Sunday Selection 2024-02-18

Another year, another attempt to blog on a more regular basis. Life has been pretty hectic the last few years, and it doesn't seem like that's going to let up anytime soon. Over the last few years I've developed a tendency to pull inward, to spend most of my time in my own head, exploring my own thoughts and emotions, rather than engaging with the outside world. This has certainly been partially due to the isolation of COVID-19, moving out to a solo apartment, then to a more remote and rural area, and spending most of my time alone. Part of it, I think, was a real need to dive deep into myself at this point in my life, and emerge a different, better person. However, I'm feeling this desire diminish, being replaced by a desire to be "out there", to engage more with the world, live more publicly in a way. And a key part of that is writing and publishing more, both formally and informally. I might write a more extended post on this later, but for now, this Selection will have to do.

Resisting Deterministic Thinking

Large language models will change programming a little

I'm finally beginning to dive into the growth of Large Language Models (LLMs) over the past couple of years. At this point, I think we have enough evidence to suggest that LLMs and other AI innovations will have at least some measurable impact on society, people and the economy. But while we explore these brave new worlds, either as creators of such technologies, or simply as people affected by them, it's important to keep a level head, especially since powerful parties have vested interests in driving up the hype.

To that end, two articles: one about having a measured response to the proliferation in AI in general, the second about doing the same for programmers in particular. One day I will have the time and energy to articulate my own thoughts on these matters, but today is not that day.

India's UPI is beating blockchain in the payments game

When I went back to India last year, I had the chance to experience India's Unified Payment Interface. It's essentially a protocol for moving money between bank accounts, financial service providers and apps like Google Pay. It's been interesting to see how much India's economy is now online and goes through UPI. Whether it was buying bathroom fixtures for my parent's apartment, or paying our taxi driver when we went on vacation, UPI has streamlined payments in a way I've never experienced in the US (for most of my time here, I've paid rent with physical paper cheques). While the previous hype technology (blockchains) to be heading towards a quiet death, it's good to see a practical solution like UPI thriving and integrating with existing institutions and systems.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I came pretty late to Avatar, but I loved it since I saw it. When I grow up, I want to be Uncle Iroh. Its status as a "global phenomenon", as Netflix calls it, is well-deserved. While the anime was great, we all wish that its previous live action incarnation could be scrubbed from our collective consciousness. My first reaction to this trailer was to ask my friends what the opposite of "cautiously optimistic" was, since that was how I felt about it (I was told "once burnt, twice shy" was appropriate in this case). While the trailer seems to be pretty faithful to the source material, the fact that the original creators left partway through due to creative difference means that I won't be getting my hopes up. I would love to be proved wrong though, and so too, I think, would all of us.