Subhash Kak

Subhash Kak (सुभाष काक Subhāṣ Kāk) (born March 26, 1947, Srinagar, Kashmir) is an Indian-American computer scientist, author and poet. He is best known for his contributions to cryptography, quantum information processing, and for history and philosophy of science. He has also researched ancient astronomy and mathematics and written about it in popular articles and books.

Professional career
Subhash Kak completed his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1970. He taught there and also at Imperial College London, Bell Laboratories, and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He is currently Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor in the Asian Studies and Cognitive Science Programs at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, which he has been since 1979.

His main contributions have been in cryptography, random sequences, artificial intelligence, and information theory. He is the originator of the first test of algorithmic randomness, and of instantaneously trained neural networks (INNs) (also called Kak neural networks). He was amongst the first to apply information metrics to quantum systems.

His claims concerning the astronomy of the Vedic period in his book The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda (1994) challenged academic views related to the Aryan invasion theory and the nature of early Indian science. Kak's chronology and his astronomical calculations were criticized by some Indologists and historians of science. On the other hand, this work was hailed by other Indologists such as Klaus Klostermaier who called it an "epoch-making discovery." Kak's interpretation has been highlighted in the recent overviews of astronomy in the Vedic period in India and the West.

His co-authored In Search of the Cradle of Civilization (1995) led to an intensification of the polemics on the origins of Indian culture and supported the Out of India theory.

Philosophy of science and reality
Kak was perhaps the first to use the term quantum neural computing, suggesting that cognitive processes could have a quantum basis at higher level of abstraction even though neurons themselves may not be modeled as quantum systems. Kak maintains that a fundamental subject-object dichotomy makes it possible for science only to deal with objects and not with the perceiving subject and, therefore, it is impossible to create a formal science of consciousness. Since the mind can make models of the outer reality, which, at its deepest level, is quantum mechanical, he argues that the mind must have a quantum mechanical basis. But his view of how the brain works is different from other quantum approaches to it. He sees the brain as a machine that reduces the infinite possibilities of a quantum-like universal consciousness, which is a consequence of the recursive nature of reality. The mind can only operate sequentially while reality is simultaneous across countless dimensions, suggesting that such a reduction from a universal consciousness may explain the amazing feats of savants and creative people.

His ideas on mind and consciousness are scattered in a variety of writings. The most accessible sources for his philosophy of recursionism are his books The Gods Within, The Architecture of Knowledge, the cryptic The Prajna Sutra, and his numerous journal and encyclopedia articles.

Limits to AI
Kak has argued that there are limits to the intelligence machines can have and it cannot equal biological intelligence. He asserts that
 * machines fall short on two counts as compared to brains. Firstly, unlike brains, machines do not self-organize in a recursive manner. Secondly, machines are based on classical logic, whereas Nature's intelligence may depend on quantum mechanics.


 * [C]ognitive ability is holistic and irreducible to a mechanistic computing algorithm. Viewed differently, each agent is an apparatus that taps into the "universal field of consciousness." On the other hand, AI machines based on classical computing principles have a fixed universe of discourse so they are unable to adapt in a flexible manner to a changing universe. This is why they cannot match biological intelligence.


 * [Further], if machines with consciousness are created, they would be living machines, that is, variations on life forms as we know them. Second, the material world is not causally closed, and consciousness influences its evolution. Matter and minds complement each other.

He also claims that Alan Turing’s yes-no test for AI is based on flawed reasoning, arguing that it should be possible to define several levels of intelligence.

Non-fiction

 * Patanjali and Cognitive Science (1987)
 * India at Century's End, South Asia Books, (1994) ISBN 81-85990-14-X
 * Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, David Frawley, In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Ill: Quest Books, (1995, 2001) ISBN 0-8356-0741-0.
 * The Astronomical Code of the Rigveda; Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd (2000), ISBN 81-215-0986-6
 * Computing Science in Ancient India; Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd (2001)
 * The Wishing Tree: The Presence and Promise of India, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd (2001), ISBN 81-215-1032-5
 * The Gods Within: Mind, Consciousness and the Vedic Tradition, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd (2002) ISBN 81-215-1063-5
 * The Asvamedha: The Rite and Its Logic, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, (2002) ISBN 81-208-1877-6
 * The Nature of Physical Reality, Peter Lang Pub Inc,  1986, ISBN 0-8204-0310-5
 * "The Prajna Sutra: Aphorisms of Intuition", 2003.
 * The Architecture of Knowledge: Quantam Mechanics, Neuroscience, Computers and Consciousness, Manohar Pubns, 2004, ISBN 81-87586-12-5
 * "Recursionism and Reality: Representing and Understanding the World", 2005.
 * Advances in Communications and Signal Processing, Springer-Verlag, 1989. (with W.A. Porter).
 * Advances in Computing and Control, Springer-Verlag, 1989. (with W.A. Porter and J.L. Aravena).

Poetry

 * The Conductor of the Dead (1974)
 * The London Bridge (1977)
 * The Secrets of Ishbar (1996)
 * Ek Taal, Ek Darpan (1999)
 * The secrets of Ishbar: Poems on Kashmir and other landscapes,  Vitasta (1996) ISBN 81-86588-02-7

Essays

 * Essays on Sulekha
 * Columns on Rediff

Interviews

 * Interview by VGR on History
 * Interview by PBS on Soul of India
 * Beliefnet Interview
 * Indereunion Interview

General

 * Another LSU homepage
 * This one has the Vedic topics.
 * Publications on Physics and Computer Science in the ArXiv.org e-print archive
 * Lifeboat Foundation Bio
 * New Poems