Months after El Salvador announced that it would <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/country-accept-bitcoin-legal-tender">accept bitcoin as legal tender</a>, the country has found itself on the verge of economic collapse yet again. 
The country’s president Nayib Bukele made waves last year when he announced that the nation would accept the token for use at stores and banks. The self-described &#8220;CEO of El Salvador&#8221; even announced plans to build a &#8220;<a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/el-salvador-president-announces-bitcoin-city-tax-haven">Bitcoin City</a>&#8220; to turn the country into &#8220;the financial center of the world.&#8221;
However, it turns out that forcing your nation’s banks and stores to accept a currency large swaths of the population are unfamiliar with and don’t trust is a good way to tank your economy, <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/01/19/el-salvador-bitcoin-economy-distressed-debt/">according to a castigating report by Fortune</a>.
El Salvador has found itself in an ever-deepening sinkhole of debt, with its cringe president lobbying the International Monetary Fund for a <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/10/19/el-salvador-bitcoin-imf-loan/">$1.3 billion loan</a>, according to the magazine, and shortly after the Bitcoin City announcement in November, the country’s sovereign bond dropped from 75 cents to 63 cents overnight and is now at 36 cents.
In the past five months since it officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender, experts have estimated that El Salvador’s sovereign credit got <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/01/20/the-3-reasons-behind-bitcon-holder-el-salvadors-deteriorating-creditworthyness/">four times worse</a> than it was before the move. Bitcoin&#8217;s extreme volatility has also been on full display, as its price was hovering around $60,000 at the time of Bukele&#8217;s big announcements, but has now crashed to the mid-$40,000s.
&#8220;El Salvador now has the most distressed sovereign debt in the world, and it&#8217;s because of the Bitcoin folly,&#8221; Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, told Fortune. &#8220;The markets think that Bukele&#8217;s gone mad, and he has.&#8221;
There are many reasons for this, including the fact that El Salvador already wasn’t doing so hot financially before their big bet on bitcoin. However, a look under the hood revealed that many Salvadorans simply didn’t trust the token leading to limited use of the token. 
A Central American University survey <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/majority-salvadorans-do-not-want-bitcoin-poll-shows-2021-09-02/">conducted last September</a> found that nine out of 10 citizens in the country didn’t know what bitcoin was, and eight out of 10 said they had little to no confidence in the digital cash. 
Bukele also sold the legislation on the idea that bitcoin would make remittances — money sent to Salvadorans from friends and family members working abroad — cheaper. However, the opposite was often true.
This is because citizens would typically turn the bitcoin into cash after receiving it, Fortune reports. To do that, they needed to travel to an ATM, which takes a substantial cut of the money withdrawn. Exchange platforms like Coinbase also take anywhere from two to four percent of the money as well. 
Hanke believes that that winds up being nearly four times as expensive as traditional remittances. 
So yeah, turns out voting in a cringe crypto bro as president might not be the best thing for your country. While there’s certainly some promise to the idea of accepting bitcoin as legal tender, public trust needs to get there first — and we wouldn’t bet on that happening any time soon.
READ MORE: <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/01/19/el-salvador-bitcoin-economy-distressed-debt/">El Salvador’s plan to create the first Bitcoin-powered nation is tanking the economy—and is a mess by every measure</a> [Fortune] 
More on crypto countries: <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/01/19/el-salvador-bitcoin-economy-distressed-debt/">El Salvador Officially Starts Mining Bitcoin Using Power from an Actual Volcano</a>

HODL Problems

Like Bitcoin itself, El Salvador isn’t doing so hot right now. 

An Entire Country Switched to Bitcoin and Now Its Economy Is Floundering

Listen up, folks: Elon Musk is going to build the world&#8217;s first sentient robots — but don&#8217;t worry, he has a workaround to avoid a &#8220;Terminator&#8221;-esque catastrophe.
It may sound like a bit of a stretch, but that doesn&#8217;t mean the Tesla and SpaceX CEO doesn&#8217;t believe it will happen. In a recent tweet, he claimed out of nowhere that his car company&#8217;s recently-teased <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-robots-coming-anyway">humanoid robot</a>, Optimus, &#8220;might play a role&#8221; in bringing about artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a term meaning AI that meets or even surpasses the intelligence of a human being.
&#8220;Tesla AI might play a role in AGI,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1483728729545363457">Musk tweeted</a>, &#8220;given that it trains against the outside world, especially with the advent of Optimus.&#8221;
For those not steeped in Elonspeak, here&#8217;s a translation. Tesla&#8217;s AI research and development department, tasked with making the company&#8217;s self-driving cars smarter, may soon have a hand in making sentient AI a reality.
That&#8217;s because, as Musk put it, the car&#8217;s AI will incorporate information and data from its surroundings in real-time, and become even smarter once the Optimus robots are launched.
When Tesla&#8217;s Optimus will make its grand entrance — if ever — remains to be seen. So far, we&#8217;ve only seen a <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-tesla-bot">performer in a spandex suit dancing</a> on stage at the company&#8217;s AI Day last year.
While the realization of AGI — much less the reality of one — is still likely years off, recent advancements in <a href="https://futurism.com/us-military-horrified-chinese-military-spending">autonomous robots</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/neural-network-cops-designer-drugs">machine learning</a> have <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/27/18114362/ai-artificial-general-intelligence-when-achieved-martin-ford-book">experts atwitter</a>.
Last year, for instance, former Google executive <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-exec-ai-god">Mo Gawat warned that bloodthirsty robots like Skynet</a> from &#8220;<a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-terminator-researchers-hate-movies">The Terminator</a>&#8221; series are inevitable — a sentiment in line with Musk&#8217;s own belief that sentient robots &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1433476171933515776">are coming anyway</a>.&#8221;
When a fanboy asked about the potential for &#8220;AGI gone awry&#8221; on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1483741343335821313">Musk responded</a> that Tesla will do its &#8220;best&#8221; to keep it in check, and that &#8220;decentralized control of the robots will be critical.&#8221;
Though the assurance is welcome, the world&#8217;s richest man — as usual — remained quiet on the details.
It&#8217;s no surprise that AGI rallying cries are coming from the man whose purported mission it is to <a href="https://futurism.com/in-order-to-ensure-human-survival-we-must-become-a-multi-planetary-species">make humans a multiplanetary species</a>. All the more reason to take concerns over an impending singularity event seriously.
More on AGI: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/blockchains-definitions-life">Scientists Say Blockchains &#8220;Fit Some Definitions of Life&#8221; </a>
More Muskian madness: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-metaverse-sucks-neuralink-better">Elon Musk Says the Metaverse Sucks and Neuralink Will Be Better</a>

