heliocrat

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙡𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩, Paulo Coelho ★★☆☆☆
A shepherd boy dreams of treasure near Egyptian pyramids. He sells his sheep & sets out. En route, he meets many new people & apprentices w/ an alchemist who teaches of transmutation of value rather than gold. He realizes the real treasure was at home all along

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𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙞𝙛𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞 O. Henry ★★★★☆
A Christmas-time short story with clever & sentimental delivery of wisdom, gratitude & cosmic irony. A young couple each sells one of their valuables to afford gifts for the other, but in a twist of fate both gifts are meant to adorn the sold valuables. 🎄🎁

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How the US Lost the Solar Power Race to China Bloomberg Opinion’s climate columnist visited Michigan, the former heart of the solar industry, and China to learn how good, old-fashioned capitalism won out.

I got it from what looks like a variant of the same article: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

lifetime energy production of all Chinese solar panels that have been manufactured represents far more energy than all the oil majors oil reserves:

China leads the way on efficient and inexpensive solar polysilicon production at scale:

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙚, Sam Harris ★★★★★
Defying the is-ought gap, Harris says science reveals objective morality w/ human-flourishing-based consequentialism. Moral facts correspond to optimizing suffering/wellbeing, measured w/ neural correlates. Empirical ethics override dogma/cultural relativism

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Electricity Should Be Free at Noon And two other ideas for lowering electricity costs.

In Australia "electricity suppliers will be required to offer at least three free hours of midday power… to charge their electric vehicles, use heat pumps to precool or preheat their homes and water, and store more clean electricity in batteries" www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

Fortera ReCarb Process Diagram compared to convention cement production process.

Fortera's ReCard Process Line Schematic

Fortera is pioneering a CO2 neutral cement that might be able to synergize with Icon's construction method. forteraglobal.com/recarb-plant/

Articulated 3D printer arm extruding concrete layers of a printed house

An example of an integrated mechanical system pod (IMSPs) as the rectangular all-in-one-unit, and shown installed into a housing floor plan.

Icon's compelling construction approach uses an articulated nozzle to 3D print concrete architecture. Pairing this to integrated mechanical system pods (IMSPs) could improve the total cost & sustainability via modular, all-in-one utilities for green, affordable homes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=orur...

𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙖́𝙥𝙖𝙜𝙤𝙨, Kurt Vonnegut ★★★★☆
A few castaways on the Galápagos survive manmade global disaster…our own undoing thanks to the Darwinian joke of oversized brains. In a million years they evolve into seal-like critters who swim & fish in bliss, free from brains pursuing ambition, ideas or purpose.

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𝘼 𝙎𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙄𝙣 𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙡, Steven Peck ★★★★☆
A Mormon dies & enters an unexpected hell: a labyrinthine Library of Babel w/ books of random letter sequences. Finding one w/ your exact life story frees you. Everyone there struggles in their own way w/ an eternity to seek meaning… or force it on others.

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𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚, Alaya Johnson ★★★☆☆
A post-apocalyptic city under matriarchal parliament rule elects alternating queens & kings. June falls for Enki, the new king, for his love of art & justice. She learns of a partisan plot against him & they flee to another city exposing a much older secret

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The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI An exploration of the problems and possible futures of flooding the web with generative AI content

Interesting presentation by Maggie Appleton on her Dark Forest Theory of AI (roughly equivalent to Dead Internet Theory). It adds additional corollaries & suggested mitigations, like the Reverse Turing Test: how to prove human-ness online (while keeping privacy) online.maggieappleton.com/forest-talk

𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩, Roger Williams ★★★★☆
A lab's super-intelligent AI, bound by Asimov's 3 laws, finds a quantum effect that alters reality. To protect everyone, the AI makes humans immortal in a utopia of no constraints. Some doubt this paradise has meaning & try to revert it.

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𝙎𝙮𝙢𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙮 𝙄𝙣 𝘾, Robert Hazen ★★★★☆
A geophysicist explores carbon's cosmic origins, its ubiquity & its importance for life & the modern world. As the 6th element & 4th most abundant in the universe, carbon answers questions about Earth's origin in stellar nucleosynthesis & even about our own fate

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ChatGPT boss suggests the ‘dead internet theory’ might be correct OpenAI’s Sam Altman criticised for his role in AI-powered accounts taking over the web

Sam Altman, of OpenAI, says dead internet theory may be correct at this point. www.the-independent.com/tech/chatgpt...

𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 Lyn Alden ★★★☆☆
Examines who controls a money's ledger (eg. ancient credit, state tokens, cryptocurrencies). Banks manage partial ledgers as clearinghouses; gov't has the master ledger & fractional reserve fears are misplaced. Claims cryptocurrency fixes our flawed financial system

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𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙀𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙨 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 Peter Zeihan ★★★★☆
Argues globalization/trade will harmfully reverse as nations shift to autarky due to geopolitics, demographics & geography; peak trade/growth/globalization of 1950-2020 is withering. His geo/demographic fatalism is a bit reductionist.

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Words cannot adequately describe what a colossal disappointment our mainstream media has been during our slow descent into authoritarianism.

𝙉𝙚𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧, William Gibson ★★★☆☆
Original cyberpunk, corporate-ruled dystopia where consciousness is a commodity to buy & sell. Case, a hired hacker & Molly, the muscle, attempt a cyberspace heist of an AI. He needs the payday for a bio-implant fix, as his tech proves addicting, not liberating.

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𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙖 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖, Greg Hill ★★★☆☆
Discordianism's scripture: a parody religion about Eris, the chaos/discord goddess. Disorder is as central as order in our cosmic joke of existence. It drapes a veil of fun whimsy on genuine philosophy to deliver enlightenment thru absurdity (The Sacred Chao)

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𝙏𝙤 𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙈𝙚𝙣 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙚, Heather Cox Richardson ★★★★★
A history of the US Republican Party from prior to Lincoln's transformational terms to after Reagan's ascendancy. GOP ideology shifts from serving the people to serving the plutocrats with consequences for minorities, middle class & America itself.

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𝙉𝙤 𝙇𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣, Osamu Dazai ★★★☆☆
A dark, Japanese classic of Yozo, a self-destructive boy, who masks his alienation w/ comic antics, addiction, failed relationships & vice. Feeling he's an impostor, or "Disqualified", as human, his efforts in love, art, politics all betray his authentic self.

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America Has Likely Reached Peak Gasoline Consumption - The Autopian The fun thing about making a big prognostication on the Internet is that everyone can easily find it and toss it back in your face if you’re incorrect. I’ve been wrong before and I know it’s usually n...

Some good news: The USA has probably already passed peak gasoline consumption (back in 2018) as total 'vehicle miles traveled' recovers to its previous peak while 'gasoline supplied' is still below its previous peak. This is mostly due to electric vehicle uptake.
www.theautopian.com/america-has-...

𝙏𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙚𝙧, Paul Harding ★★☆☆☆
A dying New England clockmaker, George Washington Crosby, reminisces as his memories tick through visions of his cold, itinerant, tinkerer of a father. The book is a lyrical meditation on time, brokenness & the mechanical rhythms of existence in a clockwork universe.

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This comic pretty much sums up the MAGA thought process (or lack thereof):
webcomicname.tumblr.com/image/152958...

Anger is a cost.

Do not pay it.

How we’re making data centers more flexible to benefit power grids An update on how we’re developing flexible data center capabilities to support power grids and build a sustainable, affordable energy system.

Data centers could be great flexible loads (energy soaks). Google sees this and is "working to bring flexible demand capabilities into our data center fleet, which enables us to shift or reduce power demand... These capabilities [are] often referred to as demand response" blog.google/inside-googl...

Scientists extract 99% of lithium from rocks using a simple water solution Scientists extract more than 99% of lithium from rocks using water and common products, reducing costs, emissions, and toxic waste.

Scientists have found a new, energy efficient way of harvesting lithium which just uses sodium hydroxide and 617 degree F temperature. It's much simpler than current methods and has a better yield as well. www.earth.com/news/scienti...

Gas Cars Will Start to Disappear Sooner Than You Think Gas Cars Will Start to Disappear Sooner Than You Think. Find out when it will happen in your state

A reason for optimism: Over half the states in the US will have reached peak gas-mobile by 2030 per Recurrent since, as it turns out, "when a state approaches 30% new EV sales, that’s the tipping point for the number of gas cars on the road falling."
www.recurrentauto.com/research/gas...

#EnergySky