Anything, but not about future

Water future is in the hands of an archaic water sector, predominantly under government control, and afflicted by business-as-usual approach.

Cape Town achieved ‘Day Zero’ not too long ago, sending alarm bells ringing across the urbane world to set in order its water management system to avoid being next on the new nomenclature for cities. Despite it being clear that improved water management requires better coordination between demand and supply while keeping a close tab on the source, water scarcity continues to haunt human habitations like never before. No surprise that quite a few cities have already started vying for the second position. With depth to groundwater level having slumped to 93.7 per cent during the last decade, and with most water bodies consigned to unrestricted development, Bangaluru continues to be in the race for such dubious distinction. 

Water crises is at the tipping point across the world. In their 2018 study published in Nature Sustainability (1, 51-58), Martina Florke, Christof Schneider and Robert McDonald had projected an urban surface-water deficit of 1,386–6,764 million m³ affecting one-third of the 482 world’s largest cities studied. The study had concluded that by 2050, Jaipur will be the city with the second-largest water deficit in the world, Jodhpur 14th and Chennai 20th. Several other studies point to the fact that a grim water future is staring all across, with its implications cutting across the socio-economic fabric of the society. In light of the emerging scenario(s), a volume on Water Futures of India assessing the status of science and technology in addressing the impending crises evokes interest. 

Initiated by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and supported by two projects at the Inter-disciplinary Centre for Water Research (ICWaR), the edited volume comprises of chapters written by eminent scientists and engineers engaged in water research and practice with an aim to bring to light the status of water science and technology in dealing with the current and emerging water crisis. From water trapped in deep aquifers to that locked in glaciers, and from what flows on the surface to that floating in the atmosphere, science and technology of understanding water in its different forms and settings has grown in leaps and bounds. Seemingly, science is now able to account for each drop of water as it moves through the consumptive systems. Paradoxically, however, the more is known about the universal solvent, its source and flow dynamics, the less is at the systems’ command to resurrect the elixir of life to its pristine glory.  

Given its growing demand, moving water on a circular economy pathway has emerged as an opportunity to accelerate and scale-up recent scientific and technological advances supporting greater efficiency across sectors. Within the regulatory market space, the value of existing practices and technologies that enable navigation through the water pathway, the material pathway, and the energy pathway allow a shift from ‘take-consume-dispose’ model to strategies based on demand management, resource diversification, operational optimization and nutrient recovery. However, limiting itself in scope Water Futures of India remains restricted to addressing water challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

Covering subjects ranging from groundwater hydraulics, glacier hydrology, desalinization technologies, sediment dynamics, and isotope hydrology, authors suggest several new tools and techniques to address geophysical complexities within the limited experimental domains. The comprehensive list of scientific challenges raised in the opening chapter, however, remain grossly unaddressed. The volume broadly acknowledges such gaps in connecting cutting-edge science to policy and practice, but none of the contributions break free from the confines that public-funded science and technology has come to be identified with. Consequently, in part it reads like a text with the remaining a subject of research, being researched. 

Water Futures in India raises questions on the directions and relevance of public-funded research on a subject as critical as water. Why it remains at a distance from addressing societal problems? Why scientific research doesn’t influence policy? Why communicating science with other stakeholders remains limited? While technological developments are urgently needed to improve efficiency of water use across sectors in a circular economy pathway, it needs to be underpinned by a strong policy response to ensure its effectiveness.     

Part of the problem lies in water sector being archaic, predominantly under government control, and afflicted by business-as-usual approach. Consequently, it lacks progressive vision and poor adoption of innovative techniques. Given the fact that there is no formal science-policy interface that encourages applied research with the aim of adopting science to improve sector performance, much of the high-end research remains fodder for research journals only. Given large scale spatial and temporal variability of water in the country, role of scientific tools, methodologies and technologies in addressing water issues cannot be undermined.

Water Futures of India falls short of making a desired impact. It is an assortment of randomly selected papers/articles which do not measure up to the expectations from such a volume. Given the fact that not all science produced in the country is applicable on the ground, the volume could have been better designed to position the contents against a futuristic framework. Nonetheless, it has been an ambitious undertaking with a limited shelf life.       

Water Futures of India
by P P Majumdar & V M Tiwari (Eds) 
IISc Press, Bangaluru
Extent: 481, Unpriced

First published in AnthemEnviroExpertsReview, Sept 2020

Life hacks in vale of tears

As tech takes over, deepening misery, battering the human spirit, subduing truth, Harari advocates a meditative resilience, a constant debate

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. And, it is becoming increasingly so as machine intelligence powers its way beyond intelligent minds and algorithms begin to guide human emotions. Far from maximizing human potential, such technological transformation is upgrading computers to the extent that it will empower a handful of tiny elite at the cost of most others who not only stand to get exploited but are being made irrelevant in the process too. The cumulative impact of emerging info-tech revolution is fueling global inequality like never before, while contributing to increasing social tensions which are dividing humankind into hostile camps. 

