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davieG

Technology, Science and the Environment.

By davieG, in General Chat

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SpacedX

SpacedX

Posted
Posted
On 12/02/2022 at 05:52, leicsmac said:

 

I hope I live long enough to see something like this happen.

And that it goes from LC 39A

davieG

davieG

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Twitter is part of our war effort - Ukraine minister

 

As Ukraine's military and citizens battle Russia's advancing troops, the country has opened a new front in the fighting - using tech expertise to rally Silicon Valley's support and undermine the enemy. Digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov is leading the charge, but some of his tactics are proving divisive.

Short presentational grey line
From his underground shelter in a secret location in Kyiv, Ukraine's youngest cabinet minister is waging a digital war on Russia.

Using his preferred weapon - social media - Mykhailo Fedorov has been urging chief executives of big businesses to cut ties with Moscow. He's also taken the unprecedented move of setting up a volunteer "IT Army of Ukraine" to launch cyber-attacks against "the enemy".

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60608222

blabyboy

blabyboy

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Less consumerism in Grauniad-style solutions as stated here will help some, but in all honesty this problem isn't going to go away until there is a fundamental change in how we generate our energy. Across as many places as possible.

True, but that's a long term change and will most likely be implemented at different stages across the world according to affordability and technical competence. These are six suggestions that everyone can start now if they want to.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
35 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

True, but that's a long term change and will most likely be implemented at different stages across the world according to affordability and technical competence. These are six suggestions that everyone can start now if they want to.

The powers that be *want* it to be a long term change. I do too, for the sake of social cohesion and to prevent as much disruption as possible.

 

The Earth might not be on that schedule. And in this regard, it rather has the casting vote.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

Scope, budget or time, pick one to control, the other two are variable.

Yeah, ideally so. I just worry about the consequences of not choosing both time and scope, though. Budget less so - money is important, of course, but the way things play out money isn't much good when you've got much less food and potable water to buy with it, so it's a matter of paying now or paying a lot more later.

blabyboy

blabyboy

Posted
Posted

I think you missed the point  :)

If you pick the scope, then the time needed to fulfil that will most likely go past the 'tipping point'. Picking time may allow for the wider scope to eventually be delivered, but the scope right now is going to be smaller... but it may buy us an extension of time to deliver the wider scope. Agree on the budget generally. However, that's still going to need careful governance, otherwise we could well be in a similar situation as we had with PPE where all and sundry claim to be able to deliver and we're just writing off money all over the shop.

 

There is no easy path here, it is going to be a myriad of compromises. CC purists are going to have to hold their nose as will die hard technologists and capitalists.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

I think you missed the point  :)

If you pick the scope, then the time needed to fulfil that will most likely go past the 'tipping point'. Picking time may allow for the wider scope to eventually be delivered, but the scope right now is going to be smaller... but it may buy us an extension of time to deliver the wider scope. Agree on the budget generally. However, that's still going to need careful governance, otherwise we could well be in a similar situation as we had with PPE where all and sundry claim to be able to deliver and we're just writing off money all over the shop.

 

There is no easy path here, it is going to be a myriad of compromises. CC purists are going to have to hold their nose as will die hard technologists and capitalists.

I totally understand the argument regarding human capability and the inherent difficulties here, I just think the Earth may well not allow us the luxury of playing by rules that we set, like these. It might set rules of its own.

blabyboy

blabyboy

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I totally understand the argument regarding human capability and the inherent difficulties here, I just think the Earth may well not allow us the luxury of playing by rules that we set, like these. It might set rules of its own.

I get your point, which I know you've made consistently. The world's governments are taking an educated gamble on what those rules and timescales are. We can choose to either get behind them and help them in the right direction or not. The Earth may throw curve balls in, but we'll have to deal with them, as and when we detect or recognise them. Dropping everything now, might as you say, lead to societal collapse which in turn leads to even less chance of a beneficial outcome for humanity. UN and CC groups are pragmatic enough to realise that they need to educate and cajole the governments of the World in an ongoing daily dialogue. One practical way to really help would be to get the human population up to a good base level of knowledge, I can well imagine parts of Africa or Eastern Siberia, Mongolia and China just have no clue there is even a problem. Overcoming their daily survival challenges is enough.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, blabyboy said:

I get your point, which I know you've made consistently. The world's governments are taking an educated gamble on what those rules and timescales are. We can choose to either get behind them and help them in the right direction or not. The Earth may throw curve balls in, but we'll have to deal with them, as and when we detect or recognise them. Dropping everything now, might as you say, lead to societal collapse which in turn leads to even less chance of a beneficial outcome for humanity. UN and CC groups are pragmatic enough to realise that they need to educate and cajole the governments of the World in an ongoing daily dialogue. One practical way to really help would be to get the human population up to a good base level of knowledge, I can well imagine parts of Africa or Eastern Siberia, Mongolia and China just have no clue there is even a problem. Overcoming their daily survival challenges is enough.

That's a compelling argument and it is the most likely way to get as many people on board as possible, which is a necessity.

 

I just hope it will be enough, fast enough. The stakes in this particular gamble are rather high.

blabyboy

blabyboy

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, leicsmac said:

That's a compelling argument and it is the most likely way to get as many people on board as possible, which is a necessity.

 

I just hope it will be enough, fast enough. The stakes in this particular gamble are rather high.

Until we detect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, they are the highest I can think of.

leicsmac

leicsmac

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, blabyboy said:

Until we detect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, they are the highest I can think of.

There are a couple of other possible situations, but yeah.

 

6 hours ago, Wymsey said:

It's a sorry state of affairs in that the Amazon rainforest is being wrecked.

Humanity not playing the long game isn't going to end well. I'm baffled as to why so many influential people either don't understand or ignore this.

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