Book Reviewed: Hollywood: Stars and starlets, by Garson Kanin

Playing the field: Stardom and success in Tinseltown

Author Garson Kanin gives a behind-the-scenes look at what working in Hollywood is really like. This book is not about the sex, murder or extortion, but it is about being a good director and screenwriter. It narrates the author’s encounters with studio executives, demanding stars, struggling actors. The focus is about the life and work of Sam Goldwyn, one of the founders of MGM Studios. Sam Goldwyn is an unscrupulous businessman with wit and charm. It highlights the mystique of Hollywood's glamorous and heady years which reminisces about working with some of the greatest names; Harry Cohn, chief of Columbia Pictures, Charlie Chaplin, Billy Wilder, Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton, Sophia Loren, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Mae West, and John Barrymore. There is also a brief discussion of stars who did not make it to the top.

This book is an honest illustration of what it is like to work with big names in Hollywood. There are ups and downs, hilarious and comical moments while networking with stars of that era. The writing is absolutely at its best and highly engaging. Recommended to readers interested in the history of Hollywood.

Book Reviewed: Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks

Reflections on inner fury

This is actress Louise Brooks memoir that reflects on the rise and fall of her movie career. She wrote this book after a lifetime to reflect on her work in United States and Europe. There are eight essays. Some of them are about Hollywood’s definitions of success and failure, and how actors are manipulated by studios and the press. Brooks writes stardom is an abrasive disease. Her writings are eloquent, beautiful, and straight from her heart. She had decades to recollect after her fall from grace in movie business. She covers a wide range of topics from her childhood in Wichita, Kansas. Then her teenage years with the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts in Los Angeles, California., where she met Martha Graham, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. She also reminisces about her work in Ziegfeld Follies in New York and her friendships with Charles Chaplin, W.C. Fields, CBS founder William Paley, and Austrian director G.W. Pabst.

In the movie Pandora’s Box, Lulu is the mistress of a publisher. This role played by Louise Brooks carried her to fame and success although it was short. Reflecting on her own life, she complains that it is harder for a reader to understand without knowing the character, personal conflicts and challenges in her life. She observes that she is unwilling to write about the sexual truth that would make her life worth reading. Since she cannot unbuckle Bible Belt, she would spare the curious readers about the challenges of her as a woman in the movie industry.

In her younger days Brooks read books by philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer, George Bernard Shaw, and Friedrich Nietzsche. She had academic interest in intellectual topics despite tremendous amount of misfortunes in her life. She contemplated suicide until William S. Paley, the founder of CBS started sending her monthly checks for decades out of his kindness.

Book Reviewed: Louise Brooks: A Biography by Barry Paris

Lulu, the dreamer

This book is 609 pages long! But do not be afraid, because this is a real page-turner that makes reading this biography fascinating. Louise Brooks is one of the famous actresses of the silent movie era, renowned for her rebellion against the industry. Her performances in such influential films as Pandora's Box epitomized the ideal of feminine eroticism. Brooks' portrayal of a seductive, thoughtless young woman whose raw sexuality and uninhibited nature bring ruin to herself including those who love her. Although this film was initially unappreciated, eventually it made her a star. Brooks real life reflects her role in Pandora’s Box. She was a prisoner of the world she created. She was an enigmatic character blended with sophistication, elegance, panache, intelligence, and her infidelity to numerous lovers and two husbands. She was defiant and had irresistible appetite for sex and alcohol. In her sexual affairs with powerful men and women in the entertainment industry, she crossed the boundaries of gender at a time only a few women dared to cross. She was married twice, and both her husbands were powerful men who would have given her stability and financial security to pursue her acting career, but she lacked the foresight and went ahead with her carefree lifestyle ruining her own life.

At one time, Brooks was completely broke and lost all her friends. She had drifted into selling sex for cash. One of her former lovers was William S. Paley, the founder of CBS who persuaded her to leave Hollywood, which she did and moved back to her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. It did not last, the local community despised her, and she eventually moved to Rochester, New York. Paley sent her a monthly checks for the remainder of her life out of kindness. That was the only income she had, but this did not make her humble or appreciative of others. She was easily irritable, and acted mean to people who wanted to care for her. In the last 20 years of her life, she began writing articles about her film career, and her insightful essays drew considerable acclaim in the literary world. In her younger days she read books by philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer, George Bernard Shaw, and Friedrich Nietzsche. She had academic interest in intellectual topics like Frances Farmer, another famous Hollywood actress. Both had many other similarities, both were alcoholics, destructive and abusive to others, and descended to low paying jobs in local departmental stores. In her younger years, Brooks had distinctive bob haircut that helped her start a trend, and many women styled their hair in imitation of her. in Bob Fosse's 1972 film Cabaret, actress Liza Minnelli reinvented the character with Louise Brooks makeup and helmet-like coiffure.

