I write about AI and Geopolitics
The deep ocean floor holds vast deposits of polymetallic nodules — potato-sized mineral concretions rich in nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese — scattered across abyssal plains, and concentrated particularly in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a deep-sea region of the Pacific lying between Hawaii and Mexico. These minerals are inputs for electric vehicle batteries, defense technologies, … Read more
I’ve been watching the world’s plumbing for a long time. Rivers, aquifers, supply chains, treaties — they’re all systems, and systems fail the same way. Pressure builds somewhere out of sight. Nobody fixes the small leak. Then one day the whole thing lets go, and everybody acts surprised. That’s where I think we are right … Read more
I’ve been watching the current buildout of UHVDC—the ultra-high-voltage lines designed to move massive amounts of electricity across continents—and AI data centers, and I keep coming back to a couple of questions: Are these two things building a virtuous cycle that pays for the grid of the future? Or are they locking us into a … Read more
Four Years of U.S. Chip Controls and What China Built Instead Washington built a wall to keep China off the AI frontier. China went around it, under it, and eventually started building its own version of the wall out of the rubble. That’s the short version of a four-year story that’s still unfolding, and it’s … Read more
Two questions get asked together so often that they can sound like one question. They aren’t. “Where is AI headed?” is a question about engineering — about what frontier labs can build next. “Can the world’s nations keep up?” is a question about power — about who can afford to build it, who controls the … Read more