Identity and difference

 

The dialectical relation is already seen in the differential calculus, where dx is infinitely small, but yet is effective and does everything.

                                  - Engels

Who developed the Theory of Relativity?

There are many claims by scientists and science historians that Special Theory of Relativity was developed by Poincare and Lorentz and not by Einstein. Last century it was Whittaker who disliked Einstein and emphasized Poincare and Lorentz role in developing special theory of relativity.

    C. K. Raju's blog claims that Einstein copied from Poincare and Hilbert. His blog is full of moral appeals and personal attacks on Einstein. He claims Special theory of relativity and General theory of relativity were not developed by Einstein. This is a paragraph from Smilga's book "Relativity and Man" which focuses on exactly the same point and highlights why Einstein and not Poincare or Lorentz, developed Special Theory of Relativity. Through this debate we will also like to explian what is Theory of relativity with a philosophical viewpoint. 

"The theory of relativity was developed by Einstein, and not Poincare (An interesting fact: Poincare's paper went to press only three weeks after Einstein's.) or Lorentz, for the sole reason that Einstein proved more capable of getting down to the essence of the matter. This reply resolves the problem completely. To tell the truth, however, the widespread notion that Poincare and .Lorentz were practically at the verge of formulating the relativity theory is simply wrong. Any physical theory is first and foremost determined not by its mathematical props but by its physical content. It is true that Lorentz, and especially Poincare, came close to a mathematical formulation of the theory, but they failed to grasp its physical aspects. It was this last step that was most difficult, and it is hopeless to speculate how long it would have taken Poincare to arrive at Einstein's ideas.

   Einstein's paper On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies appeared in the seventeenth volume of Annalen der Physick, a sedate German scientific journal, in 1905. We need not go into the content of this work. An excellent description of it is given by Leopold Infeld: "The title sounds modest, yet as we read it we notice almost immediately that it is different from other papers. There are no references; no authorities are quoted, and the few footnotes are of an explanatory character. The style is simple, and a great part of this article can be followed without advanced technical knowledge. But its full understanding requires a maturity of mind and taste that is more rare and precious than pedantic knowledge. Even today its presentation and style have lost nothing of their freshness. It is still the best source from which to learn relativity theory. Its author was an outsider, not even a member of the scientific profession. fie was, in 1905, a young :Ph.D., twenty-six, and a clerk in the Patent Office in Berne, Switzerland."

Smilga, Relativity and Man (Page:240-241)


We will post more articles on this topic on Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and General Theory of Relativity and debates around them. 

Response to Anand Teltumbde: To the Self-proclaimed Teachers and Preachers

• Abhinav

Anand Teltumbde has announced his judgement about us (http://sanhati.com/articles/6366/). He has called us “self-obsessed Marxists” with “frozen mind”. What can we say? As he himself admits, his stay was of a few hours and in that short time span he was able to evaluate us conclusively and then declare his judgement. However, during that same short stay, we too, were able to make some impressions about Mr. Teltumbde. We shall start with some examples and then we shall proceed to a parawise reply of Mr. Teltumbde’s article.

Of Self-obsession and Similar Diseases…

1. In his first statement during the Chandigarh seminar, Mr. Teltumbde spoke for almost 1 hour. In that long speech, he mentioned his own name at least 3 or 4 times. He began with claiming, “Ambedkarites say that Anand Teltumbde is a Marxist and Marxists say that Anand Teltumbde is an Ambedkarite”! At one point, he says, “I don’t like people who immediately agree with me”; at another, “I saw a problem of mathematics pertaining to surplus solved by Marx using algebra, but I found that it was a problem of differential equation and then I thought why Marx has solved it using algebra…then I solved it using differential equation and sent it to an international journal and that was my first article (giggles) published in an international journal…many years later when I was in IIT I found that a Japanese scientist used my method in his research.” Again, “I became a Marxist at the age of 7 and I don’t think anyone present here became a Marxist at that age.” I can give several such examples. However, above examples suffice to show what is the real meaning of self-obsession. I think, Mr. Teltumbde is perfectly honest when he says that he curses himself for having gone to Chandigarh. However, the reasons that he is giving for this ostensible self-bashing, do not seem convincing to us. We have a different explanation for this self-bashing, to which we will come later. For this moment, we would like to argue that Mr. Teltumbde should tell what does he mean by “self-obsession”. If he is going by the dictionary meaning, then definitely he needs to ponder over his own attitude.

He claims that we were not open to free and frank discussions and were not encouraging participation from outsiders to enrich our approach paper. However, he does not give any reason for this particular charge. For example, had we not been open to free and frank discussions on our approach paper, we would not have brought Mr. Teltumbde from Jalandhar (he had already said that if we want him to participate in the seminar even for a few hours, we will have to bring him from Jalandhar to Chandigarh and then drive him back to Jalandhar, the same day, in the evening) and then driven him back to Jalandhar. In our statement too, we said that we are completely open to listen to him and learn from him. We had (and still have) very high respect for him. In his stay of a few hours, he spoke for at least one and a half hour and we listened without any interruption and in the end too we offered him to stay and speak more. Had we not been open to debate and discussion on everything, we would not have gone to that extent to ensure his participation in our seminar. However, we must our high expectations about him crumbled like a cookie during his first statement; we got to hear many things to which we could not find ourselves in agreement, and so we also presented our criticism. However, I guess, Mr. Teltumbde is not used to criticism and he had problems taking this criticism. He did not say a word of disagreement in his second statement and everything that he said was to express his agreement with what had been argued by myself and Sukhvinder and also with what was written in our approach paper. I completely disagree with this charge of Mr. Teltumbde that we were obsessed with being proven correct. After his second statement also, he did not utter a single word of reservation about the way in which the seminar was being conducted. In fact, we (Mr. Teltumbde and myself) in person exchanged our phone numbers and he agreed to come to Delhi for a longer discussion. However, Mr. Teltumbde is completely silent about this in his article. We are surprised.

Parawise reply to Mr. Teltumbde’s article

We have already responded to the first paragraph above. So I will start with the second paragraph of his article.

2.  Anand Teltumbde charges us of mischief in throwing the “raw records of the seminar open for public discussion”. He believes that public is not at the same stage of understanding as that of the delegates of the seminar (so they cannot participate in the discussion!). This is a ridiculous line of argument. All over the world, the statements of participants in seminars organized by revolutionary groups or even academic institutions are recorded and put online. There is nothing “raw” about it. Had we edited the videos of seminar before putting them online, we would have faced the charge of fabrication of statements. Moreover, why Mr. Teltumbde is afraid of the “common” public? I do not think that common public is not in a position to listen to and understand what Mr. Teltumbde and other speakers said during the debate. We would urge Mr. Teltumbde to see the video again and tell us, what the ignorant “common” public would not understand. And how does this show that we do not understand the reality of caste? I mean, how does providing access to seminar debates to public is linked with our inability to understand caste? That is why, we said in the beginning that this is a ridiculous line of argument that does not lead us anywhere. We believe that not only providing common and general access to seminar debates by us, but the very participation of Mr Teltumbde in the seminar was traumatic for him, and that too, not for the reasons that he is mentioning, because he cannot support even a single charge against us with facts and details. So we would urge him to rethink his line of argument.

3. In the third para, first Mr. Teltumbde again puts the responsibility of “leaking” of his statement to the media on us and asks “can he (Abhinav) be absolved of this responsibility?” We would urge Mr. Teltumbde to learn to take the responsibility for whatever he says. He himself admits that he did say and in fact, he actually believes that all of Ambedkar’s experiments ended in a failure. Then what is the problem if a Hindi newspaper quotes it? And how does we become responsible for it? In all seminars, media is invited. It was not a closed door discussion of a Party and Mr. Teltumbde knew it. Once he had said what he said, he should not shy away from taking the responsibility rather than passing it on to somebody else. Secondly, Mr. Teltumbde puts forwards a plea to understand the context in which he “stood and spoke” there so that one can understand what he did in his second statement. However, we would urge him to make us understand that context. In his long speech, there was nothing to be deciphered or deconstructed. He said in the beginning of his speech that he found difficulty in reading the approach paper as it was in Hindi, but he managed to read the entire paper. He said that the paper was written with a brahmanical mindset and it smacks of casteism. Now he is saying that there was “only a thin line that differentiated it from casteist and brahmanist approaches”. Now, tell us Mr. Teltumbde, isn’t that a volte-face? Moreover, in his first statement, Mr. Teltumbde said that we are dogmatist Marxist. But in his second statement he said, “you said that Marxism is not a dogma, I also say that, so be it.” Isn’t that a volte-face, Mr. Teltumbde? Mr. Teltumbde said that we are trashing Ambedkar and Phule. We responded that we are not trashing them and we already acknowledged their contribution in the approach paper as well as our statements. However, that does not and should not stop us from presenting a critique of the philosophy, politics and economics of Ambedkar. There is no place of apologetics in the arena of criticism. We must call a spade a spade. To this, Mr. Teltumbde agreed and said that he too does not agree with Ambedkar’s politics and philosophy. However, in his first statement he claimed that many people do not know that Ambedkar followed the thinking of John Dewey, who was a progressive pragmatism; he argued further that Deweyan method is very akin to scientific method which tests every hypothesis (or set of postulates) on the basis of experimentation and then constructs a more advanced hypothesis (or set of postulates). He says that though he does not believe entirely in Deweyan method but it is very much akin to natural science. Then Mr. Teltumbde said that he comes from natural science background not social sciences where theories can be constructed. His statement is a de facto justification, or at least admiration for the pragmatism and instrumentalism of John Dewey. I criticized this approach of Mr. Teltumbde and argued that the Deweyan method claims to be scientific, but it is not. Because even science needs an a priori approach and world view. Then we presented a detailed critique of Deweyan method of Ambedkar. Mr. Teltumbde was nowhere critical of Deweyan method. Anyone who listens Mr. Teltumbde can understand that he is in fact admiring the Deweyan skepticism for all theory and its fetish for methodology, which is always “self-corrective”. In his second statement, Mr. Teltumbde withdrew his admiration of Deweyan pragmatism and agreed that he was one of the major pillars of American liberalism. Now, Mr. Teltumbde is saying that he only concentrated on one paragraph of the approach paper which allegedly distorted his views. Now, isn’t that a volte-face, Mr. Teltumbde?

4., 5., 6., and 7. In these four paragraphs, Mr. Teltumbde embarks upon the task of exposing our ignorance! Let us see how. He quotes our paper to show that we have put the charge of amalgamating Marxism with Ambedkarism on him, which in fact is baseless, because he has never used the word “samanvaya” (amalgamation). Mr. Teltumbde is not being fair here because since he has seen the video again (as is apparant from this article of Mr. Teltumbde), we had already responded to this argument of Mr. Teltumbde in the seminar itself. I said in my first statement that it does not really matter what you call yourself. The mechanism of naming things is always external to the things that we are talking about. It will always be the people in general who will give you names, not you yourself. I argued in my first statement that when you say that Ambedkar’s ‘Annihilation of Caste’ is to caste India what Communist Manifesto was for the working class, then you are giving a value judgement. Mr. Teltumbde said that he was using the term ‘Manifesto’ here as a generic term and he did not mean to equate ‘Annihilation of Caste’ with ‘Communist Manifesto’. However, I responded in my statement that even if you were using the term ‘Manifesto’ in a generic way, this metaphor was wrong and obviously had ulterior motives. Because if you were using it as a generic term, you could have given the example of any other manifesto like ‘Rights of Man’, or ‘Declaration of Rights of Women’, etc. But you chose ‘Communist Manifesto’! I argued that this whole metaphorization is value-loaded and whoever reads this statement of Mr. Teltumbde in the entire context knows that Mr. Teltumbde is not using the term ‘Manifesto’ in a generic way, rather, he is equating the importance of ‘Annihilation of Caste’ and ‘Communist Manifesto’, to which we, I think rightly, objected. Mr. Teltumbde’s defence (that he used ‘Manifesto’ as a generic term) was a really lame excuse. That is why Mr. Teltumbde did not utter a single word about our criticism of this analogy in his second statement.

