James Lovelock is fast approaching his one hundredth birthday. However, neither the fragilities of age nor the passage of time seems to have succeeded in diminishing the scientific fervor and curiosity of one of the greatest and grandest thinkers of our era – or for that matter, any era. Lovelock’s very DNA seems to be informed with a preternatural propensity to inquire, introspect and infer. It is with this intrepid sense of inquisitiveness, that Lovelock forays into a controversial subject that has almost created a schism between two divergent schools of thought, in his latest book. Extremely thought provoking and for the lack of a better word, arguable, Lovelock brings his infectious exuberance to bear as he contemplates the prospect of hyperintelligent robots (Cyborgs) taking over humanity. If not with a downright sense of glee, Lovelock seems to welcome what might otherwise be viewed as a frightening turn of events, with a degree of astounding optimism.

James Lovelock shot to fame with his famous “Gaia Hypothesis”. The Gaia Hypothesis has at its core, the principle that the Earth can be comprehended as one sole, complex, self-regulating system. In this integrated system, every organism and its inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. The name “Gaia”, was originally suggested to him by the Nobel Prize winning novelist William Golding. In “Novacene”, Lovelock extends this principle to venture into the convoluted realm of Artificial Intelligence, and Deep Learning. Aiding and abetting Lovelock in his venture is his extraordinarily able amanuensis, the Sunday Times author and writer, Bryan Appleyard.  

According to Lovelock, humanity will soon witness the end of the “Anthropocene” – the era in which humans were successfully able to channel the forces of nature – especially sunlight – with a motive to harnessing the same to embellish commercial purposes. Beginning with the invention of the practical fuel-burning engine by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, mankind has made exponential progress in terms of accelerating scientific, technological and economic developments, thereby ushering in prosperous times. Now, according to Lovelock, the world is careening towards yet another new age, the “Novacene”. The Novacene will be characterized by the presence and actions of cyborgs that can think 10,000 times faster than any of us, and will program themselves and their successors in a manner beyond the remit of human comprehension.

What if the cyborgs with their exponential and unsurpassed degree of intellect conspire and collude to first transform human beings as lab rats before proceeding to decimate the homo sapiens completely? Lovelock provides an absorbing defense against such a gloomy probability. He argues that both the cyborgs and their ‘organic’ founders would exist in a carefully calibrated state of equilibrium because of one common integral objective – survival.

The greatest threat to Planet Earth is death by overheating because of an unavoidable dependence on a single star, the Sun. The only rational manner of countering this threat is to keep the planet cool. This objective can only be achieved, when earth is teeming with life. Hence, Lovelock proposes, these cyborgs will join hands with humans in implementing new and novel ways of re-engineering the planet so that it always remains in a “livable” state.

Novacene is sprinkled with exquisitely delightful anecdotes. My personal favourite happens to be the one involving Professor Frank Hawking of the National Institute of Medical Research and his child. Intrigued by Lovelock and his buddy Owen Lidwell’s refusal to inflict burns on anesthetized rabbits – and experimenting on themselves instead – during the course of researching burn wounds, Hawking invited Lovelock over to his house for discussing the outcomes of the experiment. Sometime in the evening, Mrs. Hawking requested Lovelock to hold her newborn so that she could tend to the food. Due to this contrivance of chance and coincidence, James Lovelock ended up carrying Stephen Hawking in his arms, for a while.

It is not as if Lovelock welcomes the prospect of a symbiotic relationship between Cyborgs and human beings with Panglossian impudence or imprudence. He recognises the potential perils and pitfalls that might upset the delicate balance between man and machine. For example, there is no knowing whether cybernetic intelligence would accord uncompromising respect and recognition to the three indispensable commands for robots first postulated by Issac Asimov. The Cyborgs would be released from human commands because they will have evolved from code written by themselves. “It seems we are still in thrall to a play written in 1920: R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek, a sardonic Czech writer who was nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times but never won it. I imagine this confirmed his bleakly realistic view of life. ‘If dogs could talk,’ he said, ‘perhaps we would find it as hard to get along with them as we do with people.”

Yet another distressing possibility would be a decision made by Cyborgs to abandon Planet Earth for more “conducive” climes. “The needs of cyborgs are quite different from ours. Oxygen is a nuisance, not a vital necessity. There is far too much water for comfort. Maybe they will decide to move to Mars, a planet hopelessly unsuited for wet carbonaceous lives like ours, but which might be quite comfortable for dry-silicon- or carbon-based life of an IT kind. Would they go further than Mars? In practice, while thought could be rapid for our descendants, the normal limitations of the universe, such as the speed of light, remain as restricting as ever. Will they have the capacity to move out into our galaxy and even the universe?” What Lovelock leaves unsaid is the ghastly probability of the cyborgs decimating life on Earth before proceeding to their future abode.

