Ethics maketh Civil Society

The Over-debated Autonomous vehicle Ethics issue

In 2019 There were extensive ethical debates over the hypothetical ethical dilemma with autonomous vehicles and if the Autonomous car should kill the elderly pedestrian or the child playing on the street. No real conclusions were drawn!

Onward Forward Backward its 2020

Covid19 Patients in the West are expecting #passportpriviledge when there is one ventilator and a foreign national and a citizen are in the queue. I've heard that such decisions are being taken every minute by emergency physicians at US hospitals!

Historically the Victors were quick to label the Vanquished as "Racist and  Supremacists". However it is exactly in times like these that the underbelly of modern fake egalitarian society stands exposed.

Occidental Hypocrisy

The Occident is quick to write judgemental  essays about NRC CAA and other affairs de Orient.  But the Occident's own insidious  truth stands exposed for the world to see. Pecking hierarchies and food chains stand defined and are now public medical protocol

Wither Hippocratic Oath!

It's the wild wild west and it's each man to himself and the Lord for us all! It's also the time the first gen, second gen and third gen immigrants begin to differentiate.

#UglyInside

An Intelligent Chatbot to Automate the HR Interview and its Evaluation

To my utter surprise, my paper submitted to cPGCon18 (April 5-6 2018) has not yet been published! So I have taken it on myself to publish this here.

In the meanwhile Microsoft(May 31, 2018) seems to have Published a patent on a very related topic, and so has Facebook (Nov 1, 2018). What a co-incidence.

Paper Link

Presentation Link

Lessons learnt?

1. Avoid using Windows10, Skydrive, Hotmail, Azure etc
2. Switch to Ubuntu/Linux
3. Patent new ideas ASAP
4. Keep material close to chest till published
5. Avoid publishing in 3rd rate journals. Publish on own site instead.

The Question that remains to be answered is : 

"Have I arrived or have they?"

Regards

~Milind K Thombre

Startup Founder(Giri)

Q. Do you regret being a startup founder?

A. Yes and No! I tried my hand at a self-funded startup between 2004–2006 full time.

Background

At the time I had worked in the US for 4 years from 1996–97 before moving back in 2001. I found a job in India. The pay was much lower than what I used to make in USA. There was also extreme boredom in the job, though I used to still travel to the US on the job (short term). I thought I should do something in Data Mining (cutting edge technology at the time) and started out bravely quitting my job while trying to build a Software Product in the Telecom (fraud) space.

Mistakes

1. Talent: While I had 7–8 years of IT experience, I took plenty of missteps in the nascent product development space and learnt from each of them. The first was relying on Fresh Graduates to do the high end technical work. Though very few did make the grade, most fared poorly and stuff was often behind schedule or needed my intervention/coding to complete . Clearly the promise of easy money riding the IT bandwagon fuelled by reservation had created fresh grads who cared little about technology and wanted to get out of college quick and “Make hay while the sun shines”. A large change had taken place in the quality of education since 1995. It has gotten even worse since!
2. Funding: I did have a couple of unreasonable funding offers and decided that I would rather do without such vulture capitalists. I burned my own cash for the two years.
3. Management Team: I had none. Partnerships usually are doomed, so this was not a mistake, but often times I wished I had 48 hours in the day or could context switch more often.
4. Choice of Product + Client: Telecom fraud was a complex problem at the time and even though I did manage to get the National Carrier interested in using Data Mining for Fraud Detection, we ended up doing piecemeal work for them instead and lost focus quickly. They tended to constantly have other pressing problems before them. Also there were no more than 4–5 companies in this space, so there was no other option but to hang on to our late paying, non-decision making, tender floating client. A good, well-paying first client is a MUST for any startup to succeed financially and otherwise.

Regrets:

1. Not pursuing a Masters Degree/PhD at the time.
2. Wasted time. Left me unhappy as I was not aligned with what I had to do day in and day out.
3. Not being able to do much hands on techie work, instead getting drawn into BD/Admin etc work, hence sacrificing my own technical career to some extent.

