Showing 21 - 30 of 156
AI is not going to wipe humans out just yet
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/06/2023
» I'm looking at a headline this morning that screams "AI Creators Fear the Extinction of Humanity", and I suppose they could turn out to be right. But it's still a bit early to declare a global emergency and turn all the machines off.
Who will take over when Putin regime ends?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 29/05/2023
» Let us suppose that the current Russian regime collapses, with or without a Ukrainian military victory to give it a final shove. Who would be the least objectionable candidate to take over in Moscow?
The baby bonus just does not work any more
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 22/05/2023
» I was one of five children -- not seen as a particularly big family in Newfoundland at the time -- and there was one year when we allegedly beat Guatemala to have the highest birth rate in the world. (That's probably not true, but people were proud of it anyway.)
Starship: The Iterative Design Methodology
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/04/2023
» 'Obviously, this is not a nominal situation," said John Insprucker, a senior engineer at Space-X, who was doing a webcast on Thursday's launch attempt of Elon Musk's gigantic Starship rocket. So why did Mr Musk's employees, hundreds of whom were watching live, cheer when it blew up only four minutes into flight?
Before the Great Ukrainian Offensive
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/04/2023
» Monday's stunt, when Yevgeny Prigozhin held a Russian flag in his hands and declared that his "Wagner" mercenary soldiers have finally conquered the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, probably marks the end of the Russian winter offensive. It was just a charade, of course.
New UN climate report clutching at straws
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/03/2023
» The final report of the United Nation's climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has come out at last. The desperate optimism that characterised the last few volumes (this is part four of four) has frayed away to almost nothing.
Freddy and the Ice: Messages From the Future
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 19/03/2023
» Two new things on the climate front this week, both bad news. Typhoons used to be like drive-by shootings: one pass, one hit and then gone. Now they're starting to come back for a second hit.
Israel pogroms reflect nation's shift to right
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/03/2023
» The dictionary definition of "pogrom" is "an organised massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries." So, there is something deeply strange about hearing pogrom used in Hebrew to describe what some Jewish people are doing to Arabs in 21st-century Israel.
How the United States can avoid war with China
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/02/2023
» 'I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight [with China] in 2025," declared US Air Force Gen Mike Minihan last weekend. He didn't mention what his elbow told him, or if he ever consulted his head on the matter.
A resurgence of alliances is an echo of past wars
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 21/01/2023
» Alliances are as old as civilisation. Older, actually: almost every hunter-gatherer band that anthropologists have studied, from the New Guinea highlanders to the Yanomamo in the Amazon, made alliances with other groups to try to protect themselves.