SynTalk

Is your disease human? Are you infected? Do you have an orphan or a rare disease? Has (the) polio (virus) been eradicated? ‘Can’ vaccines be made for all infectious diseases, & is eradication for ever? Why was there an epidemic of measles after the collapse of Soviet Union? Can anything be done about the strong genetic predisposition to (say) Huntington’s Chorea? Is diabetes non-communicable? Does society create different kinds of disabilities? Is all blindness treatable? Why aren’t radical interventions possible on the brain? Do infection, disease and mortality rates always follow a pattern across time? How does childhood variously influence diseases later in life? Will there always be new diseases, & why? Why don’t plants infect humans, when animals do? Can mosquitoes transmit HIV? How did we get dengue? Are vectors also hosts? Can cures cause diseases? Are all (including ‘lifestyle’?) diseases systemic? How do young landless labourers get diabetes? Is inequality a significant determinant of diseases? Is a disease free (sub) world possible? Or, can diseases eradicate entire species (including the human race)? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from neuroscience (Dr. Garga Chatterjee, ISI, Kolkata), virology (Dr. Shahid Jameel, The Wellcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance, New Delhi), & political economy/history of health (Prof. Mohan Rao, JNU, New Delhi). Listen in....

Can one stay in a hole through one's entire life? Is a system always embedded in another? How large can (or should) the smaller system be? Is the market a free floating entity? Is it difficult to understand when a system has been monopolized? Do almost all communities have skewed abundance patterns? Are niches always n-dimensional hypervolumes? Can there be a qualitative difference between two forests with the same amount of timber generated and harvested? Is niche fundamentally a ‘fund’ (& not a ‘stock’) concept? Are niches inherited? Can inheritance also happen mimetically? How are niches constructed: what role do key innovations play? Can niches also diverge over a period of time? Has there been a progressive loss of diversity of (efficiency) norms, & does this inevitably lead to an increase in systemic risk and centralization? Did thermodynamics and economics coevolve during industrial revolution, & is the transition from charcoal to coal a pivotal turn? Are humans the only species that modify the ecosystem to their own detriment? Is the 'tree of life' a clumpy, gappy, crooked, jagged line? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from ecological economics, chemical engineering (Dr. Deepak Malghan, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore), & ecology (Dr. Kartik Shanker, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore). Listen in....

Is your name on the top of your mind? Are the preconscious or the unconscious merely the regions far away from the centre of the field of attention? Why are memories transient? Can there be a memory molecule, or are all memories synthesized? Are memories localized in the brain? Can (collective) memories be formless? How are traumatic events remembered? What role does emotional significance, meaning, and stress play in the recording and retrieval of a memory? Can memories be inherited genetically? What is the difference between repression and suppression? Is suppression impossible? Can memories be planted? Can there be a kind of wisdom in forgetting? Is it easy to forget? Why don’t we often remember the details? Are episodic, declarative, and motor memories stored in different neural structures? Can you hold the theoretical memory capacity of your brain in your hand? Is our memory capacity changing? Why does chunking work? What are the sites of memory? How do memory practices change? Can tradition be invented? How do we remember forgetting? Can we create memories that do not exist? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from neuroscience (Prof. Upinder S. Bhalla, NCBS, Bangalore), media & cultural studies (Dr. Rohit Chopra, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara), & psychoanalysis (Dr. Pushpa Misra, ex-Bethune College, Kolkata). Listen in....

