More Reasonable

Future Sketches 2: Trash Robots

We don't have to live in a world where trash is dumped on the side of the road…

Imagine a world with highly capable robots...

Where the cost of physical labor has dropped to nearly zero...

If we develop affordable, general purpose robotics...

Why shouldn't we create robots that are designed to clean up the side of the road?

And why stop there? Why not clean up our landfills?

Or better yet, sort through them for valuable materials that we failed to recycle?

With sufficiently cheap robotics, why not replant the forests we destroyed?

Why not help raise baby endangered animals?

And give them a beautiful environment in which to thrive?

We can clean up our world.

We can create a world where robots, and technologies more generally, are used for conservationism, for protecting the natural world, for reversing the damage we've done, and for helping humanity live in harmony with the natural world.

We can make it better than it ever was before.

That's a world we can choose.

Author's notes

If you're excited about that world, see these labs and companies who are doing great work on robotics

Future Sketches 1: Interfaces

Imagine the not-too-distant future…

Where people have flooded back to San Francisco to enjoy a renaissance sparked by AI…

A world where people work less and enjoy life more…

Where the menial tasks are taken care of by our computers…

And we are free to pursue creative work…

Or help our fellow humans in need.

In this world, computer software is written not by elite hackers in the dead of night…

But by everyone, by having our computers fill in the boring details…

While we can focus on big picture and the high-level ideas.

In this world, computers become something different, something new, something magical…

Something that we’ve seen before only in science fiction movies…

But in this world, these technologies are not restricted to a few superheros…

They are free for all to use

They become a part of our environment…

Seamlessly taking care of the details of everyday life…

So that we can focus on the people that matter to us.

This world comes with its own challenges…

But in a world where most human minds are freed from the drudgery of mental labor…

Will we not solve them?

Author's notes

h/t to Empires by Scott Base for the artistic inspiration, and thx to @kanjun for many of the ideas

Welcome to More Reasonable

Hi!

This site is intended as a collection of thoughts about how we might, together, build the futures that we want.

It is often said that pictures are worth a thousand words. Given how much there is to say about the serious issues facing us as a civilization today, and about the amazing opportunities in front of us, I try to make my posts as visual as possible.

However, I am a terrible visual artist, so my images are generally created using Midjourney. Where possible, I try to cite the visual styles of the artists that I invoke in my prompts, but I'm still very much a novice in the world of art. Please feel free to educate me about my mistakes!

While most of the content here is my own original work, I also hope to someday inspire others to contribute their own visions of the future. As such, my content here is intended not to advocate for any particular world view or appeal to some particular political party, but to spark conversation--to ask questions about what all of us do, and don't, want from our world.

While I intend to keep this site as apolitical as possible, I do value clear thinking and civil discourse. I was raised in an era before the internet isolated and polarized us, where op-eds were written by concerned citizens and published by newspapers that still did investigative journalism. I believe that it is possible to have intelligent conversations about complex issues. I love to learn ways in which I am wrong, so please feel free to reach out if you see something that is not right! And if you do link to this site, please do so in a way that elevates our collective conversations.

Finally, my not-so-secret agenda with this site is to move the world towards a less cynical view of the present and the future. I believe that most (but not all) people, when they are psychologically healthy, tend towards volunteering to help their fellow neighbors, towards benevolence, and towards selflessness, and towards the human virtues and values that inspire many of us. I am deeply moved by scientific inquiry, curiousity, and the human spirit. And I am inspired by the millions of people who wake up every day and try to, in their own way, make the world just a little bit better.

This site is dedicated to all of those people.