ramadocblog

A person could only say tan! Then again he was directly and indirectly responsible for us to understand speech and the brain!

In the novel A Brief History of Intelligence by Max S Bennet talks about Louis Victor Leborgne (1809–1861), nicknamed “Tan,”!

His story is very interesting!

What is more interesting for me was that I did not read about ‘tan’ during my medicine and a novellist who is primarily an AI engineer gave this information!

Just when you realise that you know so less, you realize that you know even less!

Anyway , the self flogging can continue at a later date! Let us get back to TAN!

Louis Victor Leborgne was a French craftsman and shoemaker who became one of the most famous patients in medical history. He is best known as Patient Tan!

So at age 30, Leborgne lost the ability to speak. All he could utter was the single syllable “tan,” often repeated twice (“tan, tan”), accompanied by expressive hand gestures.

His nickname, “Tan,” originated from this being his only spoken word. Historians speculate “tan” may have been a remnant of childhood memories of tanneries (moulins à tan) in his hometown of Moret.

He spent 21 years at Bicêtre Hospital near Paris. While he could not speak, he appeared to understand everything said to him, though fellow patients often found him “egotistical and vindictive”.

Over two decades, he developed right-side paralysis and eventually gangrene, which led to his transfer to the surgical ward of Pierre Paul Broca in 1861.

In this whole story the only name we med students remembers was BROCA!

Its getting hotter now!

So after Leborgne died in 1861, Broca performed an autopsy and discovered a significant lesion in the posterior left frontal lobe!

This landmark finding proved that specific functions, like speech production, are localized in certain parts of the brain!

The also led to the naming of “Broca’s area” and the condition known as Broca’s aphasia, where speech production is impaired but comprehension remains intact.

In fact Broca further conducted studies on similar patients to find out more centers in the brain which are in fact known to all med students as the Broca’s areas!


Areas are also wide of Sayaji Shinde when it comes to movies!

Now use your Broca’s speech area to say good night!

Shub ratri!

Imagine the scene; There is a door which leads to a dark basement and the actor opens that door when he or she hears some knock! We all know there is someone or something sinister there! We have seen it or him or her!

You literally scream at the actor! DO NOT OPEN IT!

Of course he or she does not listen to you (many people don’t but let us not go there for now!); he or she opens the door and gets what is coming!

What you do not understand is that ONLY you know that there is someone in the basement! You have been shown that! The actor DOES NOT KNOW! Of course actually he or she KNOWS the information but the story dictates that he or she does not know!

Now let me ask you something you may not know!

Did you know that there is a test similar to this which actually tests your maturity level?

It is called the SALLY -ANNE test!


So the Sally–Anne test is a classic developmental psychology experiment used to measure a child’s “theory of mind”—the ability to understand that others have beliefs, intentions, and perspectives different from their own. It tests if a child can understand that someone else holds a “false belief” about a situation!

The scene here is that

Scene: Two dolls, Sally and Anne, are introduced.
Action 1: Sally places a marble in her basket and leaves.
Action 2: While Sally is away, Anne moves the marble from the basket to her box.

The Question: Sally returns, and the child is asked: “Where will Sally look for her marble?”.

Here is when you have to clearly understand the result! Sally DOES NOT know that Anne has MOVED the marble! ONLY you do!

Correct Answer (Pass): “In the basket.” This shows the child understands that although they know the marble is in the box, Sally has a false belief that it is still where she left it.

Incorrect Answer (Fail): “In the box.” This suggests the child assumes that because they know the truth, Sally must also know, indicating a lack of developed theory of mind!

Typically, children pass this test around the age of four!


So next time you SCREAM at the actor, remember that she or he does not know!
If you do SCREAM then your development age is FOUR!

Then again both adults and children appreciate music at very young age!

Like the music maestro S. P. Venkatesh.
He will be missed

Om shanti…
Shubh ratri…

When the choice is between the devil and the deep blue sea!

When the choice is between the rat race and well rat race!

