One is often reminded that religions provide the foundations of morality for humanity, and that how, without religions, humanity would be hopelessly without a moral compass. However, it is now widely known that religions are among the worst offenders in perpetuating inequitable practices.
It is instructive to look ancient history to see if religions have provided moral foundations for governance systems. This author would argue that there is little to conclude that religions of any given age always provided moral foundations in the light of these examples.
We examine the exhortations made by several kings of ancient Babylonia and Persia, translated from various edicts and proclamations.
We start with two proponents of the "violent reprisal" school-of-thought, from Babylonia.
Ashurbanipal (685-627 BCE)
"I conquered Susa. I removed the seals from the treasuries and stores, accumulated by the Kings from olden times. All the silver, gold, jewels, cloaks and furniture of the palaces, statues of Kings made from gold and silver and precious stones were sent to Assyria. Then I rooted out the temples of Susa and reduced their Gods to sand and rubble. The territory which was within the marching distances of one month and twenty days I made barren from end to end, loaded thorns into it, and converted it into a marshy land. The sons and daugters of Kings and all the members of the royal family, governors, officers, weapon makers, artisans, men or women and all the cattle were taken to Assyria. I crushed the head of Elam and removed the cries of joy and rejoicing from that territory. I converted the country into the dwelling of wild donkeys, wild boars, devils and wild beasts."
Nebuchadnezzar (605-652 BCE)
"I ordered that a hundred thousand eyes may be brought before me and a hundred thousands shanks of the legs make be broken. With my own hands I gorged out the eyeballs of the commander of the enemy from the sockets. Thousands of boys and girls were burnt alive. I battered the houses in such a way that the sound of living persons may not come out of them again."
Less than a hundred years from them, we have two Persian emperors of the Achamenid empire.
Cyrus (576-530 BCE)
"I am Kurush the Hakkamanian. O man, whoever you are and wheresoever you come from, I am Kurush who found the kingdom of the Persians, grudge me not therefore this little earth that covers my body."
--From his tombstone
"When I entered Babylon without any battle, people welcomed my arrival with rejoicing. In the palace of the Kings of Bablylon I sat upon the royal throne. Marduk (the God of the Babylonians) inclined the hearts of the noble people of Babylon favourably towards me because I looked upon Him with respect and love. My large army entered Babylon comfortably. I did not allow any calamity to befall the people and its sacred places touched my heart. I ordered that all the people were free to worship their God--and irreligious people should not harm them.
I ordered that none of the houses should be ruined. I ordered that none of the citizens should be put to death. The great God (Ahura Mazda) was pleased with me and bestowed upon me Cyrus and upon my son Cambujiyeh and upon all my soldiers the gifts of his blessings.
Kings who are sitting in their palaces in all the countries of the world, Kings from across the seas and Kings of the West, all of them brought rich tributes and in Babylon they kissed my feet. I ordered that all the temples of Babylon, Susa, Akkad and in the territory beyond the Euphrates which were built in ancient times and were closed, should be reopened.
I restored all the Gods of these temples to their places so that they may remain there forever. I gathered together the people of the areas and rebuilt their houses which had been demolished. The Gods of Sumer and Akkad safely restored to their palaces known as `Delight of the Heart'. I bestowed upon all the people peace and happiness."
Darius (550-486 BCE)
"Ahura Mazda bore me aid because I was not hostile, I was not deceitful, I did not act falsely, neither I nor my family. I conducted myself as per justice. Neither to weak nor to the powerful did I do wrong. The man who was excellent, him I rewarded well; him who was evil, I punished well. By the grace of Ahura Mazda I am of such a sort that I am a friend to right, I am not a friend to wrong. It is not my desire that the weak man should have wrong done to him by the mighty; nor is it my desire that the mighty should have wrong done to him by the weak. What is right, that is my desire--it is not my desire that a man should do harm; nor is it my desire that if he should do harm, he should not be punished."
We thus have examples of two extreme ends of moral behaviour arising from the equally religious emperors, the difference arising largely from what seems to be personal or clan value systems rather than religion per se.
In the contemporary world too, this distinction is evident...most often, the goodness that one possesses does not necessarily originate from religion--in some cases, it is there in spite of religion!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
A Tribute to the Typewriter
As a child, I was fascinated with typewriters. After finishing High School, it was the practice in the 1970s and early 1980s, especially for women, to learn typewriting (and the related lost art of 'shorthand'). This was in preparation for a career in Secretaryship.
There were these typing schools that prepared students for 'Lower' and 'Higher' exams in typewriting, with word speeds of 40 and 60 a minute (if I remember right). I had the opportunity to accompany my elder cousin when she started her typing course in the late 70s, and still remember my awe at the rows of typewriters on which students were noisily pecking away, learning their 'a-s-d-f-g-f" and ";-l-k-j-h-j".
