thus, research on GCC should focus on the possibility of an ongoing transition in the human inheritance system.

On approaching the age of 80

 I will be 80 in less than week. A close friend who is like a younger brother suggests: “Also, I suggest (with some trepidation) that you should consider devoting some spare time beyond your  mathematics and grandfatherly duties to writing up some more autobiographical material.  Perhaps that could  include how you came to do the work you chose to do, the mathematicians with whom you became involved and the way you feel about doing mathematics or anything else (including farming, as I recall).  By doing something like that, it could encourage many othersto follow their own path [including one of my grandsons when he is a little older]: a sort of much more human-oriented and personal than E.T. Bell's offering.”

Well, there is not much to say. I was silly and a bit stubborn, had some passions and followed my interests. Moreover I was lucky with friends. I am surprised that I am still around.

Sibling resemblance

A 1946 parable from Sarada Natarajan

 Sarada Natarajan  (Subrahmanya Iyer Natarajan)1924-55 is Telugu writer whose mother tongue was Tamil. He was also well-versed in Tamil when he landed in Tenali in 1937 and started working as a waiter. He learnt Telugu and started writing in Telugu. Tenali at that time had many writers with various ideologies. Sarada was pen name and he became quite famous mostly posthumously. Here is a short piece by him translated by Rohith which I found on his wall.

Mister World Has Fallen Sick

- Sarada, July 1st 1946 (translated from Telugu) 

Mr World has fallen sick. He is bed-ridden. Mr Imperalism immediately sends a message to Sir Bourgeoisie. 

The car of Sir Bourgeoisie creeks to a halt outside. 

Mr Imperialism offers a chair to Mr Bourgeoisie to sit. 

"Sir Bourgeoisie, Mr World is unwell. We don't know the disease yet. We should send for a doctor." says Mr Imperialism. 

Imperialism thinks for a while and says "Call Dr. Socialism"

Sir Bourgeoisie takes off his specs, clears the smudge on the glass, puts it back on saying, "Him! Oh, no no.  He gives injections of equality and solutions of revolution for every small thing.' 

Mr Imperialism retorts "Oh, it's not for treatment. Its only to have a precise diagnosis. He knows the nature of Mr World very well. Call him."

Bourgeoisie calls Dr Socialism right away. He comes to help. 

Mr Imperialism and Sir Bourgeoisie asks Dr Socialism to diagone the disease of Mr World. 

He looks at the palm of Mr World, "This is a dangerous disease. It's called the sickness of servitude. It needs a high dose of revolution-medicine. And then, injections of socialism are to be infused into veins. Only then he can recover." 

The other two oldies jolted to conscience saying, "Did we ask you to prescribe medicines? We needed you to only diagnose. Take this 'dollar' and leave." 

Dr Socialism leaves. 

Mr World's pain intensifies after Dr Socialism leaves. He is writhing with pain on the cot. The situation has come to a stay. Dr Socialism is out of question now. Mr Imperialism and Sir Bourgeoisie ties up Mr World to the cot and begin thinking again : 'how do we cure this?'

Sir Bourgeoisie suddenly reckons: "Don't we have our  Fanatic-Priest Rao Bahadur Sir. He can treat with our own homemade pills and domestic oils instead of those toxic foreign medicines. I am calling him", and takes out his phone. 

Fanatic-Priest Rao Bahadur Sir comes by his own chartered flight. He takes a look at the hand of World. "May God Bless Him, Misters! This Mr World has the typhoid fever called atheism in his body. That's why he is twisting with pain. It's not something that can be cured. I will give a blended spirit to sedate him for now." 

He gives two ounces of vedanta, two grams of desh-bhakti and three ounces of non-violence. 

"That's better. He makes a lot of nuisance awake. Let him sleep.", says Sir Bourgeoisie with a sigh of relief.

A landmark judgement on environment from Australia

 The Federal Court judgement 

"The children took a novel route in asserting the federal environment minister owed them a duty of care. A duty of care means a responsibility not to take actions that could harm others. A duty of care is the first step in a claim of negligence.

