Posts from @tarazkp

How Self-Censored are You?

tarazkp — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 12:46:15 GMT

I haven't run a Poll for a very long time, but I thought I would do one to kick off Friday and as the question,

How Censored are You?

There are a lot of discussions around censorship, especially on Hive in terms of downvotes But in a general sense, I believe that most of us censor ourselves quite heavily. Some people will of course say they never self-censor, to which I call bullshit - but to "each their own" fantasy. We censor when we fear the repercussions of saying what we think, or saying what we think and making a mess of it. We bite our tongue when we think we might hurt someone or, feel that we will face consequences we don't want to face. We censor when we feel we will lose and we will censor when we want to maintain someone's expectations of us, but what we will say undermines it.

We are very self-censored.

Most of the time though, I think it is self-centred reasons that cause us to censor, where we are trying to protect ourselves from perceived harms. Some of them might be realistic concerns, but many might by more ego based, where what would get harmed is our perception of ourselves. And in a way, self-censorship is a lie, isn't it? Like a parent not telling a child about their own young experiences, because they don't want their child to do the same, or they don't want their child to know that their parent didn't always act well either.

In general, I censor the way I speak also, but I don't censor what I speak about. In my opinion, there are no taboo topics and I think that we should especially spend time talking about the things that cause the most challenge to us as individuals, as well as a society. The rule of no talk about sex, money, religion, politics etc - what a fucking load of crap that is. Talk about the things we struggle with and get as much information and clarity as possible, so that we can make decisions from a stronger position.

Talk, talk, talk.

But, I also think that many of us these days don't have many people or anyone to talk to about much at all. Even people in strong relationships likely don't feel they can talk to their partner about everything. And there are people who are so censored on some topics that they won't even do an internet search to build clarity. Kind of silly, right?

So let's see. Below there is a Poll, but perhaps in the comments section we can have some discussions about the kinds of topics people want to talk about, but don't.

Note:

You can vote twice, one for how often, and one for who with.

Taraz
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Slivers of Hope

tarazkp — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 19:58:15 GMT

I had a conversation with a psychotherapist today about hopelessness and at what point is it just not worth continuing on in this life. Because without there a chance of something better or a reason to keep on trying, it is not just a pointless life and waste of energy, but it is also a worse life.

Pretty much everything we do as a species is busywork and pointless, but once upon a time when we were in small tribes, the purpose was to keep the tribe going. And in order to do that, everyone had their role, everyone was active, from the oldest to the youngest, all individuals working together for each other. The individual was possible, because of the group.

But that is not the case now, where a person can live without contributing anything to the group and often, just taking, milking the resources of others to survive and expand. But the thing with individualism and this continued isolationist push of the individual means that the group is no longer a reason to contribute and is just a hinderance, or a competing force.

Others get in the way of me getting what I want, or they take what I want.

What is the point of surviving a nuclear holocaust or a zombie apocalypse? It might make for good television, but the reality would be very different. Living in an underground bunker for years, or stabbing the walking dead through the skull whilst trying to forage for food.

Drop the bomb on me, please.

But we as humans have this thing called "hope" which is part of our mental survival instinct that keeps us going, even when things are terrible. Keeps us struggling pointlessly against an environment that doesn't want us and to be honest, would probably be better off without us. Not just us as a species, but if a whole lot of us just disappeared. During WWII around 85M are estimated to have died, most of them coming from a relative handful of countries. But that accounted for almost 4% of the entire global population. This opened up a lot of opportunity.

If 10% disappeared from each nation today?

800,000,000 people gone globally.

Housing issues solved. Cost of living reduced. Unemployment fixed.

As horrible as it might seem, wouldn't the overall good be better than the collective struggle? What if it was voluntary, or paid selection? For instance, if I volunteer to be one of the euthanised, my family would get an endowment, property and some additional opportunities.

How much is my life worth?

