Sunday, August 18, 2019
Friday, August 16, 2019
Religion cannot answer all modern day questions
Westerners have realized that religion as they practiced it with its institutionalization and a single scripture veneration could not satisfy their seeking souls nor answer their questions about various aspects and experiences of life.
Unfortunately, the institutionalized structure did not offer multiple ways of realizing a higher or supreme power that energizes life force, something known as logic of spirituality ( Chinmayananda has written an excellent book on that just 90 pages available as pdf on net too).
There are dimensions and dynamics of life beyond and besides intellectual, emotional, psychological, socio- religious moralistic prescriptions.
Human life obviously comes across those dimensions which are beyond religiously prescribed frames of reference and when they get benefited, exposed and therefore start to value those dimensions more.
At least 90% of adult population across the globe check some social media or internet stuff in the morning. The first devotion of them all.
IQ and measurements
IQ
Very good article, though we need some measuring yardsticks to measure everything and everyone for various purposes, these IQ, Mensa etc are some of the measurements that have been infused with an overdose of aura of omniscience or pansophism.
When measurements with aura move towards profiling or labeling , they are susceptible to create complexes which result in unintended consequences , some of which may be psychologically and emotionally unsettling a few and may not be socially preferable.
In fact, as an irony the world progresses either marginally or drastically through inventors, real research scholars, active social engineering persons [dominated mostly by political leaders], ideas generators, ideology peddlers or those who search and hunt to know, to understand, to learn more and make life better ,happier and peaceful.
Overall progress happens not necessarily through those with high IQ [though they are also great contributors] but through the contributions of a large team eco-system creators who create eco-systems of socio-psychological, socio-cultural, socio-economic harmony , progress and synergy from various domains starting from passive thinkers to technology providers as well as those involved in enhancing the others spiritual and esoteric aspirations.
There are so many people, events, things that are involved in the nuanced nudges and metamorphosis that as aspects of evolution lead towards sophistication in the path of civilization.
“Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.”
― Ram Dass
― Ram Dass
Even in the arena of knowledge and learning the following people enhance the domain, mainly classified as epistemophile [one who has a love of knowledge; specifically, excessive striving for or preoccupation with knowledge],philosophile [Similar, but more of an emphasis on learning and philosophy], sophophile [Similar, but with more of an emphasis on gaining wisdom].
On 3rd August I tweeted about measurement as follows:-
Modern macro economics is too complex to move ahead with orthodox principles and measurements.
However, measurements as reference points are necessary but they must be based on frank facts on ground and not underfitting* to present any cozy picture.
Then, based on proper measurements fine tuning of financial policies with consistency in policy but flexibility in functional aspects [factoring in global dynamics of economic trends, trade wars and turbulences] are essential.
First honest and purely economic development oriented outcome based measurement is necessary. This exercise must also prioritize attention on the areas which can contribute to economic development be it easing up investments; creating more liquidity; encouraging more employment generating activities/industrie; increasing the consumer base by reduction of tax etc.
Peter Drucker, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
W. Edwards Deming, “What gets measured gets done.”
Dr. H. James Harrington has been involved in quality and performance improvement projects since the 1950s. He summarizes well what this lesson is all about. “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
John Cameron, “What gets measured gets attention. I’m not so sure that it can be said what matters can’t be measured. The statement itself is just too subjective and even having said that there may be reflective indicators that can be measured. OCTOBER 9, 2016 AT 12:28 AM”
“All metrics of scientific evaluation are bound to be abused. Goodhart's law (named after the British economist who may have been the first to announce it) states that when a feature of the economy is picked as an indicator of the economy, then it inexorably ceases to function as that indicator because people start to game it.”
“The law is richly illustrated in the 2018 book The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Z. Muller.[8] An enunciation of the law preceding both Goodhart's and Campbell's works is due to Jerome R. Ravetz. In his 1971 Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems, Ravetz discusses how measurement systems can be gamed. For Ravetz, when the goals of a task are complex, sophisticated, or subtle, then crude systems of measurements can be played exactly by those persons possessing the skills to execute the tasks properly, who thus manage to achieve their own goals to the detriment of those assigned.”
*Underfitting [when a statistical model cannot adequately capture the underlying structure of the data. An underfitted model is a model where some parameters or terms that would appear in a correctly specified model are missing. Underfitting would occur, for example, when fitting a linear model to non-linear data. Such a model will tend to have poor predictive performance].
Limitations in human affairs
Contextual relevance.