A similar duty was found in the Netherlands in 2015, as a global first. In 2019, the Supreme Court upheld that duty – the Dutch government owed it citizens a duty to reduce emissions in order to protect human rights. 

Other cases around the world were inspired by that success, including the one decided in Australia today."

Covid's next phase By Zeynep Tufekci

 Covid's deadliest phase may be here soon by Zenep Tufekci

By the same author according to Gautam Menon but I cannot find the link:

M.S. Narasimhan (7 June 1932 – 15 May 2021) RIP

 Reminiscences of M.S.Narasimhan (possibly more about myself):

I joined TIFR as a research student in 1964 eleven years after Narasimhan. Though he was much senior and already a star, he was friendly from the beginning. Both of us being students of Fr. C. Racine in Loyola college may have some thing to do with it. Sometimes, he used to attend/oversee our first year courses. One incident, I remember is that the lecturer in algebra confused all of us while explaining tensor products. Then Narsimham took me to his office offering to explain and he too made a mess of it. I assumed that he was big picture man as Raghunathan told me at some stage that Narasimhsn explained the essentials of Kodaira-Spencer work in an hour during seaside walks near the TIFR canteen.

Having browsed Hausdorff's Set Theory in college, I was already committed to learning Topology and in spite of Narasimhsn's diverse interests, I chose an area in which he was not an expert. He did try to get me interested in the topology of moduli spaces. But my interest was more towards general theories rather than specific calculations. Our acquaintance which slowly developed in to a sort of brotherly guidance continued. Around my third year or so, we occasionally had beer together on Saturdays. I do not remember what we talked about, it must have been about general things and some about mathematicians rather than mathematics. The actual mathematical discussions were with M.S. Raghunathan and S.Ramanan who were both interested in topology.

Meanwhile there were visiting professors and I particularly liked the lectures of John Stallings whose papers I read earlier. I enjoyed learning mathematics and was not sure or care whether I could do a ph.d. And TIFR gave great opportunity to learn without pressure of publishing papers or doing a ph.d. There was always the possibility of teaching in a college in Guntur area if one could not do a ph.d.  I also enjoyed reading Milnor, Browdrer, Zeeman, Serre's Thesis and various Cartan seminars on topology. Towards the end of his stay, Stallings said that Papakyriakopoulos did some great work in three dimensional topology. After Stallings left, I started studying  Papa's papers though I did not have any background in 3-manifolds. It soon led to some minor work which became part of my thesis.

Then came a crucial intervention from Narasimhan at the beginning of 1968. He heard of Nuffield Foundation Fellowships and thought that I had some chance of getting it and went about organising my application. By that time I had 3-4 papers and he thought that it would be good if I had specific place in mind. I read several papers of CT.C. Wall who was in Liverpool. He organised sending my papers to Wall and a letter of support from Wall. He coached me on preparations for the interview. Since I was generally like a bull in China shop reflecting my village farmer background, he advised me about being polite to the interviewers. It seemed to have worked. One Kothari asked me name the greatest theorems in topology. I replied that it was a silly question. Apparently, I came back and told Narasimhsn that I followed his advice since I said that the question was silly instead of saying that it was stupid. To my surprise, I got the fellowship snd the visit to Liverpool proved to be very useful in terms of what I learnt there which was used in later research and the start of acquintance with Peter Scott which resulted much later in a long collaboration.

He was supposed to be one of those persons who understood me. Kalyan Mukherjea told me once that he told MSN that I was planning to quit TIFR. He asked MSN to guess what I wanted to do. Apparently, the reply was that I was planning to go back to Guntur which was correct.

Narasimhan went on to bigger things both mathematically and as an administrator in the development of mathematics in India. He was slso Head of the Mathematics group at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste from 1992–1999.

I was not in touch with him during some periods. But I remember gratefully his visits to Delhi during 1982-86. This was a difficult period for me and his visits both to my office and home offered some succour.  We renewed correspondence after he moved to Bangalore. I visited him a few times in Bangalore and was looking forward to visiting him again when the sad news came.