Unlearning

This day, every year, in Indian tradition, is said to be auspicious to start learning. The day is not certain, (it does not ‘fall’ on the same date /month / it goes by lunar time, phases, not even days!) since we have decided our ‘certainty’ to be related to a particular calendar, which is also globally ‘standardized’. (That reminds me, nay, confuses me, whether at all the bulk of my standards are reasonable, just because it is presently global standards!

I am quite perplexed at myself, as to why the thought of ‘unlearning’ occurred to me, when the whole lot of people around look at beginning to learn! This thought is not something new. I got initiated into this concept very early when somebody explained to me the concept that was ‘embedded’ in devotional couplet written by a great ‘mind’ who is said to have time-capsuled all that was known till that date into just 100 odd couplets! Funnily, (to those who glance casually,) quizzically (to those who are just curious, mystically (to those who are inquisitive), educationally (to those who are ready to do ‘what ever it takes’), the opening words of that pair of couplet seeks to remove or unlearn the bulk of knowledge that we acquired, and yet the next few words hint at the technique of enlivening dead cells of the brain, to restore memory recapitulation capabilities! I cannot help getting lost, or getting dissolved into admiration for that great saint, who sums up his entire work saying that his effort was minuscule enough to liken a person trying to show ‘light’ to the great Sun, by lighting up a few pieces of camphor! (Robotics as a science is striving to find ways and means of minimizing human interference to obtain a meaningful functionality through mechanization. Artificial intelligence has to complement in a bigger dimension to this, though other branches like networking, inter-compatibility bridges, sharing of security-covered accessing, data-management etc have to simultaneously and seamlessly get prepared to function cohesively). Looking at this couplets, we find (thanks to German brains, who could decipher it,) at least some of the not-so-apparent functionalities of this work of 100 pairs of couplets! Very few religious-like, devotional-like ‘beauty-waves’ are embedded with many scientific functionalities! There are ‘keys’ to invoke their ‘enlivened’ functionalities. At lower levels, they do function, but at quite harmless levels, in just invoking ‘self-corrective-factors’ (self-debugging-menus, which debug not the program, but the errors during human-handling of it! Yes, the ‘handling’ implies much deeper functionality that the mere ‘chanting’ of it!). Obviously, this work is in a language that is ‘found’ to be the most (or only) compatible one for the ‘proposed’ fifth generation computers (artificial intelligence oriented ones!). A by-product is that this ‘language’ satisfies the demands of mechanization, humanization, (at gross communication levels with least ambiguity about logic-defying emotional contents), as well as the interface with ‘quantum-entanglement-entities’ (entities, to what ever extent we ‘feel’ comfortable to make it mean!).

Oh! The mention of ‘entanglement’ now reminds me, that I too got entangled into something that I had not intended to delve into when I thought of taking up the task of writing this ‘post’.

All I wanted to say was about the phenomenon that I found in successful teams. Teams, when I say, I would like it to mean ideal teams of any kind…. Be it just a group of people, coming together for a common purpose, or a group who first decided to team up because of like-mindedness, and then to allow something to grow out of it! Be it, a forced relationship like a family, (joint or nuclear), be it a marriage of convenience or arrangement, social or commercial….. I repeat, I wanted to say about ‘say’. I could find a pattern. The success depends upon those who are allowed to have a ‘say’. It does not matter if they do not ‘hold’ power. It is enough if those with authority choose to delegate the decisiveness, however clandestinely! (I am reminded of a wonderful Hindi movie “Apne-Paraaye” which used this as the basic theme of the story!).

Unlearning could be a similar attribute, to allow a mystic functionality, delegated in utter privacy, purely personalized in its mannerism, to ensure that ‘learning’ happens afresh, as a living experience, with a conscious, concerted effort, choosing the most conducive atmospheric support (an extra-vagant gift by ‘nature’), and allow truth to permeate in! Perhaps, the ritual of ‘keeping’ the books closed under a sacred linen, avoiding any habitual reference to ‘prescribed’ books for the previous 3 days, seems to support the theory of ‘unlearning’ process. For an indicative example, we do purge, de-fragment, stove, stash etc, the data periodically in our hard-disks. We delegate the power to have a ‘say’ through the technique of ‘unlearning’. That perhaps, yet again, seems to explain, many traditional rituals, which are consecrational by nature of its appearances! (I do not dare to amplify as to ‘how it seems to explain’! It would need lots of patience, effort and time, apart from perceptional receptivity of deeper levels! Then, why (the hell), try to mention it? Frankly, ‘dunno’! I was under the impression, that I was in(or, undergoing) a ‘withdrawal’ mode, looking at the declining rate of posts, of late( I do not find to have any ‘say’, in any ‘matter’, of late!).

Respectful regards,
Psn(17th October, 2010)