We bicker, therefore we are

 

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? Charles de Gaulle

I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University — William F. Buckley, Jr.

Arun Kumar

AI Generated Image

16 February 2024, the headline in the local newspaper says, “The House has embarked on a 12-day winter recess, joining the Senate’s two-week recess and leaving a long list of critical unfinished business on Capitol Hill”. All we can do is roll my eyes and say Really, WTF?

The Congress is going on a recess when the US government does not have an approved budget to function, and it is almost three months into the budget year. For now, it is only authorized to spend a limited amount of money to meet its obligations and the current authorization for some government agencies to stay open will run out on 1 March 2024, which is just two days after the Congress returns from their winter recess. Immediately after they come back, to keep the government functioning, there would be a flurry of finger pointing, negotiations, extorting etc. to pass another temporary authorization.

Instead of going to the recess, members of the Congress should all be tied to their chairs and not allowed to leave the chambers until they have completed their primary job of passing the budget before the fiscal year begins. Their lack of responsibility barely registers in the psyche of the nation.

The Congress does not have the time to pass the budget and yet has time to spend on frivolous activities like engaging in the impeachment of a Cabinet Secretary or harboring dreams of impeaching Joe Biden, all for the sake of petty tit for tat. Sometimes, it seems like we have elected a bunch of toddlers to the Congress and each one is engaged in some random act of nonsensical behavior hoping that when all is summed together would make some progress.

If we were not to do our job, the Congress would take the high road and preach to us on our responsibility, our moral duty, and incompetence. At a more basic level, if we were not to do our job, we would be shown to the door by our employer and told not to return. Of course, someone would raise their hand and point out that if members of the Congress are incompetent they could be voted out. The election process, however, is so rigged, or the voters so complacent that the norms of democracy no longer work.

Perhaps it is the case that we get what we deserve. If the world goes up in flames, humans as a species become extinct, or return to dark ages depicted so often in dystopian movies, it is what our collective ignorance asked for.

One has to wonder why the US Congress is so dysfunctional? Was it always like this? Why do the opposite sides of the Congress have to disagree on every proposal? If one says it is day then even if it is bright outside, the other has to insist that no, it is night. They must feel a moral obligation to do so. Is the electorate they represent so different from each other? One wants basic health care, and the other does not. One wants basic human dignity, but the other does not. Do basic human needs across the blue and red states differ that their elected members shall oppose each other?

In the end, the fundamental goal of the members of the Congress is to get reelected and perhaps making the legislative branch so dysfunctional helps them win the election. Perhaps they go back to their electorate and brag that I worked my ass off to make sure that no decisions are made and deserve to be elected again.

There should be a clause in the job description of the members that if they do not pass the budget before the start of the fiscal year, they will be fired from the position they hold and will not be allowed to seek reelection.

The way things currently stand, in the front of Congress there ought to be a plaque that carries the inscription “We bicker, therefore we are.”

Hope you can tell that I am frustrated (and venting) at Congress to go on the recess while Rome burns, and so should you be. It is frustration of the feeling of impotent that there is nothing the eight billion people on this planet can do against the likes of Trump and Putin.

The world is going downhill, and the caretakers of our government have the gall to say, “Sorry, Gone Fishing.”

Ciao.

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Stay in touch if you can

 

In the cosmos of increasing entropy
that my Inbox is,
A supernova bursts forth,
"My Impending Retirement,”
says the subject line,
of an email
from yet another colleague,

who weary of the dance,
and lengthening varicose veins,
is ready to step
off the stage.

Months from now,
close to the date of exit,
I will drop an email,
"Enjoy the next phase
after a successful career,
and stay in touch,
if you can."

And yet, I know
these words are perfunctory.

Our world lines, once entwined,
now being sucked in
by the gravity of life's
next big surprise
will no longer cross.

Dancing with spreadsheets

 

Each day a different spreadsheet takes the floor,
Each one a unique dancer in the financial lore.
One, named Net Worth, in a low-cut satin gown,
Elegantly tracking numbers going up and down.

In her high heels, Asset Allocation takes the stage,
Balancing my portfolio with wisdom and sage.
Underneath, a thong, a daring choice,
Taking the risks that want to make me rejoice.

Then there is Cash Flow, a sight to behold,
If inflow in tops outflows, when I am old.
A real looker, when the balance is right,
Pumping financial decisions, day and night.

Amidst them all, one sits all alone,
In a black dress, a presence of its own.
A sickle for a necklace, a cold delight,
Counting down the seconds, from morning to night

Our acts today influence the probability of our extinction in tomorrow

 It is short sightedness in us that lets people elect leaders like Trump into positions of power, and thereby, immediately increase the probability of our extinction.

