The surrender of intelligence

While there is no denying that algorithms have eased life by managing the information explosion, that it does so at the cost of reducing rich diversity into a world of niches has often gone unnoticed? 

Google does what confidantes used to, lending advice for resolving personal and professional matters. Seeking out friends for addressing life’s travesties are seemingly passé as algorithms powered machine intelligence offers a staggering number of options. Think of a question, and Google has an answer. Smart gadgets have eased life by conducting mundane tasks of picking the best on offer, be it a piece of clothing or a restaurant of choice, and have thus made a vast majority believe that algorithms are all set to turn the tables on human intelligence, and run every aspect of our lives henceforth. 

The jury is still out on whether machine intelligence will make the cut in mimicking human brain. While there is no denying that algorithms have eased life by managing the information explosion, that it does so at the cost of reducing rich diversity into a world of niches has often gone unnoticed? What it does with a vast array of large data-sets and how it manipulates the same to generate preferences smacks of dystopian possibilities! Not without reasons issues related to data security and the privacy of citizens are proving contentious. Machine-driven artificial intelligence has its share of both intended and unintended consequences, warns Kartik Hosanagar. Drawing upon his experience of designing algorithms, the Wharton Professor brings on the table the potential risks of being blindfold to the ramifications of algorithmic decision making. 

By design, algorithm is a simple step by step method of resolving any problem by acting on available data-sets to draw recommendations on our behalf. As the users interact with algorithmic suggestions, the next generation of data is generated for it to work on, and so on. In the process, biases creep into algorithmic systems that intentionally narrows down the list of available choices leading to unintended consequence of creating digital echo chambers that have the potential to influence or control human behavior. Should algorithms be limited to serving our desires or allowed to stake control on human behavior?  

A Human Guide to Machine Intelligence weighs opportunities and challenges posed by modern algorithms to give the reader a nuanced understanding on how far it can go to serve us. There are safety-critical areas like health care and entertainment where machine intelligence does have a role to play, in behavior-centric domains like recruitment and therapies machine intelligence has the potential to go rogue. The case of Microsoft’s chatbot 'Tay' turning sexist and racist on the social media is a case in point, and so are the episodes of much-hyped self-driving cars meeting their fatal crash. Despite all this, machine intelligence is here to stay with its promises and pitfalls. ‘To discard them now would be like Stone Age humans deciding to reject the use of fire because it can be tricky to control.’  

As algorithms are fast transiting from their decision support role to becoming autonomous decision makers, the question of human’s leaving life entirely in the hands of a computer has refueled man-machine debate. Though an anathema to our craving for control, there are many significant instances where we have let the machine control our life. Auto pilots have been in existence for long, and so are button-controlled elevators. Research has shown that more than control, it is the trust in algorithms that is central to its acceptance. Since algorithms are seen as robotic and emotionless, the challenge before researchers is to develop trust-inducing interfaces for mistrust, hostility, and fear to melt away.  

Backed by latest developments on the subject, Hosanagar argues that transparency is the major factor in fostering trust in algorithms. Unless the tangled vines of transparency and trust are unfurled, people will continue to view machines for their limited ability to mimic our patterns of thoughts and conclusions. It is for this reason the electronic voting machines have yet to increase public confidence in the sanctity of the ballot. Electronic voting system is perfect example to lay bare the challenge of harnessing the power of transparency to induce greater trust in algorithms as more difficult than one might assume. The world is yet far from a robust, tested protocol for algorithmic transparency, which remains the biggest stumbling block on its progress. 

In the post-truth era, algorithms have greater challenge to win trust of its users. The problem, as Hosanagar elaborates, lies in the fact that most of the algorithms are created and managed by for-profit companies who protect it as highly valuable forms of intellectual property. If the companies were to let their algorithm source code known to the public, the chances of the systems being manipulated to serve vested-interests can be endless. If Google were to let its source code be known, internet companies can trick the search engine into ranking their websites higher, without concurrent improvements in their contents/services. Resolving the predictability-resilience paradox is next on the agenda to increase algorithms’ social acceptability. 

Seized of the fact that algorithms are heading towards reaching human-level intelligence in processing data and the scale of their impact touching billions of people, Hosanagar advocates developing a set of rights, responsibilities, and regulations to negotiate the unintended consequences of algorithms, including their failures and the steps required to correct them. Without doubt, such an initiative calls for cooperative efforts between the industry and government watchdogs. Because, the role of algorithms is not to accentuate human biases but to curtail them. It is in this regard, Hosanagar’s proposal for an Algorithmic Bill of Rights is timely at defining the boundaries of a responsible machine intelligence behavior. Because unlike chess, for algorithms the game continues even after checkmate.