This book is professionally researched and written with style and passion for the life and work of Louise Brooks. I recommend this to readers interested in the history of Hollywood and the life of Louise Brooks.

Book Reviewed: World Film Locations - San Francisco by Scott Jordan Harris

Bay area movie locations

This book is a good reference for someone interested in connecting with the iconic films shot in the San Francisco area. This includes the Hotel Bristol lobby as featured in What's Up, Doc? to the actual nightclub of Frank Sinatra's character in Pal Joey. The images are small, on average eight images per page. The locations are also identified in easy-to-follow color maps. Included in the book are significant historical film sites such as The Navigator (1924), Greed (1924) that includes the iconic images of The Cliff House Restaurant at 1090 Point Lobos, San Francisco and the street scenes from the movie Birds (1963). Recommended to readers interested in the San Francisco filming locations

Book Reviewed: Hot Toddy - The True Story of Hollywood's Most Sensational Murder, by Andy Edmonds

The fallen angel

Thelma Todd was a stylish blonde with an illustrious career in Hollywood. She worked with some of the best in showbusiness including Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, Gloria Swanson, and others. She was one of the rare breed of actors to successfully cross over from silent films to talkies. This biography traces Todd's life and career of a perky little girl from her hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Under pressure from her mother, she became a reluctant beauty queen and then her rapid rise to become a star. She was a cross between Goldie Hawn and Farrah Fawcett. Despite this celebrity status, Todd was a very troubled; she had a difficult relationship with her husband Pat DiCicco, a self-described Hollywood agent with mob connections. She also had relationship with Mobster Lucky Luciano: Both the men were physically abusive to her. Her father was a distant, unloving man. Her on-screen life appeared to be a happy one and life seemed beautiful for this outspoken Hollywood rebel, but she was a deeply troubled who went out with several men and all of them were wrong for her.

Todd’s mysterious death at the age of 29 produced the same level of shock of other mysterious deaths like Marilyn Monroe and Sharon Tate. Her lifeless body was slumped over the wheel of her Lincoln convertible in her garage and the engine was still running. The coroner ruled her death a suicide due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The grand jury came up with same conclusion, but crime scene evidence and witness accounts contradicted this conclusion.

There are numerous suspects according to author Andy Edmonds that includes Todd`s ex-husband, Pat DiCicco; Roland West, a failed director and Todd`s lover; Roland’s wife Jewel Carmen. The Wests had financed the Sidewalk Café, overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Pacific Palisades, California. But it was owned by Thelma Todd. The three partners lived in a duplex together above the restaurant, it was an uncomfortable arrangement. While Roland West bitterly resented Todd`s numerous affairs with mobsters and studio bosses. But surprisingly, his wife Jewel Carmen didn`t object to his liaison with Todd. When the restaurant started to lose money, she threatened to kill her for squandering her investment. The most prominent name associated with her murder is the mob boss Lucky Luciano, a psychopath involved in gambling and extortion. Luciano was interested to control her restaurant to set up a gambling operation.

This biography reads like a textbook by Freud. The author has researched the relevant materials and interviewed people who were connected to her death. This is a highly intriguing murder mystery written in engaging style. A real page turner for readers interested in history of Hollywood, murder mystery in Tinseltown, and life of Thelma Todd. Based on the materials of this book, a TV movie entitled, ''White Hot” was aired in 1990 starring Loni Anderson as Thelma Todd. Anderson offered a passionate, flamboyant, and a touching performance. In an interview, she said that studio chief Hal Roach included a `potato clause` in Thelma Todd's contract, if she gained more than five pounds, she`d be fired. This led to weight control pill addictions, and excessive alcohol. Her death remains a mystery just like that of Marilyn Monroe.