Arun Kumar

AI Created Image

The future is all about probabilities. In some cases, it may be a heavily loaded dice and it is easy to fall in the perception of certainty. Psychologically it also helps to perceive the future as deterministic. I get on the plane at Dulles International Airport on the way to Geneva, and while boarding, there is never a thought that there is non-zero probability that the flight may never get there. In my mind, I am already visualizing checking into the hotel, taking a shower, and weather permitting, heading out to take a walk along Lake Geneva.

In my mind’s eye, it all feels so natural and the way the universe functions.

A good thing about the probabilities associated with future alternatives is that our actions in the present can change the probabilities of possible outcomes. Eating healthy foods and exercising does not completely eliminate chances of getting hit by some catastrophic ailment in the future but it does tilt the odds against that it may happen. A good example is to quit smoking and the influence it has on reducing the probability of getting lung cancer. But then, I have also been told that the longest living person on the planet was a smoker.

But don’t let this factoid make you think that it could also be you or that you are invincible and reach for another cigarette. Odds are much higher that you would come to regret it later.

If the future is associated with probabilities, what is the probability of human extinction? While we are at it, it would also be good to think about how my (and our) actions in the present affect the probability of human extinction. Let us not for a moment be lulled by the notion that it is an impossible outcome. The history of evolution is rife with examples of species that have gone extinct, some because of evolutionary pressures while others because of catastrophic events, like the impact of a celestial object burning up in the atmosphere.

The probability of our extinction depends on how many ways the Earth can become an inhospitable place for us to live. Some of the ways things can go wrong are beyond our control — a super volcano shrouding Earth in a blanket of darkness, or the trajectory of a primordial black hole intersecting with the trajectory of Earth.

Then there are ways that are within our control and our (collective) behavior in the present has the power to alter the probability of our extinction. The unfortunate fact is that some of the factors that could lead to the self-extinction of human civilization are of our own creation.

While incredible advances in science and technology have raised the lot of humanity, they have also created novel pathways that could lead to human extinction — nuclear weapons and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD), climate change, some scientist tinkering with the genes of viruses. Among them climate change holds a unique place in that it is driven by our ever-growing need for energy.

To fight against the ravages of entropy, our body needs external sources of energy (calories). Other technological advances catering to human convenience, desires for a better life etc. also require energy in addition to what is needed to simply sustain us. In fact, the former is now much bigger than the latter.

Until we do find cleaner sources of energy, we have to rely on fossil fuels, a consequence of which is changes in the atmospheric composition and increase in CO2 and other gases that are changing climate patterns to which our social and agricultural norms adapted to. Indications are that changes in Earth’s climate and its consequences (e.g., rising temperature, changes in extremes events, melt of sea ice in polar caps and sea level rise) are predicted to create social and ecological havoc, unless…

…unless we decrease our energy consumption from fossil fuels.

Perhaps one day new innovations will lead to cleaner sources of energy (e.g., fusion) and issues we have created will find solutions, but until then, an effort is needed to reduce our energy consumption and try to increase reliance on cleaner sources of energy that are already available to us.

Individually we can do something, and indeed we do but is that going to be effective? The idealist among us would say it does, that the ocean is made of individual drops, that efforts by individuals can turn the tide, but they are just feeling good cliches and in reality not going to make a dent in the issues that we are now facing. Instead…

…what we are going to need to enhance the probability of our continued survival as a species is a collective action, and importantly, a collective transformation in psychological traits that helped us survive and reproduce (for example, psychological traits like urge to dominate, kinship bias, preference to discount the future etc.). Is there any chance that could happen?

In the end, the increasing the probability of human civilization will come down to assessing the probability of collective evolution of humanity in shaking off psychological traits that are deeply embedded in our psyche.

One of the primary psychological traits that is likely to be our downfall is discounting the future (i.e., our tendency to prefer immediate rewards over the ones in future). The propensity of humans and animals to discount future returns for short-term benefits has a logic to it. This trait likely evolved because it was beneficial in environments where the future was uncertain and immediate rewards were critical for survival.

The bottom line is that how we act today is continually altering the probability of our eventual survival. That combined with our tendency to discount the future is a recipe for sharply increasing the probability of our extinction.

Perhaps, we will become extinct (or slide back to dark ages) is not an impossibility but an evolutionary imperative. It happens to all civilizations that may have come into existence in various parts of the universe but went extinct and is the reason we have not been visited by aliens.

Ciao.