Daily Archives: May 4, 2017

An Interview with Narendra Nayak President of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations & Founder of Aid Without Religion

You are one of the more famous unknowns. Your name should be more internationally recognised, I feel. You have done plenty of work in the sceptic movement and for reason. Your father bought a lottery ticket on the advice of an astrologer. This was a turning point for you. Why? What other personal/educational background assisted with the development of rationalist perspectives and tools?

As for me being an unknown, I do not mind that! But you have to remember that ours is a country of 1.20 billion people, and among them I am quite known as one of the most visible faces in the field. We would rather do the work than seek publicity. The international scene is replete with those who make orations at international seminars, and I have attended only a few. The IHEU had awarded me for outstanding services to Humanism at their Oslo conference. Thanks for your feeling that I should be more recognised internationally!

One of the reasons for my turning a sceptic was my fathers obsession with astrology. But there are more reasons. They can be read here. http://nirmukta.com/2010/12/26/a-twice-born-atheist/ and here too http://nirmukta.com/2009/12/11/am-i-a-hindu/. It was that I first became an atheist and remained one for quite some time. Atheism is just a conclusion. Later on I should say may be at the age of 21 or so I became a rationalist who investigates things and looks for evidence before accepting something. At the age of 25 or so I joined the movement. My undergraduate training as a chemist and later on my post graduate training as a medical biochemist made me more and more methodical in investigating claims of the paranormal.

The choice of a life without succumbing to any of the irrational practices thrust upon one by the society was a challenging task but I have managed to live up to it. You could read more here http://nirmukta.com/2010/11/26/practicing-atheism-in-ones-life-under-all-circumstances/ . The easy availability of literature and references was another plus point as I was teaching at a Medical College. Again we had many colleagues with such inclinations and would cooperate when needed. Later on about three decades back, when I came in touch with Humanism, I realised that that was what I have been doing all my life. So, can now say that I am a Humanist!

In your experience and transition, rationalism is not only a scientific and philosophical stance. It is an ethical stance derived from personal, likely emotional, experience within the family. How do you maintain high ethical standards in this professional work over decades?

This was probably because I was working at a university where there was very little interference in the personal lives of the faculty unless their stands were a threat to the commercial interests of the set up. Even in such situations I have stuck to my stand, and attempts were made to put me on the proper track. These did not succeed.

When punitive action was taken in 1989, I approached the courts and won my battle, and it was technically held to be termination from service which could be done only after a due process of law which had not been followed as there were no grounds at all for such an action. Of course, due to the slow moving Indian judicial system it took nearly five and a half years for the courts to decide in my favour.

But I had made my point and after that, there has been absolutely no interference in my activities! In my personal life, I have always stuck to my stand about ethics; no active participation in any religious ceremonies, no treatment from quacks etc. This has been followed even in my business which is run on totally ethical lines.

To you, what is a rationalist, or makes a good rationalist?

According to me, I would define a rationalist as one who puts things to the test of reason before accepting them. Leading a life by ones convictions makes a good rationalist. Though this looks almost impossible in a country like ours, many of us have done it.

You are the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations(FIRA). What tasks and responsibilities come with this position?

My responsibilities as the President of FIRA are to hold the movement together on common points of action. I also work to promote the movement by going to places all over the country to speak to our member organisations, conducting workshops for developing rational thinking, representing our points of view at seminars, TV discussions, media and anywhere else needed. I write regularly for the printed media through press handouts, web site publications and a regular column for a monthly magazine called Mangalore Today.

For a long, long time I have been conducting workshops for teachers at the national childrens and teachers science congresses. Of course, it has been stopped after the present government has come into power. The responsibilities are difficult to perform as there are too many languages in this country and we have to communicate to people in their regional language which is possible for me as I can speak nine of them. Perhaps that may be the reason I keep getting re-elected repeatedly! The last one happened a few days ago on the 26th of February.

In July 2011, you founded Aid Without Religion. What was the inspiration for it? How did you identify this niche needing services?

The religious organisations try to justify their collection of funds from the public citing that they are needed for charitable purposes. They also directly or indirectly force the beneficiaries to sing praises of the head of the sect promoting these. Their photographs are posted all over the place which receives their charity and many time paeans to them are sung. They also promote quackery in the name of medical care. So, it was very much needed to do some work without these. So, I started this trust for the specific purpose. Again, when I pass away I want my personal assets to be put to use to promote such work. My idea is to see that my work goes on after me and a charity with such specific aims and objectives would help in that.

You put godmen and frauds to the test. They fail. What are godmen? What is the most common trick of godmen and frauds in India?