Seems like an interesting question, but it really isn't. Because no one's life is really worth that much relatively. And being no one special with no great talents to offer the world but still taking resources to live, my life is really not worth much at all. Worse, it is a net cost. And the more we isolate, the more we do not provide for the group and species, the lower our personal value becomes. Sure, our wealth might go up, it might be very high even - but that doesn't mean we have improved the species and often means, we have reduced the species instead, since wealth is largely built on what harms us or is useless. It might be different if wealth was built on improving human existence, but it isn't.

But we have hope.

We have hope that things will improve. We have hope that there will be a cure for our disease. We have hope that there won't be war in our region. We have hope that we will earn enough and that our children will be happy, and the environment won't collapse... lots of hope.

Animals have survival instincts, as do we. And hope seems to be one of the skills we have developed in order to trick our brain into not giving up, even as we are being mauled to death by the world, or a tiger. But why fight for inevitable failure? Why fight to survive in a world where the climate is going to change in ways that makes life even harder? Why fight against a government that will see us incarcerated or killed before they will give up power? Why fight so corporations can maximise their profits and shareholders can become wealthier?

What is the point?

In the past, the point was to keep the tribe going, but now that we have destroyed tribal life, communities and even family life, the meaning to keep fighting has been largely reduced to the individual, which in the grand scheme of a species, makes no sense. Our evolutionary changes were to keep us advancing as a species, but we advanced to a point that instead of advancing as a species, we are competing as individuals.

Is there really any hope for any of us?

Unfortunately, survival is not enough to make a life worth living.

Taraz
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Throwing Rox

tarazkp — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 19:48:00 GMT

I have been dreading this day for a week.

One of the trainers at the gym has been ~~encouraging~~ guilting me into joining classes, which I am quite thankful for. A couple months back I started going to flexibility classes, but tonight I was in my first Hyrox session. It has been a week of dread because in order to secure a spot, I had to sign up for it just as last week's class was starting, otherwise there would be no slots left. I also convinced my wife to join in too, and she didn't realise I was coming also, as I am far too unfit for this kind of exercise. My lungs just can't keep up.

But, since I can adjust it to my own pace, I was able to make it through the session, slowly in some parts, very little in others, but for the first go round - it was okay. It was also good to see my wife getting into it as she was dreading it also, but afterwards was pretty happy with it and said it was easier than she expected.

Hyrox is a similar to Crossfit but a bit different in that it doesn't require the technical skill of Crossfit, which has claimed many, many victims who do not have the right technique. Hyrox is more endurance-based also, which is what I am looking to build and encourages leanness, which I definitely need. And going on tonight's effort, I have a long way to go before I am anywhere near where I want to be. My lungs were struggling, as were my feet. For a couple decades I have had issues with my feet and lower legs, which is why I had a fasciotomy on both last year. It is much better, but my feet are still very week under stress and it was made abundantly clear that I have to build them more robustly than I have.

I signed up for a session next week.

The yearly averages are now increasing since I have going more consistently in the last six months and I think it is good to mix up my workouts a bit and add variation. I do a fair bit of weird stuff already, but having a complete body workout at least once a week that pushes my lungs will be a good start. Ideally, I will move to twice a week and perhaps add in a cycling class on another day at some point, which will give my legs a rest.

I do a lot of butt stuff.

But not very heavy stuff. I have shifted almost completely away from weights in the last six months and have been working more intently on function, getting everything aligned. A couple months ago I added face pulls several times a week at the suggestion of a massage therapist I went to see, and most of my neck pain from sitting at a desk and screen has disappeared, and my general posture has improved. I highly recommend doing these a handful of times a week.

As I said to the trainer that has been forcing me to join her classes, for decades I was working out and getting stronger in pieces, but it was mostly useless strength. Now I am stronger because the pieces are working together better and more smoothly. And since I don't give a crap (mostly) about how I look to others, but do care about how I feel, I am pretty satisfied. I would probably look better too, if I ate more healthily - but this is slowly getting better also.