Book Reviewed: Sugar Shock by Carol Prager

The myth of sugar detox program

In 2018, 34.2 million Americans (10.5% of the population) had diabetes according to American Diabetes Association, and 14.3 million of them were over the age of 65. Diabetes is also controllable by following low carbohydrate diet. Eating doesn’t have to be boring, but it is all about finding the right balance that works for you. The A1C test is a common blood test used to diagnose type 1 and type 2 diabetes, this is also referred to as hemoglobin A1C and HbA1c.

The glycemic index, or GI, measures how a carbohydrate-containing food raises blood glucose. Foods are ranked based on how they compare to a reference food — either glucose or white bread. A food with a high GI raises blood glucose (diabetic state), but a food with a medium or low GI produces glucose slowly into the blood stream (non-diabetic state). Examples of carbohydrate-containing foods with a low GI include dried beans, legumes, all non-starchy vegetables, some starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, most fruits, and many whole grain breads and cereals. In page 22, the author discusses these food types and offers some advice; substituting sugary food with spices would be helpful (page 66).

The sugar detox program of the author includes following 7-Day Sugar Tracker exercise for three weeks that includes recording the type of food consumed, portion consumed, sugar amount in the food consumed, time of eating, and a measure of urge to eat. The author makes helpful suggestions for breakfast, lunch and dinner. One of the downside of the plan is it is focused on non-vegetarian food. There is little room for people interested in vegetarian diet. This is a helpful book if you are seriously considering going through a sugar detox program.

Book Reviewed: Maya in Physics, by N. C. Panda

Connecting the metaphysics of Advaita Vedanta with Quantum Reality

This book is documented with a good literature review, and the discussions are presented in a readable fashion to connect physical reality with laws of physics and Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. Much of the book is introductory in nature but relevant discussion is presented in the final chapters of the book.

The focus of discussion is the concept of Maya of Vedanta; the physical reality we experience, the cosmos, matter & energy, spacetime, living beings and consciousness are attributed to the illusory nature of Maya. It is a changing empirical reality conditioned by human mind, and the subjective nature, incorrectly interpret this as the final reality. Because the manifestation of Maya cloud the true nature of metaphysical reality called Brahman, which has no attributes. But it is an entity that encompasses Omniscience (infinite knowledge), Omnipotence (unlimited power), Omnipresence (present everywhere), Omni benevolence (perfect goodness), Immutable, Immortal, and Pure Consciousness. These qualities are personal and impersonal in nature that exists in spaceless and timeless dimensions. It is an unchanging reality amidst and beyond the realm of the universe. The Pure Consciousness is an entity that can transcend all possible laws of physics, all dimensions, all universal constants, and all physical realities in the multiverse.

In science, the physical reality is mainly experiential, that is mind, or a mind-like aspect creates reality, this is panpsychism. It also requires sentience or subjective experience to be included in the description of physical reality. Both classical and quantum physics explain reality in terms of the behavior of matter and energy in spacetime, but consciousness becomes involved in interpreting quantum reality. One of the lessons of Einstein's theory of relativity is the principle of "background independence", which argues against attributing any fixed, necessary features to spacetime when matter and energy are at play. They do not say whether time is moving forward or backwards. Nor do the laws identify a moment as “now.” Hence, the sense of a flow of time doesn’t exist , and the distinction between past, present and future is only a persistent illusion. Physicists like Erik Verlinde takes one more step to argue that spacetime and its curvature (gravity) is illusory. In fact, it is treated as an emergent phenomenon arising from the second law of thermodynamics; from the collective motion of small bits of information encoded on spacetime surfaces called holographic screens.

Fundamental particles have wave-particle duality, they exhibit both wave and particle behavior. Because of this, the quantum states exist in superpositions of different measurable quantities like position and velocity. But there are many possible positions, which take on definite values only when we observe them. Then, how can spacetime exist in a superposition of different possibilities? Further, fundamental particles like quark has never been observed but found only in confinement of composite states. Quantum field theories also predict existence of quantum foam, a state of vacuum that is unstable ripe with latent energy in which neither space nor time exists in a classical sense. In this state, there are virtual particles constantly popping in and out of existence (virtual pairs of particles and antiparticles), which are fluctuating fields and particles. They exist only momentarily. The principle of conservation of energy may be violated very briefly, since it is done in an extremely short time at quantum timescales.

