Disruptions and Battlegrounds
xv
Battleground 1: Economic Development and Jobs
xvi
Battleground 2: Global Power
xviii
Battleground 3: Psychological Control and Agency
xix
Battleground 4: Metaphysics
xxvi
Grid of Four Battlegrounds
xxviii
Battleground 5: India’s Future
xxviii
The Purpose of This Book
xxx
1. Overview of AI Technologies
3
Fundamental Advancements
5
Evolution of AI Devices
18
Intelligence versus Consciousness
23
Gamification and Social Engineering
42
Debates and controversies
51
Biases in Machine Learning
52
Use of data without breach of privacy
58
Unemployment and Inequality
65
Transfer of Agency and Power
66
Social and Political Disequilibrium
67
Complicity of Public Intellectuals
69
Inequalities and Social Disruption
87
Challenging the Optimists
98
Pandemic as Accelerator of Trends
101
3. THE BATTLE FOR WORLD DOMINATION
103
Disrupting the World Order
105
Comparing Britain’s and China’s Industrial Revolutions
105
Return of the East India Company
116
China’s Ambitious Plan
119
Long-Term, Systematic, and Disciplined
124
Betting the Future on AI
127
Core Aspects of China’s AI
131
China’s Quest for Domination
137
Ambition to Become the New Rome
139
Pandemic and the Pushback
142
US Government Responses
143
4. THE BATTLE FOR AGENCY
154
Artificial Emotional Intelligence
156
Dumbing Down the Masses
161
Artificial Pleasures and Emotions
165
Addictive Behavior Programming
168
The Power of Surveillance
183
The Battle for Aesthetics
185
Aesthetics as the Opium of the Masses
185
Aesthetic–Pragmatic Framework
191
Two Cognitive Postures
191
Vulnerability to Automation
196
5. THE BATTLE FOR JOBS
202
Materialism versus the Self
205
Hacking Nature’s Learning Systems
209
Algorithm versus Being
214
The Assault on Spiritualism
214
Competing Theories of Consciousness
221
Self-Defeating Humanism
225
Materialism Scores a Self-goal
225
Postmodernism and the Death of Truth
231
Pandemic Accelerating the Disequilibrium
234
The Battle for a Digital Mythology
236
David Hume and the New Social Justice
239
The Emergence of Superrich Superhumans
242
Happy Morons and Depopulation
247
The Crash of Civilization
250
The Return of the Gods
255
6. STRESS TESTING INDIA
261
7. TECHNOLOGICAL DEPENDENCE
276
Awe of Foreign Superiority
277
Exporting Manpower and Importing Technology
278
Economics and Human Capital
291
Uneducated and Unemployable
299
8. DIGITAL COLONIZATION
302
Foreign Surveillance at Kumbh Mela
308
Facebook-Devata and Reliance
310
9. PSYCHOLOGICAL HIJACKING
323
Digital Opium of the Masses
338
Aspirations and Fantasy
344
10. HOW ROBUST IS THE RASHTRA?
348
Artificial Intelligence and Breaking India Forces
349
Artificial Intelligence and Unifying India Possibilities
359
The Covid-19 Pandemic Impact
362
• APPENDIX A: FORECASTS BY ECONOMISTS
379
• APPENDIX B: HISTORY OF SHORTSIGHTED IMPORTS BY INDIA
387
Public Health and Wellness
390
Computational Linguistics
392
• APPENDIX C: TATA CHAIRMAN’S PLAYBOOK FOR INDIA
394
• APPENDIX D: AI ORGANIZATIONS DISCUSSING SOCIAL JUSTICE
400