Links to Consider, 8/19

Feature article on Palmer Luckey; Francis Turner on energy storage; David Samuels on Democrats' single women; Lyman Stone on the slow lifestyle

Jeremy Stern writes,

Julie Luckey decided to homeschool her children for an uncomplicated reason: She believed all kids are different, and that no schooling system can devise a personalized education for every individual, who by definition is unique. In her son’s case, at least, the decision was vindicated.

This is a must-read profile of Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus Rift and now the head of Anduril, an innovative munitions manufacturer.

In Anduril’s showroom, Luckey showed me the current state of the gun store. There was Pulsar, an electronic warfare system that can jam and hack drones, spoof navigation systems, and manage about 100 incoming targets simultaneously

Note that ten weeks ago I wrote,

it would be really helpful to be able to jam or penetrate the guidance systems of an enemy’s small machines. And it will be important to protect the guidance systems of your own small machines.

Luckey also was the subject of a shorter piece in the WSJ. I have to imagine that the current spate of publicity is not an accident, but as to why he wants it now, your guess is as good as mine.

Francis Turner argues that renewable energy should be converted to synthetic hydrocarbons rather than stored in batteries.

By far the best way to store energy is to create some kind of hydrocarbon fuel with the energy. That fuel can then be transported or stored using existing technologies, all it does is replace the fossil fuel coming out of the ground.

David Samuels writes,

An astonishing 22% of women aged 40 or higher in America have never been married, which is the highest percentage since data was collected in 1900. The rise in these numbers is both recent and startling. Throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, the percentage of American women who remained unmarried by age 40, as Harris was, had remained constant at around 6%. The percentage of black women who have never married by 40 is markedly higher, hovering at 46%. The overwhelming majority of these women vote for Democrats.

…From the Party’s point of view, at least, the unhappiness and depression of younger, never-married women, which produces outcomes like never getting married or having children, may be less of a bug than a feature: that BOTS are both unhappy and dependent is what makes them a uniquely valuable energy source for the party.

In a series of tweets, Lyman Stone writes,

35 year old women today are already having babies at the same rate as 35 year old women DURING THE BABY BOOM.

…there's a HUGE decline in ASFRs at ages 20 and 25: early adulthood. Now, some people may think that's a fine thing! I get that!

Pointer from Tyler Cowen. Women not having babies in their twenties is part of what Jean Twenge calls a “slow lifestyle.” The problem is that biology doesn’t slow down. If you don’t have kids in your twenties, it becomes physically difficult to increase child-bearing later. Another way of saying the first quoted sentence is that during the baby boom, 35-year-old women were having as many children as today’s childless-in-their-twenties descendants.

I say let’s discourage the slow lifestyle. No government subsidies for going to college, except for gifted children from poor families. Stop gearing K-12 toward the college track. Let’s try to get back to 20-year-olds being adults.

Unfortunately, this sort of radical change to education policy is not going to happen.

substacks referenced above:

@

Batteries and Energy Storage