#1 From Vietnam´s cold war infused struggle with ideology to #2 how our brains model the reality around us for us to thrive, with a sprinkling of some #3 life rules from which emerged some remarkable life lessons

A really sluggish start to 2022 with its COVID enforced isolation, meant that I had more time to indulge in reading than a normal January. As I slowly gathered myself from what turned out to be a mild version of you know who, I found myself for the first time I can remember reading three books at the same time and I was pleasantly surprised at how fun this turned out to be.

The first month of a year is always a special time, time to rest the past and look forward to the would be discoveries that lie in wait. A time for savoring what was, so you can move on properly to aiming ahead. January always fires up my curiosities and book-wise this means at least 4 false starts and few more no starts and if I am lucky, maybe I will read one fully. This year was no different, I checked out enough titles to last the whole year. However luckily there were a three in them that captivated me enough to read them.

There has probably been no bigger cause for human suffering, than ideology. Scientists tell us that no model is perfect, it is sometimes the best we have to sort out the chaos of life, till we improve it or come across another. In the political – social – economic sections however the primacy of ideas and positions people take seem to be everything. So it was in Vietnam as well.

#1 The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, is the story of a spy set in the days of Vietnam war. An undercover communist spy working for the south Vietnamese faction is the unnamed protagonist. Adding more layers to his already dangerous identity is his origins, being half Vietnamese and half French ( the former colonial overlords of Vietnam) and an illegitimate child of a priest, the protagonist seems to be everywhere and no where at the same time. That to me was the brilliance of the book.

He can identify with all the major tribes in the conflict, his ties to all the factions in the war run deep and are bonded by birth, friendships, sweat and blood, so there is no running away. With time he starts to understand all the sides, starts to see their points of view, hates them all as much as he love them too. Its a lonely existence, of the likes of the only sensible man in a madhouse. He kills to keep the pretense going and to hide his dissonance with the faction´s purpose, only to be haunted back. Against all odds he remains loyal to the communist cause, even giving up a relatively easy existence in Los Angeles to be reunited with the red back home. Only to realize freedom achieved through the revolution , was only ever sustained by tyranny.

Getting back to the models of reality guiding us humans through the chaos of life. That seems to be pretty much how our brains work.

#2 A Thousand Brains by Jeff Hawkins was a recommendation from Bill Gates, as part of his Gatesnotes effort, that I follow. Rarely does he disappoint with his book recommendations and this one was a hit out of the park.

One intriguing thing about us humans is that we know so little about how our brains work. For all the progress we have made in understanding and shaping our world to our convenience, we have hardly made any progress when it comes to knowing how our brains work. All this might be changing soon, according to Jeff Hawkins, the computer technology entrepreneur turned leading neuroscientist who runs Numenta, a leading neuro science research center based in USA.

Our brains are prediction machines, that predict what our sensory system should experience as we move through the world, and as long as the predictions match what we experience we have nothing to learn, till it does not and then comes the firing of proximal synapses of a neuron. Which essentially means we learnt something and our brain is quick to record it and update its prediction models.

What this means is that everything we experience is recorded by our brains using reference frames, just like a map. So if you ever wondered at why visual pictures and animation are such good aids in learning complex concepts, it is because your brain can only records things as maps and movement within these maps is the way we learn things. So there is a universal algorithm that solves for all and every problem we face or think about and it is based on reference frames, maps and movement.

The new brain (Neo cortex) is supposed to be composed of about 150,000 cortical columns and each one of these columns is built of the same basic foundation of this universal algorithm. Each of them stores many hundreds of models of reality , think the bed on which you woke up today, the pair of home slippers you slipped on , the kitchen you walked into, the cup of coffee you held on to as you read about north Korea in the news and pondered about communism and totalitarianism. All these objects and concepts are models in your brain.

Models make predictions and that enables you to anticipate and react to your surroundings, not just that. The cortical columns are said to have multiple models on the same object/concept, so how do you know which one´s prediction to go for ? well the famous word called consensus!!. the different cortical columns are said to have certain cells that are connected across in long paths to other columns and these cells vote to reach a consensus on which models’ prediction to go for. I am already picturing the blockchain guys jumping in joy :-).

All this is fine. Why is this so revolutionary ? It is so because we have never had an overall understanding of how the brain puts all its hardware and software together and gets it to work. What we have had has been some understanding of various components of the organ of intelligence but never the theory of how it comes together. This thousand brains theory is that.

