I listened to this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-kim-stanley-robinson.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

while sitting out on the deck with Covid the other day, and it kicked off some many interesting tangents that I had to follow up:

• Bruno Latour and actor-network theory as an evolution of philosophy of science away from history+theory
• Cognitive estrangement
• Appropriate technology
• The Paleolithic want-list (what makes humans happy): throwing things, watching fire, the thrill generated by accomplishing something hard, esp. with a group
• stories around a fire -> going to a movie -> watching tv and talking about it with people -> binge watching Netflix, each being a more-hollow simulacrum of the primordial experience
• A book called “The Knowledge Machine”
• A seminar with the Dalai Lama in Tibet

So, altogether: work out what we want from first principles (social primate implications), and use technology in a sophisticated way to achieve it.

Overall, I’m impressed again with his gentle but insistent manner in presenting what he thinks. Like his writing. He doesn’t flail.

Not surprised that this guy grew up in the milieu of the Bay Area in the 60s and 70s, and is friends with Gary Snyder. I’m starting to think of that time (and to some extent, the time I was there in the late 80s/early 90s) and place as a sort of Renaissance idea generator that’s going to be historically significant hundreds of years from now, like mediaeval Florence.

The courts have said: no sweeping regulation re: climate from the EPA. The Congress has said: no new money for climate-related projects.

There’s still an opening here. The Congress doesn’t just deal with budget matters, they pass laws. If the law doesn’t violate the Constitution, it’s in.

So: pass a law that embodies the regulation that the administration is not permitted to write off its own bat. For example: pass a law that sets the mileage standard for cars and trucks. No new money, not in violation of the constitution.

Oh. Such a law would not pass, because Republicans won’t vote for it. So, next order of business, flip the Senate or find a way to emancipate Repubs from the tyranny of having to do as they’re told against their better judgement.

I determined that federal action on climate wasn’t possible at the start of the last Republican administration, and switched focus to state law. We’ve done a lot here (WA, CA, OR, BC) in the last six years. It won’t be enough.

The courts have said: no sweeping regulation re: climate from the EPA. The Congress has said: no new money for climate-related projects.

There’s still an opening here. The Congress doesn’t just deal with budget matters, they pass laws. If the law doesn’t violate the Constitution, it’s in.

So: pass a law that embodies the regulation that the administration is not permitted to write off its own bat. For example: pass a law that sets the mileage standard for cars and trucks. No new money, not in violation of the constitution.

Oh. Such a law would not pass, because Republicans won’t vote for it. So, next order of business, flip the Senate or find a way to emancipate Repubs from the tyranny of having to do as they’re told against their better judgement.

I determined that federal action on climate wasn’t possible at the start of the last Republican administration, and switched focus to state law. We’ve done a lot here (WA, CA, OR, BC) in the last six years. It won’t be enough.

The Swerve
— Read on pluralistic.net/2022/07/05/grab-the-wheel/

Kinda where I’m at right now.

This clever and compelling collection of essays sings the praises of 10 thrilling artists whose work has been excluded from the classical canon
— Read on www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/04/sound-within-sound-by-kate-molleson-review-a-challenge-to-the-gatekeepers-of-classical-music

Looks like a good read.