Swim, migrate and then hunt and then start a family and repeat! Then the little guy in black and white with a choice between black and white; chose the grey!

The “Penguin in the Mountains” reel which is become so famous now is what is exemplified above!

In the reel the Penguin after some thought; simply decides that enough is enough! It lets everything go and simply walks towards the mountains!

It of course knows that the journey is one way and he may not survive; but he simply has lost all the care in the world! He is free from the duties of the world!

Does it seem familiar?

In January 2026, the concept of “penguins in the mountains” went viral globally due to the “Nihilist Penguin” meme!

It is actually an old clip from Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary, Encounters at the End of the World, resurfaced and exploded across TikTok and Instagram.

A lone Adélie penguin abandons its colony and heads inland toward distant, 70km-away Antarctic mountains instead of toward the sea!

Internet users dubbed it the “Nihilist Penguin,” viewing it as a symbol of existential burnout or “quiet quitting”!


Of course scientists explain this as disorientation rather than a philosophical choice; such penguins usually perish as they walk away from food sources!

While the internet sees a “philosopher,” experts clarify that the behavior is likely a tragic navigational error caused by a failure to read environmental cues like the sun or magnetic fields! It could also be health issues such as brain lesions or extreme stress during breeding season!

The meme has even reached high-level politics, with the White House sharing an AI-generated image of Donald Trump and a penguin walking toward Greenland with the caption “Embrace The Penguin,” though the post was widely mocked because penguins do not live in the Northern Hemisphere!

The Nihilistic behavior of the penguin has also been compared to the modern concept of quiet quitting or burnout!

At some point everyone reaches a burnout! The work becomes monotonous! You feel you are doing the same thing over and over again without any appreciation!

Then one fine day you snap!

As far as I am concerned though! I love Status quo! I love the monotony of a quiet comfortable family life with the occasional change only in the tech world!

Then again it can happen to everyone which is why a break is always necessary! The once a week minor break and the once a year major break is the mental equivalent of ‘annual servicing’ of your brain, body and possibly soul!

By the way the concept of ‘Going to the mountains’ is an old theme in our wedding ceremony! The young bachelor who gets ‘wise’ decides that the world is too complicated so it is better to ‘go to the mountain’ to meditate! Then the father of his future bride ‘offers’ him the more better option of ‘marriage’! It is still practiced in our marriage ceremonies with lots of fun and merriment!

Some still feel the mountain would have been easier! Are you one of the penguin!?

Or are you an achiever like Kishan Lal! Who captained the Indian hockey team all the way to the Olympic gold!

Shubh ratri!

I had always wondered why the plural of child is not childs but children!

Apparently even the plural of many words was similar, like the plural of house was not houses but housen!

It is also a mystery of what the letters which come after Q in queue are doing there in the first place!

How p is silent in psycho but loud in protest!

Of the 26 letters of the alphabet according to Bill Bryson; not even a single letter is consistent when it comes to pronunciation!

The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way is a really interesting novel by Bill Bryson which explores the English language’s history and quirks, highlighting how its evolution from a “mongrel” language makes it both incredibly flexible and maddeningly inconsistent!

Now see the combination OUGH!

There are so many ways it is pronounced! Like though, through, trough, tough!


Then like the Q above you have those ‘silent’ letters who are like the Babus standing on a stage giving prize to the winning team and staying on with the photo!

The language is littered with silent letters that reflect old pronunciations (e.g., knife used to be pronounced “kuh-neef-uh”)!


Bryson points out that English lacks a formal governing body, meaning its rules are often based on arbitrary customs rather than logic!

Like the biggest issues with on and in!

You can be “on the bus” but “in the car”! I would prefer to walk!

Then you have the irregular Plurals which are the words that do not follow the standard “-s” rule, such as mouse/mice (rather than mouses), require excessive memorization!

Everyone must learn at least three languages in his or her lifetime! One is his or her mother tongue, then the predominant language of the place of his work or stay and the last must be English!

