Addiction

People worry about properties that lose value if we move toward sustainability. For example, if demand for fossil fuels drops then things whose value depend on the price of fossil fuels like factories, refineries, and companies will lose value. If their values drop more than they're worth to use, they become worthless. Finance people call them stranded assets. If enough people stop flying and driving, the stuff in this image could become a worthless stranded asset. People worry about shocks to the economy, but what about values, especially basic human values? Imagine someone found a way to end fentanyl addiction so that all current addicts stopped buying it. Then all illegal fentanyl-producing facilities would become stranded assets. Would we delay ending addiction because those assets…

People ask what the effects of artificial intelligence will be. In most of the talk I come across, people tend to ask what AI will do for them. Will using it help them? Will others using it lead them to miss out? Sometimes they wonder if it will help them directly, as opposed to helping them do their jobs. They wonder if it help them in their loneliness like a friend or therapist. Sometimes people wonder abstractions like if AI is conscious or can be. I haven't written much about AI. Mostly this piece: I love developing resilience and strength: AI version, part 1. People often wonder about the side effects. What if a terrorist started using it? What if it were used to make…

I've posted plenty on the heavy drug use in my neighborhood. The police and parks department recently cleaned the northwest corner of Washington Square Park, but, as they predict, the junkies move to other nearby places. I believe the effort is worth it. I talk to neighbors about forming local groups to occupy spaces the junkies would go to before they get there and make it hard for them to set up. In the language of Jane Jacobs, to put more eyes on the street. So far, it seems like my neighbors prefer to retreat. When I walked out of my front door the other day, half a block from my home, a junkie was urinating on an empty storefront. Next to him were three…

People act as if flying is necessary for life. I sometimes list people who have never flown. Here's a short list from a recent presentation I created: Marco Polo Lincoln Aristotle Jesus Paul Buddha Laozi Mohammad Mozart Shakespeare Maybe it's just me, but they seem like people who accomplished meaningful things. I was curious about Lincoln: had he traveled overseas? I knew Jefferson, Franklin, and other Founding Fathers had spent time in Europe, meaning sailing across the Atlantic multiple times. I looked up Lincoln and learned his only time outside the US was to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and the country was smaller then. Since people who fly today don't look like they'll make the history books as much as Lincoln, I conclude…