An Orphan who has discovered his parents

The Evergreen lines of Robert Frost .. "Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled .." inspired me nine years ago, when I started my journey of Ecological Informatics (EI) at the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management- Kerala (IIITM-K).

Over the last many years, I experienced almost all human emotions. Anxiety, disappointment, frustration, dejection, anger, cheer, joy and hope are the few to easily recollect. IIITM-K stood along and never let us down. Nevertheless the lack of a mentor was felt many times. Multiple instances of in-house debate on the wisdom of Frosts' words were inconclusive. Days seemed to get shorter and the nights longer. 

Although I felt like a lone orphan on the deck of a ship without sails; I never let optimism slip off.  Patience, perseverance and persistence has finally yielded. Deep within the forest I have come across a clearing with well-preserved imprints of great scientific work. I do not have words to express my feeling. Perhaps this would be the feeling of an orphaned child upon discovering his/her parents. 

I see the Sun in the horizon. As the day advances it will reveal the professional lineage of EI can be traced to one of the most respected scientists. I am signing off for now. 

Will be back soon with more revelation.

What Happens to An Idea That Gets Rejected By a Startup Funding Agency?

Knowledge and skill are fast being replaced by ability to innovate as a non-negotiable attribute that corporate recruiters look for, in prospective employers. The shift from emphasis on bulk campus recruitment to selective acquisition is already visible in the horizon. These justify existence of multiple avenues of funding available for start ups.

Idea(s) are the core of startups. Occasionally one can hear grievances about idea being poached. These point to the darker side of startups, which are seldom openly discussed. Suppose an young innovator develops an idea, but lacks access to resources (to convert it into a prototype/ product).  S/he discloses the idea to someone (a startup support agency) but fails to get a positive reply. Six months later, s/he would be disappointed to learn that somebody else has developed a prototype/ product  using the same idea. Although it would be difficult to establish, chances of unfair practices cannot be ruled out.

Under the present practice, there exists a latent potential that will increase the gap between 'genuine innovators' and 'armchair innovators'. The former has ideas and the latter, access to ideas. This is not a hypothetical probability. It can happen because, all startup funders require innovators to disclose their idea in advance. No one has time to study the fate of rejected ideas.

Strong propaganda works to instill the notion that ideas without implementation strategy are non-ideas and hence will not get purloined. However, it would be objective to view innovative idea and its implementation strategy as boat and oar respectively.

Ideas can come in two forms - patentable and non-patentable. The line that separates them is almost always thin. It is likely that 'armchair innovators' will seek to emphasize patentability of idea. 

Let the reader think over the question posed as the title of this comment.

Shouldn't something be done?

Perhaps it is time for an Innovation/ Idea Register.

Stubbornness, Tomatoes and Nationalism

Changing human habits and life styles have altered the world. What was predictable till yesterday is no more so today. Occasionally changes seem erratic or abnormally fast. Those, which affect supply chains result in dramatic spiking of prices. Albeit for short periods, these spikes gather news value because of our stubborn attitudes. Take the case of tomato prices which are already 'heavenly'.

Intense summer heat incident on impervious surface has evaporated the last remaining moisture in the soil. Tanking production of agricultural commodities, especially vegetables were only to be expected. Today, if we are caught unawares; it exposes our lethargy or serious deficiency. Instead of  lamenting, let us make every experience, a teacher.

However, till the time of next harvest, can we, as responsible citizens, not restrict our consumption? Since we are very poor in shedding our habits let us continue to remain stubborn and avoid tomatoes for a couple of days. The prices will fall down form 'heaven'.

Once fallen, let's pick up tomatoes!

For those who bother to think beyond their pockets, there is another reason to stubbornly avoid tomatoes. Your small sacrifice will go to strengthen our nation.

Renewability of Renewable Resources

Renewability of Renewable Resources

Human beings are indeed strange creatures. We are perpetually involved in a game of snake and ladder with nature.  

A couple of centuries ago, when muscle power got replaced by machine power, there was wide spread celebration. We started ascending an almost vertical ladder. Little did our great grandfathers realize that the celebrations were hinged on their absolute ignorance about accumulated consequences. 

Pretty high up the ladder, we realized that it opens into the mouth of a snake! Today we are tired, gasping and the lower steps of the ladder have disappeared! We can only continue to climb into the reptilian mouth. 

The good part is; we have moved up, considerably. However, there still exists a slim chance that we might escape being completely devoured by the snake, if we can climb softly without provoking it. Hence, after every few steps, we reaffirm ourselves and jointly agree to climb up softly so that we leave behind minimal or no foot prints. 

In this endeavor we have developed an infatuation for renewables. It is an appealing adjective that is currently trending.Like our great grand fathers who danced at dawn of mechanical era, we are today celebrating the prospects of renewable energy to help us live in a manageable environment. 

Do we have a scale to measure our level of ignorance?

How renewable are our renewable resources?

Let us consider the case of solar power. Albeit modest space requirement estimated to power our planet exclusively on solar energy, we will end up trapping about 700 quadrillion Btu (estimated global energy consumption by 2030 - US Projection) energy on the Earth.

Going by documented history of human energy consumption, our greed will make us eventually transform the surface of Earth to become heat absorbers and thereby again intervene in the radiative balance. Hence it is highly likely that a couple of centuries later, our great grandchildren will continue with the snake and ladder game and debate global warming. The principle culprit will be solar panels!

Todays' hero will become tomorrows' villan. There is nothing in nature that is perpetually renewable. We only expose our ignorance by labelling certain things, renewable.

Precipitation of probabilities

Less than 40 cm rain in a day was all that was needed to make infrastructural and technological marvels crafted over a century, redundant.

Food, health and security are the three essential things for human survival. As a society, we need to ensure these before we concentrate on structural and virtual empires.

The wise learn from their past. Are we wise enough?  Perhaps the only thing that a hawkish economy will learn is the need to insure. We can expect attractive immovable property insurance!  

Chennai- XII/2015 is just one incidence of precipitation of probabilities about which the climate change bandwagon has been highlighting. Till yesterday, if rain of this magnitude used to occur once in a century, from tomorrow, it will become once in 50, 40 or 60 years. Well over 80% Chennains are likely to experience this at least once, if not more times.

Haridwar, Chennai, ………. The list will swell. What is be the magnitude of economic losses? Can we recoup it? The important but perpetually overlooked question remains ……. . Could we have reduced the intensity of deluge? Let us keep it aside till the next one.