Besides, Mr. Teltumbde accuses us of equating the division of castes to other divisions along the order of places in the production system (such as division between mental and manual labour, skilled and unskilled, etc and British and Irish workers, black and white workers). However, if you read the lines in the approach paper, we simply argued that everywhere the division of labour engenders some kind of division of labourers and Ambedkar was wrong in claiming that caste is not a division of labour but a division of labourers. Recent historiaography and evidences has now demonstrated beyond doubt that varna/caste system (a term preferred by Suvira Jaiswal, rather than simply using varna system or caste system) has its origins in the labour division which got ritualistically ossified and became a rigid division of labourers. In other places, the division of labour did engender a division of labourers but since elsewhere this division of labour did not get ritualistically ossified, it did not engender a rigid division of labourers based on birth. So the division of labourers in the case of Black/white, British/Irish is not rigid like the caste system. We have clarified this point while dealing with historiography of caste in the Approach Paper, as well as in the separate paper on the Historiography of Caste presented during the Seminar by me. But, Mr. Teltumbde has quoted us out of context to prove his point, a charge that, to our surprise, he puts on us! Mr. Teltumbde again accuses us of trashing all non-Marxist currents in the caste movements. However, we have clarified in the paper as well as in the statements that we had put forward in the seminar that it is not the question of trashing or completely adopting something. The real question is what can be learnt from Ambedkar and other currents in the caste movement and what should be criticized. Mr. Teltumbde, like always, has circumvented this real question. We have argued in our paper that the contribution of Ambedkar in establishing the Dalit identity and the sense of dignity should be acknowledged. However, we cannot adopt anything from his program of dalit emancipation, neither political program nor social or economic programs. And Mr. Teltumbde agrees on this point. So we end up wondering, what does he really object to! Because we have always particularized what we are criticizing, in all the papers that we presented in the seminar. Instead of putting a counter-critique on each and every point, Mr. Teltumbde has taken the convenient way of putting a vague charge on us, that is, we are in a rejectionist mode as regards the other currents in the caste movements. We say again and again that we are not rejecting, we are trying to establish a critical relation with everything, that is, we are trying to ascertain what can we learn from Ambedkar and what must be criticized in Ambedkar. Instead of arguing particularly about things, Mr. Teltumbde conducts a summary trial and announces his judgement on us. Now, is that an attitude of open and free debate and discussion, Mr. Teltumbde?

8. In the eighth para, Mr. Teltumbde raises the question of comparison of the ‘Communist Manifesto’ and ‘Annihilation of Castes’ about which we have already explained our position. However, he says an interesting thing to which we would like to draw your attention. He says that he is opposed to “hierarchize ideologies” which according to him is a “brahmanical tendency”. So what do we have here? According to Mr. Teltumbde ideologies or philosophies should not be hierarchized; in other words, they should be put at par! First of all, we were not hierarchizing theories. He can not produce a single sentence from the approach paper or the statements that we had presented which hierarchizes philosophies. What we presented was a critique of Ambedkar’s politics and philosophy from a Marxist standpoint. Mr. Teltumbde is at his Deweyan pragmatist best here, as he can imagine only two positions: one, of hierarchizing philosophies and two, of putting them at par, or not hierarchizing them. So where does Mr. Teltumbde stand? What is the ideological and political quality of Mr. Teltumbde’s stand? Marxist? or Ambedkarite? or something else? That is what we criticized Mr. Teltumbde for in the Seminar: this fetish for method, the method of hard science, to borrow from Dewey! And then test all theories and philosophies from the sans-theory sans-philosophy scientific method! Mr. Teltumbde forgets the basic teaching of science: you can’t escape theory; even those who claim to be purged of all theories are, in fact, putting forward a theory. In natural (hard) science too, one needs to take an a priori theoretical position, namely, the dialectical approach, otherwise they are obliged to fall in the pit of determinism or agnosticism, because at any given point, science cannot give answers for all questions. That was the tragedy of debate between the Copenhagen School (Hiesenberg and Bohr) and Einstein; a fetish for science always leads to this ‘dysjunctive synthesis’ of determinism and agnosticism. Mr. Teltumbde has actually justified our criticism of his hidden Deweyanism in his new article. So, supposedly, Mr. Teltumbde is not concerned about the “correctness or otherwise of these manifestos”. However, this supposition itself hides in itself the justification of a trans-theoretical and trans-historical super-method, as one can see. We on our part can say that everybody has a position, irrespective of his/her will and they criticize or admire anything from that position only. We criticized the theory and politics of Ambedkar from a Marxist perspective, because we believe that claiming to have a position over and above theory, in congruence with the scientifc super-method is a hollow claim. Mr. Teltumbde should clearly put forward his ideological position, because any ambiguity in this matter leads to traumatic results, as has been the case till now.

9. In the ninth para, Mr. Teltumbde, while criticizing his Ambedkarite critics, has tried to make the Deweyan thought more tolerable to Marxism and Science. Deweyan thought never aims to enrich any theory as Mr. Teltumbde thinks. It is consciously anti-theory. Dewey was skeptical of all theories all his life. For him, what matters is the pure and pristine method of the “hard sciences”; the so-called social sciences create theories, rather construct them out of nothing and so Dewey has a disdain for all social sciences. Now, this is a completely different matter altogether that Dewey himself was following a theory, the theory of pragmatism and instrumentalism which biologizes everything. For instance, for Dewey every organism lives in a context and it has to adapt and readapt constantly to survive. For Dewey, in nature the process of development does not have ruptures or breaks; it is a smooth progression in which the organism adapts and re-adapts itself according to the context. So, for Dewey, in society too, the pattern of development should not include ruptures (revolutions/revolts); the human beings should make a good use of intelligence. The state is the best mechanism to represent this good use of intelligence and reason. Violence is waste. We cannot go here in a detailed critique of Dewey. However, it seems that either Mr. Teltumbde needs to have a serious relook on the works of Dewey, or he is trying to misappropriate Dewey to make him tolerable! We questioned Mr. Teltumbde’s argument that scientists follow the same method in the laboratories. This is the method of the instrumentalists in Quantum theory who raise the slogan of “shut up and calculate”; in fact, that is precisely the slogan of cybernetics also, with which Mr. Teltumbde seems to be fascinated. In these schools, we are told to follow a trans-theoretical, pure and pristine scientific method to test and calculate without any “theoretical prejudice”, and this is precisely what Mr. Teltumbde does again and again in his latest article: and eternal disdain for theory and an incorrigible fetish for method. However, we know now that this itself is a prejudice and there is another school within the so-called “hard” sciences to which people like Sakata, Gould, Yukawa, etc. belong, which believes in having an a priori dialectical position, even before entering the laboratory. So, Mr. Teltumbde’s claim that neither is he in support of anything, nor does he oppose anything, is an unscientific claim. Irrespective of your wish and will, you always do that as soon as you make a political statement or value judgement. Such theoretical indifference or non-partisan attitude is a myth.

Moreover, we never said that Mr. Teltumbde was trashing Marx or talking about his failure. It was in fact said by the self-proclaimed well-wishers of Mr. Teltumbde, that is, the five comrades of Republican Panthers who attended the seminar, who did not utter a word during the seminar, but immediately issued a statement against us and in supposed support of Mr. Teltumbde! Besides, we are curious regarding why Mr. Teltumbde is always in the teacher-preacher mode? He claims that he was trying to sensitize (!?) people present in the seminar who were intoxicated by this or that ‘-ism’! Again, Mr. Teltumbde is at his Deweyan best. He is avert to call himself an Ambedkarite or a Marxist, or any ‘-ist’ for that matter. He is in a trans-theoretical methodological position or pulpit, from where he is supposed to sensitize us, and we are supposed to hear his sermons! Is that not a self-obsessed attitude on part of Mr. Teltumbde? We also know and do not need Mr. Teltumbde to make us realize that Revolutions happen in reality; neither in the paper nor in our statements, did we show any dogmatic or closed-ended approach to Marxism. Even, Mr. Teltumbde corrected himself in his second statement and said that he did not call us dogmatist (though he really did!) and he was referring only to the paragraphs of the approach paper that mentioned his name. But if you listen to the first statement of Mr. Teltumbde, you will find that he had not been referring to those paragraphs only; he was commenting on the paper in general, and that too, without reading it properly. What should we call this, if not a U-turn, a volte-face?

10. In the tenth para, Mr. Teltumbde argues that the distrust of Ambedkar towards Marx stemmed from Marx’s claim to a ‘grand theory’. (Such a claim was ascribed to Marxism by the postmodernists. Marx himself never claimed that he is creator of a ‘grand theory’. We will come back to this point later.) However, in the Seminar, he himself admitted that Ambedkar had not read Marxism properly and his list of books that he studied shows that he had a very supreficial understanding of Marxism and he had never read Marxist classics. Clearly, Ambedkar’s skepticism to Marxism had nothing to do with his dislike for ‘grand theories’ (Marx never made such a claim; he only claimed, together with Engels, to be the creator of the dialectial and historical materialist science of history and society). Ambedkar’s skepticism stemmed from two sources: one, his own class position and two, his academic training in the US where he became a Deweyan instrumentalist and pragmatist and in London School of Economics, where he was influenced by the Austrian school of economics, of Carl Menger. These intellectual sources are bitterly critical of Marxism. This in itself was enough for Ambedkar to become diametrically opposed to Marxism. Whenever, he strove to form an alliance with Communists, his prime mover was never the politics of the working class, but the same good old pragmatism of Dewey. Secondly, the account of Ambedkar’s political history that Mr. Teltumbde himself gives in the tenth para, bears a testimony to the throughout compromising, non-radical, non-massline and surrenderist approach of Ambedkar. We do not need to deconstruct the text of Mr. Teltumbde’s article here to show this, because it is self-evident. Mr. Teltumbde’s narrative itself shows that the Congress was always willing to co-opt Ambedkar in its political scheme. Does not this fact itself tell a lot about the politics of Ambedkar? Mr. Teltumbde seems to be in the awe of Ambedkar’s plan for so-called ‘state-socialism’ which has nothing to do with socialism! Socialism does not mean state ownership of means of production. The defining characteristic of Socialism is the class character of the state itself. As Engels had already shown in the 19th century, State capitalism (one can read socialism as well) is nothing, but capitalism pushed to extreme. Ambedkar’s economic program was a paraphrasing of Deweyan economic program, for which state is the most rational actor and therefore it should have the monopoly over economic activities and planning. We expect Mr. Teltumbde at least to be aware of this much. However, he is much too eager to perform a Marxist appropriation of Ambedkar, though in a clandestine fashion, while claiming that there is no meeting point between the ideas of Ambedkar and Marxism.

