Computer Simulations and Scientific Understanding

This article presents key ideas I heard at the talk given by Julie Schweer, KIT on Nov 09, 2020.

Motivation

What is the role of computer simulation in scientific understanding?

Are they opaque?

Do we really make scientific progress?

 

Introduction

understand a phenomenon

experimentally intractable (infeasible?) and difficult to obtain 

"epistemically opaque?"

What is understanding?

 - ability to provide explanation;

 - ability to generalize; and

 - ability to predict the behavior of counterfactuals.

 

Challenges in Computer Simulation

 - lead to an illusion of understanding;

 - confuse model dynamics vs. actual phenomenon;

 - does the simulation the model the phenomenon under investigation;

 - sources of uncertainty (initial conditions, hyper-parameters);

 - model assumption

"ask clear questions; it is easy to come up with sexy answers"

"all models are wrong; some are useful"

Christians and the Academy

Responsibility Towards Our University

1. politicization of the university (academic freedom, autonomy);
2. discrimination;
3. ragging, physical harassment; and
4. poor facilities and infrastructure.

Tips
- have people around who encourage you.
- find a place where you are accepted.
- inter-personal relationships are very important.

Responsibility Towards Our Society

"change the university and you change the world."
- Charles Habib Malik, A Christian Critique of the University

Universities give intellectual leadership.
Identify such universities.

Public intellectuals:
- Shashi Tharoor,
- Ramachandran Guha,
- Martin Luther King,
- Noam Chomsky.

Christian public intellectuals:
- address public issues as a Christian;
- influence public policies;
- use public forums (blog, newspapers, TV);
- challenge popular terminology and language (e.g. nationalism, leftist, liberal, )
- question common assumptions (e.g. imperialism in Western, conversion is unethical, technological advancement is progress)
- be sensitive to other's ideologies, be gentle, be wise, be bold

How to engage in productive discussion?
How do we communicate so that everyone understand?

Response - 1

Response - 2
- wrote an article on sexism, bias in algorithms;
- decided to write an article once every 3 months.

Response - 3
- encourages students to snap out of rote-learning mentality;
- considers the classroom as a sacred space for learning;
- feels that students have a utilitarian idea of education;
- encourages students to think beyond grades and placements.

2020: Full Throttle

What the year 2020 has offered so far?

1. Economy
• massive drop in GDP in nations across the world
• blue-collar jobs, manual labor vs. white-collar jobs
• job losses; fear of losing job or contract
• companies going bankrupt
• uncertainty 
2. Mental health
   • rise in suicide rate;
3. Students
   • graduating students; job hunting
   • virtual classrooms are not as engaging as in-person classrooms
   • lack of facilities (Internet connection, laptop) to attend virtual classroom
4. Senior citizen
   • risk of contracting the virus
   • vulnerable age group
5.  Healthcare
   • adequate healthcare for all
   • diligence and strength to deal with fatigue and workload
6. Youngsters - may they have wisdom and patience to deal with the crisis
7.  Government
   • prudent crisis management
8. Conspiracy theories, fake news
   • biological warfare;
9.  Environment
   • fire in Amazon rainforests
   • wildfire in California
   • wildfire in Australia
10. Riots and protests
    • anti-abortion (Poland)
    • Black Lives Matter, racism (US)
    • anti-lockdown (Berlin)
    • Samuel Paty, terrorism (France)
    • ease in tension between Israel and the Middle East (UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia)
    • rise in tension between US and China
     

Is it time to quit?

Is the collapse fast-approaching?

Post-pandemic World

(Originally written on 25th April 2020, during the first lockdown in Europe)

The world is on the verge of a collapse. We are witnessing a transition. The world as we know it might soon be a thing of the past. The world reeks of social injustice and prejudice in the form of casteism, sectarianism, racism and nationalism. Even the developed countries are struggling to control the situation from going haywire by slipping into looting and violence.

The collapse is ecological, economic, social and cultural. The superpowers have locked horns. A 16 year old boy was hacked to death by his friends. The world is on the verge of another recession. Unemployment is on the rise. The current crisis demonstrated the extend of pollution in air and water bodies.

How should a Christian respond in these trying circumstances? The teachings of Christ has now become more relevant than ever. Instead of losing hope and giving up on life, let us inspire ourselves and pray for each other, just like iron sharpens iron. Jesus Christ did not lose hope on us. 