On a superficial level, Lovelock mulls about the form which a potential cyborg would take. Robots have been popularized in a plethora of sci-fi movies and novels as possessing enormous heads and slanting eyes. According to the author there are three primary reasons for such a conception, or rather misconception: a quasi-religious impulse that perceives humans as the summit of creation and, therefore, attributes the same physiology to any successors; a self-perpetuating belief that if the exterior mirrors a human visage, the insides also must reflect human thoughts, beliefs and conscience hence allowing man to trust the machine; and finally an intrigue on the idea of the uncanny, as defined by Sigmund Freud. “Freud wrote of the strangeness of dolls or waxworks and argued that this strangeness arose from ordinary things that were, in some way, not quite right. This explains the extraordinary dramatic power of the humanoid robot in science fiction – it looks like one of us, but we are baffled by its motives and feelings…”

It is not just about the Novacene that Lovelock harbours positive aspirations. His take on the Anthropocene is also permeated with optimism. “My last word on the Anthropocene,” is a shout of joy, joy at the colossal expansion of our knowledge of the world and the cosmos that this age has produced.” This egregious, ebullient, and effervescent outlook is a monumental testimony to the manner in which the man has chosen to live and lead a greater part of his illustrious life.

big basket is India’s first comprehensive online megastore that has under its umbrella a gargantuan portfolio of more than 20000 products spread across more than 1000 brands, all of which cater to a burgeoning number of 4 million customers. In their book, “Saying No to Jugaad”, authors Hari and Subramanian, both of whom are also employees at big basket, dissect in a succinct manner, the growth, hits as well as misses experienced by the company during the course of its spectacular rise. The key victories and vicissitudes that charted the trajectory of big basket’s growth are captured in a refreshingly candid manner that is totally devoid of either chest thumping or finger pointing.

As the authors reveal in a matter of fact vein, big basket in its nascent phase was given the cold shoulder by the much vaunted venture capital behemoth Tiger Global Management. Lee Fixel, the highly rated and touted partner in Tiger, subsequent to an interview with the founders of big basket decided to concentrate his investments in a rival grocery outlet Grofers instead. Softbank and Sequoia Capital also choose to place their bets with Grofers. But, yet in spite of the monetary backing and the reputational glitz, Grofers could not succeed, courtesy unsatisfactory customer experience.

The authors distill in a lucid manner the key principles that form the uncompromising edifice behind the functioning of big basket. The overarching values that underpin each such principle is customer satisfaction. In every key meeting that is held at the organisation, a pair of shoes epitomizing a standing customer is placed in the room. Decision makers place themselves in the shoes of the customer prior to arriving at any choice, conclusion, or verdict. It is this maniacal focus on the customer that has driven big basket to promulgate three seemingly incredulous principles, that are innovative in their conception but at the same time risky in their outcomes considering the nature of the business. A “no questions asked” policy for granting customer refunds in all cases of quality dissatisfaction; a 10% cash back on the entire value of the customer order in the event the delivery is delayed even by a minute; and instructions to the delivery personnel not to contact the customer for last mile navigation or for any other reason. The delivery person has to seek assistance from either the operations controller at the transshipment hub or an agent at customer service. The fact that big basket is not just successfully functioning but also thriving in an intensely competitive low margin battleground bears monument not just to their principles but also their processes.

As the authors painstakingly illustrate, the process aspect of business is accorded a lodestone status within the company. Whether it be the use of third party technology for optimizing the delivery routes so as to minimize the time taken for deliveries (big basket has a tie up with a Bangalore based technology firm Locus for route optimisation), or spawning a state-of-the art Data Analytics ecosystem that brings niche analytical expertise which can then be swiftly deployed to address pressing problems at scale, big basket is a continuously evolving, experimenting and experiential hub of ingenuity that always strives to add value to its customers.

As is the explicit commitment to serve the customer better, so is the preternaturally reclusive nature of the founders. As the authors inform the reader, only one of the founders is active on social media, and greatly reluctant to position themselves in the arch lights of fame. Their substantial contribution to the company emanates from their shadows. But as the authors articulate in the book, the founders always stick to the basics and there is absolutely no splurging of monetary resources in a flamboyant manner. Every acquisition is a well thought out outcome and every new policy a bedrock of long term solutions thinking. For example, the company had realised that in India a  bulk of the grocery purchases (70–75 per cent) was planned at the beginning of the month. Around 20 per cent represented “top-up” purchases mid-month or mid-week. And 5 per cent of the purchases were from local specialty stores. Bigbasket had been servicing the planned monthly purchase and had been contemplating catering to the top-up requirements through an express service. And that is how the company ended up acquiring Delyver, a firm specializing in catering to the top up and exigency purchase requirements of the customers.

