BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The British establishment’s resistance to artificial intelligence in governance masquerades, at best, as principled conservatism, a defence of the constituency surgery, the ministerial red box, the human touch. It is, in truth, a defence of administrative fiefdoms. The civil service, the silent colossus of Whitehall, has become the obstacle to the democratic will it was designed to serve. The answer is not … Continue reading Digital Magna Carta
BY ALEX STORY Ever since the Wall Street Crash of 1929, it has been common for economists to quip that when the United States sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. If it was true then, the opposite must have been as well. If the health of our cousins beyond our shores got ruder, so should our prospects. Whilst the four months old … Continue reading Quasi Autonomous No Growth Organisations
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN I remember the first time I played Patience. I was a boy—six, maybe seven—sitting at my grandmother’s dining table with a deck of her old bridge cards worn soft at the edges. I liked the order of the game, the way the cards seemed they could be tamed if you were careful. I’d lay them out on the mahogany table like a … Continue reading A Test of Patience
BY ALEX STORY For a democracy to work, the losing side must accept defeat. For the next electoral cycle, the opposition should work to convince the electorate that its ideas, concepts and philosophies are better for the country. The next election tests the opposition’s views. If the programme overlaps with the opinions of the largest number of voters in the country, the opposition becomes the … Continue reading Losers’ Consensus is Missing
BY PATRICK FAGAN Deep in the darkness of the Amazon rainforest, there is a monster known as the zombie-ant fungus. It is a parasite that infects carpenter ants and controls their behaviour for its own ends: under the fungus’ mind control, the ant leaves the safety of its nest, finds a high, humid spot on the underside of a leaf, and attaches itself there while … Continue reading The Long March Away from the Institutions
BY DANIEL JUPP Both climate change hysteria and Covid hysteria are based on two things, and in neither case except by the most inaccurate understanding of the word can these things be described as science. The ‘science’ foundation for both is actually computer modelling. Computer modelling is a modern form of fortune telling. It can probably get fairly accurate results in a very short time … Continue reading The Dangers of Predictive Computer Modelling
BY EMILY SMITH An unnamed police officer with 20 years of service has talked about why they have decided to quit the job after two decades of serving the public. Generally, morale in the police is low. Officers are having to endure policing the pandemic against a backdrop of never-ending overtly biased negative media coverage. These factors, combined with a dramatic rise in the number … Continue reading I’m Done
THE CITY GRUMP I am not a fan of Donald Trump. It has been evident for years now that he is immature, narcissistic and obsessed by power, which is of course why his foreign policy has been such a great success. It takes one to know one and the autocracies of China, Iran, North Korea, etc certainly met their match in him. Accordingly when the … Continue reading The Rattled West
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN It was Socrates who declared that “intelligent individuals learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences. The stupid already have all the answers.” In fact this quote is at best a paraphrasing or a one-legged translation. Far more pertinent – for those of us opting to live real-world, outside-the-bubble existences – is the fact that wolves are more intelligent than … Continue reading More Beers, Less Tears
BY JIM WEBSTER I saw an interesting comment somewhere in the farming press. Apparently in agriculture we’re going to have to get with the programme and adopt more cutting edge technology. The ‘smart home’ is here, we’re now going to have the ‘smart farm’. Certainly moving to robot milking is now an option for dairy farmers. Economics and other factors might mean it’s not for … Continue reading Farming’s Robot Idealism