Why don’t we let the past be? What do we do when there is a crisis? What do we see when we look back? What is imitated? Is a renaissance a rebirth: but of something totally new (as a non identical repetition)? What is renaissance ‘about’? Is it celebratory of a past but not necessarily redemptive? Can something ontologically preexisting (& of value) be made into a ‘currency’ by naming? Is the word renaissance substantive or does it need a geographical (say, Italian/Islamic/Bengal) or other marker? Why do we sometimes see ‘new things’ within many different domains within a short period of time? Where does the discourse of newness come from? What is the self understanding during these periods of change? Might the separation of the object from its properties be the defining epistemic break? How does one understand the context of discovery? Did women have a renaissance? Why did Petrarch write letters to a (long dead) Cicero? Is a revolution a renaissance? Does a renaissance have strategic moments to separate Us from Them? Can there be a private renaissance? Can a renaissance be caused or predicted? SynTalk thinks about these and more questions using concepts from history & philosophy of science (Prof. Nagarjuna G., HBCSE, Mumbai), literature & renaissance studies (Prof. Amlan Das Gupta, Jadavpur University, Kolkata), & philosophy & literature (Prof. R. Radhakrishnan, UCI, Irvine). Listen in....

Did Buddha have friends? Did Gandhi have enemies? Can you renounce friends? Is friendship universal? Do we ‘need’ enemies? Is competition ever with enemies? Why is there ‘narcissism of small differences’? Can rivals be friends? How are enemies, adversaries, and opponents conceptually distinct from each other? Are democratic structures meant for pacification of politics: can enemies be turned into adversaries? Does self interest contaminate friendship or does mutual self interest bind it together? Can power be shared? Does allegiance to a world view come along with enemies that need to be fought? Did competitive sports (Olympics) come to be as a substitute for combat and battles? How is the sense of the self developed? Can there be friendship between collectivities (such as countries)? Would the European Union have come to be without the preceding World Wars? Why and ‘how’ did Panchtantra come to be? Would a highly transactional world make friendships redundant? Are there friendships in competitive sports? Is mono-modal friendship possible? Will there ever be a world where there are no friends (or enemies)? Can affection be manufactured by law? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from sports psychology (Bhishmaraj P. Bam, Purushottam Academy, Nashik), political theory (Prof. Rajeev Bhargava, CSDS, New Delhi), & philosophy and history (Prof. Vinay Lal, UCLA, Los Angeles).

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Can suicide bombers be farmed? Who is a terrorist? How are terrorists recruited, trained and incentivized? Do terrorists run out of weapons? What role does leadership play in the success of terrorist groups? What happens when a terrorist group is decapitated? Is it possible to dabble in terrorism? Is a terrorist attack always a mixture of violence and theatre, and always a part of a communication strategy? How are terrorist groups organised? Can terrorist groups maintain armies, and military like organization structure? Is (perceived) grievance a necessary condition for terrorism? Is a failed State and chaos always an opportunity for terrorists? Is warlordism usually the first stage in state formation? Is the State usually complicit in allowing a terrorist group to form? Is war politics by other means? Is terrorism often a result of the orthodoxy asserting itself against a reformation(?)? Are terrorist groups willing to engage in dialogues or surrender when they are in ascendancy? Is the use of force always counterproductive? Can there be just terrorism? Is terrorism inevitable? Will terrorism end as an ideological option in the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from political science (Prof. Dipak Gupta, San Diego State University, San Diego), & terrorism studies (Dr. Ajai Sahni, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi). Listen in....

Do you know that you are ignorant? How do you understand clouds? What would total knowledge do; could you create the entire universe then? Is the process of acquiring knowledge an iterative tussle with ignorance? Does every new knowledge also produce new ignorance? Are all descriptions answers? How is a discipline made possible? Is it possible to classify ignorance a priori? Is science primarily a representational endeavour? What is painter’s knowledge? How does biology understand nature? How do objects form? How does the connection between theory and the phenomena differ across disciplines? Do all disciplines operate at the level of (formal?) language? What is common between the sciences? And the arts? Is there a unitary underlying method? Can we understand tides as a mystery? Is nature ideal? Can we, in principle, make a zebra from fundamental particles? What is imagination constrained by? How is biology different from physics? Do disciplinary boundaries have more to do with knowledge transfer than knowledge creation? Would 21st century be the century of materials? What would be the legitimacy of the portrait in the 22nd century? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts & experiences from philosophy (Prof. Prajit K. Basu, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad), physics (Prof. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, TIFR, Mumbai), & art (Dr. Gieve Patel, Mumbai). Listen in....

