4. Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, and our Future

On this episode of the podcast, we’ve got Tenzin Tsundue, the red-banded icon of Rangzen. Tsundue is a poet, a writer, and an activist all embodied in one person. Our conversation touched on a multitude of topics ranging from TCV Tingmos to Ashis Nandi, hovering mainly on Activism, Gandhi, and Rangzen. We also talked about his journey into poetry, the inspirations, and the beauty of it all. This episode was recorded last December but due to a variety of factors, we weren’t able to release it soon enough. Nevertheless, we thought it would be no less appropriate to release it now to commemorate the completion of his march from Dharamshala to Delhi.

After a long hiatus of about two year, we join again to record another podcast episode to catch up and lay out our plans for the future. In this episode, we talk about what we have been doing in the meanwhile. We talk about growing up, our experiences with the maturity that comes with becoming an adult, our struggles with mortality, meaning, and the ever daunting future.

We recorded this conversation as an experimental episode but it quickly took shape as we approached the notion of our “Tibetaness”. This particular idea of a singular, yet complex, identity has troubled us, and our frustration with this uncomfortable question seemed to have found itself a cathartic outlet in this recording. We discussed an idea of Tibet that is pervertedly “romanticised” as to provide ourselves with an imagined incentive to participate in a movement. This, I think, leads to a contradiction of sorts. The image with which we fight differs from the Tibet that exists. The contradiction may be seen as a symptom of a greater problem lurking underneath our partial and incomplete nationalism. None of us born in exile has experienced Tibet in its truest. Whether it be under Chinese occupation or before the occupation. Our experience is moulded by other people's stories, pictures and videos, and numbers, which devoid us of an experience that we’re fortunate to not have. But this stroke of luck also devoids us of an element that seems vital to sustain an individual’s nationalisistic sentiment. Experience is immaterial and parts of it are embedded in that very nature of immateriality. Hence, any material representation of it, words, paintings, actions, fail to truly capture it in its entirety. This parallel impossibility to know "what it is like to be a bat" seemed, to both of us, the root cause of this sickness that plagues us both. In its absence, we must look for a substitute that will atone the abyss that we all share. (And although information is physical and future technologies might allow us to extract memories to replay them on other brains, it will still require all of the prior and later experiences to create a specific meaning of a particular experience. Thus, renders the possibility of an absolute recreation of an experience practically impossible.) After this, we discussed possible solutions to fill this vacuum we share - this was definitely the fun part. And we hope our listeners, if they happened to listen more than the average 14 mins, would participate in the conversation. We think this is an important issue to our generation but has no beeping presence on the radar of the older generations, thus it falls upon us to build a rationale to bridge this abyss. Also, whatever we discussed could very well be utterly rubbish. If that is the case, please let us know why. Reading recommendations: Jean-Paul Sartre - Paris Under the Occupation Ugyan Choedup - Historical Trajectory of Tibetan Identity: Some Preliminary Notes on the Role of Exile Educational Institution Palden Sonam - Nationalism: The Ideological Power to Sustain the National Struggle *all readings are available at the Google Drive link here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1omqzlPiSUGUejyDV0DQ4Qhq-E55ZvTXA

On the first episode of our second season, we have with us Jigme Choedak or as his friends call him: JC! He is a young Tibetan Artist who is freelancing, doing commissions, and making his own Modern Tibetan Art and publishing it on his Instagram account @jcansee. His personal art centres on a clash of themes between Tibetan metaphors and modern and Western artistic metaphors. He sees his Art as a chocolate Momo- a strange blend of the 'Tibetan' and the 'World.' He plans to ultimately make his own comic book or series and we talk about that as well. We ask his thought on how young Tibetan artists are doing, what their struggles look like, the impacts of the generational gap in artistic standards and 'Genyik(Trash).Studio' which is his endeavour to create a community of young artists and strive together. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. 

Ladies and gentlemen, We got a good one this time. Tune in to our discussion with Bhuchung D. Sonam la who is one of the most prolific writers of modern Tibet. His books like 'Yak horns' and 'Songs of the arrow'  (available in fine bookstores throughout the world) has his words and thoughts that were forged in his heart and mind that suffers from the illness of 'EXILE.' Aside from his literary contributions to Modern day Tibet, he is also a very deep thinker. Therefore in this podcast, we try to explore the makings of the master that is Bhuchung la. We discuss his origin story, His inspirations,  his thoughts on the value of ART, the relation between the Art and the Artist, His thoughts on Tibetan language and how we can improve it and so much more.  We hope you enjoy this episode and feel free to ping us with any feedback and suggestions. 