Consistency is key for many things of course and exercise consistency is pretty good for my, but diet is not. However, perhaps doing a few trainer-led group classes, I will add some more variation into the routine and at a couple hours of structure as well, rather than the turn up and do what I feel like approach. And in a group class, I am more likely to push a little harder and a little longer. And those extra little pushes, add up.

Ultimately, it is likely that none of this matters either to the grand scheme of things, or to myself as an individual, but at least it is something to do. And, if there are any benefits, I think it is more likely to get them from doing this then spending time consuming other forms of entertainment. If I do happen to live a long life, I hope to be able to move relatively freely also. What is the point of living, if it is just spent on the couch?

Taraz
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Satisfy the Tongue

tarazkp — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 11:56:06 GMT

What happens if you eat healthily, but don't exercise?

This is what Smallsteps asked me while she was eating her breakfast this morning, which I found an interesting question. We often talk about healthy eating and getting enough movement, but it is also good to consider alternatives, and this one was a pretty easy one to explain. In order to do this, I went to an extreme of "not moving much at all" so that while good food would feed the body, a person would still have physical problems due to a lack of muscle activation, bone density issues and various other problems. Because good food is not enough. Food is just energy.

Of course, there is the physical energy used by our body, but we can think of food supplying different forms of energy also, like vitamin and mineral energy, or fibre energy, or whatever else we need from food in order for our bodies and minds to function well. It feeds more than our muscles, it also feeds our hormones, so it affects they way we feel. And it is interesting because it is our feelings that tend to make us eat poorly and not exercise enough.

I mentioned to Smallsteps how funny it is that we often choose our food on whether it tastes good or not, which means that we are making a decision to make our tongue happy, without considering the rest of our body that is going to be affected by what we eat.

The human tongue makes up about 0.13% of total body weight.

That was a new search for me.

But that means we are making decisions based on the learned preferences of a tiny fraction of our body. And it also means that men thinking with their dick are on average using over three times as much of their body mass, than those thinking with their tongue. Something to think about - which body part you use to think with, is up to you.

As someone who struggles to maintain healthy eating habits, what I find interesting with this is that the tongue from an evolutionary standpoint has become a little redundant. The tongue is responsible for assisting eating, swallowing, speaking and cleaning the mouth, and of course taste. But taste is no longer as important as it once was, when we needed to seek out sweet foods or recognise if something was rotten. We are surrounded by sugars and we have fridges, freezers, packaging, and takeaway food. We have the knowledge to keep food fresh and even little dates printed on the food to know if it is edible.

Yet, despite not being as important for us, the taste sense is still overpowering good sense of what we should be eating. It is not like we don't know what we should be eating, but for some reason, many of us struggle to overpower the desires of the tongue. and because of this, we struggle with our weight, our thoughts, our feelings. The wants of 0.13% of our body mass is having a huge effect not only on us as individuals, but as communities that have to deal with the repercussions of poor diets, poor thoughts, and poor feelings.

What if we couldn't taste anything?

It would be really interesting, because while eating would become just a mechanical, utilitarian activity that needed to be done, we would rely on other senses. Food would supply no emotional taste reward, but our smell and sight of food would become keener. The texture of food would also be heavily weighted. There would be little point to add sugar and useless fats into food, as well as salt. The chances of malnutrition might go up in some factors, but it can definitely be argued that even with all the availability we have with taste receptors, we are still malnourished today.

Food complexity diminishes.

So too does the market for commercial foods that rely on advertising, sugars, fats and various taste additives to sell. Because eating is largely a function to survive, the products would be around efficiency and health benefits. Most of the restaurants would disappear and those that remained, whether fine or fast dining, would have a very different looking menu.

