Thread by @Ganitamrita

Thanks ICP for publishing this essay on #Ritamic Decision Policy. Into year-3 of this series, this post summarizes manthan, research and study of the Vedic origins of sustainable decision policy and strategy, with contemporary examples all can relate to.

https://twitter.com/AndhraPortal/status/1608306552556994560

Post focuses on sustainable policy to make not one, but a series of interconnected decisions over time.

Can ideas of Vedanta be applied here?
short ans: Y.

Content is of interest to those making gov or private policy, designers, startups, #Ganita/stem students, young parents.

The post is divided into 7 sections with links to each at the top. Those who simply want a easy-to-remember idea of Ritamic decision policy can go to the examples- read how Air India altered its DEL-SFO route in harmony with Ritam. flightradar24.com/blog/wp-conten…

section-1 discusses the 'curse of dimensionality' that sets a hard limit for automated decision policy (e.g., using #reinforcementlearning) in a complex world, where human decisions still do better.
This quote gives a nice idea about #complexity.

ideas of #complexity hide in common usage, e.g.,
"two's company, three's a crowd"

Physics: 2-body (easy) to 3-body problem (hard)
CompSci: 2SAT (easy) to 3SAT (hard)

decisions with 3+ interacting variables, say, family dinner/movie ... commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3bod…

deepest grasp of #complexity is in the Vedas (ref Sri Rajiv Malhotra's book).
“#IndrasNet symbolizes the universe as a web of connections and interdependencies among all its members, wherein every member is both a manifestation of the whole and inseparable from the whole”.

Section-2 summarizes the step 'up' (and within) from dharmic to #ritamic decision making based on this inspiring post that explains, among other things, the nesting of achara within dharma that itself is nested in rta which is contained in satya. indicportal.org/satya-then-rta…

The essay emphasizes that #Rtam does not stand by itself as #Satyam is the truth of being/existing while Rtam is that truth in action, #dharma is the upholding of Rta.

A policy that ignores this and stops at Rta did not help Kauravas nor does it work in today's Kurukshetra.

order of Ritam is itself replicated/nested at every different level of our world as our acharyas and scholars have explained.
To the #Ganita minded, note the structural resemblance in Bellman's 'Principle of Optimality' of #DynamicProgramming used to find a best decision policy.

#DynamicProgramming principle of optimality encapsulates DP's main idea of breaking down a complex decision problem into smaller subproblems that are nested recursively within larger decision problems. We don't need math, just play the #TowerOfBrahma puzzle game a few times.

Rta is directed from above and within by Satya that is supreme and invariant #Shruti as it guides contextual dharmic decision-making #Smriti, always keeping Satya as paramount. This is reflected in #ViduraNeeti's 'necessary condition' for good decision policy+

what constitutes truly sustainable policy? To consistently translate this bimodal #ViduraNeeti objective into actual policy and action requires strength of character.

https://twitter.com/AndhraPortal/status/1608669002720743424

we see the policy principle of #ViduraNeeti hidden in many common #engineering design decisions from reinforced concrete for construction to automobiles to weather forecasting to flight routing.
(pic soure: flightradar24)
indicportal.org/indic-decision…

researchers report that the significant improvement in short-term weather forecast accuracy has come not as much from correlation-based #machinelearning as the ability to effectively incorporate #Rtam #causal fluid dynamics driving weather patterns into predictions.

similarly, #DeepLearning ("flexible") first beat std time-series #forecasting methods as late as 2018 by integrating a trad. method ("firm").

Latter is preferred in actual business as sophisticated ML/DL's liabilities often outweigh practical benefits.

https://twitter.com/Ganitamrita/status/1550312369531781121

side note: learning true historical facts, celebrating ancient Indian #ganita achievements is necessary but insufficient. We must try to apply those principles today in our own profession and realize the benefits.
*Doing* is both learning and knowing - true decolonizing.

trad #timeseries algo can extract the latent #rtamic patterns in human activity (e.g., seasonality of sales or travel) within the training data, from hourly to annual+ cycles. Basic time-series forecasting can be traced back to the #VedangaJyotisha. indicportal.org/vedanga-jyotis…

VJ #Ganita is for timely #Yajna. One of the natural byproducts is it supports planning decisions for agricultural cycle - vital to India.
#Rtamic (trad.) vs mechanical calendar:
Jan 1 is a good day to share excerpts from Prof. CK Raju's book 'Cultural Foundations of Mathematics'.

online references for #Rta #Ritam #Ritamic:
indicportal.org/satya-then-rta…

WAVES talk by Sri Rajiv Malhotra.

next tweets on Sec 4- brief summary of research on Indic decision making published in ICP on the connection between #ViduraNeeti and #GameTheory.

