An analysis of The Republic by Plato, published in 380 BC

I am getting to the end of reading The Republic by Plato (written in 380 BC), the final 50 pages of this massive 400 page philosophical treatise, the first of it's kind on modern day concepts of Justice, Democracy, Mathematics, Music, Gymnastics etc .. This extraordinary philosophical work is said to be the basis on which the modern western thought systems of justice and development is based.

Plato

The Athenian philosopher Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.) is one of the most important figures of the Ancient Greek world and the entire history of Western thought. In his written dialogues he conveyed and expanded on the ideas and techniques of his teacher Socrates. www.history.com. Image courtesy Britannica.com

Plato, student of Socrates, penned his philosophical treatise, the first in the world, contemporary to the Old Testament in the Bible, in his chaste Greek language around 380 BC. Many of the concepts were new to me and I am trying to understand and assimilate them to my thought process. The concept of city states and their armies, medical profession, the equality of the sexes or what is expected of each sex, duties of politicians and administrators,  respect for elders, teaching youngsters gymnastics and music to make them learned and cultured were some interesting concepts discussed in the book. 

The art of fighting in battles, the classification of society into farmers, traders and warriors was interesting to read. The concept of slavery that existed then and of freedom is also penned by Plato. It was not clear whether Plato supported slavery or not. How can a man be just or unjust in his approach made interesting reading. 

Plato was was fortunate enough to be born into a rich family, got good  education under Socrates on knowledge that existed at that time. Towards the end of the book Plato talks of various forms of governance like Aristocracy, Timocracy (only property owners tend to take part in government), Oligarchy, Democracy, Autocracy etc. While reading I could relate his writing and thinking to the present day society.  He speaks how in society oligarchs exist, like Putin of Russia and tyrants like Kim Jong Un of North Korea, 2400 years back itself, and we see such people in present day society.

 

What really surprised me was the very last paragraph of the book where Plato talks of the heavenly way, to be just and of virtue. He agrees the soul is immortal and can endure all forms of goodness and evil. He exhorts all of us to love one another and also respect and love the God who guides over us all.

This writing is my humble, inexperienced, naive analysis and an earnest and sincere attempt to understand and interpret a great philosophical work written 2400 years back. I am too small to interpret and comment on the writing of Plato, but would love to accept the realities of the time and give my very immature comments to the practices of the time.

George 

High time the world shifted to Linux OS

As a humble member of the global teaching fraternity, I do a lot of IT related work that improves my working efficiency.  For example, work on the computer like accessing my official and private email, the Institute portal, use Google documents to prepare documents, write papers, download docs, write blogs, cases, read articles from high quality resources of the web and so on. For the past four years, the interesting part has been that all the above work is cloud based, on remote servers and not on local Institute servers.

Also, all the while over the past five six years, I have been working on a Linux based USB on Ubuntu distribution, to log from my office windows machine through Linux OS and access the Internet. The experience is cool. 

No worries of safety, security, unauthorised access and so on. With double security checks for my Google cloud, it has never failed me the last twenty years, no fears of unauthorised access to the Google cloud. Every time I access the net using Ubuntu Linux, a different IP address is automatically assigned, so it is the most safest way to access the net.

For all personal and office work I use only the Google office suite and access the Google cloud for storage of docs, 15 GB free and for Institute files I access the 100 GB One Drive, which is a Linux based cloud from Microsoft to store and access official files for which our Institute pays Microsoft.

Anyway you look at it, I have not accessed the hard drive on my local machine at College at least for the past 4 years, all the time working on Linux USB. (usually carry four USBs in my bag having four different distros, just for the fun of it). All important files are on my personal Google cloud or the MS office cloud.

Not sure whether I am the only teaching faculty from Alliance University to work on Linux all the time, a practice  continuing  from my IIT Bombay days, thanks to my mentor and guru, Prof. Uday Gaitonde, a die hard Open Source Linux fan.