Take Aways:

1. Left with survival skills which were extremely useful in the real world, but most employers considered useless as “experience”
2. Most important: Discovered what I really wanted to do (learn and create) and not do (entrepreneurship, chasing money+power) in life.
3. Check marked “Running a startup” from my bucket list of things to do before I die

Panchatantra ~The Book of Wisdom {On Security}

Watch "The Plot to Assassinate PM Modi" here: (Republic World)

https://youtu.be/npEOYczOKbk


"The Panchatantra" is a Timeless Ancient Hindu Sanskrit Text that embodies Wisdom, and the Art of Living in the true sense of the world. Its sheer brilliance has impressed many a learned Westerner as it has a majority of Indians. Interestingly, it was perhaps the FIRST book to be ever printed by the Germans (1480 AD) who invented printing technology. There are a multitude of translations of this ancient Sanskrit work in almost every language of the world!

I present to you one of the English Translations by Arthur W Ryder pondering on the news of the day

Panchatantra Verbatim

In houses where no snakes are found.
One sleeps; or where the snakes are bound:
But perfect rest is hard to win
With serpents bobbing out and in.

The mere negative foundation of security requires a considerable exercise of intelligence, since the world swarms with rascals, and no sensible man can imagine them capable of reformation.

Caress a rascal as you will.
He was and is a rascal still:
All salve- and sweating-treatments fail
To take the kink from doggy's tail.

Yet roguery can be defeated; for by its nature it is stupid.

Since scamp and sneak and snake
So often undertake
A plan that does not thrive,
The world wags on, alive.

Having made provision for security, in the realization that

A man to thrive
Must keep alive!

Credits

Credits for English translation: Arthur W. Ryder

Full text of the English translation of the Panchatantra:

https://archive.org/details/Panchatantra_Arthur_W_Ryder

#UrbanNaxals
#ModiAssassinationPlot

Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Jai Hind! 

~Milind Thombre

Pokhran II (Operation Shakti) - Parmanu Movie Review

Parmanu Movie Review

Parmanu is true stunner of a movie starring John Abraham amongst others! The plot revolves around the planning for the hugely successful 11th May 1998 nuclear tests, also known as Operation Shakti. 

In reality, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee his principle secretary and a handful of people, including APJ Abdul Kalam, Scientific Advisor to PMO and head DRDO. (who was later elected  President of India)  Dr R Chidambaram of IAC, Dr Anil Kakodkar-BARC, and few other prominent scientists of the time knew about the tests. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokhran-II

In the Movie Plot, the small but extremely effective team works diligently donning Archaeological Survey of India ID's initially and Military uniforms later, dodging spies on the ground, CIA operatives and ISI agents roaming freely in and around the Pokhran Fort. And most importantly the extremely powerful eyes in the sky of the CIA, Lacrosse satellites navigating  above the Pokhran range on a daily basis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacrosse_(satellite)

The plot shows how the scientists working diligently, and Army personnel providing logistics, and others in the intelligence as well as establishment dodge many a difficulty and plan immaculately to bring about the conception of a new Nuclear State: India! There are many moments in the plot where the plan is almost abandoned. Utmost secrecy is required to be maintained, even the family members of the participants are kept in the dark, leading to many a hiccup in the personal lives of the participants.

The "White" House"

The movie ends with the N-Bombs going off in unison. 3 of the bomb shafts (code named the White House, Taj Mahal and Kumbhakaran) are highlighted in the movie. The Thermonuclear device (fusion device)  is placed in the shaft codenamed the "White House" and after a suspense-filled wait, the device is set off to a massive explosion that nearly destroys the test range completely! This moment is a golden moment in the History of Modern India!

The coded wire to the Principal Secretary from the site after the massive blast says "The White House has collapsed!" Indeed, this massive explosion did end the nuclear apartheid of the "White Boys Frat-House Club" of nations as India forced itself forward to Superpower status.

