Our Demon Haunted World

Carl Sagan:

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)

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AI: Exciting and Terrifying

I have personal knowledge that many lawyers and academics are in severe denial about how much AI is turning their professions upside down and inside out. Soon, everyone will be constantly using AI. It's going to quickly get quantum leaps better than it already is and, frankly, a lot of us don't add much value above and beyond the things AI can already do. This is exciting and terrifying.

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The Disastrous Effect of US Trade Policy on the US Middle Class

I agree with David Sacks here. To see the disastrous effects of US trade policy on the US middle class, take a road trip through America's many decimated town and small cities.

BTW, a lot of the people who worked these middle class jobs were men. How are men doing in education and the job market now that many of these jobs no longer exist? Steve Stewart-Williams tells us in his article, "The Other Half: Six gender gaps we rarely talk about" Here are his conclusions:

  • Young Women Now Often Out-Earn Young Men

  • Boys Are Falling Behind at School

  • Fewer Men Are Finishing College

  • More Men Die on the Job

  • Men’s Health Gets Less Funding

  • Men Are More Likely to Take Their Own Lives

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Discover Speechify: Enhance Your PDF Experience

With Speechify. I can multitask and boost productivity with natural voice capabilities. I cannot say enough good things about Speechify. I've scanned most of my books over the years and I have saved them, as well as thousands of articles, in Dropbox (as pdfs). Now, with Speechify everything in my vast collection can be read out loud to me as I'm working out, cooking, cleaning. It's as if everything I own as a pdf can now be a podcast. You can also have Speechify read a live web page.

Further, they offer dozens of natural sounding voices in various languages. I've been listening to articles in Spanish (at slightly reduced speed) and it has been very helpful for improving my Spanish. I'm not making any commission for this recommendation, but I wanted to share this because I just discovered Speechify and it is a game-changer for me. Maybe some of you are looking for this capability on your phone or laptop. If so, consider Speechify. It's not free, but for me it will totally be worth $140/year.

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