What if it's all a video game

What if we made a video game in which we can teleport ourselves into the characters for the duration of play and for that duration, we forget our true selves and live the lives of characters. The game deploys an advanced form of Machine Learning (ML) that allows it to design its own trajectory.

What if we are all in that game right now. We have built our virtual lives and families. We have developed what we call medical science that prolongs our lives in the game. But when we die, it's game over for the character and 'we' gain back our real consciousness. And hey, turns out mum is calling, food is getting cold. We may be left with certain emotions about how this particular session of the game turned out but since we know it was an artificial game, we don't give much thought to these emotions. Meanwhile, in the game, the family of the deceased is devastated by the loss and it changes the course of characters' entire game lives. The children grow up without a parent, the parents grieve for the loss of a child, and what not.

In early days of this game, real world players felt lingering emotions that needed to be addressed by therapy. But over time, a lot of resources got developed to help get over these emotions. Perhaps, a new branch of therapy developed. And then the industry became so pervasive that people learned to overcome such temporary emotions like nothing happened.

And a pandemic is just a new complication released by the developer in the 2019 update of the game. Just to spice things up for the real world players while the characters lives are ravaged.

As they say in our virtual world within this game, the soul never dies. Well, apparently, it doesn't. Because the same real world player will reincarnate in another character in the next session.

So enjoy while it lasts. It's not real. It can't be, with all that's happening in the world!

The reason of being You!

-> If you were to go tomorrow, would you say you lived a meaningful life?
-> What is your identity?
-> What are your values? Do your life choices align with them?

I just finished 'When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi. He wrote this book just before his death. It's an account of his thought provoking journey from being a curious student to a doctor to a patient to a father, written with the clear perspective of someone who is terminally ill.

Some thoughts really stood out for me - 

"You can't ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving." He says this in the context of actively engaging with death as he tries to help his patients beat death, while knowing fully well the deck is stacked against him and that death always wins. This is a beautiful phrasing of what we all experience everyday.

"Before operating on a patient's brain, I must first understand his mind: his identity, his values, what makes his life worth living, and what devastation makes it reasonable to let that life end." The context is the judgement a neurosurgeon has to make when planning high risk operations. A millimetre of difference can debilitate the patient in various ways.

"When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man's days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing." His message to his baby daughter who was 9 months old when he died.

"In the end, it cannot be doubted that each of us can see only a part of the picture. The doctor sees one, the patient another, the engineer a third, the economist a fourth, the pearl diver a fifth, the alcoholic a sixth, the cable guy a seventh, the sheep farmer an eighth, the Indian beggar a ninth, the pastor a tenth. Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete." He says in his search for truth.

When you see life from a dying person's eyes, it shines a light on how you've lived your own. And for me, sadly, it doesn't look good. 

But it's never too late to begin to strive for that asymptote. My line will perhaps remain a bit farther from the curve but, if I start now then perhaps by the end of my life, I'd still have made a journey towards that imaginary point where the line meets the curve and perfection lies.

Sodium turns 37

Every birthday is well spent reflecting. Reflecting on where you are, how you feel and what do you want to do differently over the next one year that aligns well with your longer term aspirations. It's easier said than done. I spent the day gardening today and didn't reflect much more than some winter sunlight.

But a line in my wife's card that accompanied my birthday cake note jolted me - "This is the oldest you have been and the youngest you will ever be again." It's true yet so easily forgotten. It made me come back to the milestone reflection at the end of my busy day.

I am an imperfect man. I am blessed (touch wood). People, in general, have been kind to me. Luck has favoured me as much as it hasn't. 

I feel full of gratitude for what I have. My role in my family and my place in the socio-economic fabric gives me a degree of influence on those around me. And because of that I also feel a certain responsibility. My temperament, words, and actions matter more and more for those around me. Emotionally, I almost have to slow myself down, just so that I weigh everything I convey even subtly. Suddenly, the realisation that I am an adult is acute. Not just an adult who's eligible to vote. But an adult who can raise a man and make him a good human being. An adult who can be a good husband. An adult who can be an elder of the family. An adult who can lead people. These are all the things I want to be and, in the long term, I hope I will be.

So next one year is a year of that emotional maturity. It's a year of practicing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, empathy and resilience. Of being a dad my son can always be proud of.

And on that note, it's a year of spending time with a fast growing baby, who'll never be 1.5 year old again, while trying to be a caring son, a good husband and a responsible sibling. It can feel too much but with some values and principles to drive the thinking, it's not impossible.

