SynTalk

Does randomness lie in the eye of the beholder? ‘What’ is music? Why is ordering often a consequence of scaling? Is there such a thing as non-repetitive music? Do there need to be ‘types’ for there to be repetitions? Are there patterns out there independent of us? What would a Kantian say? Are fundamental algorithms at the heart of Nature? Does this conflict with fundamental laws of physics? Why can’t finite state machines count? Are Turing machines able to recognize repetitions? How? Why isn’t any combination of notes a raga? Why is ‘Sa’ the fixed point in Hindustani classical music? Can the link between moods and musical keys / notes / ragas be understood via the pigeonhole principle? Is there a deep link between repetition and consonance (or dissonance)? Do we tend to classify things that are not ‘not different’? Is the ability to have knowledge of similarity a distinct faculty? How are multiple renditions ‘in’ a raga same yet different? Can repetitions help charge our musical consciousness? Do ever-fresh accents make repetitions rhythms? Is there asymmetric dependence of error on truth? &, do hallucinations ‘repeat’ Reality? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from theoretical computer science (Dr. Arkadev Chattopadhyay, TIFR, Mumbai), music studies/history (Prof. Partho Datta, JNU, New Delhi), & philosophy (Prof. Anand Vaidya, San José State University, San José). Listen in...

Are your attachments secure? Are you disabled? Have you ever lost your mind? Is there a link between Being, becoming, experience, & location? Are all spaces places? Could one be at ‘home’, & yet ‘out of place’? Does your place give you too much identity? Must actors be models? Is your help a part of your family? Are you able to put yourself in another’s shoes? How do actors / writers / psychotherapists do this? Are you comfortable as yourself in an artificial situation – i.e., can you play yourself? Is lived experience the only vantage point? Are experiences ever pre-discursive? Is there an intactness within you? How do constructivists think of psychopaths? How can an actor prepare to play a dictator? Can entire societies get authoritarian? Have you experienced evil parts of yourself? Is a person on a mechanized wheelchair (necessarily) looking for empathy? Could migrant domestic workers seek privacy in public spaces? Why might imagining another on our own terms be dangerous? Does cattle grid also keep certain humans out? &, might the conception of the human itself (from only able-bodied, & in-reason) change in the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from psychology (Prof. Rachana Johri, ex-Ambedkar University, New Delhi), film-making (Prof. Mazhar Kamran, IIT Bombay, Bombay), & disability studies (Dr. Bindhulakshmi Pattadath, TISS, Mumbai). Listen in...

Are humans statistical systems with random biases? Is the world fundamentally discrete, & the continuum an emergent property? Or, is the quantum world foamy? Should black holes be a part of the Standard Model? Does the Standard Model (surely) undergird the periodic table? Is space-time merely a causal ordering of events? Where does physics end, and chemistry begin? Can the shape of water molecule be inferred from macroscopic water? How is the whole different from the sum of its parts? Can having a very old universe help with these questions? What may have led to structures in the early universe? Are the various scales interconnected? Are molecular geometries & properties better understood via electron density functions rather than wave functions? ‘How’ are n-electron systems confined? Can you ‘visualize’ the (network-like) posets? When/which systems self organize? Are there different collective behaviours at different scales? Can we synthesize a complete living system? Can the spectra of any newly synthesized molecule be predicted – & how? Can earthquakes be predicted precisely? &, what are a few open questions? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from statistical physics (Prof. Deepak Dhar, IISER, Pune), quantum chemistry (Prof. Kalidas Sen, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad), & quantum physics (Prof. Sumati Surya, Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore). Listen in...