Examining an ethical strategy to win in a long sequence of #PrisonersDilemma games. indicportal.org/indic-decision…

ICP series starts with #Arthasastra that includes robust/#antifragile decision making (survival-first among hostile competitors) but converges to #ViduraNeeti that teaches sustainable #decisionpolicy.

#PrisonersDilemma is an e.g. of a non-zero-sum game.

https://twitter.com/AndhraPortal/status/1608709804113145856

key: western lens prescription of #antifragile 'positioning' as *policy* leads to #adharma. It lacks ethical grounding and not in line with Rtam. Prof. Taleb recommends 'golden rule of Christianity' to contain AF's zero-sum-game type of gain at the expense of others.

Prof. Axelrod (U Mich) in 1980 conducted a computer-based #PrisonersDilemma tournament in round-robin format. The winner was the basic ‘#titfortat’ (tft) strategy. Surprisingly, it outperformed various enhanced “tit-for-tat 2.0” versions and highly complex policies.

tft won not simply because of its instant retaliation as many believe, nor purely due to its softness in forgiving, but because it combined strength with softness and remained rooted in unchanging clarity.

A Tit-for-Tat policy will be sustainable when it follows #ViduraNeeti.

1- #ViduraNeeti resolves debate on whether India should be a 'hard' or a 'soft' external power.

2- Soft internal policy (e.g., GJ tezheeb), or being over-smart and opaque (e.g., misuse Arthashastra to out-maneuver opposition) are recipes for failure in the long term.

True policy must satisfy #ViduraNeeti requirement that is rooted in Vedanta. Non-ritamic strategy that seek an exploitative ‘edge’ over the ‘other’ may have curb appeal but are myopic and unsustainable.

the next example is a modern strategy of 'competing on the edge' that was found work well in practice. We show how such strategy (only when executed in accordance with #ViduraNeeti) can be sustainable.

'Competing at the edge' researchers concluded that companies that sustain in a highly disruptive environment have a #bimodal capability to navigate at the #EdgeofChaos- small region between order (well defined rules, structure) and chaos (reaction, improvisation, innovation).

As a student of #ganita, it is astounding to see the *remarkable* structural similarity in their organizational strategy to the Vedic self-organized cosmos of #Prajapati that avoids precisely those two extremes of order and chaos via #Badhuta.

https://twitter.com/AndhraPortal/status/1608407395507798018

The authors remark: “.. simple rules work because they provide a threshold level of structure while leaving ample scope to exercise discretion. Complex rules, in contrast, attempt to anticipate every contingency and dictate what to do in each scenario, thereby reducing people"+

+"to automatons who do what they are told. But human discretion is not a defect to be eliminated, it is our greatest hope in the battle against complexity”.

nice analysis but main fight is preserving Rta and ethics, not defeating complexity.

A main goal to defeat complexity or gain from it (antifragility) downgrades ethics. As a result, western lens yields to unethical conduct and himsa. Ethical restrictions have to be added on *subsequently* on big pharma/tech/insurance/gov. A lost cause.

In AI, the widening gap between #ethics and data collection, ownership, and exploitation (#DataColonialism) comes under the so-called 'alignment problem'.
Frankly, it's a lost cause as this is a built-in design defect in the western lens.

https://twitter.com/Ganitamrita/status/1602685223619420160

https://twitter.com/AndhraPortal/status/1608796824621690882

the only way out is to return to the principles of #ViduraNeeti and #Ritamic policy. Blindly importing an ethically broken AI that is creating bigger problems than it solves is not a good idea.

Indic #ethics *radically* differs from the western view.

Swami Jitatmananda: “The final #Rta, the socio-moral order, is to #Vedic vision, always based on the essential divinity and the underlying unity of all life.
What is ethics but acceptance of the unity of existence?”

Finally, how do we build such ethical, #rtamic decision making capability in our kids? The solution is built into Hinduism via #purusharthas and strengthened by #Vratam. indicportal.org/indic-decision…

#Vrata, conduct that continually adheres to #Rta, strengthens our ability to consistently take the right decision and accept the outcome. Vrata followed by dharmikas synchronize with natural cycles and are not opportunistically done for gain or antifragility (see part 3).

To conclude: the best decision policy is that which is maximally in sync with #Rta.
True dharmic unity and narrative (not today's mutual back-scratching "RW" ecosystem) requires #Sahakarana #Dharma, which of course includes the wisdom of #ViduraNeeti. 🙏🏾indicportal.org/dharma-of-coll…