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To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?
"It's A Big Club... And You Ain't In It!" - George Carlin
Who Really Owns America? If you apply the "not permitted to criticise" test, it's Vladimir Putin, via Donald Trump.
GPU programming is a mess. It relies on frameworks that are tied to specific devices, incompatible shading languages, and drivers that can sometimes cause problems. But WHY is it so bad? After all, CPUs are much more convenient to program. Even though there are multiple architectures on the market, CPU programs can somehow be compiled pretty easily with GCC or LLVM to target multiple platforms. You cannot really expect this level of compatibility with GPUs: all the cross-platform frameworks have drawbacks.This video explains how we ended up in this situation. It's mostly because of how the market evolved, but there are also technical and legal factors at play. The video also explains how government regulations and consumers can influence industries to improve technology. Maybe GPU programming will get better!Chapters:Introduction: 0:00I. CPU Programming: 0:46II. GPU Programming: 5:15III. Antitrust: 11:35IV. Can It Get Better: 14:35
Benchmarks shape more than just AI models?they shape our future. The things we choose to measure become self-fulfilling prophecies, guiding AI toward specific abilities and, ultimately, defining humanity?s evolving role in the AI era. Today?s benchmarks have propelled incredible progress, but now we have an exciting opportunity: thoughtfully designing benchmarks around what genuinely matters to us?cooperation, creativity, education, and meaningful human experiences.In this talk, we?ll explore how benchmarks function as powerful cultural memes, influencing not only technical outcomes but societal direction. Drawing on practical examples we have seen at Every consulting in industries like finance, journalism, education, and even personally making AI play diplomacy. We?ll uncover what makes a benchmark impactful, approachable, and inspiring. You?ll see our engaging new AI Diplomacy benchmark demo, illustrating vividly how thoughtful evaluation design can excite both engineers and the wider community.You?ll hopefully walk away inspired and equipped to define benchmarks intentionally, helping steer AI toward outcomes that truly matter.About Alex DuffyI?m Alex Duffy. I lead AI strategy at Every Inc., helping teams across industries put AI into practice. Previously, I co-founded AI Camp, teaching thousands of students to build their own AI projects, and launched Salt AI, creating tools to help researchers, designers, and creators bring ideas to life. I?m passionate about building teams and tools to empower people with AI. I really believe in creating technology that works for us, not that is work for usRecorded at the AI Engineer World's Fair in San Francisco. Stay up to date on our upcoming events and content by joining our newsletter here: https://www.ai.engineer/newsletter
This is such an important point - we're essentially training AI systems to game our tests rather than develop genuine understanding. The benchmark becomes the destination instead of a waypoint."----that's how most tests work for humans too...
Welcome back to Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu! In today's episode, we're diving deep into one of the most controversial and complex issues of our time: wealth inequality and the fierce debate around taxing the rich. Hashtags like ?EatTheRich? have taken over social media, and public figures are demanding that billionaires pay their ?fair share.? But what do the numbers actually say?are the wealthy really freeloading, or are we missing the bigger picture?Tom unpacks the realities behind the statistics, breaking down who really funds the government, why taxing the rich might not be the solution people think it is, and the powerful psychological forces driving resentment and populism. Along the way, he traces the real culprits behind the shrinking middle class?from runaway inflation and globalization to misguided regulations.If you've ever wondered whether simply taxing billionaires could fix our economic system, or why history shows that punitive tax policies often backfire, this episode will leave you questioning common wisdom and craving real solutions. Get ready for a data-driven, myth-busting journey that reveals both the causes of inequality and what needs to happen for genuine progress. Let?s jump in!Chapters: 00:00 "Tax Burden Disparities in Income"06:48 Revolutionary Violence and Its Consequences09:15 Gini Coefficient: Measuring Inequality11:00 Psychological Traps Worsen Wealth Gap14:14 "Envy Drives Taxing the Rich"19:52 Middle Class Squeeze by Globalization22:52 Wealthy Flee UK: Tax Policy Shift25:47 US Wealth Attraction and Tax Risks30:31 "Globalization's Impact on Labor Wages"34:13 "Reducing Regulations Boosts Economic Growth"35:20 Economic Strategy for U.S. Competitiveness39:20 "Solutions Over Scapegoats"
