Nullius in Verba #35
Cinema is dead. Or is it? During the interminably long Covid years, we had stopped going to the cinema. It was an awful time for everyone and Netflix and Prime and Disney+ came to our rescue. To be honest, over time, I stopped missing going to the movies. Binge-watching shows at home became a treasured ritual. And sure, I went and saw The Batman and Doctor Strange in the theater as things were getting back to normal. But watching those movies didn’t really feel like a truly superior experience compared to watching something on an OTT platform at home. All that changed as I watched Top Gun: Maverick this last weekend. Watching the thrilling fighter jet scenes reminded me of the allure of watching something exhilarating on the big screen. The communal viewing experience, the popcorn, the crazy sound design - they all come to life when a movie is made for the big screen in the true sense.
Today’s NIV starts with a movie review for the Tom Cruise starrer. The article is behind the NYT paywall but if you don’t know how to bypass it, please message me and I will help you out.
Links of the Week
Cinema - Tom Cruise does the unthinkable and makes an even better Top Gun movie than the original. While this review disagrees with my premise, AO Scott does agree that the movie definitely makes the case for the continued relevance of the big action movie star. (Link)
Pete, as I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, is the avatar of Tom Cruise, and the central question posed by this movie has less to do with the necessity of combat pilots than with the relevance of movie stars. With all this cool new technology at hand — you can binge 37 episodes of Silicon Valley grifting without leaving your couch — do we really need guys, or movies, like this?
Politics - The platinum jubilee of the Queen’s coronation is being celebrated with huge pomp in the UK right now. As the English debate the relevance of having a monarchy in this day and age, this article throws the spotlight on Queen Elizabeth II herself. Truly brilliant portrait. (Link)
The British monarch has played multiple roles as national mother, head of state, constitutional monarch, titular commander in chief of all British forces; an emblem of value on currency and postage stamps, a sitter in countless official portraits, a dignified processional and ceremonial performer; and patron of more than 600 charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations.
Economics - I can never grow tired of reading about the Industrial Revolution and how the world got rich thereafter. I think a lot of people don’t truly grok the level of poverty in the world before the IR happened. This interview with Jared Rubin and Mark Koyama goes into a bit of detail. I am eagerly waiting to read their book as well. (Link)
What today we’d characterize as extreme poverty was until a few centuries ago the condition of almost every human on Earth. In 1820, some 94 percent of humans lived on less than $2 a day. Over the next two centuries, extreme poverty fell dramatically; in 2018, the World Bank estimated that 8.6 percent of people lived on less than $1.90 a day. And the gains were not solely economic. Before 1800, average lifespans didn’t exceed 40 years anywhere in the world. Today, the average human life expectancy is more like 73. Deaths in childhood have plunged, and adult heights have surged as malnutrition decreased.
Agriculture - How the world might already have hit peak agricultural land. (Link)
[As an aside: Our World in Data is a remarkable resource for understanding big trends in the world today]
The world produces more food than ever, but the amount of land we use is now falling. This means we can feed more people while restoring wild habitat.
Startups - Another hagiographic profile of Stripe. To be honest, I am still not tired of reading about them. (Link)
Technology - A deep profile of Walter Pitts and Warren McCulloch who played a big role in advancing computational logic and could be said to be fundamental in moving AI and neural networks forward. I didn’t know about them until I read this profile. (Link)
With McCulloch, Pitts had laid the foundations for cybernetics and artificial intelligence. They had steered psychiatry away from Freudian analysis and toward a mechanistic understanding of thought. They had shown that the brain computes and that mentation is the processing of information.
Interviewing - What’s the best interview question? Cowen and Gross come up with a number of those in their new book Talent. One particular favorite of mine from their list is “What tabs are open on your browser right now?” This article explores the commonality between the ideas of this book and those of Heidegger. (Link)
Happy reading!