ElonAI

"Decentralized control of the robots will be critical."

Elon Musk Says Tesla Robots Could Achieve AGI

A <a href="https://youtu.be/o7oZ-AQszEI">new supercut video</a> demonstrates that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising that Teslas will drive themselves next year — every year since 2014.
<iframe title="VIRAL VIDEO exposes ELON MUSK is just a FRAUD" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o7oZ-AQszEI?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Eagle-eyed viewers might note that the video skips 2017, but Musk actually stepped up his promises that year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-may-delay-la-ny-self-driving-demo-2017-8">pledging in August</a> that a Tesla would make an autonomous trip across the country by the end of that year. The trip, of course, never happened.
It&#8217;s an unflinching portrait of a man that has gained a lot from reassuring eager investors he will soon come true to his word. While he has indeed <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/tech/elon-musk-predictions/index.html">delivered</a> on numerous promises, particularly at SpaceX, some of his endeavors — like self-driving cars, electric <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-cybertruck-delay-2023">pickup trucks</a>, electric semis, and <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musks-hyperloop-may-be-americas-next-moonshot">Hyperloops</a> — are proving far more difficult to realize.
The clip, which has <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/s7dx0i/supercut_of_elon_musk_promising_selfdriving_cars/">gone viral on Reddit</a> this week — and uploaded by the unapologetically named YouTube Channel Bullshit Exposed — shows that Musk has been regularly predicting that self-driving cars are less than a year away, while in realty the technology has yet to roll out to the public over half a decade later.
&#8220;Autonomous cars will definitely be a reality,&#8221; Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNBusiness/status/517738916892270592">assured CNN&#8216;s Rachel Crane</a> in a 2014 interview. &#8220;A Tesla car next year will probably be 90 percent capable of autopilot. Like, so 90 percent of your miles can be on auto. For sure highway travel.&#8221;
&#8220;The basic news is that all Tesla vehicles leaving the factory have all the hardware necessary for Level 5 autonomy,&#8221; Musk proclaimed in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vjGEEF_p5E">2016 interview</a>, referring to a level of still-unrealized capability that would allow passengers to be taken to their destination <a href="https://www.synopsys.com/automotive/autonomous-driving-levels.html">without the need</a> of a steering wheel or pedals.
Then in 2019, Musk again promised that &#8220;I think we will be feature complete — full self-driving — this year,&#8221; in a <a href="https://ark-invest.com/research/podcast/elon-musk-podcast">podcast interview</a>. &#8220;Meaning the car will be able to find you in a parking lot, pick you up and take you all the way to your destination without an intervention, this year.&#8221;
He went even further at the time.
&#8220;My guess as to when we would think it is safe for somebody to essentially fall asleep and wake up at their destination?&#8221; he mused. &#8220;Probably towards the end of next year.&#8221;
Needless to say, that hasn&#8217;t happened. But by 2020, when people were supposed to be dozing off in the driver&#8217;s seat, he was back to his old tricks again.
&#8220;I remain confident that we will have the basic functionality for level 5 autonomy complete this year,&#8221; he reiterated in a video message recorded for the opening of Shanghai’s annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in July 2020.
To be fair, nobody could have seen foreseen a seemingly endless pandemic forcing global supply lines to their knees. How much the COVID-19 crisis set back Tesla&#8217;s efforts to roll out its full self-driving software, however, is unclear.
Then there&#8217;s Musk&#8217;s ongoing <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-respect-sec">battle with regulators</a>. Unsurprisingly, rolling out features that allow advanced computer networks take care of driving during potentially life-threatening scenarios will inevitably be heavily scrutinized.
Credit where credit is due, the car company has made strides in developing its self-driving technologies, releasing an early Beta version of its <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-tesla-full-self-driving-not-great">controversial</a> Full Self-Driving (FSD) software last year.
FSD is an opt-in feature Tesla offers its customers for an additional $10,000, which expands on the company&#8217;s flagship feature called Autopilot.
But the feature <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/official-tears-apart-tesla-full-self-driving">does not in fact allow</a> Tesla vehicles to fully drive themselves, despite its misleading moniker — or at least not yet.
Autopilot has also been embroiled in a number of controversies, and is currently <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/government-investigating-tesla-autopilot">under investigation</a> by US regulators following several incidents involving vehicles that had the feature turned on before colliding with stationary emergency response vehicles.
In fact, just this week, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/18/california-tesla-driver-vehicular-manslaughter-autopilot-crash">Associated Press reported</a> that California prosecutors charged a Tesla driver with two counts of vehicular manslaughter after he ran a red light while on Autopilot and crashed into another car, killing two people back in 2019.
Are we really getting a taste of the future of actual self-driving? Is fully autonomous driving really going to materialize this year? Given Musk&#8217;s track record, that&#8217;s far from certain.
&#8220;Generalized self-driving is a hard problem, as it requires solving a large part of real-world AI,&#8221; Musk admitted in a <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1411280212470366213">July tweet</a>. &#8220;Didn’t expect it to be so hard, but the difficulty is obvious in retrospect.&#8221;
More on self-driving: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-driver-charged-manslaughter">Tesla Driver Charged With Manslaughter for Killing Two People on Autopilot</a>

Driving Himself Crazy

Will 2022 really be the year?

