How high can an exponential go?
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1. |
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Information density unbeatable in this industry
Mincemeat made out of classical rap tendencies
So pick your favorite synonym for “supreme”
Eminence, excellency
Call it “Indefinitely Deep Skill”
John Preskill, get a release filled
Agitated electrons, be still
Like a ten millikelvin dilution fridge, be chill
Double exponential growth, that’s a steep hill
Let the beat spill, rhymes hit the 808s
Logic gates pullin’ lines from a database
Animal, and I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout The Muppets
Every word search Grover Algorithm-level luscious
If you think you got a better algorithm, then run it
Simulate it or sum it – do somethin’ on Summit
So come on, who want it? My mental computer quantum
I got that superposition, you got that Boolean logic
That string of classical bits that rapidly switch
Faster than abacuses but no match for entanglement
How can I rap like this, with no faulty words?
It's 'cause I shop that search out to the multiverse
I shop that search out to the…
Qubits, on a microchip
Any noise and they might flip
Qubits, decohere and fail
Noisy intermediate scale
Qubits, with amplitudes
That switch like vacuum tubes
Qubits, in quantum states
Watch them calculate
Oh, watch them calculate
One qubit, two qubit, three qubit, four
Five qubit, six qubit, seven, keep score
Sycamore style, more sicker than yours
Every qubit doubles the circuit before
Fifty four, one qubit hits the floor
Only nine quadrillion states left in store
Three hundred qubits of data encodes more
Than there’s atoms in the universe, ask Niels Bohr
And yes, when you listen to any lyric I’m spittin’
Don’t forget, it’s the era before error-correction
It’s the NISQ, but once we get ancillas connected
That can be tested, without decohering the rest of it
Woo!
A thousand physical qubits should probably do it
A parliamentary grouping into a 'logical qubit'
And with a thousand logic qubits process computing
Imagination’s the only limit to what we can do with it
Woo!
Machine learning, autonomous driving
Efficient power transmission, drug synthesizing
Molecular design, supply chain optimizing
And last but not least, quantum rhyming
Qubits, on a microchip
Any noise and they might flip
Qubits, decohere and fail
Noisy intermediate scale
Qubits, with amplitudes
That switch like vacuum tubes
Qubits, in quantum states
Watch them calculate
Oh, watch them calculate
Quantum computing is like a song you can play
Every three minutes and twenty seconds of every day
And every chorus was written for us to recite
While a supercomputer chokes on a petabyte
Quantum algorithms are hidden diamonds
You gotta find them, put them in the system and try them
Physical simulation is a difficult assignment
‘Cause nature is quantum, damn it, just ask Feynman
Computational explosions emerge
From just a couple of swerves, ridiculous integers
Look up from the earth, see the satellites whir
This is just the era between Sputnik and Mir
When the payoff’s near but not here from a Bloch sphere
It’s all beautifully weird, until it decoheres
And still it improves with each test
This is gonna be the one to…
Ah, blue screen of death
So how supreme is it?
Whatever, just keep it humming
And keep the media hungry
‘Cause Quantum Winter is Coming
And on the far side of the J-Curve, whoah!
How high can an exponential go?
On the far side like "Whoah
How high can it go?!"
Qubits, on a microchip
Any noise and they might flip
Qubits, decohere and fail
Noisy intermediate scale
Qubits, with amplitudes
That switch like vacuum tubes
Qubits, in quantum states
Watch them calculate
Oh, watch them calculate
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2. |
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It’s the ballad of a zombie…
Like a slave to a parasite…
I got a hatchet and I’m buryin’ it
It’s the lament of a zombified marionette
I feel my limbs moving, but I’m unaware of intent
Like there’s somethin’ parasitic in them
I can’t escape!
Inexplicable forces got me sprinklin’ spores
Just like a bullet ant infected with Ophiocordyceps
Grippin’ a branch, fungus rippin’ my cortex
Every leaf in the forest littered with corpses
I can relate!
Parasitic organisms promote their fitness
At the expense of a host, and evolve to control them better
And hosts evolve defenses, to protect their own interests
And fall victim to novel stimuli, like scrollin’ Twitter
Hijacked!
