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… read about the bio-robots behind Artificial Intelligence.

As dramatized in the 2019 HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” when the special emergency robots requested by the Soviet Union to clear radioactive graphite off the roof of the destroyed reactor failed, humans were sent in to perform the work. Operating in short shifts, in nominal protective gear, these “bio-robots” succeeded in their task by powering through conditions that made machines fail. While the radioactive disaster of reactor meltdown cleanup is a world away from data-labeling in the gig economy, there’s more similarity than divergence. “Robot” as a term itself comes from the 1920 Czech play R.U.R., where mechanical laborers are named after a term for forced labor performed by peasants. Amazon’s “crowd-work” tool Mechanical Turk, which the company itself dubbed “artificial artificial intelligence,” is named after a fake automaton whose real identity was a human animating the machine. In “ The Exploited Labor Behind Artificial Intelligence [[link removed]],” authors Adrienne Williams, Milagros Miceli, and Timnit Gebru all highlight the labor that underpins modern AI. A decade before algorithms would turn vast image sets into DALL-E style art, each of those images needed to be labeled. This was done by gig workers, often through Mechanical Turk, who labeled thousands of images for just a few cents each. These problems persist, from drivers faking safety precautions to meet goals set by algorithms to moderators struggling to evaluate content on the ticking clock of “automated” review. To see the harm of this labor exploitation clearly, the authors urge an understanding of “AI” as built on, and often nothing more than, hidden labor sold as competent machining.

The Green Aegean

On Oct. 7, 2022, for about five hours, Greece accomplished something never before done in the country’s storied history: it was powered, entirely, by renewable energy. It’s a notable marker of the energy transition already underway across the world, as countries adapt to both present demand and future needs in ways designed to minimize the harm from electric generation.

“Renewables made up 46% of Greece’s power mix in the eight months to August this year, according to Greek climate think-tank The Green Tank, which was up from 42% in the same period in 2021,” reports [[link removed]] Sean Rai-Roche of PV Tech.

At present, the country has 10 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, which it aims to increase to 25 gigawatt capacity by 2030.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] Cobaltic States

War in the Democratic Republic of Congo runs on foreign arms and finite resources. Writing for The Nation [[link removed]], James North argues that a significant portion of the present violence can be reduced if the United States uses the threat of withholding aid to Rwanda to encourage that country to stop arming and supporting M23, one of the many armed groups currently fighting in the country.

“Still, even if Rwanda does stop backing the M23 group, no one expects that peace will break out in the eastern Congo. By one estimate, there are 150 other armed groups in the region,” writes North.

The complications for getting to peace are deeper and may stem from the particular nature of the extractive industry in the country. The Congo is the largest producer of cobalt in the world, a mineral vital for green energy. While calls for better conditions for miners have attracted some attention [[link removed]], ultimately greater stability will come from ensuring that the wealth of the country flows to workers and not local officials siphoning funds into offshore accounts.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] DEEP DIVE Left unresolved: Part II

NATO exists under the shadow of the US “nuclear umbrella.” It is, like most strategies, a kind of euphemism. What the “umbrella” does is allow the United States to guarantee that its nuclear arsenal will deter nuclear threats against other NATO members without those countries needing to develop their own weapons (though France and the United Kingdom both have their own nukes). To guarantee this, in part, the United States deploys nuclear weapons at bases in European countries, such as Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Anatolian Turkey.

While the ultimate decision over whether or not to use nuclear weapons will come down to governments of host countries, and, additionally, to the US president, the people living under the nuclear umbrella have divergent opinions regarding their use, which can, in turn, shape the policy of countries hosting nuclear warheads.

In “ Ideology and the Red Button: How Ideology Shapes Nuclear Weapons’ Use Preferences in Europe [[link removed]],” authors Michal Onderco, Tom W. Etienne, and Michal Smetana, examine the beliefs of citizens of Germany and the Netherlands on the use of US nuclear weapons, especially as informed by partisan belief.

