Category: Commentary

Oil is a naturally occurring liquid found within rock formations. Oil has been used for over 5000 years by humans but only where it was easily accessible. The growing energy demands of humans were met previously by wood, coal and whale oil.

In the 1850s, the world saw the first successful use of a ‘modern’ drilling rig on a well drilled specifically to produce oil. If it weren’t for this, there probably wouldn’t be any whales left in the world. We would have massacred every one to light our homes. And that’s where the benevolence of the ‘oil industry’ starts and stops.

In the 1980s, I first heard of the term ‘peak oil’. It was the idea that the mining and refining of oil would get to the point where it could become uneconomical to produce petroleum products. As it happened, government subsidies and vast increases in price meant that peak oil was met, passed and reclassified. We would just pay more for fossil fuel; we were fossil fuel addicts.

Modern oil drilling only started in the late 1850s on continental North America. Now, 160 years later, we can see the end of the “oil age”. You only have to look at the pumps here in the UK – rising more than 30% in less than 5 years.

I would encourage everyone to look at lower consumption technology – not just transport and heating but also computing. Solar panels have dropped more than 80% in cost in the last five years (per Watt). A house can be cheaply kitted out with solar panels and a wind turbine to provide the majority of a household energy needs (storage is an issue, but distribution is not). Solutions for storage will evolve.

Some friends might feel offended by this but this is my thoughts and I’ll do my best to explain them. I’m not criticising people, but behaviours.

Someone recently said that they’d pray for me. We had shared a few conversations about my recent past and my current path. And I appreciate the intent. It’s explained to me that someone saying they will pray is really just them saying “good luck with that” or “I hope it works out”. And that’s a lot better. Or it sits better in this atheists craw.

But really I don’t want prayer. Or hope.

Last week at an albergue in Grañón I attended a “meditation” session where there was a little bit of God talk but we were asked why we were doing the Camino. I gave my answers.

I’m still the “walking wounded” even after nearly three years. I sacrificed myself “for the best” and I regret it every day. There’s no peace in my heart and mind as a result. I don’t think for a second that 500 miles of blisters and tendonitis will resolve this so it’s not really for resolution that I walk. It might be for something else. Paul says that the Camino will put something in my way for the best. And sometimes I wish I had his faith.

The Camino itself might look like a holiday but its hours of walking on hot gravel, lying in a bed in the afternoon feeling shooting pains from the bone bruises in your feet, trying to sleep while the room filled with snorers attempts to cause the roof to fall in and being endlessly patient with other humans when sometimes all you want is silence and solitude. We bear it all with a smile because these annoying humans we walk with are actually just as wounded as we. And as a Humanist I think humans are wonderful anyway so, I guess maybe that has to rub off. In the middle of the night I may swear under my breath at the snorers but I’d give them my portion of bread and water the very next day. Such is life.

But back on the subject of prayer.

Don’t pray for me. Or hope for me. When I’ve been at my lowest ebb, people have generally avoided me. Not reached out. Not done anything practical. And some took the opportunity to kick me further.

If you really wanted to help, you’d help. Not just stand around offering hopes. If you bleed, I’ll get out my first aid kit. If thirsty my water. Hungry my bread. Cold? Have my blanket. Phone running low? Have a battery. Lost a cable? Borrow my spare. Pack too heavy? I’ll carry it.

This is my Camino. To do my best for my fellow humans.

Those closest to me know what I want more than anything. I’m bleeding and they pray. My burden’s too heavy, so they hope.

This is my Camino. To endure what has been put before me.

I don’t expect anyone to change. Or do anything more than hope and pray. And even if they did, it’s too late. Three years is too long. And a lot of water has passed under that bridge. But I dream of what could happen if they acted rather than hoped. If they did something other than pray.

This is my Camino. To expect less of others.

My pack is heavy, my feet sore. My brow furrowed, my arms and neck brown. My hat is soaked with sweat, my shoulders cramped.

I really dislike fossil fuel vehicles.

A couple of years ago, the price of petrol and diesel took a small fall, pushing it to around a pound a litre. Some people, wedded to their cars, swore to me this was the death of Electric vehicles. It seemed to me it was an anti-fracking price way between the US and the Saudis. US pumps were working harder than they had in the previous 30 years. Suffice to say the madness ended and the price shot back up to £1.20 a litre.

