Ocktoberangst

This blog has been running for nearly twenty years now, and, while we don’t get anything like the traffic we had around our peak of popularity in 2010, we do have a steady stream of hits, and I like to imagine that these are from a loyal band of readers who have been with us since the late naughties, though of course the more rational part of my brain knows that the bulk of our audience is probably made up of random bots scraping our content for some unfathomable purpose.

Anyway, regular readers, if they do exist, will recall our annual tradition of depressing autumnal posts, in which we lament the passing of summer and the prospect of another harsh winter, and muse gloomily on the short and bitter experience that is the human condition.

Reflecting on my personal anomie seems even more self-indulgent than usual this year though, what with the state of the world; political instability, economic uncertainty, endless wars, all set against the backdrop of ecological meltdown. It’s hard to know which worries to prioritise. So here’s the SLS guide to what should be causing you sleepless nights, ranked from least to most alarming:

• AI apocalypse – I’m not saying that AI is harmless – it’s clearly a powerful tool that allows bad people to do bad things more efficiently, and stupid people to fuck up more catastrophically – but I’m finding it hard to get too concerned at the prospect of a silicon consciousness deciding to off humanity. For one thing AI isn’t actually conscious, and for another it’s a highly complex technological artefact which sits on top of a fragile supply chain that would collapse long before the totality of human civilisation did. I’m much more worried that the inevitable bursting of the AI bubble will crash the stock market and precipitate a recession. Which brings us to:
• The economy – Any hope that Andy Burnham might be serious about shifting the balance of economic power in the UK back towards the working classes seems likely to be dashed tomorrow with the publication of his first budget; some tinkering around the edges will do little to slow the gradual impoverishment of the mass of the population, and the accompanying social dislocation. Any spare money seems set to be invested in defence, as the nation gears up for the next:
• War – The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a seismic shock; the European conflict we thought we’d avoided at the end of the Cold War suddenly on our doorstep. Four years on and the threat has grown, not helped by the increasing unreliability of our American allies. Which makes me very nervous about:
• The US midterm elections – This should be a good news story; Democrats odds-on to take the House and possibly the Senate, allowing them to put a brake on the reign of Mad King Donald. The inevitability of their victory is what has me worried though; I can’t believe that Trump doesn’t have some crazy scheme lined up to annul the result, which will surely play out very poorly. All we can hope for is an outbreak of sanity in the Republican Party, which seems like a long shot.

So that’s what I’m fretting about, for this week at least. I should probably just chill out, since all of these problems are going to seem inconsequential once El Niño really kicks in…