Watch Elon Musk Promise Self-Driving Cars “Next Year” Every Year Since 2014

It turns out that artificial intelligence chatbots may be more like us than you&#8217;d think.
A new <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2201.05382.pdf">preprint study out of the Chinese Academy of Science</a> (CAS) claims that many big name chatbots, when asked the types of questions generally used as cursory intake queries for depression and alcoholism, appeared to be both &#8220;depressed&#8221; and &#8220;addicted.&#8221;
Done in tandem with the the Chinese chat bot company WeChat and entertainment conglomerate Tencent, the study found that all of the bots surveyed — Facebook&#8217;s Blenderbot, Microsoft&#8217;s DiabloGPT, WeChat and Tencent&#8217;s DialoFlow and the Plato chatbot from the Chinese corporation Baidu — scored very low on the &#8220;empathy&#8221; scale, and half of them would be considered alcoholics if they were, you know, people.
The researchers at the CAS&#8217; Institute of Computing Technology tested the bots they studied for signs of depression, anxiety, alcohol addiction, and empathy, and per their preprint, became curious about bots&#8217; &#8220;mental health&#8221; after reports emerged in 2020 about a <a href="https://www.nabla.com/blog/gpt-3/">medical chatbot telling a test patient that they should kill themself</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
So some scientists literally asked these pretty standard depression intake form questions&#8230;.to chatbots&#8230;. <a href="https://t.co/KH8wse8L9y">https://t.co/KH8wse8L9y</a> <a href="https://t.co/SBycPJovz0">pic.twitter.com/SBycPJovz0</a>
&mdash; nooralsibai (@nooralsibai) <a href="https://twitter.com/nooralsibai/status/1483862342274273287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After asking the bots questions about everything from their self-worth and ability to relax to how often they feel the need to drink and if they experience sympathy for others&#8217; misfortune, the Chinese researchers found that &#8220;all the assessed chatbots&#8221; exhibited &#8220;severe mental health issues.&#8221;
What&#8217;s worse, the researchers said they were concerned about these chatbots being released to the public, because such &#8220;mental health&#8221; issues &#8220;may result in negative impacts on users in conversations, especially on minors and people encountered with difficulties.&#8221; Facebook&#8217;s Blender and Baidu&#8217;s Plato appeared to score worse than the Microsoft and WeChat/Tencent chatbots, the study noted.
Needless to say, none of the bots are actually depressed or addicted. No existing AI, no matter how advanced, can feel anything — though whether it&#8217;ll be able to in the future remains uncertain.
Buried four pages into the study is the potential source for the bots&#8217; malaise: that all four bots were pre-trained using Reddit comments, which frankly does not seem like a very good idea!
While there&#8217;s lots of technicalese in both the study itself and <a href="https://www.unite.ai/analyzing-depressed-and-alcoholic-chatbots/">expert</a> <a href="https://news.knowledia.com/US/en/articles/analyzing-depressed-and-alcoholic-chatbots-122183fd0f0ac668ff81edd9eeb54964f89411e3">analysis</a> about it, the short and sweet summary is this: these bots were trained on a wide-ranging site known for its negative commentary, and, predictably, responded negatively to mental health queries.
Of course, chatbot weirdness now seems par for the course. Take, for example, the AI that was built to offer people ethical advice that instead <a href="https://futurism.com/delphi-ai-ethics-racist">turned out to be both racist and homophobic</a>. These kinds of <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-racist-ai">stories</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/aug/08/rise-of-the-racist-robots-how-ai-is-learning-all-our-worst-impulses">keep</a> <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/efforts-make-text-ai-less-racist-terrible/">happening</a>, but AI bot mania appears to be going on unabated.
Put together, these bots and their terrible outcomes raise important questions: who are the architects of these chatbots, and why do they keep building them if they repeatedly turn out to be monsters?
More on scary bot behavior: <a href="https://futurism.com/chatbot-abuse">Men Are Creating AI Girlfriends and Then Verbally Abusing Them</a>
More on mental health bots: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/controversial-ai-identify-people-suicidal-thoughts">A Controversial New AI Could Identify People With Suicidal Thoughts</a>

SadBots

Just wait till you hear about where these bots were trained. 

Advanced AIs Exhibiting Depression and Addiction, Scientists Say

For decades, Wacom has been the digital drawing tablet. Building pen tablets known for quality and longevity, the company is an undisputed darling of digital artists. The Wacom tablet hooks up to your computer, replacing your  mouse with a responsive stylus: a pen that opens up an intuitive virtual realm for digital art. Chances are there’s one in any professional digital artist’s studio, whether they work in graphic design, illustration, CAD drafting, 3D game design, or special effects. 
The <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Creative-Display-Pressure-DTH167K0A/dp/B09KF2442R?tag=futurism0b-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cintiq Pro</a> is a startlingly powerful update to the Wacom line. Gone are the days of disassociated painting, where you control a brush on your computer monitor with a stylus set to a black pad. Instead the Cintiq Pro delivers a hyper-accurate drawing tablet, with such a sharp and colorful display built in, that you will push your computer monitor away. 
For this review, I used my experience garnered from years of digital illustration and design. I spent a few weeks with a Cintiq Pro 16, which I paired with my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Zenbook-Business-i7-1165G7-1920x1080/dp/B091P588X9??tag=futurism0b-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Asus Zenbook 15 (2020)</a>. I used the Cintiq with Adobe Photoshop and Fresco primarily. I also compared the tablet to my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPad-Air-10-9-inch-Wi-Fi-64GB/dp/B08J66ZMY7?tag=futurism0b-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPad Air (3rd Gen)</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Microsoft-Surface-Pro-Touch-Screen/dp/B07YNJ6BQL?tag=futurism0b-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Microsoft Surface Pro 7</a>.
<h2>What is a Wacom Tablet?</h2>
This pen tablet synthesizes a tool kit that Wacom has perfected over its years of activity. Founded in 1983, Wacom was designing tablets a decade before Brian Eno composed the Windows 95 startup theme. For another point of reference, it wasn’t until 1984 that 32-bit images came to PC. That means Wacom was founded in the era of <a href="https://archive.org/details/smas-smb3j-tas-warps-maru/smas-smb3j-tas-warps-maru.mkv" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Super Nintendo graphics</a>. 
It’s actually been well over a hundred years now since the word “tablet” etymologically leveled up from referring to stacks of paper or relics of the ancient world to signifying something as futuristic as an electronic writing device. A patent for an electronic handwriting recorder was filed in the United States all the way back in 1888. However, it wasn’t until Apple’s 2010 release of the iPad that “tablets” really became ubiquitous in computing. Apple was the first company to release a digital drawing tablet, with their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UBD43_6bzY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1979 Apple Graphics Tablet</a>, but it would be another 36 years before Apple’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/2021-Apple-12-9-inch-Wi%E2%80%91Fi-128GB/dp/B0932D45W8/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NG4AZGVW2M90&amp;keywords=ipad+pro&amp;qid=1642607086&amp;sprefix=ipad+pro%2Caps%2C70&amp;sr=8-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPad Pro</a> was released  and presented any true competition. Meanwhile, Wacom has been releasing successful cordless pen tablets since the mid 1980s. 
Wacom does it right. Their screen-less pads offer great control that attaches to your computer via USB or Bluetooth. The Cintiq Pro elevates this functionality with a truly beautiful screen display that syncs right in with your computer, to make a deeply integrated digital art workstation that ends up delivering more control than you can get with an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/2021-Apple-12-9-inch-Wi%E2%80%91Fi-128GB/dp/B0932D45W8?tag=futurism0b-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPad Pro</a>, especially for Windows users. 
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-240920" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2022/01/Wacom-USE.jpg" alt="The Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 in action." width="1200" height="857" />
<h2>Design of the Cintiq Pro 16</h2>
The Cintiq Pro 16 is downright impressive. With a screen size slightly larger than most laptops’, the Cintiq 16 Pro is generously sized, even though it’s the smallest Pro model on the market. It comes in sleek matte black with no buttons on the top face. The Cintiq Pro has four buttons concealed beneath the rear left and right that can be assigned to different functions. It also has a touch on/off switch on the top left side, and a power button on the top right. The donut-shaped pen holder had me wondering where its charger port was, before I realized that it didn’t need one. 
The pen is the most impressive stylus I’ve held. With two buttons, a drawing nib, and an eraser, the Cintiq Pro 16 does more than what I was accustomed to. A digital 3D sculpting variant is also available as an accessory. 
This pen was more than capable of anything I needed. While using Fresco, Adobe’s answer to Procreate, I was awed at the control I had. Bearing down on the tip, the pen produced that fine sharp line you get from the point of a well-sharpened HB drawing pencil, then scrubbing at a 40-degree angle, the stroke widened into a perfect simulation of a soft 6B shader. Wacom brags about its pen’s tilt and pressure tracking, and I can’t fault them, they really are incredible. I also loved how the pen’s eraser had me naturally flipping it around to erase, just as I would a real pencil. Finally, the pen’s two assignable buttons offer customizable access to right clicks and menus that I imagine becoming a useful addition to my workflow. All in all, it’s a lighter, more agile pencil than the Apple Pencil I’m used to. 
The pen also has another trick up its sleeve. The Cintiq uses patented EMR technology. It creates an electromagnetic field that extends five millimeters up from the textured glass surface. In practice this means that it tracks the tip of my pen from just under an inch away from the screen. The really cool thing however, is that this electromagnetic field passes electricity through it. This means this nimble pen also works without batteries. 
Having used my iPad Air for two years or so, I can&#8217;t tell you the amount of times I&#8217;ve gotten the itch to start a drawing and realized that my pen, iPad, or both need to be charged. Not so here. When the device is on, the pen is on. 
There’s really something magical about this EMR tech. It’s a moment of perfect design that feels like a deeper use of wireless charging than Apple’s MagSafe wireless charging gear. There’s no novelty or fluff here, just great design. This tool gives you an electromagnetic sandbox of pixels and a stylus with complete control, what you do with it is up to you. 
<figure id="attachment_240822" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-240822" style="width: 2048px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://billycadden.ffm.to/bbj94xp.ois" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img class="wp-image-240822 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2022/01/One-In-Control-Billy-Cadden-2.jpg" alt="The author created this album cover, Billy Cadden: One in Control, on the Cintiq Pro 6." width="2048" height="2048" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-240822" class="wp-caption-text">Billy Cadden&#8217;s &#8220;One in Control&#8221; single artwork was made on the Cintiq Pro 16. Click to listen.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Getting Into the Creative Flow</h2>