Hi, Jack, you got me screenified
Hits of dopamine arrive, extended phenotype
Retweets and likes, keepin’ eyes locked
Like a green-banded broodsac worm in a snail’s eyestalk
So this goes out
To all the profiles I stalk…
It’s the Ballad of a Zombie
I don’t know who’s in control
But it’s not me
Ballad of a Zombie
I feel an urgent pull
And it’s got me
Feelin’ like a zombie
Like a slave to a parasite
(Gotta get it off me)
Brains
Got me actin’ wonky
Ballad of a Zombie
Zombified for the thrill of it, jacked on euphoria
Cicadas high on psilocybin drippin’ Massospora
Abdomen a mass of spores, junk completely gone
And all they wanna do is get their freak on
To the zombie theme song, a parasitic meme song
Apparently we evolved to pass genes and these on
Over eons, ideas, beliefs, thoughts, true or not
You’re nothin’ to them but a cockroach to a jewel wasp
And yeah, some of those memes do keep you alive
Just long enough for their progeny to eat your insides
Defend your beliefs ’til you die, despite the blunt trauma
Like a caterpillar defending a pupating wasp larva
Horrible, but part of our lives, unignorable
Posting articles online ‘cause someone called you “deplorable”
Curating your feed when you’re the feed, the product being sold
Like a crab grooming a sack of Sacculina barnacles
Shout out to everyone
Who’s ever been part of a cult
It’s the Ballad of a Zombie
I don’t know who’s in control
It’s not me, but it’s got me
In it’s urgent pull
Feelin’ like a slave, a parasite
I’m feelin’ wonky tonight
No I don’t feel quite right
Zombie
Okay, parasitic relationships aren’t all bad
I have kids to answer to, I’m the one they call “dad”
So I provide – takin’ out the garbage at night
Fully aware that my relations are makin’ me zombified
I love my wife, that’s exactly how I get manipulated
Reciprocal altruism doesn’t begin to explain it
Full cooperation even unenvenomated
Domesticated, cheater-detection system disabled
Like, “I get it, she’s got all types of cares to avoid”
Like a Russian Doll, baby, hyperparasitoids
With fleas biting fleas with smaller fleas to bite ‘em
And even me biting scientists, ad infinitum
So what are we? Nothin’ but lambs to the slaughter?
Nothin’ but crickets led by Mermithid worms to the water?
Nah, ‘cause we can skeptically see when we’re zombified
And sometimes wake up when things are out of line
So bring on the bite…
Braaiiiins!
It’s the Ballad of a Zombie
I don’t know who’s in control
But it’s not me
Ballad of a Zombie
I feel an urgent pull
And it’s got me
Feelin’ like a zombie
Like a slave to a parasite
(Gotta get it off me)
Brains
Got me actin’ wonky
Ballad of a Zombie
This is the Ballad
Of a Zombie
I don’t know
Who it is in control
But it ain’t me, oh no
Just like a slave
To a parasite, I
Am feeling the urgent pull
The Ballad of a Zombie
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3. |
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Lyrics:
Blackout, blackout, too late to back out
From New York city to Krakow, no turnin’ back now
We demand infinite power that never taps out
And the shutting of all fossil fuel smoke stacks down
Don’t forget to ask “how?” Use every single tool
Got that solar bling on my roof, all of my neighbors are thinkin’ it’s cool
Renewables are beautiful, get them connected to every cottage
But the crucible is: can they get us city-level wattage?
Ten percent, maybe twenty five, until the wind power dies
No flow from a hydro reservoir that a drought has dried
The sun sets under cloudy skies, out of sight
Out of mind, old king coal comes out at night
Sunrise capacity surges, crashin’ the circuits
Batteries would be perfect, it’s too bad they don’t work yet
Plus the cost of purchase, it straight up doubles the pesos
So again with the fossil fuel steppin’ up to cover the base-load
Commuter, sky polluter
Ride my scooter, climate movement
Computer, WiFi booster
Fly juicer, HiFi music
Clean energy means everything
Everything, bright future
Clean energy means everything
Bright future
So here we go yo, whatsa whatsa whatsa scenario?