This is because all said and done; English is the Global Lingua franca! You cannot escape it! Since there are so many different forms of English no country can actually claim it as it’s own! Which is why it is the language of the world!

Now just the fact that a person can speak English is enough! Do not go into the Grammar or pronunciation or even the fluency! It is the effort which matters!

The biggest flaw pf English pronunciation is that you have to know or hear the pronunciation before! You cannot simply read and combine the letters like many scientific languages!

This means that the fact of the matter remains that you have to be knowledgeable to know English but just knowing English may not make you knowledgeable!

Like Kanneganti Brahmanandam may not be known for his english but his talent is legendary! Not only as an actor but also an amazing artist!

Now sleep in all languages!

Shub ratri!

It has been said that if there are more than two ‘human’ in any fixed or confined place for long intervals; then one thing is for sure! They will fight!

It does not matter if they have come from the same ancestor! The fact is that this fight is as old as the beginning of life!

In Ken Follett’s latest novel called the Circle of Days he talks about Herders and farmers!

The novel is set so far back in time that the time literally stands still!

But some things do not change! Humans form two groups and they fight! Even if they both would have originated from one group!

The novel talks about Herders and Farmers!

Herders and farmers represent two distinct, historically significant, and often conflicting methods of human subsistence!

Herders are nomadic or semi-nomadic pastoralists who move seasonally to find pasture and water for their livestock. In contrast, farmers are sedentary, staying in one location to cultivate crops and raise animals.

So while Herders are mobile (nomadic) the farmers are settled or sedentary.

Herders primarily focus on animal rearing as their primary occupation and life’s work while Farmers focus on cultivating land, though they may also keep animals.

Now even those days resources were low so due to shrinking resources like water and land—driven by climate change and desertification—these two groups often face conflicts, where pastoralists may overlap with farmers!

Then again all they have to remember is that historically, these groups developed from hunter-gatherers who settled down many years ago!

In fact in some regions, they have established, or historically maintained, systems of mutual benefit, such as trading goods or managing livestock migration routes!

Trust Ken to bring drama into a prehistoric landscape! Then again the other thing apart from fight which Humans usually get into is well; DRAMA!

Another thing humans like is a good movie now and then! Growing up I was a big fan of Jaikishan Kakubhai Saraf! Now before you say who!? Well, it’s Jaggu dada!

Now forget about your hunter gathering ancestors and get some well deserved sleep!

Shubh ratri!

.

Hope you can see that dot above!

It may not sound so ‘sound’ coming from me but in the novel Pale blue dot, Carl Sagan tell about this small ‘dot’!


This is the dot which has everyone you love and everyone you hate!, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam!

That pale blue dot (ok my dot is black!) is the EARTH!

In the novel Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan , Carl uses the iconic Voyager 1 photograph of Earth as a tiny pixel to explore humanity’s place in the universe, the folly of our conflicts, and the urgent need for space exploration as a condition for our long-term survival!

The central argument is that the image of Earth as a “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” challenges our imagined self-importance and the delusion of having a privileged position in the universe.

Sagan uses this perspective to highlight the absurdity of human conflicts, such as wars fought over a “fraction of a dot”!

Sagan actually emphasizes our shared responsibility to preserve and cherish our planet, the only home we have ever known, in the face of threats like climate change and environmental degradation!

Remember that the time we spend on this Pale Blue dot is not a luxury only! It is also a responsibility!

Our time in this ‘dot’ is limited so let’s make it as blissful as possible! One way is to appreciate artists like Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre!

Now sleep in that small space you and everyone needs to sleep!

Shub ratri…

So we practically have winter all over the world (at least the Northern Hemishere! I added this point only so that the person reading would stop with the flaw search!)

We also have nice and cold winter in Kuwait right now! You simply feel like wearing thick warm clothes and burying yourself in warm blankets and not do anything!

But (you knew the but was coming!); do you know about the AI winter!?

In most books on AI like the Generative AI 360° (ZebraLearn) or A Brief History of Intelligence by Max S Bennet they speak about this winter!

