💡 Warp News #301
🐝 Solar farms refuges for bumblebees. 🚰 Israel tops up Sea of Galilee with desalinated seawater. 🧬 Scientists have for the first time sequenced RNA from 40,000-year-old mammoth.
Share this story!
Free newsletter with fact-based optimistic news about technology, science, and human progress with the angry optimist, Mathias Sundin. If you are not a subscriber, become one here.
🤖 Obsessed again
I’ve realized three things: 1) I have a tendency to get obsessed, 2) it’s wonderful to be obsessed, and 3) you don’t always make the most rational decisions in that state.
In my previous life, when I was in politics, I became obsessed with changing how Swedish politicians campaigned. I didn’t like passively standing in town squares handing out leaflets. I thought you should go to people’s homes and listen to their opinions.
Back then, very few believed in door-to-door canvassing, but I went all in and promised to knock on more than 10,000 doors in the 2010 election campaign. Besides having lots of conversations with voters, I hoped to get enough personal votes to get into Parliament.
I knocked on 10,001 doors, and it was insanely fun and incredibly instructive! (My old door-knocking videos are still on YouTube.) But—I didn’t get into Parliament. (I did in the next election.) To succeed I needed over 1,000 personal votes, and since I was a Liberal Party candidate, it wouldn’t have worked even if every Liberal voter I met voted for me.
So it was truly wonderful, but not the most rational way to spend the eight weeks of full-time work that the door-knocking took. (But now all parties do door-to-door canvassing, so it did have some effect.)
It’s happening again
When I spoke to three people in Karlshamn on Friday, I realized I’m obsessed again.
Now I’m obsessed with getting more people to start using generative AI, because I believe it will be positive both for them and for humanity.
It wasn’t very surprising that only three people showed up, since it was only four days earlier that I even figured out I could hold a talk there. So maybe not the most rational decision, but we had a very good and pleasant discussion, and I sold two more books than I otherwise would have.
That’s what the week looked like. Small but delightful audience in Kinna, 300 people in Jönköping at the AI Day, not exactly overrun at Lundin’s Bookstore, and then a really good turnout in Gäddeviksås (where we have our cottage). Plus book talk on public radio and an interview in the paper.
Thanks to everyone who invited me!
If you want me to come to your company or association and talk about AI—if you can promise an audience of more than one person, I’ll come. 😄
📗 The Fifth Acceleration on Spotify
Spotify launched audiobooks in several new markets last week. My book is available there if you are a premium subscriber (the book is only in Swedish).
Otherwise you can buy the book in every place where they sell books. Right now, it’s cheapest at Adlibris.
Mathias Sundin
The Angry Optimist
💡 Premium Supporter content
🥃 The glass is neither half full nor half empty
Fact-based optimists don't care whether the glass is half full or half empty. They see the world in a different way.
💡 Fact-based optimistic news of the week
🚀 Saab invests 10 million dollars in Swedish space company, Pythom Space
Pythom was founded by Swedish explorers Tina and Tom Sjögren who have three records in the Guinness Book of Records. The company develops lightweight rockets that can be deployed quickly to make access to space more flexible and affordable.
🧬 Scientists have for the first time sequenced RNA from 40,000-year-old mammoth
The RNA shows which genes were active in the muscles just before the mammoth died, providing direct evidence of gene regulation in real time. The results show that RNA can survive much longer than previously thought, opening up the possibility of studying RNA viruses from the Ice Age.
📉 Tuberculosis deaths have decreased by 29 percent globally since 2015
Global tuberculosis deaths fell to 1.23 million – the lowest number ever recorded. Since 2000, tuberculosis treatment has saved an estimated 83 million lives. Over 100 countries have reduced mortality by at least 20 percent since 2015.
🚰 Israel tops up Sea of Galilee with desalinated seawater
Israel has begun channeling desalinated seawater into the Sea of Galilee, marking the first time anywhere in the world that a freshwater lake is topped up with processed seawater. The water level in the lake is expected to rise by approximately 0.5 centimeters per month through the project.
🐝 Solar farms could become important refuges for bumblebees
Solar farms with wildflowers can more than double the number of bumblebees compared to parks with turf grass. The study modelled 1,042 British solar farms and their potential to support bumblebees until 2050.
🐭 Researchers simulate entire mouse brain with nine million neurons
The supercomputer Fugaku has created one of the world's largest and most detailed simulations of a brain, with nine million neurons and 26 billion synapses from the entire mouse cortex. The simulation can be used to study diseases like Alzheimer's and epilepsy in a virtual environment.
✉️ Get a dose of fact-based, free, optimism once a week
Every week, we send out a free newsletter with fact-based, optimistic news about technology, science, and human progress.
If you're not a subscriber yet, you are welcome to become one!
If you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend and ask them to subscribe. It's free and arrives once a week.
🎤 Talk on AI
Let me help your organization level up on AI.
Read more at mathiassundin.org.
By becoming a premium supporter, you help in the creation and sharing of fact-based optimistic news all over the world.