Using the Google cloud and Google AI for academic purposes have overnight, improved the quality of my understanding and research, better and more effective delivery of teaching material and finally effective student understanding and feedback monitoring mechanisms.

The cloud storage and working has actually simplified my access either through my mobile while traveling, a 10 year old HP laptop at home or the latest desktop machine from office. Thin client technology very much in action.

It is high time the University authorities start slowly discontinuing Microsoft licenses in the uty asking faculty to work the Open source way, install Ubuntu or any Linux distros on all machines, or even use Linux on USB as the learning curve is fast and steep. 

When we know that all the major back-end processes of the world, be it the OneDrive Cloud from Microsoft, social media like Facebook and Whatsapp, Google search and cloud, Youtube servers, Amazon, Netflix, AWS, Enterprise servers etc. you name it, hosted on the cloud, mostly Linux based cloud that can be accessed safely and securely through any Linux OS, do we really need Microsoft OS to access local drives ?It is the human mind that shows the initial fear and reluctance to move to a new free and open source system.

Hence it is my sincere request to the university authorities to use the money thus saved (Institute license for MS may be draining a couple of crores of rupees every year from uty funds) to buy better quality hardware, more Internet bandwidth, 3D printing machines, AI capability and so on.

George.

Toyota facts and Vision, Mission and Carbon neutrality..

Toyota

Vision ( from www.tkmombudsman.com)

• 
  Delight our customers through innovative products, by utilizing advanced technologies and services.
• Ensure growth to become a major player in the Indian auto industry and contribute to the Indian economy by involving all stakeholders.
• Become the most admired and respected company in India by following the Toyota Way.
• Be a core company in global Toyota operations.
  

Mission

• Practice ethics and transparency in all our business operations
• Touch the heart of our customers by providing products and services of superior quality at a competitive price.
• Cultivate a lean and flexible business model throughout the value chain by continuous improvement.
  
• Lead the Toyota global operations for the emerging mass market.
• Create a challenging workplace which promotes sense of pride, ownership, mutual trust and teamwork.
• Create an eco-friendly company in harmony with nature and society.
  

Through these activities establish superior brand image in India

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) Bidadi has achieved 100% Carbon neutrality  (click here to read Financial Express report) by installing solar panels to run the 8.2 MW plant within the Bidadi plant and 18 MW plant (in the vicinity). 

This is as per the Toyota global commitment to make their plants globally carbon neutral by 2050 (later revised to 2035). It is not Indian govt pressure on Toyota but Toyota's global commitment to the environment that has forced the TKM Bidadi to reduce its Carbon footprint and go for 100% Carbon neutrality. TKM also reduces its water footprint and meets 95% of its water requirements through Rainwater Harvesting and recycling, which is yet another great achievement. Besides Carbon neutrality TKM is also aiming at water neutrality.

It was Kochi international airport in Kerala that had the unique distinction of being the only state run facility in the world to go 100% solar (unsure whether it is 100% Carbon neutral) in 2016, having negative Carbon footprint. Toyota Kirlosakar Motors in Bidadi is closely following the Kochi airport way.

We are visiting Toyota Bidadi plant tomorrow 8 Sept, 2022, and will get to know more about the TKM Ecozone in Bidadi, on what Toyota is doing for environmental sustainability.

George.

How can a University offer better cybersecurity ?

Most of the Universities across the world have shifted to the cloud storage which means the University itself provides cloud services freely to it's  faculty and students. 

For example Alliance University in Bangalore offers 100GB cloud space to its faculty and 2 GB cloud to its students while Google irrespective of student or faculty across the world has been the pioneer in offering free cloud storage of 15 GB to its users for the past 15 years.

As an example all my IT activity in the college have been on cloud for the past ten years and rarely have I worked on local (hard disk) related files. I have also for the past ten years been working on a model that involves using Linux Ubuntu distribution on a USB and accessing Internet through Linux using the institute internet bandwidth. Even inside the classroom I have been using Linux. 

