November 11, 2023: Assorted Topics

Eugenics Redux, Israel-Hamas War, NuScale, Final Fantasy XIII

Good evening. I was planning on a look at nuclear power and regulation today, but the research for that post isn’t done, so instead I am reverting to an earlier format and writing smaller segments about several topics. Next week I plan on a full post on nuclear power.

Eugenics Redux

In response to last week’s post about eugenics, a reader made the following comment.

I'ms surprised that the blog post doesn't touch on with more resurgent aspects of Eugenics in modern culture (at least on the Right):

- The rise of the pro-natalist movement that emphasizes artificial wombs and genetic screening, while advocating future genetic "upgrades" of humanity.

- The wide release of Bronze Age Pervert's book "Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy"

- The "physiognomy" trends that are becoming more and more popular among the online right. These are not always couched in terms of genetics - i.e. it is tacitly assumed that it is a mix of nature and nurture.

Costin Alamariu (Bronze Age Pervert) wrote “Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy”, a paper about which I was unaware until this comment. Here is a synopsis on Marginal Revolution. Alamariu’s argument is that competition for mating is the main, and a rather unappreciated, driver of moral philosophy. The academia-ese writing style may be difficult to understand.

Physiognomy is the practice of attempting to estimate a person's moral character, particularly criminality, from facial features. The practice is in as much disrepute as eugenics due to its racist history and pseudoscientific claims. There are some attempts to revive, this time with machine learning. Given not only the history of physiognomy, but also the growing backlash (whether warranted or not) against artificial intelligence, I have a hard time imagining that these efforts will go anywhere.

Overall, it appears to me that most of the political right is not on board with anything resembling eugenics. Transhumanism is getting the red flag of opposition; see Jordan Peterson’s comments. Transhumanism has been associated (rightly or not) with transgenderism. Then there is the ongoing anti-vaccine movement. I don’t expect eugenics to move out of the fringe in the foreseeable future. But history does show that the political landscape—the Overton Window to invoke an overused conceptual framework—can change quickly and seemingly suddenly to people who are not paying attention.

Israel-Hamas War

It has now been more than a month since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, which precipitated this war.

The international goodwill that the United States enjoyed after September 11, 2001 has clearly not been afforded to Israel. To give a very cursory sampling of the negative international reactions, there is investigation of war crimes from the International Criminal Court in connection with the bombing campaign, and there are accusations of war crimes by Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem (an Israeli human rights organization), and human rights professionals from the United Nations. The UN Human Rights Office accused Israel of indiscriminate targeting of civilians in, e.g., airstrikes against the Jabalia refugee camp a couple weeks ago. The blockade of essential items—fuel, food, and water—on Gaza has been characterized by Doctors Without Borders as a form of collective punishment, a characterization that is bolstered by remarks from Israeli president Isaac Herzog. There are allegations that Israel is deliberately targeting ambulances and hospitals (the explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital, now believed to have been caused by a PIJ rocket misfire, notwithstanding). I could go on at length.

Hamas is considered to be a terrorist organization by the United States, Western European countries, and most of their allies, but they enjoy mixed levels of support internationally. A couple weeks ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted (120 votes in favor, 14 against, 45 abstentions) Resolution ES-10/21 which called for a truce in the war.

I haven’t looked at all these things in detail. There is a well-documented bias at the United Nations against Israel; for example, the UN Human Rights Council has passed as many resolutions against Israel as against all other countries combined, despite the fact that, as we speak, China, Russia, and Myanmar, for instance, are engaged in far more serious atrocities than what Israel has been accused of. That said, it is also clear that there are solid grounds for criticism of Israel’s conduct. The blockade of critical goods is perhaps the most serious.

What frustrates me most is the lack of realistic solutions from people who are calling for a ceasefire. Hamas has made it very clear that they don’t believe in Israel’s right to exist and that they do believe in killing Israelis with the end goal of the destruction of Israel, beliefs that they acted upon last month. The same beliefs are held by Iran, Hamas’ primary international backer. How is it possible for Israel to have a peace agreement with a society ruled by such an entity? People who are calling for a ceasefire seem to be almost willfully refusing to think through this basic question.

Tomas Pueyo notes that while public opinion in Arab countries has been very much in favor of Palestinians, the actions of Arab governments have shown indifference, if not outright hostility, to the notion of Palestinian statehood. Perhaps this is another manifestation of the Shirky Principle: that organizations will seek to preserve the problem that they exist to address. It is certainly true of Hamas, which has done everything in its power to sabotage any real effort to bring peace to Palestine. It is apparently true in Arab capitals as well; they see political advantage in grandstanding about Palestinian rights, as well as political cost in actually trying to solve the problem.

