Pockets Of Calm

There's such a saturation of AI news. Technology is bombarding us to levels of fatigue. If you can re-wind to the time before May 2025, it wasn't like this. AI was functional, but it wasn't such a ubiquitous craze. And then, the graha of technology, Rahu, moved into his primary domicile, the house of technology, Aquarius. And since then, there's no way of escaping the obsession with the latest tech.

AI is continuing to guzzle energy and resources. If we would put in even half the energy that we have thrown into AI, in the direction of the food we eat, and how we grow it...we would see a world working more in our benefit.

But for now, there is a hypernormalization of the way the world is. Alexei Yurchak, an anthropologist, coined the term 'hypernormalization', when he was writing about the last days of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.

"He says everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, the mass delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy, with everyone accepting it as the new norm rather than pretend, an effect Yurchak termed hypernormalisation."

Since then we have dealt with a system failing dramatically on their KPAs. Health is a disaster, Covid, wreaked distressing heartbreak. Management, planning, projections of data, all were spectacular failures with the implementation of the lock down.

The climate today is a scary phenomenon. In Bangalore we are now experiencing desert-type of climate. Cold minimums at 13 degrees climbing to the sweltering heat of 32 degrees in the afternoon. Last summer we faced a severe water shortage, and despite the great monsoon season last year, everything is already drying up now.

When I was growing up we had 93% forest cover with 7% of built up construction area in Bangalore. Today it is exactly the reverse. Now with all the talk of data-centers, it is worrying.

Everywhere you look there is chaos and confusion.

Sometimes ideas look great. But they become empty promises.

The Human Genome Project, was set up sometime in the early 1990s. They promised miracles. And yet today there's not been anything noteworthy that has happened despite decoding the entire human genome.

There have been no miracle cures that have made headlines.

It's the same with Nuclear Energy. The idea that we split the atom was earth shattering. However it hasn't played out as the energy source to help humans, on the scale that was promised.

And we've had to face consequences of the dangers of Nuclear Fission.

They then promised Nuclear Fusion. It's been close to a 100 years now, but nothing has come of that.

Maybe things will change now.....maybe they won't.

Fluff

Still there is a madness. For technology. A blind belief that it is the only way out.

Even where we don't need it....we've been tricked into using it.

We strap on a watch that counts our steps.

If you haven't built a designer, proxy self to impress total strangers- the system views you as a defect.

Play has become work. You've got to be productive.

Even our rest is tracked by a meter. It had better come with good return on investment.

Tech-Toch

We are suckers for novelty. And technology is always dangling shiny objects in front of our eyes.

Aquarius is the house of technology, innovation, out of the box thinking, networking and intellectualism.

Aquarius is also the house of Humanitarian Ideals.

The shadow side of Aquarius is - Aquarians like humanity but can't stand humans.

That's what's happening in the world around us now. AI technology is being sold as the solution for humanity, while it treats humans as dispensable, inconveniences.

In all the talk of idealism, we tend to forget what humans really need.

Have You Heard The Story?

Of the man who rubbed his magic lamp. And out popped a genie!

The man asked the genie to plough his land, plant his crop, take care of his animals, build him a house, cook him food.....

The genie was magic. Everything was done within the blink of an eye.

And the genie came back asking for more and more work....

The man who was well fed and rested.....simply couldn't think of anything else.....And the genie became livid!

And chased the man around town.....until the man saw a puppy at the side of the road.

He stopped, gasping for breath, and told the genie- Make that dog's tail straight.

And the genie stroked the puppy's tail into a straight line....and it curled up again. And again.

Nayi Bala Donku

People are busy now giving their genies work.

The genie is cheap. But the price we are paying is sickening.

This Year Of Relative Sanity

Rahu will move out of Aquarius in December 2026. He will move into Capricorn where Pluto is silently transforming the structures of our society.

The narrative will then shift from technology, to the ideas of power structures and control mechanisms.

From July until the end of the year, there will be great societal upheavals with Pluto out of bounds again.

And yet I say, until December 2026, things will remain with a semblance of stability.

What Will You Do?

How do you feel?

In the midst of all the noise, there is a special conjunction happening right now: Saturn in exact conjunction with Neptune, in Pisces.

It gives us the opportunity to get a bit spiritual. Some people ask me what it means to be spiritual.

It means to connect to your spirit. To what is within you.

In a sense it is what is called Pratyahara in Yoga. To withdraw your senses into yourself, like a turtle drawing its head and limbs into its shell.

I like to interpret Pratyahara as 'prati'/'ahara', 'opposite'/'food'. To feed your mind the opposite of its general food. For now if your mind is chewing thought, swallowing ideas, and ruminating cud, you have the chance now- to feed it the opposite.

Silence.

Dedicate time to sit in silence. Even if it is only for a moment.