Coming Soon - How to Fix the World

What a great present, full online access to the MIT Technology Review year-ender magazine, "The Long Term Issue."

A glance through the index page produced a bevy of terrific articles on often overlooked issues such as "How to Escape the Present," an exploration of the damage short-term thinking is causing and how to escape its hold.

"When More  Is Not More." The failure of capitalism to solve our biggest problems.

"How the Truth Was Murdered." We're awash in conspiracy theories. We were warned.

"The True Dangers of AI." They're already here and, no, it's not the takeover of humanity by supercomputers.

"What Do You Really Know? A massive physics experiment shows just how much we rely on one another for knowledge - and how society is threatened if that reliance breaks down."

That's about half of the articles in this edition but I've chosen these to review in the days ahead. I think they speak to a lot of the anxieties and challenges many of us are confronting today. A little fresh thinking could be very worthwhile.

Stay tuned.






Comments

  1. TrailblazerDecember 23, 2020 at 3:30 PM

    Could add these..

    https://thedriven.io/2020/12/09/major-breakthrough-quantumscape-hails-test-results-of-solid-state-batteries/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/worlds-most-powerful-computer-simulation-ai-b1760338.html

    We live in interesting times.

    TB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibDecember 23, 2020 at 6:03 PM

      We really do live in interesting times, as often as not pretty worrisome. The articles I mention were chosen for their primary focus on how we must change if we are to have a better, even viable future. The problem I have with the solid-state battery and other technologies is that it reinforces our assumption that we can always engineer our way out of our troubles. Sooner or later and, with any luck, not too late, we have to understand that any worthwhile future depends on mankind, the planet's most dangerous species, coming to recognize we have to learn to live within Earth's finite limitations.

      Delete
    2. Owen GrayDecember 24, 2020 at 7:59 AM

      Much to mull over here. Happy holidays, Mound.

      Delete
    3. The Disaffected LibDecember 24, 2020 at 8:55 AM

      And a Merry Christmas to you and yours, Owen. I think we've earned it. Tonight I'll be honouring my family's tradition of Christmas Eve oyster stew. My father couldn't say when it began but it goes back at least as far as my great grandparents. There's so much cream and butter in it that I keep my indulgence secret from my cardiologist. Here's to a vastly better 2021.

      Delete
  2. TrailblazerDecember 24, 2020 at 7:58 AM

    We have also the most difficult question of the day.
    How do we control our population?

    Merry Christmas.

    TB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibDecember 24, 2020 at 8:59 AM

      I think human responses to overpopulation will be limited to constructing fortified borders and, in some places, wars, Trailblazer. The rest of the culling will be done by nature.

      We simply don't have the vision to address overpop peacefully or constructively, TB. My next post deals with the trap of short-termism that now has us in its grasp.

      And a Merry Christmas to you and yours, TB.

      Delete

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