Technology, Inequality, and Society

  Academics is built on honesty and integrity, a journey towards the pursuit of truth. This was the romantic view of scholarship that I had as an undergraduate student of computer science back in 2000. I was weaving a narrative to convince myself that academicians were cast from an unblemished stone, unlike “experts” in tech-companies. Why was I imagining such a virtuous view of academia? There was an economic angle to it. Academic was and is a low-paying sector for similar level of expertise. It was natural to think why else anyone would choose academia (over tech-companies) unless there was unwavering dedication to scholarly work. Another virtue I imagined was that academia seemed to produce less exaggeration. The noise was less. But the major attraction was that academicians seemed to be able to deconstruct complex process effortlessly. How could anyone write equations to predict weather a minute, a day or a week from now. That seemed like magic. As I later understood, it was no...

The number of pages and size of the paper restricts the content of a book. This statement is unremarkable. In this note I argue that the size of the question paper and number of pages is crucial in what can be asked and explains what is being asked in Bachelor of Engineering examinations. A few weeks ago, I was preparing the question paper in the sample document circulated by the exam division. First thing I notice was that the size of the question paper is A5 (half of A4). In the first page, which contains preamble and the header, I could fit about 200 words. How many words I can write is further constrained by the whitespaces – the spacing between question number, the actual question and marks allotted to it, the spacing between two questions, and the margins width/height. In the following page, which does not have the preamble, I could write about 300 words. These numbers are ballpark figures and accurate measurements are not integral to my arguments. So, I leave it at these numbers...