But it would be interesting to make food decisions using smell instead of taste, because fresh food would likely be weighted far more highly. Texture also, since a lot of the sweetened foods don't have much texture to them. Yes, markets would adjust still, but perhaps overall, the simplification of food into the energy it provides our various systems would likely lead to us being far more healthy overall. And perhaps if we were all eating far better, the will to collectively increase our movement would also improve.

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Endless Broken Versions

tarazkp — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 22:10:03 GMT

Endless Broken Versions

As there's more road behind than lay ahead,
And the weariness of experience bears down.
When all that is desired is a comfortable bed,
Swallowed by the dark following final sound.
Muscles relax after so many years pulled tight,
Last energy venting through invisible wounds.
No longer able to stand to put forward a fight,
A thousand homes reduced to a single room.
Each wall faced with a mirrored glass,
Bending upon themselves back endlessly.
All slightly different than the last,
A facet of one who lived needlessly.
In one of those faces looking back at me,
Was the one who was filled with potential.
But he was lost in the crowd of useless me,
Leaking opportunity until it was torrential.
A flood of life pouring down the drain,
Wasting and destroying chance after chance.
Little sunshine seen but plenty of rain,
Unable to hold ground let alone advance.

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Collective Oppression

tarazkp — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:22:27 GMT

The word is not the thing.

I believe this isn't hard for most people to understand, yet still people put a lot of emphasis on what something represents, without considering what it actually represents. For instance, the other day in some Australian sports events, athletes didn't sing the national anthem and they were called un-Australian and much worse, and people said that if they won't sing the anthem, they shouldn't play for Australia. Is singing the anthem what makes someone Australian?

What does a national anthem represent?

By definition, a national anthem represents "a country's history, traditions, core values, and collective identity", but considering that most were written a long time ago and even as they change over time, do they really speak to the collective identity and core values?

Advance Australia Fair

Australians all let us rejoice
For we are young and free
We've golden soil and wealth for toil
Our home is girt by sea
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty, rich and rare
In history's page let every stage
Advance Australia fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands
For those who've across the seas
We've boundless plains to share
With courage let us all combine
To advance Australia fair
In joyful strains then let us sing
Advance Australia fair

There are a couple lines in there that just no longer mesh with reality. For instance, the third line "wealth for toil" means that one can become wealthy by working hard. And the twelfth line doubles down on "toil" with hearts and hands, yet that is no longer the case. The rich aren't those who toil. And then of course it goes onto "boundless plains to share" which definitely doesn't speak to the collective identity in Australia at the moment.

While some people attach their identity to an anthem or a flag, I do not think it is required in order to care for and be concerned about one's country. In fact, I think that citizens being able to protest and show dissent and dissatisfaction with the conditions of a country, should be celebrated. Otherwise, the country is little better than North Korea in ideology, if not practice. And with the instance of Australians not singing the national anthem, they all tended to be indigenous Australians by background, who might not feel like they have been fairly represented at any time in Australia's colonised history. However, there are plenty of past events where white Australians didn't sing, and it wasn't an issue at all. Perhaps that says something.

Whatever it is, I do not think one song can encapsulate any country's "traditions, core values and collective identity" anymore, because they no longer exist. It isn't as much about the mix of people from other countries, as it is about the mix of people from the same countries, the same ethnic groups, the same backgrounds. Over the last few decades, "culture wars" have been pushed and fought to create conditions that disconnect people and turn neighbour against neighbour. To then think that something like a single song can unite people is quite ludicrous. And then to say that if the anthem doesn't resonate positively with a person they are not part of that country, is simple-minded.

These days, most people believe that religion and state should be separated, yet many still want the mechanisms of religion affecting politics. The way people attach to a flag or anthem is a religious connection and some will fight for it, literally to the death at times. And then talking about forcing people to sing is akin to forcing them to convert to a religion they do not belong to and that isn't going to change them, it will just cause deep-seeded resentment.

