The Rip Current

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theripcurrent.substack.comAI is making people crazy. And I don’t mean in the sense that it’s driving tech observers like me crazy, with its reckless adoption path and dishonest marketing and screwy incentives. I mean it’s literally making otherwise reasonable people believe that their AI chatbots are lovers, or prisoners, or prophets of hidden wisdom. In this hourlong conversati…

Are you ready to get in a tube built by billionaires and stay there for nine months? Ready to live in caves on the other side? And who is in charge of this dreary outpost anyway? In this episode of The Rip Current, David Ariosto, author of Open Space: From Earth to Eternity, the Global Race to Explore and Conquer the Cosmos and host of the Space Minds podcast, joins Jake to explore the motivations behind private and state-funded space travel, the potential for settlements on the Moon and Mars, and the ethical implications of billionaire-led space enterprises. We talk about the fragility of the human body in space, the viability of actually governing space settlements, and the technological advancements driving the space industry. Who really holds the power in the final frontier?00:00 Introduction to Space Exploration00:30 The Rip Current: Big Invisible Forces00:32 The Leap of Faith in Space01:20 Guest Introduction: David Sto03:22 The Commercialization of Space05:57 Technological Advances and Market Potential13:41 Geopolitical Implications of Space Exploration21:50 Human vs. Robotic Space Missions34:24 Facing Death: The Mindset of Test Pilots35:52 Astronaut's Dream: Franklin Chang Diaz's Story37:56 Psychological Impact of Space Travel39:55 Billionaires in Space: Elon Musk and Beyond41:48 NASA's Changing Role in Space Exploration51:17 The Future of Space Colonization59:44 The Vastness of Space and Human Survival01:05:40 Conclusion: The Drive to Explore the Cosmos This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

OpenAI described its newest model as a pocket full of PhDs, a cancer doula, and a eulogy writer. But behind the headlines are the enormous pressures building on this industry. Here’s a breakdown of what we learned today. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

As you’ll hear in this episode, I’m considering renaming this whole enterprise — the newsletter and the show — so I’m not hiding what I do behind a needlessly esoteric brand name. The new name I’m considering is the name of a book I’m working on, Great Ideas We Should Not Pursue. So fair warning you may see me roll out a whole new thing in the coming we… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

Programming note: My apologies to listeners for the weeklong break that I took last week, and the weeklong break I’ll be taking next week. We’ll be back in the saddle the week of July 28th. See you then! Back in 2006, a young interface designer came up with the idea that rather than making people click to another page to continue reading, they should ju… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve all experienced loneliness, but could you really describe what it is, and what it does to you, beyond the physical experience of isolation? Before this conversation, I couldn’t. But David Jay has taken the invisible, unnameable effects of loneliness and turned them into an actionable recipe for evaluating and improving friendship and community in … This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

Adam Rogers is a science journalist and the author of two amazing books about how we experience the world. His second, Full Spectrum, is about color. But we're here to discuss his first, Proof: The Science of Booze. Not just booze, though — what it symbolizes about magic and alchemy and history and chaos, and why our relationship to it is so fraught and fun and terrible. Basically what I learned is that it would improve the world enormously if everyone had to learn to handle themselves at a bar, but that we somehow need to do it without actually drinking. Also he's a great friend of mine, and it's my show, and I can have my friends on sometimes, okay? If you like this show, do me a favor and share it with someone else! It helps enormously in bringing me to a new audience. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

