2024-12-23 Links Digest

Published: 2024-12-23

Tagged: links-digest

• The world of tomorrow by Virginia Postrel
  • Highly recommend. Postrel describes 20th century perceptions of progress and traces how they influenced mainstream beliefs about the future--and how they became increasingly dark and dystopian. The invaluable part for me was learning just how influenatial High Modernism was (eg. Bauhaus, Le Corbusier) in establishing the image of technology as a controlling force. The author suggests we need to develop fresh new visions about the future to avoid falling into the same trap.
• Book Review: From Bauhaus to Our House by Scott Alexander
  • Why are modern buildings so dominantly ugly and dreadful to be inside of? Decades ago, Tom Wolfe sought an answer and From Bauhaus to Our House is essentially an indictment of Modernism. Scott highlights how fundamental for Modernists, like those from the Bauhaus school of architecture, it was to discredit and destroy the past. For example, sloped roofs were believed to resemble... crowns and so were thought to celebrate the evils of monarchy. In effect, Bauhaus architects used only flat roofs, even in climates where it was impractical or even dangerous. In this light, Modernism is less like design and more like an ideology set against common sense, which feels plausible.
• History is in the making by Stephen Davies
  • History is often taught only at the political level. Most general education textbooks describe civilization as a sequence of battles and rulers. But Davies argues that such events are actually downstream from technological progress, and that problems that often appear intractable from a political angle may actually be trivial if approached as an engineering challenge. This means that whatever wrong you see in the world doesn't require dedicating your life to politics. Instead, consider Just Fucking Building Stuff(tm).
• How to Worry About Climate Change by Oren Cass
  • I've never been worried about climate change. I had no clear reason for that, so I decided to dig a little. According to Cass's article, climate change can be factored into the cost of doing business, meaning, 0.5% - 2% of GDP by 2100. This is thanks to all the mitigations we've been putting into place. Because it's such a sharp contrast to the alarming tone of mainstream coverage, I'm going to read IPCC's 6th Assessment Report as well.
• The Most Disappointing Fantasy Novel by Clifford Stumme
  • While I disagree that fantasy ought to have a single noble purpose, I absolutely love the discussion about how le Guin used both language and form in her novels to achieve higher ends. Her writing always moved me in ways that most other fantasy authors could not.