Reflections on AI, Nuclear, Manufacturing and the Political Landscape

AI and Computing

There’s no doubt that we’re going to enter a new era of AI within the next several years. And this has great implications. Human civilization has evolved most rapidly after developments in science, whether that’s inventing the wheel, learning how to make alloys like bronze (materials science is really one of the most useful fields out there, consider studying), or discovering how to harness steam. Following the Age of Silicon, it will drastically improve our ability to complete so many tasks. Education, mundane chores, governance, and scientific discovery will develop exponentially. The most difficult tasks, like designing mechanisms with the complexity of bacterial motors in microorganisms and expanding to star systems beyond Proxima Centauri, will be possible only with the aid of AI.

AI, and computational science, have advanced rapidly this year. It’s truer more now than ever to say that anyone not willing to adapt is going to fall behind. Two of the Nobel prizes went to teams working in this field: neural networks for physics and computational chemists who were able to further predict the structure of proteins. There were also some great strides in computational astrophysics this year, particularly in the national labs, where simulations of the evolution of the universe were run in unmatched scope (particularly the cosmological fluid dynamics, which are very computationally intensive).1

Additionally, we saw Google AI reach a pretty phenomenal milestone this year with their quantum chip Willow.[2] They were able to make strides regarding fault tolerance, which is really important when it comes time to scaling later on. While the benchmarks were largely experimental and not in the realm of practicality yet, this still represents yet another accomplishment from one of the long frontrunners in AI.

With tech giants collaborating in AI and computing, the issue of needing an efficient energy source to power AI data centers has arisen, which leads to the next point.

Resurgence of Nuclear

Nuclear energy is the most efficient clean energy source, has the highest capacity factor, and can fit into pre-existing infrastructure rather easily. This is why, when we need true power to scale AI, tech giants such as Microsoft have turned to nuclear power. It does not fluctuate nor does it cost much to maintain, making it perfect for the likes of data centers which need consistent electricity.

There have been shouts to restart historic reactors, and some have come through. Three Mile Island, the power plant that had a meltdown that resulted in a ton of fear mongering, is now being used to provide electricity to Microsoft’s data centers.[3] Our computation and AI are increasing power demand significantly and will continue to do so. In the far future, nuclear combined with renewables is the closest to perfect solution we have.

So who is holding it back? Well, there has been a resurgence, as described above. Furthermore, over a billion has been given out for universities to develop their nuclear engineering departments. There has also been groundbreaking research via the likes of advanced light-water small modular reactors. At this point, the main things holding everything back are A) politics and B) personal gain bias. Politicians aren’t listening to experts (see Germany) and there are a ton of people who are heavily invested into either fossil fuels or renewables who do not want nuclear to break through.

But I think this year was a turning point. It feels like nuclear power is really about to start developing again (this of course could mean decades, but that's better than nothing). And once again, it doesn’t have to come at the cost of deploying renewable energy infrastructure. We can implement renewables, particularly solar, while we wait for nuclear plants to be built.

Manufacturing

Now for a slightly shorter section, I’ve noticed a newfound appreciation for manufacturing among engineers. I believe that this has been caused by shifting geopolitics as well as companies at home like Tesla and SpaceX. These companies have been revolutionizing the aerospace, automotive, and energy industries. What makes them so impressive is not only the dominance in say satellites or number of launches, but just how much of it is under one name. It's the whole idea of everything being powered by factories at home. So called "gigafactories" in Shanghai, Berlin, and Texas have really gotten those who want to build the companies of the future more interested in the actual processes, myself included. And if we're being honest, Starbase is genuinely the coolest thing ever. So whether it’s controls or nanomanufacturing, more engineering programs[4] around the country should continue to develop sufficient curriculum, machine shops, and labs to accomodate this. Let’s build more rockets, microprocessors, biomedical robots, fuel cells, and anything that will advance civilization in 2025.

Political and Societal Rifts

In a dramatic election that was ever so hard to predict, we saw nearly every demographic shift to the right. This, in my eyes, is indicative of the shift in politics that we have seen in the people for several years now: the Democratic party is less the party of the working class and more the party of the wealthy and educated. At this point, a college-educated male living in Massachusetts is probably more likely to vote left than say a construction worker who is more concerned with inflation than any social issue. And the reality is that the latter is far more representative of most of the country, particularly swing states, than the former. We did see impressive protests at college campuses around the country advocating for a left-leaning perspective on war. But these were protests at the likes of UCLA and Columbia. They were not representative of the average person; academia as a whole, but even more so environments similar to the one I mention, generally represents a very privileged class of people. And unfortunately, this did lead to even more of a rift on the left, as support for Israel remains ingrained in American politics. Contemporary social issues are undoubtedly important culturally, but at the end of the day, the DNC did not do a sufficient job at convincing voters that they would enact meaningful economic.

