THE ALGORITHM ANSWERS - WHO AM I

 

अधिभूतं क्षरो भाव: पुरुषश्चाधिदैवतम् | अधियज्ञोऽहमेवात्र देहे देहभृतां वर || 4||

adhibhūtaṁ kṣharo bhāvaḥ puruṣhaśh chādhidaivatam, adhiyajño ’ham evātra dehe deha-bhṛitāṁ vara:  -The Bhagavad Gita

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing self is enlightenment.  -Lao Tzu

This book is an outcome from some of the primary academic researches of authors along with the survey of works of literature and references of the most relevant findings from other researchers. The book in your hand is both a leisure read with contents from in-depth studies. You’ll find descriptions based on practical observation, real life experiences, established facts from diverse fields of psychology, individual behaviour, organizational behaviour, and epitomes of literature and literary world. The contents in this book are aimed at helping the reader to understand the science of - how to create and change habits in a way that is easy to understand and apply.

We offer the readers a synthesis and analysis of the best ideas smart people figured out a long time ago as well as the most compelling discoveries scientists have made recently. Our contribution is to find the ideas that matter most and connect those ideas that are highly actionable. Anything wise in the book you should credit to the many experts who preceded us. Anything foolish, assume it is our error.

INTRODUCTION

WaI or “Who am I” was one of the assignments given to write down to fulfil the degree of MBA for the subject "Individual Behaviour". We all students got sucked into the past without the help of a so-called Time Machine to consolidate nostalgic moments. The consolidation brought in facts and memories related to moments of love, playful circumstances, unintended mischievous acts with friends; disciplinary guidance from parents; love and support of mothers despite all our misdeeds; surroundings, micro societies we lived in; neighbours who supported, loved, and irritated us; idiosyncrasies of roommates, and many other things like good and bad decisions taken during our growing ages. To our surprise, the professor awarded us with grades of either A+ or A. The general remark from the professor was that – most of you are conscious and know yourself well. You are now in your twenties, and life has to show you more and frequent peaks and troughs of waves. So, it is you who keep this present consciousness alive and should be able to reflect the “true I” during all the phases of your lives. 

About two decades down the line of the classroom assignment, during the year 2018, one of the colleagues was citing an example of ping pong WhatsApp messages between two friends exchanging their views on green fireworks. Both were asserting their viewpoints. No one was sane to stop the chain of messages that started from pleasant words but grew bitter with each subsequent one. The question is – do we then know – WaI or “who am I”. The young students taught and trained to think logically and put views empathetically gradually become aggressive and emphatic. Why? How? Do they forget to introspect? So, though we were born and groomed with proper training and moral policing, many of us gradually become emphatic professionals. Empathy gets out of our tracks. Gurus from the field of psychology will call it – the traits of subconscious assertive human beings. 

Now we have come up with the age of data and algorithms. Often, We are interacting on social media.  Consciously or subconsciously, we are putting our reactions to the posts posted by our known people, as well as strangers.  We place likes, dislikes, comments, and shares on the messages. The algorithm notes down all our reactions and stores those in databases. The algorithm thus captures our consciousness as our mood swings differently to different types of posts. Similar data are captured for millions of others using smartphones and interacting in social media.

On average, a smartphones mobile user reacts to 100 messages, pictures, articles, and news matters every day. Our interactions with smartphones are more than those with humans. We all now prefer to record our comments on social media rather than face-to-face discussions. Thus we willingly are passing on personal data to databases controlled by ultra mega and highly efficient systems. These huge efficient systems make use of our honest reactions in the form of data, and thus we get to assess ourselves very correctly when we press a bottom. One such assessment message is "Mr. Robin is a daffodil"

We get convinced about the efficiency of the algorithm built in the system.  We not only believe in the results but also love to share these with all on social media. These shares on social media are construed as the "customers' delight" to the algorithm developers. These help and encourage the algorithm developers to sharpen their assessment programs. The next algorithm thus becomes more precise and is capable of delivering still better results. The development cycle thus continues.

We all keep on posting our pictures (images) from time to time. These pictures get stored in the database of the systems. The present-day lifestyle has made many of us remain interactive with smartphones. Thus, either consciously or subconsciously, we go on posting photographs, comments, likes, and dislikes. Each of these actions is data for the system. When we do it with frequency and a good period, we express more and more to the system. The system becomes data-rich for each person. The system is programmed to keep a track of all these and to note down the changes in our face through wrinkle developments, dark or glows circles around the eyes, grey hair developments, smile, frown, and other facial changes. That is how we instantly get a picture of ourselves when we press the button of our smartphones on the social media site – “how would you look like at the age of 70”. We get thrilled and further circulate it on the media that serve two more objectives. First is – our satisfaction. The second is the satisfaction of the algorithm developer who gets free and honest feedback about the success of his work.

All these are a process of humanization of machines. These are also proofs that our reactions to events, incidents, and human interactions are due to biochemical reactions in the brain. These are chemical reactions in the form of inciting or suppress chemicals within our nervous system, neurons, and brain cells. The assessment of our personalities and future looks (four decades hence) and our wilful and satisfactory acceptance of these assessments done by machines and algorithms are proof that humans act on algorithms. There are faceApp programs to do these.

The emotions are not from the heart but due to the release or suppression of chemicals inside the different parts of our body. We are machines with algorithms. Polygraphs (lie detectors), electroencephalograms (EEG or brain mapping machines) that are part of science and technology work on the same principles.

A polygraph measures and records several physiological indicators like blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked and answers a series of questions. An electroencephalogram (EEG) detects electrical activity in the brain using small, metal discs or electrodes attached to the scalp of the subject (human). The brain cells communicate via electrical impulses that are always active.

Often we all come across unique and appealing posts asking us to fill up some details and seek our permission to process data available on social media. Then quickly it throws back a character assessment that reads something like the following:

The characteristics revealed on the screens of our smartphones amaze us with striking similarities to what we are. In most of these instances, it shows us such dimensions which we hitherto are not aware of. It is the power of the data and the algorithm. It is one more proof that our emotions are manifestations of biochemical reactions inside our neural network. It is also proof that the machine algorithm is efficient to decipher human emotions far better than humans themselves. 

The reactions, likes, and comments given by the viewers prove that the computer assessments are correct. While these look erudite and esoteric to laymen, it is interesting to learn that the process and curiosity to know thyself have their origins in Jung’s theory, Meyer Briggs Personality Test, Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, Palmistry, and Physiognomy.

TYPICALLY PECULIAR

We all have a desire to know – WaI or who am I. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are now well equipped with algorithms such as recommender systems, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Technocrats in IT, Program developers, and cybernetics are working incessantly to improve these platforms' better and accurate solution, providers. Curiosities are abounding on people on such things as (a) Self-assessment,  and (b) would look (of face, wrinkles on the skin, drooping eyes, lackluster skin, sagging breasts, and so on) when they grow aged are features embedded in these platforms. People are interested in these topics. They believe the recommender systems available in the neural networks. In this context, the author picked up a small article that he came across on Instagram on 10th January 2021. The caption and the picture are as follows (refer to the book)

Readers and viewers of this photograph on Instagram (that I came across on 10.01.2021) reacted to it. The individual reactions were found different.  Many of these reactions were unique and mutually exclusive from one another in nature. 

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