Another aspect of big basket that has endeared the grocery chain to its customers, is the attention bestowed on maintaining and enhancing quality. When big basket decided to deliver freshly cut vegetables to the customer, not only was the pricing kept very reasonable, there was also substantial back end research as big basket tied up with the Central Food Technology and Research Institute (CFTRI) at Mysuru and signed license agreements with them for usage of relevant technology. As a result, big basket now has over 100 SKUs for just cut vegetables now. Similarly, when big basket made their foray into climacteric fruits (a stage of fruit ripening associated with increased ethylene production and a rise in cellular respiration), it introduced mechanised grading and BRIX—sugar acid ratio testing—for most of the fruits to ensure a consistent size and taste experience. The company also established an integrated packing house at Ananthapur, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in September 2017 to aggregate the fruits and ship them across the country.

At the beginning of the book, the authors warn the readers that the book is “not a panegyric about the founders or the company”. True to their assertion, little to no effort is spent on waxing eloquent over either the achievements or expertise of Hari Menon, V S Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari, and V S Ramesh, the founders. Instead the book concentrates on the milestones, management and measures that have made big basket the organisation this it is today.

Saying No to Jugaad – a rousing read.

Following closely in the footsteps of Rebecca Mackinnon and Shoshana Zuboff, Jillian York in her interesting, upcoming and provocative work, “Silicon Values”, distills the various anomalies involved in “content moderation” that is practiced (or abdicated) by the giants of technology such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Ms. York brings to bear her formidable experience with and exposure to content moderation and platform intricacies in alluding to various hits and misses that both distinguish and tarnish Big Tech. A writing style that is bereft of pretentiousness and hesitancy makes Silicon Values a riveting read.

Ms. York bemoans the fact that the most aspired for and valued attribute, in the form of freedom of speech is controlled and curbed by a handful of gargantuan personalities striding the very pinnacle of Big Tech and whose actions are influenced by and beholden to powerful political connections, financial prospects and influential lobbying. Tweets and posts of influential and award winning activists such as Wael Abbas, that not just expose, but also educate the people about police brutality and other abuses in Egypt, are thus take down by the social media sites after succumbing to intense ‘back room’ pressure exerted by either the concerned Government or people wielding power. These actions resorted to by the social media sites go against the very grain of freedom of expression, a fundamental right that has been recognised from time immemorial. As Ms. York educates her readers, isegoria, a concept that allowed all male citizens in Athens, to address the democratic assembly irrespective of the fact as to whether such citizens were rich or poor, was given total prominence. The only lacuna here being the disservice meted out to women.

Ms. York although chastising all the social media sites, reserves her ire for Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. The company has content moderation staff spread across three tiers. The staff at the lowest level, namely Tier 3, have a thankless task. They are forced to spend entire days viewing gruesome imagery and making instantaneous decisions to take down or leave in place a post. With a meagre paycheck totaling US$28,800 per annum and as pitiful as US$6 a day in India, these employees receive negligible to no training not to mention an absolute lack of mental health support. This has the unfortunate consequence of posts of import and gravity being mistakenly taken down.

In order to minimize such acts and to preserve the basic ethos of human rights across the globe, the Global Network Initiative (“GNI”) was incorporated. Yahoo!, along with Google and Microsoft were the founding members and a bevy of NGOs, academic institutions and shareholder groups joined the organisation. However, as Ms. York illustrates, a reliance on a multi-stakeholder model has rendered GNI, more or less, ineffective. Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter, then joined together to form the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (“GIFCT”). The objective of GIFCT was “disrupting terrorist abuse of members’ digital platforms.” Due to a deficiency in the definitions of the word terrorism etc, the work of GIFCT has also left a lot to be desired.

Ms. York also highlights other notable perils of the content moderation evil such as the takedown of posts by sex workers following the promulgations of the SESTA and FOSTA acts by the United States Government. Many of these sex workers who were reliant on their connections formed across the online network for information on client screening and other safety measures found themselves in the lurch. Another area of concern is technology assisted content moderation. Using tools of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Tech attempts content moderation, but sometimes with hilarious outcomes. Thus, the residents of the English town of Scunthorpe find their accounts taken down or even refused registration because the word lying between the alphabets S and h represents a common profanity. London’s Horniman Museum found its own spam filters blocking it since the filters perceived “Horniman” as akin to “horny man.” Another problem innate with content moderation is lack of expertise with regional languages/vernacular. Luganda the most widely spoken language in Uganda with more than 8 million users hardly finds content moderation experts, proficient to analyse acceptable and offensive posts.