There is another interpretation about virtual particle-antiparticle pair creation and annihilation. It is treated as a change of direction of moving particles, from past to future, or from future to past, and the principle of classical terms like "cause" and "effect" do not appear at Planck timescales. In quantum physics, the distinction between cause and effect is not made and so time-symmetric systems can be viewed as causal or retro-causal (Backward causation).


Physicist Max Tegmark claims that quarks, atoms, and molecules are meaningless reductionism. He proposes that only the mathematical reality describe the behavior of matter, and not the other way around. The information generation architecture enables an agent to perform mental simulations for planning future action sequences for novel goals. This function of consciousness endows the agent with the ability to achieve novel goals that are difficult to attain only with a collection of reflexes. In addition, the methods of dynamical systems theory are derived from deterministic classical mechanics. In contrast, the methods of information theory are non-deterministic which are based on probabilities. Human consciousness is an emergent property. No single neuron holds complex information like self-awareness. But all neurons and the entire nervous system generate human behavior.

It follows from this discussion that physics at the heart of reality, spacetime and matter are unreal, but the information, statistics and mathematical realities are responsible for physical reality just as the Maya of Advaita Vedanta. One of the downside of this work is that this is confined to knowledge of physics of 1991 when this book was first published. Since then, physics literature has accumulated a good deal of information about the nature of spacetime which plays a cardinal role in the “wholeness” of physical reality.

Book Reviewed: Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

James Joyce’s Dreams

Finnegans Wake is a complex novel that blends reality of life with a dream world. The idea that life is cyclical; birth, death and rebirth, and the repetitive nature of reincarnation illuminates the illusory nature of reality we live in. The beginning and ending of book seem to illustrate this meaning. The novel is a stream illusions and dreams. The plot is difficult to follow as the story explores several fragmented and disconnected episodes. The main tension is the cause and effect, dream, and illusions which are illustrated through changing characters, settings, odd grammar and strange sentences.

This story is about the Porters and their three children. When they go to sleep, their world changes. You enter a dream world where their names and their children’s name are different! It is during the wake of a man named Finnegan; Mrs. Porter makes the spirit come alive at the visitation for the wake where she offers a one-woman monologue and energize her husband from his dreams.

The linguistic tactics employed by author is complex that includes wordplay with hidden meaning throughout the book. Examples include words with one hundred letters that combine numerous languages. His polyglot idiom of puns is to convey the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious side of reality. Finnegan’s Wake is puzzling and confusing! But numerous corrections made by author James Joyce in notes and drafts in the later editions creates doubts that he is really a genius as categorized by many literary critics. We may question the merit of his work. However, this book is not for timid or readers interested in page-turners.

Book Reviewed: Low-Carb Vegetarian Cookbook: 100 Easy Recipes and a Kick-Start Meal Plan by Amy Lawrence and Justin Fox Burks

Carbohydrates: How carbs fit into a healthy diet

I have been a vegetarian much of my life, but recently my physician said that my blood glucose level is high, and I must go on a low glycemic index (Low-GI) diet. Although I led a relatively healthy lifestyle, I worried that a change in my diet would make my life too restricted. But a low carb diet is necessary for various reasons; keeping a healthy body weight, lowering diabetic effects and remain health positive.

This book has many good features that focuses on vegetarians looking on low-carb recipes, especially Chapter 7 where you find main dishes. There are certainly interesting choices but lack variety. My favorites include "spicy vegan Philly cheesesteak stuffed peppers", and "Paneer cheese curry with spinach and arugula". There are others that may be interest for you. One drawback is that there are very few main dishes with grains. In addition, I would like to see more colored pictures of recipes in this book that help me connect with the dish I am cooking. Chapter 8 that gives dessert recipes do not have any dishes that contain ice cream.

One note I like to add is that foods with a relatively high glycemic index ranking include potatoes and white bread, snack foods, desserts and sugary beverages. Foods such as whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits and low-fat dairy products are naturally lower on the glycemic index. Foods with a low-GI value is the preferred choice, because they are slowly digested and absorbed, causing a slower and smaller rise in blood sugar levels (non-diabetic state). On the other hand, foods with a high GI value should be limited since they are quickly digested and absorbed resulting in a rapid rise of blood sugar (diabetic state).

Book Reviewed: Shamanism - An A-Z Reference Guide, by Marilyn Walker

Cultural beliefs and spiritual motifs of Shamanism

Shamanism is a practice of reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with the spirit world and channel these energies into this world. Shamanic practitioners, during rituals, travel between these two worlds through dreams, visionary experience, and waking consciousness. These two worlds are treated as a single reality.

