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Humanity’s special power Overview All this time we have considered our intelligence as something that sets us apart from, and superior to, all other species, past and present, that have inhabited the earth. It might be time to move aside. The chapter starts, as most do, with a “parable”: biological life on earth starting as…
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The introduction is aptly sub-titled “Hard calls and easy calls”, a distinction which the authors also painstakingly explain in each chapter. Hundreds of AI scientists signed an open letter in 2023 that stated that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority”. AI research has yielded jump after jump in the…
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Overview I just finished reading “If anyone builds it, everyone dies” by Eliezer Yudkowski & Nate Soares. It’s an excellent fast-paced read, with an engaging style of writing. The book is set up very systematically like it’s written by the perfect mix of engineers, attorneys and storytellers. I am going to sum up each chapter…
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To be a poet One day, I hopeI’m brave enoughto step out of my headand into the rough to savor the joygive thanks to the paindrink it all inlike life-giving rain remember every momentgrateful for the chanceto relish the mundaneto be fearless and dance! be a poet of simple thingselevate the lowlypraise the grass, the…
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In the culmination of this exploration of the flow of carbon through the universe, the earth and every mobile and immobile denizen of the planet, Hawken reiterates the contrast between the indigenous worldview – all of us, including land, plants and animals are inseparable – and the worldview the rest of us live in –…
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This chapter in my opinion is about “rewilding” the land. It recounts the story of the Knepp Estate, a 3500 acre “money-losing farm” in Sussex, England. After concerted attempts to use modern agriculture and cattle farming techniques and still losing money, the owners, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree, inspired by Frans Vera, a Dutch conservationist,…
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This chapter gives soil the glory it deserves and has some gems of statements: “Science can analyze and sequence organisms found in the soil, but it cannot make soil.” Reminds me of a religious joke a neighbor’s kid told mine: God picks up some soil and makes a human out of it. He then asks…
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Forests preceded human life on earth by hundreds of millions of years. Everything seemed to have been gigantic back then: yard-long scorpions, eight-foot millipedes and 130- to 180- foot tall trees. (how do we know this?) Apparently, there was a lack of fungi and microbes back then? Doesn’t make sense – shouldn’t those things have…
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Dragonflies. I LOVE dragonflies. Even though I don’t approve of their blatant aerial intercourse practices. It’s interesting that apparently they spend only a few weeks of their lives in this beautiful aerodynamic form, while the vast majority of its life is spent in unglamorous earlier life stages. I wasn’t aware of their super-powered eyesight. Or…
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We think language helps us accurately express what we see and think. But it’s a feedback loop in my opinion, and the language we speak affects how we see and think. The author gives the simple example of addresses being written “in reverse” in Japan. Which is funny, because even as a kid, I used…