I have already written about my rather personal experience about the tests in another post: http://thombrem.blogspot.com/2018/05/parmanu-movie.html  At the time (1998), I used to work as a software engineer at GE Aircraft Engines, where I threw a largish office party to celebrate , much to the chagrin of the management. In fact I also remember some Indians (pussies) who went about saying they were in principle opposed to nuclear weapons, this would lead to an arms race, mutually assured destruction(MAD). I was asked the reason for the party, rather sternly by the General Manager after he learnt of the "Indian party" in the cafeteria. So I told him "1/2 of the party is for India's nuclear explosions and the other 1/2 of the party is to celebrate my 25th Birthday, take your pick". The GM did attend, and so did every American on the floor, many congratulated India on the success. However, notably, a very small percentage Indians kept on ranting about violation of Gandhian Principles and did NOT attend. I told them later that they are unworthy friends to any human being (Indian and American alike) as they are dishonest to the core, for they secretly felt happy on the inside, but are too scared to stand up for what they feel inside and which is indeed right. Not to mention the complete lack of Patriotism in this small minority! I also asked our Americans friends a pertinent question: "If a person cannot be loyal to the country they are born and raised in, their own motherland, do you expect this bunch of people to be loyal to the USA after they get citizenship?" I'm sure this provoked thought!

Some patriotic Americans drank 1/2 a glass of coke only and told me that  this was to symbolically celebrate my 25th birthday but they refused to drink the whole coke as the other 1/2 was for the successful tests! I salute their Patriotism just as they do mine!

Bharat Mata Ki.....Jai!

And now a vote of thanks is due to John Abraham, who in real life is Jewish (a great community whose undying friendship with India is legendary), and true blue Indian to the core, for his stellar performance in Parmanu! Every Motherland loving Indian should (and hopefully will) have tears of happiness in his eyes at the end! I did! And I hope you do too!

Thank you Atal Bihari Vajpayee!

Bharat Mata ki Jai!

Jai Hind!
Milind K Thombre
(Comments Welcome)

Parmanu (Movie)

Parmanu, The Movie, starring John Abhram is on my "Surely watch" list for many reasons. 

I lived and worked in Cincinnati at the time of the tests.The Pokhran test took place on 11th May 1998(They missed the deadline by one day or it would have been on my 25th birthday ;) ) 

I also threw a large office party at GE Aircraft Engines at the time to celebrate, much to the chagrin of a few and to the good wishes for India of many! The news of Pokhran tests spread like wildfire amongst the Indian American community. 

Another incident I recall happened at an Indian friends office in Detroit (Ford). My Indian friend was chatting with his white American boss the morning after and congratulating India for the feat, the boss was also agreeing to most of the things he was saying when a Pakistani working in the same office interrupted them and said "This sucks, Arms Race, South Asia in crisis etc". 

So my friend turned to him and retorted "Hey you! Don't interrupt when two superpowers are discussing important things!"😂😂😂

Salute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, APJ, Indian Army, BARC and others who made this possible!

A Plethora of Ideas about the Future of Work in India

Hello folks,

Today's blog is a Fictional Satire set in the Indian context of the Future of Work, especially to answer the currently hypothetical but futuristically real question :

"What will happen to jobs after near or total Automation?"

I present to you solutions by different political and entrepreneur groups:

1. Congress: Let us all Spin the Charkha! Bapuji told us long time ago, he was a true visionary who saw this day was coming a century ago! Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai! Also, in the background we will play Gandhiji's favourite bhajan while we spin the charkha and do a kadi ninda of all the technologists who made us see this day! On second thoughts, lets not "play" the bhajan, let us sing and clap our hands, that way we will not have to use any of this Evil Technology.

All our past leaders have always opposed technology for this very reason! We strongly condemn this wave of automation technology in particular and technology in general which has cost us our jobs and unemployment is now at 100%. This country is now doomed under the present leadership of XYZ. Down with XYZ and Long Live Our Dynasty, oops we meant Party!

