Geek Gazette : Autumn' 20

Geek Speak
Navigating through complete chaos and utter disarray, and utilising alien methods of collaborations
to revamp how we operate, we bring you the newest edition of our magazine. Pivoting
from our regular in person discussions and gaining newer perspectives while being coerced
into solitude, we present before you the most extraordinary ideas that will definitely lead you
down countless rabbit holes.
We transcend ourselves to ponder on ideas that make us wonder if we exist in a simulation,
while also ruminating about the idea of “self” to see how new desires only grow and bloom on
false expectations and foibles. At the same time we contemplate our evolution in an increasingly
AI-dominated world that is readying itself to be uploaded. Analysing critically the reality of
a post-truth society, we discuss the increased importance of conceptual art and the advancements
in music and films.
We had a ball reading and writing about these ideas, and we hope you enjoy it too. We’d love to
hear what you liked the most!
Team Geek Gazette

Contents
06
09
11
15
19
Fresh Foibles
Read to know how consumption and utility of items lead to the socialconsumerist
phenomenon called the “Diderot effect” - a vicious cycle of
buying new possessions that you feel will give you a sense of satisfaction
and unity in your identity.
Are You Still Watching?
Would you prefer being stuck neck deep in unwatched episodes of
a new season or are you comfortable with testing the limits of your
patience and sanity waiting for the next episode till the weekend?
But Deliver Us from Evil
A journey through the Middle Ages, exploring the extent of the devil in
our music. Penetrating deep into your soul with music as his vehicle,
read on to find out how the devil maintains his sway over us.
Peace Sells, But Who’s Buying?
Sure, trust science but how much? Can a mathematical function be
authorised to decide whom to kill? Read on to find out what might
decide your fate in an increasingly dystopian world.
Coup de Canevas
Do you see art as an aesthetic recreation or as an overwhelming idea
existing only in our minds? Read on to find out how the ideas of politics
and abstraction have influenced its explication.

24
26
Where the Truth Lies
With information flooding our senses each waking second of our life,
can it be taken simply at face value? Fnd out how the internet requires
smarter and not just engaged consumers to level the playing field.
Matrix in Wonderland
Is this real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from
reality. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see.
30
34
38
Through a Cinematic Lens
Invisible yet ubiquitous, read on to join us on a voyage as we explore the
art of visual storytelling.
The Dilemma of Digital Ascension
Was Earth always intended to be our home? Will we always remain
slaves of our carbon-based cages? If you too are tired of giving in to
the whims and fancies of mortal life forms, you have a reason to get
optimistic.
Of Children, Islands, and Human Nature
How dark and easily swayed is the human nature? A story of a group
of boys stranded on an island provides an insight, and concomitant
questions. Read this psycho-analysis on The Lord of the Flies inside.
#StayGeeky

Fresh Foibles
Nate bought “The Treachery of Images”
painted by Magritte and put it up on
his wall, beaming with admiration.
Seconds later, his eyes glance at the rug
below the painting, the bookshelf right next
to it, the flower vase to its left, and feels
disappointed at the sheer sense of blasé he
felt at every single possession of his - except
06
“The Treachery of Images”. “Ceci n’est pas une
pipe,” he says to himself while looking at the
painting, “It’s the best thing I have ever had.”
The name of this social-consumerist
phenomenon, of looking down at your old
possessions and aggrandizing newer ones,
is the Diderot Effect. This effect is based on
Geek Gazette

two propositions - one, all products you buy
are coherent with your identity, and two,
the introduction of a new product that is
desired but deviant from the already existing
products can lock a person on a treadmill
of consumerism with a desire to buy more,
incessantly.
“Should we blame ourselves for
this vicious desire to acquire
more? The answer is a partial yes,
since we are pampered within
the capitalistic narrative under
a constructed illusion of a self,
which masks from us the truth
that reality is just as multi-faceted
and made-up as ourselves.”
Its name comes from the French philosopher,
Denis Diderot, who in an essay called “Regrets
on Parting With My Old Dressing Gown”
explains how he bought a scarlet red dressing
gown that outshone every other possession of
his. This coerced him to go on a rampage and
replace everything he owned with something
new, eventually putting himself in severe
debt. He admitted, “I was the absolute master
of my old robe. I have become the slave of my
new one.”
07
The things we own reflect our identity: the
books we read, the kind of clothes we wear,
the music albums we buy, the paintings
that reassert our taste in art, etc. This fact,
combined with the barrage of extravagant
and dreamy advertisements shoved down
our throats, only strengthen the Diderot
effect. This fact is also substantiated in how
stores like Homecenter showcase furnished
bedrooms, kitchens, dining halls, living
rooms, etc. in their fairytale-like display of all
the kinds of people we can be. We try to find
unity in our possessions, and by extension,
try to convince ourselves that our “identities’’
are uniform. Looking back (with a little help
from confirmation bias), this seems to be
what John Mayer’s song, Why Georgia, was
alluding to - “I rent a room and I, fill the spaces
with wooden places to make it feel like home;
but all I feel’s alone. It might be a quarter life
crisis, or just a stirring in my soul.”
Richard Easterlin argued that people “project”
or anticipate current aspirations as if they
remain unchanged throughout their entire
lives, even as income grows. But aspirations,
as we know, grow along with income. Hence,
there is a systematic difference between the
satisfaction we project and experience. In
conclusion, our choices are based on false
expectations.
Jeremy Bentham described utility as the core
of the “Greatest Happiness Principle.” Utility
goes beyond the definition of just “being
useful”, and into a manifestation of happiness
- an instance of which we see in how Marie
Kondo taught the internet how to get rid of
items that don’t “spark joy”. Most of the time,
the Diderot effect isn’t about a continuously
Autumn ‘20

consumed commodity whose “utility” can be
made up for by having one of its kind. For
the sake of argument, let’s assume that we
are speaking of a continuously consumed
commodity sold in uniform amounts.
Naturally, we ask ourselves: what sparks
joy? The Diderot effect tells us that it’s our
newest possession that does. And how long
would it be before we find greater utility in a
newer substitute for our old asset, which we
eventually get rid of? In the end, even Marie
Kondo can’t save anyone from the Diderot
spiral and it’s concomitant repercussions.
The main proposition behind Marie Kondo’s
method is the same as that of the Diderot
effect.
such a recurring desire to outclass others or
find unity in your identity seen in the Diderot
effect as well.
Hence, the Diderot Effect demonstrates a
desire to fit in with or outclass those around
us while ignoring any restraints. We’re not
capable of improving a single niche of what
we own - we frantically grab at every piece
we can change.
Until the day we overcome this materialistic
craving and pay heed to Tyler Durden’s
warning about “the things we own” eventually
“owning us”, the Homecenter room showcase
is as good as it gets.
Now might be a good time to ask whatever
the heck happened to the Law of Diminishing
Marginal Utility. According to the law, the
marginal utility attained by the consumption
of a good declines as we consume more of
it. But the Diderot effect tells us how newer
possessions hold greater value in contrast
to older ones. Before we jump to label the
Diderot effect as sham, it’s worth mentioning
that the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility
applies to products which are consumed
in continuity and homogeneity (which
realistically speaking, doesn’t always exist).
The Diderot effect is more closely linked to
objects that act as status symbols that one
wants to associate oneself with - Chanel
No. 5 Limited Edition Grand Extrait is more
likely to be the item under consideration, as
opposed to a bar of chocolate. Additionally,
the law also doesn’t apply to nicotine-based
goods since the consumer (who is continually
buying the product) is addicted to the item
and desires it. There are some shades of
08
Geek Gazette

