Monday 10 March 2014

Stein's paradox & Satori orthodox

'Viveka' says Sanath Kumar in the Mahabharata, 'is Immortality.'
Vikshepa is Death.
The scholiasts say- Viveka means mental concentration.
Vikshepa means distraction.
In certain constrained optimization contexts, Stein's paradox (explained here in the classic paper from the late Seventies) arises from a cognitive bias re. visualizing  Squared Error Loss in dimensions higher than two and is addressed in Sankhya-Yoga by a type of meditation which is tested by avadhanam type practices.
As we know, Yuddhishtra can only overcome his Vishada by learning Statistics but, interestingly, for Lord Buddha, who has chosen not to be a Chakravartin, and thus who isn't concerned with pravritti, still, as befitting one born in Kapila's College town, his own Sankhya training is concerned precisely with false aggregations- i.e. Stein examples- and a type of avadhanam by which James-Stein 'shrinkage' is disclosed as underlying Shunyata. 
Obviously, this is only one way- an atemporal, 'essentialist', or at best Shutzian ideal type way- of grokking Stein's paradox or gaining Satori orthodox- but, what is interesting to my mind- or mindless ignorance- is that it is the Jains who now step in to do the heavy lifting to leave us Brahmins (I mean the stupid, beggarly, udgatrs from whom I descend- not posh 'Aryan' fuckwits like you) with our Purva Mimamsa and Nyaya and Vaisesika and Rasa/Bhava theory and so forth.
Okay, the above is an obviously stupid thing to say. Jainism doesn't have a monopoly on anekantvad nor, though in the North, at Akbar's court, it is the great Jain avadhanis who changed History's course, nevertheless, my point aint essentially sectarian. The last great Tamil avadhani was Muslim and the tazmin of the poets and girah-bandi of the Qawwals can, of course, be easily turned into avadhanam exercises with similar constraints and challenges.
I suppose, this gives rise to the notion of a meta-James/Stein type 'shrinkage' whereby information from every and any independent Sect helps one 'zero the bubble' with respect to soteriological decision theory within one's own.
As a case in point, this is Shastavadhani Ganesh (who is my age) telling Prof. Balagangadhara about a time he got the Shankaracharya riled up on a theological point!
This happens at minute 6 in the video below. Interestingly, R.Ganesh does not mention that his own Kannadiga Alaama Prabhu is 'the son of the barren woman'. But, perhaps, Ganesh is of Tambram origin and doesn't get (who does?) Kannada's Kanada type detournement on Kapila whose Jain intermediation remains occluded coz our received Indology remains shite and resolutely un-Indian.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

R. Ganesh composed a praise poem on Narenra Modi- that is why you are praising.