Typewriters themselves looked elegant and gleaming, and the smell of ink, carbon paper and some kind of lubricating oil were persistent, but to me they were machines that processed words, some kind of a mechanical computer (later on, in college, I would learn to use another mechanical device--a hand-operated Facit calculating machine).
Typewriters were the hope and bane of many a writer-to-be. For others working in offices (as a 'stenographer' or 'typist'), it provided a whole career. Despite difficulties in correcting, despite mechanical irregularities and smudged print, typewriters stood us in good stead for almost the whole of the 20th century. For me, learning to type was a thrilling experience (perhaps also because my handwriting was terrible!) and I retain fond memories of my time in the typing institute.
For at least two generation, the excuse of "...going to learn typing" a legitimate way to get out of home, especially for young girls (in the Indian context) who had just finished school and didn't want, couldn't afford, or didn't qualify for college. There were a million of the inevitable 'typewriting' romances, caused on account of the close (and mostly unsupervised) interaction among teenagers of both sexes. Learning typing was thus also a rite of passage...
It is with regret, therefore, that I report the
closure of the last typewriter factory, Godrej & Boyce, in Mumbai, India.
"We are not getting many orders now," Milind Dukle, Godrej and Boyce's general manager, told the paper. "From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us. 'Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices. There's still a market, albeit a (very) small one. And we're not enough to sustain an industry."
Here's to the fond memories of this remarkable device that--not so silently--contributed to commerce, creative writing, livelihoods and the growing up of several generations of young men and women.
There were these typing schools that prepared students for 'Lower' and 'Higher' exams in typewriting, with word speeds of 40 and 60 a minute (if I remember right). I had the opportunity to accompany my elder cousin when she started her typing course in the late 70s, and still remember my awe at the rows of typewriters on which students were noisily pecking away, learning their 'a-s-d-f-g-f" and ";-l-k-j-h-j".
Typewriters themselves looked elegant and gleaming, and the smell of ink, carbon paper and some kind of lubricating oil were persistent, but to me they were machines that processed words, some kind of a mechanical computer (later on, in college, I would learn to use another mechanical device--a hand-operated Facit calculating machine).
Typewriters were the hope and bane of many a writer-to-be. For others working in offices (as a 'stenographer' or 'typist'), it provided a whole career. Despite difficulties in correcting, despite mechanical irregularities and smudged print, typewriters stood us in good stead for almost the whole of the 20th century. For me, learning to type was a thrilling experience (perhaps also because my handwriting was terrible!) and I retain fond memories of my time in the typing institute.
For at least two generation, the excuse of "...going to learn typing" a legitimate way to get out of home, especially for young girls (in the Indian context) who had just finished school and didn't want, couldn't afford, or didn't qualify for college. There were a million of the inevitable 'typewriting' romances, caused on account of the close (and mostly unsupervised) interaction among teenagers of both sexes. Learning typing was thus also a rite of passage...
It is with regret, therefore, that I report the
closure of the last typewriter factory, Godrej & Boyce, in Mumbai, India.
"We are not getting many orders now," Milind Dukle, Godrej and Boyce's general manager, told the paper. "From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us. 'Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices. There's still a market, albeit a (very) small one. And we're not enough to sustain an industry."
Here's to the fond memories of this remarkable device that--not so silently--contributed to commerce, creative writing, livelihoods and the growing up of several generations of young men and women.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
"Immediate Computing": Coming-of-age of tablets, pads and slates
Introduction
The last decade has seen the emergence of a variety of new personal computing devices and platforms—the SmartPhone; Netbooks & Net-tops; personal media players; ebook readers; and tablets, pads & slates, to name a few. All these devices endow the user with more flexible, media-rich, always-connected computing experiences.
Pads, Tablets and Slates
A technology that has existed for nearly a decade, but has only recently come to prominence is tablet computing (together with the closely aligned pad and slate platforms). The first ‘tablet PC’ was launched by Microsoft in 2001. This, however, did not take off for various reasons. The tablet, a flat hand-held unit running Windows and using a pen as an input device, was perhaps too early for its time. Compared to today’s tablets, it had too few hardware APIs, and was too heavy and expensive.
However, the tablet-pad-slate format had a number of advantages. In actual fact, it brings in a new paradigm in personal computing in addition to the existing paradigms of desktop computing and mobile computing. This paradigm, which can be called as Immediate Computing, can be defined in the following way.
