Ben Harris-Roxas

Cutaway view of a toroidal colony, by Rick Guidice. Source: NASA Ames Research Center

Abundance is the prefab, catch-all alternative to these forms of scarcity-thinking on “both the socialist left and the populist authoritarian right.” Large increases in material output, we are assured, can save liberalism from the civilizational choice between socialism and barbarism. I disagree; refusing to be forthright about society’s structural antagonisms opens the door to demagogues who peddle false conflicts that still ring truer than the liberals’ false peace.

The Abundance authors are hesitant to enumerate the tradeoffs their agenda will require. Prompted by the work of degrowth advocate Jason Hickel, they consider whether we should shut off or scale down destructive sectors of production, such as military investment, meat and dairy production, advertising, and fast fashion. “There is some appeal to this,” they write. “All of us can identify some aspect of the global production system that seems wasteful, unnecessary, or harmful. The problem is that few of us identify the same aspects of the global production system.” Hamburgers, they inform us, are popular in America. As is advertising, I suppose, insofar as we see a lot of it. But why can’t decent liberals like Klein and Thompson bring themselves to interrogate America’s trillion-dollar defense budget? It can’t just be an issue of popularity; after all, there’s nothing Americans like better than living in single-family homes, and the authors aren’t too afraid to call for the return of boarding houses. This country’s bombs don’t merely “seem” wasteful, unnecessary, or harmful. And disarmament is not scarcity—on the contrary.

What’s the Matter with Abundance? - The Baffler

Unlimited genAI use (Lane 2/All), if applied to students in their early stages of higher education, is akin to handing a teenager the keys to a high-powered sports car and saying ‘have fun’. This approach ignores the fundamental need to educate students to build skills incrementally within sensible limits.

A helpful, considered article by Guy Curtis on the limitations of the two-lanes for AI use and higher ed assessment heuristic.

The two-lane road to hell is paved with good intentions: why an all-or-none approach to generative AI, integrity, and assessment is insupportable - Higher Education Research and Development

Reaching out of nooks in the cracked crust along the desert’s coast, there lie thousands of Copiapoa cacti. A cactus group made up of more than 30 species, Copiapoa are found only in Chile. They grow a mere centimetre each year in scorching, breathtaking desert conditions by absorbing the local evening fog, known as camanchaca.

These rare, aubergine-shaped succulents exemplify life’s ability to adapt to extremes – one of the traits that has made them highly sought after by plant collectors.

They’ve also just been at the heart of a landmark trial over an international cactus heist that might revolutionise how biodiversity crimes are dealt with the world over.

Operation Atacama: The $1m cactus heist that led to a smuggler’s downfall - BBC

“Last week, Aix Marseille University, France’s largest university, invited American scientists who believe their work is at risk of being censored by Donald Trump administration’s anti-science policies to continue their research in France. Today, the university announced that it is already seeing great interest from scientists at NASA, Yale, Stanford, and other American schools and government agencies, and that it wants to expand the program to other schools and European countries to absorb all the researchers who want to leave the United States."

This is a generous gesture but PACA is the heartland of the French far right, and the academy is a perpetual whipping boy for politicians. Anyone who moved would face another set of difficulties.

Legal expert warns patients' medical data at risk as GPs adopt AI scribes - ABC

Excellent points in this article. I’ve directly observed some cavalier attitudes about the use of A.I. scribes, and consent processes aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. I’ve also seen this issue dismissed as “table stakes” in a pollyannaish rush towards imaginary uses for patient recall and enhanced practice profitability.

Health data is amongst the most sensitive data there is. Data governance and data security are major issues with these apps. We shouldn’t be forced into using scribes based on the decisions of practice owners or individual GPs.

A really interesting and timely dive into Xiaohongshu/RedNote.

“Who’s Afraid of the Little Red Book” - The China Story by Wing Kuang

In the United States and Australia, Xiaohongshu is widely used by Chinese students studying at universities and young first-generation migrants, who find it useful for locating Chinese restaurants, Asian grocery stores and Chinese-speaking trade services as well as researching immigration policies and sharing their immigration experiences.In Australia, Xiaohongshu attracts almost 700,000 users, including Chinese Australian citizens and temporary residents such as international students. In 2021, I interviewed three Australians who are on Xiaohongshu. Sebastian, who first came across Xiaohongshu through his Chinese partner, treated the platform like a ‘Chinese Instagram’ where he posted his daily outfits in exchange for hundreds of likes – often much more than on his Instagram where he shares the same content.