Can we use this time to expand the goal of our lives? Instead of worrying about our lives, family and career, can we take a step back, and look around to have an introspection. 

The classic movie 'Shawshank Redemption' portrays the power of determination, perseverance and hope. The protagonist of the story 'The Pilgrim’s Progress' faces trials and temptations throughout his journey to the Celestial Kingdom.

As I observe the chaos and uncertainty all around, I understand the spiritual nature of the world. Many things do not make sense. Let us learn to find joy in the simple things of life, the ones that we tend to take for granted---the air we breathe, the physical companionship of our friends and family. The world around us paints a picture of life that is at odds with the one in the Bible. As a Christian, it has always been challenging for me to strike the right balance between the two. 

Quotable Quotes

Please find below some interesting statements and quotes that I have been collecting for a while:

• "Actually, it took about two days, once I got the program done, but it was eight years from the commission to the actual premiere on the East Coast." - writer's block, David Cope
  
• "This one is breathtaking. I hear it's going viral. It should ideally be enjoyed in isolation" --- my comment on a video posted in Whatsapp group during the corona crisis.
• Tools get used in the way people *choose* to use them. #freewill
• "You don't have to be hopeful to keep fighting for a better future." --- from an article on climate change in The Economist
• "We are NOT interested in PROGRAMS. We ARE interested in PEOPLE." --- from an weekly email blast of the LIFE church
• "I don't have ego." #proudlyhumble --- my comment at a LIFE group session
  
• "God, may I have serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, courage to change the things I can change and wisdom to differentiate between what I can change and what I cannot." --- Serenity Prayer
  
• "We are not going to change the world, but at least we will be happy about it." --- Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
• "Between 1993 and 2016, eight abortion providers were killed by anti-abortion activists, along with at least four police officers."  --- Doxxing Wiki page
• "tyranny of things" (The Pursuit of God, A W Tozer),  "molested by modernity" (Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker)
• "The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people." --- Karl Marx
  
• "Hell is a collection of individuals who are spending the bulk of their time working on a task they don’t like and are not especially good at." --- David Graeber, On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs

The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters is a book written by C S Lewis. The book talks about the various ways in which the Devil tempts humans. As a framework, the letters are written by a senior tempter Screwtape to his nephew and junior tempter Wormwood. Through these letters, Screwtape trains Wormwood in the art of tempting. Wormwood is assigned a human, who is only referred to as the Patient in the book. The book touches various aspects of the life of a Christian such as church, family, marriage and love.

The Screwtape Letters presents the Biblical truths and fine-tunes them for the modern age (restaurants, industrial age, jobs, various schools of thought such as communism and socialism). The book provides a Christian with many thoughts of wisdom and practical means to deal with trials and temptations. After reading this book, certain aspects become more apparent or pronounced in daily life. We begin to actively pursue certain goals (e.g. reading a book).

Trials vs. Temptations

James 1: 2, 3

“Consider it pure joy, my brother, wherever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

James 1: 12 

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised for those who love him.”

e.g. covid-19 is a trial; Abraham faced trial; 

James 1:13

“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted nor does he tempt anyone but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death”

e.g desire for absolute novelty leads to temptation;

The Devil exploits trials to tempt humans.

Summary

1. Screwtape rejects Wormwood's plan to use the power of reason as a weapon to turn the Patient away from the Enemy. I remember Ravi Zacharias signing off one of his books with the words “a world a reasonable faith.” Instead of overwhelming the Patient with doctrines and arguments, Screwtape recommends distracting the Patient with simple, ordinary matters of life because the pressure of the ordinary is too powerful a force to be reckoned with.

2. Screwtape is shocked to hear from Wormwood that the Patient has committed himself to Christian and has begun attending a church nearby. Screwtape now recommends to distract the Patient with the idiosyncrasies of the fellow church-goers. The underlying idea here is the challenges associated with achieving dreaming aspirations with laborious doing. I remember the advice I received as a Master’s student that research is dirty work but the final product is a significant and original contribution to science.

3. Screwtape recommends Wormwood to exploit the domestic tension between the Patient and his mother. The Patient should get irritated by her annoying behavior and his newfound spiritual experience should not help him deal with this crisis. The Patient should pray for her spiritual well-being and forget to pray for her physical and mental needs.

4. Screwtape touches upon the painful subject of prayer in this letter.

5. War has broken out in Europe. Screwtape recommends Wormwood to exploit the situation and ensure the Patient spends a lot of time worrying about his future. Wars, pandemics and recession offer uncertainty, pain, sorrow and suffering. According to Buddhism, human desire, which is the root cause of all pain and suffering, should be dampened through asceticism, meditation and good works.

6. Screwtape admits that the Patient will have a certain amount of benevolence due to this newfound fath in the Enemy. However Wordwood should direct the benevolence towards unfamiliar, faraway people and thus rendering it an imaginary feeling. At the same time, Wormwood can direct his malice towards his friends, family and neighbours rendering it a real experience.

7. Screwtape suggests Wormwood to exploit the European war and push the Patient to have extreme worldviews---either patriotism (so that he’s ready to take part in the ongoing war) or pacifism (so that he’s constantly disturbed by the ongoing war).

8. The Patient is experiencing a period of dryness in his spiritual life. Screwtape reminds Wormwood not to get too excited due to the law of undulation. According to this law, the Patient goes through highs and lows in this life and the Enemy works the most in times of distress. Some people of the Enemy (e.g. Sadhu Kochu Kunju Upadeshi) have experienced long spells of distress and have come out successfully.

9. Screwtape suggests way to exploit the period of dryness through various temptations. According to empirical evidence, sensual temptations such as scantily-clad women and pornography are the most effective. Drinking and smoking also make sure the Enemy stays subdued with constant guild and shame.

10. Screwtape is glad to know that the Patient has made some worldly friends. Screwtape now suggests Wormwood to make the Patient lives a double life---a pious life inside the church and a carefree life outside the church. This technique makes the Patient a hypocrite and further aggravates the wound of guild and shame in the spiritual front of this life.

11. Screwtape teaches Wormwood on various forms of laughter. Laughter can be aroused in four ways---joy, fun, jokes or humour and flippancy. The Patient should be tempted to crack lewd jokes or engage in flippancy with his friends.

12. “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one---the gentle slope, soft underfoot (on the ground), without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts, ”

13. Screwtape reminds Wormwood to prevent the Patient from indulging in real pleasures of life such as enjoying movies, following cricket, enjoying music, reading books, walking, collecting stamps or meeting with friends. These are innocent pleasures and are not harmful in itself. “If something as pedestrian as reading a book saves one from evil, devil’s task is very difficult.” “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop.”

14. Humility

15. Screwtape recommends Wordwood to make the Patient be too keen and anxious about the Future. Let the Patient spend all his time and energy chasing after the future (remember: chasing after the wind, Ecclesiastes). We do not know the what the future holds and so we strive for a better future by engaging in nobly pursuits such as social progress, evolution, communism, technological advances.

16. Screwtape chides Wormwood for allowing the Patient to attend only one church. Wormwood ought to ensure the Patient becomes a connoisseur of churches and keeps looking for churches that suit him. Let the Patient be concerned with the unessential matters such as mass vs. holy communion, candles, clothes, jewellery, food, saints, speaking in tongues and baptism. “Mere Christianity”

17. Screwtape talks about the temptation of gluttony which can operate in two ways: gluttony of excess and gluttony of delicacy.

18. Screwtape talks about sexual temptations. Family is a single unit composed of distinct members but united though Love. The purpose of marriage is fidelity (preservation of chastity), fertility (transmission of life) and good will (mutual help). Hell promotes competition (as opposed to co-operation), distrust and zero-sum game of life.

19. Screwtape discusses why God created humans? The answer, even Screwtape knows, is disinterested love (“unconditional love”).

20. Screwtape reveals the limitations of the Devil i.e. the Devil can’t tempt humans for ever. The best approach is to admit one’s weakness and have faith in God (e.g. Ecclesiastes, Job).

21. Screwtape suggests to develop a sense of ownership in the Patient---my time, my money, my body, my God. According to the Bible, we are ought to take care of everything on earth (Genesis 1:28). We don’t own anything. We are called to be stewards on earth.

22. Screwtape again admits the limitations of the Devil. There are many good things human can do---sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. The Devil has to twist them for its own benefit. Nothing is naturally on its side.

23. --TODO--

24. Screwtape talks about developing a sense of spiritual pride in the Patient. Encourage him to distinguish Christians from the rest (unbelievers).

25. Screwtape talks about the horror of the same old thing. Humans tend to get fed up with monotony and tediousness associated with routine activities in life. Human like change (seasons, months, weekend/weekday, fashion). Wormwood should attempt to twist this need and make the Patient crave for absolute novelty. This is dangerous for humans because of the law of diminishing returns.

26. Unselfishness vs. Selflessness

27. Prayers

28. Screwtape reminds Wormwood that death of the Patient is something they should try to avoid as much as possible. Wormwood has the opportunity to tempt the Patient throughout his life. In this way, Wormwood can exhaust the Patient with his temptations (e.g. mid-life crisis, quarter-life crisis). Perseverance is key. “Experience is the mother of illusion (remember Roman German class)” “You don’t have to be hopeful to fight for a better future.---Fridays for Future” Humans believe that earth can be turned into heaven by politics, eugenics, science, psychology, communism. So humans work hard for a better world and create a better future.

29. Hatred vs. Fear vs. Cowardice vs. Courage

30. Reality

31. Screwtape chides Wormwood for letting him die. As the Patient was dying, he saw Wormwood, the angels and God.

Conclusion

The only goal of the devil is to win the human soul to its side. The Devil is not interested in what events happens on earth. For instance, Screwtape does not care about the European War (WW2).

Devil has many limitations. Everything is naturally good---eating, drinking, sleeping. The Devil has to corrupt them to be of use.

The temptations will keep increasing in life. Perseverance and courage are two keys virtues. Develop nice hobbies and interests---reading book, watching movies. It’s very easy to resist the devil.

He doesn’t always tempt us with material possessions, food or love. Instead the Devil attempts to:

• confuse the Patient (e.g. worldly friends, fellow church goers),

• to exaggerate his minor wicked characteristics (e.g. pride, sense of ownership) and 

• to twist naturally good aspects of life (e.g. eating->gluttony, novelty--> absolute novelty).

A Creative Discourse: Abortion

My humble attempt at making up a discourse on abortion. This work is modelled after Ted Chiang's `Liking What You See: A Documentary.'

Father: My wife faced a lot of complications during her pregnancy. According to the doctors, she could be saved if we were allowed to abort the foetus. Now I have lost the love of my life and my son has lost his mother. Abortion should be allowed in extreme circumstances.

Mother: My husband and I wanted to have a child. However I was unable to conceive. Both of us are old now. Whenever we see a family with small children, we get overwhelmed with feelings of sadness and depravity. Abortion should be banned. Children bring happiness to the family.

Feminist: A mother carries the child for nine months in her belly. A pregnancy can have major effects on her life such as career break and post-natal depression. The woman decides what to do with her body. Not even the father of the child has a say in this matter.

Pragmatist: We should treat this subject realistically and not judge on the basis of petty emotions and feelings. Both the parents should consciously make a decision to raise a child. In the event of an unintended pregnancy, abortion is a  practical choice. No human should be an accident.

Idealist: We read in the news about incidents of abortion, especially female foeticide. This weakens sex ratio and aggravates gender disparity in the society. A perfect society cannot condone abortion. We as a society should strive for equality in all matters of life.

Ethicist: Is abortion ethical? I would suggest we look at the issue on a case-by-case basis. For instance, consider rape. How can we allow pregnancy resulting from rape? It is ethical  to abort such a pregnancy and thus save the child from a lifetime of ridicule and shame.

Euphemist: The question is whether I support premature termination of pregnancy or not.  I think we should look at the big picture. Downsizing the population in this fashion, although might have some immediate adverse effects, will result in long-term benefits to the community.

Statistician: Our land is yet to reach the replacement level of 2.1 on population growth. So, statistically speaking, it is in the best interests of the land to allow abortion. This will slow down our population grown and thus reduce the strain on our resources.

Evolutionist: Do plants or animals commit abortion? No! Then why should human beings kill the (potentially useful) members of their own specifies. Homo sapiens are digging their own grave by supporting abortion  (remember natural selection.) If we interfere with the nature, it will react violently.

Teenager:  Yesterday I saw a video on abortion in my FB feed. Everybody in the comments supported abortion. It seems those who opposed were downvoted to oblivion. The hashtag #YayAbortion is trending on Twitter since Friday. Most of the Insta celebs have released videos supporting the cause.

Minister: Every child is a gift of the Supreme Being. Abortion is nothing but an act of disobedience. The scripture is very precise and clear in this matter. Obey the Supreme Being and you will be rewarded in abundance. A true believer cannot support this heinous act.

Pacifist: Abortion is nothing but cold-blooded murder. Violence of any sort cannot be justified. The sad side of abortion is that the parents themselves give consent to the killing of their child.

Fundamentalist: Our sect is in existential crisis. Our sect cannot afford to abort any child. On the other hand, I recommend every family to have at least three children to ensure our survival. In that case, in a few decades time, we will be the majority in this land.

Activist: We have organized a public meeting in the town square tomorrow evening to protest government's lack of enthusiasm to ensure immediate action on the case. We invite everyone to join the protest and show your valuable support to the cause. Remember, justice delayed is justice denied.

Politician: The opposition is trying to cash in on this case for political mileage. They have bought the media as well. There were 31,427 incidents of abortion in this land during their term.  Those who failed to control abortion while in power now shamelessly question the current government. How long can they keep up with this shenanigan. The public cannot be taken for granted.

Conspiracy_Theorist: This is clearly a conspiracy to instil chaos in this land. To some extend, they have succeeded in creating a division among the people with this issue. We should instead direct our vision, time and energy on more pressing issues such as rising unemployment and uniform civil code.

Veteran: Nothing is gonna change. We have witnessed similar events in the past as well. The media wants to attract our attention and when something new comes up, they are gonna let go of this issue. The current hullabaloo on abortion will soon give way to something new.

Boomer: Youngsters these days engage in premarital sex and adultery. During our days, we made sure never to get intimate with anyone from the other sex outside of marriage. Marriage is a covenant between two individuals based on trust and love.

Millennial:  Our society has historically put severe restrictions on exercising personal freedom, particularly for women. Times have changed. I don't want anyone else to tell me what to do with my life. The decision whether to abort my pregnancy or not is solely the responsibility of me and my husband. Live and let live. #YOLO

Stranger: Adopting a child is too easy in this land. That is why abortion is so rampant here. In order to combat abortion, we should make it hard for couples to adopt a child.

Revolutionist: Our land is now undergoing a social revolution. The rate of abortion has increased in the recent years. However most of them are done illegally or by quacks, which puts the mother's life at risk. Abortion should be legalized so that it can be done lawfully under the supervision of a medical doctor.

Liberal: Abortion should be incentivized. Abortion should be permitted except in extreme circumstances. Infringement on our freedom and rights should be condemned at all costs.

Moderate: I do not have a strong opinion on this matter. I thought about this issue for 24 hours straight but I could not come to a judgement. Both permitting abortion and prohibiting abortion have their pros and cons. We have to strike the right balance.

Conservative: Abortion should be penalized. Abortion should be prohibited except in extreme circumstances. Infringement on our culture and tradition should be condemned at all costs.

Reactionary: Our forefathers would not have cared to even discuss such an immoral act, let alone support abortion. The rate of abortion has increased in the recent years. This clearly indicates the deterioration of  moral principles and ethics in our society. Abortion should be criminalize.

My Glossary

Meetings

conference; plenary session; keynote address; panel discussion; birds-of-a-feather

committee; sub-committee; standing committee; ad-hoc committee; executive committee; steering committee; 

take minutes; have the floor; hold the floor; open the floor (for questions) ; move a motion; second a motion; call to order;

general body; agenda; quorum; minutes; floor leader; whip; chairperson; ex-officio member; observer;

5-second rule

ratify; vote; adjourn; veto

DevOps

development (development, unit test), test (system test), stage (mirror production envt, load testing), production (go live)

hotfix, bug fix (patch)

continuous integration, continuous deployment (CI/CD)

rollout release

Academia: Stay Clear of Predators

Today I was searching for a scientific article ("Entity Linking with a Knowledge Base: Issues, Techniques, and Solutions") on Google scholar and the results caught me by surprise. There were only two results. The article  I was searching for has been published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, which is a reputed journal. This one was the first hit, and the right one. 

However the second hit was an article with the same title but published in a predatory journal. This bogus article is rife with grammatical errors. From a cursory scan of the paper, the content seems to be ruthlessly lifted from the original TKDE paper. The rogue authors did not even bother to 'copy-paste' the footnotes correctly. This is outright plagiarism --- unethical and punishable. I am ashamed of the fact that the authors of this paper are also from India. It is well-known that low-tier and middle-tier colleges in India publish in such journals either due to ignorance or to cheat, a quick and dirty way to increase your publication count. That the second author is himself a PhD indicates that the the act was not one out of ignorance but a deliberate act of fraud.

The predatory journal is called International Journal of Advanced Technology and Innovative Research. The name of  any reputed journal or conference is very specific about the targeted special interest group, e.g. Association of Computational Linguistics or Knowledge Capture. Predatory journals are too vague about their areas of interest. So this is a simple heuristic to identify predatory journals. Reputed journals always publish articles after thorough peer-review process. In addition, reputed journals do not solicit any fees to publish articles. 

This behavior also demonstrates the pathetic state of scientific research in the country. A majority of academics are unaware of the value of ethics in scientific research. Since only a certain elite can even comprehend or question the nuances of the research conducted on a topic, it is very easy to keep everyone in the dark on the details of a research project. Predatory journals can thrive in such an atmosphere. This practice penalizes honest academics and incentivizes rogue academics.

To the ignorant academic: you  may use these two websites to decide for yourself before you decide to send your manuscript to a journal for 'peer-review':

1. https://predatoryjournals.com/journals/

2. https://beallslist.net/

Stay clear of predatory journals. Uphold the virtues of science, research methodology and communication.

Review: The IIT System

(NOTE: Originally written in December 2018)
(Edit 1: May 2020, grammar correction; Edit 2: September 2020, minor edit)  

The IIT system is very successful in India. Some of the positive aspects about IITs are given below:

1. IIT-JEE is a very competitive exam. It tests the candidate’s understanding of concepts instead of one's memory. So it avoids rote-learning or cramming, which are heavily promoted in the Indian school system.
2. The exams conducted in IITs also test the student's understanding of concepts. In addition, the projects, assignments and tutorials together make sure there is ample opportunity for students to learn from each other. The TAs assist in teaching by taking classes, grading assignments and conducting tutorial sessions.
3. There are ample facilities in IITs for pursuing extra-curricular activities: sports facilities, sports fests, tech fests, department fests, cultural fests, PG-sports, clubs, colloquiums, and so on. Everybody is welcome to join these events.
   
4. The professors know what they are teaching. Compared to low-tier institutes, every member of the faculty holds a PhD degree. The system is flexible enough to allow professors to decide the course syllabus.
   

However, as an IIT professor rightly mentioned, IIT is a mirage. Although the IITs are premier technical institutes in the country, the system is plagued with many issues. I list some of the issues (in no particular order) I have noticed from my first-hand experience while pursuing post-graduate studies at one of the older IITs:

