Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.
4. It should... See more
Simon Sarris • Careful Technology
kyla scanlon • 30 Days, 8 Cities, 1 Question: Where Did American Prosperity Go?
Not profit, but biosphere health, should be the function solved for; and this would change many things. It means moving the inquiry from economics to political economy, but that would be the necessary step to get the economics right. Why do we do things? What do we want? What would be fair? How can we best arrange our lives together on this planet?
Kim Stanley Robinson • The Ministry for the Future
When Jim Wilfong talks about taxing Poland Spring’s water withdrawals in Maine, he sometimes drops in the word Alaska. It’s a loaded reference, likely to spark thoughts of the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state-run program that puts an annual dividend from the sale of North Slope oil in the pocket of nearly every Alaska resident (in 2007, the dividend
... See moreElizabeth Royte • Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle over America's Drinking Water
This suggests a general operating principle similar to the Leopoldian land ethic, often summarized as “what’s good is what’s good for the land.” In our current situation, the phrase can be usefully reworded as “what’s good is what’s good for the biosphere.” In light of that principle, many efficiencies are quickly seen to be profoundly destructive,
... See moreKim Stanley Robinson • The Ministry for the Future: A Novel
To use the “pie” analogy much loved by economists, the difference principle calls on us not to maximize the overall size of the economic pie, nor to rigidly insist that everyone should have a perfectly equal slice—but to make the size of the slice that goes to the least well off as big as possible.
Daniel Chandler • Free and Equal: A Manifesto for a Just Society
