iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Software hub of India yeah, but anyone wants buggy service? ;P

photo of a booth at Bengaluru KSR train station thay says -
SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY
BUGGY SERVICE
BOOKING COUNTER

Srikumar @sriku.org · 04/10/2026

"Humans can hold about seven things in working memory and so have decided that anything that requires eight things is poorly specified." 😂

Cartoon by smbc-comics.com with panels featuring a man praying to god in a scene that looks like just before bedtime. The voices in the bubbles are that of the man and with god responding.

Man: GOD, WHY IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE A GOOD PERSON, BUT IMPOSSIBLE TO SIMPLY SPECIFY ETHICAL RULES THAT ALWAYS RESULT IN GOOD BEHAVIOR?

God: BECAUSE ETHICS IS LIKE ALMOST EVERY OTHER PROBLEM.

God: TRY TO PERFECTLY SPECIFY LANGUAGE-USE WITH A SIMPLE RULE SET.
OR BOARDGAME STRATEGY.
OR DRIVING A CAR.
OR EATING SOUP

God: HUMANS CAN HOLD ABOUT SEVEN THINGS IN WORKING MEMORY AT A TIME, AND SO HAVE DECIDED THAT ANYTHING REQUIRING EIGHT THINGS IS POORLY SPECIFIED!

God: W000000000 A TALKING APE CAN'T REDUCE SOMETHING TO AN EVOLUTIONARILY ARBITRARY QUANTITY OF CRITERIAAAAA. SOOO000000 MYSTERIOUUUUUS.

Man: YOU'RE BEING MEAN, GOD.

God: ARE YOU SURE? CAN YOU SPECIFY MEANNESS?

Credits:
PATREON.COM/ZACHWEINERSMITH
SMBC-COMICS.COM

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 01/10/2026

Upcoming secure bicycle parking rack at Nandanam metro station #Chennai. Not exactly sure how cycles are expected to be anchored to it, but I suppose we'll find out soon. Just happy to see some explicit accommodation for cycles.

Photo of (work in progress) cycle parking rack consisting of black railings against a red grill with zome motorcycles parked to the right alongside the rack.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 09/09/2026

One possibility is that we didnt make the animals but we made the machines, but then again ....

Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Waterson.

Calvin and Hobbes are looking at the stump of a felled tree. Calvin says "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 03/09/2026

Next up for reading ... Techno-Negative by Thomas Dekeyser. Just arrived. #booksky

Book cover of "Techno-Negative A Long History of Refusing The Machine" by Thomas Dekeyser. Shows pictures of various destructive fires.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 30/08/2026

Frisbee matches today at Nehru Stadium #Chennai 6am quarterfinals 9:30am semifinals 3:25pm finals

6am quarterfinals
9:30am semifinals
3:25pm finals
at Nehru stadium today 30 aug chennai

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 26/08/2026

.. and by this, haven't gone past middle school.

"WhenI was in middle school, I learned there were only 2 genders.

When I did my bachelors in Biology, 1/learned that there are people who are intersex and the importance of the SRY gene.

When I completed my Masters in Neurosciences, I learned sex is already hard to define, gender is both social and in the brain and everything is a lot more complex.

When people say "it's basic biology," they are telling you they haven't moved past middle school."

@brain.curiosities

@Itteoal

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 24/08/2026

topographyoftheself.substack.com/p/the-wound-... "The Wound Was Never the Problem A psychotherapist's reading of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and why choosing to be curious might really be our pathway to healing. "

So, “how will you decide which parts of nature are good or bad?”

Banner asks his question so lightly that Peter barely seems to register it as anything more than a mentor deflecting a request. And the story moves on without ceremony. But for me, it sat underneath the rest of the film like a steady drum roll.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 24/08/2026

So bsky - what are your 10yr hopes?

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.

Bill Gates

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 18/08/2026

Not quite the right blame to make. The AI companies selling these tools for such use must also share blame, especially since they would happily take credit and toot their horns loudly had the tool gotten it right.

While the generative Al tool may have butchered the material, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of whichever educator hit print without giving the packet even a passing glance.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 08/08/2026

Small poster in kid's class.

Picture of a small.poster featuring leaves against a black background with the text "Because the earth without art is just eh"

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 29/07/2026

it's the logical conclusion from the data - ourworldindata.org/agricultural...

$Info graphic titled "global land use for food production" from ourworldindata showing that while a large faction of the land is used for animal farming, only a minor fraction of the world's protein and calorie needs are met by it, while plant based proteins supply the majority of it already, using land far more efficiently.$

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 23/07/2026

Sent by a friend - protest banner saying "Agla PM shaadi shuda hona chahiye ta ki wo man ki baat biwi se kare aur kaam ki baat janta se" tx: "The next PM should be married so he talks his mind with his wife and his work with the people." Point made, despite the sexist expression.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 19/07/2026

what's up with Ennore (in #TamilNadu). There is a nasty unmissable chemical stench in the area all the time and accuweather gives it an AQI of 42? Typing "ennore" on www.aqi.in also stalls. Like somebody doesnt want the AQI data pf the place to be online.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 10/07/2026

from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita...

