Think back a year or ten. Every year seems more dynamic (bizarre?) than the previous, and yet we continue to wish each other Happy New Year. Maybe we’re saying it wrong, or the universe is more interested in irony and humor than any of our wishes.
The planet is hotter, and renewable energy progresses. Social injustice is easier to highlight, which we do by finding unsettling aspects of our society. Technology is enabling great things, but as was alluded to in Harry Potter, great is not necessarily good.
As I stated on oldest blog (https://TrimbathCreative.net/);
“Current politics has been highly irrational, and trying to evaluate an irrational mob using rational criteria is irrational. When chaos reigns, don’t act as if you are in control. But don’t ignore it either.”
and
“Chaos theory is called that because, even if there’s an underlying pattern, what we see can seem chaotic and unpredictable. “
The speed of change and the increasing influence of technology suggest to me that we are further into the Digital Singularity than many realize, and most don’t even know the term.
But, over the lifetime of this blog, here’s what people clicked on most.
- Computers Invent Their Own Language (2017)
- Australia Is Burning (2020)
- Productivity Versus Compensation (2015)
- Northwest Passage Opens (2016)
- Ancient Air Wells Redesigned (2015)
- Climate Change Forecasts Improve (2020)
- Earth Overshoot Day (2016)
- Solar Thermal Energy Storage (2018)
- Sailing Ships Return (2020)
- North Pole Shifting (2019)
(Hmm. None the year after the pandemic.)
And in 2024, here were the most visited posts.
- Solar Thermal Energy Storage (2018)
- Increases In Economic Efficiency (2016)
- Climate Change Deaths And Costs (2023)
- Income And Wealth Inequality (2022)
- Intense Hurricanes Doubling (2024)
- A Stock Bubble Pops In China (2015)
- Manufacturing Fake Memories (2015)
- Historically Large Outage (2024)
- Sailing Ships Return (2020)
- Longevity Inequality (2015)
(Hmm. A few more from this year, but mostly, we’re talking about the same issues. Lots of activity, but many of the problems remain. Is this what civilization has always been like? It has gotten us this far. How far can it go? And yet, the value to chronicling these issues remains. It has become a repository of references and events that is more reliable and public than one person’s memory. Some have argued that recording things for history is what made civilization useful.)
On a more pragmatic note, this blog has used Twitter as a commonly available news source for years, since the blog’s inception. As of 2025, the new news source will be bluesky. Hopefully, the transition will seem seamless. Hopefully, the number of articles can return to the quantity that was normal a few years ago. The only constant is change, hence, a change.
Happy New Year! Ha, ha. (Or, at least keep laughing.)
Pretending Not To Panic 