11. The eleventh para is probably is most interesting para in Mr. Teltumbde’s article. It claims that Mr. Teltumbde follows Marxist methodology (note: not Marxist theory/ideology/philosophy! The same old Deweyan skepticism for theory and fetish for method), but he would not call himself a Marxist because a lot of Marxists are dogmatic! However, Mr. Teltumbde does not mention that I criticized this position in my response in the Seminar, to which he did not say a word in his latest article. One calls himself a Marxist, or a liberal, or a post-structuralist, not because what the alleged followers of these ideologies do! Such a logic will lead us to non-sensical conclusions. One calls himself a Marxist because he/she believes in the approach and method of what he/she believes to be the Marxist approach and method. If majority of people have become indifferent to pain, tragedy, etc and have become inhuman, would you stop calling yourself a human being? No! Then why do not you call yourself a Marxist, if you believe in Marxism? However, we know the answer to this question already! Again, identifying with a theory and ideology always scares a Deweyan away! Secondly, never in the paper did we say that Marxism is a dogma and it cannot be developed. On the contrary, the major part of our paper is not a critique of Ambedkar and Ambedkarites, but of the Communist movement of India, which failed to understand the problem of caste and apply Marxism creatively in the Indian conditions. But, apparently Mr. Teltumbde had launched an attack on our paper without reading it properly.

Moreover, the iconoclasm, radicalism, etc of Ambedkar might be the personal views of Mr. Teltumbde and we might or might not differ in this regard. But our concern in the paper as well as in the entire seminar was not to analyze how deeply and passionately Ambedkar felt about the problem of caste, but what program does Ambedkar have for the solution of the problem and it is in this context that the criticism of Ambedkar put forward by our approach paper should be seen and understood.

Also, it does not matter at what age did Mr. Teltumbde become a Marxist! It does not affect the merits or lacunae of his arguments today and in any case it does not give any advantage to his logic. Kautsky was a much older Marxist that Lenin was. Does that influence the way in which Kautsky went haywire in his theorizations about Imperialism?

12. In the twelfth para, Mr. Teltumbde shows how everything that Ambedkar did for the emancipation of dalits failed miserably and goes to the extent of exclaiming, “The less said of Ambedkarite politics, the better it is.” However, he does not trace the origin of these mistakes, that is, the incorrigibly bourgeious liberal, pragmatist, instrumentalist, regressive thoughts of Ambedkar. He did not believe in the revolutionary energy of the masses, but believed in the power of heroes and specifically, the state. The reason for Ambedkar’s failure lies in his philosophy and politics and that is what we have subjected to criticism in our paper, not the intent of Ambedkar. Theoretical discourse never takes the issue of intent into consideration because this issue is a highly subjective issue. What is at stake in any political discussion is the scientific and philosophical character of a theory and its historical role. What the carriers of a theory might have felt at different moments does not matter in history, as Mr. Teltumbde himself claimed in his first statement, “individuals don’t matter in revolutions”. The conspicuous absence of a serious political and philosophical criticism of Ambedkar in any of the statements put forward by Mr. Teltumbde is troubling. He stops at mentioning a fact, that is, all of Ambedkar’s experiments ended in a grand failure. But he never asks the question “why?” Why does Mr. Teltumbde forget his celebrated scientific method here? This is a curious emission, as we can see.

13., 14., 15., 16. and 17. In these paragraphs, again, Mr. Teltumbde once again, is in his Deweyan glory. He talks about the failure of almost all great men in history. However, we would like to remind him that the task of the approach paper (and other papers as well) was not to assess the failure of men and their particular experiments. The real question is the assessment of the theory and methodology given by these men. Men fail and succeed. That does not matter much in history. The basic question is whether Marx was able to give a science of history? Whether he was able to give an approach and a method which is scientific? Obviously, Marxism is not an aggregation of the statements of Marx. Marxism is name of the approach (worldview) and the method that Marx gave. Marx might himself have failed to use this dialectical materialist method at a number of instances, for example, his theory of Asiatic mode of production, or his assessment of the British rule in India, etc. However, that does not make any difference as far as Marxist approach and method are concerned. A number of his expectations, judgements and statements were proven wrong by history. That might be called, in a limited sense, the failure of some of speculative judgements of Marx, the individual. But Marx could not be right in all his judgements (wouldn’t it be non-dialectical to expect such infallibility!?). The point here is to understand the difference between different statements of a person and his approach and method. Marx himself believed that dialectical materialism will develop with the changing world, because the basic premise of this science is to study the world in its motion. So, the theory of imperialism was developed by Lenin, not Marx, because finance monopoly capitalism came into proper existence only during the lifetime of Lenin. However, again the basic point to note here is that Lenin followed the same approach and method to study the world, that Marx had followed. So, to talk about the “failures of great men” at such a length and then claim that the failure of Marx was more catastrophic than that of Ambedkar does not make any sense. It is like the history of men, in the 17th century style, that does not tell anything about anything! Mr. Teltumbde argues that Marxism needs to be developed constantly in such a way, as if he is the first person to say so, or, as if we have said something different in the paper. Neither in the paper, nor in our statements did we say that what Marx said was the last word! We would not have felt the need to organize a 5-day Seminar to discuss any question at all, had we believed so. We have written in our approach paper about the mistakes committed in analyzing the problem of caste by Marxists and Communists. Then why Mr. Teltumbde is erecting an imaginary Marxist figure and then raining it with his bows and bayonets?

Besides, Marxism never says that revolutions are inevitable. That would amount to economism. Therefore, to try to prove the “catastrophic failure of Marx” by arguing that Socialist experiments fell down, or, revolutions did not take place, is utterly useless! The economic crises of capitalism themselves never lead automatically to revolution. Every crisis presents dual possibilities: the revolutionary possibility (if the revolutionary vanguard is in a position to lead the masses to revolution) or the reactionary possibility (Fascism). There is always a possibility of counter-revolution and all the great Marxist thinkers were aware of it, including Marx, Engels, and Lenin. So, the fact that sustainable revolutions did not take place in the twentieth century, does not show in anyway, the failure of the alleged ‘grand theory’ of Marx. Marxism gives the tool to analyze the failure of revolutions too, and a number of Marxists have subjected the Soviet and Chinese experiments of socialism to Marxist criticism and through such analyses only, that more advanced socialist experiments can be conducted. This is what Walter Benjamin called ‘redemptive activity’ of theory. Every science develops through such redemptive activity and Marxism, that is, the science of society is no exception. In such a historical movement, the failures of individuals do not matter. What matters is the approach and method given by them. Marxists have not reacted in the vein of Ambedkarites, who have been targeting Mr. Teltumbde without any substantial reason and in this respect, we completely empathize with the agony and anger of Mr. Teltumbde. However, Mr. Teltumbde himself is to blame for this ironic situation. Taking a position above ideology and theory always leads to such a mess.

Moreover, what Mr. Teltumbde claims to have said in regard of the new developments which cannot be explained from classical Marxist position was this: Mr. Teltumbde argued that Marx talked about labour-saving devices, but in contemporary capitalism, we cannot talk about labour-saving devices but labour-displacing devices. Now, everyone who has read the elementary Marxist political economy knows that every labour-saving device becomes a labour-displacing device under capitalism. Mr. Teltumbde is immensely overjoyed in his discovery; but sadly, this discovery has already been made, and even more sadly Mr. Teltumbde is 150 years late! There is not real difference between labour-saving and labour-displacing devices. Mr. Teltumbde was seriously concerned about the scenario where it would become possible to run a factory with one worker! This very fear has led a number of intellectuals to conclude that working class is vanishing from the scene of history. Such a conclusion only shows that the person in question does not understand Marxist political economy. Such a situation will only create even larger army of the unemployed which Marx had called ‘grave diggers of capitalism’. Working class is not vanishing; on the contrary it would be pushed towards revolts. Needless to say, such revolts would not transform into revolution without a revolutionary theory and a vanguard armed with such a theory. Obviously, there are new developments in the modus-operandi of Imperialism after the Second World War which need to be analyzed and understood from Marxist perspective. However, these very ever new developments have been the prime mover in the development of Marxism as the science of history and society; just like the so-called “hard sciences” of Mr. Teltumbde! What is so stupefying about this? In a nutshell, Mr. Teltumbde needs to differentiate between assessment of men and assessment of approaches and methods. From that standpoint, it can be asked whether Marxism or Ambedkar provide the correct approach and method to understand everything that exists around us. Mr. Teltumbde believes that Ambedkar had no theory and he was a pragmatist who kept experimenting with newer things. However, this itself was his theory, which Mr. Teltumbde admits, he liked! And this very theory was subjected to criticism during the Seminar. What is wrong in that? Does that amount to trashing or rejecting Ambedkar? We don’t think so.

In the seventeenth para, Mr. Teltumbde traces the ideological origins of Ambedkar. However, again, he is trying to misappropriate Ambedkar. Ambedkar’s dislike for Marxism did not only stem from his experience of Indian Communists, but his class position and his academic training. Secondly, he never used Marxism as a benchmark, as Mr. Teltumbde wants us to believe; he had called Marxism “pigs’ philosophy” which shows his clear attitude. We have criticized this attitude of Ambedkar without using the derogatory terminology used by Ambedkar. We do not find anything wrong in it.

18. In this para, Mr. Teltumbde is again in his teacher-preacher mode. He rightly points out that Ambedkar has a huge contribution in putting the question of caste on the national agenda. He is also right about the contribution of communists in this, who empirically fought militantly against caste oppression. Indian communists as well as Ambedkar failed to devise a program for the annihilation of caste. In the beginning of his article, Mr. Teltumbde says that hierarchizing is a brahmanical attitude. However, he adopts this brahmanical attitude according to his convenience. Here, he says that the contribution of Ambedkar was much greater that Communists in democratization! He does not feel it necessary to back his statements with logic and reason. So he performs another intellectual somersault and adds that he says so rhetorically because he wants communists to think about the opportunities that they have lost! Again, Mr. Teltumbde is quite obsessed with his teaching capabilities. Nobody denies the fact that there is a need to analyze the mistakes of Communist movement on the question of caste and that is what we have done in our paper, apart from a brief critique of Ambedkar. But this hierarchizing of Mr. Teltumbde is surprising and we do not agree to the hierarchy of contributions proposed by Mr. Teltumbde. At least, he should stay consistent in his approach and should not shift positions so rapidly, following Ambedkar.

19. and 20. In the nineteenth para again, Mr. Teltumbde argues in a way as if we cling to the metaphor of ‘base and superstructure’ mechanically and goes on to claim that all dalit Marxists (we’re not sure what does that mean!) have abandoned it and there has been a debate in international Marxism about this metaphor. We believe, and we have made it clear in the paper, that the metaphor of base and superstructure is an analytical tool to study any social formation and it cannot be used in a mechanical and instrumentalist fashion, as Indian communists have often done, specially while studying caste. We have particularly criticized certain communists of Indian communist movement who believed that caste belongs to superstructure. On the contrary, we have argued in the paper that caste belongs to the base as well as the superstructure. However, we can not go in detail about it; those who are interested can download the approach paper from the website of Arvind Memorial Trust and read our position. But here again, Mr. Teltumbde is erecting an imaginery Marxist figure for the purpose of bashing.

