Computer Scientists

"In the Mahabharata, we find the story of Nala and Damayanti. Damayanti announces her intention to remarry by choosing a husband (swayamvara). As Nala and Rituparna (the king of Ayodhya) are rushing from Ayodhya to Vidarbha to participate, they stop near a Vibhitaka tree—the five-faced fruits of which were used in the ancient Indian game of dice. Rituparna shows off his knowledge of statistics by saying: “The number of fruits in the two branches of the tree is 2095, count them if you like.” Nala says he will do exactly that – count them by the empirical method of physically cutting down the tree. Anxious not be delayed, Rituparna dissuades Nala by offering to explain how it was done using sampling and probability theory, also used in the game of dice."

"To summarise, there were different ways to measure angles very accurately in Indian tradition. An angle was defined in the sophisticated way as the length of a curved line, not in the naïve way as something (what thing?) made by two straight lines meeting at a point. The reference to 360 and 720 as a way to measure revolutions is indeed found in the Rgveda, and relates to astronomy and the calendar. Texts like Vedanga Jyotisa (– 1500 CE) use more accurate measures of angles in fractions of degrees. Similar accuracy in angle measurement was part of navigational and astronomical practice."

"This then is the real meaning of those claims of "discovery" by Vasco, Columbus and Cook: people are asked to glorify and celebrate the genocide of non-Christians on three continents. That sets the attitudes of a large mass of people today. Thus, deliberately false historical claims of "discovery" continue to assist the genocidal church politics of world power."

"Adopting this unscientific Christian Gregorian calendar ruins India's economic interests."

"Zeroism is an alternative philosophy of mathematics,1 based on śūnyavāda, a realistic philosophy often ascribed to the Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna (2nd c. CE).2 It is now called zeroism to emphasize that the concern is with the practical and contemporary benefits of that śūnyavāda philosophy, as distinct from fidelity to this or that interpretation of the textual sources of śūnyavāda, which have often been misunderstood and mangled by scholars unfamiliar with the idiom. Indeed, the whole idea of relying on the authority of textual sources is a practice of scriptural traditions, and contrary to śūnyavāda, which denies the validity of proof by authority."

"The Indian origin of infinite series, found in widely distributed texts, has long been publicly known to Western scholars (Whish 1832). Recent research (Raju 2007) has shown that these Indian developments really did amount to the calculus. (This brings to the forefront various epistemological issues, and the very philosophy of mathematics taken for granted in Western discourse.) This research has also pushed the historical origin of the calculus in India much further back, to the 5th c. CE Āryabhat.a, and his method of obtaining sine values by numerically solving the corresponding differential equation using a finite difference technique."

"In Indian philosophy only empirical proof (प्रतरक प्रमार) was universally accepted, by all schools of philosophy. Further, the Lokayata accepted only empirical proofs; specifically they rejected deductive proof (अिम ाि) as inferior. As the Lokayata critique of deductive proofs shows, and as even formal mathematicians today admit, deductively proven theorems are, at best, true relative to postulates. Hence, mere deductive proof does NOT lead to valid knowledge (the goal of Indian philosophy) until the postulates are empirically validated, as in science."

"While there is nothing Vedic in “Vedic mathematics”, there is church dogma in formal mathematics."

"The linguistic error of translation in the term “sine” was accompanied by a conceptual error, as in the very word “trigonometry” where the functions relate to the circle, not the triangle. That error persists to this day in the teaching of “trigonometry” which is stuck in the pre-Āryabhat.a era. The word “trigonometry” is in quotes, since this geometric method wrongly suggests that the concepts of sine and cosine relate to the triangle, whereas they actually relate to the circle."

"Of course, formal Western mathematics (and indeed much of Western philosophy) is likely to be a long-term casualty of any departure from 2-valued logic. In fact, the very idea that logic (or the basis of probability) is not culturally universal, and may not be empirically certain, unsettles a large segment of Western thought, and its traditional beliefs about induction and deduction."

"If one excludes the philosophy of science from the ambit of a study of its history, then one is obliged to do history with the default philosophy of science. In our case this means that one must then accept the present-day Western philosophy of mathematics, not only as a privileged philosophy, but as the only possible philosophy of mathematics."

"From the historiographic angle, the confounding of Euclid of Megara with Euclid the supposed author of the Elements is interesting. While the occurrence of such a mistake is understandable, its persistence for five centuries is not. The persistence of this error for centuries shows that that stories about "Euclid" were propagated, by historians in Europe, exactly in the uncritical manner of myth."

"The second consequence follows from the first: for if the Indian infinite series were established using a method of calculation and demonstration that does not constitute a formal mathematical proof, valid according to the present-day belief in the potency of formalism, then the Indian infinite series may forever have to be consigned to the status of "proto- calculus", or at best "pre-calculus", for that is how Western historians of science would surely like to classify them, if at all they are compelled to link these Indian infinite series to the infinitesimal calculus in Europe. After all, Indian infinite series were very similar to, if not identical with, the series used by Cavalieri, Fermat, Pascal, Barrow, Gregory, and Wallis, and these efforts are already classified as “pre-calculus” by Western historians of science. While such a strategy of classification and labelling may suit the political interests and the morbid narcissism of the West, it works against the grain of history regarded as an attempt to reconstruct the past."