Text from wikipedia's page on advaita philosophy (not that it ia authoritative) - "The Advaita vedanta tradition modifies the Samkhya-dualism between Purusha (pure awareness or consciousness) and Prakriti ('nature', which includes matter but also cognition and emotion) as the two equal basic principles of existence. It proposes instead that Atman/Brahman (awareness, purusha) alone is ultimately real and, though unchanging, is the cause and origin of the transient phenomenal world (prakriti). In this view, the jivatman or individual self is a mere reflection or limitation of singular Ātman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies. It regards the material world as an illusory appearance (maya) or "an unreal manifestation (vivarta) of Brahman", the latter as proposed by the 13th-century scholar Prakasatman of the Vivarana school."

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 02/07/2026

massless.info/images/Popul...

a picture of the setup flame as a loudspeaker with the flame on the left and fhe record. player that controls the flame electrically on the right.

caption text says "From the eerie glow of the flame from an ordinary welding torch comes Beethoven's fifth symphony in full fidelity -- and the electrical flame loudspeaker is born"

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 27/06/2026

It's rambutan time!

picture of a rambutan fruit held in hand

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 24/06/2026

"As the great Abebe Birhane wrote in a recent paper, the direct capture of media outlets is a major component in how big tech wields its power" Paper link - arxiv.org/abs/2605.06806

A quote from the linked paper by Dr. Abeba Birhane -
"Moreover, industry insiders were described as 'experts', while civil society representatives were presented as 'sceptics'. Big Tech also exerts its influence over media through ownership, funding of journalism, shaping state media regulation, targeting media (policy) research institutions and universities, and by providing platforms through which the media comes to reach their audiences. In doing so, Big Tech has created an infrastructure in which media and journalists help reproduce, disseminate, and normalize industry narratives, or face exclusion (Robins-Early, 2025)"

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 08/06/2026

The standard model particles and their interactions. Question: Do we know for sure that the Higgs Boson does not interact with dark matter/energy?

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 05/06/2026

Just from job creation perspective alone (and it isn't a good idea to look at it isolated) 1/15th of the data centre investment in offshore wind infra creates 10x the jobs.

The projects covered under the MoU include a Hyperscale and Edge AI data centre in Kancheepuram district with an investment of ₹15,000 crore, which is expected to generate employment for 500 persons; an electronicsi manufacturing hub in Coimbatore with an investment of ₹2,500 crore, which is expected to create employment for 2,000 persons; and offshore wind infrastructure at Kattupalli in Tiruvallur district with an investment of ₹1,100 crore, which is expected to provide employment to 5,700 persons.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 04/06/2026

Reminded me of the cover this other awesome book - The Logic of Failure.

The cover of the book The Logic of Failure, by Dietrich Dörner

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 27/05/2026

p165 in "quantum sankofa" talks about entropy and the arrow of time problem. Q: Is there an independent explanation of why entropy would increase more slowly for a box half filled with a gas and moving with velocity v relative to an inertial observer? Or is entropy dependent on time's arrow?

A diagram showing a box half-filled with a gas, and the box is moving with a velocity v relative to an inertial observer.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 18/05/2026

Wondering if this has something to do with it. Have been reading elsewhere that EVs are a net benefit even considering their constructions and operation costs. Might need to probe more.

COMPETING INTERESTS

After the submission of this paper, C.S. began a temporary mobility employment assignment with the US government through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 16/05/2026

Article by "pHequals7" on X - "India's inference needs are a ticking time bomb for our account deficit.." . I've saved a PDF version of this article here for ease of referencing (and to have to avoid going to X) - sriku.org/reference/ph...

screenshot of article by pHequals7 on X.com titled "India's inference needs are a tickng time bomb for our account deficit..."

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 13/05/2026

What will they want? Not resources, because that is available in plenty elsewhere if they can reach here.

Calvin and Hobbes comic panel where Hobbes and Calvin are looking at the stump of a felled tree and Calvin says "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 06/05/2026

A friend predicted this would happen ... and it did ;)

Social media post by "Sindhu Hariharan" ---

Please allow me a corporate take to this elections :)

Vijay's victory is a lesson to managers about the effectiveness of work from home! Don't deny WFH, folks!

While you are here, meet Joseph Vijay, the actor-politician whistling his way towards victory in TN (and the likely next CM of Tamil Nadu)

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 06/05/2026

These don't suffice?

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 28/04/2026

internetfreedom.in/donate/ . Attached an article by Vikram Raj of the IFF today.

A tightening of the fist in India's digital public square by Vikram Raj (extracted using OCR)

magine this. You leave a sharp, satirical comment on social media or under a news article about rising fuel prices, and it gets a few likes. A few hours later, the comment disappears. The platform does not explain. Your account remains, but you notice that posts on similar topics no longer appear publicly. You have not been charged with any offence. No court has issued an order. Yet something has quietly shifted.

This is not a far-fetched scenario. It is a plausible outcome under the draft amendments to India's Information Technology Rules released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on March 30, 2026. Presented as technical clarifications, the changes mark a deeper transformation in how speech is governed online and who gets to decide its limits.

