More links:
The FTX Foundation's Future Fund is a philanthropic fund making grants and investments to ambitious projects in order to improve humanity's long-term prospects. https://ftxfuturefund.org/
"We provide a method for generating zero-shot, high recall cultural transmission in artificially intelligent agents. Our agents succeed at real-time cultural transmission from humans in novel contexts without using any pre-collected human data." https://www.deepmind.com/research/publications/2022/Learning-Robust-Real-Time-Cultural-Transmission-without-Human-Data
100 digits worth memorizing https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2022/02/27/100-digits-worth-memorizing/
Capturing Failures of Large Language Models via Human Cognitive Biases https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.12299
Researchers are using machine learning to understand how brain cells work https://news.wisc.edu/researchers-are-using-machine-learning-to-understand-how-brain-cells-work/
Scientists Discover New Way Viruses Trigger Autoimmune Diseases https://rupress.org/jem/article/219/3/e20211403/213039/Disruption-of-thymic-central-tolerance-by
War links:
"This is a thread that will explain the implied poor Russian Army truck maintenance practices based on this photo of a Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile system's right rear pair of tires below & the operational implications during the Ukrainian mud season." https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1499164245250002944.html
“I work in the aviation sector, and I can tell you that for all intents and purposes Russian aviation has - at best - about three weeks before it’s show over.” https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498723248183382020.html
U.S., Russia Establish Hotline to Avoid Accidental Conflict https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-03/card/u-s-russia-establish-hotline-to-avoid-accidental-conflict-hPUjy4NlEcA2SE6kCwHO
Fracking Is a Powerful Weapon Against Russia [Bloomberg] https://archive.fo/hXNi7
We should definitely do more to decrease the number of nuclear weapons even further. But this can only happen out of a position of strength.
Unilateral defection would disturb the current equilibrium of mutually assured destruction and make ruthless regimes believe that they can use nuclear weapons against the defectors and their allies without the risk of incurring unbearable damage themselves.
This is why I consider Theresa May one of the greatest leaders of our time for confirming that she would kill ‘100,000 men, women, and children with a nuclear strike. This is the correct strategy if you want to minimize the chance of nuclear weapons being used:
(1) If you want a world without nuclear weapons then unilateral actions are a bad strategy. They will create a power imbalance in favor of those who don’t want to give up their own nuclear weapons or seek to build new nuclear weapons. A better strategy is to first create an international coalition against the proliferation of nuclear weapons in favor of their eventual abolition.
What is REALLY important is that we don’t end up in a world where countries like North Korea have thousands of nukes without anyone being able to do something about it because they could blow everyone up who tried. But this is exactly what will happen if only those who are against nuclear weapons decide to not use or abolish them unilaterally.
(2) Even if a country’s conventional forces are strong, without nuclear deterrence it will be susceptible to nuclear blackmail. And here it doesn’t matter whether you are friends with all of your neighbors, because relations can deteriorate very quickly, as the recent Russian-Ukraine conflict proves. And in a world with intercontinental ballistic missiles, and ballistic missile submarines, everyone is your neighbor.
(3) Credible nuclear deterrence tells any potential enemy that it is not worthwhile to attack you. It doesn’t matter if you can win a nuclear exchange. What matters is that you signal that you won’t succumb without causing your enemy intolerable damage. This does not contradict a pacifist stance since it is meant to prevent war in the first place.
(4) Without nuclear weapons, you become a pawn of the big powers. The UK’s conventional forces stand no chance against those of the U.S. and are irrelevant when it comes to Russia and China because those countries would have no scruples using nuclear weapons.
(5) The world is an ugly place full of ruthless people. And even if you believe that those people are not currently in power, the world can change rapidly.
(6) The U.S. or UK might set some sort of example by dismantling their nuclear weapons, or stating they would not use them (which is for all practical purposes the same). But believing that this will stop e.g. North Korea from developing more nuclear weapons makes about as much sense as believing that China will stop building more nuclear power plants because Germany dismantles its own.
Germany and various other countries are contemplating to embrace nuclear power to become more independent of countries like Russia.
What can Russia do about this? Create images of burning nuclear power plants in Ukraine.
In my rear view mirror
The sun is going down
Sinking behind bridges in the road
I think of all the good things
That we have left undone
And I suffer premonitions
Confirm suspicions
Of the holocaust to come
The rusty wire that holds the cork
That keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly
It's day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset
Could be the human race is run
Like the moment when the brakes lock
And you slide towards the big truck
(Oh no!)
You stretch the frozen moments with your fear
And you'll never hear their voices
(Daddy, Daddy!)
And you'll never see their faces
You have no recourse to the law anymore
And as the windshield melts and my tears evaporate
Leaving only charcoal to defend
Finally I understand the feelings of the few
Ashes and diamonds
Foe and friend
We were all equal in the end
I know people in Germany who have never heard about the Syrian civil war despite the refugee crisis and years of media coverage. The average person is profoundly ignorant.
Source of the screenshot: https://www.tedsanders.com/do-not-expect-the-unexpected/
See also: The Idiocy of the Average: Half of Americans are unable to correctly read a table and do a simple addition/subtraction calculation. https://archive.is/ySvfT
To be fair, those demographics probably match popular media representation.