January 2024

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Big News
A Look Back at 2023. I didn’t publish an edition of this newsletter at the end of 2023, partly because I was busy with work but also because I made the decision to prioritise spending the holiday period with family. Although a member of my family (who will remain anonymous - you know who you are) gave me a vicious stomach bug that rendered me toilet-bound for several days, so maybe it was the wrong decision in the end. While I was learning the limits of 3-ply toilet paper the rest of the world was looking back on 2023. It was a busy year. While SpaceX was busy watching test flights explode, India’s national space agency managed a successful landing with their craft, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, near the moon's south pole. Throughout the year every major news website featured headlines either denouncing or praising advances in artificial intelligence (AI), with OpenAI’s GPT-4 taking centre stage. Some people hailed it as the best invention since they developed a robot that could make tortilla chips, while others panicked that it was going to leave us all jobless by the end of the year (thus far I’m still employed, but who knows, give it a few months and we’ll see what happens). In equally threatening news, 2023 was declared the hottest year on record, confirming the ongoing damage we as a species are doing to the climate. On a similarly dire note the year also saw  dozens of natural disasters, from fires burning through Greek islands and Canadian forests to heatwaves, droughts, flooding and extreme storms across the globe. If you were expecting a happier round-up of 2023 I apologise, I suggest subscribing to something more upbeat. Why not try the Cloud Appreciation Society?

A Look Forward to 2024. Alongside looking back, people have been looking forward to 2024 to figure out what we can expect. Once again the hype around AI continues, with some people terrified that  it will be used to manipulate some of the biggest elections that are taking place in 2024. On the other side of the coin, some people are looking towards the benefits new AI models will bring, whether it’s improvements for workers or meaningful changes to healthcare systems. Space travel will also receive its fair share of attention in 2024, mainly in the private sector with SpaceX expected to ramp up their test flights. Unfortunately, NASA’s Artemis program won’t see a crewed space flight until the following year, but no doubt we will see NASA preparing for that mission. In healthcare news it is also possible that the FDA will approve a new wave cell and gene therapies, this might include CRISPR therapy, which would be a significant leap forward for treating genetic disorders. No doubt there will be other scientific advances and breakthroughs (if you want to stay up to date on them why not subscribe and get this newsletter sent directly to your inbox every month?). Most of these developments we can’t predict, who knows, maybe this will finally be the year when we get flying cars and real hoverboards.

Little News
We Might Die in 90 Seconds. Maybe I shouldn’t classify this as “little” news, but it’s possible that all the predictions about 2024 have overshadowed the recent update from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. For context, in 1945 by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists set up the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of the perceived threats to humanity. The clock's hands are set close to midnight, which represents a hypothetical global catastrophe (e.g. nuclear war, climate change wiping us off the face of the planet, AI turning our smartphones into bombs and blowing us up). The closer to midnight the greater the perceived threat to the world. In mixed news the group announced that the clocks' position remains at 90 seconds to midnight. In theory this is good news - we haven’t moved any closer to humanity's early demise. At the same time 90 seconds is a lot closer than a little over a decade ago when the clock sat at 5 minutes to midnight.

What I’ve been enjoying
Unruly by David Mitchell.  As with every January I’ve been getting back into reading. I managed to achieve my goal of 28 books last year, and I’ve found the best way to hit that goal is to start off strong. I decided to kick the year off with David Mitchell's Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens. Mitchell’s honest humour paired with a great topic (I’m a big history fan so probably a little biassed) makes for a great read, as he takes you from early Anglo-Saxon rulers through to Elizabeth I. When I say honest I mean it. It turns out that most monarchs are ruthless bastards, but the trick to being a successful monarch is being an even handed and predictable ruthless bastard - good advice for life, I guess.

P.S: If you want to read more content from me then check out my recent fiction work available now for free on Medium or my fiction archive.