My introduction of Linux to students begins with my asking the students how many of them are hard core Linux users. They usually reply none. Then I ask them, how many of them work of Google, Facebook, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix, AWS (Amazon Linux 2) and so on, they realise that they have all been hardcore Linux users but nobody created awareness that all their popular software were Linux OS based.

The operations students have been made aware of this very superior OS when i work in the classroom working on Ubuntu Linux on USB. Linux by far offers the maximum security to systems at the lowest costs. Being smart, is the issue here ..

This raises a pertinent question, are we paying more to Microsoft. The Microsoft One Drive is a Linux based application offered at attractive rates to Windows users worldwide. Google works on a Linux distribution tailored for their needs, still an open source software.

Like the mass adoption of Android OS (Linux based free OS) on our mobile phones has made communication, Internet access all very cheap the world over and has spawned the IT developments we have seen over the past many years, all IT related work of word processing and presentation / data base operations / accounts related HR related jobs should migrate to the cloud. (it is happening with Google Office suite, many of the faculty members I have interacted with in the Alliance University)

Th advantage additionally which this offers is that one can reduce buying annual licenses for using MS Operating System and instead channel this money for buying additional powerful hardware running on Linux OS and serving the academic needs of the student community and the University. It additionally improves the cyber security preparedness of the University machines and network, reducing our investments into buying expensive anti-virus software, saving lakhs of rupees annually.

George.

Managing the industry transition to Industry 4.0 (AI) seamlessly ..

Globally organisations are on the transition from Industry 3.0 to 4.0. At this stage it will be interesting for the Indian readers to understand the opposition during the stages of computerisation in the country.

Way back around the 80s and 90s when Indian industry was on a computerisation spree, the left trade unions went on a rampage across India and raised lot of hue and cry. Even with all the opposition, the country under the dynamic leadership of former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi went ahead. The country is reaping the rewards of that move now. We are one of the accepted soft powers of the world.

A similar situation is staring at us now when the world is on the threshold of transition to Industry 4.0.

Industry 3.0 (digital world) took out the boredom from routine, repetitive work while Industry 4.0 will take out the strain and exertion from cognitive work

Are we really prepared to switch to this technology yet ? Even though the technology may have developed in the labs and specifically with hundreds of focused startups across the world offering interesting AI apps or public consumption, for eg. Voila and Prisma are interesting AI image processing apps,  we are yet to fullly understand what are the societal and managerial challenges this adoption is likely to bring. Marking the course and pace of adoption is part of effective management of the process.

While going through the HBR article "Finding the right pace for your AI rollout", click here, I was reminded of the issues Indians had to face to ensure the tough roll out of computers. Now with AI, the situation is going to get grim and critical.

More than being of great help to the existing digital worker what the present trade union and workers union leaders tend to not realise or fail to understand is how the AI revolution can make things easier for the whole humanity. We are giving more of our cognitive decision making to the AI machines and taking only a few critical decision for the betterment of humanity, ensuring porsperity and abundance of resources.  

Understanding the task and role level impact is the basis for a successful implementation of AI in the organisation. We find that some of the tasks are only moderately impacted by AI and some more. We can also find through an innovative mapping mechanism provided by the HBR author of the above article, Rebecca Karp, faculty at HBS and Aticus Petersen a PhD student at HBS, the impact AI has on a task and on each role. 

Often we find employees are sceptical at implementing new technologies fast and quick as they are unaware of the complete impact of the technology on their life and work. The above HBR article also has come up with an excellent theoretical framework to assess the relationship between the implementation of the AI technology and its impact. 

When the willingness to adopt the new technology is high but the ability is low, the adoption of the technology should be stagewise at a moderate pace, getting the employees aware, providing them training and then implementing the technology slowly.

