I think it is relatively straightforward to think of cool things to do with SpaceX Starships, so recent posts have focused on trying to understand the more mixed consequences for incumbent industrial organizations that are not ideally positioned to exploit the coming advances. It is, however, a fun exercise to enumerate all the ways in which Starship and related technologies can help execute bold, ambitious missions of scientific discovery.

It’s long-form, yes, but well worth it. Oh, and while you’re at it, you might as well read Starship is Still Not Understood, Casey’s previous article on the topic.

If humans were to disappear from the face of the Earth, what might dogs become? And would they be better off without us?

Unfortunately, the answer I can infer from the article is not very pleasant to my guilt.

Too much has been lost already. The glue that holds humanity’s knowledge together is coming undone.

We need more content like this.

Indeed the personal story of Marlinspike, along with that of the ascent of Signal, is fascinating. I did not know, for example, that in 2013 he met Brian Acton, founder of WhatsApp. Brian expressed interest in adding end-to-end encryption into WhatsApp. Then came Facebook’s acquisition, and, for obvious reasons, Signal Protocol never landed into the messaging service. The story was not over, however:

That year, Acton left Facebook, later attributing his departure to intractable differences about privacy practices. At the heart of the conflict was tension with Facebook’s top executives, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg, who wanted to extend Facebook’s targeted-ad network to WhatsApp. End-to-end encryption precluded the collection of message content that would be valuable to advertisers. In early 2018, Acton and Marlinspike announced the formation of the Signal Foundation, a nonprofit. Acton, the foundation’s chairman and sole member, seeded it with a no-interest, fifty-million-dollar loan.

What a plot twist. What’s even more remarkable is Moxie’s personal biography. He is not your average startup co-founder, not by any mean. He kind stands at the interconnection between activism, ethical hacking, and anarchy, and yet he’s the CEO of a booming startup.

Today, the looming disruptions of climate change have altered the risk calculus around nuclear energy. James Hansen, the NASA scientist credited with first bringing global warming to public attention, in 1988, has long advocated a vast expansion of nuclear power to replace fossil fuels. Even some environmental groups that have reservations about nuclear energy […] have recognized that abruptly closing existing reactors would lead to a spike in emissions.

I am surprised that the author, who clearly researched the topic well, did not mention Bill Gates’ Mini-Reactors approach to the problem. It might have been a deliberate choice, as at some point, she does note that “scientists are working on smaller, more nimble nuclear reactors.”