LLM-assisted (bit of vocab help)
Published: August 30, 2026
Published: August 30, 2026
August 30 is a special day, so we're going to reflect.
In my lived experience, I have never seen a world as uncertain as it is in 2026. I have observed similar uncertainties before, just not at this scale.
The uncertainty and tension tend to be cyclical, so there's always hope. This isn't the first time we're here and it won't be the last time either.
I arrived in the United States of America on the 24th of August, 2021. At that time, robotics was not discussed as extensively as it is today. The nature of the discussions was also far more optimistic in the common circles.
Food delivery, package delivery, self-driving personal and public vehicles, remote sensing etc... the usual stuff.
Robots feel a lot more existential and catastrophic in 2026. Especially after we've solved LLMs and VLMs.
The extent of their influence has gone beyond just reduction in team sizes. LLMs continue to be a great learning and execution tool, but as engineers, some part of us has been humbled. The part that took pride in our intellectual capability. And then to see its application in areas meant to cause fatalities.
It's all a bit... disappointing.
Adding to that, the laboratory of the world, one of the top capitals of innovation, the United States of America is shutting itself off to foreign talent.
And I can't quite complain. A nation has every right to make a call on its immigration policy and decision to change it. It is a separate discussion as to what the current motive is. But I'd like to reserve my comment on that.
A lot of things that Dr APJ Abdul Kalam mentions in Ignited Minds are already what America is, or was.
What it also taught me was to embrace diversity. Being around people of different races prompts you to challenge your tribal brain to embrace people of all kinds and yourself as factors of the universal One!
Our tribal brain comes up with all kinds of arguments against it, but perhaps, it is the very purpose of life to transcend this virtual and made-up tribalism.
My refuge in such uncertainty has been surrender... to the quest for knowledge. Which is channelized as a quest for engineering and science. Grounding me always.
To find the wandering child in me and look both outwards and inwards with curiosity.
It grounds me because perhaps the laws of the physical universe are spawned and sustained by the same creative force that brings about these uncertainties. And in some ways, imparts answers to those who seek it in confusion.
So... back to basics, math, physics, engineering, deep learning, computer science, robotics, physical universe and its origins within us.
More of that... less of geopolitics and current affairs.
And to the one who is thousands of miles away. All the stories we attach to ourselves makes us who we are. With reflection, it becomes clear that these stories are inherited from the source. Aviation, space, military, engineering, friends, family, football, cricket, cars, guitar, music, my spiritual Master... are nothing but stories that make me, me. Without which, the character collapses and ceases to exist. Especially without its single thread of gold. So take it as you will and deal with it. hbd, MŤA, para siempre.