China says an army of humanoid robots will supercharge its economy. The Euclid space telescope sees the universe as never before. Plus more news and analysis from this week.
I simply refuse to buy the growth-at-all-costs narrative that is destroying the planet. A less productive and smaller economy is perfectly fine for a smaller population and not the end of humanity as some make it out to be.
One of the eye-openers I've had when moving from the US/Silicon Valley to a country of 10 million in Europe five years ago was recognizing how badly the "scale means everything" narrative pervades social psychology while completely overlooking quality of life. You soon notice it everywhere ... the mental sickness that wails at China's fate for being a smaller population than India's.
It's a ridiculous gonad-measurement contest, and economics is treated the same way. Yes, size has some advantages. But it has terrible shortcomings too. Society needs to change its metrics. Otherwise nations like Singapore or Sweden will continue to be viewed as failures when the exact opposite is true.
I simply refuse to buy the growth-at-all-costs narrative that is destroying the planet. A less productive and smaller economy is perfectly fine for a smaller population and not the end of humanity as some make it out to be.
One of the eye-openers I've had when moving from the US/Silicon Valley to a country of 10 million in Europe five years ago was recognizing how badly the "scale means everything" narrative pervades social psychology while completely overlooking quality of life. You soon notice it everywhere ... the mental sickness that wails at China's fate for being a smaller population than India's.
It's a ridiculous gonad-measurement contest, and economics is treated the same way. Yes, size has some advantages. But it has terrible shortcomings too. Society needs to change its metrics. Otherwise nations like Singapore or Sweden will continue to be viewed as failures when the exact opposite is true.