Moreover, the criticism that Indian communists failed to understand the question of caste and class was put forward by Mr. Teltumbde. We ourselves have criticized the Indian communist movement for this failure. But Mr. Teltumbde presented the matter in a way, as if Indian communists did not take up the question of caste and called it their biggest sin. We objected to this because it is factually wrong. Sukhvinder responded to this criticism of Mr. Teltumbde and criticized him for impeaching communists for what they are not guilty of. He argues in his latest article, “Surprisingly, there is no admission ever from the Marxists (regarding this mistake)”. Again, Mr. Teltumbde is distorting the facts. Our paper itself bears testimony to a bitterly critical approach towards the mistakes of the communists in understading the question of caste. In fact, a larger share of the paper is dedicated to the criticism of communist movement, rather that Ambedkar and Phule. As far as, the question of base and superstructure is concerned, one can refer to the approach paper. Our understanding is completely different from what Mr. Teltumbde is portraying it to be.

21. In this para, Mr. Teltumbde continues in the tone of teaching-preaching. He claims that it was he, who has been saying all along that castes basically seek hierarchy and cannot survive in non-hierarchical waters; under external pressure they contract together, but without external pressure they start splitting. He again claims that all caste movements have failed to note this core characteristics of caste. This again is a hollow claim. Historians like Suvira Jaiswal and R.S. Sharma have already drawn our attention to precisely these characteristics. However, like always Mr. Teltumbde is stupefied at his own “inventions” and “discoveries” and as always these inventions and discoveries have already been made and Mr. Teltumbde is sadly late! Mr. Teltumbde argues that the dalits and lower castes have to understand that its not caste identity but class identity which has the emancipatory potential and he also advises the communists to show to the dalits that they have changed. We believe that the communists can show this only through struggles and a proper understanding of the question of caste. We also believe that (and we have said this in the paper) without the participation of dalits there can be no revolution and without a revolution there can be no dalit emancipation. However, Mr. Teltumbde does not even mention that. Secondly, he again shows his skepticism for theory and ideology when he argues that there should be a convergence between the dalit and communist movements, not ‘-isms’ and such a convergence will quickly fructify into Indian Revolution. Revolution is first of all a matter of science; without a proper scientific and revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement, to borrow from Lenin. Mr. Teltumbde invokes the authority of Lenin according to his convenience. Lenin was very particular about the theory which guides the movement. Mr. Teltumbde’s Deweyan deviation is apparent once again.

22. and 23. In these paragraphs, Mr. Teltumbde presents his own alternative concept of reservation, which should be limited to the SCs only, who face exclusion at the hands of the society. The state should deploy other methods, according to him, to do away with the backwardness of the BCs and tribals. The reservation policy should not only include the public sector but the entire social sphere, which includes public as well as private. According to Mr. Teltumbde such a policy would have been free from the malaise of the present policy of reservation that has become the most potent weapon of the ruling class in dividing the people at will. Then, Mr. Teltumbde adds several more conditions to his alternative policy of reservation. He believes that in such a scheme the burden of annihilation of caste would have fallen on the society and the latter would have been obliged to do away with caste discrimination. Though, we would like to know more about his alternative vision of reservation policy, it seems to us that, first, even if the policy of reservation is extended to entire societal sphere, the dalits would not be destigmatized; on the contrary, as far as we can visualize, dalits would be stigmatized even more. But the ways in which stigma is attached to them, would become more subtle, rather than being crude and ‘in-the-face’. second, this would not in anyway, make it the burden of the society to do away with caste. Caste cannot be annihilated without the withering away of class, state, the interpersonal disparities of mental and manual labour, town and country and industry and agriculture. Even after revolution, several cultural revolutions would be required to annihilate caste. However, we are open to know more about the ‘intricate’ model of reservation suggested by Mr. Teltumbde. Anyway, that is not the point here. We would still suggest that had Mr. Teltumbde been this diligent and meticulous in adopting a more sound theoretical position, there would have been less problems. The basic question in our opinion today is that the problem is not with any particular model of reservation policy, but the policy of reservation itself. It might have been a democratic right till a certain time after independence; however, any model of reservation would only create an illusion today. Our demand should be free and equal education for all and employment for all. Only such a demand can push the system to its point of impossibility and in struggle for such a demand the caste boundaries could be weakened.

Mr. Teltumbde’s thinking is too much dependent on the role of the state, and what else can we expect from a true Deweyan! He thinks that if state implements his model of reservation, the society would be obliged to do away with caste. This is like a fool’s paradise. State can never oblige a society to think or act in a particular way. It is the concrete political, social and economic struggles that shape the ways in which the society acts, in which the state is sustained or destroyed, in which a new state is established. State through any possible kind of ‘affirmative action’ cannot oblige the society to think, say or do anything. Mr. Teltumbde did not explain even this “alternative” Deweyan understanding of reservation policy in the semiar, and now he is rebuking us for our closed-ended approach. Is that fair?!

24. In this para, Mr. Teltumbde wants to prove at any cost that our paper does not offer anything new as far as the solution part is concerned. He argues that such propositions can be found in any communist document on caste and that even Ambedkar’s proposals were more radical than that of the approach paper presented by us. First of all, unlike Mr. Teltumbde, we do not have any particular fascination with the claim to novelty. What is right, is right, irrespective of the fact that a number of people have already said it. Secondly, he only mentions the propositions which are common to any radical charter on the caste question. We have two parts in the section pertaining to our proposed program on caste question. The first deals with long term tasks and the solution of caste question by a socialist society and the other with short term tasks that must be performed immediately. We would urge Mr. Teltumbde to go through the entire section of the approach paper again to understand the particularity of our position. Our stand on reservation is not shared by any of the Left organizations. Our stand on new type of anti-caste organizations also is not shared by the majority of the communist groups.  It would be useless to mention each and every proposition here. We would request interested readers to visit the website of Arvind Memorial Trust (arvindtrust.org) and download the pdf file of the approach paper and read it. Mr. Teltumbde should compare proposal by proposal to prove that Ambedkar’s proposals were more radical, though according to Mr. Teltumbde, such a hierarchizing approach smacks of brahmanism, yet he becomes brahmanical according to his whims and fancies! We do not think in terms of “more” or “less” radical. It is question of standpoint. Anyone who reads our paper, would understand that ours is an alternative communist program of annihilation of caste, which is not dogmatic and open-ended. We never claim that our program is final and best; on the contrary, we believe that many things could be added into it or even subtracted from it. It is a humble proposal open for debate. We mentioned this in the seminar too. But Mr. Teltumbde is much too eager to prove that we have reproduced the old communist program! So we definitely cannot convince him.

25. In this para, once again the self-obsession of Mr. Anand Teltumbde is best apparent. Mr. Teltumbde argues that he has devised a practical blue print for the annihilation of caste in his book ‘Anti-Imperialism and Annihilation of Caste’. Now look at his findings, which he claims to be new and unprecedented. He says that he found that since the capitalist onslaught from the colonial period through the 1960s, the ritual castes are weakened and to speak about castes in a classical hierarchy is fruitless. Now, any student/academician/activist familiar with the modern historiography of caste knows that this finding of Mr. Teltumbde has nothing new in it. Irfan Habib in his famous article ‘Caste in Indian History’ makes the same argument. Historians like Suvira Jaiswal, R.S.Sharma, Vivekanand Jha had shown this way before Mr. Teltumbde wrote his book. So Mr. Teltumbde claim to novelty in this respect is at best hollow and at worst, a false one. The relation of caste system with rural bourgeoisie and rural proletariat also has long been established. Mr. Teltumbde is again making a false claim of novelty. Even documents of various communist groups in mention this facet of the caste system in the rural areas. How the economic interests of the kulaks and farmers express themselves in caste terms also is a known fact for a long time now. The same could be said about his “findings” about the nexus between the state and the class of the rural bourgeoisie. The fourth point of Mr. Teltumbde regarding the role of the advanced elements of society in educating the people against the evil of caste through political economy, also is an old one and has been put forward by many people including Ambedkar. However, we are skeptic about this hope of Mr. Teltumbde. Lastly, the Left is given the role of dealing “physically” with the elements who are incorrigible and participate in caste atrocities! Amazing! (The role of the Left is reduced to dealing “physically” with the perpetrators of caste atrocities while the role of teaching/preaching/sermonizing is secured for Mr. Teltumbde, because in his view, it it Mr. Teltumbde who has provided a blue-print for annihilation of caste!) To make his argument somewhat more tolerable, he says that through this role the Left can win the confidence of dalits, which will strengthen the forces of revolution and annihilation of castes. Then, Mr. Teltumbde gives his final teaching, “Do this much, and you will find yourself close to Annihilation of Castes.” To render his propositions more credibility, Mr. Teltumbde tells us that his model his supported by his own research in cybernetics! We can see Mr. Teltumbde going back, again, to his Deweyan “scientific” determinism. Whatever Mr. Teltumbde says, this much is clear: his claims to novelty are baseless and he has nothing new to offer as far as annihilation of caste is concerned.

26. In this para, Mr. Teltumbde claims that he did not retract his statements. He said that what I (Abhinav) strove to refute in my statement (the Deweyanism of Ambedkar and of Mr. Teltumbde in a different way) was not shared by Mr. Teltumbde. However, he himself admits that he liked the Deweyan method and found it akin to the method of science. This is what I refuted! I argued that Deweyan method projects itself to be the scientific method, but it is not. I have already shown in this response how Mr. Teltumbde is a true Deweyan. His whole line of argument is Deweyan in nature. Now Mr. Teltumbde is trying to show that he has no liking for Deweyan pragmatism and instrumentalism! Secondly, he did say that he agrees with what had been said by me. He said, “many good things have been said here and I agree with them.” Now, he is saying that he was referring to the paper. This is stupefying! And even if he was referring to the paper, he actually did reject the entire paper as being casteist and brahmanical in his first statement. (One can see all this in the video, the link of which is given below). Then he retracted his charge in the second statement. Mr. Teltumbde makes an amusing statement here. He says that he spoke something uncomfortably to get out of there, which cannot be construed as agreement with us! Now we leave the task of judging this bizarre statement to the readers. We would ask the readers as well as Mr. Teltumbde to see the video again. His tone in the first statement was like that of a preacher/teacher who came there to educate the ignorant Marxists. In the second statement, he “uncomfortably” expressed his agreement with “much of what had been said there” (in the paper or in my critique of Mr. Teltumbde, it does not matter, because there is no contradiction in the stand put forward in the paper and what I said). I would say the change is apparent between the tone of the first statement and the tone of the second statement itself, and it is so apparent that anyone can see it. He quotes me (“aisa mujhe dhwanit hua ki aapka comment pure paper par tha”). However, anyone who sees the video can understand that I was saying in a humble way that “yes, Mr. Teltumbde, you actually did reject our paper as casteist and brahmanical”. However, my tone could only be humble, because, as Mr. Teltumbde himself says, he is a “senior activist”! Now he can call it hallucination, or whatever he likes. But the video of the debate speaks for itself. This is very lame defence of his shifting positions by Mr. Teltumbde, to say the least.