Are You
Still Watching?
Remember the good old days when you
used to wait for 5 pm every evening
to watch Pokemon and 5:30 pm for
Beyblade? Ahhh, weren’t those the days. Or
more recently, waking up at 6 am on Monday
mornings to catch the latest episode of Game
of Thrones or Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Silicon
Valley or any other trending show. But what
was it that made you take such efforts to
ensure you watched this next episode? Could
it be due to the suspense of what’s to come
ahead? The fear of spoiling yourself if you
09
wait too long? Or could it be the discussions
you’ve had with your friends about what has
happened already and where the story could
be heading towards?
Netflix has taken over a significant space
in the online streaming business and the
opinion that their model of releasing all the
episodes of a TV Show at once kills the fun
and can possibly ruin the experience of the
watcher is increasingly common. This practice
of releasing an entire season together is
Autumn ‘20

designed to push consumers to consume
large volumes of content that might be subpar
in quality, stuff that you would not normally
watch if it were to be released weekly. A
simple and common example of this could be
the second season of Sacred Games, mostly
because it was very predictable unlike S1. On
the other hand, this also has the potential of
ruining the experience of watching a really
good show. Impolite people who have a
ton of free time and who do not care about
others can and do watch whole seasons as
soon as they come out and put out spoilers
that ruin the whole experience for everyone
else. Even if you do manage to stay clear of
all the spoilers floating around, you are still
deprived of the pleasure of discussing the
story and characters with your friends who
are most likely not on the same episode as
you are. Most recently, this happened to a
few people I know with the release of the
fourth part of Money Heist. And once you are
done binge-watching, you’ve wasted away
10 hours of your life and I’m sure everyone
will relate to the sense of the emptiness and
aimlessness that grips you at the end of a
binge-watching session. This is the worst
aspect of the practice that Netflix pioneered.
While this practice is good for Netflix and
other big names in the business, it is almost
never good for the end-user.
possibilities and so on. Overall this results in
a more satisfying experience. And you can be
a better judge of whether the show is worth
watching or not 2 or 3 episodes in if you watch
them with breaks in between as compared to
watching them in a row. The producers and
cast of the show must be confident about
the quality to be able to commit to such a
model. Even Netflix has a few such shows,
for example, Patriot Act, Love is Blind, Rick
and Morty and more, these are still reality/
recorded shows, not Dramas or Romcoms.
Apple TV+, the new kid on the block, has
committed to a weekly release schedule for
most of its shows, leading to a better than
expected reception of their content.
While the weekly model can be suggested as
being better for the end consumer, research
carried out by Netflix suggests that bingeing
is more satisfying to consumers, that makes
sense as their only metric is total watch time.
The weekly model though will definitely be a
more positive and time-saving experience for
most.
On the other hand, releasing/broadcasting
an episode a week is mentally engaging for
the user and is much less time-intensive as
well. This period of satisfaction also lasts
longer, usually 8 to 10 weeks and in the end,
you don’t feel as bad for having to wait a year
or longer for the next season. You’re given
time to think about what could happen, the
10
Geek Gazette

But Deliver Us from Evil
is the wine that fills the cup
of silence.” Where on the one
“Music
hand, the goal of the language
is to woo women and savour the spirit; on the
other, the purpose of music is to artistically
personify and express the passively
unembodied. Music, acting as a ubiquitous
tool, manages to provide a scapegoat for all
our pent-up desires, ideas, emotions, and
11
feelings. When a person decides to learn
music, they have to embark on one boorish
course that often leads to scary sentientfingers
and self-conscious vocal cords. The
irritation and blocks one faces can get pretty
annoying and, at times, may knock them off. I
can only imagine Nietzsche speaking in Drew
Ackerman’s voice, “Without music, life would
be a mistake.”
Autumn ‘20

It was unlike any other night at the plantation in
rural Mississippi; cold, dry, and monotonously
dull with nothing new to entertain and delight
the soul. A young man, going by the name
of Robert Johnson happened to have been
frustrated by his not-so-well guitar playing
skills. He was a black guy wanting to get into
the music industry, considerable, just like
any other struggling artists of that time. But
something far unusual and dreadful was to
happen. Mr Johnson carried his guitar with
him and went on a lonely walk to clear his
head. Sometimes, all we need is a walk down
a lane. But, he encountered a big black guy
waiting for some Mr Johnson across the
crossroad, near a graveyard at the Dockery
Plantation about mid-night, something to
scare the living wits out of a guy. The big guy
offered to tune Robert’s guitar and played
him some songs. What happened next is
quite controversial, but mainstream legends
suggest that Robert, who had left, wasn’t half
as good a musician than the Robert who had
returned. He had traded/sold off his soul in
exchange for enormous fame and fortune
in the music industry. In his short life that
lasted 27 years (an age that scares musicians,
sometimes even kills), he made significant
contributions to blues music(delta blues).
A proof of Devil’s end of the deal being Mr
Johnson finding a place in the infamous Geek
“Ah, music”, he said, wiping his eyes.
“A magic beyond all we do here”
- Dumbledore
12
Gazette, and we need not worry about the
latter’s promise.
When one hears of the Devil’s music, they
imagine hard metal rock chiming and growling
in and out their gruff cacophonous bleats with
seemingly no resemblance to the perception
of time, space, sense, and sensibility. For
centuries, Church and religious organisations
have condemned, and sometimes, even
banned the singular utterance of words/
tunes. The reason for all this eonic charade
being: Music in its purest form carries the
potential to tempt the free creative self, lying
deep down within all of us, and this freedom
threatens the diabolic rules and sanctions of
the authoritarians. For the several millennials,
every time a new kind of enthralling pop-music
emerged, conservationists and not-so-liberals
branded it to be in league with Satan. This
nihil cycle of futile and free publicity for more
contemporary music existed in perpetuity
until recently; our global society coalesced
into a more tolerant over-populated Hamlet.
Some restrictions, out of ethical and moral
concerns, seem necessary. In the 1920s,
technology spiked high, and the ease of
living increased. The influence of religion
and morales was at an all-time low after
enduring six centuries of revolutions and
movements. Jazz was perforating and seeping
into all strata of society. Jazz was played
in aristocratic parties, drinking dens, and
brothels. Saxophones (a musical instrument
used for Jazz) were banned in 1903 by Pope
as they aroused lewd dancing and wantonly
desires. So let’s go back into time, as far as we
can maintain accountability and stay relevant
to our subject.
Geek Gazette

Music has been an integral part of nature
for thousands of years. Be it the sweet
melodious chirping of birds coupled with
the rustling of leaves and the cicadas
humming all together in the forest, the crazy
swirling wind in ears as one reaches high on
mountains, or the sound of the sea and the
conch-shells. Humans evolved and got more
intelligent forming society and norms. The
idea of resistance and anarchic tendencies
have pre-existed and so have the countering
force. Some sounds and words were declared
pious, while others were declared as ominous
and dissonating. These battles between the
forces of subjective-preferences and thinlydivided
categories have been going on and
on. Not many are pleased with the F and B
note, clashing together to give corny, spineitching
foreboding. The anointed King of
Judas, David, is believed to have composed
F G Am F “The 4th, the 5th, the minor fall,
the major lift”, a song that pleased the Lord
of Israel himself. Quite blasphemous of GG
to name/show Him; the last thing GG wants
is streaming of her editors being publicly
decapitated in front of James Thomason.
Before the Catholic deterioration in the
Classical and Baroque era, the Church
was rumoured to have desisted the use of
“DIABOLUS IN MUSICA‘’. Straight into the
Dark Ages and Middle Ages, God was the
mono-star of all music. Songs in the scale
of C were highly appreciated and made the
listener feel closer to the holy-ghost. Contrary
to popular belief, the “Diabolus in Musica”
or “The Tritones” were used by the Church
itself to emphasise the “Diabolus” or Devil
in the music. The Tritones are now referred
to as diminished five or an augmented four
because of a cyclic anticipated stress-relief
cycle. The sheer unsettlingly and eerie tune
finds restlessness while spewing stress
and relief with each progression without
any happy reconciliation. Our Holy Ghost
C major scale has a C to G frequency ratio
of 3:2, wherein an augmented four, the
frequency ratio is 45:32. The grave mess in
our heads caused when we encounter the
tritone is perhaps why it was seldom used
and is rumoured to have been annulled.
Frank Liszt, Camille Saint-Saens, Berlioz, and
considerably many have used this nocturnal
scaling. A solemn impression this author
remembers is of the unemphatic theme from
“The Shining” which single-handedly plucks
one’s heart out. Poltergeist, Black Sabbath,
Hendrix, Exorcist, Simpsons etc. use the
tritones to subconsciously emphasise the
point of belonging to outer-worldly evil
strata. All the newer contemporary Satan
worship songs are a rebellious expression
demanding freedom and symbolise protest.
These metal-heads perhaps miss the genuine
sublime creativity of the devil and his music.
If the Dark Lord was to be asked, screaming
in underground rock concerts portray a
person more stupid and silly than evil. May
the Good Lord help the ones listening to the
ludicrous blithering jarring cacophony which
has nothing to do with neither the Devil nor
his music.
13
Autumn ‘20