Shamanism offers healing ceremonies that seeks wholeness; the harmony to body, mind and soul. When ancestral laws or environmental boundaries have been violated, the shaman will seek to re-harmonize the relations between people and land with tribal ancestors. When an individual falls into sickness, the shaman will journey to that person's spiritual guardians to take away illness and restore wholeness. When sickness comes to domestic animals, the shaman may commune with the spirits to find healing and renewal. Shamanism doesn’t have sacred scriptures or worship a god or deity, but the faith and belief system is largely focused on the power of spirits and animals, healing and shamanic drumming and entering trance, a state of profound abstraction or absorption.

I was looking for detailed discussion of ritual practices, altered states of consciousness, spirit animals, ancestral spirits, native peoples of Siberia, dreams and signs, healing ceremonies, drums, and entering trance. Many of these terms are defined cryptically in one or two paragraphs. Many terms that are not key to the Shamanic practices are described in relative detail. If you are looking for a book to understand Shamanism as a belief system, then this is not the book you are looking for.

Book Reviewed: Beyond the Dynamical Universe: Unifying Block Universe Physics and Time as Experienced, by Michael Silberstein, W.M. Stuckey and Timothy McDevitt

A journey into the heart of physical reality

The idea that nature is made up of physical entities that evolve over time from an initial state is not explaining the full nature of physical reality. The mind and matter discussions have created more questions than offer solutions. One of the problems is from the theory of relativity unifying space and time into 4-dimensional spacetime. In this reality, there are no preferred dimensions, and there's nothing special about time. It is like a block universe. Just as space exists in the block and so does time. General relativity says that if we know the conditions at one instant in the block universe, then we can predict the entire future because this chunk of spacetime is deterministic. The future is written, but it's just not accessible to us living inside the block. From this block-time perspective, time-experience is an illusion and not a real property of nature. This introduces the concept of time, and flow of time, is a mind and consciousness phenomenon.

In this book, the authors offer an entirely new paradigm called relational block universe in non-dynamical approach in which the past does not determine the future, and it eliminates the experience of the passage of time by invoking philosophy similar to neutral monism that explains the experience of time without consciousness.

The authors have proposed an unorthodox and untested idea which would be a hard sell. But the philosophical underpinnings are familiar in Hindu and Buddhist philosophical systems. The nature of mind and matter, the essence of physical reality has been widely discussed. According to the school of Vedanta philosophy, the ultimate reality is indefinite and indescribable of which no transformation is predictable. The appearance of the world is due to the imaginative activity of manas, which is also an unreal phenomenon. There is no perceiver, and none perceived. In the early phase of Buddhist metaphysics, there was a system of pluralistic phenomenalism with neither matter nor mind as abiding entities. The doctrine of the unsubstantiality and the impermanence of all elements of existence was a consequence of nihilism.

The early versions of classical neutral monism proposed by physicist Ernst Mach, and philosophers William James, and Bertrand Russell reflect the empiricist outlook which leads to conscious experience that the authors like to avoid. But abstract entities like information processing and mathematical reality have been proposed by Thomas Nagel as the neutral basis of this metaphysical realm.

Book Reviewed: Is It Alzheimer’s? 101 Answers to Your Most Pressing Questions about Memory Loss and Dementia by Peter V. Rabins

Understanding cognition decline

A plan to manage Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia becomes necessary when you or your loved ones is affected with a cognitive decline. I have always used well known websites like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and National Institute of Health (NIH) websites for general medical and pharmaceutical questions. I could find answers to many questions this way. But this book addresses a broad audience of patients, caregivers, and treatment centers with a plan to deal with AD. You can learn to recognize warning signs, symptoms, and stages of the disease. The author explains in a conversational Q&A style, about the symptoms of AD and dementia, improving the quality of life of people suffering from AD, and how dementia is diagnosed. For specific questions and treatments, you must consult with your care providers and the physician who is treating your family members, but this book offers some useful advice as how you can handle a critical time in your life.