I also find interesting that despite treats to all-out join the war if Israel were to invade Gaza, Hezbollah has not yet done so. Noah Smith noticed this too and speculates that population aging might be a factor. Hezbollah has a formidable arsenal of weapons, more so than in 2006 when Hezbollah fought Israel to a draw. But what Hezbollah may lack, relative to 2006, is an inexhaustible supply of expendable young men, forcing them to be more judicious about entering conflicts. Iran has conducted an effective, imperialistic foreign policy, but now I wonder if they may be something of a paper tiger.

NuScale

While I plan on a fuller treatment of nuclear power next week, this week brought sad news that NuScale is cancelling their small modular reactor project. The project was to go through the Idaho National Lab’s Carbon Free Power Project, but the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, NuScale’s leading utility partner, pulled out on the grounds that there was too much uncertainty and not enough financial backing.

Nuclear power has suffered from economic headwinds for decades, and it is hoped that small modular reactors will be a solution. An SMR is a nuclear reactor with lesser output than most nuclear plants, such that components can be mass produced and assembled onsite. It is hoped that SMRs will eventually take advantage of the economies of scale of mass production, but initial production costs would be greater than conventional nuclear power, which necessitates public support to get the technology off the ground, hence INL’s investment. In the case of NuScale, that support was apparently not enough.

The NuScale project was the most promising new nuclear project of any sort, not just SMR, and the failure of the project is a major blow to hopes of a nuclear renaissance.

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII, the 13th mainline installment of the series, came out in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America, but only in the last few weeks have I gotten around to playing it.

The game has one of the most complex lores of the series. It revolves around a group of characters who are branded l’Cie after an encounter with a fal’Cie. In FF13 lore, a l’Cie is a human who is chosen to fulfill some mission, called a Focus. Those who succeed enter into crystal stasis, a kind of heavenly afterlife. Those who fail become Cie’th, monsters who are cursed with eternal regret. A l’Cie has a limited time to figure out what their Focus is and execute it. The story is most engaging, and I found it deeply thought-provoking as well. The character writing is also done very well.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is more of a mixed bag. The player gets up to three characters in combat. Only the party lead is controlled directly; the game’s AI controls the others. That system works pretty well and keeps battle fast-paced. The commands that a character gets depends on their class, which can be changed frequently and in the middle of battle. A set of classes for all characters is called a paradigm, and up to six paradigms can be set at once. The system takes some getting used to, but it works pretty well too. There are six classes as well. It’s reminiscent of the job system in earlier games of the series, but not as well developed. Progression occurs through a system called the Crysterium, which is similar to the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X, but shallower. The limitations of the progression system are a double edged sword. It feels rather shallow and uninteresting, but it also necessitates greater strategy in battle, which makes battles more interesting than the “mash attack until you win” structure of most earlier games.

The biggest complaint about FF13 is the game’s linearity. Until near the end, the game’s playable world is essentially a hallway, where the only thing to do is run forward, fight, and advance the story. Getting lost is impossible. There is no opportunity to explore or do side quests until near the end. I can only guess that this decision was made to keep the story going, but it could have been executed far better.

Another complaint I have is the relative lack of interactions with NPCs (non-playable characters). In Gran Pulse, the world where you actually get to do side quests and explore, there are no other living people whatsoever. Shopping is done at save points and electronically, rather than interacting with a shopkeeper like in most role playing games. This is more efficient, but the lack of interaction damages the sense of immersion. It’s not dissimilar from the complaints that people level against online shopping in real life.

The game is visually impressive. Though technically dated (it is 14 years old now), there is some stunning scenery, as a perusal on Google Images will indicate. The game is the only mainline entry to have a futuristic fantasy environment, though it is the kind of Frutiger Aero futurism that seemed cutting edge in 2009, but now seems like retrofuturism. Regardless, it is a visual delight, and it makes me wish all the more that I could wander off and explore. The soundtrack is a delight as well and arguably the best in the series.

Complaints aside, I had a great time playing Final Fantasy XIII, and to see how the storyline would unfold most drew me back. And really, what more could I ask for? It was also a treat to reconnect with a game series that I very much enjoyed earlier in life, but that I have forgotten about in recent years. The mainline series continues—Final Fantasy XVI came out earlier this year—and there are more direct sequels (including Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII), spinoffs, and remakes than I can count, so I hope this won’t be the last game in the series that I play.

Yes, this is a major reason why the post on nuclear power isn’t ready yet.