The Dark Lord seems to be quite helpful when
it comes to musical blocks. The year was
1713; Tartini, an Italian Baroque composer,
had quite a career in music. A new student,
who was the devil in disguise, had come to
trade one glorious piece of performance for
Tartini’s soul.
“One night, in the year 1713, I dreamed I had
made a pact with the devil for my soul. Everything
went as I wished; my new servant anticipated
my every desire. Among other things, I gave
him my violin to see if he could play. How great
was my astonishment on hearing a sonata so
wonderful and so beautiful, played with such
great art and intelligence, as I had never even
conceived in my boldest flights of fantasy? I felt
enraptured, transported, enchanted; my breath
failed me, and I awoke. I immediately grasped
my violin in order to retain, in part at least, the
impression of my dream. In vain! The music
which I at this time composed is indeed the best
that I ever wrote, and I still call it the “Devil’s
Trill”, but the difference between it and that
which so moved me is so great that I would have
destroyed my instrument and have said farewell
to music forever if it had been possible for me to
live without the enjoyment it affords me.”
This abjectly fancy though vestige piece of
celestial sonata would grow up to be typecasted
as the Devil’s Sonata. Sylwia Pajeswka
has put a list of songs that draw inspiration
from the Devil’s Trill. Jimmy Page, John
Lennon, Snoop Dog, The Rolling Stones, and
Bob Dylan are some other famous artists
hinted to have made a deal for their talents.
Another story is of a mother who sold
her son’s soul even before he was born
14
for exceptional musical talents. He was a
violinist-cum-guitarist born in 1782 and was
perhaps the Bruce Wayne of the eighteenth
century’s music. Paganini had very long
fingers and hence was believed to be able to
play the violin across 3 octaves. At a young
age, he was able to pull the attention of all
enthusiastic audiences interested in newrockier
music. Rumour has it, someone from
the audience once said that the Prince of
Lies guides Paganini’s hands during concerts.
Paganini never paid heed, and decided to play
along with rumours, caging the hearts of the
audience and souls of women in his violin.
History is filled with anecdotes of Devil and
His Music. A rational mind is sure to waive
this crazy Nazi-like propaganda meant to
profess Earth has two sons. (Earth has two
suns, two daughters, and one non-binary
hexadecimal alphanumeric child. A Middle
Eastern religious book envisages Earth to be
a feminine deity and was created along with
sweet music, pairing them for eternity. “If Earth
was Gaia, a feminine deity, Americas would
be the most attractive part” - Music-loving
Aliens). But it is what we choose to believe
in. All the narrative with the Devil might be
the best PR stunts the celebs of yore could
pull off, but we will never know. The common
point of agreement is the melodic tunes,
products, either sprung up from the Devil or
twisty brains of insanely genius musicians,
have happened to disrupt pop-culture for
good. The future of the Devil’s music which
once seemed very metallic and gothic, now
has smoothly transitioned into something
industrial and android. Let’s hope the
songwriters of the 21st century adopt better
means to carry on their symbol of desistance.
Geek Gazette

Peace
Sells,
But Who’s
Buying?
We humans make a great deal of
effort to put ourselves on a pedestal
and differentiate ourselves from
animals on the basis of civility. We talk about
being able to use our brains to solve the
toughest of problems. We talk about being
enlightened with all the knowledge that we
have. We talk about being reasonable and
deplore barbarism. Ironically, humans have
always loved killing humans and have actively
engaged in inventing new ways for it. Our
history is filled with wars. Wars which have
left scars on families, communities and even
the environment. While we can endlessly
rant about how cruel and unnecessary wars
are; history shows that wartime leads to an
unprecedented level of progress in technology.
Most of this technology is originally aimed at
defending the nation but after the war withers
out, this advancement finds its way into much
more peaceful applications.
15
Autumn ‘20

Spears and clubs were probably the first
recorded weapons that our species used.
With the advent of the Bronze age, metal
swords and arrows witnessed more takers as
humans moved from smashing to slicing. But
the first revolution in warfare was brought
in by gunpowder. Barring bows and arrows,
most of the weapons had to be deployed in
close range combat only. Gunpowder got rid
of this issue and delivered a much bigger pow
from a much farther distance. Guns, cannons,
and rockets gave their users a massive upper
hand against hordes of ill-equipped hand
combatants. Soon, war and guns became
synonymous for the next four centuries at
least. The development of atomic bombs and
other nuclear warheads ushered in a chilling
new revolution in the mid-1940s. These
weapons amassed power that was and still
is completely incomprehensible. During the
Second World War, many other nations began
jumping on the bandwagon and desperately
started funding research to develop nuclear
weapons. The world didn’t have to wait for
too long to see their capabilities as the US
used two of its nukes to attack Japan in 1945
(a nod to Chekhov). The horrific scale of
destruction terrified every rational person on
Earth, meanwhile, the same appalling visuals
titillated the ambitions of many power-drunk
world leaders. Theories like Mutually Assured
Destruction (having an extremely appropriate
acronym as well) encouraged other nations to
build their own stockpiles. A deceptive game
of covert testing and retaliatory international
sanctions took over the world. Although it
looks like we are standing on the edge and
looking into the abyss, there hasn’t been a
single nuke fired since the tragedy in Japan.
This, however, does not serve as a guarantee.
16
Geek Gazette

We are living in an age of remarkable
technological advancement and unbelievable
things are proving their existence before our
eyes. AI has been the highlight of the previous
decade and has the potential to be a huge
factor in how the remaining century turns out.
Undoubtedly, the most ghastly application
of AI is in the military. Not restricted to
augmented weapons where humans still
control the trigger but complete AI control
is something that would revolutionize
warfare. And as dystopian as it sounds, a
rogue killer robot scouring the city lanes
for its target, sadly, does not seem too farfetched
now. Currently, we have unmanned
drones and vehicles that move on their own
but the decision to engage and kill a target
still rests with a human operator. Alarmingly,
once AI takes over, it will be at the helm of
hugely destructive power. The US, China and
Russia are all actively pursuing AI-powered
autonomous drones and given their history,
it is very likely that we would be plunging
ourselves into an all-new cold war in this
century. With Project Maven, Google entered
into a secret contract with the US Department
of Defense to create a computer vision based
algorithm that would eventually be used to
enhance the accuracy of a drone strike. Many
Google employees protested, saying that they
shouldn’t be in the business of war which
forced Google to drop the contract (for the
public record at least). However, companies
like Amazon and Microsoft are still working
on this project. The US is also testing many
small UAVs which act like swarms of bots and
“robot-dogs” (which are similar to Boston
Dynamics’ SPOT robot) that can be deployed
in complex urban scenarios. China has also
been developing stealth drones which would
17
be autonomously deployed. Russian assault
rifle maker Kalashinikov had developed a
fully automated combat module powered by
a neural network that enables it to identify
targets and make decisions. Israel has already
deployed fully automated, self-driving military
vehicles to patrol its borders. And all these are
just the things that these governments have
agreed publicly and we can only guess about
all that is going on behind closed doors.
There are contradicting opinions on the
development and the eventual deployment
of AI in warfare. Using drones would end the
loss of human lives and the battle scenes
would look just like a robo-war event, only
this time with realistic backgrounds and great
SFX. Coupling autonomous UAVs with image
recognition would enable them to weed out
the locations of tanks and other artillery
and then carry out airstrikes against them
to quickly neutralise the threats. Moreover,
response time is usually what decides the
outcome of a battle, if not the war. Humans
can reduce it only to a certain extent. But for
computers, only technological limitations
dictate it. With more computational power,
countries can keep tipping the scales in their
favour. Pair this with the virtually infinite risk
appetite that these drones have and you get
an extremely terrifying kill-squad.
However, this risk appetite is also one of its
biggest drawbacks. When a situation requiring
a moral decision arises, these autonomous
drones would perform horrifically. Then,
there are the biases that inadvertently creep
in while training. Recent studies have shown
that a self driving car is more likely to drive
into a black person than a white person. No
Autumn ‘20

one knowingly codes this into the algorithm;
it happens solely because of the level of
variation in the training dataset. Not having
enough variation in the data samples might
lead to the algorithm falsely categorising
new data as non-humans. Moreover, having
checks for these shortfalls is very difficult as it
involves simulating problems that might occur
and that too very rarely. Imagine a racial factor
slithering into the algorithm that decides
whether an individual must be eliminated.
The consequences would be devastating,
leading to unprecedented levels of instability
across the globe. Another argument is
that the threshold for starting a war would
drop drastically. With an undeniable rise
in hostilities around the world and with no
soldier at risk, imagine how easily the tyrants
would engage in a show of power.
Economics also plays an important role in
this discussion. Deploying and maintaining
a battalion of drones is significantly cheaper
than a conventional battalion as there are no
recurring costs like salaries or insurances that
must be paid even during non-war periods.
Training a conventional army is hugely
resource-intensive. Soldiers need a place
to stay, food to fulfil their colossal calorie
requirement and individual training to handle
weapons and fight. Then, there is a growing
call to provide mental health services to war
veterans who suffer from PTSD. And rightly
so, governments don’t (or atleast shouldn’t)
have any reluctance in providing them with all
these services. On the other hand, investing
time and money in training a good model
allows the government to simply upload
it to multiple drones. But here’s the catch,
lower costs would lead to more expendable
18
soldiers and more wars, eventually leading
to higher costs, simply due to the higher
quantity demanded. Here’s where the
markets come in. Increased demand for
electric vehicle batteries helped in optimising
the manufacturing process and encouraged
innovative methods of production which
pushed their prices down significantly. Similar
behaviour can be expected here as well.
Practically speaking, the most likely outcome
of this scenario would be a global AI arms
race. Even if one country, private/public
organisation or terrorist outfit acquires
enough knowledge to develop and deploy
AI weapons, every country would nullify
all existing frameworks and agreements in
order to safeguard their national interests.
And with one country dropping out, all
frameworks would come crashing down.
Even game theory would push countries to
pursue AI weapons and risk mutually assured
destruction instead of surviving at the mercy
of others. Interesting avenues of war tactics
would start becoming the norm. For instance,
a team of computer experts could forcefully
gain remote control of an enemy’s drone
(redefining trojan horses). An extremely farfetched
question would be whether these
intelligent and all-powerful drones would still
accept humans as their masters or whether
they would find it optimal to keep the human
race alive at all. Either ways, our world is
only going to get more uncertain, maybe
sporting a more dystopian flavour. But as it
has always been, the Overton window would
keep shifting.
Geek Gazette