The carbon footprint is low in France and Ontario
The way they chose to carry the load is scary to folks
But the resulting quality of life there is very dope
Look at what they did in Sweden, low-emission Sweden
Took the power grid and cleaned it safely, ask a physics teacher
Fifty years of nuclear waste fits in a single arena
And nature is more radioactive, check a dosimeter reader
Carcinogenic coal ash kills half a million people
Every single year, after leavin’ ‘em feelin’ a lil wheezy
Replace particulate coal with fission and breathe easy
Some people will get a little heated, but I don’t give a millisievert
You want to fight climate change? Fight nuclear decommissions
Replace fission with fossil fuel and you increase emissions
Keep that clean efficient energy in the system
How is that politically divisive?
Commuter
Sky polluter
Ride my scooter
Climate movement
Computer
WiFi booster
Fly juicer
HiFi music
Clean energy
Means everything
Everything
Bright future
Clean energy
Means everything
Bright future
Abundance, that’s what happens when everything functions
One billion people today still have nothin’ to plug in
Every third of a second another one comes in, no judgement
Just take the power production number today and double it
Now every solar panel planned is just keepin’ up with new demand
Burn baby burn, another natural gas plant
The air is a trash can for fossil fuel when you’re burnin’ it
But frack that, we have a zero carbon alternative
That’s so radioactive, we can’t discuss it calmly
A nuclear reaction to a sensible energy policy
I’m afraid of a meltdown, but only psychologically
In response to a technology that produces juice constantly
Is it dangerous? Compared to what, fairy dust?
It’s safer than other major energy production areas
Climate change is scary enough, even with various
Solutions at play, take one of the biggest away
And it’s gonna bury us
Commuter
Sky polluter
Ride my scooter
Climate movement
Computer
WiFi booster
Fly juicer
HiFi music
Clean energy
Means everything
Everything
Bright future
Clean energy
Means everything
Bright future
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4. |
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Rain your secrets down
Feelin’ that equanimity
Like, “Yeah, whatever will be will be”
But still get jittery considering
Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity
Riddle me this: how hot is it gonna get?
If CO2 levels end up doublin’?
Between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees of extra heat?
You gotta be kidding me
How you gonna plan for a three degree range?
Somewhere between mild fever and extreme pain?
Estimation of ECS
That’s the Holy Grail of the climate quest
The heat trap is set, but sensitivity
Depends on complex feedback effects
Like Planck’s Law, it says: “The hotter it gets
The more radiation a body emits”
That’s a negative feedback, hey that’s great
Coolin’ us off like Lapse Rate change
But the hotter it gets, the more liquid evaporates
And that just jacks up the pace
‘Cause water vapor is a greenhouse gas
That doubles the carbon impact
But whether that final measure goes up or down
Is mostly down to little fluffy clouds
Little fluffy clouds
Spill your secrets out
High wispy clouds
Wrap us in your shroud
Low wavy clouds
Long, dark, and round
Rain your secrets down
Clouds, condensation on aerosols
When you’re talkin’ feedback they’re involved
Bounce sunlight back like a parasol
There’s a real puzzle in there to solve
Does a cloud heat the planet up, or cool it?
Depends on the height and thickness through it
Plus the light reflected like a mirror
Blanket-like high-altitude cirrus
Absorb more heat than they bounce back
Damn, that fixed anvil temperature’s FAT
Warm it up and the clouds move up
Positive feedback heat trap booster
What about low clouds though, in the tropics?
Endless flat vistas to get lost in
They look vast and voluminous now
But those stratocumulus clouds are newly in doubt
In fact, a new model found
That burning enough CO2 from the ground
Can break them up into cumulus clouds
And that’s gonna stop them from cooling us down
Plus, once you bust them up into pieces
It’s tough to go back, ‘cause hysteresis
The past is present, it's a sequence
We just need clouds to spill their secrets
Little fluffy clouds
Spill your secrets out
High wispy clouds
Wrap us in your shroud
Low wavy clouds
Long, dark, and round
Rain your secrets down
Clouds, leavin’ models jammed up
Since 1970, what’s the answer?
