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Alec Stapp
@AlecStapp
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Washington, DCprogress.instituteJoined June 2009

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1/ For the last 6 months, & I have been building a think tank It’s called the Institute for Progress () & we’re so excited to share it with you Our mission is to accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future
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I wish this false dichotomy would die. Both matter. It'd be like people saying "you shouldn't worry about the climate impact of cars, worry about automobile accidents". In fact, both matter
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AI is being used right now to decide who to hire, who to fire, who gets a loan, who stays in the hospital and who gets sent home. I am much more worried about those current, real-life uses of AI than potential downstream existential threats.
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Of course, that's not even mentioning geothermal or nuclear (both of which we need for baseload energy to complement solar and wind). If you oppose building any type of energy generation, then the only choice left is degrowth. Good luck with that political strategy.
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When you say you care about climate change but are opposed to making it easier to build solar + wind + transmission... 🤔 (obviously the stuff about destroying biodiversity is a straw man)
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This branch of eco modernist, pro-tech advocacy is becoming increasingly more explicit in being anti environmentalist. Their agenda:Wind, solar and transmission *should* be allowed to destroy biodiversity, and enviro regs need "permitting reform"to allow that...
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I really wish Elon had just stuck to building rockets and electric vehicles
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Elon Musk has blocked all Substack links on Twitter from being RTed or liked. This gives huge advantage to the MSM he claims is bad, but ok. Canceled my Twitter blue, and likely won't be on this godforsaken platform for much longer. Please follow me on Substack (link below)
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The End Child Poverty Act replaces the the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit with a universal child benefit paid out monthly by the Social Security Administration. It is a huge design improvement over our current system and over the 2021 CTC.
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Tlaib, Omar, and Garcia Reintroduce the End Child Poverty Act peoplespolicyproject.org/2023/04/07/tla
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This is a real dish that you can order at Domino's in India. An American restaurant that specializes in Italian food serves, in India, a Mexican inspired dish using a North African sauce. You cannot name a more globalized food product than this.
Taco Mexicana Veg
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The Washington Post Editorial Board is correct: Strict adherence to the “Buy American” rules related to infrastructure spending is going to cause a lot of damage without much benefit. Obvious solution is to grant waivers when critical components are made abroad.
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80% of Chinese talent that contributed to GPT-4 got their graduate degrees in US and ended up staying
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The AI race heats up and the contribution of Chinese talent to breakthrough products like OpenAI's ChatGPT cannot be ignored. Our latest piece looks into their role in generative AI and why the US needs to embrace foreign-born talent to remain competitive: macropolo.org/chinese-talent
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To build our clean energy future, America needs a new FOMC: the Friend-shored Outstanding Minerals Club, an international avengers squad to source, and provide price stability for, key materials for clean energy sources and batteries. This is a great piece.
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New piece out with @alexbhturnbull1, the 1st in a set of pieces on how a critical minerals club can limit price volatility of lithium. In it, we argue that a club should focus on spodumene, a lithium precursor. tinyurl.com/354nu69k.
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It's one thing to say dont subsidize green energy, let the market decide. But since the market likes wind and solar in Texas, TX GOP is moving to impose extra regulatory burdens on renewables and to directly subsidize gas and coal -- "build more [fossil] as quickly as we can"
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Wow: The Texas state legislature is considering a bill to impose new environmental permit requirements for renewable energy projects but ***not for fossil fuel power plants*** (Would even require currently operating renewable energy plants to apply for the permits!)
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Uh-oh. Republicans are beginning to study the Procedural Fetish mastery of the Democrats... Texas won't ban renewable energy, of course, but merely subject it to discretionary permitting with a "robust and inclusive public process"
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Wow: The Texas state legislature is considering a bill to impose new environmental permit requirements for renewable energy projects but ***not for fossil fuel power plants*** (Would even require currently operating renewable energy plants to apply for the permits!)
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Teller didn't "posit" this. They checked their math and realized it wouldn't happen. Bethe: I sat down and looked at the problem . . . I found that it was just incredibly unlikely . . . Teller was very quickly convinced and so was Oppenheimer. blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/be
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genuinely do appreciate the need for thoughtful concern when it comes to AI, but in 1942 edward teller posited a single atomic blast could ignite the earth’s atmosphere, trigger a runaway fusion reaction, and turn our world into a small new sun twitter.com/paulg/status/1…
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Wow: The Texas state legislature is considering a bill to impose new environmental permit requirements for renewable energy projects but ***not for fossil fuel power plants*** (Would even require currently operating renewable energy plants to apply for the permits!)
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