Future Jist 34
Billionaire in space, Ransomware stuff, censorship, and new models of innovation.
🛫Richard Branson just flew to the edge of space. Here’s what it means for space travel: Richard Branson’s flight with his company Virgin Galactic to the edge of space prompted both hype and disdain. On one hand, some believe it presents the decentralization of near orbit space travel. On the other hand, others believe it signifies that there is too much wealth concentrated in the hands of a very few. While I generally think the accumulation of wealth largely enabled by governments can increasingly become a problem for democracies, I find the animosity towards space-oriented endeavors this has provoked, absurd.
Space exploration isn’t mutually exclusive to solving many of the problems we face here on earth. The real travesty of the flight was largely the fact that despite the aircraft being an unbelievable feat of engineering, the flight was a largely anti-climactic spectacle in that it felt like watching a plane fly really high with the passengers entering zero-gravity for mere seconds. That said it still presents avenues and opportunities not yet explored. With Bezos and Blue Origin hoping to go even further than Virgin Galactic did we are very much on the cusp of widespread commercial spaceflight. I’m glad to be living through it all. (910 words)
👩💻The world’s biggest ransomware gang just disappeared from the internet: I covered the fact that the infosec community is currently overwhelmed by the relentlessness of ransomware attacks lately. As such there’s a general sigh of relief that rEVIL, the ransomware gang responsible for the Kaseya supply chain attack that targetted a whopping 1000 companies shut down out of nowhere. Many speculate that it could have been the Russian government forcing the organization to stop operations while others see it as the gang “laying low”. Regardless of whatever it may have been, it has been clear for ages that governments must and probably will be taking more action to curb cyber-attacks and ensure the security of critical infrastructure. (635 words)
🧪The rise of ‘ARPA-everything’ and what it means for science: There are few organizations that have truly created anything that could be considered “groundbreaking” innovation. And yet one organization that consistently manages to innovate has been none other than the US government org DARPA. Its focus has been primarily around the creation of national defense-oriented innovations but has managed to create so many tools that have changed the world. So effective is their model of innovation that many countries seek to model their innovation hubs around it. I’ve made note of the fact that the startup scene has been relatively inefficient with regard to embarking towards research and pursuits that are Knightian in nature. A solution to this would be the creation of more mission-oriented private-public partnerships modeled around DARPA. This is precisely what US president Biden seeks to do with the creation of DARPA-like organizations tackling Climate and Health with a focus. Some fear that these varied offshoots may hamper a model that has worked so well. But if the US manages the successful creation of these organizations then there’s a high chance we will see a lot of hard problems being solved in no time. The world will definitely be better off for it. (1620 words)
🇨🇺Cuba’s Social Media Blackout Reflects an Alarming New Normal: There are protests going on in Cuba over scarce resources, the covid breakout, and mismanagement overall. People there get the sense that things haven’t been going well. A lot can be said about the US’ previous instigation of several dubious movements in the region and this may or may not be one of them depending on your ideological viewpoint. But what has become clear is the fact that the government is actively censoring voices that critique it by shutting down internet access. This model of authoritarianism is widespread and has been observed in Ethiopia, Iran, etc. In the push towards decentralized systems, few are truly thinking about a way to decentralize the hardware and telecommunications infrastructure that the internet runs on. The new norm as such may be an Internet restricted in ways unseen. (947 words)
If you’re new to this newsletter, why not subscribe? Enjoy articles like this and many more. The best part? It’s entirely free!
Share this article and help others find this amazing content.
Want to help keep this newsletter alive? You can support us on Patreon.
Thanks for reading and till next time.