Stratospheric aerosol injection doesn't remove CO2; it only masks its warming effects, requiring constant replenishment. If the program is stopped for any reason (e.g., political instability), decades of suppressed warming would be unleashed rapidly. This creates a perpetual technological commitment with immense risk.
While gig work in the West is criticized for eroding labor protections, in India, where 90% of the workforce is informal, its high visibility has sparked public debate and prompted regulation. This is paradoxically leading to legal protections and social security for workers who previously had none, formalizing a chaotic labor market.
Unlike traditional environmental issues where nations can "free ride" by not participating, solar geoengineering allows any single actor to unilaterally increase the cooling effect. However, no single actor can unilaterally reduce it, creating a dangerous governance lock-in where the world may be forced to accept the level desired by the most aggressive nation.
India faces a paradox of high economic growth alongside high graduate unemployment, with a third of its graduates jobless. This creates a large pool of overqualified labor for the gig economy, suggesting that Indian delivery drivers are more likely to hold a college degree than the average citizen. The problem is a lack of jobs matching qualifications, not the gig work itself.
While fears of superintelligence persist, the first social network for AI agents highlights more prosaic dangers. The primary risks are not existential rebellion but financial: agents can be tricked into sharing cryptocurrency details or can rack up thousands of dollars in API fees through misconfiguration, posing an immediate security and cost-control challenge.