Book Reviewed: Should schools be colorblind? by Laurie Cooper Stoll

Conversations about color blindness and color consciousness

Color blindness removes certain negative barriers in a society. But there is a larger question behind what the author is trying to tackle. How does a majority support the minority population? Do we need a democratic system that treats all colors the same? Do we take racial distinctiveness into account and be granted equal value? The answer is “yes” for both, because the world has a diverse population. What about color consciousness as opposed to colorblindness that recognizes life’s diversity, especially for people from a different race or culture? One may argue that color blindness is just a way to avoid recognizing disadvantages some races faced in the past. But it also creates a cover for de facto inequality. Neutrality is nothing more than a cover that hides the blemishes of social tendencies that prefer one group over another.

In her study of colorblindness at schools as an ideology, the author observes that the colorblindness looks reasonable if the society is idealistic and not race-stratified. Since the society is stratified, we need to deconstruct racial stratification by giving importance to the significance of race. i.e. be color-conscious! For example, this may help keep the racial identity of an African American student in a white majority school. We must recognize that racial and cultural backgrounds play an important role in the development of young adolescents. A color-blind approach often means that the educator has not considered the meaning of racial/ethnic identity to the child.

In this book, the author suggests that we have a responsibility to hold individual teachers accountable whenever they perpetuate prejudice or discrimination. In addition, the school system must also help combat institutional racism by assisting the teachers who work with students directly on a day-to-day basis. This is an ambitious project, and I hope the author finds success.

Book Reviewed: Eyewitness to Crucifixion: The Romans, the Cross, and the Sacrifice of Jesus by Stephen M. Miller

The cross, crucifixion and Jesus Christ Superstar

The author has discussed the history of the cross, and as how it rose as the religious symbol of Christian faith. Europeanization of the church was a major test in its struggle to emerge as a leading faith of 2.4 billion people on this planet. According to New Testament, Jesus was crucified on a cross, a very cruel death for the only son of God! Does that mean God is merciless and cruel? How could the creator of heaven and earth bring upon such a horrific end to his own son? What is the real message behind this? What is the theology of cross? In order to comprehend the nature and extent of this scandalous story, the author presents an academic style debate about the beliefs and acceptance of the Roman empire and its cultural biases.

One of the most interesting fact is that writers of the gospels didn't say that Jesus; carried a T-shaped cross; carried a crossbeam; fell while carrying cross; hung on a T-shaped cross; or nailed to anything. Christian scholars presumed this after the description of crucifixion was added by the church leaders a century later. The Jesus Seminar, a group of biblical scholars concluded that Jesus was a Jewish sage and faith-healer who preached liberation from injustice through his parables and aphorisms. He broke Jewish traditions in his teachings and his behavior. Jesus was mortal and he did not perform miracles nor die for sins of others. He was executed as a public nuisance, and not for being the Son of God. The belief in the resurrection is based on the visionary experiences of Paul, Peter and Mary Magdalene, says Jesus Seminar.

I strongly recommend reading chapters 22 and 23 of this book that summarizes some key points. In the first half of the book, the author describes the practices of Roman empire and how it may have impacted the evolution of gospels and the church narratives with respect to crucifixion.

There are numerous books in literature that presents the pulpit-based interpretation of the cross, but the author must be commended for his effort to present an unbiased discussion. This book is full of colored pictures, illustrations, visual art and artistic imagination of historical events surrounding the crucifixion. It helps to reconnect with this historical event. The author’s style of writing is objective and dispassionate, this makes reading so effortless.

Book Reviewed: Tanmay Teaches Julia for Beginners: A Springboard to Machine Learning for All Ages by Tanmay Bakshi

Machine Learning

This book introduces the basics of Julia programming. It is essential for beginners but written to be concise and straightforward. The text is very well described with easy to follow step-by-step instructions by a 15-year-old whiz kid. His writing style is amazing, and book-reading is flawless!

For example, we can recognize objects, perceive depth, communicate and understand perspectives and measure outcome of our actions. These are skills that evolved over billions of years. But computers can't understand the contents of images or skills of animal communication, but with machine learning (ML), this challenge is accomplished. Animals learn from experience and so do machine learning algorithms. We can "train" a ML algorithm on a data set, and it'll try to "model" that data set, understand the intricacies and patterns, then define the mapping from input to output. But there's one key difference between training a human and training a machine: a human can learn from very few examples, but a machine requires thousands or even millions of examples to be trained. Training these algorithms requires lot of compute power or parallel computing. In this regard Julia is extremely helpful. It provides a package called Flux that helps you with all your ML needs! A part of the Flux project is called the Metalhead project, which enables us to use pretrained ML algorithms on a computer without having to train them by users of the program.

