While I don’t disagree that those were the sorts of SD columns that some of us still fondly recall, most of those classic columns were from the 1980s and 1990s, when most people lacked the ability to look things up on the internet, and find answers to strange, fun, and obscure questions.
My suspicion is that, at this point, most of those sorts of questions are now very well-plowed ground.
Okay, here’s a “softball:” How does paint work? I paint miniatures, myself, which usually means applying acrylics to plastic, resin, or metal objects. If I don’t prime the mini first, the paint rubs off easily. Why don’t they just make the color paints out of the same stuff as the primer? And why do I need to seal the mini afterwards, if the primer is supposed to make the paint stick? What’s up with enamels and oils? What’s going on chemically or physically that makes all these things behave so differently when ultimately I’m doing the same thing: putting a thin layer of colorful goo on top?
I could look it up myself, but it’d be fun to see what Cecil says!
There’s a fair amount of research on how synthetic fertilizers create greenhouse gases. However, I would expect that nitrogen runoff also leads to more greenery around and downstream of farms, as well as more river and ocean life and vegetation. Any form of vegetation should, I believe, act as a carbon sink.
What’s the actual trade-off between these?
Is organic produce actually organic?
vs
A deep dive into the relationship between electricity needs and blockchain versus its alternatives might be interesting to include in a discussion of blockchain. On the one hand, it seems pretty certain to me that blockchain money systems, no matter how green the variant is, use more electricity than already-existing banking networks since the latter use little marginal electricity, but what about the electricity costs of blockchain versus the logistics of lugging physical cash around, or potential electricity savings from shutting down staffed remittance networks with at least some physical footprint such as Western Union if blockchain completely replaces them (which it can’t do for traditional banking systems.)
Another more contentious matter.
How much does popular reporting on a subject (even a negative subject) lead to an increase in support for that thing (i.e. serving as “free advertising” for it)?
Examples:
It may transiently be a carbon sink, but vegetation that is eaten or just plain left to rot sends its CO2 (and methane!) back into the atmosphere. It’s only a carbon sink if sequestered. For example, even though algae produce oxygen, they are a net depleter of oxygen in water bodies since whatever oxygen they produced while they were growing is countered by the oxygen that’s absorbed when they die and rot, and the latter is far more concentrated in time.
Shinjū - Wikipedia plays (the Japanese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet) became so notorious for inspiring suicide that they were banned at one point.
Places where it’s easy to commit suicide often become notorious for it and have to have access to them restricted- see “Lover’s Leap”.
Vegetative mass is a form of sequestration. Yes, the sequestration stops as soon as the plant dies, if you’re looking at things on a per-plant-basis, but if you’re maintaining a forest of plants on the exhaust stream of the farms then the balance of old plants dying and new plants being born cancels out. It’s the total amount of greenery that you see at any given moment that matters, not the cycle of birth and death. And that’s relatively static so long as the inputs all stay the same.
The future of freshwater, tech, climate, supply
Given the problems of climate change and drought, how can the world best supply fresh water to everyone?
Future nutrition, GMO, longevity medicine
Is it possible for people to live to be 150 years old?
Nostalgia, vintage, old tech, surprising comebacks (Polaroids?)
What old technology, like vinyl or Polaroids, will the next generations bring back?
The housing crisis, sensible urban development
Governments don’t want to alienate older voters by seriously addressing the housing crisis. But how could they best do so?
Banking and finance reform
How can government regulate and incentivize the banking and shadow banking sectors to best serve consumers?
Parenting, education methods, happiness
What is the best way to educate children?
Well-being, perspectives, factors, folly, future
Should government nudge people to make choices that will likely make them healthier and happier? How so?
Secret societies, conspiracies, power
Did secret societies ever have real power? Who actually controls the world?
Social media, violence, law, solutions
What needs to change to make social media safe and minimize its harms?
Understanding new tech: farming, food, war
What recent unsung changes in technology have had the biggest benefit in developing nations?
Military strategy in 2023
What is new or unique about the Ukraine conflict and what does this mean for future strategists?
How to learn, what to study now for most future benefit, university reform
How should universities change to better serve students and society?
How to teach compromise and civility
Should students be taught to put their country before themselves? Given popular anger and acrimony how can we teach getting along and the art of compromise?
(Take, leave, reject or modify any of these as you see fit. They are just suggestions. If some readers prefer direct, non-speculative stuff they can offer questions too. I am assuming you like the bigger questions based on recent initial columns, but I liked the induction stove one too.)
How about a column where you answer questions (mine, but others as well🫣)?
I gots the questions.
you could say hi to me, occasionally as well😘
I would like to read a column that explores the predicted real world reaction over time after receiving a verified signal from an extraterrestrial civilization. Headline: “ET Called, Will Be Here in 5 Years!”
Premise: we receive a signal (with Rosetta Stone) from an extraterrestrial civilization that is verified without doubt to be legitimate. The signal has been received by many professional and amateur astronomers, so the story can’t be suppressed. The message is short and ambiguous. They will arrive on Earth in 5 years, but their intentions are not clear. They could be friend, or foe—they don’t say. No other signal is received from them, and we can’t contact them. All we can do is wait.
How will the world react to this information, short term (first weeks after receiving the message), and long term (close to the 5 year arrival date)?
Will the world at large be inspired and welcoming to the ETs? Would mass paranoia set in over time resulting in chaos and a breakdown of society? Something in between? Or, something else? Are they saviors, or destroyers? Only your hairdresser knows for sure.
One thing I’ll mention is that a lot of the new columns have been revisitings of each other. With the current format, I understand that you’re more involved in the discussions than you used to be, but that doesn’t mean that you need to write a new column to respond to everything that people say. Some things, you can just put a quick reply in that thread, and some things you can just leave completely unanswered. As it is now, most topics are effectively two-column topics, which isn’t as interesting as something new.
To what extent is The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn true?
The scenario you propose is one possibility but imho the absolute least likely. A clearly artificial but unintelligible signal that as far we know has absolutely nothing to do with us is far more likely. More likely still would be a “weird” signal that the astronomy community would be furiously debating over whether it really is artificial or not- see the debates over Tabby’s Star and Oumuamua.
Yes, my hypothetical is unlikely, but I used it as a simple device to consider the likely human reaction to contact and eventual visitation from an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, however it really occurs (if at all, ever). More a question of psychology and sociology, than astrophysics or cosmology.
Joe Haldeman wrote The Coming about a similar scenario, with an interesting twist.
Recommended.
More like something a cat would dream up!
It doesn’t seem like there’s much Straight Dope to it, just a lot of “talk is cheap” speculation, which can be fun (see “The Leftovers”) but not the sort of thing a Cecil would do. Like a lot of threads I never bother to open - “What would happen if suddenly gravity disappeared and trees were turned into walrus meat?”
I don’t think making contact with an extraterrestrial civilization is as absurd a thought experiment as trees turning into walrus meat, or gravity suddenly dissapearing. Do you?
And CNN just proved I was right.