Alex, almost as soon as Dr. Shiva starting talking, I started talking too. I don't do that often but I couldn't help myself. I was saying, "Holy S---! Holy S---! Holy S---!" At other moments I was speechless. I don't know if you've ever had another interview that surprised me more. Maybe the woman who pretended she didn't know who you were and then hung up on you, but holy cow. I was amazed how antagonistic he was. He went straight to "racism" when it would have been so much simpler to address your question. Holy cow.
I was expecting Dr. Shiva to say something like, "I understand why you and others have qualms about describing my email program as 'the discovery of email'. It makes sense because, as you say, it isn't strictly speaking an invention because it isn't a physical object or an original concept. I took an existing idea, communication in writing and images, and translated it into a program that allowed similar functionality in a digital environment. From my point of view, that is an invention, just as the intermittent windshield wiper is an invention. They are analogous because each is an improvement on an existing concept or device." That would have answered your question without derailing the interview or sacrificing his position.
That is what I was expecting. I did not expect an emotional defense on the basis of racism. Speaking of which, I wonder about the email issue also. Not that I care a lot one way or the other. It is Dr. Shiva's personal marketing slogan. If he wants to sell himself that way, fine. I will mention this for the fun of it: I left high school and started college when I was 14 also. I was good at math and science also (my best subjects, next to English) and had a letter inviting me to attend Columbia but I wanted to be an artist. I also didn't have the money, as a poor white boy from a broken home in California, to attend a fancy college. Instead, I went to a community college, which I also couldn't afford, then Art Center in Pasadena for a semester before running out of money. After that, I just went to work. I only got my PhD much later, not for lack of ability (or so I believe) but lack of resources to make it happen.
My point is that I don't advertise my "I graduated from high school early" credential as a marketing tool because it doesn't strike me as appropriate to do so. I do mention it sometimes because it is a curious and interesting fact but not to impress people. The fact is, it isn't hard to do. The test I had to take was designed to be passed by students with an average GPA in remedial classes. Not that I wasn't a straight A student in advanced classes, I was. The point is that I didn't have to be. It just wouldn't occur to most people it is possible, so they don't try. Taking the test to start college says more about the poverty I grew up in than anything else. That's because it was my mom's way of getting a university to pay my expenses so she could kick me out of the tiny roach-infested motel room my family lived in.
Dr. Shiva may have come from the slums of Mumbai but there are slums here also. From the sounds of it, he earned his way into MIT, and if I'd wanted to, I may have been able to also. However, my SAT score was hurt a little because the night before the test, a family member tried to kill my mother and I had to get in the middle of the fight to prevent it from happening (at 14). Still, my score was good enough to get the letter from Columbia despite the distracting influence of the previous evening's events.
There were so many interesting things Dr. Shiva could have said but instead he interpreted your question as an attack, thus ending any hope of contributing any particle of his knowledge to Skeptiko listeners. I was genuinely curious what he had to say about election fraud. Too bad I'll never know what that show would have been like. Maybe he'll reconsider. I hope so.
For your part, I thought you were remarkably accommodating considering the unwarranted and hostile reaction from Dr. Shiva. I am genuinely disappointed.