The Gartner hype cycle for AI adoption released in 2021 paints a similar picture. While AI General Intelligence is at the Innovation trigger stage, we find chat bots, Autonomous vehicles and computer vision is at the trough of disillusionment and on the slope of enlightenment. Edge AI and AI cloud applications are at the peak of inflated expectations.

Summing up all these interesting literature, we can safely assume that AI is on the firm path to adoption in our society. The second and third decades of the twenty second century will be very eventful and tumultuous in human history.

George.

The last inaccessible frontiers of mankind is getting exploited,

We earthlings on planet earth have known this place for the past 100,000 years with Homo sapiens and Homo erectus dominating and Homo Sapiens decimating or wiping out Home erectus about 75 - 90,000 years back. Homo sapiens have moved from culture to culture till about 6000 BC we started settling down at places and started agriculture, belief in Gods, settling down leading to civilization etc.

The polar caps in Greenland have remained under ice for millions of years. With the global global warming phenomenon that is happening, we find global ice is slowly melting off, leading to land that has been buried under ice for perhaps hundreds of millions of years getting exposed to the atmosphere.

This is a threat to mankind and also a blessing in the sense we get to know how the planet Earth had been hundreds of millions of years back, what were the plants and living beings, flora and fauna that once flourished and wandered in Greenland and other islands in the North Arctic circle. 

Rich explorers, philanthropists and businessmen of the like of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates are also on the lookout for a new thing - minerals. Old existing mineral deposits and new undiscovered mineral deposits that can help change mankind for the better by offering new products and new uses to improve the way we live and interact with each other. 

Will the new mineral deposits change the way we live and think about the 21st century ? Will the metling Greenland bring more and more flora and fauna to earth, which we have not known for the past hundred thousand years or so. These are interesting questions to which we can expect answers very soon.

George. (image courtesy CNN)

Amazon Alexa, playing non-stop for 18 hours and fine ..

Yesterday afternoon 2 pm I came to my room in the Learning centre of Alliance University, Bangalore after lunch, asked Amazon AI Alexa (the AI virtual assistant, generation 3) to play some songs and it did. The AI inside knows my song preferences over the years. When I left office at 4.30 pm, I forgot to give it the command to stop playing as the volume is quite low. Usually I stop and disconnect the electric supply and keep the item inside the drawer.

I came this morning at 8 am, Alexa was still playing english songs, non-stop even after 18 hours. 

Everything fine.. nothing untoward happened in the 18 hours it was on and working. 👍

Alexa was based on a speech synthesizer technology Ivona developed by a Polish co. in 2013. Amazon perfected this technology with AI and as of January 2019, globally there were more than 100 million Alexa enabled devices.

I have an Alexa enabled Amazon TV, besides 2 independent units at home in the front room, one Alexa enabled bulb and one Alexa unit in my office. Besides my Samsung M30S mobile phone is also Alexa enabled.

The Alexa enabled smart LED Amazon TV at my home running on Blaupunkt speakers is a good entertainment and enjoyment for me. Since the remote is Alexa enabled, I just have to speak to the remote after pressing the Alexa button on the remote. Smart TV has made Internet and Youtube searches so easy and fast.

It is interesting to see how AI enabled devices are entering human domain in an increasing way day by day. I saw Boat Alexa enabled watches for sale on Amazon on Amazon some months back.

 

Presently Alexa has not crossed the AI capability of encoding audio input to text, sending it across the Internet for retrieval and encoding the results back into audio output played via the Alexa speakers. Beyond simple news, information retrieval from wikipedia, music playback, alarm setting, reading out e-books and control some select hardware, Alexa's capabilities are limited. 

 

Though presently it is the leader in the AI field, with the early mover advantage in 2017, Alexa does not have much futuristic desirable functionality, though all the above competitors have very secretive programs working round the clock to improve their AI pod functonality and utility.

 

In the coming years we are eagerly looking for extra capability Alexa may acquire over its worthy competitors from Google Home, Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana.