Dear Doctors: If you don't want the patient to go to Google, pray, please take the time to explain the disease and the medicines to the patient, and answer their questions. The fees kind of covers that, no?
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My confidence while taking a decision is inversely proportional to the soundness of the said decision.
In other words, I take dumb decisions very confidently and sound decisions with hajaar self-doubt.
Lakshadweep is an interesting case study.
1. 70% of the people in the island are "Not Working" - neither full time nor part time, as per the 2011 Census.
2. Everything on the islands goes from the mainland.
3. Tuna, which is one of the most expensive fish in the world, is found abundantly around Lakshadweep. But the first tuna processing plant was set up in June 2021.
4. Even though there are ten uninhabited islands on the archipelago, solar power transmission was not seriously explored until January 2024. Before this, there was one solar power plant on the main island, but the bulk of the power generation was through private diesel generators.
5. Only one luxury hotel was operational in Lakshadweep. It was shut down because the locals protested that the hotel served alcohol, which is haraam in Islam. Neighbouring Maldives, also largely Muslim, had no such issues. This hotel was on an uninhabited island.
6. Shri Amitabh Kant had made a presentation to help create ecotourism huts in Lakshadweep - as far back as 2019. The project did not take off.
7. It also has the highest population density in India. The density of population of the district as per 2011 Census is 2,149 persons per sq.km as against 1895 in 2001.
8. There are two aerial connects - Agatti and Bangaram. The other way to get there is to take a cruise ship from the mainland (Kerala). The commute is 14-15 hours.
9. The entire place allows no alcohol because it is an Islamic region (yes, this is different from alcohol ban in Bihar and Gujarat, where the cause of ban is control over crime rate. Here, the reason for the ban is the religion of the majority).
10. There is only one crop on the entire region - coconuts. Some people have private vegetable gardens etc. but mostly everything is carried from the mainland.
In terms of livestock, most islanders keep goats and poultry. Cattle is rare because feed is expensive and hard to come by.
There are only 2 occupations - fishing and coconut farming. Tourism is NOT a major employment option.
11. There is ONE coir processing factory, nothing to create processed food items from coconut.
12. The per capita income is, as expected, low. But what is even more interesting is the level of skew. Because of the strong caste based employment, the land owning communities make a lot more money than the (non) working other communities.
IF tourism has to develop in Lakshadweep, some changes, imho, that will need to be made are:
A. Reduce the government aid and slowly phase it out.
B. Create policies for PPP tourism infrastructure. Develop more helipads and have choppers with higher capacities.
C. Make alcohol permissible.
D. At the end of the day, it is the locals that make or mar a tourism experience. Today, Lakshadweep citizens have reserved college seats on the mainland. Make those seats reserved for tourism related courses, so that the local population prioritises and is upskilled on tourism revenue.
E. Like Maldives, start with and stick with eco tourism.
Lakshadweep is a very important archipelago for India's naval interests. The coral reefs are important ecological resources that matter to all humanity.
IF this is the start of a new chapter in Lakshadweep history, shubasya sheegram!
"I am working on it" is the adult version of "The Dog Ate my Homework."
Why?
Both these lines mean:
A. Nope, it is not ready.
B. I need an extension.
C. There's nothing anyone can do about it.
This morning, i was thinking about all the people I know who lived long.
And I realised, actually, it boils down to just THREE things that they do right.
1. Right Breath
Deep and conscious breathing as a matter of course.
2. Right Eating
Right eating is not salads. It is eating as per your prakriti. If a tamas prakriti person tries to eat salads, they will not benefit. Same for Rajas. Only satvik prakriti needs simple kand mool diet. So, eat as per your guna - dosha (prakriti is the combination of guna (Satvik-Rajsik-Tamsik) and Dosha (Vata-pitta-kapha) )
3. Physical activity
They all were physically active. Not like 8 hours in the sun active (though that is obviously great) but they would get up and do their own cooking, laundry, and other household chores that involve bending, stretching, etc. They would take the stairs for one or two floors.
4. Right Sleep.
Sleep according to your own Circadian rhythm and the light of the sun. Most importantly for our times, sleep enough. Don't skimp on sleep.
Thats it. Right Breath, Right Food, Right Sleep, and keeping the limbs going.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/openai-microsoft-hit-with-new-author-copyright-lawsuit-over-ai-training/ar-AA1kmo8Z
When Sam Altman was fired, some media house reported that the Board felt that with the Open AI Open Day, Sam had taken the organisation towards a commercial direction that did not fit with the original goals of Open AI.
Open AI was built as a non profit, to create AI for ALL. All being the operative word here. Equitable access to AI capabilities is vital to an equitable world. Whether we like it or not, AI is the competitive advantage of the future.
But the bigger issue is this - Open AI was trained on possibly yottabytes of data by ordinary citizens and creators of content - on the assumption that the LLM would be used for AI for All. Just like Wikipedia was created by millions of individual contributors giving their time and knowledge for free - on the premise that it was a free, open-to-all public encyclopedia.
The Microsoft investment was the first dent in the "for ALL". In one stroke, only one company stood to gain the MOST from the LLM - from the contribution of millions of individuals whose work was consumed by Open AI to create Dalle2 and ChatGPT.
The story is an action replay of the Wikipedia story. Google donated significantly to Wikipedia and magically, Wiki results started appearing on top of Google search results. Searchers found the best information on top, and Wiki got a lot more hits (and donation, of course). It was a win-win for both - but not for the creators who gave hours to create Wiki. They never got compensated.
It is the same for Open AI. It used content from literally millions of creators to make Picasso like paintings, write in the style of so-and-so author, and write specific types of content - college essays, research papers, opinion pieces - based on the essays, papers, and opinions of people who did not, and never will, see a dime.
The trend of a nonprofit creating something big and universal, only to sell it to the highest bidder, is not just against the moral principle. It is also a breach of trust. The creators who donated their time and knowledge generously, as they did prompt engineering and provided feedback to ChatGPT, were contributing to AI for ALL. They were not contributing to Bing's Image Generator or Bing ChatGPT.
Secondly, and more importantly, as a creator, why would I trust the next "Good for All"?
I know I wouldn't, personally speaking.
And to me, there is something very wrong with both these things.
Which is why I love this news:
https://www.reuters.com/legal/openai-microsoft-hit-with-new-author-copyright-lawsuit-over-ai-training-2023-11-21/
But here is something I cannot understand:
Why would a non-profit need to monetise?
Someone was funding Open AI from 2015 to the time of the MS investment. Why was that model not sustainable?
In unrelated news:
Bard can now analyse Youtube videos and give you really intelligent answers.
https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/google-bard-ai-can-now-watch-youtube-videos-and-answer-your-questions-here-s-how-to-use-new-feature/ar-AA1koDdn
But the millions of youtube creators that are helping Google monopolise the search market even more, will never see a dime of that multi-billion revenue.
#InDefenceOfTheCommonMan
