net-zero aviation, dropping prices of solar & boring tunnels
CC#69 - AI as an Equalizer, Bitcoin around the World & the Dating Pipeline
Hey there and welcome to ✨ CuratedCuriosity - a bi-weekly newsletter delivering inspiration from all over the internet to the notoriously curious.
Things I Enjoyed Reading.
🛫 How much biofuel would we need to decarbonise aviation?
As someone who loves travelling but also our beautiful planet, sustainable aviation is definitely close to the top of my overall wishlist of things to be invented. Thus, I found it very interesting to get an update on the status quo and prospect on decarbonised air travel. Conclusion: If demand for flights keeps increasing it will be almost impossible…
That’s a lot of land, especially in a future where cropland availability will already be squeezed as a result of population and economic growth (which leads to more land-intensive diets).
This cropland demand – which could lead to deforestation at worst, and reduce carbon sequestration in non-forested land at best – comes at a climate cost. The study above assumed that biofuels were ‘carbon-neutral’, but the reality is that they’re often not. They have life-cycle emissions from inputs such as fertilizers, and have carbon costs in terms of land use.
≈ Is it time for the Revenge of the Normies?
A lot of the debate regarding AI and inequality seems to be focusing on potentially inequality increases due to automation. This article takes the opposite view and asks the question: What potential mechanisms could lead AI to contribute to more equality?
To my knowledge, there’s no study so far showing that more talented people are able to use generative AI more effectively than less talented people. All of the evidence points to generative AI as an equalizer. (…)
Generative AI is specifically set up to interface with people who don’t think like machines. It does most of the machine stuff for them. Yes, there are some techniques like prompt engineering that may take some amount of difficult cognition, but this is a far cry from the difficult, often repetitive mental work that older IT technologies required.
In other words, it looks increasingly likely that traditional IT acted like a shovel — something that complemented people’s natural abilities — while generative AI acts more like a steam shovel. A steam shovel handles the muscle-power for you; GPT-4 handles the detail-oriented thinking for you. Technologies that substitute for natural ability tend to make natural ability less scarce, and therefore less valuable
🕳️ Why Tunnels Could Build Tomorrow’s Cities
We will for sure face more severe weather conditions in the future, the population will grow, demand for mobility will increase - all of this will lead to increase in the need for space. So why not build underground?
Humanity is no stranger to digging down for its transportation infrastructure. Much of the globe’s public transit was built underground, criss-crossing under urban metropolises. So why hasn’t anyone built freeways for cars like that?
(…) On the surface (heh), it’s not exactly the sexiest topic, so it doesn’t get much airtime in the media. But advancements in tunnel boring could transform our infrastructure, allowing us much-needed room for human population growth—and help ameliorate issues from increasingly random weather patterns in an era of climate change.
It’s high time we stop thinking about our civilization in two-dimensional terms—existing on the surface of the Earth—and begin thinking in three dimensions. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit for investment in TBM, or tunnel boring machines. Let’s get into the evolution of the industry and the current opportunities for disruption.
Food for Thought.
☠️ Causes of Deaths per age cohort and their change within the last ~ 60 years…
🌞 Some positive news for once - look at the decrease in the price for solar electricity. Isn’t it impressive?
🦾 Everyone who has played around with ChatGPT at least once knows somehow that it is a tool that can increase productivity for a lot of knowledge-based tasks. However, its hard to really proof that. Luckily a set of researchers has now run a big experiment together with BCG - impressive outcomes!
Consultants using AI finished 12.2% more tasks on average, completed tasks 25.1% more quickly, and produced 40% higher quality results than those without. Those are some very big impacts. Now, let’s add in the nuance.
Random Stuff.
🤑 Legal Status of Bitcoin around the world
💘What does this say about our generation’s dating culture?
🙃 Some motivational wisdom for your week
Personal Update.
My apologies for missing last week once more and messing up the schedule of this newsletter - I will do my best to pick up the bi-weekly rhythm again.
To my excuse, it’s been a busy few weeks with lots of travles:
I attended IceLab Camp in Umea (Northern Sweden) trying to learn how to write successful grant proposals (and taking long walks around the beautiful lakes there).
I also went to Washington D.C. to attend a symposium on Political Economy organised by the Mercatus Center
And I have been in Linz, Austria to attend the second Chapter of the ‘Founding Lab Fall Term Course’ - centered around Data & Algorithms.
Very much looking forward now to head back to CPH and focusing on getting things done throughout the upcoming weeks! 💪🏻