Better science, y’all, that’s what
Add the feedbacks up, that’s “Lambda”
Clouds, are cooling the planet on average
But warming the atmosphere changes the balance
And tiny reshaping of feedback effects
Can have radiative impacts that are massive
And heating the planet is changing the clouds
We need to know how, we need a “Eureka”
To see how the clouds and convection entrain
And which is the swept-up and which is the sweeper
What’s the answer? That’s the wrong frame
Instead ask: “What’s the probability range?”
That feedback dampens or amplifies
And how much is the physics parameterized?
Multiple lines are converging to find
That the bottom is no longer 1.5
For ECS, it’s 2.3 degrees
With a 95% probability
Which means we’re not getting off cheap
I guess that “three degree range” got squeezed
By the gap in the clouds where the light struck
Revised up, so, time to wise up
Tick tick tick…
Time’s up
Little fluffy clouds
Spill your secrets out
High wispy clouds
Wrap us in your shroud
Low wavy clouds
Long, dark, and round
Rain your secrets down
Little fluffy clouds
Rain your secrets down
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5. |
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And ye though I walk
Through the valley
Of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil
For I know that coronavirus
Is not evil
It’s a mindless biological agent
A tangle of RNA in a lipid sheath
That evolved to replicate itself inside of cells
Just as we evolved an immune system to repel it
This I know because of science
Folks in my section
Like askin’ questions
Takin’ measurements
Testin’ hypotheses
About how policy interventions
Limit the spread of infection
Natural selection
Only game in town
You can find it any place a replicator is found
I’m DNA-based, and staycation-bound now
‘Cause there’s a new replicator in town
Takin’ the crown
RNA-based with a lipid shell
Soap can rip it apart, so give it hell
But just in case, update your living will
Shelter in place, regardless if you’re ill
Stay home!
Reduce transmission rates
When it’s too late to contain, mitigate
When there’s no universal test you can get
No contact tracing just community spread
Stay home!
Survival of the biggest introverts
Bend the curve, end the surge, revenge of the nerds
Who stay home!
‘Cause intuition is hollow
“Y’all need to listen to the models”
And stay home!
It’s not a hoax, not a joke
“This is their new hoax”
In November gotta vote
Stay home!
Let the message go viral
Instead of infection, it’s so vital
To stay home!
And watch Contagion
Runnin’ from the viral invasion with Matt Damon
Isolation, double-front campaign wagin’
Against the virus and misinformation
Wrap it up in public, mask and glove it
Ask the Czech Republic, you don’t have to love it
When the floodgate’s open you just have to shut it
The Wuhan plan ain’t nothin’ to muck with
Now that’s government in control of its citizens
No civil liberties, and no COVID-iots
No Floridians open for business
No governors who don’t know about symptomless
Spread – now a doctor’s havin’ a talk with her kids
About the plan in case she’s not gonna live
Workin’ a shift with no personal protective equipment
Which is somethin’ no president ever could’ve predicted
Especially one who never paid attention, sleeping
Through intelligence briefings, the seeds have been
Sown for years, corona’s doing the reaping
With grieving loved ones doing the weeping
Stay home!
Protected “respirator style”
Or watch the curve rise up “escalator style”
Stay home!
Stop damaging MDs
And EMTs – “oxygen, they can’t breathe”
Stay home!
It’s not a joke, not a hoax
“Like a miracle”
Register to vote!
But for now, stay home!
Let the message go viral
Instead of infection, it’s so vital
To stay home!
Stay calm, stay sanguine
We had some bad luck mutations in a pangolin
But I don’t give a plasmid about who first brang it in
I just wanna see how administrations handle it
And buy time to develop a vaccine
In a year, maybe two, optimistically
COVID-19, nobody’s immune system works
Anyone can get it from Prince to Prime Minister
So, be careful where you get your info
On Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
SARS Cov 2, this is just the intro
You can reduce fatalities tenfold
Stay home!
This is triage, beyotch
No need to see a concierge, use a kiosk
Social distance is the best shot we got
Don’t let the germ win by fiat
Stay home!
The next victim might be you
Five percent are “guaranteed to be in ICU”
Stay home!
This is Russian Roulette
“People jumpin’ over people just to rush to the set”
Stay home!
Antivax activists
How about it, ready for shots after this?