A Human’s Guide to Machine Intelligence
by Kartik Hosnagar
Penguin Portfolio, New Delhi
Extent: 262, Price: Rs 599.

First published in the Hindu BusinessLine, issue dated September 16, 2019.

It's time to clear the air

Over years, an ecosystem of ignorance and denial has transformed air pollution from a meek cat into an assertive tiger. 

In a country where corruption continues to coexist with progress, indifference to pollution as a fatal fallout of development is bound to remain at the periphery of any meaningful social discourse. Four decades since the enactment of the legislative provision to control and prevent air pollution, and an estimated million people being consumed annually by air pollution, there are not many who yet acknowledge it as a serious scourge in India. And why would they when the government has continued to deny any direct correlation of death exclusively due to air pollution. Over years, an ecosystem of ignorance and denial has transformed air pollution from a meek cat into an assertive tiger. 

Dean Spears confronts this tiger head-on in his socio-anthropological analysis of air pollution as it registers its presence from sprawling urban jungles to degrading rural landscapes to conclude that India’s air pollution is not one problem, but a multi-layered manifestation of governance and market failure. Since air pollution does not respect the rural-urban divide, it poses formidable public policy challenge to fix it. Impact of stubble burning in rural fields on ambient air quality across urban centres has clearly shown that one cannot buy one’s own private escape. It is a collective problem that needs a policy directive on structural reforms to address it.   

It is no denying that air pollution comes from several sources, many of which are non-descript in an informal economy, and keeping a tab on its nature and extent is as challenging as designing incentives to put a cap on it. In the absence of credible data, the book takes the health route to correlate and raise concerns about air pollution. Through carefully curated data, Spears provides evidence on how exposure to air pollution not only results in babies born with low height but shockingly hold a positive correlation with infant mortality rates across the country. Such a piece of statistics points to the grim reality, leaving many wondering if buying homemade filter systems can provide the great escape from worsening air pollution. It should be more than clear therefore that the polluter can hardly keep a safe distance from the impact of pollution, and hence should play a proactive role in nipping the evil in the bud. 

Air, with its long title, provides a nuanced understanding on air pollution and the country’s deep vulnerability to it in future climate change. Since the policymakers have not invested in monitoring pollution and neither have experts developed tools to curb it, the book is directed at those enlightened voters who are concerned about the health of the society. In a country where life expectancy has caught up with rest of the developed world, there is no reason for it to remain home to one-quarter of the world’s neonatal deaths. More than a development challenge, there are clear social and economic reasons to fight air pollution. 

Without doubt, the state has an obligation towards its people. There is no other political choice. If a not-so-free electoral democracy in China can cut down its particle pollution in Beijing as a popular step towards remaining in charge, India has seemingly better democratic credentials to tackle pollution both in urban and rural areas. Spears wonders if the government will pursue a carrot and stick policy of right incentives and punitive punishment to run concurrent in inculcating a responsive behavior among municipal managers and law enforcers. Isn’t it time that a free democracy like India enhance its institutional capacities to serve its vulnerable public? 

It is a handy and easy-to-read book on getting a social science perspective on the political-economy of development (read pollution). It doesn’t tell which boiler can reduce pollution from a coal-based power plant but stays firm that coal is not the energy future for the country. It adds more dangerous particles in the air than any other source. Cutting down on coal as a source of energy offers double-win solution: the co-benefits of reducing air pollution add up to reducing carbon emissions. For a country that is somewhat limited in its resolve and capacity to curb pollution, this is a case that should merit serious attention. The book leaves the reader with a set of open-ended recommendations to deliberate on further.  

Having been living in India for a while, Spears is privy to socio-cultural aspects of both rural and urban life which lends desired credence to his writings. Politics is a difficult way to improve policies, the book asserts, but independent citizens can contribute to democratic accountability by influencing politics. Air pollution is too important an issue not to be tracked by informed citizens to influence the state to act. 

Air: Pollution, Climate Change and India’s Choice between Policy and Pretence
by Dean Spears
HarperCollins, New Delhi
Extent: 258, Price: Rs 250.

First published in Hindustan Times, issue dated Sept 7, 2019.

Beginnings Without End

Early through the novel one learns a rather strange practice of women giving birth while ‘standing like a mare’, priding themselves that nobody other than the midwives witness the child birth.