"Of course, it is well known from the philosophy of science that any evidence whatsoever can be made consistent with any theory whatsoever by introducing enough auxiliary hypotheses."

"No Western historian, to my knowledge, has commented on the curious fact that the theory of planetary motion in the West developed without the availability of appropriate planetary data. To begin with, every purported observation in “Ptolemy’s” Almagest is fabricated, and obtained by back-calculation. There is not a single known exception to this."

"The trigonometric values published by Clavius ... provide further circumstantial evidence that the Jesuits had obtained the latest Indian texts on mathematics and astronomy.’"

"The rope (or string) is flexible in more ways than one and can be used to do everything that can be done with a compass-box. It can further be used to measure the length of a curved line, impossible with the instruments in a compass- box. This is helpful for the measurement of angles, and the subsequent transition to trigonometry and calculus."

"The history of astronomy and physics in texts should be fundamentally revised. It should be pointed out, for example, that a scientific evaluation of the evidence indicates that Claudius Ptolemy did not exist (this would also teach students a lesson on how and why to do physics practicals in a more genuine way). It should also point out that Copernicus was no revolutionary, that Newton was a deeply religious person, and that Einstein might have played legalistic tricks which a patent clerk is expected to know. There are many other aspects of history and physics nomenclature which need to be revised (in texts)."

"To recapitulate, in mathematics, the East-West civilizational clash may be represented by the question of pramâna vs proof: is pramâna (validation), which involves pratyaksa (the empirically manifest), not valid proof? The pratyaksa or the empirically manifest is the one pramâna that is accepted by all major Indian schools of thought, and this is incorporated into the Indian way of doing mathematics, while the same pratyaksa, since it concerns the empirical, is regarded as contingent, and is entirely rejected in Western mathematics. Does mathematics relate to calculation, or is it primarily concerned with proving theorems? Does the Western idea of mathematical proof capture the notions of ‘certainty’ or ‘necessity’ in some sense? Should mathematics-as-calculation be taught primarily for its practical value, or should mathematics-as-proof be taught as a spiritual exercise?"

"Only when it started emerging from the Dark Age did Europe first come to know of the Elements—through 12th c. translations from Arabic into Latin by Adelard of Bath and Gerard of Cremona—after the capture of the Toledo library, and the setting up there of a translation factory. However, at this time of the Crusades, there was a strong sense of shame in learning from the Islamic enemy. Also at the time of the Inquisition, the fears that Toledo was a Trojan horse that would spread heresy could not be lightly discounted. The shame was contained by the strategy of "Hellenization"—all the world knowledge, up to the 11th c. CE found in the Arabic books (including, for example, Indian knowledge) was indiscriminately assigned an early Greek origin, with the Arabs assigned the role of mere transmitters (and the Indians nowhere in the picture). The fear of heresy was contained by the strategy of Christianization of this incoming knowledge, by reinterpreting it to bring it in line with the requirements of Christian theology."

"We have seen a number of difficulties raised by sceptics about the belief in life after death; these difficulties evaporate in the context of cosmic recurrence."

"It is a common error to confound quasi-cyclic time with eternal recurrence. It was not generally believed that these cosmic cycles were exact or eternal. The whole possibility of deliverance – moksa, nirvāna – was premised on the idea that these cycles were neither exact nor eternal. (However, the category of cyclic time encourages such an error by suggesting that various types of cyclic time are the same.) In India, this was the traditional view of time and life after death held from before the time of the Buddha. The Lokāyata denied the belief in life after death as a fraud. An interesting feature of this denial is how Pāyāsi sought to establish the non-existence of the soul by performing some 37 experiments with dying men, and condemned felons. It is unlikely that such experiments were ever performed anywhere else."

"The Elements not only acquired a theologically-correct origin, it also acquired a theologically-correct interpretation. Plato and Neoplatonists had linked geometry and mathematics to the soul. The revised interpretation rejected this linkage as heretical. Mathematics was reinterpreted as “a universal means of compelling argument”."

"the term “sine” derives from sinus meaning fold, from the Arabic jaib, meaning fold for a pocket. This was written as “jb” omitting the vowels, but was intended to be read as jı̄bā, from the Indian term jı̄vā corresponding to the earlier Sanskrit jyā used for the chord. Possibly, the name “Euclid” was inspired by a similar translation error made at Toledo regarding the term uclides which has been rendered by some Arabic authors as ucli (key) + des (direction, space). So, uclides, meaning “the key to geometry”, was possibly misinterpreted as a Greek name Euclides."

"It seems part of human nature that if one desires something strongly one pretends that it is true. If the pretence is carried out long enough, it becomes difficult to distinguish between pretence and reality."

"Moving to pragmatic and people-oriented standards rather than the Westerm-oriented standards of the elite will hopefully also restore the idea of science as relating to our immediate surroundings, both social and natural."