Stay home!
Let the message go viral
Instead of infection, it’s so vital
To stay home!
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6. |
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Data Science
Statisticians
(Repeat)
Academic classical statistician, sit down and listen
You’re about to witness the power of algorithms
Linear regressions is suckin’ us into a recession
Interpretability is dead, the gold standard is now prediction
Please, you think ‘cause a method is new, it isn’t bad?
Everything about your “big data” movement is a fad
All you have is a glittering enigma wrapped in a complex riddle
Nothing but a black box with lots of little knobs to twiddle
I’ll take a black box that delivers accurate answers
On any question you can ask it, from genetics to cancer
Over a transparent box we understand that’s “interpretable”
With tractable math…
Yeah, too bad it doesn’t work so good though
Algorithms are just another kind of statistical inference
That’s fine. You’re advocating scientifical ignorance
You’re like the Wizard of Oz in a balloon, floating over the earth
"Come back!"
“I can’t! I don’t know how it works!”
Here’s how it works: data goes in, predictions emerge
Talk to Mark Zuckerberg if you really question its worth
Forget it, stay bottled up in a college and data model
I’ll solve problems, drive an Audi, and date a model
Data science, we predict the outcome
And if you see it's workin’, there’s no need to question “how come?”
Statisticians, we want it precise
How is it “science” if you can’t explain your model designs?!?
Data science, we don’t want it basic
Life is complicated, the original “black box” is nature
Statisticians, reveal how nature functions
All I need is a model with articulated assumptions
Is that too much to ask from a data analyst?
Show your work!? That’s basic practice, but they can't handle it
Move fast, break things, it just isn't right
Not at the expense of parsimony and scientific insight
You got it backwards, pops, scientific progress
Is a step-by-step process from simple to complex
Quantum physics comes after Newtonian mechanics
And classic statisticians never discovered exoplanets
You’re the one with the model backwards, son, you got distracted
We get results!
Yeah, with no thought for the causal factors
Tech investors keep earning, algorithms keep churning
But it’s a shallow journey if only the machine’s learning
We’re learning, never doubt that, data science is about facts
And if it catches mice, that makes it a better mousetrap
Statistics is either gonna get with artificial intelligence
Or it’s gonna lose in the data battle for relevance
Well if that’s your position, then I'm a converted mathematician
First, check if it works, and then unpack the algorithm
With statistical methods; that’s just more for us to perceive
Just don’t lose sight of the random forest for the trees
Data science, we predict the outcome
First check if it's workin’, and then question “how come?”
Statisticians, we want it precise
How is it “science” if you can’t explain your model designs?
Data science, we don’t want it basic
Life is complicated, the original black box is nature
Statisticians, reveal how nature functions
All I need is a model with articulated assumptions
Data Science
Statisticians
(Repeat)
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7. |
Green is Good
04:34
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A tree grows competitive
Reachin’ for the light, aimin’ to soak up every bit of it
Photosynthetic Olympian, throwin’ shade
At its brethren, coniferous to deciduous
Leaves trickle down and get biodegraded
Every niche underneath is wild populated
From the base to the apex of an ecological
Matrix – trees are the main job-creators
Cellulose and lignum in a silo
Struggle for survival, natural cycle
Reachin’ for the sky, so high, so vital
And all they want is domination of a rival
That’s the best competition
The kind that benefits everything next to the competition
Like a free market economic engine
Positive externalities and we all can get it
Like Gordon Gekko in a pristine wood
Sometimes greed is good
Greed is what pushes every tree to the canopy hood
And Green is Good
Green is Good, Green is Good, baby
Make green like Wall Street in 80s
Stay green like a shade tree
Green is Good, so make green, baby
Green is Good, sustain green
Make All Nature Great Again, stay green
Like a shade tree, green is amazing
Green is Good, so make green, baby
Make green and you make a range of good products
Reforestation and sustainable harvest
Plus climate change is upon us