1. There is an undue craze to get into IITs. This results in students who are pressurized into clearing IIT-JEE by parents, peers and the society. The art of learning gets reduced to just an exercise with the aim of passing an extremely competitive national-level exam. These students would never enjoy the art of learning.
2. IIT coaching centres only create students who are good at clearing IIT-JEE. The students lack any social skills or social awareness. Students who get into IITs are naturally exhausted after years of preparation for JEE and join IIT without any energy to realize their interests or follow their passion.
3. IIT is a brand. That’s how everyone in India considers IIT. The downside of the brand value is that students are made to believe that just getting into any IIT secures their life for ever. However this is far from the truth. Students have to work really hard to earn a degree at IIT. Learning is a life-long journey. IIT aspirants want to make sure that once they manage to secure the IIT tag, they can latch on to it for the rest of their lives. IITs should be rebranded as technical institutes and research centres.
4. The classes at IIT are not very inspiring. Except for a few courses, most of the courses are offered just because faculty members are required to offer at least one course every semester. The professors do not care how individuals perform and leave menial tasks such as invigilation and grading to their teaching assistants.
5. Since IITs follow relative grading, there is tremendous competition among the students in a class. This impedes learning because students are not motivated to discuss with each other and thereby learn from each other.
6. The system of awarding marks for attendance is not very effective. The students are forced to attend lectures even though they might not be interested in doing so. For instance, MOOCs from world-class universities such as Stanford can be a substitute for lectures. IITs should make sure that learning and creativity is encouraged, and unhealthy competition is discouraged.
7. The placement season at IITs is highly overrated. Not everybody at IIT get 1 crore job offers. Only a bunch of students, from computer science or electrical engineering, get such heavy packages. This creates a bad impression about IITs on the society. This impedes creativity of students and forces students to participate in various extra-curricular activities just for the sake of ensuring their placement in an MNC with a high-paying job.
8. The competitive nature of Indians is clearly visible within the walls of IIT. The IIT system provides ample platforms pitching students against each other - courses, technical fests, sports fests, cultural fests and placements to name a few. There is no shortage of talent in IITs. However the current state of affairs is not conducive enough to assist students to sharpen their skills and talents. Only a handful successfully manage to navigate the labyrinthine system.
9. The academic pressure in IITs ensures students face the same amount of pressure they were made to feel during the JEE preparation phase. Every year a few students succumb to the pressure  and thus reports of student suicide at IITs is not newsworthy anymore. A common pattern seen in IITs is that the first two months in every semester is pleasant for the students and then the students become a lot busier in the final two months. The students are finally unable to do anything else other than prepare for end-semester exams, finish assignments and projects.
10. The research scholars are paid scholarship for TA duties. However this is not monitored well. There have been occasions when research scholars had to work more than what is stipulated by the institute (8 hours per week).
11. The research culture at IIT is mediocre. Many PhD (and MS) students do not receive effective and efficient supervision. As a result, the research scholars face immense pressure due to the requirements of having to publish in high-quality journals or at conferences in spite of the deplorable research atmosphere. PhD students have to clear comprehensive evaluation, the purpose of which has always eluded me. Rather than copying the American system, IITs should develop their own style of teaching and research that meets the demands of the country. In this manner, IITs should be a role model for lower-tier institutes such as NITs or IIITs.
12. The work culture at IIT is pathetic. Many scholars are night-owls and the labs are operational 24x7 with sufficient facilities for overnight stay such as recliner. A few food stalls are open throughout the night rendering it easy for night-owls for grab a munch during their `working (waking?) hours.'
13. The number of research scholars who finish the PhD program successfully needs monitoring. For instance, in the lab where I worked for three years, only one scholar defended his thesis, while I personally know at least seven scholars struggling with their research, a handful of which are currently not in a position to even dream of their thesis defense. If IITs are aspiring to be world-class then there should constant monitoring of the status of research conducted by the scholars.
14. The food at mess is horrible. The quality of food degrades continuously. Moreover, hostellers are forced to pay for food for the whole semester in advance. The system should be made more flexible. For instance, hostelers should have to option to cook food on their own in hostels itself. A common kitchen can be set up in every hostel, on every floor to be more efficient, so that those who do not want to eat from mess have the freedom to do so.

Let me conclude by saying that my stint at IIT was the most rewarding and exciting phase of my life. I learnt a lot during those three years. However I understand that the system has many flaws and so it is important to identify the areas that warrant improvement. This article is a small such effort from my side. There is no dearth of talent in the IITs. I believe the system will soon catch up with other elite technical universities around the world.

Metaphor and Metonymy, Jeannette Littlemore

Metaphor in everyday communication - Jeannette Littlemore

Why do metaphors work?

In the case of both metaphor and metonymy, we talk one thing in terms of another. However there is a difference between the two. Metaphor is an exchange of properties, while metonymy is an exchange of entities. Consider the following two sentences: (1) Kevin is bit of a monster (=scary, aggressive), (2) The White House (=government) announced new tax reforms. The first one is an example for metaphor, whereas the second one is an example for metonymy. 

Littlemore studies metaphor and metonymy in the following contexts:

1. cross-cultural communication; how metaphor and metonymy are used differently in different languages and cultures (emotions=heart/liver (Malaysia)); language learners (L2 speakers)
2. discourse communities
1. nursery - loose nappy(=for upset stomach0
2. sports - put him under Reese(=Reese’s coaching)
3. hospitals - room 121(=patient in the room 121)
4. military - 12 o’clock for direction, 
5. business - hedge funds, ring fencing, angel investor, unicorn, …
6. math and music education - high notes, low notes, thick notes, thin notes, ...
3. how people talk about their traumatic experience, difficult moments of life (sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, miscarriage, rape, accident, violence, loss of dear ones, depression, isolation, )
4. sexual health  - The objective was to use metaphor and wordplay to raise awareness on sexual health in indirect and humorous ways. e.g. going to touch wood; visit her spaghetti garden, exploring their botanical gardens, ...
5. advertising and branding -  Jaguar Cars (as sleek and fast as jaguars), Rolls Royce Phantom (as strong and powerful as the superman character Phantom), The Beast (as scary as a beast), 
6. gestures - they are useful in establishing cohesion in conversation by L1 speakers; to find the right words (esp. by L2 speakers); some are metaphorical and some are metonymic (roof gesture for house) and some are pragmatic; sign language; 
7. non-verbal communication -  metaphor and metonymy are common in verbal as well as non-verbal communication
1. the pair of glasses on the table for the teacher: metonymy because the teacher wears the glasses
2. handbag for Thatcher: metonymy because Thatcher used to have a handbag at public appearances
3. sickle for the working class: metonymy because farmers use sickle in harvesting crops; no transfer of properties
4. suit for the executive class: metonymy because corporate wear suits to meetings; no transfer of properties
5. thumbs up for good luck, V for victory: metonymy because it’s a convention
8. human-computer interaction - @MetaphorMagnet publishes metaphorical expressions generated by bots; how good are the metaphors (novelty, alliteration, Keats heursitic…)
9. embodied metaphor - metaphors that trigger physical, mental and emotional responses; interaction between metaphorical and the physical (e.g. importance ~ weight, similar ~ close); metaphoric associations such as LOVE is JOURNEY; e.g. I have had a rough day; I am trying to climb Mount Everest in flipflops.

