Disability in my life, Sally Phillips and me | AI progress | Worse attraction in London
If you read / listen to only one thing this week, it’s my very personal conversation with actor Sally Phillips on disability, comedy, faith and family life. The conversation will give you a glimpse into what it’s like for Sally and me to have disability in the family.
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I am co-hosting a Sustainability UnConference now Sep 10 (with Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator). Improbable Theatre are leading the OpenSpace format. Let me know if you want to come - and if you are interested in sustainabilty you should come! I’m co-hosting the Sustainability Unconference now on Sep 10.
I have podcasts coming up with Diane Coyle (economist), Jonathan Wolff (philosopher), Jason Mitchell (poet, sustainability investor). Let me know if you have questions.
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Top of mind recently is how fast some parts of technology are going. I think the general reader has glimpses of the splashy news items such as the Space trips by Bezos and Branson, but there are many technology problems which have made huge progress.
I am thinking biological protein folding and what looks like setting up to be another strong decade for biological knowledge. The breakthrough work of Deepmind here is going to herald a step change in how we think about making proteins.
I think developments from the world of blockchain will be surprising. I don’t view anything as standout yet, but maybe smart brains and a lot of money are working in these areas and we have glimpses of possibilities with NFTs and “smart contract” protocols. And the backlash against regulation (see below) is notable.
The vast computing power now available to us when applied to hard problems mixed with machine learning algorithms is going to unleash a whole new way of creating software and software-interactions. And, I think we are on the verge of where a smart mind with no coding knowledge will soon be able to partner with tools to create code and ideas which before only coders of several years experience could do. We have a glimpse of that with GPT-3, and we have an iteration of that with the Deep Mind models for protein folding (noted above) but this recent video from OpenAI about the possibilities of what coding AI can produce based on very simple inputs suggests to me the world is going to change again in the digital space very rapidly.
The interface with the physical world is still behind, although certain parts eg automation and robots are advancing.
I think the general population is also behind and so is the humanities thinking, the social contracts and constructs behind it. While we have eg AI ethics, the people involved with them are narrow, so I hope it does all work out.
Meanwhile, we have all sorts of catastrophes, at a glance:
-Haiti earthquakes
-Afghanistan fighting
-Ethiopian civil war, and likely atrocities
-Rohinyga refugees
-A crisis in South Sudan coming out of a civil war
-Torture and execution from the recent Bolivia government
-the list goes on...and of course, COVID...
A few links from above:
Sudan: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/09/world/africa/deadly-clashes-threaten-south-sudans-shaky-peace-deal.html
Bolivia: https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-bolivia-454d1102672f6fbc1e47dab7eca66714
Deepmind: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02025-4
OpenAI Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGUCcjHTmGY&ab_channel=OpenAI
And challenge and details: https://openai.com/blog/openai-codex/
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I have a personal conversation with actor Sally Phillips on disability, comedy, faith and family life.
We talk about types of clowning and why the clown always says ‘yes’; the challenges of older women roles in the entertainment industry and discuss the differences between US comedy and British comedy
We chat about the importance of faith to Sally and what the aphorism - there being two routes to God (love and suffering) - means. We talk about embracing uncertainty, being curious and open minded and the practice of prayer.
The disability community is important to us. We both have children with disabilities. We talk in detail about how that impacts us, how the mainstream world interacts with the disabled and, despite the challenges, how to have fulfilled lives - how we’ve been taught to live in the moment.
Sally ends with advice for fledgling creatives and expectant mothers.
Ollie make guest star experience telling us the best thing about having Down’s.
Excerpts, Sally on:
...if you don't live in the moment and if you don't sort of take it in, the story you tell yourself about what's happening can be much too bleak because of these big awful events. So, Ollie can be good 99% of a day and then that 1% just will be so bad that you remember the day as being the day when the MacBook was put in the bath. Whereas actually he was really good up to that point. I remember, he went to a special needs school which is a disaster because he got expelled from the mainstream, that's another conversation for another day. He just hated it, really hated it and smashed up the classroom and having gone in much more able, too able for the school, came out with the most support of anyone that most difficult child.
You've got to do what your teachers say Ollie, got to do what they say and he said, I do - sometimes....
