Debakanta Mishra

Every intellectual of my generation,whether young or old should read this gem of a book to refresh as well as enhance his outlook about a new paradigm- creating technology - Artificial Intelligence-that is expected to cause both immense harm and benefit in building our common future . This book ,written by one of my most favourite authors, is certainly meant to enrich our knowledge and follow up action in a proper cautionary manner so that this much talked about technology will not find any scope for its misuse to harm us.

This thought- provoking book has great contemporary relevance .It reminds us at the right juncture of human history how to dovetail tradition with modernity so that we can retain the human values of the benefits of a face- to- face society without allowing machine to rule or overpower human consciousness.Through various examples and unambiguous explanations she has cautioned us to utilise the degital media in such a way that it will not act as a hindrance to our cohesive social customs.I strongly recommend this book to my book- loving friends to read at their earliest convenience ,which will certainly enlighten them and refresh their outlook about the proper use of the digital media to covert our global society a more friendlier and peaceful place for our common sustainable future.

I read this extraordinary book twice very minutely which dealt with the results conducted by randomised experiments on current economic conditions of peoole in various poor countries under various adverse circumstances , which also includes my own state Odisha in India. After reading the book I am more convinced than before that economic researches based solely on growth of the world economy using free market and globalisation will never be able to reduce the ever growing inequality between " haves" and " have nots " , both in developed and developing countries, which simply leads to more and more narrow, opportunistic, selfish nantionalistic activities instead of leading to build up a sustainable and inclusive global society of the futurre. This unique book very unambiguously convinces us that we have to build an enlightened public opinion all over the world at our earliest convenience so that enlightened public opinion will demand adequate social policies to be enacted everywhere for which all of us have to contribute our thoughts and actions . By entrusting this task only to ' development economists' , instead of treating it as a multidisciplinary and holistic subject will never pave the way for reducing inequality more and more with passage of time. If we neglect this urgent responsibilitythrust upon all of us by unavoidable circumstances, then it is inevitable that unemployment, terrorism , environmental pollution, and uncertain climate change and the like will threaten our safe survival on this planet leading to our ultimate self- annihilation. I sincerely want this book a wider circulation to awaken us to to design the required social policy for our safe and peaceful existence as a cohesive global society on this unique biosphere provided by Mother Earth.

I read this extraordinary book twice very minutely, which dealt with the results conducted by randomised experiments on current economic conditions of the people, in various poor countries under various adverse circumstances , which includes my own state Odisha in India. After reading the book I am more convinced than before that econmic researches based solely on growth of the world econmyusing free market and globalisation will never be able to reduce the growing inequality between the " halves" and the " have nots", both in developed and developing countries , which so far leads to more and more narrow, opportunistic , selfish nationalistic activities instead of leading to build up a sustainablecand inclusive glbal society of the future. This unique book very unambiguously convinces us that we have to build an enlightened public opinion all over the world at our earliest convenience so that enloghtened public will demand adequate social policies to be enacted everywhere for which all of us have to contribute our thoughts and action.. By entrusting this task only to ' development economists', instead of treating it as a multidisciplinary subject, will never pave the way for educing inequality with passage of time . If we neglect this urgent responsibility, thrust upon us by unavoidable circumstances, then it is inevitable that unemplyment, terrorism, disastrous effects of environmental pollutin and climate change and the like will threaten our safe future on this planet, leading ultimately to our own self- annihilation.I sincerely wish more and more wide circulation of this book to awaken us at the right time to take care of our peaceful and safe survival on this unique biosphere of Mother Earth.

This latest book by eminent author Banu Subramaniam highlights the fact that a strong leader and a nationalistic narrative have incresingly come to be the opium of the masses. India has arrived at this stage at present due to religious evolution of Hinduism in a very distinct way in contrast to the cultural evolutionary process that has occurred in western countries such as US, Brazil, Turkey and many others - their numbers increasing with time. In view of the changed political, cultural and social conditions prevailing at present in India, all sensitive and responsible intellectuals of our country should read this timely thought- provoking publication seriously and mindfully to be enlightened about the unique evolutionary religious background underlying such a paradigmatic transformation, which will enable them to change or modify their perspectives about their roles as responsible citizens to tackle such a problem successfully for the inclusive and sustainable welfare of our countrymen in the coming decades.

This book give a real picture of howxphysics has stimulated mathematical breakthroughs and mathematics in turn led to paradigmatic advances in physis. I as a retired professor of physics would llike my young, talented aspiring scholars , who have accepted scientific and technological research as their celf- chosen professional career to read this mind- igniting book to get refreshed and to be enthused by the incredible historical events that have given shape to modern science and technology , enabling us to enter into into the ongoing fourth industrial revolution and to further engage themselves in this creative endeavour to reveal more and more secrets of nature so that we can give a transformative and progreesive shape to human civilisation and culture. This ' unended quest' for truth will go on, as it is the true identity of humankind.

Our Biometric Future by Kelly Gatea is certainly a timely publication which acquaints its leaders about the rapid advancement and possible uses and misuses of Face Recognition Technology( FRT), which is an integral part of yhe ongoing fourth industrial revolution. In addition to providing details about the developments of this frontier technology, the author acquaints us very effectively about its profitable and motivated utilisation by both business corporations and government authorities for motivated surveillance. After reading this book two types of apprehensions perturb my mind which will need timely preventive and precautionary measures to safeguard the privacy, security and self interests of common people:(1) It is now observed that in recent decade democracy is mostly influenced by strong nationalism and political leaders with autocratic mindset are being elected in increasing numbers with passage of time. It is natural to apprehend that such leaders will utilise FRT to acquire data about citizens of their countries to take precautionary actions to strengthen their leadership and thus to continue to remain in power.(2) We find that artificial intelligence, machine learning , 3D printing, robotics and the like are advancing at such a rapid pace and are being integrated in modern gadgets like smart phones, computers, and sensors etc in such unprecedented ways that no body can predict from now about the future misuses of this technology in various sectors such as defense, international trade and commerce, law and order, intimidation of leaders of opposite views and the like. This book, published in 2011, very much like Rachael Carson's book on environment, acts as a timely and pioneering reminder to awaken the intelligentia everywhere to raise their voices and suggest constructive ideas to prevent the misuse of FRT for ill motivated purposes. I strongly recommend this book for wide circulation among the reading public to enable civil societies everywhere in all nations to be aware of such a grave challenge and to raise their enlightened voices for their respective governments to take adequate precationary measures to safeguard their privacy and other vital interests.

All intellectuals of both developed and developing countries should read this book. It awakens us to take recourse to alternative institutional ways to redress and minimise the growing inequality between the rich and the poor. The charitable activities , though praiseworthy and beneficial , will certainly be ineffective to reduce the level of inequality to the desired extent. Rather it indirectly acts as a boosting factor to maintain the existing situation to their advantage. We certinly want the elected government authorities to take adequate measures to reduce the growing inequalty instead of depending on these influential people's charity,