And every tree free growing is retaining some carbon
It may take an ecologist from a fine university
To trace the complex web of biodiversity
From turtle to spider to birch tree
To underground fungal mycelial circuitry
Do the research, and refill it if you deplete it
You can be a future-feeder instead of a future-eater
Solid ecological planning is not a new procedure
It’s just a prerequisite for a future leader
Greed is good? I do concede it’s a half-truth
Witness the damage humanity can do
Extract, pollute, the Lorax knew
If you turn a green patch into a sand dune
That’s a bad move, that’s the worst competition
Lose-lose, humans and the earth all diminished
Negative externals hurt your grandchildren
Get a land-use plan and we can rebuild it
Green is Good, Green is Good, baby
Make green like Wall Street in 80s
Stay green like a shade tree
Green is Good, so make green, baby
Green is Good, sustain green
Make All Nature Great Again, stay green
Like a shade tree, green is amazing
Green is Good, so make green, baby
Make green, don’t starve, feed kids
Invest in the future sustainable green biz
Plant trees, billions and billions
Reverse the loss of biodiversity quick
And don’t forget what a gorgeous forest is
A slow motion rat race for resources
A snapshot of Ascot horses
Foamin’ at the mouth for sun beam nourishment
No armistice, ‘cause trees keep us alive
When they reach for the sky for a piece of the light,
And likewise, we can compete to shine
In a green climate, with no ecocide
Try to keep in mind every intricate part
Including communities if it’s in their backyard
Build with indigenous traditions and
Local people living in the midst of the wilderness
Ecosystem enrichment pays forward
Stakeholders get enlisted, from rainforest
To everglades to boreal territory
Green is good, end of story
Green is Good, Green is Good, baby
Make green like Wall Street in 80s
Stay green like a shade tree
Green is Good, so make green, baby
Green is Good, sustain green
Make All Nature Great Again, stay green
Like a shade tree, green is amazing
Green is Good, so make green, baby
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8. |
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Let’s take a minute to applaud the good actions
On the planet’s behalf of Light Water Reactors
If greenhouse gases are what you want to tackle
Dismissing atomic is really not a good tactic
Unlike fossil fuel, the carbon is absent
And the fatalities per terawatt is a fraction
So if you hate on it and you want to attack it
Don't forget to factor in the cost of inaction
Although, lookin’ back it could’ve been a bit foolish
To go with a solid fuel in a water coolant
That cracks when it fissions, so you gotta remove it
With ninety-nine percent of the juices still useless
And plus, it does take a lot of pressure
To heat that water to three hundred degrees
And trap it in a concrete containment vessel
In case radioactive steam gets released
I mean, Three Mile Island? Zero deaths
Fukushima Daiichi? Zero deaths
Is a nuclear technician a hero? Yes
It’s not whether it’s safe, it’s where to go next
Liquid Sodium
Makin’ new fuel out of former junk
A traveling wave comes
Molten salt with Thorium
No meltdowns anymore
‘Cause a plug drains out
When you warm it up
Fourth generation
Molten salt with Thorium
Or molten salt without it
Uranium, Plutonium, you know we ‘bout it ‘bout it
Decades of waste can now get routed
Back to the reactor to tackle a power outage
Salt, but not what's on a dinner table
Lithium and Beryllium Fluoride moderate the flow
Of neutrons – it’s hell-a chemically stable
Fission products gotta bond with it, unbreakable
So how can Cesium and Iodine hurt
Your thyroid? They’re locked in salt binders
Fissioning and circulating in a purifier
And spinning a turbine, ask Alvin Weinberg
Now the half-life of the waste is like
Three centuries, and we can pay that price
Like the preservation of an ancient relic, we can achieve it
And use isotopes for cancer treatment
No reason to fear radiation at all
When elements dissolve in molten salt
It can leak and a meltdown won’t result
It just solidifies and the whole thing halts
This warming rock
Is gonna still get hot
Until we clean our power
Sources up
Get it from the wind
Offshore and the sun
And the molten salt
With Thorium
Liquid Sodium
Makin’ new fuel out of former junk
A traveling wave comes
Molten salt with Thorium
No meltdowns anymore
‘Cause a plug drains out
When you warm it up
Fourth generation
Molten salt with Thorium
Come on, sing along, is it hard
To build a modular reactor in a shipyard?