Coup de Canevas
Art has unravelled through centurieslong
disorder and mutiny, its enduring
aim of reproducing the physical world
in perspective, color, and form rapidly being
abandoned. The modern times have seen
a rejection of abstract expressionism that
sought art to be gestural and expressive,
19
invoking the unconscious mind through
movement and color. Apart from pleasing
aesthetically, art has come out to serve a
much wider medley of clamour. What do
you value in the summation of an artwork?
Do you want it to push you, either subtly or
forcefully, in a new direction? Do you only
Autumn ‘20

value it if it adheres to a given tradition or
novelty? Or do you want art to unsettle or
challenge you? Or to comfort or reaffirm?
Or you just like the flexibility of art to do all
these.
Politics has always been intertwined with
art. It’s hard to tell whether it is the unseen
proponent behind art or something that
corrupts art, given that the art itself has no
form, only existing in the minds of the artist
and the audience. Sometimes, we create
figures purely for attention with bright
colors and eye-catching patterns merely
for aesthetics, with no concealed message.
Other times, art makes a statement, explores
the depths of emotions that we can’t put
into words, stands against injustice, and
celebrates the intricacies of humanity. It
has always been a tool to fill the void where
words simply fail.
The history of art underscores questions
of politics and commitment. Art cannot but
be political, always embracing its political
context. The power of artistic expression has
held up all the great turning points of history.
Throughout the political discourse, it has
devised itself greater than fear, questioning
the dominant politics and fighting for the
inherent artistic freedom above its romantic
vision. We don’t go to museums to stand
and look at pretty pictures, but instead to
understand and decode the ideas behind
them. We want to know what the artist was
thinking when they painted it. We want to
know the social transformations and the
crises of the time that led to the painting
or the thought. We want to experience the
world through the artist’s eyes.
20
A politically-charged artwork, in its innate
nature, should provoke reasoning, start
conversations, get people talking, instigate
change, or call for protest. Apart from
resistance and revolution, political art
might also be monumental: expressing
power through its scale and permanence,
reflecting the supremacy of the state. One
example is the statue of the communist
revolutionary Vladimir Lenin at the southern
pole of inaccessibility, placed by a group of
Soviet scientists atop their research building
in 1958. After 40 years, when many of the
world’s Lenin busts had ended up destroyed
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a team
made it back to the pole and found that
though the research station had been buried
by decades of snowfall and shifting ice, the
bust somehow survived it all, looking toward
Moscow—surviving nearly a human lifetime
in a place where humans simply can’t exist for
long. The fact that art lives in places humans
cannot live speaks of our power and fragility.
There have been many events where art was
the crucial reflection of the political context.
Studying the art pieces teaches us about life
and circumstances from a point far away in
space or time.
Norman Rockwell’s The Problem We All
Live With addresses the racism and the
universality of people being affected by
harmful politics. It portrays a six-yearold
African-American girl being escorted
to school by four marshals amid threats
of violence against her during the 1960’s
New Orleans School Desegregation Crisis.
The wall behind her marks the racial slur
“nigger” and the letters “KKK” representing
Geek Gazette

the American white supremacist hate group.
The painting is viewed through the eyes of
the white protesters. The contentious piece,
later on, was installed in the White House on
President Barack Obama’s orders.
In another example of a brazen conception,
JR’s Face2Face project from 2007 shows
portraits of Palestinians and Israelis rendered
in huge formats, in unavoidable places,
showing faces from both sides and how they
looked the same, spoke the same language;
but separated by political conflicts. The artist
was unsettled by how some neighbours that
seemed like twin brothers raised in different
families couldn’t get along and believed if put
face to face, they’d realize it.
thread of recognition and understanding
beyond what previously was seen and known.
Or if it reinterprets what was previously
seen and known, creating alternative
understandings. Artistic imaginations of
political art often include a utopian element,
transmitting hope and notions of prosperity.
French artist Henry Matisse dreamed of an
art that is devoid of troubling or distressing
subjects, and has a rather soothing influence
on the mind. It’s a dilemma to the art world
where it fits on the spectrum between
pleasure and politics. One might argue that
art should be a resentment at the state to
rouse it into becoming its better self. On the
other hand, others might argue that it should
instead focus on an expression of beauty. It’s
the comfort that Matisse sought, rather than
the politics behind it, that intrigues a lot of us.
We may use it to find solace in an unstable
and sometimes threatening world.
“From music, people accept pure
emotion. But from art, they demand
explanation.”
In its ethereal backdrop, art is a method of
discourse for political negotiation over critical
approximation, or often just an avenue to
transcend political order. Art is political if it
complicates, not simplifies, and extends the
21
- Agnes Martin
The marvel of an art piece often lies in how the
tone of a painting can encompass subtleties
such as the harsh life of peasantry or the
dreariness of a rural setting. In the same
way, art can express the cold emptiness of
feeling alone, the warm ecstasy of being in
love, and anything in between. It is an outlet
of emotion where words sometimes fail. The
burden of art being about “something else”
has been stripped out by the Minimalists
who presented art as an object unto itself
rather than as an imitation of reality. Once
art begins to live just as much in the mind as
it does in the eye, even the all-white paintings
offer the viewers a canvas to project their
own interpretations, emotions, beliefs, and
stories onto. If looking at them makes you
angry or excited or soothed, those are all
Autumn ‘20

valid responses. Liberated from representing
something, they rather look at the spectator,
asking them: what do you represent?
“I paint with my back to the world,” Agnes
Martin often said, accentuating that she did
not paint anything of or from the world but
the inspiration or the emotion itself.
Her paintings, often an assemblage of
horizontal bands of faint color pastels,
were meant to extricate oneself from the
burden of representation, to reprieve the
spectators from the habit of searching for
recognisable forms in the abstract field. They
were made to be responded to, and not to
be read, providing enigmatic triggers for a
spontaneous upsurge of pure emotions. The
paintings, in their quiet paints, fostered a
deeply unquiet visual space.
Within her rigorous grids was not material
existence in its tangible forms, but rather
the abstract glories of being. Agnes
presented herself with this challenge to
paint the abstract ideas that could only be
impersonated in the form of metaphors.
But metaphors are merely a falsehood, an
imitation for what cannot be conceived. The
deeply abstract feelings that are so resistant
to direct expression or form, they need a
portrait of rendition, or otherwise, they’re
impossible to reckon with.
The art world loves being questioned and
criticised. Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan’s
work Comedian entranced the art world and
became the most talked-about artwork of
2019, where he has purposefully selected
some of the most easily accessible objects
and has transformed them into something of
22
value, setting reality into high relief, with its
strategic placement in the context of a lavish
art fair.
Comedian joins the Cattelan’s tradition of
exposing the things we love and hate and
exploiting our meekness. It is a ridicule of our
desire for art to be eccentric and something
we could not create ourselves. It laughs
at an art buyer’s susceptibility to the hype,
recognition, and the perception of scarcity.
It’s often the documentation that
complements the rationale behind a
conceptual art. The inexpressive structures
and the superlative exuberance of life,
sometimes gravely unartful, replaced the
persistent sway of prudent composition
when embraced by conceptual artists. The
art did not present a trickery at play or call
for a perplexing interpretation. All they
entail, more than interpretation, is a shift in
perspective.
Conceptual art asks us to indulge in the art
informed by our other senses, the context
of the art, and the invisible perceptual
operations happening in our minds to process
it. It has given us new words to describe what
we encounter and new levels of interaction.
It is a slippery art, avoiding to live in one spot,
resisting ownership, and being turned into
luxury goods. This makes these ephemeral
works strangely more permanent, untangling
them of the essence of physicality, to begin
with.
Artists have purposefully avoided showing
off technical skills to upset the dominant
art trends at the time, to undermine the
Geek Gazette

commercial system of art by creating work
that is unlikely to be trophies for the rich.
marble crumbles and paintings fade, it’s the
ideas that can last forever.
They want their work to spread and be
in multiple places simultaneously and be
created in participation with the viewer. With
this work, it’s not about something we could
not do. It’s that the artist wants us to. We are
invited to. It means that the art can exist in
perpetuity, beyond the confines of the artist’s
own life. And we can still experience it today,
and maybe take it home with us too. When
Looking at how far art has come, it divulges
our obsessive nature, the rage in us, to
take things as far as they can go, inspiring
how irrepressible human creativity can be.
Throughout history, great art has resisted
pretence, often made to disturb and to
soothe, to question and to express, bringing
us closer to many people’s struggles as well
as stories and beauty from everywhere.
23
Autumn ‘20

