Israel’s Descent
Adam Shatz at the London Review of Books: When Ariel Sharon withdrew more than eight thousand Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, his principal aim was to consolidate
How AI is Going to Transform Civilization Over the Next 5-10 Years
Scott Aaronson at Shtetl-Optimized: My friend Leopold Aschenbrenner, who I got to know and respect on OpenAI’s now-disbanded Superalignment team before he left the company under disputed circumstances, just released “Situational
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The New-Old Authoritarianism
From Project Syndicate: Over the past decade, Ruth Ben-Ghiat has emerged as one of the English-speaking world’s leading experts on, and chroniclers of, authoritarian leaders in the twenty-first century. A
Can Democracy and Billionaires Coexist? Not on This Planet.
by Sam Pizzigati at Inequality: One person, one vote. The classic essence of democracy. But what if that one person happens to be a fabulously rich? Does that one person
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The Fault in Our Forecasts
Susan Hough at Asterisk: The reality is that earthquake prediction is hard. “Neither the USGS nor any other scientists have ever predicted a major earthquake,” reads the official statement on
Do Less. It’s Good for You.
Jamie Ducharmie in Time Magazine: You take a vacation day, but get distracted by the thought of your work inbox filling up. Or you sit down to watch a movie and immediately feel
If We Can Keep it: Is the U.S. a Democracy or a Republic?
Tim Sommers at 3 Quarks Daily: The website of the Connecticut General Assembly, for some obscure reason, stipulates that “By definition, a republic is a representative form of government that
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Does Sleep Really Clean the Brain? Maybe Not, New Paper Argues
Sara Reardon in Science: We all need sleep, but no one really knows why. For the past 10 years, a prevailing theory has been that a key function of sleep is
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Real Learning Has Become Impossible in Universities: DIY Programs Offer a Better Way
William Deresiewicz at Persuasion: Higher ed is at an impasse. So much about it sucks, and nothing about it is likely to change. Colleges and universities do not seem inclined
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Picture a Perfect Society. What Does it Look Like?
What principles do we need to design a fair society? Here is political philosopher John Rawls’ classic thought experiment on redesigning society–the experiment considers a group of strangers who are
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Rule of Law?
Joann Wypijewski in Sidecar: On 30 May, around cocktail time, a jury in New York criminal court found former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump guilty on all thirty-four counts
The Traveler By: Friedrich Nietzsche
A traveler who had seen many countries, peoples and several of the earth’s continents was asked what attribute he had found in men everywhere. He said: “They have a propensity