This piece was coauthored with Travis Manuel. This is a cross-post from the Clearer Thinking blog.
According to YouGov polling, 41% of people in the United States think that it is the greatest country in the world. Others see the U.S. as a place full of arrogance, violence, and inequality. So, what's the truth?
The truth is that there isn't a single notion of what makes something the "best." To explore how great (or not) America is, we'll start by looking at the question from mu...
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technology
If you think technological progress is inevitable, you’re mistaken
Some people claim that the idea of technology or science being slowed down is ridiculous - that they march forward at their own pace. But this is not always true - there are a number of interesting examples of tech, tech adoption, and science being greatly slowed down:
1) Psychedelics: In 1966, LSD was banned in CA, and in 1968, a U.S. law came out banning psilocybin (the chemical in "magic mushrooms"). Since then, the study of these compounds and the development of related ones has been inc...
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The three big strategies I see for combating climate change
Change my mind: I currently think that there are only three big potential strategies for effectively preventing substantial human-caused climate change in the next 40 years.
Climate Strategy 1: Government Collaboration
If we collaborated, China, the U.S., India, and Europe could engage in substantial climate emission regulation (e.g., by taxing carbon, using cap-and-trade systems, setting deadlines by which certain industries must be carbon neutral, building cleaner power generation f...
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The Maximally Cynical Glossary of Technology Terms
Feeling cheery about technology and optimistic about the future, but still confused by what exactly "Deep Learning" and "Quantum computing" mean? Here's your antidote: the Maximally Cynical Glossary of Technology Terms. Not to be taken too seriously :)
A
Android phones: the closest a company can get to making an iPhone while risking only a dozen lawsuits (see entry on “iPhones”)
Artificial Intelligence: the best name for Machine Learning if you’re trying to make it sound cool to people that...
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