oc magazine review -- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (greatest name ever) is an academic journal that focuses on four major categories of existential threats: nuclear weapons and energy, climate change, bioterror, and -- recently -- emerging cyber-technologies.  Many of the more technical articles are paywalled, but some of the features are available on their website for free.  All are articulate and clearly argued, even when they are wrong.  Here are examples from each of those main topic categories, all from earlier this year, all drawn from the Analysis feature.

"A Complex Nuclear Situation, in a Complicated World" is the text of a speech given at an international conference, which is a sort of nuclear history and geography lesson.  The Bulletin relies on outside writers, much like Steemit does.  I don't think of myself as an anarchist, but I did like this snippet from the speech.

Deterrence is, therefore, as much psychological as physical, and nations that depend on deterrence for their security, as we do, are betting that they understand foreign leaders’ risk propensities and tolerance for pain, as well as their belief in the credibility of the threat to retaliate. I note, parenthetically, that one may wonder if our faith in the rationality of world leaders in the midst of crisis is based on much evidence from history; but that is a topic for another day.

[image]

"The Climate Change Generation Gap" is a demographic breakdown of what Americans (and it's mostly Americans) do and don't "believe" around this issue.  Anyone who's seen Dr. Strangelove will understand the love of gaps by policy wonks, and there is no shortage of them here: age, ethnicity, gender, politics.  What it boils down to is that old white men are in the way.

In fact, their research found that conservative white males who express the highest confidence in their opinions about climate science and risks are the most wrong, and in the most severe denial. McCright and Dunlap concluded that “climate change denial is a form of identity-protective cognition, reflecting a system-justifying tendency.” This may also contribute to the age gap, since younger Americans have not yet benefitted from the societal status quo to the same degree as older Americans.

This article's author, Dana Nuccitelli, may or may not also be an old white guy.  There's no picture on the profile.

"How Genetic Editing Became a National Security Threat" is about the latest biotech tool, CRISPR-9, which allows for more precise cutting and pasting of DNA molecules, speeding up the still-difficult process of biological engineering.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper sent shock waves through the national security and biotechnology communities with his assertion, in his Worldwide Threat Assessment testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February, that genome editing had become a global danger. 

Of course, James Clapper is not a biologist, and if you read my earlier post on Edward Snowden, he is also not the most reliable of witnesses before Congress.

Finally, and perhaps of most interest here on Steemit, "The Dirty Parts of the Computing World" focuses on the environmental aspects of computing, in terms of energy, water, mining of toxic components, and disposal of e-waste.  Then it weighs in on the costs of blockchain technology.

My critique of the blockchain has nothing to do with its suitability as the foundation for a new global financial infrastructure, or its political and economic implications. Rather, my concerns are about its environmental impacts. At the heart of the current blockchain network—the key innovation that allows a decentralized, intangible, and yet entirely reliable and authoritative virtual ledger to exist—is a computational technique known as proof-of-work. And proof-of-work, when implemented on a global scale, is by design extraordinarily energy-intensive.

Let me know in the comments which of these topics you might be interested in hearing more about.