An award-winning novel raises multiple expectations, not only on its substance and style but on its linguistic strength in connecting reader with the imagined world of possible realities. At the end, what counts are the lingering thoughts the prose leaves the readers to continue grapple with in solitude. Celestial Bodies, first Omani novel to win the coveted Man Booker prize, ticks all the boxes on being imaginative, alluring and irresistible at the same time. First published as Sayyidat al-qamar, the novel by academic Jokha Alharthi traces an Omani family journey over three generations, through the twists and travails in a country that emerged as an oil-rich Gulf state in the 1960s but was the last to abolish slavery in 1970. Carefully crafted on a historical canvas, it prisms lived experience of three sisters as they swim through changing times that opens life in an Omani village to the world. 

For American historian Marilyn Booth, who translated the book and shared the prize, there were surprises throughout. What attracted her to translate Alharthi was the absence of stereotypes in her analysis of gender, race, and social distinction. “Through the different tentacles of people’s lives and loves and losses we come to learn about this society – all its degrees, from the very poorest of the slave families working there to those making money through the advent of a new wealth in Oman and Muscat.” Alharthi weaves individual stories through a distinct but intricate and engaging narrative; while the third-person account deals with the person(s) on whom the chapter is named, the first-person reflections are by only one character, Abdallah – the lone voice in a man’s world who happens to be the husband of the eldest of the three sisters.

Celestial Bodies is set in the Omani village of al-Awafi and follows the stories of three sisters: Mayya, who lay immersed in her sewing machine but marries into a rich family after a heartbreak; Asma, who was at peace with her books and marries for duty; and Khawla, who spent better part of life with her mirror and waited to marry a man who had emigrated to Canada. Undoubtedly fallible but individualistic nonetheless, each has a share in the complicated inter-generational relationships in a domestic drama that connects ‘past’ with ‘future’ through a transitional ‘present’.  It is subtle artistry of the author that allows its characters to retain their individuality, but not without being part of a home that has externalities of influences at work all the time which sheds light on travesties of life in Oman.  

What makes Celestial Bodies distinct is its proclivity for details captured through varied voices and tones about cultural norms, social customs, and entrenched taboos. What comes out clear is that there is a silent quest amongst women to break free from the shackles of traditions, reflecting inner strength and a resolve to play different. Else, Mayya would not have dared to name her daughter ‘London’ despite sustained criticism on naming the little angel for a city in the land of the Christians. There is defying silence in her response to all-pervasive whisper around the issue, using silence as an act of perfection to guard herself. By creating a bubble of silence around her, Mayya found that nothing could cause her any pain. Alharthi allows her characters to evolve on their own, gaining distinct identity and drawing strength from their well thought-out actions. 

Early through the novel one learns a rather strange practice of women giving birth while ‘standing like a mare’, priding themselves that nobody other than the crowding midwives witness the child birth. ‘There is no longer any shame in the world as women have their babies lying flat on their backs, and the men can hear their screams from the other end of the hospital.’ Having herself been born through such a tradition, and cajoled by none other than her own mother about its virtues, Mayya had her baby slide out right into the hands of the Christians in a missionary hospital in Muscat. Symbolic as it may seem, the generational swing towards modernity has its virtues but that do not make life any less turbulent in the long run. Yet, change remains the essential denominator for defying the inherited values in a traditional society.

How change works out across generations is an altogether different subject? Although upholding the banner of ‘change’, Mayya found it hard to reconcile the fact that London was in love.  Why would she lock up her daughter and smash her phone? Having not had his share of love as Mayya remained glued to her sewing machine, Abdallah thought she never knew love and so did not know how to deal with her lovelorn daughter. Popping up as some sort of an interlocutor in Celestial Bodies, Abdallah doesn’t assert any authority but shares his vulnerabilities and accepts lack of control over things shaping around him. One begins to empathize with Abdallah who laments: ‘everything remained in its place even if I had no place.’ There is subtle artistry in Alharthi’s writing that lends a mix of psychology and philosophy to the novel.

Celestial Bodies has multiple beginnings, but no end. It is mosaic of complicated human relationships, where one begins to discover oneself by breaking the cocoon of myths and beliefs. Early in her marriage, Asma discovered that marriage was not the coming together of unmade halves (as she had long perceived) who find their other halves and miraculously become whole. Far from being each other’s halves, each one is a celestial sphere complete unto itself, orbiting only along its already defined path. It is through patience and self-examination that one learns that there is an inherent gain in creating enough space in relationships for each to orbit freely. Asma made peace with her better half after realizing that humans are but celestial bodies with a defined course of its own. Any collision or fusion is an act of temporary disruption, one must adjust into and move on. 