A traditional desktop or laptop is designed around the assumption that the user is not doing anything else while using the computer. Thus, both hands are required for typing on the keyboard—one handed use is not possible. Eyes have to be directed largely at the screen. The seating posture assumes that typing is the sole task that can be done. Trying to do any other 'work' while using the desktop either requires additional equipment (for example, boom mic and headphones) or is considered an interruption.
In contrast, the other existing paradigm, mobile computing, provides a more interruptible, on-the-fly style of doing tasks, but these are usually less intensive computing tasks. The main problem here is the considerable difficulties of typing on a mobile device (even when it has the so-called full qwerty keyboard) and viewing content on the small display surface. However, the large number of hardware APIs on the mobile platform (camera, GPS, accelerometer) allows creative and flexible applications to be built on mobile platforms, even though they cannot be used continuously the way a desktop is usually used.
A good illustration of the third paradigm, Immediate Computing, is the paper clipboard. We see people walking around with a clipboard, jotting down comments on the board, ticking off items from a check-list etc. For example, a doctor doing the rounds carries a clipboard, on which she notes her comments, while simultaneously talking to the patient, examining the bedside chart, talking to the nurse and examining the affected part. The clipboard becomes an extension of her memory and its use is seamless to the other activities that she carries out. At the same time, it provides a record of her activity at the end of her rounds. In other words, the clipboard fits in seamlessly into the pattern of work, providing immediate, uninterrupted service.
There are numerous examples of such use of clipboards in the industry, such as in supermarkets, warehouses, airports, the military, and schools, with the clipboard holding plain paper, printed forms or check-lists. In some cases, a printed form is written on, signed, and a carbon copy handed over at the site.
Immediate Computing capability of a Pad
A tablet/pad/slate PC is an extension of this clipboard, but offering far more features, flexibility and connectivity. The most fundamental change is that the pad does not require any set-up time. There is no need to open the bag, pull out the computer, locate a table, place it, switch it on, wait for the boot and then use it as with a notebook PC--the pad is always ready to be used immediately, anywhere, and while standing, walking or seated. There is no need to be seated at your table (as in the case of a Desktop) nor to fiddle with the mobile to locate the right application to use. The pad is sufficiently large for both easy reading, gesture-based navigation and typing with one hand.
Here are some examples of the potential use of Immediate Computing both in the industrial/business sector and for personal applications:
The market
The market is abuzz with different devices that are being released in significant numbers. Of course, it was the iconic iPad that really stimulated the market to its current frenzy, but much of the considered optimism on account of Google Android, the Open Source Smart Device Operation System that has emerged to be extremely popular in the last two years.
While Froyo (Android 2.2) and Gingerbread (Android 2.3) are both generic OSes for both smartphones as well as pads/tablets, Honeycomb (Android 3.0) is reportedly exclusive for pads, tablets and slates, leveraging the exclusive features of the pad (larger screen, more business oriented applications, easier-to-use keyboard etc). The fact that Honeycomb is exclusive to pads makes it clear that Google considers the pad market to be mature.
Many companies, both well-known and new, have placed their pad offerings in the market. These range from the highly advertised Galaxy Tab from Samsung, to Dell Streak, to several cheap (around US$ 250 for an 8” device) Chinese manufacturers.
The prognosis for the pad, tablet and slate segment is very bright. Given that most of these will be running Open Source OSes such as Android makes the entry barrier for developers quite low. Coupled with an Open Source platform such as Android, Immediate Computing opens up an entirely new paradigm and market segment.
The last decade has seen the emergence of a variety of new personal computing devices and platforms—the SmartPhone; Netbooks & Net-tops; personal media players; ebook readers; and tablets, pads & slates, to name a few. All these devices endow the user with more flexible, media-rich, always-connected computing experiences.
Pads, Tablets and Slates
A technology that has existed for nearly a decade, but has only recently come to prominence is tablet computing (together with the closely aligned pad and slate platforms). The first ‘tablet PC’ was launched by Microsoft in 2001. This, however, did not take off for various reasons. The tablet, a flat hand-held unit running Windows and using a pen as an input device, was perhaps too early for its time. Compared to today’s tablets, it had too few hardware APIs, and was too heavy and expensive.
However, the tablet-pad-slate format had a number of advantages. In actual fact, it brings in a new paradigm in personal computing in addition to the existing paradigms of desktop computing and mobile computing. This paradigm, which can be called as Immediate Computing, can be defined in the following way.
A traditional desktop or laptop is designed around the assumption that the user is not doing anything else while using the computer. Thus, both hands are required for typing on the keyboard—one handed use is not possible. Eyes have to be directed largely at the screen. The seating posture assumes that typing is the sole task that can be done. Trying to do any other 'work' while using the desktop either requires additional equipment (for example, boom mic and headphones) or is considered an interruption.
