Tupaia

I came across this article a few months ago citing evidence of Polynesian contact with South America about a thousand years ago. I began reading about the South Pacific islands and the people who populate them. The settlement of the Polynesian triangle is an accomplishment enormously underrated in human history. It is truly one of the greatest feats our species has performed. 

Sea People by Christina Thompson is an informative read on the subject. It basically chronicles the European interaction with Polynesia. For centuries Europeans could not understand how or accept that people reached these islands in wooden canoes without a writing system or metal tools. No maps, no compasses, no Western navigation techniques. The main conclusion of the story is that the timeline and process of the exploration is pretty much exactly what the Polynesian people had been saying it was all along. 

A Tahitian man named Tupaia embodies the brilliance of Polynesian knowledge. He guided Captain Cook around the region after they met in Tahiti. Tupaia was exceptional, a tahu'a,  meaning "a master, expert, or authority." He was proficient in "cosmology, politics, history, medicine, geography, astronomy, meteorology, and navigation," even picking up painting and cartography despite never touching a pen or paper before meeting Cook. All his expertise was saved and transmitted orally except a few documents he created on the Endeavour, Cook's ship. The man was adventurous and confident enough to join an expedition of recently-met foreigners heading to unknown lands for an unspecified period of time. He's the type of historical figure you wish to share a meal and conversation with. 

Neom

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is building a "city of the future". Dubbed Neom, this $500 billion+ project is central to the Vision 2030 plan to shift the Saudi economy away from fossil fuels, transforming the country into a tech and tourism hub. The national sovereign wealth fund, which recently made headlines for investing in the electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors, is financing the diversification.

The official releases on Neom are epic propaganda. Its youtube page posts inspiring, sensual videos that, at least for a moment, make you want to believe the dream. Among the wonders promised for the new city, planned to be 33x larger than NYC, are an artificial moon, flying cars, and phosphorescent beaches. The sleek public interface of the whole project intends to fill the viewer with awe. The entire concept tries to associate the Kingdom with a clean and exciting future, not with what it actually is, a horrendously oppressive religious autocracy led by a family of oil-rich spoiled brats. 

No elucidation is needed to describe the various repugnances characterizing the Saudi government and its present head, Mohammad bin Salman (MBS). From war crimes to extrajudicial murder to totalitarianism, the House of Saud, backed by American weapons and consultants, continues to be an utter disgrace to humanity. 

Analogous to other Saudi endeavors, Neom is founded on human rights violations. The Neom brochure claims the city is "conceived on a blank slate," an impudent overlooking of the al-Huwaitat tribe that has lived in the desert region for generations. 20,000 people are slated for eviction. Indigenous activists have been threatened, imprisoned, even killed. 

Beyond this despicable land-grab, the details on how Neom will achieve its goals, to revolutionize 16 economic sectors, are exceedingly vague. Rhetorical platitudes like "embracing innovation," "advanced systems," "unprecedented commitment," and "enhancing quality," litter the processions. Success depends on attracting the world's best and brightest, an assumption far from given. The inherent exclusivity goes without saying; Neom is basically a glitzy research park catering to a tiny, elite segment of the global population. Can it really be called a city?

The same logic, build and they shall come, was used for the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh. It is a delayed, expensive failure. This similarity is unsurprising given the involvement of the same consultancies for both developments. I think it's fair to say that Neom, projected to open in 2025, has a high chance of being another colossal letdown for the Kingdom. 

The Saudi royalty is trying to create a future where they retain their feudal grip. Western mercenary consultants sell them gaudy plans as the answer. One can only hope MBS mismanages the public investment money until a breaking point, when this stain of a family recedes from the fore. 

Automating agriculture

The cover story for the September 2020 issue of National Geographic is about robots. The author shows robots already working alongside humans in multiple different sectors. Agriculture is one of those. 

Farming may seem old-fashioned, entrenched, an industry resistant to change, but it has long been a driver of human innovation. The earliest farmers in Mesopotamia, more than 10,000 years ago, began a relentless tradition of progress. Take a look at the sophisticated farm machinery used today. These tech developments are responsible for dropping the percentage of the American labor force engaged in farming from over 70% in 1820 to less than 2% in 2020. Robots are the next step in this heritage. 

On farms right now, robots pick apples and milk cows. The Nat Geo article mentioned that growers are modifying lettuce to make harvesting easier for robots. Drones and data collecting rovers gather statistics to streamline operations. The presence of these machines is increasing at a breakneck pace. 

Regarding the typical concern of job displacement, there is actually a pronounced labor shortage in the U.S. and elsewhere that's forcing farmers to automize faster than in a normal labor scenario. Also, repetitive labor is easily programmable but the common sense adaptability of humans cannot be replaced in the near future. I think robots can help people focus on higher level tasks instead of grunt work. Plus it seems unreasonable to expect tech to slow down for the purpose of saving jobs; it never has before, why would it now. 

High-tech, sustainable agriculture is a promising flagship of our 21st century fight to keep this planet livable. Autonomous farm robots must be a large part of this movement. We imagine robots roaming the shops and streets of Tokyo, driving us to work, serving our meals. We'll see them combing our fields too, interacting not only with us but with the Earth itself. 

The Morality of Economics

I read an article for an EdX class I'm taking called Theo-Humanism. A former theology professor shared the course with me (he's teaching it).

The Secular Religions of Progress describes how economics was initially philosophical. Scholars contemplated how best to organize the marketplace to achieve the highest level of welfare. Through an understanding of humanity, societies, and our relationship with nature, economists believed the most fruitful theory could be enacted. The subject's foundation came from such theological inquires, not mathematical truths. How can we reach an ideal condition on Earth through economic means?

Now, though, economics has a set of assumptions that seem misaligned with essential realities. The basic goal is presumed to be maximum growth in perpetuity in every possible way. Economists aren't moral philosophers who study what is ideal for prosperity, but instead technocrats directing policy and resources towards this one goal, growth. Is this really what we should aim for anymore, especially in industrialized countries? Are the ways we define welfare still accurate?

I think there are rumblings of change in public discourse. Andrew Yang has spoken on this topic, and the Happiness Index has gained traction as a better metric for success than classic economic metrics. Given the problems we face today that have not and probably will not be solved by growth (climate change & environmental degradation, rising rates of Deaths of Despair, racial inequality, populist authoritarian governments, international migration, proxy wars), the need to re-evaluate how we organize the economy appears prudent. Maybe that means returning to the roots of economics itself.