It's also a year of continuing to learn but with more stepping back; less wasteful distraction from digital devices, more reading and writing, about Macroeconomics and Sociology, both of which build more common sense; perhaps picking up this blog again.

Life is a journey and, as I begin a new year on this journey, I remind myself of these timeless lines from Robert Frost,

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep

To start up or not to start up

An well respected entrepreneur friend who's doing very well and has huge potential ahead of him asked me yesterday if I am considering starting my own sometime.

We got into a thought provoking discussion around why one should do so and how each of us was thinking about it. We also exchanged philosophical ideas that motivate each of us. I decided to write this to gather a balanced set of views from others that may help people who find themselves at such cross-roads.

For me an important question to ask is what really should be the motivation for someone to start their own. My experience has taught me that you should think about where you can have the most impact on the world. It can be either economic or social depending upon your interest. That doesn't matter because you can be an employee or an owner in either of these spheres.

Your impact in a corporate job depends upon the kind of role you're in and the kind of company you're in. If you're in a limited role in a low-moderate growth company you may have a higher chance of increasing your impact by joining or setting up a start up. The importance of the transformational nature of your start up idea is lesser in this situation. And if you're in a broader role or in a good trajectory in a fast growth company then you may have higher impact in the span of your career in a corporate role than through your own business. Unless you work on something truly transformational, by which I mean what the likes of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Uber did. They built platforms that were truly scalable and capable of providing opportunities to millions of more people and businesses.

I think the first situation is an easier decision. The second situation tests your judgement. You could say that, at the time of starting, you'll not know the true transformative potential of your idea, e.g., a lot of people didn't realize the potential of the idea of Facebook in its early days. But it's also easy to fail to question your judgement that what you're working on truly has unidentified potential.

Start up landscape is a mix of good and not-so-good in everything - ideas, business models, people. While some are fixing an important problem, others are getting influenced by the trend.

I am not perfect and I don't always find it easy to follow what deep down I believe is the right thing. But for this one my answer is focus on impact.

The informal world

I was a democratic supporter because I thought Donald doesn't have the temperament to be a world leader. Yet Donald won the election by a good margin and swung many dicy states in his favour. What struck the chord with the public at large? Perhaps a part of it was the hope of Donald changing the trajectory of the financial prospects of a common American whereas with Hillary they could hope only the continuation of the current trajectory. But perhaps there was another subtle part at play.

Why did Donald's volatile temperament and inflammable words not swing the public opinion against him? The answer could be in the informal world we live in today. Remember when we were kids, our school teacher taught us extensive templates in which to write news reports, headlines, applications, letters, telegrams, etc.! But the communication media of today emphasise short, to-the-point, and direct language even at the expense of grammar and with complete disregard to whatever we were taught about syntax. People today have little time and energy for formality, for keeping two sides of their personality - a professional and a personal one. That's why you see people cheering to Barack Obama going to The Tonight Show and being himself. Deep within, who doesn't have thoughts and ideas that would make public scoff at them yet only few have the guts to come out in the open and put these in words. Donald did exactly that. He portrayed his true self. He didn't mince any words. He said what came to his mind. He said what he thought.

And this didn't happen suddenly. Barack Obama had already given a bridge from a typical formal behaviour to this completely informal behaviour. He was somewhere in between, folding sleeves while wearing a tie, appearing on prime time shows, recording an appearance with Jerry Seinfeld, orchestrating light moments with world leaders, etc. What Donald did was taking it further afar. He was completely informal. He didn't behave like a typical socially accepted 'leader'. He became one of them. Perhaps that's what stuck a chord with the public. What do you think?

The world of driverless cars

When driverless technology starts maturing and is proven to be safe, the cars will not require a manual override. So steering wheel will be taken out. The car will essentially have a navigation screen in which you fill the destination coordinates, choose the path, and press 'Go'.

Urged by regulators and governments, car companies will leverage this technology to reduce pollution, reduce energy consumption, and reduce road congestion. The cars will no longer look like the present day integrated vehicles with two seats in front and typically at least two seats in back (except in few high end luxury cars). The idea will be that if one person is travelling, why does he need to carry along an empty compartment! So the design of future will be modular. You would have a driving unit which will have one seat and will attach as many additional passenger units as required. Various flexible layouts of modular units will be possible depending upon how many units are travelling. So if only two people are travelling you can either connect the units side by side or front to back. If three people are travelling, you can either connect the units linearly back to back or like a current three wheeler with one unit in the front and two in the back. The software will automatically detect the layout and align the transmission and coordination between wheels of various units accordingly. The most visible impact of the modular design will be that it will significantly reduce traffic congestion.