The term godmen is a specifically Indian usage. Some of these gurus call themselves Bhagawan XYZ where the term Bhagawan or god is a prefix to their name. They also change their given names to high-sounding ones having a meaning like a great one, a realised one and so on. Some of them even add a number of misters to their title like Sri Sri, Sri Sri Sri etc., the number of sris quantifying their greatness. In order to bamboozle their gullible followers, they perform tasks apparently impossible for a normal person say something like materialising an object from thin air, walking on embers, dipping hands into boiling oil are a few such examples. There are also Jesus Christ-like moments multiplying food, converting one liquid into another, reviving the dead, healing disease etc.

Who was a particularly notable story in your professional career so far?

If you mean my profession as a medical biochemist, my involvement in the work about lead poisoning particularly in school children has been the most satisfying. As a consumer activist, we succeeded in bringing about a Consumer Protection Act for the country in 1986. As a rationalist putting a stop to a fraud called as midbrain activation, which was allegedly conferring supernatural powers on children to see even when blindfolded, was one of our major achievements. Check this- http://nirmukta.com/2015/04/26/midbrain-activation-challenge-an-update/

What is the overall state of rationalism in India?

We are diverse nation with a huge population. We need a lot of activists to make the people think rationally. We have a program which appeals to the people directly which is called the miracle exposure program. In this, we go to the people and show them the so-called God man tricks and explain how it is possible for anyone to do them. This helps as a starting point to make the people think about them. The newer generation of godmen have given them up and have started other things.

This would give an idea about some of the attitudes. http://nirmukta.com/2011/01/03/the-super-intelligent-superstitious/. This too- http://nirmukta.com/2010/04/22/yogi-in-politics-a-rationalists-thoughts-on-baba-ramdev/ which pertains to a so called yogi who has built up a marketing empire selling things like noodles and biscuits in the name of promoting yoga!

On one hand, we have the economically weaker sections who have been ruthlessly exploited by the religious system while on the other we have the more affluent the so called middle class http://nirmukta.com/2016/03/14/hypocrisies-of-the-great-indian-middle-class/, whose icons are again an example of irrationality many times- http://nirmukta.com/2011/05/26/icons-of-the-middle-class/.

How does one present the rationalist worldview in a respectful and positive light in various sectors of Indian culture, and subculture?

The rationalist world view is nothing new to India. Gautam Buddha taught about it 2500 years back. Charvaka was one of earliest materialist philosophers. Two religions, Buddhism and Jainism, have originated in India which are basically atheistic. The Upanishads and Darshans encourage questioning. The Shad Darshanas are an example of this. Again the term Hindu is a vague one with a legal definition as one who is not a Christian, Muslim, Jew or a Parsi which means that all rationalist/atheists come under that ambit!

So, it is quite difficult for the rightist forces to attack us on logic and reason. So, they tend to label us as sickulars (mockery of secular), Commies, anti-nationals etc. But the common people are remarkably receptive to our point of view when properly presented.

What have been the most emotionally moving experiences in your professional rationalist work?

They are too many to be cited here. We have supported inter-caste, inter-religious marriages, helped the so-called untouchables, HIV-positive children shunned by the society and so on. One of these is here http://indianatheists.org/2011/04/07/children-of-a-lesser-god/

What are some of the demographics of FIRA? Who is most likely to join it?

FIRA does not take memberships from individuals. We are a federation who affiliates organisations who have members. We have organisations with thousands of members who are registered societies and trusts having a few members. One of the strongest is Punjab Tarksheel Society with thousands of members. Kerala Yuktivadi Sangham has a very systematic setup with an organised membership. Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti has hundreds of branches in villages. As already said, we do not take individuals as members. Those likely to join us are like-minded organisations atheist, rationalist, secular, humanist- all are welcome who are interested in development of rational thinking.

What have been the largest activist and educational initiatives provided by FIRA (and you, individually)? Out of these, what have been honest failures and successes?

We have made a systematic effort to have activists in every district of the country and organised national and state level programs which were funded by the government of India. Some of them worked. Many did not. Two times we have organised marches to the parliament to demand the enactment of a bill to separate religion from politics but nothing has happened on that front.

We have tried for anti-superstition acts in many states but have succeeded in only one state. Another of our failures has been our inability to attract younger people to join us actively. The younger generation has no significant presence in our movement. Though many of them agree with our point of view, they do not want to take an active part. We have to work hard to bring them in.

Who/what are the main threats to rationalism as a movement?

The religious bigots, who now have the official support from the government ruling at the centre. The so-called minority pressure groups also target us. We are attacked from every side. Three of our people have been murdered so far. Dr. Narendra Dhabolkar was the first one to be killed, and he was a very active member of FIRA. I am forced to go around with an armed bodyguard appointed by the government because threats to my life have been perceived.

How can people get involved with FIRA, even donate to it? How can people further rationalism in India?

We are more in need of participation than funds. My appeal to people is start an organisation of rationalists in your locality and join us as a member. We shall provide resources in terms of inputs and training.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Nayak.