"In writing about physics, as distinct from mathematics or astronomy, in early Indian traditions, one is immediately struck by the apparent paucity of material—the available commentaries in English suggest that there is little beyond the Purusa Sukta, the pancabhutis and atomism."

"This book, since it presents a new account of Indian history, inevitably involves a critique of Western history. However, some Western scholars, recognizing the intrinsic weakness of that history, tend to respond to any critique of Western history not by examining the evidence (which would expose it) but by launching personal attacks on the critic with labels—in this case, the label "Hindu nationalist" seems to commonly arise to the tongues of shallow scholars. Now I completely fail to see why the only choice one has is between different kinds of hate politics— why the rejection of Western racist history necessarily implies the acceptance of some other kind of hate politics. ... It is easy to find many people who oppose one kind of hate politics while being "soft" on another set: however, as stated above, I fail to see why one's choice should be restricted to different brands of hate politics. I am not in any such camp, my stated system of ethics does not admit hate politics of any kind, and I oppose all attempts to mix religion with politics... Suppose “Hindu nationalists” were to seize power, strangle dissent by passing laws to kill dissenters, in painful ways, and then continuously expand their power through multiple genocide for the next 1700 years. What sort of history would emerge? We do not need to imagine very hard, for we have a concrete model before us, in the sort of Western history that has been written since Eusebius! Because of the long history of brutal suppression of dissent in the West, various fantasies, contrary to the barest common sense, have been allowed to pile up, and these continue today to masquerade as the scholarly truth."

"The opportunity is there, what lacks is the willingness to do it. There is a lot more discipline and constraint needed in manufacturing but in the long term, it is something that has rewards."

"We can't make a Mercedes in Uganda but we can make something fit for our local market."

"And technology is central in achieving gender equality. How does technology reinforce some of the biases that we observe? For example, I was reading about a big US company that had a résumé sorting algorithm that was discriminating against women."

"If you look at issues of education, technology is key. In rural schools, where qualified teachers are not available, can't we use online platforms to teach and bring education where there is no capacity. Can't we connect people to rural schools?"

"There are advantages and disadvantages of technology. But the advantage of technology is that it is much easier to fix the technology than to fix the human."

"AI was created by humans to mimic human abilities and assist in tasks where humans may be slower or impaired."

"We were looking for someone who could bring administrative experience, interdisciplinary research excellence and their international worldview to our Integrated Engineering program. We are lucky to now have Shahryar leading Engineering at Brock. He is already actively involved in moving the department forward."

"making sure that people would benefit more from the technology than the negative impact."

"I am interested in research on efficient design and application of computational intelligence techniques especially evolutionary computation genetic algorithms and genetic programming, swarm intelligence, especially on particle swarm optimization, and artificial neural networks. A major application area is in optimization with a focus on combinatorial optimization, multi objective optimization, and optimization in dynamic environments."

"So we had to all the time try to live under that condition, which is not easy. So that was the challenging part of our task, to be able to introduce the technology to the public and at the same time we needed to be able to work out with the telecommunication operator that we have to look for the benefit of the whole country instead of you know, looking at their business alone."

"That was more than twenty five years ago. So, at that time nobody knew about the Internet or even to use the existing telephone for email. That type of technology was totally new. So introducing technology to a country which was not aware of the possibility was not easy. It was very tough to do. And once the people started to know about this new technology, the existing telecommunication operators were afraid of the impact on their business."

"As it is sunny, I don’t fear anything. I like the sun. Because I think you know, whatever technology you bring in, there’s always a negative side of that. And if start fearing that negative aspect which prevents you from doing any other interesting things, I think you are not going the right track. I think the best way is to try to understand a new technology and its impact, and how we can try to accommodate that in our society. And you know,"

"Lately I am also interested in complex networks from two angles. That is, using genetic programming for the automatic inference of graph models for complex networks, and developing fast algorithms to determine critical nodes in complex networks."

"Smoke spreads quicker than flames in these towers because of open facades and poor sealing."

"It is a tool designed to help humans perform various tasks more easily."

"Many condos lack proper compartment walls to slow fire, and some keep faulty wiring."

"With rapid growth, inspection often falls behind."

"AI accelerates the production of various goods, leading to oversupply. While some argue that AI will replace humans, the reality is that we are in an era with vast amounts of data flow, making AI essential for data management."

"I think my role for the Internet was that I was lucky to be part of the people who spread the Internet through Southeast Asia. I brought the Internet to Thailand. That was the reason why I’ve been recognized."

"I always see the Internet as sunny."

"There’s so many exciting things that happened throughout the past twenty almost thirty years for me. And it’s always sunny. Even though there’s many challenging problems, there’s a lot of issues that you never looked at before, and once you have Internet technology coming in, you start to ask yourself and try to clarify with yourself what kind of the impact of the Internet, which makes you understand your society even better. So I always view this in a positive point of view and I think it’s always sunny."

"AI, which relies on vast amounts of stored data, can be unpredictable. It’s good for generating ideas because everyone has different backgrounds and knowledge. When we combine our ideas with AI, they can become broader. *However, we must be careful with AI in daily life. For emotional or deep opinions, AI still can’t match human detail. So, we need to use AI cautiously in some areas."