Where the
Truth Lies
don’t care about your feelings”.
A phrase associated with the
“Facts
conservative commentator and left
provocateur Ben Shapiro, which he often uses
to reaffirm his ideologies and put forward his
arguments.
Aristotle had coined the terms ethos, pathos,
and logos to explain how rhetoric works. Ethos
is the means to convince an audience via the
credibility and competence of the persuader;
Pathos, is an appeal to the emotions of the
audience as a convincing mechanism; Logos
refers to persuading using logic, facts and
figures. Post- Truth is the concept of people
placing more value on the emotional truth
(pathos) over the logical ones (logos). It was
the 2016 Word of the Year, aptly coined in
the British referendum and Trump-Clinton
election era; with the rise of Fake News, the
circulation of false news articles better known
as a defence mechanism used by Donald
Trump to deflect criticism.
Post-Truth doesn’t deal with the actual truth
value of the information, it’s about the way
a person interacts with the information that
they receive. One can easily conjure up a
plethora of information from the internet to
reaffirm their opinions due to conformational
bias. But now and then, they can also receive
articles which are against their beliefs and
24
can almost feel like a personal attack at
times. In a post-modernist era where all
social hierarchies and constructs are being
questioned, scrutinized, and rebuilt, an
emotional truth holds just as much value as
the actual truth.
Prior to the conception of the internet, most
people consumed the same media and
received their news and other information
from the same sources. This resulted in people
having similar beliefs on what the objective
truth really is. But after the decentralization of
the information sources (due to the internet),
there has been more information than ever
and inevitably more false information than
ever. There is an undeniable shift in people’s
understanding of truth, resulting in people
subscribing to the opinions of those most
similar to theirs. The phenomena is not a direct
Geek Gazette

causation of the internet, it has existed since
the beginning. The perpetual battle between
the logos and pathos has now clearly tipped
towards the pathos due to the internet and
the decentralisation of information.
So how does one function in this Post-
Truth society? Does one go through the
cumbersome process of cross-referencing
every statement they come across or just
only believe the things they see and hear
with their own eyes and ears? This need for
cross referencing everything and the large
amount of false information is not posttruth
itself but a consequence of it. Though
the large corporations are implementing
their countermeasures to make sure such
information does not play the algorithms and
circulate itself among the impressionable
masses, it does not cull it completely.
A pragmatic solution for any individual would
be to listen (not just passively hear) to the
flagrant opinions of others which they may
find absurd and try to rationally work through
it. If you find something which challenges
your opinion and feels rationally correct,
change your opinion accordingly. Though it
is hard to do so due to the inherent inertia,
slowly but surely one can update their belief
system to further the quest for objective
truth. The phenomena of splinternet and
cyber-balkanization (intimidating at first)
basically describe the phenomena of the
internet dividing into various echo chambers
based on political opinions. Even on Indian
instagram(very pleb example), one can
easily differentiate between the “Left wing
intellectuals” and the “right wing religious
fundamentalists”. Though they can be
25
considered to be two opposite sides of the
spectrum, they really are just the two sides
of the same coin. Both blindly believe their
ideology to be the supreme doctrine and are
consequently very defensive about it and
absolutely despise anyone with a different
thought. Maybe the objective truth we are
in search of is not something that exists or
something we can comprehend with our
chimp brains.
“If scientific analysis were
conclusively to demonstrate
certain claims in Buddhism to
be false, then we must accept
the findings of science and
abandon those claims.”
-His Holiness the 14th
Dalai Lama
Stopping everyone who seems to spread
fake news can be considered a censorship
hellscape straight out of 1984 and letting
these fake articles influence the gullible
masses is just as harmful. Though the major
Silicon Valley companies have developed
their own ML based solutions to this problem,
haven’t we already lost trust in these privacy
invaders who harvest all our metadata just to
maximise their profit.
A far more ‘fun’ solution would be AI taking
over us and deciding what the truth is for us
without any human bias.
Autumn ‘20

Matrix in Wonderland
Plato asks you to imagine a group of
prisoners, trapped inside a dark cave
since childhood. Their hands, feet, and
necks chained so that they are unable to move.
All they can see then, and for the rest of their
lives, is a dark wall. Behind them at a certain
height is a flame, forever burning, and between
the flame and the entrance of the cave is a road
through which ordinary people pass routinely.
There’s also a screen at the beginning of the
cave as a result of which, for their entire lives,
the prisoners experience life as you and I would
a puppet show. They create names for the things
they see on the cave wall and try to understand
the world in whatever way they can. And as
improbable as it sounds, and as foolish as it
may seem, they succeed.
They understand quite literally the shadow of
the world they live in, and they wholeheartedly
believe in it.
This hypothetical is from Plato’s ‘The Republic’,
one of the oldest and most important texts of
western philosophy, and is named ‘Allegory of
the cave’.
26
Geek Gazette

A Columbia University astronomer David
Kipping in a paper named ‘A Bayesian approach
to the simulation argument’ statistically
explains that there is approximately a 50%
chance that we are a part of a simulation. And
yet, the idea somehow seems so far-fetched,
so sci-fi, something that sounds cool in theory
but loses its edge in the real world. Only a
fool would think that there is even a remote
possibility that we are not real.
Right?
Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher
from Oxford, came up with the first widely
recognized paper explaining why we might all
be in a simulation. He proposes that among
the following three scenarios, one of them is
bound to come true. First, that all of humanity
either goes extinct or we, after a disaster of
epic proportions, return to the intellectual
dark ages. Second, humans become capable
of creating large ancestral simulations but
choose not to do so. Third, that humans in the
future achieve a state of such technological
advancement that they become capable of
running large scale ancestral simulations, in
which case, he postulates that we are most
certainly simulated beings.
The argument is as follows, if we, as a species,
reach a point where it is scientifically possible
for us to create simulated beings that are
indistinguishable from real people, and that
this technology possibly becomes rather
ubiquitous, then it implies that we would
theoretically be able to create millions of
worlds with billions of people. Then in a pool
of trillions of indistinguishable simulated and
unsimulated beings, it is almost impossible
27
that we could ever be in the original reality
and not the simulated one.
Things get a bit more complex when you
consider the fact that we might not be in a
perfect simulation, and maybe this could be
a faulty code that runs until it finds the error
in a certain line or, in our case, a year (2020)
and just stops.
It could also be possible, according to
Nick, that there exist simulations within a
simulation in which case it becomes quite
certain that statistically none of us are real
and that those that created(simulated) us,
our gods, are probably themselves simulated
as well.
One huge assumption that Nick Bostrom
took was believing that we would be capable
of generating the computational capacity
and power required to sustain a large scale
simulation in the future. And while you may
think that such a situation is very unlikely, it
is relevant to understand that the postulate
Bostrum dictates has no time constraints and
can be easily referring to 1000 or 2000 years
in the future from now.
The simulation hypothesis also provides a
valid solution to Fermi’s Paradox.
But first, what is Fermi’s paradox?
Simply put, it asks the question, “Why are we
alone?”
And by alone, I don’t mean “scrolling-through-
Facebook-at-3-AM” alone, or “all-my friendsare-away”
alone. By alone, I mean to ask why
there are no aliens around us.
While the fact that we are talking about aliens
Autumn ‘20