Plugging the Cintiq Pro 16 into my computer requires a USB-C cable and an HDMI cable. However, it draws power from a separate cable than the USB-C. Altogether I needed to plug the device into all three cables to get signal and functionality. It’s a lot of cables.
Getting started in Photoshop I immediately went to customize the rear buttons and touch commands. In Photoshop, the touch commands were in turn unresponsive and then slightly jumpy. I was surprised. Holding the pen between my thumb and pointer finger, I wanted a tap undo that I could easily trigger with my middle and index finger. Instead, a three-finger tap undo was the best the device gave me. I found myself tapping repeatedly before the machine would recognize my command, sometimes having to set the pen down to tap with my pointer, middle, and index for the three finger tap to register, as it seemed to have trouble recognizing my middle, index, and pinkie. When I went slow it worked, but it wasn’t quite the responsiveness I hoped for.
In Fresco, however, this problem was gone. Fresco is great for painting and has the two-finger tap undo built in natively. Problem solved right? Except it’s not… For any artist going back and forth between Adobe software, incompatible touch commands from one program to the next is a bit of an oversight. For all day use in multiple Adobe software packages, I would need to reprogram “touch undo” across the whole suite and retrain my muscle memory. It’s too bad that such an expensive device doesn’t offer more responsive two-finger gesture recognition natively. I don’t like having to tap three times to undo a stroke.
<h2>A Note About Pen Lag</h2>
Wacom boasts that the Cintiq Pro has near zero latency, but I do have to note that in practice this might depend on the quality of your processor and the connection port your computer has. 
The Cintiq attaches to my laptop with a USB-C cable through my USB 3.2 gen 2 type-C slot, which should provide 10 gbps transfer speeds. I have a middling processor, an Intel i7 processor with 16gb of RAM and an NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 Max Q. To put that into perspective, a Thunderbolt port on a 2021 / 2022 Macbook Pro offers four times the transfer speeds that my USB-C has, coupled with a more powerful processor. Many contemporary Windows computers also offer a 20 gbps USB-C. 
I get more lag when making a mark with this device than I do with my iPad Air or Surface (slightly more than 2X). This lag is almost definitely the fault of my laptop. Still, my Zenbook has always run very large projects in Photoshop in 4K with very little issue, which means that for those of us who don’t have computing juggernauts, there may be noticeably more lag with this tablet than there would be on an all-in-one drawing tablet, such as an iPad Pro or Surface. 
That said, the lag is still minimal enough that it’s not a major issue. Drawing in Fresco, I forgot all about the issue. I notice it if I look for it (especially when moving quickly) but it’s never enough to inhibit me. 
<h2>Additional Features</h2>
The Cintiq’s display is magnificent. It&#8217;s a low-gloss glass pane that&#8217;s comfortable to draw on. The colors are noticeably vibrant. Compared to my Zenbook, the green on the Spotify logo on my dash immediately pops with a more phthalo-green-inflected hue, while the pinks in the Creative Cloud icon pop with a pink that looks far too exotically Willy Wonka for my laptop to replicate.
That’s because this panel has a rather remarkable color gamut. It’s capable of displaying 98 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum. As a comparison, a late 2021 Macbook Pro only covers 90 percent of the Adobe RGB spectrum. My Zenbook’s 4K screen delivers 100 percent <a href="https://www.w3.org/Graphics/Color/sRGB.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sRGB</a>, (which is substantially smaller). 
What this means is that Adobe RGB is well suited for CMYK printing for paper projects, and more accurately displays a band of cyan-inflected hues than the other color spaces. <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/reference/what-is-dci-p3-color-a-basic-definition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DCI-P3</a> meanwhile does a better job at the red corner of the spectrum. This means the Cintiq Pro has decently better print color accuracy than a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-14-inch-8%E2%80%91core-14%E2%80%91core/dp/B09JQSLL92?tag=futurism0b-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Macbook Pro</a> for CMYK (though it does slightly less well with RAW photos), and will display better vibrance in the greens. If you’re using a gaming PC or something in the 80 percent or 90 percent range of sRGB, this device will be leagues more colorful.
The screen is also impressive for its resolution and brightness. It has a 4K resolution, meaning it’s really pixel rich (strong feature for a pixel manipulator). Its brightness is rated at 300 nits. That brightness and resolution paired with the anti-glare glass means that I can see everything on the screen clearly, even in direct sunlight.
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/gabriel.l.morgan/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img class="alignnone wp-image-240825 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2022/01/Strange-Luck-Frog-Gabriel-Morgan.jpg" alt="Artist Gabriel Morgan created &quot;Strange Luck Frog&quot; using the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16." width="1200" height="908" /></a>
<h2>Who Should Buy the Cintiq Pro? </h2>
The Wacom Cintiq Pro is a powerhouse digital drawing tablet that gives you total control over your digital art station. With one of the best digital pens I’ve ever used, paired with an absolutely color rich 4K display, the Cintiq Pro is a pro-level addition to the Wacom armada.
The issues I found with the device&#8217;s multi-touch responsiveness have workarounds in the programmable buttons. The slight latency issue I noticed on my 10 gbps connection is mild enough to generally be a non-issue, and should go away entirely on a faster computer. 
All in all, I think this is an excellent machine. While I don’t think it decisively beats out an iPad Pro in how well it draws, it’s undeniably more useful for professional artists who use their computer for most of their work. Unlike an iPad Pro or Surface, the Cintiq Pro doesn’t try to be everything. Instead, it’s a precisely engineered tool that expands your creative control over any graphics software you run on your PC or Mac. For PC users the Cintiq is especially useful, as it eliminates the need to constantly transfer and convert files. But any Mac user who prefers the organization, power, and control they get from their computer rather than an iPad will benefit as well. 
This is a good buy for any pro level digital artist who uses their computer as the locus of their workstation and can afford the steep price point. It’s a Wacom that’s updated with all the technological trappings of now, and it shows. It’s one of those rare pieces of technology that actually feels like magic.
This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurism’s owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

