Dancing proves the #1 treatment for depression; gender and Shakespeare; single men want children more than women now

Desiderata #21: links and commentary

1/10. Since the last Desiderata, The Intrinsic Perspective published:

• The unbearable whiteness of Neptune. Science's fiery hunt for real colors.

• (🔒) Five books that taught me how to write. Odes to influences.

• I'm a neuroscientist. Our presidential candidates have shrinking prefrontal cortexes. Contra The New York Times.

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2/10. Quick note: for fun I’m doing an over-intellectualized advice column. If you’re a paid subscriber, feel free to send an email asking for advice on literally any subject (relationships, career, family, etc), and, if any of those stand out to me, I’ll write up replies up like a classic advice column.

Why do this? Because (a) I think it’s kind of funny/interesting to have someone who wouldn’t normally do an advice column, do one (doesn’t mean I won’t give real advice) and (b) the advice format seems underutilized on Substack. I honestly think most advice columns are absolutely terrible and encourage the worst possible options roughly, oh, 80% of the time. The more narrative, detailed, and interesting your submission, the better, and the more likely I’ll answer it. Details of how to submit are in the pinned comment below.

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3/10. One consequence of war is that, no matter what the war is for, no matter how just it is, it leads to technological development in the weapons of war. Militaries are always playing catch-up to technology, and a historical pattern is that militaries are basically stuck in the dynamics of the last war until a novel one spurs them to adapt.

In this vein, it’s become clear the Ukraine war of self-defense has spurred on the use of small drones in combat, and that this new 21st-century style of warfare is being perfected and accelerated there. Look no further than Eric Schmidt’s (former CEO of Google) latest interest, which he writes about in Foreign Affairs: driving down the cost of drones that hunt and kill people to, he hopes, the low cost of under $400. No doubt that will help Ukraine—drones have been instrumental to their strategy—but at the same time the thought of a $400 assassin drone outside of that conflict, as a thing available forevermore… is disconcerting.

Home Depot Death

As usual with technology, it’s possible to accentuate either the potential good or the bad. In a good future, drone wars are the primary form of warfare, and human lives become untouched by bellicosity. No one even sullies their hands with blood—whoever has the winning drone army is, by necessity, the clear victor. Warfare returns to what it was originally: a game. A thing mostly about social standing, or, in the modern parlance, economics.