Are we at the Fermi Paradox filter moment? — BWX Technologies, a company that builds power systems for submarines and aircraft carriers, is developing a mobile reactor for the US military that will fit into a standard shipping container and be delivered on a truck. It may not be long before you can order one for your RV on…

One question is how Cobblepot so successfully got minions of henchmen to do his evil work for him. The same could be asked of Donald Trump or Vivek Ramaswamy … and their bankers. — In early 2019 I published a satirical post featuring Donald Trump as The Penguin, the DC Comics Batman villain (true identity: Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot). I probably gave my readers more credit than I should have for knowing either the comic book history or understanding the comparison. Those posts, in…

Survival within a niche is less about the will to power and more about taming entropy. — Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about… The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves. — Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 2 There is a tendency to look towards artificial…

What can we learn from societies that are less violent? — You often hear, “Guns don’t kill, people kill.” After another mass shooting that killed 18 in Maine, the U.S. House Speaker (third in line to the President) declared “The problem is the human heart. It’s not guns” and, obligatorily, “This is not the time to be talking about legislation.” Last…

Why do we find it so difficult to ban assault rifles in private hands? — Setting: The court of Shogun Hideyoshi Toyotomi in Osaka Castle, 1588. Characters: Hideyoshi — The Taiko, Shogun of Japan General Yamada — Supreme Samurai General Miyoko — Senior advisor advocating confiscation of firearms Tamura — Senior advisor advocating banning firearms Blackburn — The Portuguese Ambassador Matashichi — Leader of NMA, the National Matchlock Association Yoshi…

What does AI have to say about the dangers AI poses? — A candid conversation with OpenAI (2023), ChatGPT (September 25 Version), with explanatory notes by Google Bard and a postscript comment by Claude. ACT 1 PROMPT: Compose a humorous dialog in the style of a TV sitcom between a ChatBot bartender and a customer at a bar that addresses the pros and cons…

The migrant story is a little more nuanced than Elon Musk might have you believe. — About 200,000 years ago, a woman was born whose mitochondrial DNA became the source DNA of every person alive today. All of us are her descendants. At that time, the modern human population was small — about 10,000–20,000. It would later ebb and flow but never get as small as…

The Climate Foundation is on a campaign to spread marine permaculture to all the waters of the world. — A wonder of nature, perhaps a metaphor for its magic, is that the planet’s most majestic forest grandeur is hidden from our view. Though this forest’s “trees” are taller than sequoias, they are invisible to us. They grow down, not up. Unburdened by having to fight gravity or thirst for…

We may be the final generation of humans but we could still evolve into the first generation of eco-humans. — As I post this, I am knee-deep in presenting a webinar, hosted by the Global Ecovillage Network, on the theme of ecovillage responses to climate change. Let me reprise some of my talk from that event here, starting with the latest weather reports and a year in review.