Read more here:

An Interview with Narendra Nayak President of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations & Founder of Aid ... - Conatus News

Noah Wardrip-Fruin, University of California, Santa Cruz and Michael Mateas, University of California, Santa Cruz

(THE CONVERSATION) Marvels new blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, carries audiences through a narrative carefully curated by the films creators. Thats also what Telltales Guardians-themed game did when it was released in April. Early reviews suggest the game is just another form of guided progress through a predetermined story, not a player-driven experience in the world of the movie and its characters. Some game critics lament this, and suggest game designers let traditional media tell the linear stories.

What is out there for the player who wants to explore on his or her own in rich universes like the ones created by Marvel? Not much. Not yet. But the future of media is coming.

As longtime experimenters and scholars in interactive narrative who are now building a new academic discipline we call computational media, we are working to create new forms of interactive storytelling, strongly shaped by the choices of the audience. People want to explore, through play, themes like those in Marvels stories, about creating family, valuing diversity and living responsibly.

These experiences will need compelling computer-generated characters, not the husks that now speak to us from smartphones and home assistants. And theyll need virtual environments that are more than just simulated space environments that feel alive, responsive and emotionally meaningful.

This next generation of media which will be a foundation for art, learning, self-expression and even health maintenance requires a deeply interdisciplinary approach. Instead of engineer-built tools wielded by artists, we must merge art and science, storytelling and software, to create groundbreaking, technology-enabled experiences deeply connected to human culture.

One of the first interactive character experiences involved Eliza, a language and software system developed in the 1960s. It seemed like a very complex entity that could engage compellingly with a user. But the more people interacted with it, the more they noticed formulaic responses that signaled it was a relatively simple computer program.

In contrast, programs like Tale-Spin have elaborate technical processes behind the scenes that audiences never see. The audience sees only the effects, like selfish characters telling lies. The result is the opposite of the Eliza effect: Rather than simple processes that the audience initially assumes are complex, we get complex processes that the audience experiences as simple.

An exemplary alternative to both types of hidden processes is SimCity, the seminal game by Will Wright. It contains a complex but ultimately transparent model of how cities work, including housing locations influencing transportation needs and industrial activity creating pollution that bothers nearby residents. It is designed to lead users, through play, to an understanding of this underlying model as they build their own cities and watch how they grow. This type of exploration and response is the best way to support long-term player engagement.

No one discipline has all the answers for building meaningfully interactive experiences about topics more subtle than city planning such as what we believe, whom we love and how we live in the world. Engineering cant teach us how to come up with a meaningful story, nor understand if it connects with audiences. But the arts dont have methods for developing the new technologies needed to create a rich experience.

Todays most prominent examples of interactive storytelling tend to lean toward one approach or the other. Despite being visually compelling, with powerful soundtracks, neither indie titles like Firewatch nor blockbusters such as Mass Effect: Andromeda have many significant ways for a player to actually influence their worlds.

Both independently and together, weve been developing deeper interactive storytelling experiences for nearly two decades. Terminal Time, an interactive documentary generator first shown in 1999, asks the audience several questions about their views of historical issues. Based on the responses (measured as the volume of clapping for each choice), it custom-creates a story of the last millennium that matches, and increasingly exaggerates, those particular ideas.

For example, to an audience who supported anti-religious rationalism, it might begin presenting distant events that match their biases such as the Catholic Churchs 17th-century execution of philosopher Giordano Bruno. But later it might show more recent, less comfortable events like the Chinese communist (rationalist) invasion and occupation of (religious) Tibet in the 1950s.

The results are thought-provoking, because the team creating it including one of us (Michael), documentarian Steffi Domike and media artist Paul Vanouse combined deep technical knowledge with clear artistic goals and an understanding of the ways events are selected, connected and portrayed in ideologically biased documentaries.

Faade, released in 2005 by Michael and fellow artist-technologist Andrew Stern, represented a further extension: the first fully realized interactive drama. A person playing the experience visits the apartment of a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. A player can say whatever she wants to the characters, move around the apartment freely, and even hug and kiss either or both of the hosts. It provides an opportunity to improvise along with the characters, and take the conversation in many possible directions, ranging from angry breakups to attempts at resolution.

Faade also lets players interact creatively with the experience as a whole, choosing, for example, to play by asking questions a therapist might use or by saying only lines Darth Vader says in the Star Wars movies. Many people have played as different characters and shared videos of the results of their collaboration with the interactive experience. Some of these videos have been viewed millions of times.

As with Terminal Time, Faade had to combine technical research about topics like coordinating between virtual characters and understanding natural language used by the player with a specific artistic vision and knowledge about narrative. In order to allow for a wide range of audience influence, while still retaining a meaningful story shape, the software is built to work in terms of concepts from theater and screenwriting, such as dramatic beats and tension rising toward a climax. This allows the drama to progress even as different players learn different information, drive the conversation in different directions and draw closer to one or the other member of the couple.

A decade ago, our work uniting storytelling, artificial intelligence, game design, human-computer interaction, media studies and many other arts, humanities and sciences gave rise to the Expressive Intelligence Studio, a technical and cultural research lab at the Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, where we both work. In 2014 we created the countrys first academic department of computational media.

Today, we work with colleagues across campus to offer undergrad degrees in games and playable media with arts and engineering emphases, as well as graduate education for developing games and interactive experiences.

With four of our graduate students (Josh McCoy, Mike Treanor, Ben Samuel and Aaron A. Reed), we recently took inspiration from sociology and theater to devise a system that simulates relationships and social interactions. The first result was the game Prom Week, in which the audience is able to shape the social interactions of a group of teenagers in the week leading up to a high school prom.

We found that its players feel much more responsibility for what happens than in pre-scripted games. It can be disquieting. As game reviewer Craig Pearson put it after destroying the romantic relationship of his perceived rival, then attempting to peel away his remaining friendships, only to realize this wasnt necessary Next time Ill be looking at more upbeat solutions, because the alternative, frankly, is hating myself.

That social interaction system is also a base for other experiences. Some address serious topics like cross-cultural bullying or teaching conflict deescalation to soldiers. Others are more entertaining, like a murder mystery game and a still-secret collaboration with Microsoft Studios. Were now getting ready for an open-source release of the underlying technology, which were calling the Ensemble Engine.

Our students are also expanding the types of experiences interactive narratives can offer. Two of them, Aaron A. Reed and Jacob Garbe, created The Ice-Bound Concordance, which lets players explore a vast number of possible combinations of events and themes to complete a mysterious novel.

Three other students, James Ryan, Ben Samuel and Adam Summerville, created Bad News, which generates a new small midwestern town for each player including developing the town, the businesses, the families in residence, their interactions and even the inherited physical traits of townspeople and then kills one character. The player must notify the dead characters next of kin. In this experience, the player communicates with a human actor trained in improvisation, exploring possibilities beyond the capabilities of todays software dialogue systems.

Kate Compton, another student, created Tracery, a system that makes storytelling frameworks easy to create. Authors can fill in blanks in structure, detail, plot development and character traits. Professionals have used the system: Award-winning developer Dietrich Squinkifer made the uncomfortable one-button conversation game Interruption Junction. Tracery has let newcomers get involved, too, as with the Cheap Bots Done Quick! platform. It is the system behind around 4,000 bots active on Twitter, including ones relating the adventures of a lost self-driving Tesla, parodying the headlines of Boomersplaining thinkpieces, offering self-care reminders and generating pastel landscapes.

Many more projects are just beginning. For instance, were starting to develop an artificial intelligence system that can understand things usually only humans can like the meanings underlying a games rules and what a game feels like when played. This will allow us to more easily explore what the audience will think and feel in new interactive experiences.

Theres much more to do, as we and others work to invent the next generation of computational media. But as in a Marvel movie, wed bet on those who are facing the challenges, rather than the skeptics who assume the challenges cant be overcome.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/the-future-is-in-interactive-storytelling-76772.

Excerpt from:

The future is in interactive storytelling - SFGate

Astrology and politics have a long history in Tamil Nadu. And so when there's uncertainty in the air, politicians have flocked to astrologers to predict what the stars have in store for them.

"It's an open secret that politicians here are believers of astrology despite the leaders of these parties espousing rationalism," observes political analyst Sumanth C Raman.

Politicians across party lines are now knocking on the doors of renowned astrologers in Chennai as they struggle for the seat of power in Tamil Nadu and interestingly enough, almost every politician wants the answer to one question - Will I become the next CM or not?

"It's a clear reflection of the insecurity among the politicians today considering the prevalent political atmosphere. It's clearly a great time to be an astrologer," adds Raman.

Renowned astrologer Sehlvi, who has a number of political clients, says these leaders approach him with the hope of some good news.

"A great leader has passed away so each of these politicians believe they have a chance and come to us. But these politicians only want good news. The moment we ask them to wait or give them the bad news, they consult another astrologer to hear what they want," says Sehlvi.

And if you're wondering when the political instability will end! Well out of sheer curiosity we asked Sehlvi and according to his prediction, the turbulence will end on November 26.

Post November may be Tamil Nadu netas can rest easy and know their political fortunes. They may have failed to carry forward Jayalalithaa's political legacy but they definitely seemed to have instilled their faith in the stars much like their Amma.

ALSO READ:

Akhilesh Yadav's kundali cautions Uttar Pradesh CM to tread carefully in war with father Mulayam

Modi will be strong leader but will face problems: Astrologers

Visit link:

Amidst political turmoil in Tamil Nadu, netas look at the stars to ... - India Today