2024 Reflection

2024 was a year of S. O. S.: same old stuff (although I did pick up a new professional title: IBM Fellow). The question I brought up in last year's reflection, "what do you stand for?" continued to rattle around inside me this year. I lost some self-confidence throughout the year without my unconditional personal and professional backstops, but was able to bring it back toward the end of the year. Just like last year, Ribhu and Kaushali's school play gave me some food for thought. This year it was Alice in Wonderland. The question rattling inside me was made even simpler by the Caterpillar: "Who are you?"

Just like Alice, I am not like the Tweedles insisting on foolish consistencies (hobgoblins of little minds). I am not rude or classist like the talking flowers. I am not aimlessly running around like the White Rabbit. But who am I? Reading fiction in high school is supposed to help you figure out who you are, but I didn't do much of that then. Maybe I'll get there by following along with the kids.

We went home in April for the total solar eclipse. But it was a visit to Auburn and Seneca Falls the day before the eclipse that was more awe-inspiring for me than the rare celestial event. Apparently, I am a humanist who is more inspired by struggles for abolition, women's rights, and indigenous rights than the stars. Even during the eclipse, it was more interesting for me to observe the reactions of the other people on Syracuse University's quad than to experience the daytime darkness myself. (It's probably good that 15 years ago, I ended up taking a job offer from IBM --- where I can spend some of my time researching moral philosophy --- rather than one I had from JPL!)

In the early 21st century, humanism generally denotes a focus on human well-being and advocates for human freedom, autonomy, and progress. It views humanity as responsible for the promotion and development of individuals, espouses the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings, and emphasizes a concern for humans in relation to the world.

The docent at the Women's Rights National Historic Park made a subtle point that in the environment of the burned-over district, a new question was being asked: what it means to be a citizen. This was different than philosophical questions asked before, like what it means to be human (as opposed to animal). I think the question of today is what it means to be human as opposed to AI.

To me, the last of the three questions is what underlies a feature film we watched this year: "The Wild Robot."

After "Why I Am a Hindu" last year, I read "Humanism in India: Notes for a Study of History" by Fernando Alberto García, "The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People" by Paul Seabright, some material given to me by Rasraj Das and Br Aman, and am currently reading "Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World's Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation" by Greg Epstein. Over the year, I learned a lot more about Swami Vivekananda's time in New York state. We visited the ruins of several ancient Greek temples (Athens, Sounion, Delphi) and several active Hindu temples in Gujarat that are important pilgrimage sites (Dwarka, Nageshwar, Somnath). With the help of ChatGPT, I composed an English-language version of the Hanuman Chalisa. I gave a talk to the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. With all of that, I am more convinced of my humanist outlook, but also convinced that it is not a non-religious one, but one tinged in dharm.

It may be a false realization, but perhaps the sequence of three philosophical questions above mirrors the philosophies needed of Ram (human vs. animal or archaic human), Krishn (citizen), and Kalki (human vs. AI).

I refined and published my decolonial AI alignment paper and now see allegories to decoloniality and collective action everywhere, even in lighter fare such as "Moana 2" and "Mufasa: The Lion King." However, I do not think that I am woke in an overzealous religious sense. I think I have a lot of practicality in my humanism. For example, the Granite Guardian model we open-sourced this year is a platform for slowly bringing more humanism into AI. I buy into the practical reality shown by Acemoglu et al. that granting individual rights and freedoms is better at lifting all boats than extractive authoritarianism.

Of beings, those that are endowed with life are superior. Of living beings, those that are endowed with intelligence are superior. Of intelligent creatures, humans are superior. ... Of cultured people, practical persons are superior. --- Drupada in Mahābhārata

I got to spend some time with philosopher Shannon Vallor this year in Dagstuhl. She recently published a book warning humanity not to "relinquish our agency and forego our wisdom in deference to the machines." Is that not what humanism is all about, when taken into the present age at the precipice of autonomous agentic AI systems? I will be working on human agency and wisdom in 2025 with the hope that we do not head down the dystopian path of the film "Kalki 2898 AD."