And bring it on a truck to deliver the spark
And tell the haters to sit in the dark
‘Cause it’s way way way way safer than climate change
Don’t lose sight of the plot of the play
It’s all about decarbonization all day
And energy poverty is not gonna wait
So no pressure, no more than a garden hose
Temperature high, so the wattage flows
Price low, hydrocarbons, synthesize those
Desalinize, access to water grows
Watch coal plants fall like dominoes
This tech is so close, y’all, so vamanos
Close all emissions that are poisonous
And let economists calculate avoided deaths
And let everyone, Nigerian to American
Celebrate the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment
Oak Ridge Lab, Tennessee
Which invented cheap, safe, unlimited energy
Liquid Sodium
Makin’ new fuel out of former junk
A traveling wave comes
Molten salt with Thorium
No meltdowns anymore
‘Cause a plug drains out
When you warm it up
Fourth generation
Molten salt with Thorium
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9. |
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I’m on that slow roll, that’s how I go the distance
Like a space probe exiting the solar system
With all the generators I need
To provide decades of energy, maintenance free
Take it slow on the way to big things
You would’ve thought I was invented in 1816
And then slept on, and never fully deployed
Except as a fan in ventilators and toys
I’m not annoyed, I just bide my time
‘Cause I know my hyper-scientific version of rhyme
Can seem costly, heavy, and slow to ignite
And tough to commercialize, though many have tried
The dude abides, ‘cause all I need is inches
Competition leapin’ past me obsolete in minutes
I’m out to leave a legacy, not a speed record
Listed in a museum with the steam engines
I thought internal combustion had me
Fifteen hundred degree ignition, I can’t compete!
Until the onset of climate change
Every gas-guzzlin’ contraption, apply the brakes
I keep it movin’ like a Stirling Engine
Converting heat to work in an instant
I keep it tight like a closed-cycle
Thermodynamic system, churning pistons
I keep fresh with external combustion
Plus low internal pressure
Regenerator for thermal retention
Low key like a Stirling Engine
Low key like a Stirling Engine
Oh, look who’s comin’ back around
Who’s got that steady energy capture now?
The mainstream stays deep in hydrocarbons
But any heat source gets my cycle started
Carnot cycle-target-level efficiency
Hydrogen, geo-thermal, solar, no difference to me
Nuclear fission, any industry, waste heat
Converted into electrical energy
Oh, your fuel source has to be really pure?
Mine can be anything, even pig manure
I can transform it into AC/DC
Which means farmers in the developing world need me
I can even act as a battery for renewables
Trap that heat in recycled molten aluminum
And then convert it to current, for the final user
I can even work in reverse as a cryocooler
Make it freeze, when I pump that heat
Make it negative 80 degrees for vaccines
Not to mix metaphors, but I’m universal
Stirling style, wild versatile
My compressed air knows how to work a valve
Reducin’ methane waste and personnel
In other words, my flow is so low-maintenance
The type you want to go into space with
I keep it movin’ like a Stirling Engine
Converting heat to work in an instant
I keep it tight like a closed-cycle
Thermodynamic system, churning pistons
I keep it fresh with external combustion
Plus low internal pressure
Regenerator for thermal retention
Low key like a Stirling Engine
Low key like a Stirling Engine
I’m on that slow roll, like a space probe
And this is my time, if I do say so
Settings records for continuous effort
Technology finally catching up to my potential
Space Age Rap Star, NASA said it
“The most reliable heat engine ever invented”
Not to take credit, but I just keep running
Steppin’ over dead energizer bunnies
Plus dead quiet, for sonar evasion
A Gotland-class sub in the Swedish Navy
Not to mix metaphors, but I’m freakin’ crazy
Sneak up and take a pic of the USS Ronald Reagan
Too much noisy friction in these engines
I got that free piston flow that’s efficient
Never crashing, practically everlasting
Don’t ask me when the springs wear out, it’s never happened
If you ask me about my future work
I’m running scientific instruments on Jupiter
KRUSTY reactors in a Mars colony
Not bad for a centuries-old technology
Not to mix metaphors
But there’s no stoppin’ me
I keep it movin’ like a Stirling Engine
Converting heat to work in an instant
I keep it tight like a closed-cycle
Thermodynamic system, churning pistons
I keep fresh with external combustion
Plus low internal pressure
Regenerator for thermal retention
Low key like a Stirling Engine
Low key like a Stirling Engine
Low key like a Stirling Engine
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10. |
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Waiting for the vaccine, like a mouse in a trap
All my COVID-19 lockdowns, bounce to the track
If you want to get back to business, it’s time ask
Yourself what you believe that’s counter to fact
They told you to go with your gut, but now you just can’t
Instead you gotta listen to Tony Fauci and mask
To keep the virus in check, Lauren Hill said it best
Everybody wear the mask, but how long will it last?
