💾 Archived View for sdf.org › mmeta4 › Phlog › phlog-2019-05-26.txt captured on 2023-03-20 at 19:06:23.
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May 26 2019 It's looking likely I'll be abandoning the notion of hosting this phlog at devio.us ; shell access has been unavailable - again - for more than a week and the system administrators are apparently too busy with other things to keep things running properly. I've created yet another mirror on tilde.institute, a free Unix shell server which hopefully will prove more reliable: gopher://tilde.institute/~meta4 - - Just finished Nathaniel Rich's book 'Losing Earth: A Recent History', basically an expansion on his 2018 New York Time magazine essay of as similar title and will post a review sometime soon. - - Some notable online finds: We've Created a Civilization Hell Bent on Destroying Itself - May, 2019 James Dyke, University of Exeter ; published on theconversation.com http://sdf.org/l/1qd or https://theconversation.com/climate-change-weve-created-a-civilisation-\ hell-bent-on-destroying-itself-im-terrified-writes-earth-scientist-113055 A well-written, fairly comprehensive assessment of our current collective predicament. Dyke is some sort of climate researcher which maybe explains the subtitle '- I'm terrified'. What I found most interesting was his discussion of what has come to be known as "the technosphere", the symbiotic amalgam consisting of individual humans, human societies and all our stuff. That stuff is all-encompassing: it's our infrastructure, our agriculture, basically our technology. And we aren't so in control of anymore. We made it but along the way it has returned the favor to such an extent that we are collectively unable to reign it in even though we know it's killing us. Towards the end of the essay Dyke hints at some sort of escape plan which I assume will be revealed in a followup essay. I'm not going to hold out much hope for a true solution to this mess but we'll see what he comes back with. - - Escape with Lord Hugh R. Adumbass - YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTnKeTZFv8BINBfIBWXSODQ I came across a reference to this channel on Sam Mitchell's Collapse Chronicles YouTube channel and it is really something different. I've no idea what this guy's real name is, only that he says he is some sort of software architect, is originally from South Africa, and lives on a boat currently moored somewhere in Greece. Oh and he considers himself an anarchist. Anyway, seems he started this channel to bring attention to the human world's current suicidale trajectory and propose some sort of "escape", hence the title. To boost engagement he promises several 1 oz gold coins to those who are able to glean the clues hidden in subsequent episodes. However you'll notice the title prefix changes at episode 7 to "No Escape"; apparently this marks his transformation to full doomer (he seems to agree with a Guy McPherson's conclusion, that we're already past the point of no return and it's just a matter of time before we slip into runaway warming). Nonetheless, he has kept cranking out the episodes which I've found really quite engaging as they span many subjects: philosophy, psychology, politics, science, and history. Some of his theories are pretty far out there but clearly the guy is intelligent and well-read. Actually, my theory on some of the crazier stuff is that these are actually the clues; identify all the conspiracy theories (most seem to be in the earlier episodes before his doomer conversion). Some of the episodes are a bit long and I'd suggest just skimming the fist episode as it mostly covers our BS fiat monetary system, something that isn't such a secret these days. Probably many will find this guy's channel too crazy and tune out early into the playlist; I almost did but I'm finding his philosophy of coping with impending extinction to be surprisingly uplifting, something there is not not a whole lot of in the doomersphere.