📚 Book
Robert Wright argues there is a point to it all. Of course, that is nice in itself, but he also shows a sequence that keeps repeating, making life better for humanity over the years.
This basic sequence—the conversion of non-zero-sum situations into mostly positive sums—had started happening at least as early as 15,000 years ago. Then it happened again. And again. And again. Until—voilà!—here we are, riding in airplanes, sending e-mail, living in a global village.
This leads him to the strange conclusion that we should slow down progress, when I think it shows we can and should speed it up! Make the future come sooner, is after all Warp Institutes mission.
Of course it is always valuable to hear good counter-arguments to your views, especially when then come from the same basic understanding of humanity.
📰 Article
Herbert Diess of Volkswagen is the traditional automakers’ leader who best understands the need to transition to electric vehicles and pushes that transition the hardest.
It seems like he is meeting a lot of internal resistance, but Volkswagen anyways has a very ambitious plan to go carbon-neutral, layed out in this text (even though 2050 is at least a decade too late.)
👉 What is Volkswagen doing for the climate?
📺 Video
Continuing the Herbert Diess theme he did an interesting interview with Bloomberg in Davos earlier this year (before the pandemic). He predicted a tough year… little did he know then how hard.
He got a question about Tesla’s high valuation:
“The stock exchange is about the future, about expectations. Tesla has a product that describes the future of the automotive industry. Tesla leads the way… But we are optimistic that we can keep the same pace and hopefully take the lead in the future…”
🗄️ From the archive
To overthrow a dictatorship you need violence, right? Not if you want to increase your chances of success.
Non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to succeed than violent campaigns in overthrowing oppression.
And with social media and the smartphone a new weapon has emerged for the oppressed.
📱 Non-violent resistance – the smartphone is mightier than the sword
🤪 And now for something completly different
Twenty years ago classical pianist, João Carlos Martins, lost dexterity in his hands and couldn’t play the piano anymore.
Now, thanks to bionic gloves, he can again play. In the video you see him playing for the first time in 20 years.