2. BJP (Tech Entrepreneurs): What If we put a generator on each and every charkha and feed the electricity back to the grid? We would solve the employment problem and the electricity generation problem in one stroke! We'll pay 1 Rupee per hour of work on the charkha, hard work will be rewarded and harder work will be rewarded harder!

Also, since this will become commoditized service and there will be growing demand for such charkhas by unemployed folks the supply of workers will keep rising and as the demand of electricity will remain constant rates are projected to eventually fall to 10 paise/hour. Cheap and clean power to the people!

3. Software Services Moguls: Let's put out an advertisement for 300,000 jobs tomorrow! Lets Buy land in Hinjewadi, set up a Charkha Centre with 300,000 charkhas! We will pocket the 1 Rupee/Hour given by the electricity company and payout 35 paise/Hour rate per employee for their highly valued and passionately provided services! And rates are projected to fall eventually, so let us have a clearly defined Exit Policy as well (Oops! For non performers we meant) Let us also start an industry body called CHARKHACOM to lobby (bully) the government agencies to agree to our demands. After all we are generating much needed employment for the youth of this country and we deserve our share of the pie (pound of flesh). Let us also start an open to all forum where some of our senior leaders mentor youth on Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Technology(????)!

"Technology" is the solution to our problems and India will become the next Technology Superpower within exactly 25 years! ~Official Release by CHARKHACOM!

Now for the list of demands:

1. We will need a fully automated train from Hinjewadi to the city.
2. Tax sops!
3. Padma Bhushan Awards for Our beloved Industry Pioneers!
4. etc. (we'll make this up as we go along)

4. Rashtrawadi:
Did someone just say LAND? Saathiyon Rath Nikalo, Hinjewadi me nayi___________ aayi hai!!!

5. Left Front:
Bhookh Hartal! (Actually, at this point they steal a line from a BJP PM) "Na hum khud khayenge na hum kisi ko khaane denge!"

Hamari mange puri karo, warna kursi khali karo! Down with Automation! Down with Technology! (Sound of charkhas crashing and burning in the background and a sight of hands waving red flags....manually)

Jo humse takrayega, woh mitti me mil jayega (veiled warning to dissenting non-union employees and contractors who report to work)

6. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
( In a squeaky voice) Sab mile hue hai jee! Mere paas sab saboot hai! Bijli ka bill maine hi kam karwaya hai! Muze vote de do mai ek ek ko theek karke rakh doonga!

7. Parents of (now unemployed) Youth:
We told you to choose Medicine instead of Engineering, but you did not heed our advice!

Thanks for laughing readers! As for for those who cried after reading this sordid view of the future in this country, my vote goes to you!

~Milind K. Thombre
(An Idle Man In a Workers Paradise)

The Future of Work

Sea of Managers

Readers every day in India these days we hear about Layoffs, especially in the IT/ITES and software fields. People seem to place the blame on external factors when this happens. Sometimes it is true and politics is at play, but quite often it is not.

What has brought about this nemesis? On an average, Entrepreneurs insist that the blame lies with the employee. Sometimes they claim the issue is about political factors(Donald Trump's anti-outsourcing policies etc). Again, this is a tendency to pin blame elsewhere when the finger should be pointing inwards! The entrepreneur refuses to invest in the employees training and development, instead, giving him/her more non-technical "responsibilities".

The gullible employee on the other hand feels this is a "way to the top" and begins to take on more "responsibility"(non technical work). Sometimes the managers give the coders such a hard time while they are coding/doing technical work that the coders revolt and try to become managers themselves. Suddenly we have more and more (and more) managers and fewer coders left in the fray. This becomes a dangerous irrational situation and the entrepreneur is forced to "take a tough decision". {Actually, the average entrepreneur does not really care until the customer tells him that his people are not technical enough for the project}

Donald Trump and the Offshoring S(c/h)am

Average Entrepreneurs try to deflect the blame from themselves by saying US anti-outsourcing policy has resulted in this mess. Do Indian workers really need to worry if outsourcing stops? Many competent ones can in fact get a H-1 and move to greener pastures for many times their Indian salary which the entrepreneur paid them. Donald Trump is a blessing in disguise for many such competent techies! It is the Entrepreneur himself who is in trouble now, not techies, and for once the shoe is on the other foot!

