by Ethan Mollick in One Useful Thing…With continued advancements in model architecture and training techniques, we’re approaching a new frontier in AI capabilities. The independent AI agents that tech companies have long promised are likely just around the corner. These systems will be able to handle complex tasks with minimal human oversight, with wide-ranging implications. As the pace of AI development seems more certain to accelerate, we need to prepare for both the opportunities and challenges ahead.
Superbugs ‘could kill 39m people by 2050’ amid rising drug resistance
by Kat Lay in The Guardian…Child deaths from infections see ‘remarkable’ decline but AMR fatalities of over-70s likely to rise by 146%, study finds
Analysis: Drug-resistant infections are on the rise – so why aren’t we getting any new antibiotics?
A few rules for predicting the future by Octavia E. Butler
by Octavia E. Butler in Common Good Collective…So why try to predict the future at all if it’s so difficult, so nearly impossible? Because making predictions is one way to give warning when we see ourselves drifting in dangerous directions. Because prediction is a useful way of pointing out safer, wiser courses. Because, most of all, our tomorrow is the child of our today. Through thought and deed, we exert a great deal of influence over this child, even though we can’t control it absolutely. Best to think about it, though. Best to try to shape it into something good. Best to do that for any child.
The U.S. needs to pay more attention to electronic warfare
by Steven Glinert in Noahpinion…Electronic warfare (EW) is a bit of a sleeper in the US arsenal. The US invented its modern form and has used it to great effect in every war we’ve fought, especially since 1990. Indeed, if you want to know what the literal “war” in “chip wars” is, it’s this. The US spends about as much on it as its much cooler and flashier younger sibling, cyberwarfare (around $5b) and spending is due to increase. Likewise, the Chinese think of it as essential to their victory in a potential war against the US. Finally, it has become a defining aspect of the war in Ukraine, with Russian and Ukrainian forces playing a cat and mouse game between drones and electronic attacks.
The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it
by Max Roser in Our World in Data…Very few think the world is making progress. In this article, we look at the history of global living conditions and show that the world has made immense progress in important aspects.
‘Never summon a power you can’t control’: Yuval Noah Harari on how AI could threaten democracy and divide the world
by Yuval Noah Harari in The Guardian… Forget Hollywood depictions of gun-toting robots running wild in the streets – the reality of artificial intelligence is far more dangerous, warns the historian and author in an exclusive extract from his new book
More in this category
Why the world feels so unstable right now
For many of us, life seems to progress smoothly and predictably for much of the time. Indeed, it seems one of our biggest concerns appears to be getting stuck in a rut. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, our world is turned upside down.
From Bing to Sydney
I’m not going to lie: having Bing say I am not a good person was an incredible experience (and for the record, I think this is another example of chatbot misinformation!). It also, to say the least, seems incredibly ill-suited to being a search engine.
Pakistan on the brink: what the collapse of the nuclear-armed regional power could mean for the world
It is hard to overstate the difficulty of Pakistan’s current situation. An unfortunate string of recent events combined with chronic mismanagement has created a potentially mortal threat to Pakistan’s political system.
Societal collapse: a literature review
The debate about societal collapse as a plausible trajectory for the world’s future has lately arisen as being especially relevant…This article offers a systematic multidisciplinary review of the existing literature.
The Great Progression 2025-2050
The world isn’t ending!
But we are likely at the beginning
of a profound transformation.
COP27, the loss & the damage at injury time
The recently concluded 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, went in the way of rituals and did not rise beyond the low bars set by previous editions.
Conflict and climate collide to create an acute hunger crisis for an unprecedented 345 million people
This March, a young mother arrived with 3 children at Dollo Ado in southeastern Ethiopia, where 5 refugee camps currently serve more than 200 000 displaced Somalis.
Our civilization just hit three great — and ominous — inflection points: (Why the 2020s are) The Age of Inflection
What will history think of this decade? How will it remember it? I think that it’ll come to be thought of as the Age of Inflection.
I lived through collapse: America is already there
Living in Sri Lanka during the end of the civil war, I saw how life goes on, surrounded by death.
Omega + The Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers: Innovation & creativity in action
The Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers has constituted a space for activism related to environmental and social justice for over twenty years.
Omega + HOMEF: A timely & essential partnership
Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) is pleased to be partnering with the Omega Collaborative and Commonweal in executing the Omega Resilience Awards (ORA) programme through the Omega Resilience Awards – Africa (ORA - Africa) platform. We are excited about this...
African food systems imploding: Impacts of the war in Ukraine
If alarm bells are ringing loudly and incessantly it’s because
governments, civil society, activists, development organisations,
and donors are signalling the negative impact of the war in
Ukraine on African food systems.
Ecosocial collapse & the Lithium Triangle in Argentina, Bolivia & Chile
Dr. Maristella Svampa and Enrique Viale joined Tom Kruse from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to discuss what the predominant narrative around the polycrisis–framed by North American and European-based institutions–is missing when it fails to incorporate perspectives from the Global South.
Ancient green
Mosses, I think, are like time made visible. They create a kind of botanical forgetting. Shoot by tiny shoot, the past is obscured in green. That’s why we have stories, so we can remember.
The Global Tapestry of Alternatives: Stories of resilience, existence, and re-Existence
Our food systems are not just the work of humans. They are the work of the mountains, of Pachamama [Mother Earth], of the sacred, the whole community which is centered on reciprocity, solidarity, and respect for elements of life. This is buen vivir (‘living well’) for us.
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