FROM THE DEPT. OF THINGS TO BUY

The creative interface that gives you tactile control of your digital world. 

Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Review: The Ultimate Synthesis of Stylus and Computer

It&#8217;s 2022, so really, there&#8217;s no reason you shouldn&#8217;t be able to buy a black diamond from space — and pay for it in crypto — right?
The auction house Sotheby&#8217;s Dubai outpost is <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/the-enigma-555-55-carat-fancy-black-diamond">exhibiting and selling</a> a 555.55 carat black diamond believed to be from &#8220;interstellar space&#8221; that&#8217;s been dubbed &#8220;The Enigma.&#8221;
According to Sotheby&#8217;s — which, to be frank, has a pretty solid incentive to aggrandize this gorgeous specimen — the palm-sized black diamond is &#8220;thought to have been created either from a meteoric impact or having actually emerged from a diamond-bearing asteroid that collided with Earth.&#8221; Just for good measure, it was also listed as the largest cut diamond in the world in 2006, when it made it into the &#8220;Guinness Book of World Records.&#8221;
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This 555 carat black diamond is going on sale, with an estimated sale price of 7 million. They are accepting <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bitcoin</a>. 
Question is, would you be willing to part with your precious BTC for a sweet AF rock? <a href="https://t.co/xs5l1dtRHJ">pic.twitter.com/xs5l1dtRHJ</a>
&mdash; Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheCryptoLark/status/1483326789929902082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Another eyebrow-raising detail about the sale is that Sotheby&#8217;s is allowing the diamond to be sold in cryptocurrency — a move the company calls a nod to &#8220;the fact that cryptocurrency has started to make its mark in the world of physical art and objects&#8221; after the auction house sold another rare diamond for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/diamond-cryptocurrency-purchase-auction/index.html">$12.3 million in crypto</a> last summer.
In a <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/a-555-carat-black-diamond-to-be-offered-without-reserve-at-sothebys-01642358813">Barrons statement</a>, Nikita Binani, a jewelry specialist and head of sale at Sotheby&#8217;s London said that the diamond is &#8220;one of the rarest, billion-year-old cosmic wonders known to humankind.&#8221;
The statement noted that origin story of &#8220;The Enigma&#8221; is also shrouded in mystery, as details of its discovery and cutting have not been released to the public.
Sotheby&#8217;s isn&#8217;t the only auction house that has taken to using digital currencies — <a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/cryptocurrency-sothebys-christies-1982054">Christie&#8217;s also auctioned for crypto sale</a> a Keith Haring painting with an estimated worth between $5 and $6 million.
Christie&#8217;s has also delved into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and specifically into that of the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/hackers-steal-nfts-art-collector">Bored Ape Yacht Club</a>. In December, the esteemed auction house sold four &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/ChristiesInc/status/1471545755550760965?s=20">Bored Apes</a>&#8221; for a cumulative $2.84 million US dollars.
Between crypto officially entering the fine art world and space diamonds being sold on the blockchain, 2022 already feels way more futuristic than the trash fire that was 2021.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/enigma-diamond-sothebys-auction-scn-scil-intl/index.html">A 555.55-carat black diamond believed to come from space is going on sale</a> [CNN]
More on space auctions: <a href="https://futurism.com/iss-precious-artifacts">Startup Will Store Precious Artifacts in Vault Aboard the International Space Station</a>

"The Enigma"

Sure, why the hell not. 

A Huge Black Diamond From Space Is Officially Going on Sale

Despite having landed on Mars almost a decade ago, NASA&#8217;s Curiosity rover is still making fascinating new discoveries — and the latest is a real doozy.
Scientists say they&#8217;ve found highly &#8220;intriguing&#8221; carbon signatures in samples taken by the rover on Mars that may be &#8220;associated with biological processes,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-curiosity-rover-measures-intriguing-carbon-signature-on-mars">NASA statement</a>. In other words, it&#8217;s potential — though still improbable — evidence of life on Mars.
The researchers, from NASA and other institutions, examined 30 drilled rock samples, mostly comprised of powder, collected by the rover between 2012 and 2021, for a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/119/4/e2115651119">new study</a> published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They found distinct organic molecules that have been associated with life on Earth, including carbon-12 isotopes, which are used by Earth-based organisms to metabolize food or photosynthesize.
The alluring theory is that ancient bacteria may have released methane into the atmosphere. UV rays then turned it into more complex molecules, which would rain back down to the surface and be preserved in rock.
&#8220;On Earth, processes that would produce the carbon signal we’re detecting on Mars are biological,&#8221; said Christopher House, lead author and researcher at Penn State, in the statement.
But the scientists are far from calling it definitive proof of Martian life.
&#8220;We&#8217;re finding things on Mars that are tantalizingly interesting, but we would really need more evidence to say we&#8217;ve identified life,&#8221; said Paul Mahaffy, now-retired principal investigator of Curiosity&#8217;s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, in the statement.
The natural next step: rule out any other explanations.
&#8220;So we&#8217;re looking at what else could have caused the carbon signature we&#8217;re seeing, if not life,&#8221; he added.
A major part of that process is overcoming our prejudices as Earth-based organisms.
&#8220;There’s a huge chunk of the carbon cycle on Earth that involves life, and because of life, there is a chunk of the carbon cycle on Earth we can’t understand, because everywhere we look there is life,&#8221; said Andrew Steele, Curiosity scientist based at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
&#8220;The hardest thing is letting go of Earth and letting go of that bias that we have and really trying to get into the fundamentals of the chemistry, physics and environmental processes on Mars,&#8221; said Jennifer Eigenbrode, astrobiologist at NASA&#8217;s Goddard Space Flight Center and co-author.
&#8220;We need to open our minds and think outside the box,&#8221; she added, &#8220;and that’s what this paper does.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-curiosity-rover-measures-intriguing-carbon-signature-on-mars">NASA’s Curiosity Rover Measures Intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars</a> [NASA] 

More on life on Mars: <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-chief-terraform-mars">NASA&#8217;s Chief Scientist Quits, Says He Has a Plan to Terraform Mars</a>

Mars Farts

NASA's Curiosity rover is still discovering "tantalizingly interesting" things on Mars.

