I was inspired to write this article after listening to The Daily’s recent interview of Geoffrey Hinton — the 75 year old Godfather of AI. Geoffrey recently stepped down from Google (originally scooped up by them for $44M in a talent acquisition in 2013) in order to give his honest…

Not allowing Ukraine to launch direct attacks on Russia is prolonging the war. — Disallowed Have you ever considered the following? That forcing Ukrainians only to attack Russian-held Ukrainian territory, rather than Russia itself, the West is effectively saying; here are our weapons, but you can only use them if you force yourself into an expected, direct attack on entrenched Russian forces, thereby greatly increasing…

How embracing circularity is key to our survival Collapse by Jared Diamond outlines how four centuries ago, the inhabitants of Easter Island knowingly brought about their own demise. Their culture was built on tribal rivalry but rather than going to battle, the disparate communities of the island would carve ever…

Standing up to climate apathy — First published by Skytree on 27.10.22: https://skytree.eu/its-not-easy/ I’ve been working on solutions to beat climate change for over a decade. I’ve been thinking about the problem since the 90’s. There’s been a noticeable change in society’s attitude over the years. People are becoming aware of the problem and taking more…

Despite ever increasing investment in the sector, public sentiment still sways towards the notion that exploring space is a waste of money and a billionaire’s game. But could such sentiment in fact risk our climate security and technological progress? Let’s follow a thought experiment to explore how the argument holds… …

There are many simple and effective measures that can be taken by governments around the world, which would not cost much, but which would have a huge effect on our chances to beat climate change. Most will result in structural reforms that lend themselves to an economy which is friendlier…

Raised in desperate poverty in a single-room apartment in St. Petersberg (then Leningrad), Putin is the child of a disabled factory worker and cleaner. He lost two elder brothers as an infant. …

It’s astounding how the leaders of the fifth largest economy in the world can come to power based on half truths, false premises, non sequitur opinions and the exploitation of deep-seated (though misplaced) fears of the common people. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings and Jacob Rees-Mogg are all guilty…

Starship launches are estimated by SpaceX to cost less than $2M per launch (ref. IAC presentation 2017, min 25:00). This represents a dramatic decrease compared to traditional launch costs and in fact, Starship, once completed, will be the most cost-effective rocket in existence even while being the largest (it has…