Kickoff For September 11, 2023
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I’ve found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.
Let’s get this Monday started with these links:
ChatGPT Is an Ideology Machine, wherein Leif Weatherby argues that the seemingly ubiquitous large language mode, and others like it, have the potential to produce shifts in the very way we think about things (for good and for bad).
Musk and Bezos Offer Humanity a Grim Future in Space Colonies, wherein Matthew R. Francis argues that off-world settlements run by corporate space lords have the potential to be less like libertarian utopias and more like the worst company towns of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Problematic Myth of Florence Nightingale, wherein we learn a bit about the history of nursing, which didn’t start with the famed Victorian carer, and how the story that’s been built up around her has affected the profession.
How to spot an AI cheater, wherein Alex O’Brien surveys the burgeoning set tools designed to spot writing and other content generated by artificial intelligence software, and why humans still need to be part of the detect process.
Degrowth in Japan, wherein Nathan Gardles looks at the ideas of Kohei Saito, which imply that returning to the economic heights of the 1980s isn’t the cure for Japan’s ills, when rather it’s the opposite.
Hold the Line, wherein we learn how the profession of switchboard operator, which was almost entirely dominated by women, came into be as telephony spread, and about how that profession vanished as newer telephony technology hit the scene.
What we know from decades of UFO government investigations, wherein Joel Mathis summarises what the US government learned over various decades of looking into the existence, and potential threats, of unidentified aerial vehicles.
Know It All, wherein Willow Defebaugh ponders what we can learn from owls about different ways in which to perceive and process the world.
Britain is Dead, wherein Samuel McIlhagga explores the long, slow decline of Britain as a political and economic power, and power, and the British elite’s profound inability to prevent national decline.
And that’s it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.