However, talk to the players on the field that didn't sing and they are indeed proud Australians who proudly wore a unifying symbol of Australian culture, the green and gold sporting colours. They have been in use for a hundred and twenty years and are inspired by an Australian flower, the golden wattle. Even if the flag and the anthem might not represent all Australians or sporting people, the green and gold represents all Australian athletes.

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Catching Missed

tarazkp — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 20:35:39 GMT

I had my last in-hospital treatment today and from now on, I will self-administer it with an injection at home every fortnight again. It is much better that way, as the drip version is a large dose and it gives me a headache and makes me tired for a few days. The at-home injection is a smaller dose more often, but it is far lower. As long as it works, I don't really care which, but it is far easier to have it at home of course - though I don't like the jab for some reason. It used to be so easy a few years ago when I first started doing it, but a couple years back I got some kind of anxiety from it, and I would sweat and be filled with some kind of dread, even though I had done it dozens of times before. Quite strange. However, I am over that mostly now.

The hospital I visited is close to a lake and there was still some mist burning off the surface in the sunshine. It made for a great view of the water toward the city and the strip of forest on the other side. At this time of year, there aren't many leaves left on the trees, but the ones that have held on, are in their late fall colours.

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23vPVNuxjbpj3wPdRauXXfwmxpodvKUpFSdP5iuUSgYk7Qfsu75xwQibviBwTpmr6QgJ6.png

https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23zks15GqWn9YEiE2SLXCkRrhbAayWDJj8VzoDgzmiSgvxNw4qAVnFs4rBE1zTkpP8vV3.png

The treatment takes about four hours, with two for the infusion and another two for waiting around to see if there is going to be an allergic reaction. I have been on this medication before a couple years ago, but because of the things they had me on between, the risk of reaction has gone up. However, this was the third infusion with no signs in the previous two, so the nurse let me go an hour early, rather than me sitting around.

However, that is also why I didn't have time to write earlier. I decided that I would not write while getting the infusion, because where the cannula is put in the crook of my arm, when I bend it it can stop the flow and the machine beeps. I figured I would have time to write after, but after flushing the line, I only had twenty minutes. And once home, I had a semi-ill Smallsteps to spend time with. It is good that she can be at home alone by herself for a while, but it sucks to be sick at home alone, even if only with a runny nose and slight fever.

To make up for it, I picked up some sushi (her favourite food) for her lunch and sat with her while she ate. After that, I had time for a short nap before we played some games together and talked about random stuff. A lot of our conversations are about the way things work, like the body and she had questions about why I need treatment for my stomach. So, I found a drawn picture of the intestines and talked her through it. It isn't scary, but I think that since she doesn't really comprehend it all, it can be scary for a kid, because it is unknown stuff that they have little visibility or insight into. For her at least, having it explained gives her some power over her feelings and then she is also more interested in shifting the conversation onward. So we talked about how nutrients go into the body, as well as toxins.

Since I am unlikely to live a long life, let alone a healthy one, I am glad we are having these kinds of conversations as we go, without them being serious. We talk about serious things, but I make jokes and use silly examples and make the conversations more interesting for her, in the hope that some of it will stick and she will be one of the dwindling number of people who looks after herself as a whole, not just the bits she likes. I think we should all consider our bodies holistically, and then work out how to balance the individual facets that make up the whole.

I wish I had some of these conversations when I was a kid.

But here I am, playing an impossible game of catchup.

Taraz
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As it Burns

tarazkp — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 18:57:54 GMT

For the last couple weeks there have been protests in France that keep ramping up in intensity. There are multiple reasons for them, with it starting with living costs and school conditions, but like all such events in the last decade or two, the anti-immigration narrative and agenda is now being pushed. What I find interesting with the arguments is that problems are pushed onto the immigrants as the cause, without recognising that the system itself is broken. Even when there are close to zero immigrants such as in Japan, there are still economic problems. And they are a socially advanced culture and economy.

The global economy is a dumpster fire.