…And he rips all his clothes up, that's the thing I can't really cope with. I can cope with it. I am coping with it but I just have this. When part of you has given up and died. The part of me that's given up and died is like that, I’m never going to have a pension, I’m going to be working forever because Ollie rips up pants and he's in men's pants and he rip. He'll wear them once and then rip them up. I don't know where to get really cheap pants. …
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There a new small hill at Marble Arch. It’s somewhat of a failure, and fairly poor “attraction” that has now gone over budget and all the criticism is justified, but I still find I think we should have more failure of this type of thing because it means we are trying new things still and hopefully some of these new things will work and not be failures…
It’s a good spot to watch buses but not views of the park… Short blog defending the mound. (3 min)
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Most people who don’t have a glimpse into Crypto Twitter might have missed that the US Infrastructure bill almost didn’t get through because of crypto regulation back lash. Ezra Klein noted it and has a good overview of the situation and reflecting that this might only be the early days of this battle… On how the infrastructure bill almost failed due to crypto regulation.
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Offer: Oxbridge | University interview practice. If you are or know someone who will be interviewing at Oxbridge (or equivalent level interview), and particularly if their school does not offer mock interviews, or you might otherwise consider yourself at an opportunity disadvantage. I am open to a few slots to offer a mock interview.
(I have been to Cambridge and Harvard. I have a science-based degree, but also write plays. I know the UK system and to some extent the US, liberal arts system too). I can NOT help if you are applying to Harvard this year (as I may interview for Harvard this cycle).
Typically, I will offer 10 mins, basics, 30-40 mins interview, 20-30 mins de-brief and I’ll need basic information sent in advance. My capacity given the interview schedule coming up is 5 or so, in the next 2- 4 weeks. I may not be able to take all enquiries if this proves popular.
Links:
➼Possibly scary but also revealing: NASA sea level projection scenario tool.
➼There’s a whole set of people doing two jobs at once in the pandemic by scheduling video calls very carefully!
➼I’m co-hosting the Sustainability Unconference now on Sep 10
➼Catherine Howarth, podcast on activism (with me)
➼Tassos Stevens, podcast on theatre (with me)
➼My latest thoughts on COVID
➼Cal Newport on making work more effective
In this interview Cal makes the case that constant messaging is detroying people's productivity amongst other stresses at work. Provacative and if true could be huge gains from different ways of working. Long-time readers know I am sympathetic to this.
➼US has forced China to boost domestic chip technology (Dan Wang)
If Wang is right, this is a pivotal second order long-term impact of US sanctions. It will force Chinese companies to rely on and invest in domestic chip tech and other tech which they currently use US for. On a 20 year view I think Dan has a 60% chance of being right... which is actually a moderate disaster for US power.
➼New American University thinking (Eghbal)
On what a more inclusive (and successful) university model might look like in practise.
→Story of plinky, how I found my podcast jingle
→Effective Altruism grant funding. Good source of funding for a potentially large variety of impactful projects.
Previous podcasts:
➼Catherine Howarth, podcast on activism
➼Tassos Stevens, podcast on theatre
➳Lee Simpson is a master improv performer and theatre director. I had a lovely conversation with him which left me dwelling on many things.
➳My conversation with Anton Howes on innovation history.
➳ I talk with birdgirl aka Mya-Rose Craig. Transcript and video here. And podcast version
➳I chat with Rebecca Giggs on her new book looking at humanity through the lens of the whale. There is video and a transcript. Self-recommending.
➳Leopold Aschenbrenner podcast on university at 15 and existential risk.
➳C Thi Nguyen on games philosophy
➳Matt Clancy on innovation
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Thanks for reading. Feel free to forward this letter to anyone you think might be interested in signing up.
Archive and repeat words below. Stay well, Stay safe, Ben
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➳Me on ESG investing / YouTube CFA UK
➳Micro-grants. £10K for positive impact people.
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A 2 min view clip of Thinking Bigly you can now see here.
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I’ve re-issued my 2006 play, Yellow Gentlemen (4 stars in Time Out and is one of my more personal works about the night immigrant Tommy Lee is dying). Buy it for laughs on Kindle for the price of a coffee. All profits to charity. I’ve only sold a few copies at the price of a coffee - 1.99.
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“...Through a long-term orientation and stewardship, this is the time for active investment managers to show their worth. It starts with asking the right long-term business questions. Some companies are giving us answers, but are we really listening?”
My full opinion article in the FT. (3 mins, behind paywall, but you get a free article or email me and I can send you a copy)
Find out more about my aphorism book and contact me for a copy.
The move to online dating has potentially empowered women as the cost to ghosting is so low.
Notes from a conversation with former Royal Court Lit. Manager.