Languages of the World

 Languages can be differentiated based on various aspects:

• Families - The languages having a common ancestor are grouped into language families.
  
  • Indo-Aryan (Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Haryanvi...)
  • Dravidian (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Konkani, Tulu…)
  • Germanic (German, Dutch, English, Scots, Dutch…)
  • Slavic (Russian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Polish...)
  • Celtic (Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic…)
  • Romance (Italian, French, Spanish…)
  • Sino-Tibetan (Chinese Mandarin, Chinese Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese…)

•  Scripts - Different languages follow different scripts.

• Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati…)
• Latin (English, Spanish, German...)
• Arabic (Arabic, Persian, Urdu…)
• Cyrillic (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian…)

•  Inflection

• Analytic - few inflections e.g. English
• Isolation -  close to no inflections e.g. Mandarin
• Synthetic - many inflections
• Agglutinative - a single inflection conveys only a single grammatical category e.g. Finnish; English (goes → third person, am → first person), Malayalam
• Polysynthetic
• Fusional - a single inflection conveys multiple grammatical categories e.g. Italian future tense

Some Linguistics

Linguistics is the science of language. Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written. Most of the languages around the world have more similarities among each other than dissimilarities. This leads to the concept of a universal grammar, which is the basis of all languages.

• Linguistics - study of language e.g. universal grammar, syntax, semantics
• Computational Linguistics (or NLP or Corpus Linguistics) - study of language through computational means with the help of machine-readable corpora; natural language processing e.g. automatic question-answering, text summary generator
• Cognitive Linguistics (CL, in short) - study of relation between language and cognitive processes e.g. child language acquisition
• Diachronic (or Historical) Linguistics - study of changes in language over time e.g. semantic drift
• Philology - study of language in historical texts
• Etymology - the study of origin of words
• Onomasiology - the branch of linguistics concerned with  the question “how to express the idea X as a word?”
• Semasiology - the branch of linguistics concerned with the question “what does the word X mean?”
• Sociolinguistics - study of language in respect to various social factors such as gender bias, social status, patterns of migration, influence of colonialism

 

Sociolinguistics - How do social factors affect language?

• Multilingual society
  
  • Code switching - switching from one language to another e.g Malayalam with wife, Marathi with shopkeeper, English with boss, Hindi with friends
• Code mixing - mix multiple languages e.g. Manglish, Hinglish
• Language shift - shift from language to another over a long period of time e.g. the common language shifted from Hindi to English in India

•  Based on variety of language:
• Accent - variation in pronunciation e.g. Malayalam accents (Trivandrum accent, Palakkad accent, Kochi accent, Thrissur accent, Kasargod accent)
• Dialect - variation in pronunciation and vocabulary e.g. Hindi dialects (Bundeli, Awadhi, Kannauji), English dialects (British, Australian, African-American, American, Indian)

• Based on use of language in a multilingual society: I think a language can have many dialects but only some of them are considered the standard and other become vernacular.
  
  • Standard - codified version of a language e.g. Standard English
  • Vernacular - languages that are not official, non-standard version of a language e.g. African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
  • Lingua franca - e.g. English due to globalization, French by nobility, Latin by Catholic Church

• Based on official requirements:
  
  • National language - e.g India (Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali)
  • Official language - e.g. India (Hindi, English)

slang (informal), jargon (domain), pidgin (multilingual group), creole (second generation speakers), taboo (private)