There is some kind of intuitive creativity with which individual characters emerge from their fallible existence to lend strength to the narrative. Alharthi lets them be, an embodiment of strengths, follies and eccentricities of life. Khawla’s long wait was over following the return of Nasir from Canada. Once she was settled in Oman with her husband and two children, she sought divorce from the one she had only waited to share her life with. Celestial Bodies is a multi-generational saga full of surprises, which also tells the story of a country that is evolving out of its past traditions. Alharthi captures multiple situations in presenting a nuanced understanding of the coming-of-age of a society in transition. A doctorate in Classical Arabic Poetry and author of three collections of stories, Alharthi has the makings of a literary giant that readers will only begin to wait for her next. 

Celestial Bodies
by Jokha Alharthi
Translated by Marilyn Booth
Simon & Schuster, New Delhi
Extent: 243, Price: Rs. 499.

First published in The Book Review, issue dated Sept, 2019. 

They used the good book

Whether the apex court which upholds constitutional obligations of the state has transformed to become the ‘Supreme Court of Indians’ is still open to interpretation.

In dispensing justice to a mason Moti Ram in 1978, whom the lower court had granted bail against a surety of ten thousand rupees to be realized within the same district, Justice Krishna Iyer had expressed shock at the manner of seeking such high surety from a poor man and reminded the errant magistrate that ‘our Constitution, enacted by ‘We the People of India’ is meant for the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker – shall we add the bonded laborer and the pavement dweller.’ It was a conscious reference to a statement by Justice Vivian Bose in 1956 who, while expressing anguish at procedural delays in getting relief for a petitioner had explicitly stated that the Constitution was not only for the exclusive benefits of the highly placed but as much for the poor and the humble.  

These and many such cases not only project the glory of our Constitution but demonstrate how marginal citizens operating in an informal economy have continued to use the constitutional provisions as an instrument to trigger public debates on state’s obligation towards individual freedom and social justice. Created by an elite consensus, it is interesting how the Constitution and constitutional remedies have been sought by individuals on the margins who take recourse through the Supreme Court to produce an alternative narrative on citizenship. Whether the apex court which upholds constitutional obligations of the state has transformed to become the ‘Supreme Court of Indians’ is still open to interpretation.

In claiming that the constitutional provisions have indeed transformed everyday life in the country, A Peoples’ Constitution argues that for a wide range of groups it acted as a powerful way to check on executive powers in framing and claiming their legitimate rights. The book examines four important cases that set legal precedents: a Parsi journalist’s contestation of new alcohol prohibition laws; Marwari petty traders’ challenge to the system of commodity control; Muslim butchers’ petition against cow protection laws; and sex workers’ plea to protect their right to practice prostitution. What emerges is not a story of simple resistance to state authority but a process of civic engagement with the state to reshape the society and its economy.

Through the study of these landmark cases, Rohit De, an assistant professor of history at Yale University, shows how a claim to cultural autonomy alongside a choice of economic activity had not only generated democratic behavior but contributed to strengthening democracy too. That ordinary citizens have been in the forefront of rational legal battles with the state from the earlier days lay to rest the dominant assumption that judicial activism gained currency only in the 1980s. In effect, the legacy of forward-looking posture by the court had invoked touching faith and confidence among the underprivileged to seek recourse of law for their rights. All said, the Supreme Court is still an elitist institution, not for the faint-hearted without adequate resources.   

De’s insightful analysis leads the reader away from the judgement-driven narrative on ‘who won the case’ to a more nuanced understanding on the contingency and the contestation that make up the process of litigation. The anxieties of the legal process outside the court premises are at times more important than the actual outcome of the case. Despite the sex workers’ minimal success in the courts, the litigation succeeded in challenging the arbitrary powers of a local magistrate to evict any woman from the neighborhood. Similarly, in the prohibition cases expanded police powers came under judicial ire. The afterlife of a court case is critical, not only as a legal precedent for lower courts but also for its impact on executive practices.

Despite such incisive analysis, A Peoples’ Constitution limits itself to a celebratory note and as a consequence omits addressing the structural shortcomings in the system. Although it is the constitutional mandate to keep judiciary separate from the executive, in majority of the states the district magistrates are still drawn from the civil service. The book remains silent on the Supreme Court’s failure to address this malaise, as also on the abysmal state of the lower judiciary. Till both these aspects are tackled upfront, full realization of constitutional provisions will remain a work in progress. With constitutional consciousness growing among citizens, the judicial process needs to be made responsive to the everyday life of its people. 

A Peoples’ Constitution
by Rohit De
Princeton University Press, Princeton
Extent: 296, Price: Rs 435

First published in weekly Outlook, issue for the week ending Sept 16, 2019.