Peripatetic Ponderings in Pondicherry: Cosmology, AI, Quantum Computation, Systems Thinking, Amidst Other Such Topics
Sri Aurobindo’s epic Savitri is a book that I have continued to immerse myself in over the years. Its subject is vast, its insights continually deep and fresh, and its magnetism unending. Sri Aurobindo spent four decades writing this cosmic poem to do with the dynamics of Light, and while its insights can be garnered regardless of where it is read, I have found it particularly useful to spend time reading it as close to the place where he actually wrote it — Pondicherry.
Recently I was there again. But this time, a different spell seemed to have been cast upon my casual walks to get from one place to another. Between pondering Savitri, I was also pondering quantum computation, since I had to deliver a keynote on my vision of it in Singapore soon after. In reality, my vision of quantum computation has been inspired by the veil-piercing poetry of Savitri itself. But that is a topic for another time.
So on a pleasant evening, as I walked toward the dining room, I ran into Lalit, the proprietor of Aurodhan Art Gallery. We had not met in a few years, but within a couple of minutes, he asked if I could give a talk at the gallery. Quantum computation being fresh on my mind, I suggested that I give a talk on my vision of it, highlighting why the current approach was a dead-end. Understandably he suggested something that would appeal to a larger audience, and so we settled on Cosmology of Light, where I would also surface connections with Savitri.
Now, someone who attended the talk began to ask a lot of questions about artificial intelligence as it relates to light. In my ten-book series on Cosmology of Light, I dedicated a volume to the limits of AI as it is currently conceived— The Second Singularity, and so we entered into an interesting dialog. I called this the second singularity precisely to suggest that the technological singularity popularized by Ray Kurzweil is, in fact, limited in scope and that the second singularity driven by developments in consciousness and ever-evolving expressions of Light that technology cannot even grasp, will be the lynch-pin in driving global progress forward. It was getting late, though, and she requested time the next day to ask a few more questions. We agreed to meet at the park near the dining room just before lunch.
The next day we made our way into the park, accompanied by the welcome breeze, swaying of branches, and the relaxing chorus of a variety of chirping birds. Once we had entered, she asked if she could interview me for her youtube channel. I had not expected that, but let go, and agreed. The interview focused on AI, human intelligence, intelligence, systems thinking, and consciousness, with a spattering of quantum computation, since that had remained on my mind.
Planning to depart for Delhi the next day, I still had a few steps to take before leaving Pondicherry and continued with my peripatetic contemplation of the universal persistence of quantum computation, which in my interpretation, was a bridge mechanism to channel the infinite possibility in Light into material form. The question I remained focused on was the content of my upcoming keynote, to take place at the largest Asian Conference on HR Tech.
The keynote would be capped at 20-minutes only, but I decided to focus on the essence of my vision of quantum computation, how this would address existing technological barriers, some representative applications that would be of a fundamentally different type than existing approaches to digital and quantum computation — birthing a new genre of QIQuantum-type emergent computers, and how this could be achieved in a fraction of the time and cost of existing developmental approaches.
This may have seemed ambitious, but somewhere within me, I feel tied down by the pulls of the past. If the universe remakes itself at every instant, if a step taken pushes one into a different physical reality from moment to moment, and if passages in Savitri provide a constant means to soar in thought upon wings of light, why should the conception of what is possible — even computationally — be tied to a hundred-year-old vision of quantum reality?
These peripatetic musings then reinforced a talk I perhaps would not previously have dared to give to an audience of mainstream HR and technology professionals.
The real magic, of course, will have taken place when the vision referred to in this closely-knit set of talks finds a practical channel to grow boldly, even amidst the creations of the past.