I do think Vice President Harris had a solid economic plan and fine ground game. If the economy did turn people, chances are that a lot this was inherited from President Biden rather than her. A few blunders along the way aside, she took things up to the best of her ability. She launched a campaign from nearly nothing in a few months. I initially was hesitant on Governor Walz because I thought Senator Kelly was the best pick, but I came to admire some of Walz's traits around the way. I’m not a huge fan of Harris, but a lot of the country didn’t really know who she was before this. They had an incredibly short period to learn and I think she got her name out pretty efficiently. The Democratic National Convention and her rallies made people hopeful. But at the end of it all, President-elect Trump won in a landslide.

With conservatives controlling every branch of government, it looks like it’s clear that Donald Trump will be the most influential politician of this era. President Biden unfortunately really feels like a footnote in the midst of Trump’s presidency. Now, the people don’t really have any control over SCOTUS, but that’s probably where things are most concerning. Justices Thomas and Alito are likely on the verge of retiring, and will almost certainly do so during Trump’s presidency, meaning that conservatives will maintain their dominance. What is even more worrying is the fact that Justices Kagan and Sotomayor are nearing that point too, meaning the potential of an even more conservative SCOTUS than we already have.

The left does have midterms. And these midterms will decide how deep the coffin we are in has been dug. There are a lot of errors that have been made by the left over the past four years, and it’s time to turn things around if they want any hope of winning in 2028. Vice President Harris may have inherited a situation that was near unwinnable. We are seeing that leaders elected post-Covid around the world are struggling to be re-elected. But this next election doesn’t need to be unwinnable. And it’s not time for #Resist like in 2016 onward. If the Demoratic party does not reshape itself, elections are simply going to get worse and worse.

Now, while there were rifts on the left as some disagreed with say, Kamala's foreign policy, there were also arguably more significant rifts on the right. This really isn't anything new given how much the Republicans have flip-flopped over the years. Musk, who now has a position in government, has been clear on his pro-legal immigration status which has been incredibly controversial on the right. It’s kind of ironic but expected that the “we want legal immigrants, just not illegals” people have shifted.

In case you missed it, Musk tweeting about the lack of top tier engineering talent in the United States was what really blew this argument up.[5] He’s been a clear advocate for legal immigration in the past, being an immigrant himself, but it was late in December when things really erupted. Elon’s argument is that the United States needs to hire immigrants to meet the new demands in the likes of semiconductor and aerospace engineering, or else the United States will lose races of innovation to foreign nations like China. A lot of people replied to this, talking about how their kids are struggling to land jobs in STEM because immigrants are taking their spots. This discourse is nothing new at all. This is more of an echo than new discourse, as it stems from the idea of who deserves to be accepted into prestigious positions. We saw the same thing from SCOTUS denying affirmative action on the basis of race in college admissions. People are obsessed with power and prestige and have a hard time believing that it alone can't always win you everything.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been given a voice in government under President-elect Trump, argues that the issue is culture.[6] And while his post got a lot of backlash, I do think he was right. American mediocrity is very much a real thing. I think he did go a bit overboard with pent-up frustration, but what he says is generally right. There’s no way for the United States to produce more passionate engineering talent in an educational culture that values athletics and fraternities far more than the likes of robotics and olympiads. It is really frustrating to see the amount of money that goes towards the likes of coaches when grad students are underfunded, often without room and board. So yes, there is an issue beyond immigration that starts here at home, and anyone who doesn't see it simply isn't living in the real world. The accessibility of advanced courses, college admissions, and underprepared graduates are all blaring issues that few are making progress in. With this.

In the meantime, my view on the issue is that qualified immigrants, and especially those who attend college in the United States, should be given the tech jobs if they have worked for them. I see the viewpoint of the far-right, who argue that Americans should be given the opportunities before anyone else. It is a problem if the next generation of Americans cannot find jobs. But I just can’t help but disagree with it because at the end of the day. I'm aware of students from top universities struggling to find jobs in STEM, and I'm also convinced that's kind of a skill issue. Yes, the job market is incredibly competitive, but if you can't leverage the vast opportunities at your disposal, network, and showcase your talent, then you only have yourself to blame. And you certainly shouldn't be blaming immigrants, first generation college graduates, or minorities. I honestly see this complaint a lot in CS. Maybe it's because students fail to realize that a degree alone (even if it's one as difficult as CS) does not prepare you for a career in engineering, but rather that it must be combined with an impressive portfolio of real projects. Anyways, the likes of immigrant families and their children have contributed a ton to the country. Look at a list of the most influential CEOs in STEM companies right now; look at a list of faculty at elite universities. I'm not convinced that there is a significant amount of "underqualified" people taking the jobs of brilliant American college graduates. The real issue here is the current state of American culture, education, and society.

So, let’s see what happens between the tech bros with right-leaning beliefs and the traditional conservatives. Maybe they will realize that their votes weren’t as well-placed as they thought they were…[7] But I hope things turn out okay for everyone. It's going to be a high-stakes next several years. Despite the fact that the two-party system does ward off dictators, I think we're seeing some of its repercussions unfold through the current political climate.

Conclusion

Those are my takeways from the year. I know I left some things out, particularly the international conflict, which I will write about in the future. I will likely return to basically everything I wrote about above one day anyways. So, how was your 2024? Mine was a little weird. This whole year has been kind of strange.

References