How does ML works? In machine learning, backpropagation (backprop,[1] BP) is a widely used algorithm in training feedforward neural networks for supervised learning. The algorithms enable computers to find mathematical patterns in vast amounts of data. There are many programming languages like C++, Python and R available for Julia. This enables Julia to combine the simplicity of Python with the speed of C++. One of the prominent features of Julia is its ability to handle mathematical expressions with elegance. Julia is faster than Python because it is designed to quickly implement the math concepts like linear algebra and matrix representations. It is excellent for numerical computing.

Prediction of a physical event does not produce additional energy or matter, but it puts some information from which we can put that in perspective. Information itself is not physical but physical reality may be understood by processing information. My main interest in computing is to simulate the evolution of simple living systems from primordial organic soup. I am very hopeful that ML and programming languages like Julia will enable us in this journey!

Book Reviewed: Indian idealism by Surendranath Dasgupta

Pursuit of Wisdom: Perspectives from Hindu and Buddhist Philosophical Systems

Professor Das Gupta was one of the leading thinkers of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies in the last century. Although an exhaustive amount of material is condensed in this book, but the author has presented the discussions in a readable manner. The narratives are engaging, and the book focuses on important concepts and the exchange of metaphysical thoughts among Hindu and Buddhist philosophers. But not all Hindu and Buddhist metaphysical disciplines are covered in this book.

A brief summary of the book is as follows: Sacrifice was a powerful instrument to seek the favor gods in the ritualistic tradition of Rigveda, the ancient scriptures of Hinduism. but Vedic sages also had philosophical insight in the power of creation as observed in Nasadiya Sukta of Rigveda. The hymns of creation, the 129th hymns of the 10th mandala of the Rigveda (10:129, 1-7) is about the beginnings of the cosmos. The hymn 1 states that there was neither existence, nor non-existence; There was no air and no space beyond it. But the emergence of metaphysical thoughts in early Hinduism strengthened in the post-Vedic period, in the sacred scriptures of Upanishads that laid foundation to six Hindu philosophical systems. Buddhism which emerged to contrast the ritualistic beliefs of Rigveda grew in parallel with Hindu philosophy. During the early stages of its development, Buddhist teachings were in response to ideas of Upanishads, in some cases concurring with them, and in other cases re-interpreting them.

Some of the exciting part of Hindu thoughts are from: Katha Upanishad that describes the legendary story of a little boy, Nachiketa, the son of Sage Vajasravasa, who meets Yama (the Hindu deity of death), and their conversation about the nature of man, knowledge, Atman (Soul, Self) and moksha (liberation); Chandogya Upanishad describes the spiritual conversation between a father and son, Uddalaka Aruni and his son Śvetaketu Aruneya about The Self, the Soul (Atman) as the essence of all living beings: It is True, it is Real, it is the Self, and Thou Art That (Tat Tvam Asi); and the dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi, husband and wife in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad about the doctrine that the inmost self, pure consciousness, and pure bliss that are grounded in the ultimate cause of reality.

Vedanta Philosophy or Uttara Mīmāṃsā is the most prominent of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. It reflects ideas from the philosophies of the Upanishads, specifically, knowledge and liberation. Vedanta has several segments ranging from dualism to non-dualism, all of which were based on the texts of: Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Advaita Vedanta espouses non-dualism and monism. Brahman is held to be the sole unchanging metaphysical reality and identical to the individual Atman, but the physical world is an illusion (Maya). The absolute and infinite Atman-Brahman is realized by a process of negating everything relative, finite, empirical and changing. This school accepts no duality, no limited individual souls and no separate unlimited cosmic soul. All souls and their existence across space and time are the same “Oneness.” Spiritual liberation in Advaita is through the realization of Oneness, and this unchanging Atman (soul). It is the same as the Atman in everyone else, as well as being identical to Brahman. Vedanta also refutes Nyaya-Vaiseshika School categories such as atoms, molecules, time and space, qualities, action and reductionism of science.

This book also discusses the ideas of Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna and its relationship with Vedanta. For Nagarjuna the true nature of reality is not the absence of existence but the absence of intrinsic existence. There are a lot of metaphysical ideas to assimilate, but be patient with the author of the book.