But because the vast majority of people have almost zero idea about how it functions, all they can do is blame what they see around them, even if it is not the cause at all. For example, the trope of "immigrants are taking our jobs" is not true in the slightest. Yes, they might be filling a position, but they are actually being taken advantage of, because they are getting paid less than who was there before, which is the reason they were given the job. The corporation always looking to maximise profits will find the cheapest labour to do so and nowadays, that is robots and automation, which is taking far more jobs than any migrant group.

And of course, this increases pressure all round and impacts all the social services also, since essentially there is less money to spend on things like public schools. Because those same corporations that are reducing costs and to maximise profits, are not paying their taxes locally. And with less people in the workplaces and them earning less relatively to the growth of the economy (profits), it is a double hit for public finances. Yes, governments are filled with mismanagement and resource waste, but now they are doing it with even less resources, meaning the bits that do work, fail also.

It doesn't matter which way you look at it, or what large-scale problem you consider, the root cause of it all is an unsustainable economic system. For instance, the environmental challenges we have created with pollution pouring into the world, is caused by economic incentives to maximise profit no matter the cost, which means increase consumption and produce as cheaply as possible.

Look at whatever social issue your country faces and you will find that they too are attached to a monetary profit model. Even the governments are tied to the model, where they have shifted their accounting from improving human factors, to improving monetary factors. This shift means that money comes before people, which is the same thing that corporations do, because they are driven to maximise shareholder wealth. And if they do not maximise it, they will fail as a company and shareholders will invest elsewhere.

It is a monetary trap.

Make more money, or die.

But the thing is, it is an unsustainable system, because you can't infinitely make more when the resources to do so are limited. Yes, we can play around with money supplies to hide the problem a bit longer with inflation. And yes, we can create products that don't use a lot of resources like digital services and sell them at a high price, but ultimately - it is unsustainable.

It is unsustainable because regardless of the abundance we have of money in the world, resources are limited. But, there are some fundamental needs that can only be satisfied with real-world resources, like the need for food, water, shelter. I can send you a digital banana, beer and a picture of a house to support you after a tornado took your home, but you will still be hungry, thirsty and in the elements.

The problem is that business doesn't care about people or what happens to them when they don't have work, or if they can't pay their bills, or if they are hungry, thirsty or homeless. Business only cares about whether they can increase profit margins. And in order to do this, they find as many ways as possible to ensure they are able to reduce their costs, no matter what it costs people, or the country.

For instance, let's say a global corporation replaces an employee in France with automation. They were paying them 50K euros a year, and they in turn were paying 20K euros in tax. Now that same person is unemployed and is taking 20K a year in social service money, plus the network of people required to manage it. So a 20K input has swung 40K in the other direction, because now other taxpayers have to cover the new social assistance recipient. That same person will have to change their buying habits, paying less tax again. Not only that, the individual now on social services, has had a reduction in their quality of life and experience.

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Sunday Funday: October 18th, 2026

tarazkp — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 08:44:27 GMT

This will be a weekly Sunday hangout between friends, where everyone else is also invited to join in on the conversations. A Sunday party for Hive users to interact and just talk crap about whatever happens to be going on at the time. It might be Hive related, it might be current events, sports, or it might be something else entirely. But whatever it is, it will be in the interest of having fun and evoking laughter, piss-taking, teasing and hopefully, a lot of enjoyment for those involved.

Core collaborators:


@meesterboom	@slobberchops	@galenkp

These people will comment (if available) and lead some of the discussions.

! [Disclaimer] The below mentioned are not responsible for their words on this post.
@meesterboom
@slobberchops
@galenkp
@azircon
@revisesociology
@abh12345
@tarazkp

Rules:

! [One rule to rule them all]

Don't be a dick.

Anyone can get the ball rolling with the first comment
Anyone can start a new topic to engage with
Everyone must comment on other topics than their own
Humour is encouraged (and rewarded)
No one is allowed to get offended
Don't take anything too seriously
Be thoughtful, unique, interesting, brave, funny
The post is "live" for the first 24 hours

Note: While I am posting this, it will be scheduled in the morning my time so that other time zones can participate immediately and throughout the day, as the core collaborators are spread.