27. In the last para, Mr. Teltumbde has bitterly rebuked the Ambedkarites who have been attacking him since his participation in the Chandigarh Seminar. However, here too it is not clear what he is defending in Ambedkar: the individual or his ideas. Because as far as thoughts are concerned, we do not know what can we learn from Deweyan pragmatism in our task of annihilation of caste. In fact, at several other places, Mr. Teltumbde himself says that Ambedkar never had a program for annihilation of caste. Then which ideas/thoughts of Ambedkar should be defended? Then again, Mr. Teltumbde shows his self-obsession and his baseless belief in the “innocence of dalits”. Let us have a look at some statements made in this para: “It is not I but you who have insulted Babasaheb Ambedkar in the process by exploiting the sentiments of his innocent people against someone (that is Mr. Teltumbde himself!) who has worked singularly for them keeping away from the camp of the ruling classes.”; “I am the one who has never shown any iota of bhakti to Babasaheb Ambedkar ulike your tribe but sincerely followed his role model in excelling in whatever I did, in standing firm on the side of the oppressed masses, securing capability of analyzing the world around us on their behalf…” Now one can see, to what extent Mr. Teltumbde is a sad victim of political Narcissism and self-obsession. He thinks of himself as the self-proclaimed hero of the dalit cause. And curiously enough, he has charged us of self-obsession!

In the end, we can only say that everyone should watch the video of our debate with Mr. Anand Teltumbde again and see the change in everything: the tone, the content, and the form. Watching the video itself is sufficient to understand the hollow claims made by Mr. Teltumbde in this article. We have given a parawise reply so that there is no possibility of confusion and all comrades can understand our refutation of Mr. Teltumbde clearly. We are again giving the link of the video for everyone’s convenience.

Link of the video of the entire debate : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYZPrNd4kDQ

Artificial Intelligence: Artificial and Antihuman Hypothesis!

In 1997, Garry Kasparov a Russian grand chess master and world chess champion was defeated by IBM's super computer named "deep blue" however Garry also defeated the chess machine in a few games. This defeat was projected as if a consciousness superior to man's consciousness has been developed. for this game deep blue used to find and analyse 200 million moves per second,despite this Garry was able to beat the computer in a few games. what are the implications of Kasparov losing to a computer? Are computers going to replace humans? The Newsweek magazine's cover story hailed this match as "the brain's last stand". Thus  Artificial intelligence was said to have ushered as a science that would change the face of the world as we know it. Artificial intelligence is one of the most well researched areas in science and technology in almost every university in the world. But the way this subject is taught is incorrect. Artificial intelligence and artificial consciousness is deemed to be capable of performing every human activity and replacing humans from every sphere of work. Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon, who got the Nobel in Economics in 1978 said that artificial intelligence will replace humans from every field. Peter Norvig, the director of research at Google Inc. calls  human consciousness incapacious and to rectify its handicaps he suggests developing  better thinking machines that will be superior to human consciousness. But scientists have quashed these claims as mere speculation. All these hypothesis are anti-human and outcomes of the current system. They are an incongruous amalgam of idealism and empiricism. It is clear beyond any doubt that no rational  sensible scientist or intellectual in their right minds will pay the least heed to these hokum hypotheses.

 

Such hollow speculations are not only limited to the field of cognitive science rather these are prevalent in every field of knowledge. This is a widespread phenomena. In every domain of life the victory of machines over mankind, and the triumph of artificial consciousness over man is being fancied. Why? Nature is annotated in science. Only a modest part of the the reality is reflected in the images of stars or the earth that we perceive through our eyes. The Space and Earth have been continually observed and interpreted over the past 4000 years by millions of humans. From Plato to Kepler in the ancient times to Stephen hawking and other contemporary scientists of today, all have endeavored to provide a better picture of the earth, stars and the universe at large. Human knowledge grows from the perceptional level to  conceptual knowledge, a requisite amount of cognition and perception essentially lead to a conceptual accumulation of knowledge. During this process of development of knowledge a lot of human perceptions turn out to be in-accurate and it is through this process of trial and error the human mind learns the intricacies of various subjects and enriches art, literature,natural science etc. The entire human history is the history of mans collective behaviour and toil. The history of natural science is connected to both  the human productive forces and production relations. This has also been perpetually developing, however there are times when for a long period science remains comparatively stagnant in its growth. The economy of a society lays down the basis for the existence of all forms of ideologies. The scientists too cannot remain immune of these ideologies which influence how they analyze knowledge. "Before man could function as a physicist he had to live as a man ,ans not as an abstract man ,but as a real man in a certain society. If we take modern physics,beginning with Galileo and Bacon, then the physicist was a man who had to live as a member of bourgeois society before he could function as a physicist"(Christopher Caudwell). Due to wrong or biased judgment facts are not analyzed in the right scientific manner for a long time. After a prolonged  fierce struggle of rebuttals and ambushes does the Natural science take the direction of right approach. This direction is that of Dialectics. Nowadays bourgeois science instead of having a dialectical approach takes the recourse of accidental flukes, and this is the reason of its sluggish and tardy growth. This decadence is a characteristic of the bourgeois society. This ephemeralness is associated with every field just a like a spider's web.

There is a crisis in every field of knowledge and science .In reality the entire tenet of artificial intelligence is one of the outcomes of  the crookedness of the bourgeois society and its economic basis. the present write up is a critique of this hypothesis and its main arguments. first and foremost we will impinge on its political prejudices and conclusions. Its dissection from there on will become rather effortless. The perplexed nature of today's experiments and bourgeois scientists will also shed light on the retrogressive bourgeois society. Many physicists and philosophers like Roger Penrose, Naom Chomsky, Hurbert Dreyfus have also castigated artificial intelligence but most of them either analyze the technical aspects of artificial intelligence (mainly on the basis of Godel's incompleteness theorems which state that knowledge is relative) or they proceed with a pure idealist perspective. Without the compass of Marxist methodology these scientific speculations and the experiments being done to quantify them are wandering in the haze of uncertainty and chance.

The Politics surrounding artificial intelligence

The rise of capitalism took place in an era when for the first time heavy machinery was being employed for the large scale production of goods. Steam engine,printing,computer,aeroplanes  are the inventions of this era and this was also the era when the forces of labour and Capital kept colliding with one another. On one hand mechanization enhanced the level of productivity of labour and on the other it sent a large population out of work ,unemployed who were forcibly displaced from their homes and land. By the use of machines the capitalist is able to improve and enhance the productivity of labour and procure more produce in a shorter period of time than without the machines. The capitalist is then able to extract surplus value out of the labour .Through mechanization the capitalists continually try to decrease the cost of production and augment their profits. Due to competition in the market this tendency of exploiting the labour transforms into a mindless lust because only those capitalists can survive in the market who out smart and out run others in the battle of prices,i.e. who are able to curtail the prices. And only those capitalists can keep the prices low who keep their cost of production to a minimum which is possible by the use of machines and automation to enhance the productivity of  labour eventually laying off the laborers that is reducing man power and increasing machine power. This greed transforms into insanity, and gives birth to many hypotheses in the bourgeois world. it reaches to a fantasy where robots replace the laborers in a factory. This argument is what it is, a mere fantasy and the subsequent part of the article will demolish it into bits but for the moment we shall proceed with it. The artist, politician,economist, or scientist in a Bourgeois society imagines a machinery that will consistently increase the profits and will relieve the humans of the mental and corporal work involved in production. This hypothesis is called "Technological unemployment" in economics, about which different economists have a different view. Going by this argument what will happen is that instead of humans ,robots will work in factories. A large proportion of the population will be thrown out of work and a handful of capitalists will exploit Earth's wealth. or else after some time better machines will replace the capitalists and dominate the world. What an absurd Thought! But its just an imagination. First of all its a fantasy, a rather ridiculous one though and even if this fantasy is believed to be true than the unemployed masses will rebel against this system. This fantasy presents machines in form of an unbeatable force which the humans cant fight against. But it always overlooks the fact that David defeated Goliath with a staff and sling. One can get a clear glimpse of the germs of this hypothesis in  novels,poems,films,songs and other forms of superstructures that the bourgeois society advocate. Novels like Issac Asimov's Robot Series and films like I- Robot ,Matrix, A.I. etc are concrete manifestations of the economic thirst that fuels this fantasy. The economic basis of every system builds favorable superstructure compatible with it, that prove to be useful in its growth and progress. Since ancient time magic and witchcraft served the purpose of keeping the man's consciousness glued to the economic base. The very purpose of Artificial intelligence is also the same. This scientific hypothesis supports the economic base of the capitalist society and raises a doubting eye on labour ,negates the peoples opposition and vulgarizes its invincible glory. Capitalism pitches humans against their own creation,this fantasy pitches humans against machines and makes the creation look unconquerable. Its an irony that on one hand this system keeps millions of people unemployed,hungry, and renders their able bodies and minds inactive and on the other hand invests money in a technology that will build "conscious possessing robots" that can substitute humans. What does common sense say?what does a sane argument say? Is is not a simple but disturbing logic that 5.8 million tonnes of grain rots and turns foul in warehouses in a country where every day 9,000 children die due to malnutrition and hunger. Is it not idiocy?? A super computer is not required to solve this question that is capable of thinking of 2000 moves per second. Since the second world war this has been present just as a hypothesis. Now we shall proceed and analyze the argument that causes the generalization of this human creation to a degree that this abstract creation comes to life.