Cars will be electric and will run on batteries. Batteries will be chargeable by either electric or solar power. You will not need a new extensive infrastructure of charging stations to support your hybrid driverless car. Batteries will be light and detachable. You will charge them at home by plugging into one of the sockets. There will also be a small inbuilt battery to store solar power in the interest of further fuel economy, energy conservation and environmental protection. The cars will also have an emergency mode of running directly on solar power though with significantly reduced performance. You will usually have spare battery banks like you have for mobile phones today. They will be working on various futuristic technologies like controlled fission of atoms and using water or air as a fuel. Perhaps you will see some trial runs of these technologies in your lifespan.

Driverless driving will improve inter-vehicle coordination on the road substantially so accidents will be rare and car bodies will mostly be scratch free. Reduced risk of damage will encourage higher borrowing of passenger units or even driver units from your neighbour, friend, or relative. If your friend lives some distance away from your home the driving unit can potentially autonomously go and return the passenger unit to the owner and then come back home itself. The cars will have embedded security technology to prevent theft when the car is travelling without you.

Insurance premiums will reduce significantly because of reduced risk of vehicular damage. To compensate the per unit realisation (i.e., premiums per policy), insurance companies will count on higher volumes (units sold) as cheaper technology becomes accessible to lower income groups also either through private ownership or through taxi services.

Various fleet management companies will operate driverless taxies and use a fleet management software commercially available from leading software companies. This software will act as an interface between various driving units and will help them talk to each other. If you booked a pick up for two people then the nearby driving unit accepting your request will either have the second unit on itself or will coordinate with another driving unit nearby which has a spare passenger unit. If no other nearby unit has a spare passenger unit then this driving unit will request additional passenger unit from the closest stand. Another driving unit will directly come to deliver it to your place while your booked driving unit comes to you from another direction around the same time. The time taken for such coordination will reflect in your pre-boarding waiting period for which you will of course not be charged. In case the driving unit that accepts your request has an extra passenger unit which is not required for your trip, it can either hand it over to another passing driving unit which may need it or leave it at the closest stand on the way either before or after you board.

For those who enjoy driving for pleasure, expensive convertibles will be available from a few car companies. They will look more like present day's integrated vehicles with multiple seats but will come with advanced automation and networking features. They will have both manual and driverless modes of operation. However, if you flout traffic rules intentionally or unintentionally, the traffic police's GPS driven network monitoring software will detect you and take appropriate action. You will not only be penalised for disturbing traffic but also be sued by insurance companies for any damage to other vehicles.

The changes will be easier for developed countries to adopt. However, developing countries will need to completely overhaul their traffic rules education and enforcement system to enable the driverless cars to drive without running over careless pedestrians or ramming into manual drivers with no knowledge of traffic rules. This will take time. For a while the divide between developed and developing countries will increase.

What's with this personal data security!

A few days ago, there was this huge outcry about Whatsapp asking you to share your phone number with its parent, Facebook. A lot of informed people not only opted out of it but took it as their duty to educate the general public about the same. What right does a business have to access our personal information, even if for a service!

It's astonishing how valuable Whatsapp has been to our lives. It's a simple piece of software to which even our illiterate parents/grand-parents have adopted naturally. It has helped large families, alumni groups, teams, etc. keep connected with each other every minute of the day. It has filled a lot of available time in the everyday life of our retired parents with jokes, funny videos, motivational messages, and well with its fair share of hoax. It has united classmates from the previous generation. In ways unique to each individual context, it has added a lot of value to our lives. It has almost become an indispensable part of our lives. And it has done all this for free.

How do we price such an added value to our lives? How much are we willing to pay for this value? Perhaps nothing if you ask millions of people using it. Not until the last such service goes out of business not being able to pay for itself and we're left isolated, unconnected, undiscoverable. And it takes time after any such existing service goes out of business and before new one gains a critical mass to offer the same level of connectivity. If this happens 2-3 times, people will get tired of switching and perhaps the world will not be as connected much before the last service dies.

So here is a company asking for no money but just for you to share your phone number with its parent platform. A number which you've perhaps already put on your profile page on its parent platform, whether visible or invisible to the public. A number which you've perhaps shared with it so that it can allow you to reset your password using your phone number in case you forget it. A number which you happily give to every retail chain on the street just to earn 1% purchase value worth of loyalty points. Let's face it, you're anyways going to see ads on your Facebook wall. What will happen if this company is able to get a better picture of your preferences by linking Whatsapp? You'll get more relevant ads. It may actually end up saving you some time, improving your experience with ads, or adding to your gratification!