About

In addition to blogging here, Anatoly Karlin also runs Arctic Progress.
You can also read his articles at Inosmi (на русском) and Al Jazeera.
Book Project
[progpress title="A History of the 21st Century" goal="100000" current="8216" previous="6724" label="words" separator=" of "]@facebook
Blogroll
- Blogroll (1)
- Collapse & Apocalypse (14)
- Da Russophile (Best Russia Sites) (29)
- A Good Treaty
- Austere Insomniac
- Demoscope Journal (Ru.)
- Expert Russia Discussion Group
- Johnson's Russia List
- Kremlin Stooge
- Levada Polls (Ru.)
- Mark Adomanis
- poemless, the blog
- Power Vertical
- Robert Amsterdam
- Rosstat (Ru.)
- Russia Monitor
- Russia Watchers
- Russia Watchers
- Russia: Other Points of View
- Sean's Russia Blog
- Siberian Light
- Streetwise Professor
- Sublime Oblivion @ InoSMI
- Truth and Beauty
- Economics (25)
- Energy & Environment (18)
- Friends of AK (12)
- humor (4)
- News & Analysis (11)
- russia (24)
- Russia Blogs (67)
- 3000 Versts of Loneliness
- A Good Treaty
- GUS News (De.)
- Ivanov Report
- Johnson's Russia List
- Kremlin Stooge
- Mark Adomanis
- Mat Rodina
- Mike Averko
- Misha's Russia Blog
- Moscow Tory
- Nicolai Petro
- Peter Lavelle
- poemless, the blog
- Power Vertical
- Robert Amsterdam
- RUSOURCE
- Russia Blog
- Russia Economy Watch
- Russia in the Media
- Russia Monitor
- Russia Watchers
- Russia Watchers
- Russia's Nuclear Forces
- Russia: Other Points of View
- Russian Victories
- Sean's Russia Blog
- Siberian Light
- Sublime Oblivion (Ru.)
- Sublime Oblivion @ InoSMI
- Truth and Beauty
- Vilhelm Konnander
- Stats (21)
- Sublime Links (51)
- A Fistful of Euros
- A Good Treaty
- Archdruid Report
- Austere Insomniac
- China Brief
- Climate Progress
- Cost of Energy
- Danger Room (Wired)
- Demoscope Journal (Ru.)
- Eurasia Daily Monitor
- eXiled online
- Expert Russia Discussion Group
- Fabius Maximus
- Kurzweil AI
- Levada Polls (Ru.)
- Mark Adomanis
- Oil Drum
- poemless, the blog
- Power Vertical
- Real Clear World
- Robert Amsterdam
- Rosstat (Ru.)
- Russia: Other Points of View
- Scholar's Stage
- Sean's Russia Blog
- Siberian Light
- Strategy Page
- STRATFOR
- Streetwise Professor
- Truth and Beauty
- Sublime Oblivion Links (32)
- There Will Be War! (8)
- Towards Singularity (11)
- Blogroll (1)
Tag Archives: science
The Power Of Contingency: Why China Didn’t Rule The World
Pomeranz, Kenneth – The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy (2001) Category: economy, history, world systems; Rating: 5*/5 Summary: Brad DeLong’s review; The Bactra Review; Are Coal and Colonies Really Crucial? It’s a rare book that not only … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Sublime Oblivion, The Sino Triumphalist
Tagged americas, china, cliodynamics, collapse, economy, europe, history, india, japan, russia, science, technology, thermoeconomics
71 Comments
Tales From The Beijing Embassy
Four cables from Cathay, courtesy of this excellent Cable Search tool. The first cable (Cable 1) is one of the last dispatches of Ambassador to the PRC Clark T. Randt, a long, analytical piece from January 2009. But it’s also … Continue reading
Posted in Coffee House, Sublime Oblivion, The Sublime Cables
Tagged africa, aid, cable, china, coal, corruption, economy, education, futurism, growth, hi-tech, human rights, imperialism, international relations, iq, kenya, peak oil, politics, resource depletion, rise of the rest, science, technology, urbanization, usa, vision, wikileaks
7 Comments
The Final Gambit: Geoengineering
It is very likely that efforts to prevent CO2 levels from soaring to 450ppm – the level we need to stop at to have any hope of limiting temperature rise to 2C or less – will fail. This will lead … Continue reading
Posted in Sublime Oblivion
Tagged authoritarianism, chaos, china, climate change, collapse, communism, energy, fantasy, geoengineering, geopolitics, global dimming, human rights, philosophy, science, technology, vision
6 Comments
Cliodynamics: Mathematizing History
One of the most interesting emerging sciences today, in my opinion, is cliodynamics. Their practitioners attempt to come to with mathematical models of history to explain “big history” – things like the rise of empires, social discontent, civil wars, and … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Sublime Oblivion
Tagged china, collapse, corruption, demography, education, history, review, Reviews, science, technology
5 Comments
Review of “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (J. Diamond)
While trawling through my computer archives, I stumbled across this book review of Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel” from five years ago. Overall, it’s a great book, better than his follow-up “Collapse”, which is also interesting – especially in … Continue reading
Posted in Coffee House, Reviews
Tagged agriculture, culture, demography, environment, pandemic, public health, review, science, technology
2 Comments
The Belief Matrix
Consequent to my post Categorizing the Russia Debate and the lively debate it spawned, it occurred to me that much of Russia’s tortured and intriguing history could be rationalized as a self-reinforcing loop within a belief matrix. This can even … Continue reading
Posted in Coffee House, Sublime Oblivion
Tagged chaos, climate change, collapse, geopolitics, history, human rights, islam, matrix, morale, peak oil, philosophy, resource depletion, science, usa, vision
12 Comments
Categorizing the Russia Debate
Here I will try to categorize all the major Russia-watching schools along two axes: 1) a Russophobe – Russophile axis and 2) a values spectrum on attitudes towards the West as a universal mental matrix. Along these lines I created … Continue reading
Posted in Da Russophile, Sublime Oblivion
Tagged blogging, core article, liberasty, morale, philosophy, rant, russians, russophobes, science, vision
80 Comments
The Dilemmas of Global Dimming
Not only is global warming a real and present threat that may yet in conjunction with impending energy shortages doom industrial civilization, it may have even been dangerously underestimated. What have you been smoking!?, you might say to me. Get … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Sublime Oblivion
Tagged agriculture, climate change, collapse, energy, environment, geopolitics, global dimming, resource depletion, Reviews, science, vision
3 Comments
Notes on “The Collapse of Complex Societies” (J. Tainter)
Tainter, Joseph – The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988) PDF Category: collapse, resource depletion; Rating: 5/5 Summary: Complexity, Problem Solving and Sustainable Societies (J. Tainter) 1996 As you may have noticed from the sidebar, I am currently researching a book … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Sublime Oblivion
Tagged collapse, corruption, education, energy, history, politics, resource depletion, Reviews, science
11 Comments
Sublime Oblivion – What Might Be Is
This is the first in a series of philosophical essays in which I outline my philosophy of Sublime Oblivion. Here I demonstrate the indivisibility of the material and Platonic worlds and show that our universe is almost certainly a computer simulation nested within an abstract computer program or simulacrum. The consequences of these results are explored. Continue reading
Posted in Coffee House, Sublime Oblivion
Tagged climate change, core article, energy, hi-tech, philosophy, science, space, technology, vision
6 Comments