Category: Politics
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AI, limiting complexity and the social contract – some emerging thoughts
Has social media led to a rise in anti-social behaviour? And, if so, does the widespread adoption of AI risk making this worse? Or is a highly-networked society one that will see community capacity deepened? Life has a habit of circling around. The first book I wrote – many, many years ago – was an…
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Burning Questions and Political Facades
Against the ravenous tiger of fire, we give the rich a rifle and the poor a feather. In 1971, an engineer at Ford motors called Lou Tubben invited all of his fellow company engineers to a presentation he’d put together about gas-tanks. Driving around with a whole lot of highly flammable liquid is, when you…
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‘When We Rise Up, We Must Not Lift Away… Real Hope is Horizontal’
Thrilled to announce that my talk at TEDx Exeter is now online! It was a huge honour to be asked to close the event, which was on the theme of hope. ‘Instead of getting out of our heads, we must work with our hands.’ In Countering Political Turmoil with a New Summer of Love I look…
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‘Sometimes the Burned Landscape Blooms Most Lavishly’ | ‘All This Is Temporary’
Beautiful – and important words here from Rebecca Solnit, via Robert Macfarlane. Something all writers – and politicians – need to digest: On that same plane, I’m really grateful to Barry Taylor for sharing this talk given by Mark Fisher in February 2016, in which he gives a rather brilliant summary of his thinking… and,…
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‘No Speed Limit’ – Accelerate
Great quick overview of accelerationism. Terrifying, but hugely relevant. ‘For decades longer than more orthodox contemporary thinkers, accelerationists have been focused on many of the central questions of the late 20th and early 21st centuries: the rise of China; the rise of artificial intelligence; what it means to be human in an era of addictive,…
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Trump vs The Prince
‘It is not reasonable that they know how to rule, having always lived as private citizens… the first bad weather kills them.’ Reaching for something to read before bed the other day, I pulled down Machiavelli’s classic book on the dark art of state-craft, The Prince. Chapter VII begins thus: 500 years before Trump, it…