TED Community » Dr Sivaram Hariharan

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I'm passionate about

Music, Vedic Chanting, and writing fiction other than my profession as a professor,

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• A reply on Conversation: Is there a Universal Mean Time (UMT) for all of the Universe?

  Mar 16 2013: Is there a NOW for the entire cosmos? Probably this is the supreme consciousness that the Vedic scriptures are alluding to. What is happening NOW (at this very moment) at a galaxy, say a billion light years from us. Will science ever break this barrier to universal concurrency?

• A reply on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?

  Mar 15 2013: Of course, I agree Craig that sport itself has its share of cronyism where many a time wealthier clubs use brutal money power, the NY Yankess being one such example to have done it throughout the history of the majors in their journey to a plethora of pennants and WS titles. But there is something called charter in every sport and this charter precisely acts as a deterrent against cronyism or at least supposed to on paper. And this charter works as the corrective mechanism and goes good ways towards leveling the field in this physical realm of human endeavor (sport) where only the best is supposed to prevail. Sport (along with its charter of fair play) can also be our teacher in this regard as to how to regulate capitalism from crossing that thin gray line separating genuine excellence from cronyism. Thanks for ur response. Dr Sivaram Hariharan, Bhaarath (India)

• A reply on Conversation: Air Air Everywhere but O2 Nowhere . (Is it possible for oxygen levels on Earth to irreversibly plummet?)

  Mar 8 2013: Ps see the latest news on global CO2 levels.
  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/Carbon-dioxide-levels-show-biggest-spike-in-15-years/articleshow/18850819.cms
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  A reply on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?

  Mar 4 2013: U said it Jeffrey. Natural systems are epitomes of controlled capitalism without the room for any toxic excesses. Moreover, nature and its myriad systems are always in the game of getting better and better and weeding out detrimental issues. Dr Sivaram Hariharan, Bhaarath (India)

• A reply on Conversation: Air Air Everywhere but O2 Nowhere . (Is it possible for oxygen levels on Earth to irreversibly plummet?)

  Mar 3 2013: The thread here is more concerned with the dynamics of maintenance of O2 levels rather than how O2 is generated. My POV here is how we humans have taken this life-sustaining thin blanket of air for granted. When I say thin, I mean it in comparison with the radius of the earth sphere. The thickness of the atmosphere from MSL to the stratosphere pales in comparison with the radius of our planet. Hypothetically, if we could shrink our earth to the size of a standard sized basketball. the air would be no greater than few microns thick (someone help me with the exact mathematical proportions here). In this context, I believe that we humans are dangerously playing around the margins by our increasing carbon footprint as well as irreversible destruction of natural habitats. Forget about the scenario where O2 levels become zero, the scenario of O2 levels falling to say even 75% of what it is now, will mean catastrophic consequences for our ecosystem. This is what I wanted to say at the origin of this thread Gale. Thanks for ur response. Dr Sivaram Hariharan, Bhaarath (India).

• A comment on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?

  Mar 2 2013: I often equate capitalism with highly competitive sport where only the best prevail. If we take sports as an analogy and good old American baseball as an example within and take pitching within that, we all could agree that the best pitcher ups a teams advantage to win. To be best, the starting pitcher needs to have a gun of an arm and have pitching variations and sustain this arm power for at least 6 innings before he runs out of steam and gets relief. Moreover, he needs to sustain it over the course of a long MLB season. How hard a pitcher can throw and how often he pitches is limited by the tendency to get injured. There is of course a limit imposed by biology on even the strongest of pitchers. Even the best need rest. Therefore injuries act as a balance point for speed in pitching. (No doubt, the hard throwing closers are meant only to last a max of 2 - 3 innings. Beyond that it is injury zone for the pitcher and this in turn compromises the starting rotation and the bullpen.) That is why bb managers take great care in this regard over the course of a long season. The best manager (and this gets really true for post-season bb) is the one that calls for an adroit balance between the vital factors of talent, power, speed, injury, and rest. And this is true for all of sport. Similarly, high speed reckless capitalism as we see it today is highly prone to injuring itself as well as the system.
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  A reply on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?

  Mar 2 2013: Greg, U are so right when U say that we are more natural than intelligent. In fact, I would say that is a compliment to us humans because the intelligence governing natural systems is far far beyond what a human being could conjure at least at this point of time. Maybe, in the far future, provided we do not annihilate each other in wars and terrorism or even through suicidal eco-destruction, human intellect could catch up with this natural intelligence that is inherent in all things living and non-living in this universe. Regardless, Resource Management Systems in nature are ALWAYS regulated. There is no space for excess for even the goodies, leave alone those that are detrimental to the system. There is stringent regulation at all times and at all points so that the system does not get skewed and tips over irreversibly. That would explain the financial collapse of 2008 because the intellectual (albeit theoretical) financial derivatives that were supposed to click big time failed in the real world in absence of tough balances and checks. Each and every aspect of bio systems, starting from a simple virus cell to a complex ecosystem is finely balanced and regulated Greg. Thanks for your reply. Dr Sivaram Hariharan, Bhaarath (India).
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  A reply on Conversation: Air Air Everywhere but O2 Nowhere . (Is it possible for oxygen levels on Earth to irreversibly plummet?)

  Mar 1 2013: Anything could happen to this dynamically equilbriated mixture called air. Either O2 could plummet or other gases could go up in their proportion. Regardless, what would happen if this life sustaining proportion was affected irreversibly. Even if we consider all the other gases in this air-mixture other than O2 to remain constant and O2 dropping down, wouldn't that be a monumental global catastrophe. Everyday, we humans breathe in the air and it seems we have taken the air on this globe for granted and do not even think of the situation if the air composition changes for the worse. Dr. Sivaram Hariharan, Bhaarath (India)
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  A comment on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?

  Feb 27 2013: The question is not whether capitalism is sustainable but whether capitalism as we see it today is. Once again nature and its myriad systems become our teachers here. It is inevitable that resources/energy will always flow from where they are high to where they are low. If we consider the energy currency our own body uses (glucose/ATP), we find that the excess glucose is stored away as glycogen in the liver. But then this storage capacity is not indefinite and our system finds ways to bleed off this excess storage in a manner that is salubrious to the entire system. Because too much of glycogen storage becomes toxic to the body and manifests as disease. In a similar vein, too much money concentrated in the hands of few individuals would become toxic to the entire financial system unless there are viable valves to bleed off the excess in such a manner as to benefit human society at large. And needless to say that the present global financial system is diseased for the lack of such bleeder valves. And surely, if the system follows the same trajectory as of now, it is doomed to collapse in a heap in the near future. We need to learn from mother nature as to how it manages biological systems and apply the same laws to our financial systems for long term sustenance and viability. Dr Sivaram Hariharan , Bhaarath (India)
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  A comment on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?

  Feb 27 2013: I even take this further to say that without capitalism, life and society would cease to exist. Financial and resource gradients are always needed to efficiently run society. We are are all times engaged in the act of giving and taking even within the confines of our homes. And moment there is a giver and a taker, a resource/financial gradient is established and one can never escape these gradients in any walk of life. Even if we were the last standing human on this planet there would still be a resource gradient as we would be taking from the Earth for our sustenance. In the deepest recesses of biology, both at the macro and molecular level, resource gradients become the backbone of efficient ecological and cellular processes respectively and become vital to life itself. The question then becomes as to how efficiently steer these resource gradients with the aim to maintain long term sustenance and not short term gains as exhibited by some avaricious mandarins of Wall Street and other global financial centers. At the same time life processes and biological gradients do not go by the misguided and idealistic logic of equally distributing resources like Communism. It is strictly done on a requirement basis with stringent checks and balances by enzymes and other biological agents. Dr Sivaram Hariharan, Bhaarath (India)