“DeepSeek also claims to have needed only about 2,000 specialized chips from Nvidia to train V3, compared to the 16,000 or more required to train leading models, according to the New York Times. These unverified claims are leading developers and investors to question the compute-intensive approach favored by the world’s leading AI companies. And if true, it means that DeepSeek engineers had to get creative in the face of trade restrictions meant to ensure US domination of AI.”
Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field, so any atmosphere someone tries to terraform will just be blown away by solar winds.
It may make sense to focus on Earth and technological development for now. Better technology will make moving civilization to Mars more possible in the future.
“China banned the export of gallium, germanium, antimony, and industrial diamonds to the U.S., in response to U.S. trade and investment restrictions on Chinese technology companies. Though tit-for-tat tariffs occasionally lead to bilateral trade agreements, protectionism is more frequently a response in kind. China’s rare materials ban is the latest such response in the ongoing U.S.–China semiconductor trade war.”
…
“The technological trade war reduces the productive and military capacity of both countries, not just China. Technonationalism harms American and Chinese consumers, hinders economic growth, reduces cross-cultural cooperation, and makes aggression more attractive.”
““The American tankers should act promptly,” he urged. “Their tanks are too thin and vulnerable given the current threats on the battlefield. Protect your tanks urgently to avoid losses in potential near-future conflicts, taking into account our experience.””
Unmanned drone technology is not yet able to replace the capabilities of a crewed plane like the F-35. Swarms of small drones have very limited ranges. Large drones will no longer be cheap and swarms would be too expensive. AI cannot yet fulfill the many tasks that a trained human pilot can.
“America’s ports have fallen behind. Not a single one ranks in the top 50 worldwide.
A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation.
This fall, the International Longshoremen’s Association shut down East and Gulf coast ports, striking for a raise and a ban on automation. They got the raise.
Now union president Harold Daggett says longshoremen will strike again in January if they don’t get that ban on automation.
His statement in my new video makes it clear that he knows how badly his strike would damage other Americans.
“Guys who sell cars can’t sell cars, because the cars ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off,” says Daggett. “Construction workers get laid off because materials aren’t coming in. The steel’s not coming in. The lumber’s not coming in. They lose their job.”
Obviously, labor leaders aren’t necessarily “pro-worker,” says Mercatus Center economist Liya Palagashvili.
“They’re saying, ‘We don’t care if these other jobs are destroyed as long as we get what we want.'”
Daggett is unusually clueless. He doesn’t understand that a ban on automation will also hurt his members.
As Palagashvili puts it, “They’ll save some jobs today, but they’ll destroy a lot more jobs in the future.”
That’s because today’s shippers have options. Daggett’s union only controls East and Gulf coast ports. Shippers can deliver their products to ports that accept automation.
“We’re going to see less activity in ‘Stone Age’ ports,” says Palagashvili.
“Stone Age?”
“They want to ban automated opening and closing of port doors,” she points out, requiring workers to pull heavy doors themselves.”
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“”Some port jobs will definitely be lost,” she says, “but that’s not a bad thing. Look at it historically; we had hundreds of thousands of blacksmiths and candlemakers and watchmakers.”
Obviously, those and other jobs were destroyed by new technology. But unemployment didn’t surge. New jobs emerged—jobs people at the time didn’t imagine: programmers, mechanics, electricians, medical technicians.
That’s capitalism’s “creative destruction.” It constantly creates new jobs. That makes most everyone richer.”