Do you talk to your toaster? Do you think of ‘your’ bacteria as yourself? What self-replicates? Do organisms age during hibernation? Does the hybrid presuppose the pure? Can artefacts be made without thinking about their environments? Are our bodies at least somewhat mechanistic? Will we always live with the categories of the 1600s? Which deviations are aberrational? Do life and non-life lie on a continuum? Are only the animate living? Should doctors be haunted by the realization that their whole paradigm might change someday? Does psychology need physics? Could interactions between matter produce something of a different kind? How do a bunch of non living things come together to create living things? Is there a unit of life? Is the mitochondria living? Do robots ‘need’ ergonomic designing? Is there affordance between the non-living? Do stents & implants change us? Are robots akin to virus? Can Egyptian mummies be revived? Is objectivity context specific? Are processes involving the living fundamentally different? Can artefacts learn? Can environment change make enzymes evolve? What will organisms of the future be like? &, will we categorize differently? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from cultural studies (Dr. Anirban Das, CSSSC, Kolkata), systems design (Dr. Vivek Kant, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur), & cell biology (Dr. Sunil Laxman, DBT-inStem, Bangalore). Listen in...

Do you live with animals? Are your summers busy? Could a 1000 metres apart be several hours apart in the hills? How does that define culture? Could there be multiple places in one hill? Do you have a simple dream of having a kitchen with a granite sink? Are hill people traditionally more cohesive? What do hills do to States? How do/did sovereign Godlings rule their territories in the mountains? Have these Godlings (& their people) also been at war? What brought them together? Where did the clergy come from? Where did Raghunathji come to Kullu from? Did Shaivism and Vaishnavism have differing impacts on the Himalayan polity? Do change and continuity exist in tandem? How do the great traditions and the little traditions interact? Did the first British maps change us? Are the Himalayas the spine of the world? Did Radhanath Sikdar measure the Mount Everest? Did Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji connive with the French and the Russians to fight the British? When/why did the British give up on Tibet? Why make hill stations? Do shepherds have ‘places’ of worship? Why do sacred groves exist? Why do the hills evoke a spiritual response in us? Can hills and rivers vanish? &, is everything already lost? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas from history & South Asia Studies (Prof. Sudipta Sen, UC Davis, Davis), and history & anthropology (Prof. Mahesh Sharma, Panjab University, Chandigarh). Listen in...

Were there thoughts >80,000 years ago? Can you say what you feel? How is your Broca’s area? ‘Where’ is the mind? Is it individuated? &, insulated? When did our ancestors first create art? Are human beings incorrigibly abstract? Are social minds more emotional? Are single cell bacteria social? Who is accountable for a mob? How do social values get revised or (sometimes) resisted? Is the mapping between brain states and mental states (largely) mysterious? Does language change the brain? Is mentality a part of the universe? Are complex long term decisions also a series of micro decisions? How do you decide on a home loan? What can neuroscience (alone) explain? Can political leadership impact personal decisions of the masses? Are groups of strangers safer than individuals when crossing train tracks? Do behaviours differ across cultures? Why? Do you hold all the beliefs today from your childhood? Can you ‘decide’ without emotions? Do decisions precede interpretation? Do you trade on uncertainty? Are we currently in the infancy of a cognitive revolution? &, must cognitive sciences and public policy work together in the future? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas and concepts from behaviour architecture (Biju Dominic, Fractal Analytics, Mumbai), cognitive sciences (Prof. Ramesh Kumar Mishra, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad), & philosophy (Prof. Smita Sirker, JNU, New Delhi). Listen in...

Can you meta point? Do you celebrate objectivity? Is there a lot happening that is ‘undocumentable’? Are facts and values entangled? Are several valuable things tangible but not measurable? Are we ourselves instruments? Can ‘fact’ have variations? How is truth different from truism? Must Truth be recognizable? Does mathematics ‘change’ over time? Can experience invalidate mathematical statements? Is the metaphysical always mystical? Is the artistic metaphorical? Are the three (Penrose) worlds – platonic, mental & physical – distinct? Is there a ready-made world? Do you always look for ‘another way’ to experience the world? Does great architecture present the immeasurable? Can built spaces be conducive to certain values? Can one reflect while in action, such that use and contemplation co-exist? Where do concepts come from? Is analyticity an undefinable notion? Can you hear the voice of the table without existing in a ‘certain way’? When is threat visible? Is there normative desire in the world to both donate and take blood? Could one be at peace when one loses voice? &, would our consciousness, in the future, be both vibrant and participatory? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas and concepts from architecture (Prem Chandavarkar, CnT Architects, Bangalore), philosophy (Prof. Amitabha Das Gupta, ex-University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad), & art/film-making (Amar Kanwar, New Delhi). Listen in...

