Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
On this episode, Nate is joined by author and technology analyst John Robb to discuss how geopolitics, information warfare, and technology are shaping how we understand the world and interact with each other.
All work involves, to some degree, both body and mind. This plays a major role in the degree to which AI can or cannot effectively replace human labour. Yet even if AI can not succeed in taking away your job, it might succeed in taking away a big chunk of your paycheque.
The facts about sperm whales rival in some ways the extreme capacities and behaviors that until recently we thought were uniquely human.
As philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis underlines, the equality among citizens of Ancient Athens was not based on the granting of equal passive ‘rights’, but active general participation in public affairs.
We need to reform businesses so they adopt environmental protection goals on their own. This means encouraging new legal forms of business: ones that allow the purpose, governance, and role of profit to align with the steady-state goal.
Using an app developed by Inuit in Nunavut, Indigenous communities from Alaska to Greenland are harnessing data to make their own decisions.
Limits are a necessary part of bringing about the life I long for, and of caring for the people, places, and futures we’ve all been entrusted to keep.
It should not be surprising that we have not yet been—and may never be—able to engineer long-term-sustainable modernity (i.e., high-tech). I strongly suspect that’s not even a thing. Why on Earth would we just assume that it’s possible?
Many in Pakistan are looking to mangroves to bolster precious fish stocks and defend against the effects of climate change — even as threats to mangroves, such as wood harvesting and camel grazing, continue with no end in sight.
Autor is clear that the advent of AI has created greater uncertainty about the future of the labour market, and he isn’t necessarily optimistic. But it is right to underline the uncertainty. And, as he observes, a lot of these issues aren’t about technology. They’re about policy and politics.
Hydropower won’t help solve the climate crisis, but new dam projects may lead to war over one thing key to our survival — access to fresh, clean water.
So I am being traditional. I am learning what our ancestors knew. I am trying to fit my life within the natural flows of material and energy in my homeland. I am fasting in the spring…