Of course the AI winter like every other thing AI; is not human! So it is not actually cold but a little different! Here the cold is (surprise surprise!) a metaphor!

So an AI winter is a period of reduced funding, interest, and research in artificial intelligence!

These cycles of stagnation occurred primarily in the 1970s and late 1980s , when optimism regarding AI capabilities (such as machine translation or expert systems) failed to materialize into functional technologies

The primary causes were inflated, unrealistic promises (hype) made by researchers, followed by disillusionment when technology could not meet those goals!

These periods are characterized by a “domino effect” starting with disappointment among researchers, moving to the media, and ending in severe funding cuts.

While some fear that the high costs and overhyping of current AI (generative AI) could lead to a new winter, many experts suggest that, unlike in the past, AI is now deeply embedded in the economy, making a full-blown “winter” less likely

In fact 2025-26 has now been the year of the AI!
Many analysts believe that 2026 is becoming a “year of reckoning” for AI, as the industry enters a critical phase that mirrors the warning signs of previous AI winters!

But this time the “Winter” Might Be Different because of several reasons!

The primary reason is the deep Integration unlike previous eras where AI was a laboratory curiosity. The modern AI is already embedded in core tools like Microsoft 365 and Oracle Cloud. In fact it is a part of your social media app like WhatsApp, FB and even twitter. You also have your emails already integrated with the AI

Both Android and Apple ecosystems have deeply enabled AI systems! Your standard Google Search also now has an AI option!

There is simply no escaping the AI!

On top of all this the ongoing geopolitical competition between major powers and countries creates a “space race” mentality that may prevent the total funding collapse seen in previous winters!

The FOMO is a big deal as far as AI is concerned!
So you may have a Human winter but AI winter may only be history!


Historic were also movies by Priyadarshan!

You can watch some of his movies and sleep with a smile!

Shub ratri!

Bill Bryson writes so well that his novels are a treat to read and listen!

In this amazing novel called  ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’, Bill Bryson tells us about DODO!

Has anyone called you one!?

I am actually a DODO! Trusting and, well an idiot!

If you are one then, well be careful (That is a note to myself!)

Now maybe DODO is akin to being dumb, it has been found that they were not ‘DUMB’ in any sense!

In fact based on recent scientific research, dodo birds were not “dumb” or stupid as historically portrayed.

CT scans of their skulls revealed they had average brain sizes relative to their body size, with intelligence likely similar to that of modern pigeons.

Their fearlessness of humans was due to a lack of natural predators on Mauritius, not a lack of intelligence! This means that they did not know the danger! They were too trusting! That is being simple! Not dumb!

In fact a 2016 study using high-resolution CT scans of a skull from the American Museum of Natural History found the dodo’s brain was comparable in size and proportion to its closest living relative, the pigeon!

The dodo was actually well-adapted to its island environment. The only issue was that they evolved in the absence of predators, making them unafraid of humans!

Evidence also suggests the dodo had a large olfactory bulb (the brain region responsible for smelling), which is unusual for birds, suggesting they relied on a good sense of smell to find food!

By the way the last known stuffed DODO was burned by a super ‘intelligent’ dude who thought that the stuffing has become ‘musty’ in his own words!

The 1755 Bonfire was mentioned by Bryson when the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford burned its stuffed dodo, as it had become musty, only saving a head and limb!

Of course the DODO’s biggest issue was that it did not fear since it had no fear!

The dodo’s demise was swift (extinct by the late 17th century) because they did not fear humans, which Bryson highlights as a case of extreme vulnerability!
They would approach humans with trust and they were repaid by being DINNER or LUNCH! They never fought back and never ran away!

Another theory also is that the DODO laid their eggs on the ground with no security! That means that their most precious possessions were open to everyone! The Dutch which came later bought with them pigs which then snacked upon the remaining DODO eggs!

Sure enough within a few years; the whole pack of trusting and frankly Noble bird became extinct and to add to the insult became a DODO or fool!

In the novel the story of the dodo serves as a narrative bookend to discuss the broader impact of human activity on biodiversity.