Through the lens of tribal psychology, anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse explores the origins of civilisation, colonialism, and even football hooliganism.Could tribalism be humanity's saving grace?Could our evolutionary past be imperilling our future? In his most recent book Inheritance, the pioneering Oxford anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse argues that humans have evolved three primary biases through natural and cultural selection: conformism, religiosity, and tribalism. But though these biases once proved invaluable, today they are driving humanity to ruin. Join Harvey Whitehouse as he discusses how we got here and what can do to harness these evolved biases for good.Regarded as one of the founders of the cognitive science of religion, Harvey Whitehouse is a statutory Chair in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford.00:00 Introduction00:18 Group identity and personal identity are at the core of tribalism01:08 The phenomenon of identity fusion03:47 How fusion impacts warfare, politics, and revolutions07:45 How small-scale group bonding evolved into nationalism and religious organisations08:48 Holy wars, the Agricultural Revolution, and the evolution of societies10:49 Contemporary violence, terrorism, and ideological extremism12:56 Political speeches and authoritarian regimes
UN says booming solar, wind and batteries hits global tipping pointAccording to the UN, the world has reached a critical clean energy tipping point, as rapid growth in solar, wind, and battery storage signals a permanent shift away from fossil fuels. These technologies are now expanding so quickly that they could drive a global energy transformation faster than previously predicted.
There's a big schism among energy system analysts right now. Some experts advocate for electricity grids running on 100% solar, wind and battery energy storage. Others argue that this is nothing more than delusional 'hopium'. But with cost curves of all these technologies following exponential trajectories, is it now realistic to project that we may soon reach this lofty goal?
Here in rural America, most of us pay far higher prices for electricity, diesel, propane and gas than city folks. And, given rising prices for everything, it can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to run electricity to a rural house. Add to this, it is a 26 mile round trip for me to go to the gas station. Electrification of everything makes more sense in rural areas than in cities. A freak storm dropped five feet of snow in our county a few years ago. We swept off the panels, checked our battery, and kept the lights on and kept the lights on and fridge cold even after our neighbors ran out of diesel for their generators. The roads were blocked and power was out for nine days. Rural people value their self reliance and independence. And my wife and I love that we produce and store almost all of the power we use for our home, greenhouses, business, tools and vehicles. Also, in a few years when the panels and batteries pay for themselves, our power will be free.Adolph Trumpler, with his attacks on green energy, intends to keep us enslaved to the Saudi and Exxon oil sheiks and corrupt electric utility monopolies and cartels. The good news is that even Trumpler and his bosses at Exxon won?t be able to stop solar, batteries and EVs. The outhouse,?horse-drawn carriage and whale oil lamp industries couldn?t halt progress either.
Even apart from scale, home solar could vastly improve quality of life in places where electricity is spotty.
Although this is a no brainer, there's no shortage of politicians with no brains 🙄
One pragmatic point of view here is that getting to 90-95% renewables would be amazing and looks like it's very doable and probably cheaper than what we do right now. That remaining 5-10% is much less of a big deal. We can chip away at that problem for a long time and eventually make it go away. But there's no rush. We have plenty of gas plants that we can keep around for as long as we need them. There's no need to build new ones. Eventually they'll get too expensive and we'll do something cheaper and cleaner.The other point to make here is that while renewable supply is intermittent, so is a lot of the new energy demand. EVs need charging. But we can choose when to charge them. Houses need heating. But they are insulated and retain heat very well so we can heat them when there's power and then use relatively little power to keep them warm during peak hours. And with heat batteries, seasonal storage of heat is actually possible. For weeks or months. You don't need to heat the water when you take a shower. You just need to ensure that your insulated boiler has hot water. There's a lot of flexibility here in time shifting when energy is actually consumed. This goes a bit against the base load argument. The amount of power we need continuously is a lot more limited than some would have you think. Which BTW is rarely expressed in actual GW needed. It's a bit of a boogy man that people seem to pull out whenever renewables come up. What about the base load? OMG the base load! What are we going to do about the base load? A perfectly reasonable question here is how much, for how long, and for what exactly. Once you do that, you can engineer solutions around that that maybe are a bit smarter than just panic spending tens/hundreds of billions on nuclear plants or whatever. This whole "I don't know but better safe than sorry" attitude towards this topic seems a bit ill advised.I think we'll see a lot of places do just fine without any nuclear, coal, or gas plants whatsoever in a few decades. And if batteries really hit 10$/kwh, a mwh battery will only cost something like 10K$. That's a lot of power. You can run your AC for weeks/months on that if you are a bit clever with insulation.
