Post-2015 Sweden is quite difficult to immigrate to if you aren't doing it via a skilled employment visa. The requirements, along with the amount of time it takes to get simple things working properly (like a social security number and a bank account) once you do get here are cumbersome. Plus housing is an issue, you will find that it is quite a struggle to get a permanent rental contract in the major cities like Stockholm and Malmö. The language is also quite difficult for us English speakers to learn because everyone loves to practice their English with you so even when you attempt to speak Swedish they recognise you are an English speaker and change languages.
My prediction is a mass exodus from the NPT by the non-nuclear weapon states if the 2020 Review Conference goes to hell. Which I think is likely when considering the disintegrating state of modern nuclear arms control agreements and the nuclear modernization programmes being conducted by practically all nuclear powers in contravention of NPT Article VI.
While many states do explore what is called 'nuclear hedging' where they remain non-nuclear but conduct research and development to shorten the potential time of their nuclear breakout (a contemporary example being Iran), South Africa is definitely not a part of this club as their rhetoric and supporting actions simply do not align with this strategy.
Last time I checked South Africa got rid of their nukes in 1989 and has yet to deviate from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty it acceded to in 1991. It also recently ratified the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Do you know something we don't?
1. The Non-proliferation Treaty on Nuclear Weapons finally collapses as a mass exodus of non-nuclear weapon states leaves in favour of the TPNW, forcing the hand of the the Nuclear Weapon States and their allies to accede into the legally binding treaty in order to curtail further nuclear proliferation events.
2. Trump gets a second term.
3. 'America first' mentality continues to have repercussions as Sino-American Cold War escalates. Allies under the nuclear umbrella worry about the credibility of US security guarantees as fears and anxieties over a 'Thucydides trap' begin to take hold. U.S. reassures its allies but when push comes to shove, fails to intervene, sending out a signal to those remaining in the alliance that they lack credible commitments.
4. South Korea will finally obtain sovereign nuclear weapons capabilities as the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula falls flat from continued DPRK aggression. Japan, despite a historically strong public opinion against this class of weapon, may eventually do so as well although much of this will depend on how vulnerable it feels.
5. Hybrid warfare will continue to define 21st century military strategy, with attacks on critical infrastructure targets such as power, water, and sewage systems taking major cities offline for weeks at a time. The lack of attribution will make retribution difficult and countries will begin to point fingers at likely adversaries.
6. Government surveillance becomes omnipresent in most developed societies. You don't watch the internet, the internet watches you and does so through a variety of technological mediums you invite into your lives, all in the name of convenience. Of course this is already happening, but in the next decade it will be taken to its logical conclusion and the majority of people will begin to understand the relationship between privacy and consumer-grade technology, namely the fact that the two are mutually exclusive. Which brings me to my next point.
7. Dumb phones will be a lot more popular than they are now. I'm talking 2000-era 3310s. You already see senior intelligence officials carrying around decades old phones for communication. They don't do this just because they like playing snake.
8. Vertical farming of cruciferous vegetables will be commonplace and most major supermarket chains will begin growing their own to sell to consumers.
I am kinda surprised no one has mentioned Tinderbox by eastgate systems! (1)
Beck Tench (2) has a brilliant youtube series (3) about how she uses tinderbox with the zettlekasten method to create associations between various notes. She also links these notes to her devonthink db so that when she is searching for something there it will also pull up her relevant notes.
I myself have been using her method in writing my masters thesis and I think, because I am a visual learner, the ability to visualise theories through a mind-map style interface has really helped my retention and understanding of them.
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Could someone elaborate on what the use cases would be for something like this? I understand it will carry small items you buy off Amazon prime but that can't be the end of the roadmap for drone based delivery, can it?
In regards to your last point about being patient, both the US and China know that waiting an additional 20-30 years will be at the detriment of China as they cannot compete with US population replacement levels. Compare the following graphs: US projected population: https://i.imgur.com/0UN8eNy.jpg, China projected population: https://i.imgur.com/yDsLnnb.jpg.
Cool idea! Do you think you could extend the intervals it sends out emails? I, for one, would really appreciate being able to have a weekly digest of links that I could check out on the weekend instead of a daily email.
For a long time I've had this idea about creating a website where this type of idea is expressed. I envision it to be some large hierarchical tree like structure (not unlike the ones you see in games like FInal Fantasy) where you pick a topic you want to learn and it gives you the basics to learn and then once mastered allows you to goes deeper by diverging into specialised categories.
I find it interesting that many here reading these comments base their professional lives within the STEM fields but yet are so ardent to support the post-modernist philosophers who believe reason to be an absurd meta-physical starting point. It's a little ironic to say the least.
This is a really interesting series that I've been getting into. John Varvaeke is seriously underrated on YouTube and this series about awakening from the meaning crisis explains a lot about how modern society is focusing on the wrong things. Highly recommended!