Contextually speaking of hungry lions they do not care about the type of flesh whether raw, cooked, with masala, baked or half baked. For hungry lions any flesh is just flesh but then human beings know to contextually deal with flesh.
Similar flesh has to be most carefully , delicately handled and even touched with greatest precision if it is in the form of or as human brain in the hands of a neuro surgeon.
Context is something I have always ( a semantically bad term) maintained as of utmost importance.
However , just to jolt a little bit I wish we all read the following essays which I had taken photos and kept in cloud.
As I was very busy could not respond on the following :-
Limitations of rationality, spirituality, intellectual analysis etc.
Limitations of rationality, spirituality, intellectual analysis etc.
Our life is, unfortunately mortal, our frames of references are influenced by limited factors.
So , for anyone of us to say this the best or most perfect or correct answer or solution to any situation, much less a panacea is meaningless.
Probably for want of better alternatives for sociopolitical administration we choose democracy;
Probably for want of better alternatives for certain illnesses for immediate relief we take antibiotics and steroids;
Probably for want of better alternatives to provide mass literacy we depend on some form of schooling;
Probably for want of better alternatives to perceive the world and our life in it we choose rationality.
Probably for want of better alternatives to grasp some inexplicable or invisible influences or power we choose various religious forms like worship, rituals, philosophical explanation etc
Probably for want of actual experience based tangible and empirical evidence based proofs of what is spirituality that can be easily replicated [ there may be few exceptional cases where people have real experience of spirituality] we use many sincere symbolism, real life situations and happenings [ beyond intellectual perceptions] to explain what may be spirituality and also devise various disciplines and dos and don'ts to grasp what it may be.
Probably for want of actual experience based tangible and empirical evidence based proofs of what is spirituality that can be easily replicated [ there may be few exceptional cases where people have real experience of spirituality] we use many sincere symbolism, real life situations and happenings [ beyond intellectual perceptions] to explain what may be spirituality and also devise various disciplines and dos and don'ts to grasp what it may be.
Probably some disruptive social engineering system may replace democracy;
Probably some disruptive health care and disease cure system may replace use of antibiotics and so on and so forth.
Pitfalls to be avoided
We must desist getting distracted by the following in any situation:-
Mutilating the facts,
Analyzing them with preconceived notions or prejudices,
Generalizing the particular and particularizing the general,
Approaching facts with unloving criticism or uncritical love,
Evaluating facts with our pet isms or philosophies,
Resorting to statistical justifications,
Unleashing unworkable utopia,
Mask them with logical fallacies,
Mute them in pleasant jargons, and
Give historical justifications
Comprehend with confirmation bias or pre conceived conclusions
Trying to over simplify the complicated and over complicate the simple factors/aspects.
Extrapolate with pet ideologies.
Injecting indoctrination.
Frozen by fear psychosis
Constrained by catchy slogans.
Enslaved by endorsement by populist approvals.
Intelligent logic and logic of intelligence.
What is ' culture' and what is 'rational'?
Not only human intelligence but everything is limited be it the longevity of our physical life or any culture or any idea.
Everything comes with an expiry date of which we are either not aware or we expire before becoming aware of it.
There is a world of difference between intelligent logic and logic of intelligence.
Most of the times we presume as logical what pleases or suits our confirmation biases in terms of our culture , ideology and intellectual limitations but very often they are mere logical fallacies.
Education is too big a topic
Education is too big a topic covering too vast areas of multitude of disciplines involving many facets, multiple dimensions and dynamics.
So, no one can say with axiomatic certitude that one particular thing is education much less how it can be and must be imparted.
I have been reading on the topic what is education from Swami Vivekananda to JK to Ivan Ilich deschooling society to practical methodologies of Glenn Domain etc.
What passes of as education?
What is feasible to be imparted as an educational package?
What purpose is mass literacy intended for ( which all of us will know when we read evolution of education as a chapter in the wonderful book 'evolution of everything')?
Outcome oriented academic qualifications cannot be operated as one man show like a siddha vaidya system ( I am not saying it is either good or bad) but needs to be systematically and institutionally administrated.
It is easy to do tall talking and over philosophize and downgrade existing systems. It is good for film dialogues. So, people who are for generations into film world will have their frames of references limited by such inherited deficiencies.
However, those seriously involved in the activity of imparting education must factor various parameters to ensure that education provides or equips one to have a better livelihood as well as enable one to live life as a nice human being.
