सलाम उन लोगों को, जिनहोने उठाई अपनी आवाज़
सड़क पर आए और नारे लगाए बिना कोई आराम
COP28 दुबई तक पहुँची लिसिप्रिय कंगूजाम
बोली बंध करो जीवाशम ईंधन, १२ वर्षीय जाँबाज ।
Thoughts on current events and emerging technologies.
सलाम उन लोगों को, जिनहोने उठाई अपनी आवाज़
सड़क पर आए और नारे लगाए बिना कोई आराम
COP28 दुबई तक पहुँची लिसिप्रिय कंगूजाम
बोली बंध करो जीवाशम ईंधन, १२ वर्षीय जाँबाज ।
जो मूह नहीं खोल पाते, वह क्या चलाएँगे ज़बान
वह उखड़ेगा परचम, जिसने बेच दिया हो ईमान?
जो सीधे खड़े नहीं हो पाते, वह कैसे तानेंगे सीना
इन लोगों के लिए, झुकने का नाम ही है जीना
डरे हुए लोगों की आँखें मीची है मंदिर के बाहर
लड़ते रहो बे उम्र उमर, शीघ्र समाप्त हो यह ग्रीष्म लहर ।
The elite colleges of the country have deviously contrived to keep their admission policies beyond scrutiny by lumping standardized tests with affirmative action. They are, in fact, separate and you can have both in place. Affirmative action must continue and be given a growing proportion of admission spots until there is meaningful race equality. For all the spots, standardized tests must be one of the inputs. The final admitted class must mirror the racial distribution of scores on standardized tests.
Let's work through some examples of the proposal, in parts
Growing proportion of affirmative action spots
Government jobs
Finally, the government can do more in ensuring that diversity of thought is engrained in every institution of the country. There is no reason that the Secretary of the Treasury comes from Goldman Sachs, the head of the Federal Reserve comes from Harvard and the Supreme Court Judges come from Yale.
I think socially aware companies such as Apple should withdraw its Amicus Brief here:
Documents Archive - Harvard Admissions Lawsuit
It must have been some time in the 1990s in India when the government allowed Coca Cola back into India. In my patriotic zeal propelled by teenage absolutism, I decided I would only drink the Indian brand "Thums Up," a cola that had a similar color and flavor as Coke. Thums Up was made by a company called Parle Products and it was bottled at a factory not far from our flat. Within days, I read the announcement that the owner of Parle Products had sold his company to Coca Cola. He had looked out for his own financial interest, and made me realize how naive I was to not think of mine.
I thought of this story because of the convergence of a few events:
References
Freedom is the ability to act without fear. The actions could be speaking one's mind, opening a business, traveling to destination of one's choice and even to do nothing at all. Freedom is enabled by personal security. Security against hunger, security that comes with shelter and security that your individual plan for life will not be upset by the changes around you. What is the pursuit of happiness other than the feeling that you can work yourself to a better situation by acquiring the education and the skills you think you need? These thoughts come to mind on the occasion of India's 75th Independence Day. I am an American citizen now, but I feel I can credibly express some fresh perspectives on freedom.
Neither Ambedkar, whom I greatly admire, nor the American founding fathers had the perfect vision for a just future. The constitution, laws, rules must be relegated to their appropriate position - subordinate to the welfare of people. True freedom is still far away.
Kuntal.
A peaceful progressive society is built upon human rights being respected. With large chunks of everyday life being driven from our phones, it is time we set up a code of conduct for engineers who work on building those devices and associated technologies based on connected devices. The code of conduct should be used by conscientious engineers to take concrete decisions everyday, such as: project choice, hiring decisions, career progression, research subject choice, etc.
The technologies of concern that can lead to human rights violations when abused are: biometric tracing (facial recognition, emotion estimation, etc.), drone warfare (autonomously or remotely powered drones), communications (instant messaging, audio and video calls, emails), content filtering (authenticity, hate content, manipulative content, recommendation algorithms) and medical devices (remote health monitoring, nerve interfaces).
While there are legitimate reasons for law enforcement to be using the technologies available to keep the society safe, it is up to engineers to build safeguards from misuse. As someone who intends to follow the points listed above, I would not hire an engineer who works for the NSO Group company that enabled governments around the world to tap into journalists' private communications.
If you're a student, I'd encourage you to take a look at UConn's excellent Engineering for Human Rights Initiative to plan your courses and join some organizations. While I don't have personal experience with them, it seems to provide good guidance on how next generation engineers could develop a social sense. After graduation, you may also consider joining the On-Call Scientists. For further reading: despite suffering from rigor mortis on the executive side, the UN does produce good quality documentation: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Regards,
Kuntal.