Automation

The other real reason jobs are disappearing is because of automation not politics! Automation continues its onward wealth creating march as more and more jobs disappear. Thousands of people working in call centers will be replaced with  single scaleable chatbot that will run on cloud and answer questions for users who were anyways fed up with fake foreign accents. This is just a canonical example and many jobs and industries are going to be disrupted by automation in the next few years. 

Examples of potentially obsolete jobs are taxi drivers, even low end IT jobs, Massively online open classrooms are already disrupting conventional education to some extent or supplementing it. Russia has now built the first AI battle tank, even the future of war is going to change.

Lets ban Automation! some will say. We are losing our jobs! To them I have this to say: "Even if you close your eyes and sit in one place the world continues to move forward!"

There are several issues that Government is going to need to address like taxation on automation, Universal basic income etc.

Advice to Youngsters

What then is the advice I have for budding coders?

1. Improve your technical competence continuously
2. Continue to build great software regardless of what people around you are saying. Managers may go about saying "You are just a coder", but please know that they are faking it themselves
3. Learn to say "NO" when you are given non-technical work to do("Responsibilities").
4. Teach other like minded coders and learn from them, continuously
5. Continue to invest in your own education.
6. Understand that the goal of any business that employs you is creation of wealth for its investors and not guaranteeing you a job.
7. God helps those who help themselves

8. Understand that "the few will always rule the many" and try to become the few!
9. Believe that all you really need to succeed is food, shelter, a laptop and a broadband plan, not employment/career etc.

Towards a better nation

Readers, today’s blog is about several things that are wrong with the current crop of youth in our country and perhaps many parts of the world at large. It addresses misplaced expectations,  freebies, socialism and reservation.

Culture of Entitlement

To begin with today India’s affirmative action programs are designed to benefit certain castes.  Since this practise has continued well past the initially stipulated ten year horizon, the beneficiaries have begun to look at reservation as a “Right” and not a “Benefit”.  In my opinion every Citizen’s Charter of “Rights” must be associated with a corresponding call for Duty.  This seems like common sense, but then one may ask, why were Rights granted by prior Governments without demands being placed on Duties? The root cause of this is Poor Leadership at the core of Government. Promises and Lies made by such leaders in the past have resulted in a dangerous culture of wrongfully placed Entitlement.  

Several laws like the ineffective Food Security bill, and many other rights (which were perhaps never intended to be fulfilled) were introduced by weak leaders in the past. Youth today may and can ask questions like:

I am born in this country, where is my food? (Who moved my Cheese)

Socialist policies of the past have set a dangerous precedent and several people are forgetting that the poor farmer toils day and night for an entire season before his crop is harvested. He invests in fertiliser, relies on the vagaries of the monsoon and then gets a paltry minimum supported price for his crop. Do sweat to make your own bread!

I have just graduated, where is my world class job?

The entrepreneur has to literally move the world in winning business in a globally competitive environment, he risks losing his capital, his reputation and ruining his family life before making you a job offer.  So remind me again, why do you think you are entitled to a job? Even if you do not have skills/education/knowledge or experience and a bad attitude? Again these are not attributes of ALL youth but large sections of them. We need to remind them that:

The World Does not owe you a thing! Work for your bread butter and Jam, or else you will soon run out of other people's money!

The Bitter Fruits of Laziness

So one may ask, what is the result of setting falsely high expectations? Poor leaders do this as they somehow want to stay popular, even without showing an iota of performance as leaders. Youth who are led on this path will lack feedback from these poor leaders. In the absence of this feedback, they will develop a misplaced sense of entitlement. But the globalised world can be a cruel place for such youth and they will be in for a rude shock once they step out of the country or deal with Global players. Such an awakening to harsh reality can have several adverse effects on a young mind.

