The Pope on AI, and ranking countries

The current Pope, Leo XIV (an American and by training a mathematician, so not exactly science- and tech illiterate), has just released an encyclical (open letter to all people of goodwill) warning against the rapid and, to many, overwhelming and frightening rise of AI: see this news report. I shall not comment on any part of it right now, but I shall be glad if there is a discussion here on his various prescriptions for the future development and control of AI - before we, human beings, are actually overwhelmed and cast aside (that is a prospect  at least as old as the Frankenstein story, and looks ever more likely to come true within a generation or two). It is interesting to note that giant-tech honchos were beside him as he spoke, including, notably, one of the chief officers of Anthropic. I shall be eagerly waiting for responses: what sort of Brave New World are we shaping? And shall we be able to handle it?

Also, in today's newspaper, I read that the UN has come forward with a newly designed complex and multi-dimensional measure of the progress and wealth of nations - meant to replace the many-decades long narrow focus on GDP as a catch-all; see this and this. It has been drawn up by an expert panel of fourteen, headed by the well-known Indian origin economist Kaushik Basu. Now it has been agreed among the majority of economists for a long time that GDP and its rate of growth by itself is a very unsatisfactory index of real human progress and welfare (even if you consider only 'real' and per capita incomes, and factor in purchasing power parity corrections), because it ignores too many important things, like the degree of wealth- and income inequalities, the sustainability (environmental effects) of the kind of growth we are pursuing, the contents  of the basket of goods and services that we keep producing (more guns count for as much as more healthcare drugs, more roads as much as more cars, in purely financial terms), the actual quality of life that the majority of people enjoy (safety, green living spaces, gender equality, long term health security, type of education), etc. etc. So experts have been searching for better ways to measure things for a long time. However, the problem has been that most 'alternatives' fail to provide a different and much better picture of reality: the same UN's Human Development Index, based on a weighted average of three metrics, per capita income, literacy levels and life expectancy, very closely mimics the GDP figures, in the sense that ranking countries by their per capita GDP alone shows nearly the same list of countries in the same order as the HDI does, whether you look for the ten most 'developed' countries or the ten most backward ones.

On the other hand, taking too many metrics into consideration might make the measurements much more subjective/biased and much less dependable/broadly acceptable than a simple ranking based on GDP alone, as the critics of the new measure have already pointed out. So how best to measure which country is really most advanced, and how much more than others? Would anyone like a discussion on this issue?

Finally for now, any comments on episode 5 of my poetry podcast series on Spotify?

Diary entry

Weather-wise, this is the most extraordinary summer in living memory. All through April and May, till the day of writing, it has been raining on and off - sometimes even on successive days, along with classic nor'wester storms and otherwise, so that the maximum temperature has not risen above 32/33 celsius for nearly a fortnight, falling abruptly sometimes to 25-26 even in the afternoons, so that, forget the airconditioners, we are having to use warm water for baths, turning off the fans and pulling rugs over ourselves when going to sleep! I could easily believe, if I were not looking at the calendar, that it was not summer at all. I would rather call this climate erratics than secular climate change. Anyway, even if it becomes very hot in June and July, we shall have to be thankful for a short summer.

I have lately become obsessed with Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay. Just 'revised' the novel Dhatri Devata (we had it in our ICSE syllabus, and it seemed so familiar and well-remembered that I might have read it only a month ago, rather than 47 years), moved on to Ganadevata, will deal with Hansulibaanker Upokotha next; then maybe revise Gurudakshina too. I have paid Tarashankar too little attention, considering his stature as a litterateur: but better late than never. My mind has wandered too far and wide for ages: it is good to be back closer to home in the dusk of my life. I might be writing more about his works in a later post.

Just watched an animation movie called Wild Robot on Netflix. Quite a heartwarmer, a robot eager to please and complete assigned tasks to perfection getting briefly lost and falling in love with a host of wild animals, a stunted baby goose in particular, changing their lives greatly for the better despite much misunderstanding and resistance, and herself learning the meaning of loving and caring beyond the scope of any kind of programming. Food for thought too - brought back to mind all the countless different scenarios about human-robot conflict and coexistence that Isaac Asimov conceived half a century ago (as I have discussed in one of my YouTube podcasts), many of which are going to come true within a generation or two. It will be a brave new world indeed.

My podcasts on poetry have got going. Three episodes are already up there; several more are mentally lined up. I don't need to put up links here, it seems: you can simply type in 'Suvro Sir' in the Spotify app, or Google 'Suvro Sir Spotify' and it will take you there. Some listeners are already commenting, but unluckily there is a glitch on my side, so I cannot see them on my app; have patience until someone fixes things for me, and meanwhile do please cheer me on by commenting here on this blog. And don't forget the 52 stories that are waiting for you on the YouTube channel (again, just typing 'Suvro Sir' in YouTube will take you there). 

Meanwhile I am wondering why, suddenly, so many people are reading this blog on all continents (see map on the right-hand sidebar). If a lot of them were commenting (politely and sensibly, it goes without saying) I'd have been a famous author by now!

Also, approaching 63 (as I keep reminding myself, if I had held a salaried job I would have been compulsorily retired on a paltry pension three years ago), I am greatly enjoying the ease and leisure my careful plans for gradually reducing my workload have earned me, and also the fact that I have been able to decide I don't really need to care and worry about family responsibilities as intensely as I have done for four continuous decades - nor can they expect it from me any more - so I can live out the remaining years of my life 'for myself'. Whatever that means. I shall be most deeply indebted to anyone who can give me some pleasurable engagement that can help to fill in the yawning hours of emptiness, until I have become senile and decrepit (which I mightn't, if God is kind to me. Three score years and ten, I made a deal with Him thirty years ago, and I am just seven years away from that deadline. Believe me, far from being scared, I look forward to it more eagerly with every passing year).

The new BJP government of West Bengal is going to be inaugurated tomorrow, Ponchisey Boishakh. First time ever that we shall have an avowedly right wing government in power. I shall keenly follow their progress over the next year, and try to write up a report card of my own at about this time in 2027. What I am hoping and praying for can be best stated in the ruling party's own slogan: sabka saath, sabka vishwas, sabka vikas -- everyone's progress with everyone's faith and everyone's participation. 

P.S., May 13: The fourth poetry episode has been uploaded tonight on Spotify.