Also what follows is that what we call AI today with the use of machine learning /deep learning is not really intelligent in the way our brain is. So the author goes as far as saying that what we have as machine intelligence is not intelligence at all. 1. Can it solve for all problems using a general purpose universal algorithm like our brain, 2. Can it dynamically learn from data that differs from the training data that was used , 3. can it use movement through its surroundings as a learning cue, 4. can it build multiple virtual models of things to develop flexibility and redundancy and 5. can it store knowledge using reference frames as maps.

Till it can do the above 5, it is not intelligent yet says the author. This to me is super exciting. Neuro morphic AI promises to overcome the limitations of the AI we know so far and this can super charge what is already a buzzing technology today.

There is also a discussion on consciousness, the other really tricky part of intelligence. The author links it with awareness and qualia. Awareness as an ability to form moment to moment memories and being able to recall them and qualia as the ability of the brain to create models that can capture and predict highly subjective experiences like tasting pickle etc.

The final section of the book is a bit on the old human brain and how there are risks stemming from the flight or fight tendencies. False belief for example have a way to virally spread among humans and the old brain working is the reason why and maybe the neo cortex can thwart it over time.

What also follows is the old brain and neo cortex can´t be treated as separate as such. The neo cortex provides an amazing tool of intelligence which is still expressed within the boundaries set by the goal, hope, vision, fears and insecurities emanating from the old brain. So when people worry about machine intelligence taking over , one has to wonder where the motivation to do so will come from if machine intelligence is not granted an old brain equivalent.

Finally the most articulative part of the book is where the author lays out a vision for human kind, he sees us as being a mere vehicle of the genes that drive us to copy and replicate, he identifies a more nobler cause for the future where we transfer knowledge forward rather than just genes. So when humans are long gone there will still be the knowledge we gathered during our existence, for another life form to benefit from.

The last book of the month was what made me most uncomfortable starting. In picking #3 12 Rules for life by Jordan Peterson, who according to some accounts does not criticize patriarchy and lays emphasis on individual action in a way that neglects oppression and its crippling effects on the ability of the oppressed to take actions. All this made me wonder if I will be able to give it an honest read without judging it too early.

However it was also one of those books that you could not ignore, no matter what side of the left – right divide you found yourself in. The popularity of the man, especially among the younger demographic of the western world coupled with him being a practicing psychologist, to me hinted at some insights about our world that maybe I miss from my existing diet of reading.

Here I was taking cautious steps, doubting the author at every reference of religion or what seemed as a justification of the existing dominance hierarchy , only to be spoken to as an individual, only to be reasoned with to listen as the person talking to me might know something I don´t and I left the book convinced of all the work I need to do with myself in a way that somehow did not make feel less a person.

I was pleasantly surprised by his non conformance to ideology and his call to develop self awareness and deliberate, intentional effort to improve oneself, instead of finding shortcomings outside oneself. Although not a universal solution to all problems of our global village, nonetheless it was quite effective in putting someone privileged as me ( upper caste male from India) in the right frame of mind to engage with the world pragmatically. Below are some of my personal takeaways from the book

#1 : Dominance hierarchy is real, no matter if we think that is the way the world should work or not. So better be prepared to marshal your resources to preserve self and anticipate when people you encounter in your life, seem to fall into this mode. We are all only as good as the times we live in.

#2 : Life rests straddled between Order and Chaos, we find meaning by mediating between that two. How much of chaos can we take and still manage to create enough order for ourselves and others in our lives to thrive?

#3 : How do you negotiate with yourself ? are you fair or are you a tyrant ? Gift yourself an indulgence every time you do something that was difficult or new. If negotiating with oneself is a good experience, you will see yourself doing more of the things that make life meaningful in the long run and you are less resentful and more of an actor in your life.

#4 : Parents have to act as proxies of the real world. Protect your kids , but also prepare them for the chaotic world they will have to live & thrive in

#5 : An idea has an aim, it reduces the world to things that aid or impede it, makes everything else irrelevant . To be possessed by ideology is to act out as an avatar of the idea, to be blind to the complex realities of life , to not thinking deliberately on how to make ones life meaningful

#6 : Conversation is exploring, articulating and strategizing and not advising, only accomplished by listening . Thinking is listening too, listening to yourself.

#7 : Cooperation is for safety, security and belonging , while competition is for personal growth and status. We humans need both of these for a fulfilled and meaningful life. So the strength of the bonds we develop with people in our lives lets us enjoy both or destroy one for the other.