Sunday, March 13, 2011

Black Swans & Nuclear Reactors - Post Japanese Earthquake

I changed my mind last year and went pro-nuclear energy. I was bought into Steward Brand's eloquent and Fareed Zakaria's rational argument for clean energy. It's no secret that I am an ardent believer of Nassim Taleb's Black Swans. But yet, I changed my mind last year. Well.. the truth was I had become pessimistic on the politics of clean energy and nuclear energy seemed to be a panacea.

Now after the Japanese tragedy; I am
 looking forward to hear Steward Brand and Fareed's case. I am still pro-nuclear - we live in a world when sometimes we have to take chances and risk to make this world a better place. Politics cannot handle it because citizens simply cannot change their pre-conceived notions. It's hard to make a chance when everyone "sincerely" believes that they don't have any pre-conceived notions. Politicians and citizens perpetually feed into this vicious loop (and cable news makes a living out of this). After this Japanese tradey, I hope people get anti-nuclear epiphanies; the lessons from Black Swans teach us we should be aware of the risks and prepared to face the aftermaths. Since already know the risks of going nuclear - it's not a Black Swan. The Black Swans are intrinsic to climate change - unknown unknowns.

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