A 20% increase.

Imagine if your computer usage pricing went up by 20%. Or if I increased my prices 20% just because I fancied more money.

But because it’s crazy we let them get away with it.

Over Christmas I bought my daughter an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. She cried, she was so happy. A 256GB model in Gold. I bought the larger capacity because it reduces the need to manage space. Or more accurately it puts off the problem. She’s been able to put together some stunning art using Procreate (which you can see on my Instagram).

Today I picked up one for myself.

It’s only a 64GB model, but this is a piece of engineering. It’s solid but light. The screen is simply amazing. The sound that comes out of the speakers is simply awe-inspiring and much much better than my MacBook Pro. It’s crisp and loud. Benchmarks say it’s close to the performance of MacBooks (my MBP is a late 2012 model with i7 processors, 16GB of RAM).

The device simply has to be experienced. I can’t wait to fire up Final Draft.

Ok.

Just had a play with the iPhone X

The screen on the 7+ is larger, no doubt about it, but the X is nicer. Both are awesome for Flyover.

The X also completely smokes the 7plus performance-wise. And it’s in the little things like app loading times. And in processing files/exports. The few seconds you wait for things to just happen.

The X is a nicer size. Easily pocketable and easier to hold. I remember loving the size of the 6 when I got it but my lust for a larger screen drove me to the plus sizes. I’d be happy to trade off a little screen width for this. The removed bezel means scrolling less in Long reads though the text size is noticeably smaller (due to the decreased width) which is a little problem for people with old eyes.

I had no issues with the removed Home button but I wager that’s going to be an issue for some folks. Especially switchers. It just doesn’t feel discoverable even though I discovered it and the app switcher pretty quickly. I am “special” with all of the negativity that entails.

Physically it feels little different to the 7plus. Smaller obviously but still the same sort of feel to the device. I wouldn’t know it’s glass on the back. Will I use inductive charging? Hmmm I don’t see the real killer app here other than fewer frayed Lightning cables. And I’m less than impressed about the current charging pad solutions. It’s like they were made by marketing people with no experience of the real world.

Do I want an X? Of course. Over and above an 8? Yes.

I don’t know what happens next year though. Will they have an 8s? Or Something really clever?

And yes, it’s pronounced Echhss.

n 2015, I kinda lost everything. It’s taken me a goodly amount of time to build things up again and now I’m looking forwards. This is one step that I thought I’d need to make – I’ve sacrificed my land based assets for “good causes” and any of you who know me would know this.

Last year I had raised £5K but a friend in need was in trouble and I gave it all away. Hence the figure quoted. So, I’m playing catchup again.

So this is my bid for a floating home. Somewhere to work on over the winter and spend time on the water.

I’m not looking a floating gin palace – just something that’s serviceable, liveable, pre-loved and can serve as my base of operations.

http://gofundme.com/liveaboard-dream

The issue with this logic problem is that it’s a human problem, not an AI problem.

We place this logic problem in front of a human and someone dies. Maybe even five people. But His are not limited to the same laws that we are. And that’s the law of fuckwittery.

This logic problem assumes there is no choice. But looking at His show there is a choice. Humans speed. They drive without seatbelts. They mess with the radio or their phone while driving. They talk and get distracted.

AIs don’t do this.

Imagine being in a car which will never exceed the speed limit. In fact it will likely go a significantly slower speed than the limit. Always. And it has LIDAR – it can see over obstacles and round corners because it’s not alone. It can patch into the LIDAR of other cars.

The car won’t kill the people in the road, or the pedestrian or you. And I’m not taking it too literally.

It will automatically slow down when approaching a blind corner and it will know it’s stopping distance intimately. It’ll slow to a crawl if it detects something unreasonable.

And yes, it’l do this while you’re screaming that you’ll be late. Which if you are, it’s your fault, because the AI would have told you when it was appropriate to leave for your destination. It’s smarter than you. And that doesn’t mean it’s more creative or more empathic, it just doesn’t make the stupid mistakes that humans do.

So why is this on TED?