might appear to be infantile and ridiculous,
it doesn’t make it any less valid (or cool).
Physicist Enrico Fermi was the first person to
consider this conundrum seriously.
The simulation hypothesis offers another
alternative to the problem:
“Why are we alone?”
It is difficult to accurately count the number of
stars in the universe, but most astrophysicists
agree that there are between 10 22 and 10 24
total stars in the observable universe, which
means that for every grain of sand on every
beach on Earth, there are 10,000 stars out
there. Among them, experts suggest that
around 5% to 20% are “sun-like” (similar in
size, temperature, and luminosity) and that
22% to 50% might have an earth-like planet
around them. Let’s imagine that after billions
of years in existence, 1% of Earth-like planets
develop life (if that’s true, every grain of sand
would represent one planet with life on it).
And imagine that on 1% of those planets,
life advances to an intelligent level like it did
here on Earth. That would mean there were
10 quadrillion or 10 million billion intelligent
civilizations in the observable universe, which
brings us back to our original question, “Why
are we alone?”
Sun is a relatively young star, so it’s unlikely
that we are the first civilisation to try to reach
out, and yet there hasn’t been any proof of
other intelligent civilisations trying to contact
us. The most widely accepted answer to this
paradox is that such contact at a large distance
simply isn’t possible and that we are at the
forefront of technological innovation and
would soon reach a wall we won’t be able to
scale. This assumption, however, is constantly
being proved wrong because technology has
advanced at an incredible rate since the 1990s
and doesn’t show any signs of stopping.
28
“Because the aliens are the ones running our
simulations.”
The discourse regarding this fanciful theory
of us being monitored and controlled by
other beings like us was, for a long time,
monopolised by philosophers and psychedelic
college students. However, recently, the
discussion has resurfaced with tech moguls
and scientists at the forefront.
Elon Musk, Niel deGrasse Tyson, and many
such entities have expressed their approval
for the simulation argument. Rizwan Virk,
a computer scientist from MIT, a video
game designer, and author of the book
‘The Simulation Hypothesis’, has laid down
10 stages required to successfully simulate
humans. He reckons that we have already
crossed the halfway point and that, in a few
decades it could be a reality (or real in this
simulation).
His reasoning as to why we are most likely
in a simulation created by advanced species
rests on the mystery called quantum
indeterminacy, which is the idea that a particle
is in one of multiple states, and you don’t
know which unless you observe the particle.
Schrodinger’s cat is an excellent example of
this quantum indeterminacy.
Virk adds that this concept has very distinct
parallels in the video game industry.
Geek Gazette

In the 1980s, nobody would have believed
that games like World of Warcraft or GTA
5 would ever exist, they would say that it
would require all of the computing power
in the world and then some to render
such pixels in real-time. However due to
several optimization techniques with the
core principle of “only render that which
is observed” such video games have been
created. He finds stark similarities between
the way video games are created and how
we have evolved to perceive reality and feels
compelled to admit that there is a possibility
that we could be inside a highly realistic
VR game (ROY). According to him, we could
either be PC (Player characters) or NPC (Nonplayer
characters), and we would likely never
know.
(Just in case, we advise you to look into the
sky and say ‘SCREW YOU’ to the certified noob
playing your life)
There is an academic school of thought that
claims that human consciousness cannot
possibly be replicated and while there is
no concrete counter-argument against our
narcissistic complexity, Alan Turing’s Imitation
Game (or Turing Test) aimed at assessing
whether a panel of judges could correctly
distinguish between the answers given by AI
and a human to the same questions.
In 2014, for the first time, a program called
Eugene Goostman, which simulates a
13-year-old Ukrainian boy, passed the Turing
test at an event organised by the University of
Reading and questioned the non-replicability
of human consciousness.
Even then, the simulation hypothesis is,
in fact, just a theory. There is no definitive
proof that we are, were, or ever would be in
a simulation and so believing in it would be
as irrational as believing in Karma,
or Heaven,
or Hell,
or God.
Coming back to the ‘Allegory of the Cave’,
one of the prisoners, after many years of
imprisonment, succeeded in freeing himself and
promptly tried to escape the horrendous cave.
The light from the fire, as he looked right at it
for the first time, burned his eyes and he was
blinded for a moment. Once his body adjusted
to the light he ventured forward and stood
on the road where for the first time, he gazed
at the 3-dimensional reality both scared and
fascinated at what was in front of him. After
overcoming the intimidating wave of denial,
he found beauty in his new reality and wanted
to share this news with his fellow captives that
had been there with him for years.
When he told them about this new reality where
things weren’t just images on a wall, the captives
laughed, thinking that their fellow prisoner had
finally gone crazy.
There was no way what he said could be true.
Right?
The prisoners didn’t believe him.
Do you?
29
Autumn ‘20

Through a
Cinematic Lens
Whenever we read a piece of
literature, we often create a mental
picture of it within our imagination
which makes the experience of reading
it all the more enjoyable. Giving a face to
a character and imagining them as living,
breathing beings as opposed to just names
on a piece of paper, helps us empathise
and sympathise with them more. Restricted
to only words, writers (sometimes) take the
time to flesh out the intricate details of how
a place or a character looks to help us form
30
that image, corresponding to what they had
conjured up in their minds. Filmmakers have
a similar job on their hands as they read a
screenplay and conceptualize the myriad of
ways in which it can be portrayed on screen.
There are many stages involved in the making
of a film, but the job of deciding what the
movie is going to look like and the general
feel of it rests in the hands of the director.
They are the ones who imagine the essence
of a movie in their head as groundwork for
Geek Gazette

what is to be created. This is followed by preproduction,
where the Production Designer
scouts locations with the director and concocts
the sets, which are then designed by the art
department under the Production Designer’s
guidance. The Director of Photography (DP)
or the Cinematographer has the task of
realizing the vision through the camera and
deciding the minor details that govern the
final product’s look.
Just like in every piece of art, aesthetics play
a pivotal role in cinema as well. However,
stylistic choices in films are not necessarily
aesthetically driven. More often than not,
they are used to achieve an effect that the
narrative of the film demands. The use of
shaky handheld cameras can come off as
extremely annoying and pretentious in
some places. But, if used tastefully, they can
help the filmmakers project the characters’
experience more naturally to the viewers.
Great directors have particular tropes and
nuances to their style of filming and a lot
of thought is given to every single frame
of the film. Only a detailed analysis of the
movie reveals thve work and brilliance that
went into creating it. There is a reason why
whenever we watch a movie directed by
Tarantino, Wes Anderson, PTA, Kubrick, or
other critically acclaimed Directors, we can
almost instantly recognize that it is their film.
Their stylistic choices range from being very
conspicuous like the theatrical sets in Wes
Anderson movies to very subtle ones like
the long duration of shots and the unusually
symmetric sets in Stanley Kubrick movies like
The Shining or 2001.
Aside from these idiosyncratic choices
made by some of these directors, there
31
are some principles quintessential to good
visual storytelling that were developed
and mastered over decades. Directors, by
adopting the principles of their predecessors
and blending them with their own ideas have
continued to enthral the audiences.
“Lesser artists borrow;
great artists steal”
It is almost impossible to compile all the
visionaries in the history of filmmaking in a
single article, but some manage to stand out
in terms of their influence and relevance.
Lauded by many, including Woody Allen
and Martin Scorsese, as one of the greatest
filmmakers since the invention of the motion
picture camera, the works of Swedish
artist Ingmar Bergman simply cannot be
overlooked. Most of us have likely stumbled
upon the personification of death portrayed
in his movie—The Seventh Seal—on the
internet and considered it to be very whacky
and comedic. But, Bergman had a reputation
of being the most serious of auteurs. Even
so, his movies had a plenteous sprinkle of
scenes portraying playfulness and obvious
satire which often failed to register with the
audience, rendering his movies very dark and
gloomy. Bergman’s oeuvre is also known for
his use of autobiographical elements. As he
wrote the screenplays for most of his films,
he used memories as a backdrop for writing
fiction creating a brilliant mix of realism and
unfettered imagination.
Autumn ‘20

