Four short links: 18 July 2016
Startup Cities, Weird Language, Driverless Cars, and In-Browser Terminal Emulation
- Politically Incorrect Guide to Ending Poverty — To launch new charter cities, he says, poor countries should lease chunks of territory to enlightened foreign powers, which would take charge as though presiding over some imperial protectorate. Romer’s prescription is not merely neo-medieval, in other words. It is also neo-colonial. The status quo in many countries is bad from entrenched interests preventing the masses from prospering, traditional reform is slow. Romer’s suggesting new cities as startups to disrupt the status quo, with analogous associated risks and rewards.
- Full Metal Jacket — a programming language that’s intrinsically parallel, has no variables, is composed with mouse rather than keyboard, and will make your head go boom.
- Techno-Optimist’s Take on Driverless Cars and TImelines — Chris Dixon (partner for A16Z, behind their investment in driving automation tech) lays out an optimistic timeline: 2 years before most cars ship with smarter cruise control, and a fully-driverless Uber might be 5 years away. In cases like this, I struggle to figure out how much credence to give him: he’s both incentivised to be over-optimistic (VC investments have a <10y timeline) while also in the business of making things happen sooner than we expect.
- HyperTerm — an open source (MIT) in-browser terminal emulator.