Unless the situation is peeled to its last layer, it may not be clear where the world is headed and how indeed should we protect ourselves and the generations to follow. From ecological cataclysm to fake news epidemic and from chauvinistic nationalism to underrated bio-terrorism, the world is fast becoming a theatre of the absurd where the bull of progress is raging wild with anxiety and anger. Spare a moment and one will find that in the emerging social milieu the internal lives of individuals are being compromised. Little do we realize that an unprecedented pressure on our personal lives had ignited the Arab Spring, and has now sparked #Me Too movement? Clearly, there is more to come as our internal psychological mechanism remains under duress.  

In his clear-eyed and searingly realistic assessment, Yuval Noah Harari draws lessons that celebrate human wisdom but without discounting human stupidity. Enlisting 21 carefully distilled lessons into 5 over-arching themes, the Oxford scholar traverses the world of despair emerging from unresolved technological and political challenges to underscore the significance of meditative resilience in a world of post-truth ignorance. It is a curious and reflective analysis of the existential challenges here and now, lessons that are borne out of our complicity in political biases, unabashed privileges and institutional oppression.  

Harari keeps it plain and simple, locating lessons in our everyday acceptance of the so-called inevitable. Many of the social and political disruptions of our time can be located in ever more lonely lives we live in an ever more connected planet. Irrespective of how many virtual friends one may boast, it is an accepted fact that one cannot know more than 150 individuals. The facade of generating likes on the social media is not without serious psychological repercussions. Humans may have got everything under their control in their journey till now, but in the new age they are finding it hard to make sense of all that the technology has on offer. 

As the title suggests, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a collection of essays written over time to grapple the present day predicament of existence. Much of what he writes emerges in response to the nagging question ‘why there is so much suffering in the world and in my own life?’ Harari contends that we are living in an age of bewilderment, when myths of all kind are collapsing – from religious myths about god and heavens to nationalist myths about the motherland and the nation-state, and from romantic myths about love and adventure to capitalist myths about economic growth and consumerism. Yet, the society continues to nurture myths.

Truth is a casualty in the process.  The truth is that truth was never high on the agenda of Homo sapiens; instead they have been busy constructing stories. Be it religion or politics, the focus is to fit ourselves into some ready-made story such that we stay away from truth. This is how life has continued from generation to generation, making each animal play its part in the story. But without getting to know ourselves more, we will continue to believe stories. So if you want to know the truth about the universe, about the meaning of life, and about your own identity, explains Harari, the best place to start is by observing suffering and exploring what it is. 

While one might not concur with all the lessons on offer, the infectious enthusiasm with which Harari writes makes it virtually impossible not to be carried away. The author of the global bestseller Sapiens has rooted his essays in everyday realities; the book however remains ambitious in scale. The essential take home message is to join the debate about the future of humanity. History is unlikely to give us any discounts or exempt us from the consequences if we continue to pursue our busy schedules. More people join the debate the better it is. The globalized world is in dire need of the empathetic imagination. 

In spite of its unwieldy capaciousness, Harari espouses a fundamental truth about our scarred times: that nothing can insulate us from the vagaries of a violent and vengeful world.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century 
by Yuval Noah Harari
Jonathan Cape, London
Extent: 352, Price: Rs 799

First published in Outlook magazine, issue for the week ending Feb 25, 2019.

Who pays when everything is for free!

The awe of network technology is overwhelming as it showers a variety of freebies, so much so that we wonder why stuff like music and movies were priced in the past. Such freebies come on account of us donating vital information and surrendering our privacy - like our interest, buying habits and cyber movements - that has created an economy in the hands of those who 'own the fastest computers with access to everyone's information'.

Little does anyone care because false hope is spread that the emerging information economy will benefit those who provide the information that drives it? If this were so, some 140,000 people employed with Kodak would not have lost their job when Instagram had acquired it; and Facebook would not have rested those 13 employees who made Instagram worth a billion dollars before buying it. Where did all those jobs disappear to and what happened to the middle-class wealth that was created? Haven’t we been witness to recession and unemployment instead!

Digital visionary and philosopher Jaron Lanier argues that we have been psychologically victimized by technologies that we 'have chosen to adopt'. But has there been much choice? Internet technologies promote the strength of democratized wisdom at the cost of killing individual voice and intellectualism. What you say on the internet is converted into dehumanized data, which makes the information aggregator rich and not the one who produces the information in the first place. This is exactly the wrong set of values that Lanier has been concerned about. Having invented the term virtual reality and having been part of the Silicon Valley, Lanier emphatically questions the self-destructive nature of the information economy.

Recognized as history's 300 greatest inventors, Lanier reasons the need for shaping technology to fit culture's needs and not vice versa. He suggests the following experiment: resign from all the free online services you use for six months to see what happens. You don’t need to denounce them forever, make value judgements, or be dramatic. Just be experimental. You will probably learn more about yourself, your friends, the world, and the Internet than you would have if you never performed the experiment.' Only by leading absorbing lives, as an individual and as a part of the society, can we outgrow our addiction to technology-driven consumerism!....Link

Who owns the future?
by Jaron Lanier 
AllenLane, UK
Extent: 360, Price: £ 20