Will History & Aesthetics education silence the public?
Dialogues
on education reforms may be worrying for some due to History & Aesthetics. After
the 1989 general election, President Premadasa appointed Lalith Athulathmudali
as Minister of Education. Lalith & Education officials proposed reforms
which included extending school hours from 1.30 pm for few more hours. When the
opposition started using public resistance, President intervened & stopped
it (Ref. Media). Such silencing interventions may have added to push Lalith to
impeach the President.
Cinematic silence
The
general public at a Conference hall in Colombo recently experienced forced
silencing during the filming of an Indian movie. Sri Lankan film making
experiences in India in the 1940s isn’t well known but the tone of the Indian crew
trying to ‘Silence’ the public must have shocked many. Some of the astonished citizens
at the scene had appreciated senior journalist Chandana Sooriyabandara when he reminded
the Indians about the rights of Sri Lankans. May be the Indian film crew assumed
that Sri Lankans knew their history & wished to remind how quiet Sri
Lankans in ‘Mahiyangana’ were when the Buddha performed the ‘Yamaka Pelahara’
(Ref. Mahavansa). May be the film crew didn’t know that Prime Minister Sir John
Kotalawala wasn’t quiet when Prime Minister Nehru blamed him for not sharing a copy
of his speech before delivering it at the Colombo Plan Conference in Bandung in
the 1950s (Ref. Media).
Australian Aesthetics
While
the Sri Lankan experience on Indian film making remains above, many Australian film makers are seemed to be looking towards
China when global film industry is facing uncertainty with Trump's tariffs on
all non Hollywood productions (Ref. Media). Hopefully the Australian film
makers would respect the rights of the Chinese when they go to China for
filming activity. The Australian film makers must be already aware about ‘Yantai’
city in Shandong, China as it was the host venue for the 2nd edition
of Chinese Film Directors' Night. Though not much spoken of, ‘Yantai’
meaning ‘Smoke tower’ or ‘Watch tower’ was where the Chinese term for ‘Cinema’ (dian
ying) was first coined. It is also famous for its rail road which leads to the ocean
(Ref. Yantai stats).
AI backed options
for the silenced?
Chinese researchers & neurologists
from Shanghai based startup ‘INSIDE’ & the Huashan hospital affiliated to Fudan
University have made a breakthrough in Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
technology. It had enabled ten people to communicate complicated sentences in
Chinese using only their thoughts. After a 100 minute training the custom built
intelligent system had decoded brain activities associated with the intended
speech of 54 Chinese characters in real time. Training on those characters had then
enabled the system to interpret approx. 1950 common words & generate
complete sentences within half a second. Researchers believe that this
development will bring new hope for people without the ability to speak after stroke
conditions etc. It is also expected that this method will be able to even
generate expressive artworks through generative AI systems. As part of the
research, in June 2025 a Chinese man who lost all four limbs in an accident in
2012 was trained to play Chess & racing games using only his mind after a
BCI device designed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences was implanted in his
brain (Ref. Fudan University).
If Sri Lankans associate
true friends, none will be able to silence them. They should be happy that AI
related developments such as above will come to Sri Lanka along the Belt &
Road Initiative. With such they may communicate through their minds if they
feel unsafe among powerful associations. Sri Lankans who may have had advanced
knowledge on philosophy may have communicated only with their minds especially when
national security was threatened in the past. The system of education should help
produce culturally sensitive, tech savvy all weather practicing Buddhists to
prevent conflicts.
“The illiterate of the 21st century are not those who
cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” —
Alvin Toffler