I want to clarify that what I have said is true “At all levels” certainly not at entry levels alone. The equation that :

Graduation= Job = Success is completely untrue in a globalised economy.

Competence =Job or

competence and perseverance = Success are more apt equations now.

So let us all work hard and smart towards turning young lives around for the better! And let this serve as some Enlightenment!

Regards
Milind Thombre
(Comments welcome)

Knowledge To The Rescue

Folks today's  post is about affirmative action (Reservation) in India and worldwide as well and some facts and my thoughts around it. This post examines the effects this policy has had on the Indian population in particular and globally in general. We will try to address this issue with data and algorithms and not passion as there is a great deal of distortion of this issue and there is a lot of baggage that many people bring to the table when this issue is discussed. I believe looking at data is the best way to make an informed decision and solve this important Social Engineering problem.

Background

At the stroke of the midnight hour as India awoke to light and freedom certain communities were considered backward and a young India decided to do something for her children. Dr. Ambedkar, a visionary leader of this community introduced the policy of reservation in Education to ameliorate these children of India. Being a visionary he naturally saw what the long term effects of this policy would be and warned that if this welfare policy was continued for more than 10 years the people would behave like parasites, Also he was strictly for reservation in education alone, not jobs promotions and such. These were introduced subsequently by weak and undeserving leaders who wanted to somehow keep winning elections by enticing the greed in the masses in exchange for votes.

Affirmative Action, The Broken Greedy Algorithm

Many still argue that Affirmative Action is a good thing. And even if it comes at the cost of the Forward Classes(Castes) it is worth it as it ensures Social Justice. I am not going to counter this argument with emotion but with facts and Algorithms. This is a classic case of a Greedy Algorithm that breaks down in the long term. A greedy algorithm assumes that what is right locally (reservation) would hold true globally(Social Justice) and that this algorithm of doling out engineering/medical seats would indeed uplift the masses long term. This does not happen for simple reasons rooted in Human Psychology. 

Imagine that you are a young couple if I told you: "Don't worry about your kids, they will have Food Security and a Right to a great Education, all of them I guarantee will become Doctors if they so wish". 

Q. How many children would you want to have?

A. As many as possible.

Now Imagine if I told you, " Your kids will need to be extremely bright to even get a decent education, you may need to pay your entire life savings as donation to get a seat in a Medical College and even after getting educated your kids may not get jobs. 

Q. How many children would you want to have?

A. 1 at most.

What is happening is a Silent genocide of the classes. The babies are not being born at all and the population of the classes is on the decline. Whereas the exact opposite is happening to  the masses. However resources (wealth) being limited, the inheritance algorithm is creating poorer and poorer masses and richer and richer Classes! The fact that there are fewer classes and that they are rich is leading the greedy leaders to use this as an excuse to increase the quota, which unfortunately is having the exact opposite effect.

I hope they see the light soon!

Psychology: Top and Bottom

The laws of nature say that if somebody is on the top somebody else will be at the bottom. This is true of society as well. The probability of one being on the top of the whole world is 1/6 billion and the denominator keeps rising, so we are all below someone or something. We need to learn some basic human psychology here. The people who consider themselves at the bottom, well that is all of us at varying levels, need to cultivate Humility in my opinion. Humility evokes Sympathy from those on top and makes them want to help us. However if we cultivate Arrogance, it evokes more arrogance and Aggression from the person in power, and we all know where that leads.

Fight or Flight

The classes are faced with great adversity at present in India and Adversity evokes the classic response. Fight or Flight (Immigration). How do we fight this system if we are an embattled minority in a large Democracy?

Flight is an easy solution, you can immigrate to a new country and thrive there.

However some of us remain here and decide to fight the system. Personally, I use knowledge to fight as I believe the Pen is Mightier than the Sword. And so I wrote this post. I hope to have provoked some thought!

Regards
Milind Thombre

(Comments Welcome)