The arrival of reliable cheap fusion energy on Earth would be a revolution nearly as important as AI. Fusion is a synthetic sun, with relatively benign byproducts. For 70 years, experts have predicted it to be “20 years away;”  It is still 20 years away. This excellent summary of the state of the art in fusion energy explains why progress has been so slow and why it may speed up now. Or not! Easy to read and smartly informative, Will We Ever Get Fusion Power is the best thing I’ve read on fusion, a brief and succinct article, highly recommended. — KK

Large political currents are moving China and the US towards a new cold war. I found the best remedy to temper this emerging hysteria is a new Netflix documentary series on the first Cold War. In 9 parts, each episode of Turning Point goes into great detail about the origins of the mutual fears, the mad way demagogues fanned them and played them out, and the huge repercussions the conflict had on the entire world and everyday lives. In this story the nukes were the “turning point.” Along they way the series hints at the nature of a China vs US cold war, where AI is the turning point, and the lessons we might take from this recent history. — KK