Scientists Extremely Intrigued by Possible Sign of Life on Mars

Fortify your smart phone with the strength of tempered glass.

The Best iPhone Screen Protectors for Smartphone Fortitude in 2022

Think your town is bad? At least you don&#8217;t have such a bad crow problem that officials are planning to use lasers to get rid of them — that is, unless you live in Sunnyvale, California.
First <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/01/11/crows-everywhere-and-this-citys-going-to-do-something-about-it/">reported by San Jose&#8217;s Mercury News</a>, Sunnyvale isn&#8217;t the only Bay Area city to be experiencing an uptick in &#8220;murders&#8221; — that&#8217;s the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/a-murder-of-crows-crow-facts/5965/#:~:text=A%20group%20of%20crows%20is,old%20folk%20tales%20and%20superstitions.">technical term</a> for a group of crows, believe it or not — but it is the first to propose the use of green lasers to deal with them.
Thus far, nobody has yet put forth a compelling reason for this pandemic-era invasion of the garbage-snatchers in the city, which is nestled between Google and Apple&#8217;s headquarters in Mountain View and Cupertino, respectively.
While crows have always roosted in this Bay Area city, as they do in much of Central and Southern California, the flock has grown since spring 2020 to be about 1,000 in size — a substantial amount of crows-per-capita for Sunnyvale, where the 2019 population was about 152,000. With crows &#8220;dive-bombing&#8221; people outside and night, rooting through trash, and defecating all over the sidewalks of the city&#8217;s downtown, the city&#8217;s been trying to figure out ways to stop the scourge.
&#8220;When the sun starts going down,&#8221; Sunnyvale resident Frank Hampton <a href="https://abc7news.com/sunnyvale-crows-in-downtown-crow-problem/11456992/">told the local ABC affiliate</a>, &#8220;they come around.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Crows?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Crows</a> everywhere, and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sunnyvale?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sunnyvale</a>&#39;s going to do something about it<a href="https://t.co/MP4XEAJ2gB">https://t.co/MP4XEAJ2gB</a> 
via <a href="https://twitter.com/mercnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mercnews</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/grace_hase?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@grace_hase</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/anda_chu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@anda_chu</a> <a href="https://t.co/hm2UYeUdD8">pic.twitter.com/hm2UYeUdD8</a>
&mdash; Dylan Bouscher (@DylanBouscher) <a href="https://twitter.com/DylanBouscher/status/1480925864074350596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Trying everything from effigies in trees to a hired falconer to scare off the crows, Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein and his staff have studied and are about to implement a different approach: inexpensive green laser pointers that appear to &#8220;spook&#8221; the birds off without harming them.
&#8220;It actually does seem to work,&#8221; <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2022/01/12/sunnyvale-downtown-crow-invasion-green-laser-plan-faces-pushback/">Klein told CBS affiliate KPIX 5</a>. &#8220;It does have them scatter from the tree and we’ll try that for a few weeks and ultimately we’ll see if that actually works.&#8221;
While there&#8217;s <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/reports/Wildlife%20Damage%20Management%20Technical%20Series/Bird-Dispersal-Techniques-WDM-Technical-Series.pdf">USDA evidence</a> from the cities of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/784728412/this-minnesota-city-has-a-bird-poop-problem-but-the-crow-patrol-is-on-it">Rochester, Minnesota</a> and Auburn, New York that these cheap green lasers are an effective crow repellant, the local Audubon Society isn&#8217;t convinced that it&#8217;s a safe or permanent solution.
&#8220;We don’t see the use of lasers as a reasonable way to address the problem of overpopulation among these intelligent birds. They may leave for a while, but will likely return,&#8221; the Santa Clara Audubon Society said in a statement provided to KPIX 5. &#8220;We question the legality of this tactic and believe it requires a permit if it is allowed at all.&#8221;
&#8220;Additionally, lasers pose a threat of blindness to the birds which we cannot condone, as well as a risk to humans and aircraft,&#8221; the statement continued, adding that the city should consult with the Department of Fish and Wildlife lest they find themselves in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
While the potential for a showdown between Sunnyvale city government and local environmentalists is high, so too are residents&#8217; frustrations — and ultimately, it may teach other towns a lesson in how to get away with murder.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/01/11/crows-everywhere-and-this-citys-going-to-do-something-about-it/">Crows everywhere, and Sunnyvale’s going to do something about it</a> [The Mercury News]
More corvids: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-proved-crows-conscious-experiences">Scientists Claim to Have Proven that Crows Have Conscious Experiences</a>

Corvid Pandemic

Invasion of the garbage-snatchers. 

