A warm welcome to The Fragile Sea! We explain here what's in our bi-weekly newsletter; AI and other Research Notes; and other content & services.
A warm welcome to The Fragile Sea!
To me, life is about connections - between family and friends, meeting new people, between symbiotic and discrete subjects, joining dots, experiencing penny-drop moments, and the joy of discovery, of learning something new; a life of continuous discovery and learning.
Welcome to:
1. The Fragile Sea bi-weekly free and paid newsletter
Our bi-weekly newsletter is about connections found in recent areas of interest; the format is explained below:
deep research | deep thought | human connections
where finance, energy, science, nature, technology, society, and humanity meet
2. Research notes on many different subjects of interest
Research Notes are longer subjects that don't fit the newsletter. Please see Connections and AI Connections for RNs being worked on.
3. Brief notes
Brief Notes are shorter than research notes that would also take up too much of the newsletter. They will be located on the Briefs page.
4. Faction
A bit of light entertainment away from serious subjects is surely always a welcome diversion: light-hearted leg-pulling and comedic satire, ‘non-fiction as fiction’. Please see the Faction page for more.
5. Future content and events
Future content will include developing the concept of a type of learned society open to all comers with regular meetings (based on ideas loosely sketched in one of the faction series).
We also plan to develop events, though this is likely to be a good year or 18 months away.
6. Research and consulting services
For research and consulting services, please contact us.
What is contained in The Fragile Sea Bi-Weekly Newsletter?
The newsletter will be released bi-weekly in free and paid forms around 8pm every second Thursday evening (UTC). The newsletter is not a lengthy tome, more like a provocative mixing spoon, stirring the melting pot. It does not pretend to capture everything that has happened in the past two weeks, only emergent connections between discrete subject areas. Longer subjects are linked out to Research and Briefing notes.
The newsletter will cover the following (please note TFS#01 has a different order of subjects):
Quickread summary
Points of light from the newsletter.
AI, devtech, and comms
We will approach AI separately in research notes (see “AI Connections”), and therefore this section will focus on a wide range of innovations in technology, including AI, noting separate research notes from The Fragile Sea when they are released.
Bio, science, and envirotech
Developments, breakthroughs, risks, and outcomes.
Air, Food, Water
Connecting previous and recent papers, reports, and books, within a long-term trail of trends and commentary. There are many connections here I do not believe are obvious.
Energy, sun, space, physics, weather
Emergent events are exhibiting increased activity, and with that, increased risk. Many good people have clanged a warning bell loudly, in a few specific areas of existential risk, and so far, little action has resulted. I hope to add to their urgency.
Media, publishing, social, gaming, audio, and video
There are many developments in gaming, in AI and the newsroom, media, social, audio, and video. I see them connected, though I don’t see much connected commentary – this is an area I want to bring together. Publishing is a hotbed of emergent friction – from open access, to journals, new forms and channels, information culture, and the clash of ideas
The 'zines
Connections from articles and comments in the world's great magazines.
Psych, philos, language, neuro, mind
Neuroscience and AI have symbiotically tracked each other, as attested by many papers and books, however, wildly divergent views and theories continue on sentience, consciousness, and the theory of mind, separately, and related to AI. I have spent many years of my life studying these subjects.
The groves of academe
Insights and connections linking to papers and studies in Academia, from universities, schools, colleges, commercial thinktanks, and other institutions.
Around the houses and corporates
A brief on market outlook, whitepapers of interest, forecasts, and market sentiment publicly notified by investment houses, any notable major corporate investing, and startups of interest.
Around the halls
A brief on the global economy and subjects of interest from a wide range of Institutions, including the OECD, IMF, World Bank, the Fed, European Central Bank, Research Services, Academic Institutions, and others, some obscure.
Discussion
The bi-weekly sum of all the above.
Things that go wow
Shoutouts, reviews, responses, and errata - other authors and content providers, limited book reviews, responses (where possible) to communications, errata, and updates from previous writings.
What's coming up
The next newsletter, upcoming Research Notes, Briefs, Factions Episodes, and research ideas - a status update on my writing and research programmes, announcing any released notes, and ideas for more research.
Bye for now
The closing will end each newsletter with some words of brightness and hope for the future. Why leave miserably?
In terms of The Fragile Sea web, I reached out to Cathy Sarisky, Ghost Expert, who runs Spectral Web Services - this would not have been possible without her expert coding and understanding the design goals I wanted to achieve. She is a true professional and a nice person too!
The photographs on The Fragile Sea, are © Gary Easterbook, apart from a few of my own. Gary is my first cousin, and lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, and, apart from photography, is a musician, and runs vocal training courses with his partner Niki. I am beyond delighted - his photography inspires me.
Just to note also from the Terms page: The Fragile Sea does not pursue any political, religious, anti-religious, or hidden agenda, and if we like something we will say so (or not), without fear or favour. If we do mention another content writer, link, service, or product, it's because we want to, observing journalistic practice. We will be transparent about any commercial tie-ups.
I warmly welcome you to The Fragile Sea and hope you enjoy the journey!
With thanks
Brent Smith
Why TFS? - why did I start this?
Author - only if you really really want to…