Inside this post Balaji describes a concept of read-only culture: “the ability to repeat what an ancestor has handed down – but not recreate it from first principles.” It reminds me of cargo cults a bit. | learn more
There’s a unique problem that comes with a formal peer-review publication process. “We’re going to kill ourselves because of stupidity.” | learn more
“We’re going to be able to piece together what the universe’s story was in the first billion years after the Big Bang,” says Caitlin Casey, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin, who co-leads a team that received […]
A reasoned intellectual analysis into the hardest-to-dismiss cases of UFOs by Robin Hanson of Overcoming Bias. | learn more
Short answer: yes. “Rogue, like most recycling companies, had been sending plastic trash to China, but when China shut its doors two years ago, Leebrick scoured the U.S. for buyers. She could find only someone who wanted white milk jugs. […]
I just finished reading a book about the early days of SpaceX. The number of times the company came close to death is remarkable. “SpaceX beats out Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and defense contractor Dynetics to be the sole provider […]
“Who among us hasn’t looked out at the great edifice of human civilization in all its complexity, and thought “Yeah okay but I could do it better” | learn more
One year in, Stephen Wolfram discusses the progress of his project to develop a new fundamental theory of physics. The level of abstraction here is beyond me so I couldn’t get all the way through this. “The way I see […]
“Like medieval castles in the age of the cannon, technological advance threatens to make [aircraft carriers] redundant. Satellites and over-the-horizon radars mean pinpointing their locations is easier. And a single well-aimed, well-armed missile may be enough to render a carrier […]
“It’s produced from sustainable feedstocks and is very similar in its chemistry to traditional fossil jet fuel. Using SAF results in a reduction in carbon emissions compared to the traditional jet fuel it replaces over the lifecycle of the fuel.” […]