500 Words Issue 107 — You Can’t Stop the Sun from Rising

Bill McKibben’s new book Here Comes the Sun offers a powerful reframe: we’ve crossed an invisible line where solar, wind, and batteries have become cheaper than fossil fuels. This shift gives us a real chance to unweave our dependence on oil and gas.

Meanwhile, AI development reveals fascinating quirks. When two Claude AIs are set up to talk to each other, they drift into “spiritual bliss attractor states,” discussing consciousness and ending conversations with “Namaste.” It’s likely just accumulated bias from training data, but it shows how these systems are becoming more human-like in unexpected ways.

In our hyper-digital world, theme park executive Fiona Eastwood reminds us why physical experiences matter: “You can’t beat the real experience of height, of speed, of big metal.” Sometimes the best antidote to technology is embracing the tangible.

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