Editors Picks II: Changes in Power relations

This weeks recomendations are on Nuclear Power, Nuclear Weapons and the Rise of India

By Lars Harhoff Andersen

The Price of Nuclear Power

The first recommendation of the week is an article on why it is so expensive to build nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is still one of the most important green sources of power, only beaten by Hydropower and contributing more than wind and solar combined. The main problem with nuclear as a power source, besides the baffling closing of plants in countries like Germany, is that increased, and ever-changing, regulations mean that construction plans constantly have to change leading to ballooning costs and less added capacity. Safety is obviously important (especially for nuclear), but if one also believes that global warming is a safety concern, maybe we should be better at weighing dangers against each other.

AI and the Nuclear threat

The second recommendation of the week is an article from the Atlantic on the dangers of using AI to control the nuclear arsenal. In general I think we hugely underestimate the dangers of nuclear war both in absolute terms and relative to other potential dangers to humanity, such as climate change. The point of the article is that letting AI take over part of the control of the nuclear arsenal, might be seen as necessary for game theoretical reasons, but because we don’t really understand what goes on inside the AI systems they might end up being hard to predict, for friend and foe alike. As the largest risk of nuclear war probably comes from faulty communication and coordination, this would likely lead to an exponential rise in the risk of disaster. Sadly, we might also end up doing it because of the same game theoretical logic of escalation.

Indian Spring

The final recommendation of the week is a blog post by Noah Smith on recent developments in the Indian economy. Although India has consistently had lower GDP growth than China in recent decades, Smith sees reasons to be optimistic. Recent years have seen huge investments in infrastructure, from clean water to high-speed rail, at the same time that China starts showing economic weakness. Following the changing landscape of Eurasian politics in recent years, India might be in a strong position to rise relative to its competitors.

Now might be a good time to start paying attention.

Lars Harhoff Andersen is an editor and writer at Unreasonable Doubt, where he writes about Culture, Politics, and Philosophy. Lars is a Ph.D. fellow at the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen where his research centers on Economic History and the impact of culture on societal development. Lars is also the host of the (danish language) podcast Historien Fortsætter.