Signed,

The Collaborators

Be part of the Hive discussion.

Comment on the topics of the article, and add your perspectives and experiences.
Read and discuss with others who comment and build your personal network
Engage well with me and others and put in effort

And you may be rewarded.

Energy Sink

tarazkp — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:13:51 GMT

It is typical grey and rainy October weather, though I am still mostly moving around in shorts and a t-shirt. People look at me like I am strange as they are rugged up, but I acclimatise myself to be warmer when it is colder, which I think is a pretty good gamble in Finland. Many are already sliding into light winter jackets, which means when real winter arrives and it is 35 degrees Celsius lower than it is now, they are going to be freezing their proverbials off. Last winter, I barely wore a jacket, unless on a longer walk outside.

At least for me, I think it makes sense to prepare for the averages, which is also part of the reason I generalise so much. I get called up on it by some people who say I generalise too much without considering individual conditions, but I disagree. When talking about larger groups and conditions, generalisation is the only way to go, otherwise the conversation is pointless as it is filled with endless caveats and exceptions. This makes conversations inactionable and the exceptions become the excuses for why nothing gets done. Climate change is a good example of this.

There should be close to zero argument around climate change.

And the arguments there are should be how to deal with it. Because it doesn't matter if it is man-made or a natural event, we as humans can only live in a narrow band of conditions so we should be doing all we can to ensure that band of conditions is stable - And the stability for those conditions depends on our environment. If we keep destroying the environment, reducing biodiversity, and pouring pollution into the land, air and water, the conditions can do nothing else but become more volatile.

Yet, so much of what holds us back from investing into creating a stable environment is due to wealth generation from fossil fuels and environmental practices that improve profits, at the expense of the environment. As I have said before, the most important invention we need right now is clean, free energy. Energy shouldn't be a profit-making industry at all and instead should be a given in order to build brilliant innovations. Obviously, that goes against the current energy model, where governments will make deals with dictators to get access.

Clean energy isn't just about limiting environmental impact, but having the ability to reverse the damage and restore biodiversity, forests, and clean the air, water and soils. With clean energy, cleaning machines are unconstrained by power needs, which means they can be built large and power hungry, but highly effective. Factory-size vacuum cleaners pulling in polluted air, cleaning and pumping out fresh air. Massive autonomous filters that scour the ocean and pull contaminants out. Underground farms built below enormous areas of reforestation. Coastal deserts turned into wetlands through desalination of sea water. And repopulation of animals in sea, on land and in the air.

The thing is though, that while clean energy would make this highly efficient, it is possible to get started now. Most of what we use our energy for in this world is irrelevant busywork and is largely environmentally unfriendly. This means it is doubly-harmful at least, because it both does direct harm and takes away the opportunity to do something else. Every action has an opportunity cost, and harmful action has a high cost. So does inaction when it comes to what needs to be done.

We keep acting as if we do not understand the implications of our actions, polluting, consuming, shooting missiles at each other. we are behaving like primitives who have not yet discovered how we effect our world. But we aren't primitive, we are just ignorant and unwilling.

Busywork is an energy sink

Redirect resources to making the environment better and I believe a few interesting things happen. Yes, many industries would die out and many more would have to fundamentally change their business models, but there would be a demand for new industries and massive growth in environmentally sound sectors. Not only that and perhaps more importantly, the "busywork" would start to disappear releasing energy to be spent on meaningful, positively impactful work that people are happy to do, because it matters.

It seems to be hard for people to imagine a world where everyone is part of adding positive value, where the environment is clean, safe and enjoyable to live within. A place where farmland disappears underground, filled with forests, cities are built with green space, clean air and water, and Time for people to enjoy it. A beautiful world, rather than one that is ripped apart to service the few.

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