Newsletter 71

Black holes, primate sexuality, crying and Brimstone

May 15, 2022

Hi, I’m Gavin. This is my experimental newsletter that explores thinking - how we might think better and learn together as we do so.

I explore several key topics through the lens of several core themes: systems thinking, scenario planning, trends, and cross-disciplinary innovation. These often relate to key issues: climate change, pandemics, astronomy, physics, health, history, philosophy, culture, rocketry, conflict, the impact of technology on society and more (lol!). With a larger question behind it all: how do we progress and how do we progress better?

I hope you like where we go. (1,019 of us now! - welcome all new arrivals)

Gavin

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Reading list - the best stuff to read

(The best reads I’ve come across, with excerpts, links, authors and how long it will take to read. Climate change, COVID and China are consistently the stories at the top so are semi-permanent)

🌏 Climate change & biodiversity destruction

The backstory behind the 2021 US northwest heatwave.

Nakamura said the framework can complement the statistical approach: "This tool can help us understand when models do not converge, why, and what things need to be fixed."
This is especially important as we try to understand how climate change will affect the world. Scientists worry that we are approaching—or have already approached—a tipping point in the alteration of the Earth's atmosphere, after which extreme events become much more likely. Other scientific studies have estimated that the magnitude of the Pacific Northwest heat wave was "virtually impossible" without climate change.
"There is increased urgency and interest in understanding the prospects for future heat waves," said Nakamura. "We're looking forward to begin using this framework to dissect data in a meaningful way, to actually see the important processes and driving forces behind events.

Earth’s CO2 hits highest recorded level in human history

🦠 COVID-19

The US reached 1 million COVID deaths. Statnews looked at the “five pandemics”:

Analysis of the data will continue for years, but it is clear that, when it comes to deadliness, there were five different pandemics — depending on when and where you lived, and who you were. Earlier vs. later, Older vs. younger (but there’s fine print), Unvaccinated vs. vaccinated, Rural vs. urban, Poorer vs. wealthier

🇨🇳 China / Taiwan

CIA director Bill Burns says China is unsettled by the war in Ukraine.

“It strikes us . . . that Xi Jinping is a little bit unsettled by the reputational damage that can come to China by the association with the brutishness of Russia’s aggression against Ukrainians [and] unsettled certainly by the economic uncertainty that’s been produced by the war,” Burns said, adding that Xi’s “main focus” was on “predictability”. He added that China was also dismayed by “the fact that what Putin has done is driving Europeans and Americans closer together” and was looking “carefully at what lessons they should draw” for Taiwan. “I don’t for a minute think that it’s eroded Xi’s determination over time to gain control over Taiwan,” although it was “affecting their calculation”, Burns said.

Chinese Z-10 Attack Helicopter Flew Into Taiwan’s Air Defense Zone For First Time (Updated)

The Lessons Taiwan Is Learning From Ukraine

🇺🇦 Ukraine / Russia

Interesting to see Ukraine is using Brimstone missiles in a ground to ground configuration. They can find their own targets. (2 mins)

Putin's Disaster and What Could Happen Next

Binkov contrasts the Javelin to the NLAW:

🧠 Philosophy - critical thinking

An interesting project (5 mins)

🧠 Nature - sexuality

Apes and sexuality (also in the podcast recs)

New Scientist podcasts @NewScientistPod

Sexuality in apes is under-studied. That's what primatologist Frans de Waal told @rowhoop on the #podcast. He says that's a shame because apes can teach us a lot about gender. 🎙️ newscientist.com/podcasts/117-u… 🎙️

😭 Psychology - crying

Why crying is good for you. (11 mins)

Philosophy Corner (a journey through thinking about thinking every week)

(A serialised section that started with Greek Tragedy and moved to philosophy. Something to spark ideas. Feel free to go backwards!).

Carl Schmitt. (46 mins)

Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political (1932) has been hugely influential on the left as well as the right of political debate despite the fact that its author joined the Nazi Party shortly after its publication. David explores the origins of Schmitt’s ideas in the debates about the Weimar Republic and examines his critique of liberal democracy. He asks what Schmitt’s distinction between friend and enemy has to teach us about democratic politics today.

Documentary

(A good thing to watch - also serialised - so feel free to go back through past editions!)

We’re going all in on philosophy, with the excellent 1970s series by Bryan Magee. It’s in 15 parts. This episode is a really interesting interview with Isaiah Berlin. (45 mins)

Podcast(s)

(The best stuff I’ve listened to, or been recommended by subscribers)

New Scientist explores several topics, including sexuality in our closest primate relatives. (26 mins)
A really interesting discussion with Patrick Deneen on liberalism. Tbh I think Klein catches him out on all sorts of inconsistencies in his thinking (and does it nicely). But it’s a good in-depth look at several issues. (90 mins)
Áine Kerr was interviewed by Matt Cooper - she covers some of her time at Storyful (where I worked with her for a few years) - including lots of good career advice. (60 mins)
War on the Rocks was typically good. Michael Kofman briefly discusses the possibility of Russia using tactical nukes towards the end. (36 mins)
Another War on the Rocks explored how the US military may face some of the deficiencies we’ve seen from Russian forces, while also looking at how innovation can work in the military (or not). (18 mins)
Odd Lots looked at how a $60bn “stable” coin imploded. (69 mins)
Quanta looked at speeding up ML tasks using quantum computing. (20 mins)