https://www.withouthotair.com/download.html discusses the physics of renewables dispassionately, from the viewpoint of UK energy demand, and shows that they cannot sustain our present standard of living. The argument can extend over pretty much the whole of Europe, with the lower energy demands of the Mediterranean countries offset by those of the northern regions.It's a fairly old publication, but AFAIK the laws of physics and the geography of the British Isles haven't changed in the last 30 years.
In this week?s Frankly, Nate reflects on a moment of unexpected insight during a morning bike ride, which catalyzed a larger meditation on the modern human predicament. This episode explores the neuroscience of dopamine, and offers a reflection on the ways it plays into distraction, technology, and how we interact with the hyperstimulating world around us. What is the ?ghost of dopamine past,? and how does it shape not only our individual lives, but our collective economic and ecological behavior? Why does the urge to scroll on our phones override the deep calm of watching wildlife? And how might tactics like dopamine fasting or socialization help us rebalance our nervous systems in a culture engineered to constantly produce more?
Even when the physics don't change, the technology has advanced exponentially, and the economy of scale followed.
Pensions were built like a pyramid?and we?re running out of people to stack on the bottom. In this video, we break down the math behind Social Security, rising retirement ages, and the collapsing pension systems in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Why isn?t the system working anymore? What happens when retirees outnumber workers? And is there any hope for our generation to retire?
QuoteEven when the physics don't change, the technology has advanced exponentially, and the economy of scale followed. But the geography of the British Isles, and hence the available renewable energy, hasn't changed, however you choose to harvest and store it.
Connecting the human brain to a computer has been the stuff of science fiction for decades but now it's becoming a reality. Brain computer interfaces have been making large strides over the last couple of years. Neuralink has been joined by a host of other companies, some promising superior technology. In the episode, we explore the state of the art.
In the 1980s, China was a poor, agrarian country with a closed economy and little global influence. But four decades later, it is the world?s largest manufacturer, the undisputed leader in clean energy, and a central player in the global economy.In 2024, China invested $940 billion in clean energy technology. That is more than the GDP of most countries. It now produces 80% of the world?s solar panels, 70% of all EVs, and 90% of lithium batteries. Entire deserts have been transformed into solar megaprojects, and companies like BYD are outproducing Western giants like Tesla and Volkswagen.In this video, we trace the rise of China?s industrial empire. From Mao?s Great Leap Forward and Deng Xiaoping?s market reforms to the creation of global manufacturing hubs like Shenzhen. We explain how China leveraged ultra-low wages, export-led growth, and foreign investment to become the world?s factory. And how Xi Jinping?s ?Made in China 2025? plan aims to turn that factory into a tech superpower.We unpack the state-driven strategy behind China?s dominance. Hundreds of billions in subsidies. Cheap land and electricity. Preferential tax treatment. Massive state-backed loans. This model has fueled overcapacity, distorted global trade, and provoked backlash in Washington and Brussels.Is China simply winning the industrial arms race? Or is it playing by a different set of rules?From trade wars to EV price wars, from state-owned banks to global supply chains, this is the story of how China is reshaping the future of energy, technology, and geopolitics. Whether the world is ready or not.00:00 - Intro01:22 - From Mao to Markets07:13 - Made in China 202509:27 - Enter the State13:14 - Trade Troubles16:39 - Conclusion