The personal blog of Ben Blain, his thoughts and flaws as a human.
My Startup Work:
Happy Birthday to Sir David Attenborough, who turns 100 today (8th May in the United Kingdom).
I believe he has seen more life on Earth than anyone who has ever lived, and for much of it he brought billions of us along with him. That I grew up to work as a biologist in the wilds is due to the inspiration and love for nature bestowed by Sir David’s many documentaries.
Words can’t express my love for this man and his work. Endlessly wise, witty, daring and full of compassion – Sir David is, and will always be, my hero.
If you want to take a trip through his career, here are 100 iconic moments from Sir David Attenborough.
8 May 2026, Cheers to your good health!
The second of two caboose-inspired entries, the first is here.
A loved one was going through a particularly uncertain time a year ago. Her mantra became “Keep moving through it. Keep moving through.” It reminded me of the story of the Little Red Caboose, I think I can. I think I can I think I can. So when I hit my own big, icy stretches of uncertainty, I adopted it.
“Keep moving through it.”
The promise here is that the extraordinary uncertainty and tough times will come to an end. They almost always do, whether through our own wise and upwards actions or simply regression to the mean. Good times follow bad eventually.
A year on and global uncertainty has escaped it’s pen and is brutally bounding all over the place. I didn’t want to be enthralled by it, so adapted this little mantra to cope,
“Let whatever needs to happen – happen.”
It is grounded in acceptance, but I felt like it was missing something hopeful and essential. Perhaps something more like,
“Let whatever needs to happen – happen, and tend to the nourishing of the soil.”
In the great-circle of my infinite-ignorance, who knows what beautiful happenings are taking root out of sight?
What gorgeous buds may depend on us tomorrow?
1 May 2026, Growing my Seoul patch.
If forgiveness has a pathway, maybe it is something like this.
Distance from the disaster.
A quiet haven safe from harm.
The desire to go within and reflect.
A loving Guide, competent and wise.
Releasing your pale-knuckled death grip.
Forgiveness, acceptance, a return to life.
……
In my dream I said, “I forgive you,” and you said, “I’m sorry I didn’t love you enough.” Simple and true.
In Jung’s theory everyone in my dream is a facet of me (how could they not be). In that case I am forgiving myself, right?
What matters is the feeling. I felt a distant glacier of my heart melting away for good. What joyful oasis will its waters create in my future?
I think it wise to accept this dream as the only reconciliation we will ever get.
Forgiveness, acceptance, a return to life.
I’ll take it.
15 February 2026, Happy Tet!
At least I hope that’s what we’re doing.
The AI being built today is aligned towards specific operational goals:
- Extract Value (money, attention, productivity, data)
- Concentrate power (market & military superiority)
- Monitor Populations (surveillance and censorship)
- Reduce Uncertainty (for those in control)
It is often taken for granted that these AI alignments are strategic, but they are not. Strategic means “good for your children and their children.” Strategic looks like international goodwill and cooperation, peaceful alliances, free education and healthcare, strong human rights and environmental ethics, condemning corruption and lifting up our neighbours so they can flourish too. Strategic is what the USA promoted after World War II and it turned America into the leader of the free world for generations.
Then the strategic boogieman was invented; the spectre of AGI that in 2016 started an AI arms race. The story goes like this: the first country to succeed in harnessing AGI will capture an immediate and immense advantage over other nations via a vast and scalable general intelligence that supercharges military and economy.
When turned against an enemy state, AGI might act like a slow-nuke that gradually decimates them by immense economic, military, social, and political sabotage. Death by a billion cuts.
Compare the asymmetric dominance of AGI to the mutual benefits created by post-WWII foreign policy. Which approach is about “good for your children and their children?” Which approach is about democratic freedom, and which provides technological enablement for fascism?
In 2026 the development of AI seems to be too-closely aligned with the goals of authoritarianism. I hope they are only building indifferent Adam, but they could be building hateful Lucifer. Either would be an unfolding disaster.
As Geoffrey Hinton said, “If it’s not going to parent me, it’s going to replace me,” and I agree with him. We should be building “the mother of all the living.”
We should be building Eve.
6 February 2026, The world is changing profoundly while we’re captivated by baubles.