The Philosophy of artificial intelligence

The concept of artificial intelligence came into being after the Second world war. Governments of many Capitalist nations invested money in this field. The main basis of artificial intelligence is Turing Computational Principle .The human nervous system has been endeavored to be studied with a very inferior system. In 1950 Turing in his paper named "Computing Machinery and intelligence" laid the basis of artificial intelligence. The famous Turing test, the test of a machines intelligence was presented in this paper. During the 1950's scientists like John Mc-Carthy, Marvin Minsky, Neville, Simon etc. did extensive work in this field. This was the same period during which a search for a machine that could translate Russian articles was on in America  so that it can access all possible  information about Sputnik. But the search collapsed soon. Artificial intelligence did not meet the expectations and in 1973 on the recommendation of Lighthill report the research on artificial intelligence was banned everywhere in England except for three universities(university of Edinburgh, Sussex and Essex). Latter in 1982 a lot of investment was done into the research on artificial intelligence that again dissolved in 1988. But in the following years the investment again started to be pumped into the research in this field which lead to the invention of many computers that were successful in performing the tasks assigned by humans. The concept of artificial intelligence was extensively exploited in research estimation, surgical operations,logistics,computer games,play station,data mining,space ships, weaponry, Google search engine and other search engines. But inspite a research of  70 years the hypothesis of a conscious machine has not yet come to life and neither it ever will, no matter how much hue and cry Peter Norvig creates about it. This is not baseless statement. The reasons backing this view against a conscious machine are present on scientific and philosophical level. Philosophical view is a generalization of the scientific view. After all what is artificial intelligence? Its just a computer program in reality. A computer program on the basis of its conditional operators can generate a somewhat fair prognosis about the various possible events. Even the most advanced computers can only forecast a handful of results about the possible circumstances through its mathematical operators. These programs can only work on the basis of the given data, facts and calculations and perform new calculations only on the basis of the provided information. Humans have a power that no computer program can have, that is the power of imagination and emotions. Imagination,emotion,rational logic and  facts all these together form the basis of a majority of decisions. Therefore no advanced program of artificial intelligence can analyze all the possible circumstances holistically. In this way any unimagined, uncalculated but possibly definite situation can cause the computer program to be in a dysfunctional state or in computer terminology it can cause a 'system error'. Will these computers, the software that run them and their algorithms ever be able to think like a human brain? These computers just organize data based on mathematical parameters set by humans in chips made up of silicon and germanium, and extract calculations from them; in the words of Christopher Caudwell "a machine is filled with the label of operatability" i.e. its just a mere reflection of the human methodology of collection of data and its examination. Inspite of increasing the number of silicon and germanium chips in it a computer is capable of doing just this. It cannot think in a dialectical manner like humans. Be it the Deep blue that defeated Kasparov or Norvig's Google search engine!  If the number of squares is increased on the chessboard or the movement of the knight is altered then the computer will loose. In an other board game called "Go" even beginners beat the artificial intelligence. Our Universe is not bound by the laws of these games, matter is perpetually evolving and at every level matter obeys different laws. The only thing that even the most modern and highly advanced computer can perform is to execute the task assigned by humans with maximum accuracy and precision. It is indeed only a reflection of human conscious. Man and the machine cannot be viewed in isolation from one another, machines are a part of mans inorganic world. Computer is a tool of performing mental labour,just like a hammer is a tool for making the physical toil easy. But many scientists profess that they are creating a new consciousness in the form of artificial intelligence and at every step they compare these machines with either animals or humans. Peter Norvig says in his book “Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach” that when flight of bird can be simulated by aeroplanes than why not conciousness of human brain? This is idealism. You cannot do whatever you wish. Going by this token one would say lets create a new Earth, why not create a new universe! Anyways lets venture out of fairyland. Citing Hobbes Norvig puts forth the argument that the human brain is just like a calculator in which consciousness enters through mathematical formulas. What is consciousness then? What is color, fragrance, solid, wet, screech etc. Are these mathematical formulas that can be programmed in computer? Human consciousness has been evolving since the last 4000 years, the history of its evolution is history of humanity. It is history of man's subjective and objective world. In reality man can not be isolated into subjective and objective. As Feurbach had said that human is both subject-object. Man's spiritual and material world are unified. It is the dividing line that separates dialectical materialist from a mechanical materialist. Neither machine can understand dialectics nor the mechanical materialist. And this is the very reason why the hypothesis of artificial intelligence is anti-human. It vulgarizes the human essence. It talks about recreating the human essence through a machine. But as Marx said- “The human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of social relations.” This vulgar concept goes against Marxist epistemology. It is not a very difficult task to understand that knowledge is a scientific object that a machine can not comprehend. It can simply imitate. A critical attitude and a dialectical approach is a prerequisite for understanding knowledge. But according the hypothesis of artificial intelligence these machines will not only be better abled to comprehend knowledge but also move a step ahead. It is all gibberish. This hypothesis searches for knowledge in the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Hegel, Michelangelo, Einstein and not in collective social experience. It covers the history of human struggle, the process of generation of knowledge through experience and development with a veil of condescension. This idea advocates that elite intellectuals are required to lead the laborious masses and now the artificial intelligence will do this job of leading them. The idea of artificial intelligence is willing to serve the bourgeois state and in reality the softwares developed through artificial intelligence are being employed in surveillance. The hypothesis such as Artificial intelligence reveal the limitations of bourgeois science and its hollowness. What are the computers that developed from the experiments of artificial intelligence in reality? And how will they come handy and into use? Without any doubt ,these computers will increase human productivity, and will lead to the formation of better machines but the detail that needs to be paid attention to,is that in capitalism science is the slave of capital and it will be a servant to the process of making profits. A disgusting example of this idea is a robot based on the concept of artificial intelligence called 'Roxy' whose purpose of being invented is to quench mans sexual thirst. The crisis of capitalism is present on the level of science as well, inspite of this science and technology have been progressing even if at a slow pace. In this scenario science is used in a retarded and deformed way. Science is then used to build warfare weaponry, robots like Roxy, and anti aging medicines. The word artificial intelligence is a misnomer and it doesn't reflects the basic technique accurately. In reality artificial intelligence is nothing but an extension of human consciousness. It is a new stage of automation. Machines can be built in which prognosis of outcomes of a few human tasks can be fed as data ,which can then perform the task of arriving at a result and are indeed being made. But the hypothesis that artificial intelligence laden robots can one day replace humans is a ridiculously foolish dream. Those who do not understand the true nature and character of human consciousness can only believe and pay heed to such ludicrous notions.

कृत्रिम चेतना: एक कृत्रिम और मानवद्रोही परिकल्पना

1997 में एक सुपर कम्प्यूटर ‘डीप ब्लू’ ने शतरंज के दिग्गज खिलाड़ी और विश्व विजेता गैरी कास्परोव को हरा दिया था, हालाँकि कास्पारोव ने भी इसे हराया था। इस हार को इस तरह पेश किया गया कि जैसे मनुष्य की चेतना से उच्च स्तर की चेतना विकसित हो गयी है। यह कम्प्यूटर इस खेल के लिए हर सेकण्ड में 2000 लाख चालों को ढूँढता था। इसके बावजूद गैरी कास्परोव ने उसे कुछ गेमों में हरा दिया था। कास्परोव की हार के मायने क्या हैं? क्या कम्प्यूटर इंसान की जगह ले लेगा? न्यूज़वीक पत्रिका ने इस मैच को ”दिमाग की आखिरी हार” करार दिया। और इस तरह कृत्रिम चेतना के विषय का पदार्पण विश्व को बदल डालने वाले विज्ञान के रूप में हो चुका था। लगभग हर बड़े विश्वविद्यालय में इस विषय पर शोध हो रहा है। परन्तु यह विषय जिस तरह पढ़ाया जाता है वह ग़लत है। आर्टिफिशियल इण्टेलिजेंस, कृत्रिम चेतना, कृत्रिम बुद्धिमता शब्द से असल में उम्मीद लगायी जाती है कि यह इंसान के सभी कार्य कर सकता है व उसे उसके हर कार्यक्षेत्र से हटा देगा। सिमोन, जिन्हें 1978 का अर्थनीति का नोबल प्राइज़ मिला था, का कहना था कि ‘आर्टिफिशिअल इण्टेलिजेंस मनुष्य को हर क्षेत्र से हटा देगा’। गूगल इन्क के रिसर्च डायरेक्टर पीटर नोर्विग मनुष्य की चेतना को अक्षम बताते हैं तथा उसे ठीक करने तथा उससे बेहतर सोचने वाली मशीनों की परिकल्पना को पेश करते हैं। लेकिन तमाम वैज्ञानिकों ने इन परिकल्पनाओं को सिरे से ख़ारिज किया है। ये परिकल्पनाएँ मानवद्रोही हैं तथा मौजूदा व्यवस्था की पैरोकार हैं। ये भाववाद व अनुभववाद की अधपकी खिचड़ी है। जाहिर सी बात है कि ऐसी परिकल्पनाओं को कोई भी संजीदा वैज्ञानिक या बुद्धिजीवी गम्भीरता से नहीं ले सकता है।
ख़ैर, ऐसी खोखली परिकल्पना सिर्फ संज्ञानात्मक विज्ञान (कॅागनिटिव साइंस) के क्षेत्र में ही नहीं लगभग हर ज्ञान क्षेत्र में व्याप्त है। यह व्यापक परिघटना है। तमाम क्षेत्रों में यंत्रें द्वारा मनुष्यों को पीछे छोड़ दिये जाने, मनुष्य की मेधा के किसी कृत्रिम शक्ति द्वारा पछाड़ दिये जाने की कल्पनाएँ की जा रही हैं। ऐसा क्यों है?
विज्ञान से हम प्रकृति को व्याख्यायित करते हैं। जैसे तारों की, धरती की तस्वीर जो हम अपनी आँखों से बनाते हैं वह सच्चाई का मामूली-सा प्रतिबिम्ब होती है। अन्तरिक्ष और धरती को करोड़ों मनुष्यों ने पिछले 4000 सालों से देखा और उसकी व्याख्याएँ की हैं। प्लेटो से लेकर केप्लर तक ने और आज स्टीफन हाकिंग और अन्य समकालीन वैज्ञानिकों तक ने धरती, तारों व ब्रह्माण्ड की बेहतर तस्वीर पेश की है। मनुष्य का ज्ञान इन्द्रियग्राह्य से बुद्धिसंगत ज्ञान में विकासमान रहा है। मनुष्यों की कई परिकल्पनाएँ ग़लत थी और अपनी ग़लतियों  से  सीखते  हुए  मनुष्य  कदम-ब-कदम  कला, साहित्य, प्राकृतिक विज्ञान आदि विषयों को गढ़ता गया है। मानव का सम्पूर्ण इतिहास उसके समूचे व्यवहार या कहें कर्मों का इतिहास है। प्राकृतिक विज्ञान का इतिहास मानव के उत्पादन सम्बन्धों और उत्पादक शक्तियों दोनों से जुड़ता है। यह भी लगातार विकासमान है परन्तु कभी-कभी ऐसे दौर आते हैं जब विज्ञान लम्बे समय तक अपेक्षाकृत रूप से ठहरावग्रस्त रहता है। समाज के आर्थिक आधार के अनुसार ही विचारधारा के तमाम प्रभावी रूप अस्तित्वमान होते हैं। और इन्हीं रूपों से वैज्ञानिक भी प्रभावित होता है व विश्लेषण करता है। “इंसान को एक वैज्ञानिक के तौर पर काम करने से पहले एक इंसान की तरह, अमूर्त रूप में नहीं, बल्कि एक विशिष्ट प्रकार के समाज के वास्तविक इंसान की तरह जीना होता है। अगर आधुनिक भौतिकी की बात करें—तो भौतिक वैज्ञानिक पहले एक इंसान है जिसे बुर्जुआ समाज के एक सदस्य की तरह जीना होता है”(कॅाडवेल)। ग़लत विचारों के चलते तथ्यों को लम्बे समय तक सही खाँचे में नहीं डाला जाता। कई घातों-प्रतिघातों, तीखे संघर्षो से गुज़रते हुए प्राकृतिक विज्ञान सही दिशा अख्तियार करता है। यह सही दिशा द्वंद्वात्मक नज़रिये की है। आज बुर्जुआ विज्ञान द्वंद्वात्मक राह की जगह तुक्केबाजी का सहारा लेता है। इसी तुक्केबाजी से वह मंथर गति से विकसित होता है। लेनिन के शब्दों में ”वे द्वंद्वात्मक भौतिकवाद द्वारा खोले दरवाजे को नहीं देखते हैं।” यह पतनोन्मुख बुर्जुआ समाज की आम गति है। इसकी पतनशीलता मकड़जाल की तरह हर ज्ञान क्षेत्र से चिपकी हुई है। हर ज्ञान शाखा में संकट व्याप्त है। कृत्रिम चेतना का पूरा सिद्धान्त वास्तव में बुर्जुआ समाज, मूल्यों-मान्यताओं और आर्थिक आधार द्वारा पैदा की गयी विकृतियों में से एक है। इस लेख में इस परिकल्पना के निष्कर्षों और मुख्य तर्कों का आलोचनात्मक विश्लेषण रखा गया है। हम सबसे पहले इसके राजनीतिक निष्कर्षों और पूर्वाग्रहों पर चोट करेंगे। इस व्याख्या के बाद इसकी चीरफाड़ करना बेहद आसान होगा। मौजूदा प्रयोगों और बुर्जुआ वैज्ञानिकों की माथापच्ची पर एक नज़र बुर्जुआ पतनोन्मुख समाज पर भी रोशनी डालेगी। रोजर पेनरोज़ सरीखे कई भौतिकशास्त्रियों और दार्शनिकों (ड्रायफस, चोम्स्की) ने भी कृत्रिम चेतना की आलोचना की है परन्तु यह सब या तो तकनीकी पहलुओं पर चोट करते हैं (मुख्यतः गोडेल के गणितीय अपूर्णता के सिद्धांत के आधार पर जिसका सार ज्ञान की सापेक्षता है) या फिर भाववादी दृष्टिकोण से प्रस्थान करते हैं। मार्क्सवादी पद्धति के कुतुबनुमा के बग़ैर वैज्ञानिक परिकल्पनाएँ और उसको साबित करने के लिए किये जा रहे प्रयोग संयोग और तुक्केबाजी की धुँध में भटक रहे हैं।