In contrast, the other existing paradigm, mobile computing, provides a more interruptible, on-the-fly style of doing tasks, but these are usually less intensive computing tasks. The main problem here is the considerable difficulties of typing on a mobile device (even when it has the so-called full qwerty keyboard) and viewing content on the small display surface. However, the large number of hardware APIs on the mobile platform (camera, GPS, accelerometer) allows creative and flexible applications to be built on mobile platforms, even though they cannot be used continuously the way a desktop is usually used.
A good illustration of the third paradigm, Immediate Computing, is the paper clipboard. We see people walking around with a clipboard, jotting down comments on the board, ticking off items from a check-list etc. For example, a doctor doing the rounds carries a clipboard, on which she notes her comments, while simultaneously talking to the patient, examining the bedside chart, talking to the nurse and examining the affected part. The clipboard becomes an extension of her memory and its use is seamless to the other activities that she carries out. At the same time, it provides a record of her activity at the end of her rounds. In other words, the clipboard fits in seamlessly into the pattern of work, providing immediate, uninterrupted service.
There are numerous examples of such use of clipboards in the industry, such as in supermarkets, warehouses, airports, the military, and schools, with the clipboard holding plain paper, printed forms or check-lists. In some cases, a printed form is written on, signed, and a carbon copy handed over at the site.
Immediate Computing capability of a Pad
A tablet/pad/slate PC is an extension of this clipboard, but offering far more features, flexibility and connectivity. The most fundamental change is that the pad does not require any set-up time. There is no need to open the bag, pull out the computer, locate a table, place it, switch it on, wait for the boot and then use it as with a notebook PC--the pad is always ready to be used immediately, anywhere, and while standing, walking or seated. There is no need to be seated at your table (as in the case of a Desktop) nor to fiddle with the mobile to locate the right application to use. The pad is sufficiently large for both easy reading, gesture-based navigation and typing with one hand.
Here are some examples of the potential use of Immediate Computing both in the industrial/business sector and for personal applications:
- The doctor on her rounds can now see each patient’s photograph for confirmation, and also a picture of the original condition of the patient
- All patient details entered are updated within the database in real-time through the wireless network. New medication is automatically ordered from the pharmacy and the laboratory is intimated about the tests required instantly. If required, experts sitting remotely can examine the patient history, pictures and procedures/medication done so far and offer advice
- The maintenance technician can take a picture of a damaged part and upload it together with the maintenance request
- The QA supervisor can run through the checklist questions, sign digitally, and print the approval form on a nearby printer
- In a warehouse, the inventory technician can query each item using an RFID or Near Field Communication (NFC) reader and automatically take a physical inventory
- In a school laboratory, an examiner can go around inspecting the output of each pupil and award marks on-the-spot
- A system administrator can access a bunch of manuals on a single pad and see both text as well as pictures and videos on how to get something done
- A car breakdown technician automatically logs the geographical location/position of each vehicle that requires repairs, and bills it accordingly
- An insurance field assessor takes multiple pictures of the damaged vehicle and instantly uploads it for his superiors in the head office
- A student takes a single pad computer to school containing all his textbooks. While reading his book he has seamless access to a dictionary, thesaurus, Wikipedia or a search engine for direct lookup
- A keen reader of books can now read anywhere--in the car, on the bed or while waiting at the dentist’s office, and get the pad to remember the exact location that he had stopped, for any number of simultaneous open books
The market
The market is abuzz with different devices that are being released in significant numbers. Of course, it was the iconic iPad that really stimulated the market to its current frenzy, but much of the considered optimism on account of Google Android, the Open Source Smart Device Operation System that has emerged to be extremely popular in the last two years.
While Froyo (Android 2.2) and Gingerbread (Android 2.3) are both generic OSes for both smartphones as well as pads/tablets, Honeycomb (Android 3.0) is reportedly exclusive for pads, tablets and slates, leveraging the exclusive features of the pad (larger screen, more business oriented applications, easier-to-use keyboard etc). The fact that Honeycomb is exclusive to pads makes it clear that Google considers the pad market to be mature.
Many companies, both well-known and new, have placed their pad offerings in the market. These range from the highly advertised Galaxy Tab from Samsung, to Dell Streak, to several cheap (around US$ 250 for an 8” device) Chinese manufacturers.
The prognosis for the pad, tablet and slate segment is very bright. Given that most of these will be running Open Source OSes such as Android makes the entry barrier for developers quite low. Coupled with an Open Source platform such as Android, Immediate Computing opens up an entirely new paradigm and market segment.
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