Core area of concern

At the centre of concern is a proposed expansion of executive power that risks bypassing Parliament and the courts. One provision, Rule 3(4), would require platforms to comply with a wide array of government-issued instruments, including advisories, directions and standard operating procedures, as a condition for retaining "safe harbour" protection under Section 79 of the IT Act. In plain terms, platforms would be legally safer if they follow government instructions, even when those instructions do not arise from formal law.

This sits uneasily with the Supreme Court of India's landmark ruling in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India (2015), which held that platforms are only required to act on unlawful content when they receive a court order or a government notification grounded in law. By allowing informal directives to trigger compliance obligations, the draft rules appear to dilute that constitutional safeguard.

The likely result is not targeted moderation but broad over-censorship. Faced with uncertain and potentially unpublished directives, platforms will err on the side of …

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 26/04/2026

Not sure why that particular image featuring solar panels came up - since it is a solar *thermal* plant and the article itself shows the attached image.

Image of solar thermal power plant with light concentrators

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 22/04/2026

It is becoming a thing.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 22/04/2026

Shameful and disturbing trend. How do we beat this?

Bar chart titled "Percentage of MPs with declared criminal cases: Lok Sabha 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024" showing a rise from 24% to 46% over the years for "MPs with criminal cases" and 11% to 31% rise for "MPs with serious criminal cases".

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 22/04/2026

Graphic from myneta.info

bar chart listing titled "Party-wise number of sitting MPs/MLAs with cases related to crime against women 2024", from myneta.info

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 22/04/2026

A screenshot of the mathnet.csail.mit.edu page, in case the displayed problems change -

Screenshot of mathnet.csail.mit.edu page showing an erroneous "Romanian mathematical olympiad 2020" geometry problem.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 22/04/2026

mathnet.csail.mit.edu - something weird about the "selection from the dataset" here - The LHS problem is wrong - both statements it asks to prove are invalid. The RHS problem is the correct one. What's going on? Did I miss something subtle on the page that says "these are fake problems"?

A geometry problem from Romanian mathematical olympiad 2020 as stated on MathNet website - reads - "Two congruent swuares ABCD and EFGH have disjoint interiors with C the midpoint of EF and B,F,G collinear. Line BC meets EH at K and line AC meets GH at M. Let L be the midpoint of GH. Prove that K,L,M are collinear and GL is perpendicular to KM".

The actual 2020 Romanian olympiad geometry problem. Reads "Two congruent squares ABCD and EFGH are placed such that they have disjoint interiors, but C is the midpoint of the line segment EF and the point B,F,G are collinear. The line BC intersects EH at K and the line AC intersects GH at M. Let L be the midpoint of GH, and let the parallel through K to GH intersect FG at N. a) Prove that CK = CL = CN b) Prove that LM = 2HK"

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 22/04/2026

bsky.app/profile/edzi... confusing since the attached page claude.com/product/clau... says it is included

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 18/04/2026

Road dividers run for long distances forcing pedestrians to walk what looks like at least 1km here before encountering a break. This is not unique to BLR and happens in many places in #Chennai too.

Road dividers preventing pedestrians crossing

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 18/04/2026

Guarded walkways .. that pedestrians can't get on to because they're blocked for lengths .. forcing walking on the streets. And yes they know about bollards.

Guarded walkways that pedestrians can't get on to for lengths.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 18/04/2026

Pedestrians should protest by mass-walking in the middle of roads because vehicles occupy walkways.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 05/04/2026

Rewatching Andor and in S1E5 "Nemik" says this. Damn, they nailed this series!

Andor - in S1E5 -

Nemik: “It's so confusing, isn't it? So much going on, so much to say, and all of it happening so quickly. The pace of repression outstrips out ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine. It's easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident."

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 03/04/2026

Just checking - The way you shared this looked like you actually thought this was news. But stuff from The Onion is practically indistinguishable from real news .. like the picture says.

Picture of a notice at a bookshop. Notice says:

"Please note: The post-apocalyptical fiction section has been moved to Current Affairs".

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 01/04/2026

The meme machine is relentless but funny too.

A graphic showing a man carrying another piggy back, with the text "after petrol price effect uber introducing ... Uber Uppu Mootai" .. Uppu mootai in tamil means literally "salt sack" and implies piggy back rides.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 20/03/2026

The meme machine around this is relentless ...

A meme poster in the style of "Durandhar" with a character carrying an LPG cylinder with the picture titled "CYLINDHAR".

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 08/03/2026

www.chennaipenshow.com #Chennai #FountainPens Ends today at 7pm.

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 06/03/2026

Maybe we should start labelling it "radical christianity", "christian fundamentalism" and such. That will complete the picture of radical-ness that's risen everywhere in the recent decade or so.

A Steven Weinberg quote -

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."

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Srikumar @sriku.org · 23/02/2026

Can someone who has this card check this is indeed the case? (In any case, reminder to make sure to remove Lorem Ipsum from designs before going to print)

The "IMPORTANT" section on the visitor tag of AI Impact Summit with important information about Lorem Ipsum.

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