It's a small world after all...

It is quite well known that cognition or "thinking" happens in several layers. One of the most popular theories today is by the works of Kahnemann and Tversky about Systems 1 and 2. System 1 is our intuitive brain. It performs fast, subconscious computations and jumps to conclusions. It also embodies our emotional state, intentions, desires and dispositions in its computations. It can compare across dimensions and is innately "rational" -- that is, it is driven by self-interest and biased by who we are. For most of our lives, we live by System 1. However, System 1 occasionally requires the services of "System 2" -- which is our conscious and deliberate reasoning process. System 1 includes all activities of a perceptive nature. This includes, for example, reading a word written in a language we understand. System 2 on the other hand, is semantic in nature. It tries to understand the meaning of what is being asked for and does justice to it. Con...

The question whether language affects thought has been of immense interest since several decades. There are several variants to what is meant by language "affecting" thought and let me give my perspective on this. (The terms Language and Thought are used in capitalized form when referring to them as objects.) There are two basic forms of hypotheses regarding Language and Thought [1]. The "mould" hypothesis thinks of Language as mouldable clay that can be cast into some "form" by means of Thought. What this means is that, while Thought is necessary to form a cognitive structure, without Language (the clay) there is no Thought. The only way we can see Thought is by its footprints in the clay. The second hypothesis thinks of Language as a "cloak" or "dress" for Thought. Here, Thought is supposed to exist on its own and is packaged by Language whenever it needs to be communicated. In the cloak hypothesis, the stuff that Thought is ma...

Adversity is one of the primary factors that molds the culture of a population. Just about any aspect of a society's culture -- be it the way they dress, the food they eat, the social protocols they follow -- have some roots in past adversity that the society has had to face. Some kinds of adversity are of an instantaneous nature -- the cause and effect of the adversity are clearly visible. For instance, adversity due to cold weather or hot deserts or volcanic action or earthquakes, are clearly visible. Cause and effect are both apparent from the adversity. However, there are some classes of adversity that are of a more insidious nature. This article talks about two such kinds. The first is the kind of adversity that arises due to saturation of resources in a population. Resources at first, appear to be plenty and not much thought is given to what happens when the resources deplete. Most of the thought would have gone into utilizing the resources. Saturation is a pro...

Here is a sharp distinction in definitions that I've found in my professional world. This pertains to the concept of "joint ownership" of something. I have collaborated with several companies and usually when it comes to this issue of joint ownership of the fruits of collaboration, things get messy. By one definition of joint ownership, which I have predominantly seen coming from MNC companies is that, if two parties jointly own some entity, then neither of them can use the entity without the permission of the other. And for this reason the companies are keen to buy off full ownership of the entity from collaborators. On the other hand, I have seen this alternate definition of joint ownership, predominantly coming from local companies -- especially startups. This says that, if two parties jointly own some entity, they are both empowered to use it in whatever way they want and does not need the other's permission for anything. This disparity in definitions was...