What cannot be abstracted? What was Grothendieck up to? Does abstraction exist all around us; as notions of (say) numbers, distance, money, & more? Further, is there a way of abstracting the notion of distance across different kinds of geometries? Is labour (power) abstract? Is it surprising that we are able to think of 2 apples and 2 oranges as just 2? Does cinema & art usually give a concrete body to abstract things like emotions? What is the method of abstraction across realms, & does it involve turning ‘inputs’ into ‘commodities’? How does the orange-seller know how to efficiently pack the oranges? How is abstractness embodied, and what role do materials play? Is the concrete an instance of the abstract? Does the word ‘room’ (say) signify a concept in our heads? Can cinema (a la ‘absolute films’) be concrete without (the artifice (?) of) actors, sets and dialogues? What role do aesthetic & philosophical principles play in the process of abstraction? Can there be/is there a method of ‘rising from the abstract to the concrete’? Why did art turn abstract? Is all art, in a sense, abstract? However, is the making of all art very concrete? Might a sculptor ‘know’ a result before a topologist does? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from film studies (Prof. Moinak Biswas, Jadavpur University, Kolkata), mathematics (Prof. Gadadhar Misra, IISc, Bangalore), & art (Pushpamala N., Bangalore). Listen in....

Do kids understand adults? Does foetus feel pain and pleasure? What does the world look like from the crib? Is the new born infant alert, aware & awake, & not confused? What are kids pre-wired for, & is pre-wiring largely genetic? Do we learn fear? Do new-borns get bored? How do children learn, and (what) do they need to be taught? How is grammar learnt? When do kids start becoming autonomous? Have you experienced the Terrible Twos? When does a child stop being a child? Is the concept of late childhood a product of modernity? Must adolescence be a ‘productive’ period? Do children have rights? What exactly is childhood ‘innocence’, & must childhood be valourized? Can some kids be unusually cruel? Is parenthood naturally anxiety inducing? Might the absence of disclosure of love for the child be a problem? What might indiscriminate ‘limit setting’ by parents lead to? Is it hard, however, to always be a calm carefree parent? How different and similar are kids from each other, & is it alright to compare them? What is the long term future of childhood? Should kids be free? Would the basis of innateness be established in the long term? Would such a world be dystopian? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from psychology (Prof. Malavika Kapur, NIAS, Bangalore), sociology (Dr. Shilpa Phadke, TISS, Mumbai), & developmental paediatrics (Dr. Koyeli Sengupta, Ummeed, Mumbai). Listen in…

Is Colin McKenzie for real? What cannot be faked? Are fakes lies? Can copies be more valuable than the original? What is the test of something being original? Is originality a fact? Is it culturally determined? What are the ethics and aesthetics of fakes? How and at what point do we know when an experience is not real? What about reality that cannot be experienced? Is seeing believing, or is believing seeing? Is ‘seeing’ always ‘seeing-as’? Why do some of us prefer artificial flowers over fresh flowers? Does the idea of the original always imply its opposite? What kind of objects can (cannot) have copies (originals)? Can there be fake words? Or chairs? Is the copy of a copy the copy of the same original? Can there be a fake documentary film? Are there false images for astronomers? How does science ‘handle’ reality? What are the (dis)similarities between archaeology, astronomy and film-making? Is most of reality constructed, and do we really know what reality is? Does reality always depend on the technology available? Do we ‘need’ reality? Can we live (largely) with hyperreal simulacra, & will reality be dispensed with in the long run? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from philosophy (Prof. Sharad Deshpande, ex-University of Pune, Pune), film-making (Nilita Vachani, Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), New York), & astronomy & archaeology (Prof. Mayank Vahia, TIFR, Mumbai). Listen in....