Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Reason
by Jeffrey A Singer

“Alberta joins 17 U.S. states that have given trained optometrists the green light to perform certain advanced procedures, giving patients more eye care options.” (11/12/26)

https://reason.com/2026/11/12/let-optometrists-wield-lasers/

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“For years, states have been joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). The compact commits these states to award all their Electoral College presidential votes to the winner of the popular vote nationwide, even if a majority of their own state voters choose a different candidate. It kicks in once enough states sign up to equal the 270 Electoral College votes required to win the presidency. … Once we elect the president purely on the total vote nationally, will sanctuary state California give the nearly five million non-citizens living there the vote for president? Those additional voters would constitute about two percent of the electorate in the entire country.” (11/12/26)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/11/12/brave-new-presidential-contest/

Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan

“AI pessimists’ most powerful debating point is that, unlike normies, they foresaw the future. Back when AI was embarrassingly dumb, AI pessimists warned that it would rapidly improve. And rapidly improve it did. … Given the pessimists’ foresight and my confessed lack thereof, there is a strong reason to consider them to be more reliable than yours truly on the subject of AI. I freely concede that. But AI pessimists plus Bryan Caplan are not the only people in world. Most notably, there have long been AI optimists. They too foresaw the future back when AI was embarrassingly dumb.” (11/12/26)

https://www.betonit.ai/p/so-far-ai-pessimism-is-observationally

Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander

“You may remember stories of bitter unionization battles at places like Starbucks, but AI workers can probably route around that. The toughest labor disputes happen in fields where the employer could easily fire all the organized workers and replace them from a bottomless pool of faceless scabs: although this is illegal, everyone needs to be maximally lawyered-up to prevent it. But there are so few skilled AI researchers that these laws are hardly necessary; if a dozen top AI researchers threaten to walk, it doesn’t matter whether Section P Sub-Section Q forces the AI company to negotiate – the AI company will want to negotiate.” (11/12/26)

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/ai-company-employees-should-unionize