If you want to see the only remaining DODO ‘specimen’ you can see the “soft tissue” of a dodo that was alive in Europe with a single head and leg!

This is why we do not trust everyone and lock our doors!

Trust doesn’t get you medals!
Which reminds me of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who became the first Indian post-independence to win an individual silver at the Olympics!

Now sleep like a dodo!

Shub ratri!

Spasm by Robin Cook

E Book

How do you do it Robin?

Writing faster that I can read!

Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery and her husband Jack Stapleton head to ESSEX FALLS for a ‘quiet’ ‘break’ from their hectic life!

But adventure and Jack follow each other like a dog follows bone or a blog follows me!

Now there is a recent outbreak of sudden severe dementia in a small place far away from the city. The local doctor there is a friend of Jack and invites him for a look!

Then you have a couple of sudden and unexplained deaths and a missing body from the morgue!

The perfect scene for a mystery! Though sometimes I feel like I was reading Hardy Boys with another mystery!

Of course the danger is more real here and the autopsy adds to the maturity level! Add to it some bio weapon and some “RUSSIANS” on American soil and you have your “US will save the world” delusion getting fruition!

Of course since Robin is a doctor himself, he gets the medical stuff just right to keep me interested! But after reading deep and non fiction books, these fictional thrillers are a breeze to read and finish!

You will also read about the ‘medical zombies’ or Prions! At least that is what I remember! Or was it some other book!

You can pick it up if you wanna gloat like me that you have read all the books by Cook! It is your choice entirely! Just do not go into spasm deciding on it!

In the novel A Brief History of Intelligence by Max S Bennet; Max tells about the Catastrophic forgetting in AI!

Catastrophic forgetting in AI is the abrupt, drastic loss of previously learned information when a neural network is trained on new, subsequent data. It happens because new optimizations overwrite parameters crucial for older tasks, causing severe performance degradation in sequential learning scenarios!

Yeah; that ‘Official’ definition went over my head too which made me forget so many things!

Listening to the novel though you get to know what is cooking!

This is the issue; A machine was ‘trained’ for addition which is say adding one to each number! It did that perfectly! Later it was ‘trained’ for addition of another number! It did that also perfectly! You would think now that I am a ‘perfect’ idiot!

But (a blog without a but is not a blog!); what the researchers observed is that the machine now forgot the addition which it had learnt before! This was because it ‘learnt’ the new task by writing the ‘data’ over the old task!

It is like a kid forgetting the 3 table after he or she learns the 4 table!

This is actually a major problem in the AI system!

Also known as “catastrophic interference,” this phenomenon occurs when an AI system is trained sequentially, such as learning Task A and then Task B, leading to the failure of task A!

This issue is a major barrier to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), as models cannot learn continuously over time without retraining on everything, causing inefficiencies and high AI security risks!

Practically speaking you can understand that every AI which is ‘released’ can only get better with results but it cannot practically ‘learn’ anything new! Like if the new version of Chat GPT is released in 2026; although it can tell you new stuff, it is practically stuck forever in 2026!

Researchers are exploring several strategies to overcome this issue and this is how the book comes into play!

The solutions as mostly based on how the HUMAN BRAIN mitigates Catastrophic forgetting! Brain usually does not forget old memories when new memories are formed! Which is why the average human brain’s ability to consolidate memory is the solution to Catastrophic forgetting!

Some techniques are Elastic Weight Consolidation or the Replay Buffers.

Some other approaches beyond the scope of my brain and this blog includes methods  that involve adding new, specialized neurons for new tasks, rather than updating existing ones!

One interesting approach proposed by Google is the Nested Learning. This approach treats AI as a system of smaller, nested optimization problems with different learning speeds, mimicking biological memory! Like short and long term memory done by our brain!

In the end, the perfect solution is the HUMAN BRAIN! 

Which is why the average Indian Human Brain will never forget the contributions of Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa!

Now give some well deserved break to the soft Hard Drive of your body aka Sleep!

Shubh ratri!