Author: Satyen K Bordoloi

Is the Apple Vision Pro a proof of concept for the world’s first invisibility device, asks Satyen K. Bordoloi as he looks into the studies searching for the elixir that can hide you in plain sight. In what is perhaps the first story of invisibility: Plato tells of an innocent shepherd who finds a ring that makes him invisible. He quickly goes and seduces the queen, kills the king, and establishes his own dynasty. Plato’s tale is allegorical, meant to highlight one simple precept: power corrupts. H G Wells, inspired by it, wrote The Invisible Man 126 years ago. Since…

As Mark Zuckerberg promises to make Threads a ‘friendly place’ run on ‘kindness’ in a reversal of social media wisdom, Satyen K. Bordoloi wonders if social media AI can indeed be programmed on ideals of goodness and will their owners accept it if they are. The Wall Street Journal recently did a story on Kenyan workers who weeded out and labelled violent, false and misleading content on ChatGPT’s training data. They were so traumatised doing this, their lives became a mess, even though it ensured ChatGPT worked better. But this shows us the dark side of AI: where it is…

It is easy to say AI will destroy the world but hard to listen patiently and understand why it will never happen writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. Unless someone’s been living in a doomsday bunker under a rock, they would have heard of the great debate of our time about the threat of superintelligent AI. The extremists like Eliezer Yudkowsky proclaim it’s no longer just a threat as “Everyone on Earth will die. Not as in ‘maybe possibly some remote chance,’ but as in ‘that is the obvious thing that would happen.'” Despite perhaps not feeling strongly against AI, OpenAI CEO…

Usually looked down upon, scientists have discovered unique, magical uses of menstrual blood writes Satyen K. Bordoloi and why science cannot have enough of it. The recently concluded Ambubashi mela of Goddess Kamakhya in Assam, is one of the most unique religious festivals. It is held to celebrate the period of the goddess. The temple and its vicinity become a sea of red as Hindus worldwide congregate. It is unique as it is perhaps the only religious festival that brings attention to menstruation – something usually looked down upon and hidden in most cultures. This ancient festival was ahead of…

We are in an AI-induced world of rampant societal solitude but it need not be a lonely one as we fear but one infused with the discovery of our passions writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. Research under anomalistic psychology i.e. the study of the paranormal and their validity, have found that sightings of ghosts declined as the world began to light up. Even today, most ghost sightings are in less-lit or unlit rural areas of the world. Many things began their decline with the advent of science and technology. Belief in god is another casualty. Unlike in the past, we do…

Quantum Entanglement is the biggest mystery of science that could upend life as we know it, and explaining it is an unlikely but fascinating theory writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. It is the stuff of romance fiction. Two lovers are separated by 140 million miles: one is on Earth, the other on Mars. But you ask one a yes or no question, and the other lover – 140 million miles away – instantly knows and answers in the opposite. This is impossible because as per classical physics, even the fastest ‘thing’ – light, would take around 13 minutes to travel that…

The Luddites – a 200-year-old anti-tech cult is raising its head in the AI age but not via loom-breaking workers, but through its very creators itself writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. If you have looked at your newsfeeds recently, you would have thought the world was close to an end. Every other day there is some technology expert hitting the panic button against Artificial Intelligence. Eliezer Yudkowsky went to the extreme writing in Time Magazine that, “Everyone on Earth will die. Not as in ‘maybe possibly some remote chance,’ but as in ‘that is the obvious thing that would happen.'” For…

Social media’s harmful effects on teens were highlighted again in a report from US government, writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. 14-year-old Samika (name changed) from Guwahati gets no love from her family. Her father is a drunk who hits her mother who struggles with odd jobs to feed the three daughters. But she has access to social media through phones in the homes her mother works. She barely knows English but makes do with speech-to-text and other features. On Instagram, she gets chatty with a 40-year-old who lavishes her with dreams. She runs away and even when traced, refuses to come…

RBI launching the digital rupee can be a game changer for the world if the pitfalls are taken care of writes Satyen K. Bordoloi as he outlines its day-to-day applicability Beginning today (December 1), India’s central bank RBI – Reserve Bank of India – is setting out on a grand experiment that could change finance in the nation. It is launching the digital rupee (e₹) on a pilot basis with eight banks participating in the trial. The e₹ will be a digital token that will represent legal tender and will be in the same denominations that coins and paper currency…

Science is stranger than sci-fi is proven again as an idea to explain some core concepts of quantum mechanics, is leading to a theory of the future affecting the past writes Satyen K. Bordoloi. A common cultural phenomenon worldwide is to pray after a tragedy. A plane has crashed and relatives pray that their loved ones be found alive. It is counterintuitive because the accident has already taken place so logically what relatives are praying for is that their prayers would somehow travel through time and affect the past. This retroactive effect of prayers might sound stupid, almost sci-fi, but…