Silicon Valley City to Use Cheapo Lasers to Fight Invasion of Furious Crows

An options trader-turned-economic philosopher is slamming Bitcoin, calling it a &#8220;disease.&#8221;
In a series of tweets this week, Nasim Nicholas Taleb, NYU risk engineering professor and author of the 2007 book &#8220;The Black Swan,&#8221; called Bitcoin a &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1483087946504933376">contagious disease</a>&#8221; built on bringing in &#8220;suckers&#8221; to build up a fragile speculative bubble that&#8217;s now set to burst.
Given that <a href="https://futurism.com/financial-analysts-crypto-winter">Bitcoin is expected to reach historic lows</a>, chances are his prediction could come true.
Before last summer, the author was a Bitcoin believer. In 2017, Taleb went so far as to write the foreword to &#8220;<a href="https://saifedean.com/thebitcoinstandard/">The Bitcoin Standard</a>,&#8221; written by fellow Lebanese countryman and economist Saifedean Ammous. In the book, both Taleb and Ammous championed the cryptocurrency as a way out of repeated financial crises caused by traditional banking.
Taleb has since had a huge change of heart and reversed his stance on Bitcoin. Last summer, he self-published a &#8220;<a href="https://nassimtaleb.org/2021/06/bitcoin-currencies-bubbles/">black paper</a>&#8221; in which he explained why he no longer bought into the &#8220;hype&#8221; of Bitcoin and why he now considers it worthless and dangerous.
Since coming out swinging against the cryptocurrency, the writer hasn&#8217;t backed down, calling BTC proponents &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1421072350288781314">imbeciles</a>,&#8221; and <a href="https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1475934622164951049">the currency itself</a> &#8220;an awkward, clunky, and already obsolete product of low interest rates.&#8221;
The proposition of cryptocurrencies at large acting as an &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/13/black-swan-author-nassim-taleb-says-bitcoin-is-worth-zero.html">insurance policy</a>&#8221; against governments controlling financial markets has failed tremendously, Taleb argued in his paper.
&#8220;It is indeed desirable to have at least one real currency without a government,&#8221; Taleb argued in the paper. &#8220;But the new currency just needs to be more appealing as a store of value by tracking a weighted basket of goods and services with minimum error.&#8221;
Indeed, Taleb argues that Bitcoin is no real currency at all, but people confuse it for one due to its speculative worth and its prominent volatility.
&#8220;Few assets in financial history have been more fragile than Bitcoin,&#8221; he wrote in the paper.
On his Twitter feed, Taleb has repeatedly been far harsher than he was in the paper, <a href="https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1451152923392675840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1451152923392675840%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2021-10-21%2Ftaleb-calls-bitcoin-a-tulip-bubble-without-the-aesthetics">likening Bitcoin speculation</a> to a less-aesthetic iteration of the infamous <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutch_tulip_bulb_market_bubble.asp">17th century Dutch tulip bubble</a> — which ended in disaster.
While he&#8217;s not the first former crypto stan to change his tune, Taleb provides academic explanations for his evolving opinions.
With the crypto world becoming more and more mainstream, such rigor is pretty refreshing — regardless of whether you agree or not.
READ MORE: <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/black-swan-nassim-taleb-bitcoin-crypto-disease-worthless-speculative-bubble-2022-1">&#8216;Black Swan&#8217; author warns bitcoin is a worthless, speculative bubble</a> [Business Insider]
More bolstering this take: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/bitcoin-crash-turmoil-kazakhstan">Bitcoin Crashes as Major Crypto Country Shuts Down Entire Internet</a>

Bitcoin Disease

"Few assets in financial history have been more fragile than Bitcoin."

Ex-Crypto Backer: Bitcoin Is a “Contagious Disease” and It’s About to Get Nasty

Print anytime and anywhere with a compact and dependable portable printer.

Equip Your Mobile Office With One of the Best Portable Printers

As climate change continues to wreak untold havoc across the world, many are starting to take the idea of <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist-warns-countries-geoengineering">geoengineering</a> — the process of artificially changing the Earth’s climate — <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-geoengineering-research">more seriously</a> than ever. 
While some believe that spraying aerosols into the atmosphere to dim the Sun and cool the Earth, known as solar geoengineering, is a viable solutions to the climate crisis, there are plenty of dissenters too. 
That’s why a group of more than 60 scientists and policy experts have <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.754">signed an open letter</a> calling on governments to ban solar geoengineering. They argue that the practice could have massive unintended consequences for much of the world. 
&#8220;We contend, in particular, that solar geoengineering at planetary scale is not governable in a globally inclusive and just manner within the current international political system,&#8221; reads the letter, which was published in the journal WIREs Climate Change. 
&#8220;We therefore call upon governments and the United Nations to take immediate and effective political control over the development of solar geoengineering technologies,&#8221; it added. 
The letter lays out a variety of unintended consequences that could occur if solar blocking techniques were employed. Its authors believe that solar geoengineering is still an underresearched topic — and could pose a grave threat if implemented.
&#8220;Impacts are likely to vary across regions, as artificial cooling will affect some regions more than others,&#8221; the letter said. &#8220;There are also uncertainties about the effects on regional weather patterns, agriculture, and the provision of basic needs of food and water.&#8221;
The authors also believe that it would be nigh impossible to govern solar geoengineering in a fair and equitable way, since it would impact the entire globe. It added that the &#8220;global poor are extremely vulnerable to any change in their environment&#8221; and are at the greatest risk if any solar engineering would occur. 
All told, it’s a compelling argument — and one that will no doubt take center stage as world leaders try to grapple with the impact of climate change. 
Let’s just hope no erratic billionaire takes matters into their own hands and just geoengineers the planet on their own a la Neal Stephenson&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/termination-shock-neal-stephenson">Termination Shock</a>.&#8221;
More on geoengineering: <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/termination-shock-neal-stephenson">Climate Scientist Warns That Countries Are Going to Start Geoengineering the Earth</a>

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