कृत्रिम चेतना की राजनीति
पूँजीवाद का उदय माल-उत्पादन के लिए लगने वाली बड़ी-बड़ी मशीनों के दौर से हुआ था। स्टीम इंजन की खोज, प्रिण्टिंग, कम्प्यूटर, एरोप्लेन सभी इसी युग की खोजें हैं और तभी से ही श्रम और पूँजी की ताकतें भी एक दूसरे से टकराती रही हैं। मशीनीकरण ने श्रम की उत्पादकता का स्तर बढ़ाया तो दूसरी ओर बड़ी आबादी को बेरोज़गार किया जिसे अपना घर, ज़मीन छोड़ कर विस्थापित होना पड़ा। फैक्टरियों में नयी नयी मशीनरी लगायी जाती है जिससे पूँजीपति श्रम की उत्पादकता बढ़ाकर कम समय में ही पहले से ज़्यादा उत्पादन करने में सक्षम हो जाता है। वह श्रम से अतिरिक्त मूल्य निचोड़ने की अपनी दर को बढ़ा लेता है। मशीनीकरण के ज़रिये पूँजीपति लगातार अपनी लागत को कम करने का और अपने मुनाफे को बढ़ाने का प्रयास करता रहता है। बाज़ार की प्रतिस्पर्द्धा में यह एक हवस में तब्दील हो जाता है क्योंकि बाज़ार में वही पूँजीपति टिक सकता है जो कीमतों के युद्ध में विजयी होता है, यानी कि अपने उत्पाद की कीमत कम-से-कम रखता है। और कीमतों को कम से कम वही पूँजीपति रख सकता है जो लागत को कम-से-कम रखे, और लागत को कम-से-कम वही पूँजीपति रख सकता है जो मशीनीकरण और स्वचालन का जमकर इस्तेमाल करे ताकि श्रम की उत्पादकता को बढ़ाकर श्रमिकों की ही छँटनी की जा सके। यही हवस पागलपन की हद तक पहुँचती है, और बुर्जुआ विचारजगत में कई परिकल्पनाओं को जन्म देती है। वह एक ऐसे रोबोट की परिकल्पना तक जाती है जो उसकी फैक्टरी से मज़दूरों को ग़ायब कर देती है। यह तर्क हवाई है और लेख के अगले हिस्से में हम इसे तार-तार करेंगे परन्तु अभी इसे आगे बढ़ाकर देखते हैं। बुर्जुआ समाज का कलाकार, अर्थनीतिज्ञ, राजनीतिज्ञ या वैज्ञानिक एक ऐसी मशीनरी की कल्पना करता है जो लगातार मुनाफा बढ़ायेगी और इंसान को उत्पादन के मानसिक और शारीरिक कार्य से मुक्त कर देगी! इस परिकल्पना को अर्थनीति के स्तर पर ‘तकनोलॉजिकल बेरोजगारी’ कहते हैं जिस पर कई बुर्जुआ अर्थनीतिज्ञ अलग-अलग मत रखते हैं। वैसे अगर इस तर्क को मान लिया जाये तो होगा यह की उत्पादन में श्रम करने वाले रोबोट होंगे! एक बहुत बड़ी आबादी उत्पादन से बाहर धकेल दी जायेगी और कुछ पूँजीपति पृथ्वी की सम्पदाओं का दोहन करेंगे! या थोड़े समय बाद कुछ बेहतर मशीनें खुद पूँजीपतियो को हटाकर पूरी दुनिया पर कब्ज़ा कर लेंगी। बड़ी भद्दी सोच है! परन्तु यह महज़ सोच है! सबसे पहले तो यह एक फन्तासी है और अगर इस फन्तासी को यथार्थ मान लिया जाये तो बेरोज़गार आबादी इस निजा़म के खि़लाफ विद्रोह कर देगी। यह फन्तासी मुख्यतः मशीनों आदि को ऐसा औजार बनाकर पेश करती है जिसे हराना मनुष्य के दम की बात नहीं है! परन्तु यह बार-बार भूल जाती है कि हर-हमेशा डेविडों ने गोलिएथों को गुलेल से हराया है! और यह कि ”जनता के महासागर में बड़े-बड़े हथियारों के जखीरे डूब जाते हैं”(माओ)। यह परिकल्पना कभी उपन्यासों, कविताओं, फिल्मों, गानों में, यानी की अधिरचना का एक अंग बनकर अपनी उपस्थिति दर्ज कराती है। असिमोव की पूरी रोबोट  शृंखला, इ.रोबोट, मेट्रिक्स, ए.आई. सरीखी फिल्में परिकल्पनाओं में आर्थिक हवस का मूर्त रूप होती हैं। हर व्यवस्था का आर्थिक आधार अपने अनुकूल अधिरचना खड़ा करता है जो उसके विकास में मददगार होता है। आदि काल से तमाम जादुई परिकल्पनाएँ इसी तरह मनुष्य की चेतना  को उसके मूलाधार से बाँधे रखने का काम करती हैं। कृत्रिम चेतना का भी वास्तविक कार्य यही है। यह वैज्ञानिक परिकल्पना पूँजीवादी मूलाधार का समर्थन करती है और श्रम के शिविर पर सवाल खड़ा करती है, जनता के प्रतिरोध को नकारती है और उसके अजेय शौर्य को भोंडा करके पेश करती है। पूँजीवाद मनुष्य को उसकी ही रचना के खिलाफ खड़ा करता है; यह फन्तासी मनुष्य को उसकी ही रचना के खि़लाफ खड़ा कर उसे मनुष्य से अपराजेय बना देती है। यह विडम्बना है कि पहले तो यह व्यवस्था करोड़ों इंसानों को बेरोज़गार रखती है, उन्हें भूखा रखती है, उनके श्रम शक्ति सम्पन्न शरीर को और मष्तिष्क को निष्क्रिय रखती है और दूसरी तरफ उस तक्नोलोजी में पैसा लगाती है जिससे कि मानव को हटाकर ”चेतना सम्पन्न रोबोट” बनाया जा सके। सामान्य चेतना क्या कहती है? तर्क क्या कहता है? क्या एक सीधा-सादा तर्क यह नहीं है कि जिस देश में रोज 9,000 बच्चे भूख और कुपोषण से मरते हों तो क्या वहाँ 58 लाख टन अनाज गोदामों में सड़ाना बेवकूफी नहीं है? इस सवाल को हल करने के लिए किसी सुपर कम्पयूटर की ज़रूरत नहीं है जो एक सेकण्ड में 2000 लाख चाल सोच सकता है। यह महज़ कल्पनालोक में अच्छी लगती है। दूसरे विश्व युद्ध के बाद से यह महज़ परिकल्पना के स्तर तक मौजूद है। यहाँ हम आगे बढ़कर इसके उस तर्क पर चोट करेंगे जो मनुष्य की रचना का अमूर्तिकरण इस हद तक करता है कि यह अमूर्त रचना जीवित हो उठती है।