Perhaps no article that mentions art house
films is complete without the great Russian
director Andrei Tarkovsky. He managed
to create something so memorable in his
canon of mere seven films that many still
consider them to be the epitome of cinema.
His distinctive approach of using long,
single-camera shots—alien to most modernday
blockbusters—and the integration of
natural landscapes to achieve dream-like
imagery continues to influence generations
of directors and moviemakers (most notably,
Lars Von Trier). The way in which the camera
seamlessly pans the vastness of beautiful
forests and lakes in Tarkovsky’s Mirror only
to re-emerge in a different timeline is aweinspiring
and perfect for the spiritual and
supernatural nature of the film.
Here, it is important to note that these
advances weren’t limited only to the Western
society. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai,
released in 1954, showcased brilliantly shot
war sequences and clever editing techniques
which went on to pave the way for modernday
epics like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
One could even go as far as to say that most
films and television giants (including Game
of Thrones) have borrowed imagery from
this Japanese epic when it comes to battle
sequences. Seven Samurai is also known
for its exceptionally charismatic characters
that left a strong impression on the viewers.
This was partly because of stellar acting and
eloquent dialogues, and in part, because of the
way the shots were taken; like zooming in on
the characters faces to emphasise the actor’s
expressions. These are only a few innovations
that contribute to the film’s relevance almost
seventy years after its release.
32
Many Hollywood greats and legendary
directors, including Akira Kurosawa, have
praised the work of the Bengali polymath
Satyajit Ray in his magnum opus Pather
Panchali. Ray’s films took a different approach
to the portrayal of Indian life that made him
stand out from his peers. Both Ray and the
film’s cinematographer, Subrata Mitra, were
relatively new to filmmaking at the time but
showed astonishing finesse in the intricacies
of the shots and pans; always managing to
immerse the audience in the crucial family
dynamics of the film’s plot.
The creators of such timeless masterpieces
have a great impact on their successors as
they defined and carved out the path for the
artform to prosper and the directors working
in the industry are deeply in debt to these great
individuals. But, that is not to say that these
modern-day directors have not contributed
to the art. With their movies fresh in our
memories, there are countless directors that
have kept pushing the limits. Be it Christopher
Nolan, often drawing comparisons to Stanley
Kubrick for his cinematic approach or
Quentin Tarantino who declared that he will
only ever direct 10 movies, which is likely
to leave a gaping hole in the action genre
desperate for his nail-biting and aesthetically
gory approach to movie violence. The use of
handheld shots and shaky-cam in Alfonso
Cuarón’s dystopian thriller Children of Men
pushed the audience into experiencing all the
terrors of the gritty world portrayed in the
movie. Director Damien Chazelle sought out
cinematographer Linus Sandgren to shoot his
exceptionally beautiful real-life musical La La
Land where camera movements had to be in
perfect sync with the music to give the movie
Geek Gazette

a dream-like quality.
In recent years there has been a significant
growth in the number of small indie films
coming out of Hollywood. Some of these films,
the 2017 slice of life drama The Florida Project
is shot from very low angles as if we see the
film and its bittersweet world from children’s
perspective. Barry Jenkins and James Laxton
chose to use lush, bright colour tones for their
breakout indie film Moonlight. The heartwrenching
story of the protagonist Chiron
when juxtaposed with the surreal beauty
of the impoverished Miami neighbourhood
with its pastel-coloured houses and tropical
greens flawlessly revealed the real tragedy
that the filmmakers wanted to convey.
Delving into post-production, technology has
helped filmmakers have even more control
over the look of a film by allowing them to
tweak details like lighting, contrast and other
minute elements perfectly to ensure that the
audience’s attention is driven to the desired
points on the screen. The 2014 film Birdman
was made to look as if the entire movie was
shot in a single take. This was made possible
by the people involved in post-processing
who came up with brilliant ways to stitch
together pans from different shots so that
the DP doesn’t have to worry too much about
each cut in the movie. James Cameron was
one of the pioneers of utilizing the power of
modern filming techniques and CGI to create
the visual masterpiece Avatar. Although the
movie is lacklustre in many areas relating to
its plot and storytelling; it pioneered many
techniques in the domains of CGI and motion
capture. Movies like Alphonso Cuarons’s
Gravity and And Lee’s Life of Pi also come to
33
mind when talking about using technology to
make visual masterpieces that were both well
received by audiences and critics.
A film’s visual style has a way of subconsciously
affecting our perception of the story it wishes
to portray. Even though most moviegoers
don’t invest any active thought into how a
shot is cut or ponder over how a particular
shot was filmed with such finesse, these small
details in films always add up to significant
improvements in the overall narrative. Even
the most untrained eyes can distinguish
between a well-shot film and a poorly shot
one. While their opinion might not be very
nuanced, possibly even be as simple as the
film looked really beautiful; it is a great win for
any filmmaker. And it is for this satisfaction
and for the cinephiles who sit through entire
movies counting the duration of each shot and
the significance of each cut that filmmakers
go to extreme lengths to achieve perfection
in every aspect of what ends up on the silver
screen.
Autumn ‘20

The Dilemma
of Digital Ascension
It is largely our mind and consciousness
that make us who we are, store our
personality, thoughts and memories; and
help us navigate through the perpetual chaos
we’re submerged in. It is only this ability of
ours to think, understand and communicate
abstract ideas that sets us apart from the
other species as we reign over the Earth. It
is perhaps a bit constraining, that something
as brilliant as the human intellect is bound
by the impermanence of our physical bodies.
Mind uploading (or Whole Brain Emulation)
aims to detach ourselves from these physical
limitations by enabling us to upload our
minds, complete with all our thoughts,
memories and quirks; to a computer and live
forever (or at least for as long as we please).
The hypothetical concept of “Mind uploading”
can be broken down into three steps. The
first step involves scanning a human brain in
enough detail, right down to the structural
level believed to hold the key to a person’s
memory and thought-process. Next, it is
uploaded to an appropriate computational
substrate. Finally, this scan (so faithful to
the original that it behaves in essentially the
same way) is ready to be simulated.
34
Geek Gazette

First things first- to emulate the most
complex object in the entire known universe,
we need to know what to scan. This points
us to another question over which thinkers
have been racking their brains for centuries—
“What is the human mind, and how does it
relate to our brain?” Some view it as an entity
separate from the brain, while others say
that it is intrinsically woven together. It is on
the latter ideology of physicalism, that mind
uploading is based. The human brain, with
its 86 billion neurons interconnecting to form
close to 100 trillion synapses, is an incredibly
complex organ. This network of neurons
called a “connectome”, is what many scientists
believe holds the information that makes us
who we are, and mapping it would potentially
allow us to recreate a person’s mind.
Assuming that we are able to decipher the
mysterious working of our brains in the future,
the second hurdle lies in figuring out a way to
scan the brain with pinpoint accuracy. Using
MRI (our best non-invasive technology), we
can scan a living human brain to resolutions
of about half a millimeter. However, scanning
the connectome requires resolutions of at
least a micron, which cannot be achieved by
the MRI techniques without cooking the brain
tissues dead! Serial sectioning of the brain
into nanometer thick layers and then scanning
them via an electron microscope is a better
alternative, but the process will definitely
leave you dead, if you aren’t already!
Finally, if we do manage to scan the brain
down to the requisite detail, the ultimate
hurdle lies in computing the scan to run a
realistic simulation of the person’s mind.
We’ll have to enliven the static blueprints
35
of the brain using probabilistic models that
are good enough to simulate the chemical
and electrodynamic activity occurring in the
brain to finally give an “eternal life” to the
uploaded mind. As estimated by Dr Sandberg
of the Oxford University, hosting the human
connectome on a computer would require
close to 10 18 flops of computational speed and
about 8000 TB of memory for a single human
brain. These humongous requirements are a
distant dream but still, we are very optimistic
that technology will catch up.
“We’ll be uploading our entire
minds to computers by 2045 and
our bodies will be replaced by
machines within 90 years”
- Ray Kurzweil, transhumanist
and director of engineering,
Google
Unless we find something that states
otherwise, we can claim with enough
confidence that mind uploading is
theoretically possible, and perhaps even the
next logical step on the ladder of human
evolution. Recently, one-third of a fruit-fly’s
brain and one-thousandth of a mouse brain
were mapped by the Janelia Research Campus
and the Allen Institute for Brain Science
respectively. These are among the largest
connectomes to have been reproduced so far
and this once-unimaginable rate of progress
Autumn ‘20

suggests that mapping a human connectome
would no longer be an idea restricted
to the realms of science fiction. Though
achieving this feat with the technology at
hand is close to impossible, an American
startup Nectome has started offering brainpreservation
services to enthusiasts until
technology catches up. Apart from this, big
names like Neuralink, Kernel and Facebook
have started working towards building Brain
Machine Interfaces that use brain impulses to
communicate with intelligent devices. While
this isn’t directly related to mind uploading,
any research enhancing our understanding of
the brain and its connection with computing
devices will help make future brain scanning
and emulation possible.
All this, and other similar initiatives seem like
a good starting point to achieve the objective
we have in mind. Of course, debates on what
constitutes the human mind, and whether we
can replicate it on silicon, continue to question
the practicality of the idea. But the idea is still
worth pursuing, because at the very least we
would end up developing a whole new array of
technologies that could equip us in combating
brain diseases; maybe even augment our
brain capabilities in the process.
Mind uploading, if it happens, will alter the
fundamental nature of human society forever
by unleashing a whole host of unimaginable
possibilities. As we would leave our physical
cages behind and transcend into a digital
eternity, old human experiences would start
losing meaning as newer (possibly more
rewarding) ones would start to fill our minds.
Tweaking our perception of time would be as
simple as changing the playback speed of a
36
YouTube video and with the right hardware
you could go a million times faster or a billion
times slower! Thus allowing us to transcend
into a slow, peaceful nirvana, or complete
hundreds of years long research projects,
as and when we please. People could start
becoming infinitely experienced at their
profession. That, coupled with the ability to
process things significantly quicker and the
ability to make multiple copies of your brain
could lead to an intellectual explosion that
we’ve never seen before. We could delete
some of our memories, our past traumas or
our deepest fears which have been bugging
us since long by simply modifying a few lines
of code. Human space travel could make
the leap from interplanetary to interstellar
expeditions with uploaded astronauts
onboard the tiniest of spacecrafts. And with
lots and lots of time on hand, we would move
closer towards solving some of the greatest
mysteries pertaining to life, Earth and even
the universe.
“The growth of the
human mind is still high
adventure, in many ways
the highest adventure
on Earth.”
- Norman Cousins
Geek Gazette

