The More I Learn the Less I Know

John turned me on to Nate Hagans and his channel The Great Simplification. One of his latest guests spoke of the many risks of AI, not the least of which is the way it facilitates more efficient fossil fuel exploration and extraction. Just what we need. And just what Trump promises for his second term. From today's Times: "He also said that his chief tool to fight rising prices would be boosting oil and gas production, even as the U.S. is currently producing significantly more crude oil today than it did under the Trump administration." In any case, we won't have to worry about damaging coral reefs in the Carribean because they will be gone. As a marine biologist explains: "In the 18 years I’ve studied reefs in the Florida Keys and the Caribbean, coral populations have continued to decline such that they can no longer recover naturally". This scientist wants to freeze some coral in a "seed bank": "The goal is to buy time while we wait for the world to slow, and hopefully, one day reverse climate change." Yeah, sure. Maybe AI will figure it out. While "we wait". This, of course, is the problem in a nutshell. Everyone waiting for technologies they can't comprehend to save them. From technologies. Anxiety manifests in many forms, mostly a negative Localism. Xenophobia, chauvinistic nationalism, fear of the Other. The World they know no longer exists, but this fact is disavowed. Leaving the crises to compound. Kamala Harris has already backtracked on her committment to end fracking. Shocker. As my comrade Ted Franklin puts it: "Under capitalism, it is illegal to save the world."