In this episode of our podcast, we discuss the very famous and mysterious short story "Nine billion names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. Nine billion names of God' is a story about how a Tibetan lamasery is looking to use the latest technological advances in computer to write down all the possible names of God in a unique language they have created. It is said, by the Lamasery's abbot, that upon completion of this grandiose task, when God's name will be written, the Universe will GO OUT like a light. It is relatively a short story, so we encourage our listeners to read it before they listen to this podcast episode. This story is very unique and packs a really strong punch. The aftertaste of this story is such that you won't be able to pin what part of the story, which characters, what ideas hit you so hard that it left you a little bit different. This, we think, is exactly the genius of Arthur C. Clarke who comes from the fame of works like 'Space Odyssey', 'Childhood's ends', 'The Sentinel' and so on which placed him among one of the best sci-fi writers of all time. " So in this episode, we try to understand this Wonderful enigma of a story!!

In this episode, we talk about (arguably) one of the best-animated tv-shows that has emerged from the Western Hemisphere and that Is RICK AND MORTY!!! Rick and Morty, for anyone who doesn't know, is a sci-fi TV show centring around the adventures of a mad supergenius grandpa Rick and a regular insecure teenage boy Morty across the multiverse. The show has been very successful not least because of its deep understanding and references to sci-fi but by its often nihilistic, irreverent, dark humour and the philosophy surrounding it. In particular, for this podcast episode, we discuss the philosophy of nihilism, meaningless, the purposelessness of the universe and how to face it through Season 1, ep 8 'Rixty minutes' where Summer (Elder sister of Morty)  faces an existential crisis. There are many spoilers in this discussion so you can always go and watch Rick and Morty and then come back to listen to this. 

We are really excited to bring this podcast episode of our discussion with Tenzin(whose proper name is being concealed for purposes of anonymity) who is the brain behind one of most witty, creative and prolific Tibetan meme/activist page- Phosa Mosa. **If you don't know what or who 'Phosa Mosa' is, we strongly suggest you check that Instagram page out before you listen to this. Much more fun that way!!** Lekdhen, me and many others -I am sure- have been passionate 'fans' of his work, which are some of the best memes out there. But with this episode and discussion, we are bringing this mystery man and his ideas down from the clouds and among the people. We discuss how he got the inspiration to create this page, how does he feel about its success, how is he able to generate so many creative ideas, how has it changed his personal life as well as social life and so on. We also discuss his philosophy of life and his view around digital activism, how does a Tibet of tomorrow look like and how we can achieve that, his future plans and many more. We even have some easter egg questions about his recommendations for people to follow, books to read, songs and so on. So what are you waiting for? Go on. 

What is Artificial Intelligence? Where is it? What does it do? What does it mean for something to be intelligent? Can machines learn to think?  Will AI become smarter than us? Should we be hopeful of the AI future?  Will AI take over the world? Can we program a conscious AI? What will it mean for a robot to be conscious? Will that solve the mind-body problem? Will robots have human rights? Can AI systems act morally?  Can we ultimately merge with AI? In this episode, we ponder these questions and more. We think that it is not just important but essential for students and people living in the current technological age to be aware of AI as it is around us all the time, From our youtube recommendations to Netflix series to Instagram's feed,  acting as the invisible ruler. Though the future of AI can be rosy and hopeful, it can also pose a dire existential and economical threat to humanity. Therefore this podcast episode is our frugal attempt at carrying on the discussion of AI into our personal lives and intellectual lives. We hope you like it.

In this episode titled "On speaking the language of the gods," we talk about our ever-growing passion for foundational physics and maths, our story of how we got interested in it, the incredibly profound contribution from physicists and mathematicians, and just the transcendental feeling that sweeps us when we try to understand the language in which our reality is written in. Prefacing this discussion, we also talk about the lack of any Tibetan in the hall of fame of physics and maths, possible reasons for that and the continuing unconscious force this might pose for any young Tibetan that wants to try his/her shot at understanding reality in the language of maths. We also talk about the learning and teaching epidemic that is in our community, how to get our young Tibetan guns interested in physics and maths, how a beautiful teacher/student relationship might look like. All of this and way more is to be found in this Episode. So have fun listening,