Learn smart lessons from the L.A. fires, not stupid lessons

Ignore the political propaganda. We live in a world with more fires now, and we need to prepare for it.

Public social media — X, Reddit, Bluesky, and so on — has changed how we think about disasters. On one hand, because it floods us with information, it gives us the ability to draw reasonable, well-informed conclusions about terrible events much more quickly and arguably more easily than we could in earlier times. On the other hand, the inevitable flood of misinformation and opportunistic politicking that inevitably accompanies any disaster raises our chances of being rapidly misinformed, and makes any calamity more socially divisive than it would have been before. Compare the reactions to…

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• Victor Chang

related reading

• Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid - The Atlantictheatlantic.com
• The Insurance Apocalypse Conversation America Won't Havehamiltonnolan.com
• You will be OK — LessWronglesswrong.com
• Visual explainer: why are the LA wildfires so bad? | California wildfires | The Guardiantheguardian.com
• How do we deal with the catastrophe of uninsurability?aeon.co
• Climate change means California can't save every burned town - Los Angeles Timeslatimes.com
• AI Populism's Warning Shotsjasmi.news
• There's No Fire Alarm for Artificial General Intelligence — LessWronglesswrong.com
• The Uninsurable Future: The Climate Threat to Property Insurance, and How to Stop It | Yale Law Journalyalelawjournal.org
• A list of other catastrophes that are probably fakeandymasley.substack.com
• No silver bullet - by Jason Crawfordnewsletter.rootsofprogress.org
• The growing void in the U.S. homeowners insurance market: who should bear the rising cost of climate change?nature.com