2022-07-09
Readings
I’d like to learn more about this, but this is an interesting claim that Europe, the UK, and Japan have a treaty on the books which is a barrier to climate action by requiring (expensive) recompense for lost future profits by industries that would be regulated (presumably mostly over climate reasons). https://theconversation.com/energy-charter-treaty-makes-climate-action-nearly-illegal-in-52-countries-so-how-can-we-leave-it-185753
How to write software to best use modern computer hardware: https://en.algorithmica.org/hpc/
Use of ML to predict RNA folding - This seems a particularly good approach where verifying a prediction is cheap but producing one is difficult using classical methods: https://phys.org/news/2022-07-artificial-intelligence-rna-molecules.html
The use of sound to manipulate pain experiences: https://www.science.org/content/article/soft-sounds-numb-pain-researchers-may-now-know-why
This is a video essay on the ways people approach problems in life; it uses video games as a focus but the lessons are more general:
Thoughts
What would it mean for a society to be at moral peace? Meaning that the broad rules of morality are known, and the few who would change them are both too weak to do so on a non-hyperlocal scale (e.g. inside a family or small business) and they know that their efforts will create a backlash (even so small as mking them look ridiculous)? In some ways, provided the rules are livable, this might be a pleasant attribute of a society in which to live; I wonder if it happens, or if there’s nearly always some new wave coming in from some corner of society, that wave partly enacted, tested, getting pushback, and being pushed back out while possibly leaving in place a fraction of the change it was hoping for. Or perhaps a stronger backlash leading to a net loss.
I think it would be nice to have a term for dramatic overbroadening of the boundaries of a term based on emotional resonance or conclusions one would like to draw? "Trees are critical infrastructure", "racism is a public health emergency", things like that. I think it would help lessen intersectionality, something which I have come to think is unambiguously bad for both effective building of movements and coherency of perspectives in such movements. Intersectionality locks issues together, making it so people need to agree with far more positions where they really should be able to comfortably disagree, and by losing that variety the movements easily become intolerant of internal differences on topics where they don’t need to be. This builds fanaticism.
Current Events
The Russian invasion of Ukraine persists; Russia has flattened and captured one of the major areas they’ve been trying to carve out of Ukraine, and is starting to refocus on the next. New weapons from the west are reportedly helping Ukraine, while Russia is starting to use prison labour to put bodies on the ground. It continues to be a disaster, and I remain frustrated that no western powers have decided to enter the war and aid Ukraine in expelling Russia
This week, former PM of Japan Shinzo Abe was assassinated at a campaign stop; the news is shocking because political violence, just like gun violence, is vanishingly rare in Japanese society. I’m ambivalent on his politics, but his death is a loss for Japan.
After continual scandals, resignations from government of a number of ministers eventually forced Boris Johnson, PM of UK, to state that he will step down as soon as a replacement is in the wings. Boris, at least to my eyes, is an unlikable showman, bereft of ethics, and someone who didn’t take governance or his country seriously. His power was significantly sustained by charm and entertaiment value, placing him among people like Musk, Berlusconi, and Trump. His departure is a relief (I may not have liked David Cameron’s politics, but he was better for the UK than Boris)
Amid rising costs and political struggle, Sri Lankans have stormed the residence of the President of Sri Lanka (who is in a power struggle with the Prime Minister). Ever since the end of the conflict with the LTTE, Sri Lanka has struggled with stability of its economic and political systems
Reviewlets
Witcher: Blood of Elves (book) - I’ve been working through the series for awhile, and in this book it’s starting to get really interesting and worthwhile. I think it’s partly the switch from the short story format (I tend to find short stories frustrating), and partly that it’s largely done with the early establishing of the world and characters and starting to say something.
The Stone Canal (book) - Having finished rereading The Star Fraction, I’m working my way through Ken MacLeod’s Fall Revolution series. Rereading this was great; I loved it before, but now I’m moving at a slower pace and picking up more of the details from the series. More importantly, I no longer resent the flashback parts (the book alternates between chapters set in its present, and chapters set in its past on Earth, and in earlier readings I was way less enthused on the Earth parts). Coverage of some transhumanist topics is also interspersed with social movements that touch on them. The conclusion to the book feels a bit weak, but I can forgive that.
The Cassini Division (book) - The third book of MacLeod’s Fall Revolution series, and the book I started with. This is a book with a lot of cleverness and a grand, robust vision of different directions that humanity might go, mixed with an exploration of ideology. In this reread I’m trying to figure out some of the points MacLeod might be trying to make (at risk of projecting everything I’m trying to ferret out), about “The True Knowledge”, about necessary change, and about navigating mistrust between very different cultures.
Amusements
People trying to escape dangling rope traps (I’m thinking strategy counts for a lot):
A very weird German music video I came across ages ago that stuck in my head mostly because of the weird visuals
And why not another one of those:
Hallucex, from TheOnion’s “when we had a budget” era:
And a classic photobombing:
Recent Music
Just Another Fool - Screeching Weasel - Sounds a bit like NuFAN with less clever lyrics
Kuki Shinobu Jack of All Trades - Vetrom - A fusion of some fairly stereotypical japanese music with modern rock
Blue Like Jazz - Weezer - I can still hear a lot of Weezer in this, but it also has a but of the sound of Muse
Personal
After one week with a puppy, bathroom training is going pretty well while I’m working on improving his behaviour. He’s exhausting, but also enjoyable to have around. I am looking forward to his energy level decreasing and his learning good habits.
Having destroyed my laptop and my tablet in a stupid accident, I’ve had less of an ability to work on this newsletter during my (also reduced, because of puppy) downtime. Replacement hardware is incoming, thankfully.