From now until herd immunity
Until vaccinations saturate your community
‘Cause every one of us is embedded in networks
And some of them reject experts who test first
And know the scientific method works incrementally
Evaluating every hypothesis skeptically
Experimentally building models and factoring
Causes and effects counterfactually
Like: what if everybody had masked and distanced
Ever since this started, would that have made a difference?
With fewer margarita parties at the height of COVID season
Would we have a few more New Zealands?
So what do you believe? And is it up for debate?
And can you imagine evidence confronting your faith
That makes your level of confidence in it fluctuate?
Inoculate yourself against suspect claims!
If you believe it
And you really feel it
It’s still not impossible
It’s counter-factual
If you can show it
How you really know it
We got a way to find
The counterfactual
You better wait…
If you make claims that are evidence-based
It’s best to check ‘em in evidence-based ways
You better wait…
It’s tough to reason someone out of believin’
Something they were never reasoned into in the first place
You better wait…
Counterfactual studies are just a practical
Part of scientifically modeling where a path will go
And if enough people hold counter-factual
Beliefs, they form an angry mob and storm a capital
Yeah, true beliefs are a form of capital
Societies rich in them tend towards rational
Evidence-based medicine instead of magical
Witchcraft when a pandemic explodes
So, what’s the counterfactual for true beliefs
About the greenhouse gasses that you release
When driving and keeping the lights on and producing heat?
Ignorance is gonna put us over two degrees
With melting ice, droughts, rising seas
Forest fires, and climate refugees
Motivated by the same basic needs that made
Ted Cruz leave for Cancun in a Texas freeze
Yeah, false beliefs are a form of poverty
And like true beliefs, they spread virally
“COVID-19 is connected to 5G
And you can kill it, try bleach in your IV
I learned it from IG – it’s my personal belief
That I should do whatever personally works for me”
But that’s the thing, no person is an island
And science denial is workin’ to spread the virus
Pushing temperatures higher, and that’s costly
When everybody shares the same air commonly
Reduce the garbage heap with a carbon fee
‘Cause false beliefs are not free
If you believe it
And you really feel it
It’s still not impossible
It’s counter-factual
If you can show it
How you really know it
We got a way to find
The counterfactual
You better wait…
Please, keep your faith-based beliefs
To yourself on matters of public safety
You better wait…
Think about your neighbor’s needs
If you’re not sure, hey, wait and see
You better wait…
Do I have false beliefs too? I do
That’s just my biased social primate view
My truth is that my truth is quite skewed
And yours is too, that’s why science is cool
‘Cause it ritualistically fact-finds
Our brains tend to match the frames of allies
And separate the good guys from the bad guys
But the scientific method is designed
To transcend tribes – it’s just a set of norms
You can use it to evolve tools into better forms
Or craft laws and policies informed
By the best of our knowledge about what’s in store
Are we in for a world increasingly divided
By political tribalism, echo chambers and silos?
Or, are we really in it together
Like a Mars lander, a human scientific endeavor?
Whether climate change, or beating a new disease
Science is the finder of maximally true beliefs
Casting light ahead so we can choose judiciously
So what do you believe?
If you believe it
And you really feel it
It’s still not impossible
It’s counter-factual
If you can show it
How you really know it
We got a way to find
The counterfactual
You better wait…
Gotta wait ‘til your spot gets locked
And then don’t hesitate to get the shot
You better wait…
It takes patience
To trigger the better angels of human nature
You better wait…
So have patience, ‘cause after that
The promised land awaits us
You better wait…
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Baba Brinkman New York, New York
Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.
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