🌎 The cost of progress
Solutionists embrace the messy truth.
Hey Freethinkers,
The devastating wildfires that recently struck Los Angeles have left everyone asking what can be done to prevent or mitigate future wildfire tragedies. In the latest installment of Future Explored, we take a look at the beneficial role that prefabricated homes are likely to play.
Also on deck: In the latest chapter from his book The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Jason Crawford explains why solving the biggest problems facing humanity not only means fully accepting the reality of the problems, but also enthusiastically stepping up to meet the challenges.
Onwards,
Damon
FREETHINK VOICES
Progress happens because solutions create new problems to solve
by
“Progress is messy,” writes Jason Crawford. “Its benefits come with inextricable costs and risks.” But it is only by accepting such costs and risks, he argues, and working tirelessly to prevent, mitigate, or cure them, that progress can actually occur.
IN THE KNOW
When science fiction becomes science fact
by @TIME on X
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re living in the middle of a sci-fi story? The recent news that a team of scientists have bred “woolly mice” via gene editing as part of their efforts to bring back the long-extinct woolly mammoth certainly sounds like something straight out of the realm of speculative fiction. Except for one thing: It’s really happening.
MORE ON THIS STORY
FUTURE EXPLORED
Fire-resilient prefabs are helping LA build back better
This week’s Future Explored takes a look back at the history of prefabricated homes, explaining what they can offer that standard constructions can’t, and how one maker of these residences is working to ensure its clients won’t have to go through the fire rebuild process again in the future.
WORTH SHARING
We were promised “Star Trek,” so why did we settle for these lousy chatbots?
Earlier this year, I spoke with Gary Marcus, the popular and outspoken AI skeptic, about my AI fatigue. And as we were talking, he pointed out something I needed to hear: Most of this isn’t the AI I was promised. These new models and tools are not AI in the sense that I used to imagine it. Amazon has rebranded a search feature. Google Sheets is doing what Excel was doing in the 2000s. Spam filters are not AI; they’re just glorified if-else coding.
This is not the AI I was promised. And, according to Marcus, if we accept all of this as AI, then we risk missing the bigger thing.
Damon Root is the managing editor at Freethink.
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