कृत्रिम चेतना का दर्शन
कृत्रिम चेतना का विचार दूसरे विश्व युद्ध के बाद अस्तित्व में आया। कई देशों की पूँजीवादी सरकारों ने बढ़-चढ़कर इसमें पैसा लगाया। ट्यूरिंग का कम्प्यूटेशन का सिद्धान्त इस क्षेत्र का मुख्य स्रोत था। मनुष्य के तंत्रिका तन्त्र को बहुत ही निम्न स्तर के तन्त्र से समझने कि कोशिशें की गयीं। ट्यूरिंग ने 1950 में ”कम्प्यूटिंग मशीनरी एंड इंटेलिजेंस” नामक अपने लेख में आर्टिफिशियल इण्टेलिजेंस का आधार रखा। विख्यात ट्यूरिंग टेस्ट जो किसी मशीन के इण्टेलिजेंस का टेस्ट होता है इसी लेख में प्रस्तुत किया गया। 1950 के दौर में मैकार्थी, मिन्स्की, नेविल, सिमोन आदि वैज्ञानिकों ने इसको आगे बढाया। यही वह दौर था जब अमेरिका भी ऐसे ही कृत्रिम मशीन अनुवादक की तलाश में था जो रुसी लेखों को अनुवादित कर सके जिससे कि स्पुतनिक के बारे में अमरीका को पूरी जानकारी हो। परन्तु जल्द ही यह लड़खड़ा कर गिर गया। आर्टिफिशियल इण्टेलिजेंस उम्मीद पर खरा नहीं उतरा और 1973 में इंग्लैण्ड ने लाईटहिल रिपोर्ट के आधार पर इस अनुसंधान को सिर्फ दो विश्वविद्यालयों के अलावा हर जगह बन्द कर दिया। पर फिर से 1982 में कृत्रिम चेतना के विकास के क्षेत्र में जमकर निवेश हुआ जो कि 1988 तक आते आते फिर से धराशायी होकर गिर पड़ा। परन्तु फिर से एक बार इस क्षेत्र में निवेश होना शुरू हुआ और कई सफल कम्प्यूटर बने जो मनुष्य द्वारा निर्धारित कार्यों को कर सकते थे। शोध आकलन, सर्जिकल ऑपरेशन, लॉजिस्टिक, कम्प्यूटर गेम, प्ले स्टेशन, डेटा माईनिंग, अन्तरिक्ष विमान, हथियारों, गूगल सर्च इंजिन व अन्य सर्च इंजन में ”कृत्रिम चेतना” की अवधारणा का जमकर प्रयोग होने लगा है। परन्तु आज 70 साल बीत जाने के बाद भी चेतन मशीन की परिकल्पना ने जीवन नहीं प्राप्त किया है और न ही करेगी चाहे इसको लेकर पीटर नोर्विग कितना ही चिल्ला लें।
यह बात हम यूँ ही नहीं कह रहे हैं। इसके कारण वैज्ञानिक और दार्शनिक धरातल पर मौजूद है। दार्शनिक धरातल वैज्ञानिक धरातल का ही सामान्यकरण है। आखिर यह कृत्रिम चेतना क्या है? वास्तव में, ये कम्प्यूटर प्रोग्राम है। एक कम्प्यूटर प्रोग्राम अपने कण्डीशनल ऑपरेटरों के ज़रिये तमाम सम्भावित परिघटनाओं के बारे में कुछ पूर्वाकलन कर सकता है। उन्नत से उन्नत कम्प्यूटर अपने गणितीय ऑपरेटरों के ज़रिये कुछ ही सम्भावित परिस्थितियों के कुछ ही सम्भावित नतीजों के कुछ ही सम्भावित पूर्वानुमान लगा सकते हैं। ये प्रोग्राम दिये गये तथ्यों, आँकड़ों और गणनाओं पर ही चल सकते हैं, और नयी गणनाएँ भी ये उनके आधार पर ही कर सकते हैं। मनुष्य के पास एक शक्ति होती है, जो किसी भी कम्प्यूटर प्रोग्राम के पास नहीं हो सकती है-कल्पना और भावना की शक्ति। और अधिकांश निर्णयों के आधार में हर-हमेशा कल्पना, भावना और तर्कों तथा तथ्यों की भूमिकाएँ होती हैं। निश्चित तौर पर, ऐसे में कोई उन्नत से उन्नत कृत्रिम चेतना का प्रोग्राम सभी सम्भावित परिस्थितियों का आकलन नहीं कर सकता। ऐसे में कोई भी नयी अकल्पित, अनाकलित लेकिन निश्चित तौर पर सम्भावित परिस्थिति उस कृत्रिम चेतना के कार्यक्रम को दुष्क्रिया की स्थिति में डाल सकती है; उनकी ही भाषा में कहें तो ‘सिस्टम एरर’ पैदा कर सकती है! ये सारे कम्प्यूटर और उन्हें चलाने वाले सॉफ्टवेयर और उनकी एल्गोरिथम कैसे मनुष्य के मस्तिष्क के समान सोच पाएँगे? ये कम्पयूटर सिलिकॉन और जर्मेनियम से बनी चिप में इंसान द्वारा तय गणितीय मानकों पर आँकड़ों को व्यवस्थित करते हैं व उनसे आकलन निकालते हैं; क्रिस्टोफेल कॉडवेल के शब्दों में यह कम्प्यूटर ऑपरेटेबिलिटी के ठप्पे से भरा होता है यानी यह आँकडों को जमा करने और आकलन के मानवीय तरीकों का प्रतिबिम्ब मात्र है और कम्प्यूटर पर लगे सिलिकॉन और जेर्मेनियम का वजन बढ़ाने और करोड़ों चिप लगाने के बावजूद यह यही काम करेगा! यह मनुष्य की तरह द्वंद्वात्मक तौर पर नहीं सोच सकता है। चाहे वह कास्पोरोव से शतरंज खेलने वाला डीप ब्लू हो या नोर्विग का गूगल सर्च इंजन! शतरंज के खाने अगर बढ़ा दिया जाये या घोड़े की चाल बदल दी जाये तो कम्प्यूटर हार जायेगा। एक और बोर्ड गेम ‘गो’ में कृत्रिम चेतना वाले कम्पयूटर को नौसिखिये भी हरा देते हैं! और वैसे भी हमारा ब्रह्माण्ड तो इन खेलों के नियमों से बंधा नहीं है, पदार्थ लगातार विकासमान है और पदार्थ के हर स्तर पर अलग नियम काम करते हैं! उन्नत से उन्नत कम्प्यूटर जो काम सबसे अच्छी तरीके से कर सकता है वह यह है कि वह मनुष्य द्वारा सिखाये रास्ते पर अधिकतम सम्भव सटीकता से चले। दरअसल, यह मनुष्य की चेतना का ही प्रतिबिम्ब है! मनुष्य और मशीन को अलग करके नहीं देखा जा सकता है यह उसके अजैविक जगत का हिस्सा है। यह मशीन मानसिक श्रम करने का औज़ार है जिस तरह हथोड़ा शारीरिक श्रम को आसान बनाने का औज़ार होता है। परन्तु कई वैज्ञानिक प्रचारित करते हैं वे अलग से नयी चेतना का निर्माण कर रहे हैं और वे कदम-कदम पर इन कम्प्यूटरों की कभी जानवरों से तो कभी मनुष्य से तुलना करते रहते हैं। गूगल के पीटर नोर्विग ने अपनी किताब में लिखा है कि जैसे चिड़िया कि उड़ान को हम कृत्रिम रूप से हवाई जहाज़ से सृजित कर सकते हैं वैसे हम चेतना को भी किसी आधुनिक मशीन में सृजित कर सकते हैं। यह भाववाद है! आप जो चाहे वह नहीं कर सकते! कल आप इसी तर्क के आधार पर कहेंगे चलिए नयी धरती बनाते हैं, चलो क्यों न नया ब्रह्माण्ड बनाया जाये! खैर कल्पनालोक से बाहर निकलते हैं! हॉब्स को उद्धृत करते हुए वह मस्तिष्क को कैल्कुलेटर बताते हैं जिसमे चेतना गणितीय सूत्रों के द्वारा प्रवेश करती है! चेतना आखिर है क्या? रंग, खुशबू, ठोस, गीला, कर्कश आदि क्या हैं? क्या यह गणितीय सूत्र हैं जिन्हें कम्प्यूटर को समझाया जा सकता है? मनुष्य की सामाजिक चेतना पिछले 4000 साल से विकास कर रही है। इसके विकास का इतिहास मनुष्यता का इतिहास है, यह मनुष्य के आत्मगत जगत और उसके वस्तुगत जगत का इतिहास है। दरअसल मनुष्य को वस्तुगत और आत्मगत में अलग नहीं किया जा सकता है, जैसा कि फायरबाख ने कहा है कि मनुष्य वस्तुगत-आत्मगत होता है। मनुष्य का आत्मिक और भौतिक जगत एकीकृत होते हैं। यह वह रेखा है जो यांत्रिक भौतिकवादी को द्वंद्वात्मक भौतिकवादी से अलग करती है। न मशीन द्वंद्ववाद समझ सकती है और न ही यांत्रिक भौतिकवादी! इसी कारण कृत्रिम चेतना का यह सिद्धांत मानवद्रोही है। यह मानवीय सारतत्व पर चोट करता है। यह मानवीय सार को एक मशीन द्वारा बनाने कि बात करता है। परन्तु ”मानवीय सारतत्व अमूर्त रूप में हर व्यक्ति में विराजमान नहीं होता है। वास्तव में, यह सम्पूर्ण सामाजिक रिश्तों का समुच्चय है”(मार्क्स)। यह मार्क्सवाद के ज्ञान सिद्धांत के खि़लाफ जाता है। श्रमशील मनुष्य को चिन्तनशील मनुष्य से अलग नहीं किया जा सकता है।
इसलिए यह समझना कोई ज़्यादा मुश्किल काम नहीं कि ज्ञान एक वैज्ञानिक वस्तु होता है जिसे मशीन समझ नहीं सकती है। वह बस अनुकरण कर सकती है। समझने के लिए आलोचनात्मक विवेक चाहिए, एक द्वंद्वात्मक विचार प्रणाली चाहिये। परन्तु कृत्रिम चेतना के अनुसार ये मशीनें मानव से बेहतर सोचेंगी और आगे भी बढेंगी। यह सब कोरी बकवास है। यह परिकल्पना ज्ञान को महज प्लेटो, अरस्तु, सुकरात, हेगेल, माइकेलेंजेलो, आइन्स्टाइन आदि के अन्दर ढूँढती है न कि सम्पूर्ण मानव समाज के व्यवहार में। यह मानवीय संघर्ष के इतिहास को, व्यवहार से पैदा हुए और विकसित होते ज्ञान कि प्रक्रिया को ढाँपता है। यह सोच मेहनतकश जनता को कोल्हू का बैल समझती है जिसे चलाने के लिये विशिष्ट बुद्धि सम्पन्न व्यक्तियों की ज़रुरत होती है और अब यह कार्य कृत्रिम चेतना करेगी। यह बुर्जुआ राज्य सत्ता की सेवा में लगने को तत्पर है और वस्तुतः कृत्रिम चेतना के प्रयोग से निकले सॉफ्टवेयर सर्विलिएंस में प्रयोग हो रहे हैं। आर्टिफिशियल इण्टेलिजेंस सरीखी परिकल्पनाएँ बुर्जुआ विज्ञान की सीमाओं और खोखलेपन को सतह पर ले आती हैं।
असल में कृत्रिम चेतना के प्रयोग और उससे निकले कम्प्यूटर क्या हैं? और वे कैसे प्रयोग में आयेंगे? ये कम्प्यूटर निश्चित तौर पर मानवीय श्रम की उत्पादकता को बढ़ाएँगे, बेहतर मशीनें बनेंगी परन्तु यह ध्यान में रखना होगा कि पूँजीवाद में विज्ञान पूँजी का गुलाम होता है व मुनाफे की सेवा में लगता है। इसका एक घिनौना उदाहरण एक कृत्रिम चेतना की अवधारणा पर आधारित रोबोट रोक्सी है जो सिर्फ इसलिये बनायी गयी है की वह आदमी की कामवासना को शान्त कर सके! पूँजीवाद का संकट विज्ञान के स्तर पर भी मौजूद रहता है, बावजूद इसके विज्ञान और तकनीक विकासमान रहती हैं, भले ही वह गति मन्थर हो। ऐसे में विज्ञान का रुग्ण और विकृत इस्तेमाल होता है। वह युद्धक हथियार बनाने, रॉक्सी जैसे रोबोट बनाने और उम्र घटाने की दवाइयाँ बनाने आदि में इस्तेमाल किया जाता है। कृत्रिम चेतना शब्द गलत है और इस तकनीक का मूल प्रतिबिम्ब नहीं करता है।
कृत्रिम चेतना वास्तव में कुछ भी नहीं है। यह मनुष्य की चेतना का ही विस्तार है। यह स्वचालन की ही एक नयी मंजिल है। कुछ मानवीय कार्यों को, जो कि पूर्वाकलित किये जा सकते हैं, अंजाम देने के लिए कुछ ऐसे उपकरणों का निर्माण किया जा सकता है और किया जा रहा है जो स्वयं एक हद तक पहले से दर्ज और आकलित निर्णय ले सकते हैं। लेकिन यह कहना कि कृत्रिम चेतना से लैस रोबोट किसी दिन मनुष्य का स्थान ले लेंगे, एक निहायत मूर्खतापूर्ण सपना है। ऐसा कभी नहीं हो सकता है। जो मानव चेतना की प्रकृति और चरित्र को नहीं समझते हैं, वही इस खोखले सपने के नशे में डूब सकते हैं।