Sometimes, it is very hard to understand certain minds, well, almost impossible. But there are clues. Psychology and psychiatry have certainly built a vast storehouse of knowledge about how people think about how they behave and how the way they live relates to others. But there is so much more, which is why we have … More Ignorant Indifferent Intelligence: Is It Artificial or Real?
I read a some articles and listened to a couple of podcasts over the last week or so, all of which, taken together, were quite sobering especially in the context of the great changes we increasingly see these days. That led me to the following thoughts on the difficulties so many have in accepting the … More Financially Deaf, Ecologically Dumb, and Energy Blind
On a recent road trip of nearly two thousand miles up the Pacific coast of Mexico, I encountered more ‘big rigs’ than ever before. On many parts of the carretera, there were many more trucks than cars. And many more pulled two trailers than I had noticed in the past. Think NAFTA. It reminded me … More Too Many Trucks: Consequences of Modern Culture
My thoughts here were stimulated by a ‘Letter from the Director’ by Beth Sawin, Director of the Multisolving Institute, which I read last month. In that letter, she rightfully struggled over the ‘bad news’ that six of the nine key planetary boundaries between Earth System health and systemic danger had by then been breached. That, … More To Do or To UN-do: Is That the Question?
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the center of current buzz among techies, business people, and economists these days. Why? Well, recently developed AI software appears to be able to generate increasingly human-like ‘intelligence,’ at least on the surface. Vastly improved voice recognition software allows human language to be processed by AI software in order … More The Buzz on ChatGPT vs the Original A.I.
The other day someone told me that a Tesla is just a toy for those rich folks who identify with the ‘environmental movement.’ I’m sure that’s true for some and not for other buyers of the leading electric car today. They certainly are not cheap, nor are most innovative products. It does have some slick … More What’s Wrong with Old Cars? The Appeal of Electric Conversion
I was a teenager in Southern California in the late 1950s at the height of the California Car Culture. I distinctly remember the fact that all the important trends in automotive styles and technology originated with the people I knew or knew about, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Detroit slowly tried to catch up, … More Confessions of a Reformed Technophile
The COVID-19 pandemic is not so much about the characteristics of a virus as it is about the organization of modern societies. The modern infrastructure of hyper-mobility allowed the virus to move rapidly all over the world. Without that infrastructure, the pandemic could not have happened. The Black Plague in the Middle Ages, when mobility … More Rethinking Modern Infrastructure: The Vulnerability of Complex Systems
I don’t remember where I read the “Allegory of the Best Farmer and Community Corn,” but it made enough of an impression that I saved it. I guess it was the contrast with our modernist illusions that got my attention. We live in a world that is culturally detached from the factual world of physical, … More The Allegory of the Best Farmer and Community Corn versus the Modernist Dilemma
Mobiliy, it would seem, is king. I have always loved to ride, drive, fly, and travel. Early on, racing my bicycle around the neighborhood or taking a longer trip through the orange groves in the foothills sufficed. Soon enough I wanted more. Those Boy Scout camping trips in the mountains and deserts of Southern California … More The Mobility Illusion
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 