Trump's sudden, strange appeal took most political observers by surprise (it broke their necks, frankly), but not Bart Bonikowski. The NYU professor of politics and sociology has been looking at the global rise of populism for over a decade, along with the ideologies and forms of nationalism that help to explain why it's got us all in its grasp at the moment. We talk about the common causes of this weird kind of politics, the most dangerous outcomes it might lead us to, and what the antidotes might be.Readings:* “Ethno-nationalist Populism and the Mobilization of Collective Resentment” (British Journal of Sociology, 2017)Clarifies distinctions among populism, nationalism, and authoritarianism and shows that spikes in radical‑right support come from framing strategies resonating with folks experiencing national status threats pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+1cifar.ca+1sociology.berkeley.edu.* “Varieties of American Popular Nationalism” (with Paul DiMaggio, AJS, 2016)Identified four distinct nationalist mindsets—disengaged, civic, ardent, restrictive—and mapped their prevalence russellsage.org+4en.wikipedia.org+4en.wikipedia.org+4.* “The Partisan Sorting of ‘America’” (with Feinstein & Bock, AJS, 2021)Shows how Republicans and Democrats increasingly diverge in their definitions of America—Republicans leaning exclusionary, Democrats inclusive journals.uchicago.edu+2en.wikipedia.org+2cifar.ca+2.* “Measuring Populism, Nationalism, and Authoritarianism in U.S. Presidential Campaigns (1952–2020)” (2022)Uses neural language modeling to track ideological trends across historic campaigns cifar.ca+1journals.sagepub.com+1en.wikipedia.org+6pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+6papers.ssrn.com+6.* “Trump’s Populism…” (2019 chapter in When Democracy Trumps Populism)Dissects the nationalist rhetoric in Trump’s campaigns and situates it within broader democratic patterns nyuscholars.nyu.edu. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

When I was writing my book The Loop, I was looking for experts in the ways we misunderstand one another, and several people pointed me at this week’s guest. He and I had an hourlong phone conversation, and while he undoubtedly doesn’t remember it (but is too polite to say so), for me it was a deeply formative experience.The Rip Current is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Lord John Alderdice grew up the son of an Irish presbyterian minister in and out of Belfast, and has been a psychiatrist, a politician, and a researcher into violence and peace. His work on the Good Friday Accords helped to end the troubles in Northern Ireland, and he’s been a trusted source of insight and scholarship for those seeking an end to violence in dozens of conflicts around the world ever since.In this week’s episode, he discusses the deeply misunderstood power of really and truly listening, over long periods of time, in correcting disturbed historic relationships and setting them back on a path toward peace, and our conversation is a very interesting accompaniment to my interview with John Patty and Elizabeth Penn about the frailty of democracy from a few weeks back. Lord Alderdice is refreshing not just for his optimism that we can find a way to peace, but because that optimism is based in decades of hard experience pursuing it. I hope you enjoy it. 00:00 Introduction to the Rip Current 01:16 Meet Lord John Alderdice 02:25 Understanding Honorifics and Titles 06:19 Growing Up in Northern Ireland 11:28 The Path to Psychiatry and Politics 18:17 The Good Friday Accords 23:05 The Complexity of Historic Conflicts 33:26 The Role of Statesmanship in Conflict Resolution 38:23 The State of Global Institutions 38:47 Career in Conflict Research 39:23 Middle East Peace Process Challenges 42:53 Research on Palestinian Perspectives 45:57 Young People and Radicalization 51:29 Cultural Perspectives on Individualism vs. Community 01:04:36 Historical Context of British Aristocracy 01:18:00 Exploring Irish Presbyterianism 01:19:37 The Role of History in Understanding Politics 01:20:17 From Medicine to Politics 01:22:17 Political Leadership and Negotiations 01:24:41 The Good Friday Agreement 01:25:40 The Importance of Relationships in Politics 01:27:32 International Perspectives on Conflict 01:53:31 The Role of Apologies in Healing 02:05:33 Reflections on Leadership and Conflict Resolution 02:07:04 Conclusion and Final Thoughts This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe

Duke Professor of Law Nita Farahany has documented the growing industry of companies and devices that try to read your intentions, analyze your mind state, and generally get inside your brain. No, really: in her 2023 book The Battle for Your Brain she documents hundreds of instances in which everyone from employers to authoritarian regimes are hoping to use this stuff on us. And now she's looking ahead in a new book to how technology is changing our ability to think at all. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe