Sic Semper Tyrannis: Stuck in a Timeline
When consensus predictions don't pan out, it is always worth noting. That is why it is so striking how little attention it is getting that we had the future of technology dead wrong.
Revenge Effects in Waste, Fast Fashion, and EVs
Technology often has unintended consequences that reduce the benefit of the technology itself. I wrote about a variant of this in my posts about Stanley Jevons, but in this note we abstract up a little and talk about revenge effects in more general terms.
The Wisdom of Teamsters, plus Product Traps and Housing Bombs
What happens when people decide an occupation is toast? This is an important question given what we see happening in many occupations that once looked appealing, and now, post large language models (LLMs), look less so.
Running to Not Stand Still: AI, Nuclear Power, and Florida
Some updates on AI, energy, Jevons paradox, and how we are not even running to stand still in some complex systems
Agents, Mimicry, & a Monte Carlo Simulation of the Pomfret Problem
Mimicry is a complex and important topic across biology, markets, social networks, and other domains. It can lead to unexpected outcomes, as well as new sources of fragility.
Travels in 2023 America
I recently drove across America and back again. And here is what I saw and thought it meant, from truckstops, to wind farms, to EVs, to, AI.
Ledgers, Risk, and Verschlimmbesserung
Many actions make things worse when attempting to make them better. A subset of these activities introduces entirely new forms of unexpected risk.
The Many Paradoxes of William Stanley Jevons, Part 2
This is Part 2 of a two-part series on the paradoxes of 19th-century economist William Stanley Jevons, and how, given