In both countries, the researchers asked survey respondents if they support or opposed four different scenarios of possible nuclear weapon use by NATO in Europe. These were: a demonstration explosion over an unpopulated area in response to a Russian conventional invasion of the Baltics, a direct use of a nuclear weapon against the Russian military in a shooting war, a demonstration detonation in response to a Russian demonstration detonation, and use against Russia’s Kaliningrad in response to a Russian nuclear strike on NATO troops.

Importantly, the authors found that in “none of the four scenarios did the willingness to use nuclear weapons exceed 24% of the population, and in two scenarios it reached only 10%."

That matches with other research indicating that European public opinion is more broadly opposed to nuclear weapons use than people in the United States. Of the scenarios, the use of nuclear weapons against Kaliningrad in retaliation to a Russian nuclear strike received the most support, approved by almost 25 percent of survey respondents in the Netherlands.

“Our results indicate that right-wing voters, including those on the far right, are more willing to consider the use of nuclear weapons,” write the authors. “While there are similarities between how German and Dutch voters see nuclear use, there appears to be a difference between them when it comes to centrist voters. Whereas German centrists lean toward the rest of the right in favor of nuclear use, Dutch centrists lean along with the left wing in opposing nuclear weapons.”

While the authority to use nuclear weapons ultimately rests on the US president, the continued storage of nuclear warheads in Europe is a political question left up to the countries. It suggests that those in the United States are more eager to threaten thermonuclear oblivion and share a political alignment with the right and far-right voters in NATO countries. At the same time, attitudes toward nuclear disarmament remain an international left-wing project, even in places where they have centrist appeal.

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Gerry Hadden chilled [[link removed]] with the increasingly cold residents of Latvia. The small Baltic country of two million, which borders Russia, typically gets much of its energy and heating needs met through natural gas from its massive neighbor. But with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constraining supplies, Latvia’s government is capping the heating of hospitals, schools, and other public spaces to just 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The national leadership is eager to transition away from energy dependence on Russia, but that will take time as alternative sources are developed. In the meantime, Latvians looking to heat homes by fire can buy fireworks, but at three times the price as previous years.

Immaculata Abba cultivated [[link removed]] a deep appreciation of the questions asked by artist Precious Okoyomon’s bio-art exhibit “To See the Earth Before the End of the World,” on display at the Venice Biennale until Nov. 27. The work combines kudzu vines with sugarcane stalks, growing among streams and sculptures, while butterflies reproduce repeatedly over the lifetime of the exhibit. “In inviting us to consider our politics of relation and interconnectivity, Okoyomon calls us to recognize not just our place in the family of things, but also our responsibility of care in it, especially in the face of our worsening global ecological crisis,” writes Abba.

Rebecca Kanthor studied [[link removed]] the phenomena of Yiddish studies at Peking University in China, where the first-ever class on the language is being taught. “Sometimes I feel it's not I chose to learn Yiddish, but Yiddish chose me,” assistant professor Yang Meng told Kanthor. Yang’s own journey to studying Yiddish came from research on World War II Jewish refugees in Shanghai. The language was common among European Jews before World War II but is now threatened with extinction. Yang hopes to dispel stereotypes and learn how language survives, even adapts, to other cultures. “[My students] are also surprised to find that Yiddish is becoming part of the English language in American society,” Yang said.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] WELL PLAYED

Meme culture renders protest [[link removed]] inert [[link removed]] unless it’s remixable [[link removed]].

Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of a Little Nap [[link removed]].

If You Seek Revolution [[link removed]].

Who called it the balance of nuclear deterrence and not Trash Equilibrium [[link removed]]?

Can’t make a bomblette [[link removed]] without first cracking a few warheads.

The course of history flows as much through floodplains as flood pains [[link removed]].

Gawrsh [[link removed]].

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Critical State is written by Kelsey D. Atherton with Inkstick Media.

The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news and insights from PRX and GBH.

With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”

Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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