“At this point, it’s simply not feasible for humans to return the ocean to its preindustrial chemical base line because the cost, effort and material resources required are too gargantuan. A global effort would, however, help prevent further acidification. As a marine antacid, alkalinity enhancement will probably be more effective in select regions of the coast that are home to especially vulnerable fisheries and ecosystems, like coral reefs.
Such defenses have a long history. The Indigenous peoples of western North America farmed clams in walled gardens along the shore to which they routinely added crushed shells. Research has since confirmed that doing so raises the pH of the water, improving the growth and survival rates of juvenile shellfish and, in combination with other benefits of the gardens, yielding two to four times as many adults.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/magazine/ocean-acidification-carbon-geoengineering.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Normal life still works, which makes it easy to ignore how fragile it has become -- even though today is the anniversary of the horrific fires in LA last January. I wrote a piece about what we build together now, before disaster forces the lesson on us. https://pioneeringspirit.xyz/what-we-build-before-everything-breaks-apart
What would be the equivalent of the economist newspaper in the 19th century today? Here I’m thinking of something with a political important but definitely not major majoritarian issue like free trade covering issues, but definitely extremely opinionated to the point of being polemical
Where is the equivalent of the mid career full rate or other professional, intellectual practitioner exchange type fellowship for this emergent world of pop cities and network states
Seems like an obvious opportunity and gap in the current landscape
Vitalik is right that we need a thousand experiments. Small tribes at the edge are how new social forms are discovered, tested, and refined. But edge experimentation only works because there is a center that provides stability, continuity, and trust. The edge depends on the center more than it likes to admit.
If the center decays, experiments become brittle. They stay small, fragile, or escapist. Real progress requires reforming the core systems that keep society running day to day while still leaving room for experimentation. That means government operations that can learn, adapt, and integrate what works rather than just observe from a distance.
This is where California is uniquely positioned. It already hosts the wildest edge experiments in tech, climate, and culture. It also carries the burden of scale. Streets, schools, utilities, emergency response, permits. The unglamorous stuff that makes everything else possible. California doesn’t just need more experiments. It needs a sandbox at the center.
