This one is good too (though also stressful) www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwQ3...

I do think humans are special in the sense of "being unusual", but I definitely do not want us thinking we're special in the sense of "immune to disruptions of the larger biosphere, especially if we ourselves are causing them."

Instead of "artificial", I'd prefer we say "novel" or "engineered" or "thermodynamically improbable" or whatever we're trying to actually say.

It's the same problem as the phrase "throw something away." There is no "away". The thing still exists, it's just someone else's problem now.

First of all, I like words to mean things. But also, the natural/artificial distinction feels left over from a time when we imagined that we were special magical beings placed here by God to have dominion over the plants and animals, and we need to let go of that attitude in a hurry.

It's fine to make a distinction between things that humans make and do and things that humans don't make and do, but I don't like when we imagine that there's some clear and bright distinction between them, that we can ever exist separately from "nature".

Mamdani created vision that shamed this cowardice: by having standards, and then showing everyone what his standards are, and then proving that he truly held those standards by standing for something without shame. This tapped into something powerful.

www.the-reframe.com/the-extraord...