Similarly, there seem to be divergent standards for allowing and rejecting “hate speech” and exhortations to violence. This is where Ms. York’s book is a huge let down. Her concentration seems to be so fixated only on the misdeeds and misguided philosophies of the extreme right, that a person who is unaware of her stellar credentials might be forgiven for believing her to be an integral part of a cabalistic left wing group. Whether it be waxing eloquent on the consequences of Brandenburg v Ohio decision, the misplaced rants of Donald Trump, or the “Hindutva” extremism in India, Ms. York seems to harbour an obtuse illusion that violence is the sole preserve of the right. Hence there is no reference to the merciless and systematic killing (and not just persecution) of the minorities in Pakistan, the planned elimination of right wing campaigners by the Left Government in the Indian state of West Bengal and a myriad other relevant scenarios.

On the whole, Silicon Values in an invigorating, insightful and incisive distillation of the surveillance imposed upon free speech by the bastion that is Big Tech in the digital world.

(“Silicon Values” will be released by Verso Books (US) on the 2^nd of March 2021)

The co-founder and CEO of NETFLIX, Reed Hastings and acclaimed business author Erin Meyer blow open the lid on an unusual and unique workplace culture that permeates the DNA of one of the world’s most successful entertainment companies. After Ricardo Semler’s groundbreaking memoir “Maverick”, that more than merely raised eyebrows with its sensational disclosure of some not so conventional workplace practices at Semco Corporation, Brazil, “No Rules Rules” is perhaps the only other book of this kind in terms of impact and introspection. A finalist for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2020, “No Rules Rules” even though mostly an exercise in self-approbation, has candour written all over it.

Netflix houses more than 8,600 odd employees produces its own award winning original TV shows and entertains more than 150 million customers dispersed across 90 jurisdictions. In the year 2009, Patti McCord, former chief talent officer at Netflix, McCord, along with Reed Hasting, revealed the Netflix Culture Deck which at the time set the cat amongst the pigeons in Silicon valley and beyond. Controversial in its hue and colour, the Netflix Culture Deck espoused many ideas and concepts on hiring and firing, employee freedom and workplace culture that were not just revolutionary but downright peculiar. In “No Rules Rules”, both Hastings and Meyer – in alternate sections – dwell more about the practices that have made what Netflix is today.

The philosophy articulated by Hastings is fundamental in its simplicity – hire the best available talent; pay them top of the market compensation; dismantle all controls and constraints such as vacation policies and approval processes; incorporate an ecosystem of unvarnished and forthright feedback and empower the superstar employees. Hence, “The Keeper Test.” Will a manager go the whole hog to retain an employee if the latter is an indispensable resource? If yes, then the organisation gets to keep the star performer. If the manager deems otherwise, then the concerned employee would be relieved and given a generous severance package. This policy ensures that at any given point in time, the organisation is brimming with “talent density.”

Netflix also has an “uncounted” vacation policy. This policy – which since its introduction by Netflix has found many other  adherents in Virgin Atlantic, Webcredible, and Mammoth, amongst others – simply means there are no limits to how many days an employee can go on vacation. “Leading by example”, Hastings himself sets off on vacations for at least five weeks, if not more, according to Meyer.

Another singularly unique policy is the extraordinary degree of freedom accorded to employees to make their own decisions, thereby making redundant the notion of hierarchies. Managers also have unfettered authority to make financial commitments within without approvals. The credo here being, “don’t seek to please your boss”, but do what is best for the company. Hastings leaves no stone unturned to inform his readers that he does not peddle the notion of “We are family”. A family is unlikely to either disown or fire anybody because the concerned individual is not fit for executing his/her responsibilities. More likely than not, someone will step up to make up for and hide the inadequacies of the delinquent individual. This notion is injurious for corporate culture. According to Hastings, a company ought to be viewed as a team having its sights on a championship or the Olympic gold medal. “We want the best performer in every position,” the CEO writes. “Like any team competing at the highest level, we form deep relationships and care about each other.”

However, Hastings is quick to admit that even Netflix does not believe in a complete abdication of any form of oversight and rule-making endeavours. A classic case in point being the organisation’s processes for employee safety and sexual harassment, customer data privacy, and financial reporting. Those are domains, “where error prevention is clearly more important than innovation,” Hastings emphasizes.

The most striking feature of the book lies in the chronicling by employees from various part of the globe who enumerate on the Netflix culture and values. From Japan, United States of America, Brazil, and India, these employees hold forth on both the allure and intimidation of being at Netflix.

While “No rules rules” makes for some fascinatingly aspirational reading, it also brings to the fore a very important, reflective and practical question. Can the groundbreaking policies and principles that for the bedrock of Netflix be extrapolated across the world to encompass industries and conglomerates irrespective of the sector in which they operate and the domain in which they discharge their business? The answer unfortunately is a resounding “NO”. Even Hastings acknowledges this fact at the end of the book, when he candidly concedes that in an organisation such as manufacturing where noncompliance with even a seemingly inconsequential of rules may define the difference between life and death, rules, procedures and processes need to be adhered to in an uncompromising fashion. Yet, there are innumerable organisations which can take a leaf out of the Hastings handbook in so far as empowering employees go.