Subhash Kak

Subhash Kak (born March 26, 1947, Srinagar, Kashmir) is Delaune Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor in the Asian Studies and Cognitive Science Programs at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He is best known for his contributions to history and philosophy of science and also for his Indian studies.

"Subhash Kak joined the LSU faculty in 1979. He has worked in the areas of wireless, data security, neural networks, information technology, and quantum information processing. His research on neural networks has focused on instantaneously trained neural networks (INNs) and their applications to prediction, data compression, and communications." From his official Louisiana State homepage. (http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/)

His announcement of an astronomy of the Vedic period in his book The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda in 1994 challenged the long-standing academic view related to the Aryan invasion and the nature of early Indian science. This was followed by the co-authored In Search of the Cradle of Civilization the next year that marked the beginning of the serious debate and polemics on the origins of Indian culture. It has since led to a fresh examination of the relationship between Indian and Greek sciences.

As a founder of a biannual conference on science and consciousness that has been held in North Carolina beginning in the 90s, he has promoted scientific discussion of the subject. According to his scientific philosophy, 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 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.

Contents

1 Books 2 Essays 3 Interviews 4 External links

Books

• Patanjali and Cognitive Science (1987)
• India at Century's End, South Asia Books, (1994) ISBN 818599014X
• Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak, David Frawley, In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Ill: Quest Books, (1995, 2001) ISBN 0835607410.
• The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda, Aditya Prakashan, (1994 ), ISBN 8185689989 ; Munshiram Manoharlal (2000), ISBN 81-215-0986-6
• Computing Science in Ancient India (2001)
• The Wishing Tree: The Presence and Promise of India, Munshirm Manoharlal, (2001), ISBN 8121510325
• Gods Within: Mind, Consciousness and the Vedic Tradition, Munshirm Manoharlal, (2002) ISBN 8121510635
• The Asvamedha: The Rite and Its Logic, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, (2002) ISBN 8120818776

• The Nature of Physical Reality, Peter Lang Pub Inc, 1986, ISBN 0820403105
• The Prajna Sutra (2003)
• The Architecture of Knowledge: Quantam Mechanics, Neuroscience, Computers and Consciousness, Manohar Pubns, 2004, ISBN 8187586125
• 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 8186588027

Essays

• Essays on Sulekha (http://sulekha.com/columninfo.asp?cid=58598)
• Columns on Rediff (http://in.rediff.com/news/kak.htm)

Interviews

• Interview by VGR on History (http://www.sulekha.com/expressions/column.asp?cid=99540)

• Interview by PBS on Soul of India (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/india/debate.html)

• Beliefnet Interview (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/105/story_10594_1.html)

• Indereunion Interview (http://www.indereunion.net/actu/subkak/interskak.htm)

External links

• another LSU homepage (http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/kak.html); this one has the Vedic topics. (http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/hist.html)
• Greek and Indian Cosmology (http://xxx.soton.ac.uk/abs/physics/0303001)
• New Poems (http://www.indiastar.com/kak10poems.html)de:Subhash Kak

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