It is often said that when something sounds
too good to be true, it probably is. This utopian
future would translate into reality only if
the upload-society remains well under the
control of the “earthlings”. And considering
the complications that might be involved, the
reality could be far from this. Starting right
from the process of mind uploading, each and
every step involved would need to be carried
out meticulously, for who knows what ruined
version of the mind might emerge from the
slightest of errors. “Would your uploaded mind
be you, or just a copy of you? ” The instant the
uploaded mind becomes conscious, it starts
accumulating its own experiences and is no
longer anchored to its human form, free to
know that the upload won’t remain static, it’s
unsettling to have no way to control or know
what you might become in the unfamiliar
world of cyberspace.
The functioning of this new upload society and
its intersection with our human society would
pose several other perplexing questions-
“Who would own the uploaded minds- big
corporations, the government, or your family,
and how could you trust that authority with
all your thoughts and memories (read: lines
of code)? How would uploads be protected
from the digital dangers of re-programming,
intense surveillance or even being copied
against their will? How would they be punished
for criminal activities- would their memories
be modified, or would they be permanently
deleted? Would they possess marriage and
childcare rights? And would they also inherit
the jobs of their biological counterparts post
being uploaded?”
in income-generating activities. With infinite
time, super-high computing speeds and
the ability to make temporary copies of
themselves to finish off multiple tasks
together, they would completely outshine
their biological peers in any computable task
in general. According to this, the biological
world could be seen as a gathering station for
knowledge, experience, and resources before
the human transcends into the upload world
to join the ranks of eternal minds.
Real human life would reduce to a trivial
experience, a stepping stone or a transition
that allows us to move to our true home.
Marred with unnecessary resource wars on the
physical world, the virtual world would allow
humanity to focus on the pursuit of bigger
goals. However, it is unlikely that the physical
world as a whole would lose relevance. Being
able to commandeer the events in the world
without actually being in it would help us
realise our ambition of universal dominance.
The right kind of uploading will allow humanity
to cut its physical dependencies to a bare
minimum while still being able to manipulate
the universe, making us truly independent
of the things that enslave us currently. Who
knows, maybe we could be anchored to the
real world via a death star wandering through
galaxies that stores our uploads. We can’t put
our finger on anything right now, can you?
It is quite likely that uploads would engage
37
Autumn ‘20

Of Children, Islands,
and Human Nature
It is almost always that the revolutionary
work of a pioneer is met with criticism and
denial, their ways questioned, their means
invalid, their work preposterous. We could jot
down such situations and find the list neverending.
The perseverance and persistence of
these individuals may very well be the most
essential factor that drives human progress.
The Freudian theory introduced by Sigmund
Freud brought about a notable paradigm shift
38
in Psychology and its postulates spread like
wildfire into the lives of many people through
adaptations and derivatives in publication
and communication channels. The theory,
like every other revolutionary work, was
criticized and rejected during its inception in
1923 and rose to prominence in the late ’50s,
and early 60’s long after Freud’s demise. The
Lord of the Flies, a timeless classic piece of
fiction by William Golding published in 1954,
Geek Gazette

could be said to have embodied Freud’s
theory entirely. Different characters in the
book portrayed the distinctions of the mind
dubbed by Freud as id, ego, and superego.
Those who haven’t read the book and plan
on reading it and are sensitive to spoilers
are advised to skip this paragraph as it
contains a brief description of the plot. The
brilliance of Lord of the Flies emanates from
its portrayal of the complex psychoanalytic
states as children. It is questionable to use
children as they have not indeed developed
their consciousness but also perfect as only
they can genuinely exhibit one condition to
the extreme. The plot, in a nutshell, describes
events that occur when a group of kids gets
trapped on a deserted island in the middle
of a war. The group is diversified in age, with
the youngest being about six and the oldest,
the supposed protagonist, being twelve.
The social structure that quickly develops
among the boys is very identical to that of
the hierarchy that existed in a more archaic
human civilization with hints of a modern
system like democracy (ancient Greece would
be a very apt example). The protagonist who
initiates the first pivotal event in the novel
is appointed as the Chief and who further
appoints officers to take charge of various
aspects of survival. Anyone who has read any
book on Introductory Psychology at this point
would pick up two of the three defined states
in the appointed officers and the protagonist
juggles between them, trying to figure out
an optimal balance. The plot progresses in
a direction similar to that of any monarchy
with divisions arising among the group,
two different tribes with different chiefs,
and even a small guerilla war among them.
39
Somewhere in between, we are introduced to
the third state along with a crucial variable.
The whole plotline could be viewed as a series
of psychological experiments with different
independent variables trying to determine
human behavior. The plot often fluctuates
between childish actions and some rather
grave scenes that may be extreme even for
adults. As a reader, I was often lost with what
I was reading about, whether the events that
unfolded involved kids or were they, criminals
and philosophers. The novel, along with its
many layers of complexities and simplicities,
is an amazing piece of literature. The allegory
that is the Lord of the Flies makes one
question the true nature of the actions that
the mind orchestrates.
The book is a means by which we can
comprehend several qualities of both human
nature itself and the mindset of humans
who are reading the book. Human nature
is portrayed as dark and easily swayed. It
contains many atrocities, like sociopathy and
murder which had propagated from a single
boy to most of the bunch in the island and
the consequence of this was the murder of
three boys among the group on the pretext of
an external monster while the true monsters
were the children themselves. Second is the
supremacist nature of existence on the basis
of demographic. Being British, the author
considered them to be better among the other
people in the world which was a continuation
of the division that existed in the countries.
This was a common trend in the fantasy
island books that were popular at the time
where a group of boys would get trapped
on a deserted island and reign supreme
among the locals due to their intellect and
Autumn ‘20

advanced way of life. But these were mostly
light happy fiction targeted as entertainment
to the general populace while Lord of the
Flies could have said to have embodied the
Nazi regime, the evil, non-sensical aspects of
human nature.
The several aspects that make a book great are
the opinion of the populace, the demographic,
and the values of the book itself. The late
50s and early 60s were a tense period with
the adult post-war generation questioning
the decisions and actions of their previous
generation that led to the world war and the
current cold war. The times emphasized the
negative aspects of the society with brutality
at its peak, the prime example being the
proceedings of the Auschwitz concentration
camp. The readers desired answers and
explanations which were never given due to
the delicate nature of the causes of those
actions. Catering to the targeted demographic
is absolutely necessary for the success of a
book. It is a common trend that is observed
among popular pieces of literature that they
follow certain pivotal events that unite many
demographics under some banner. That is
the reason for their success, to utilize the
situation and express a related opinion. The
book, Lord of the Flies came in the times of
war, written by a former soldier, explained the
dark aspects of human nature. These were
very much all the things that would make up
the magic formula for any piece of art then.
during the war. His opinions are questionable
as he was a depressed man with many vices
haunted by the ghosts of his past. But, would
we behave the same way as the kids did if we
had been trapped on an island when we were
of that age? The question is difficult to answer
with no projectable fact or emphasis. Would
we do the same if we were left now? Most
certainly not. Backing to the ridiculousness of
the Lord of the Flies was presented when six
schoolboys in their mid-teens were stranded
on a deserted island and rescued after a year
and a half. Sounds quite like fiction, doesn’t
it? The boys survived on the island, were in
good health, even had muscular physiques.
They too formed a system as soon as they
found themselves on the island and stuck to
it. Their story was quite the opposite of the
one that was concocted by William Golding.
However true one might believe the contents
of the book to be and however agreeable the
author may sound, the entire thing is just a
hypothesis brought about by the difficult
times the author had been through as a soldier
40
Geek Gazette