Can one become English? What does this have to do with the Suez Canal? Are you white? Are we free? Is it good to be obedient? Is the Other always an enemy? Or, could it be a reference group? Did everyday defiance (say, by the peasants) play a role in India’s struggle against the British Empire? Is nationalism necessarily anti colonial? How is Indianness linked to the Aryan Invasion Theory? Was the British conquest of India always partial? Are Gandhi, Gandhism, & Gandhi-ites the same thing? Had Tagore read Marx? Why does dissent take time? How do wild elephants live within the market economy? Do rivers have their own unruly ‘erratic’ lives? Are forest fires often an act of defiance? How/why do we defy Nature’s will? Does geography change the way we think? Is Assam Bengal? Can the seemingly peaceful bear a lot of conflicts within? Was Tibet seduced differently from the other colonies? Does assimilation/citizenship always follow acculturation/subjecthood? What happens to Sutlej in Nathpa Jhakri? Will there always be defiance? How can one learn from dissent/friction? &, might modern democracy survive because of defiance? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas and concepts from literary/post-colonial studies (Dr. Sayan Chattopadhyay, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur), philosophy (Dr. Bharati Puri, IIT Delhi, New Delhi), & history (Prof. Arupjyoti Saikia, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati). Listen in...

Who are you? Would you like to have a new name? Were there many Kalidasas? Have you ever been with a mountain? Does your family have recorded history? Why are authors often anonymous in ancient Indian texts? Is the desire to be known akin to the desire for immortality? What is the name for India in Sanskrit? When do names of specific individuals begin to emerge in archaeological artefacts? Did the devadasis lead creative lives? Do (only) dominant elites name and judge the anonymous non-elites? Which communities are anonymous in the history books? Does language constrain our inner lives? Did the British hunt differently from the indigenous people? Can material fragments or memory be tangible sources for history? Are all collectives eventually a part of Nature or the Divine? Is there something beyond the Self and the Other? When do anthropology and history intersect? Why do we sometimes surrender to become anonymous? Is the contemporary idea of fame temporally short sighted? Is Bangalore Nagarathnamma here now? Is it time to de-anonymize animals and other non-humans? &, can there be an archaeology of life where both ordinary and the extraordinary meet? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using ideas and concepts from anthropology & philosophy (Prof. Ananta Kumar Giri, MIDS, Chennai), & history (Prof. Aloka Parasher-Sen, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad). Listen in...

Why do we reify? When are you able to read others' minds? Is this a pedestrian? Are sensation and perception tied together? How are new mental templates formed? Are priors 'necessary' for categorization? How do we know, in a badly lit place, if something is a wire or a snake? Are mental images ‘sharp’? Should stochastic processes (also) be understood via their higher-order moments? How are interiors of opaque objects (metal spheres to stars) pictured? Do you internally ‘model’ various parts of your own body? Does our mechanical body ‘produce’ words? Do virtual worlds also need a degree of veridicality? Do verbal and visual systems interact during encoding? How were gravitational waves detected? Is reification language dependent? Does brute force of computation help? When does (sub-symbolic) chairness become a (symbolic) chair? Is the notion of an ‘object’ generalizable across domains/languages? Can stars’ magnetic fields be plotted as precisely as the HR diagram? ‘Are sun-like stars like the Sun’? Do we need the body to conceptualize? Will computer systems need bodies? Are eyes like cameras? How do shrooms work? &, will ’everything’ tie up? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from astrophysics & machine learning (Dr. Shravan Hanasoge, TIFR, Mumbai), computational linguistics (Dr. Inderjeet Mani, Hua Hin) & cognitive psychology (Dr. Varsha Singh, IIT Delhi). Listen in...