I get your point but I don't like this framing. What ultimately matters is how much CO2 ends up in the atmosphere, and not whether it happened to be emitted before or after 2050. So installations a couple of years ago were just as much of a middle finger as those installed today.

A beautiful example of British understatement!

"the absolute best sex I have in life is with my wife" Just to clarify, you seem to be suggesting that it's not the only sex you have. Is that the fess?

That was shaping up to be a truly dark fess.

My broad answer to that is that if they don't follow some of our recommendations, it will be publicly checkable that they have not done so. Maybe that's not a "plan" in the sense you are talking about, but I hope it's at least something.

We took carefully into account feedback from over 600 mathematicians. Of course, they expressed a range of views, but I think that on each specific issue the majority view (of those who expressed a view) was well aligned with the prevailing view on the committee. 3/3

One of our main recommendations is that such results should be posted as quickly as possible, where that means as soon as certain minimum standards have been met, as outlined in particular in Section 2 of the recommendations. 2/3

I think the way some in those companies see it is that they are genuinely concerned, but are also worried that if they stop dangerous development, other companies will still carry on. So they wait for regulation that won't come while Trump thinks talk of extinction risk is a hoax.

Olympic medals sometimes get retrospectively awarded when someone has their medal stripped for doping.

One difference is that referees for journals are anonymous. If one of us rushes to build on one of OpenAI's papers before anyone else gets the chance, it will be very public. More generally, I think, and indeed hope, the whole idea of being admired for "winning races" is coming to an end soon.

The scenario you describe would indeed be extremely unfair, and I don't think I'm stepping out of line by saying that.

That was probably the highlight. I haven't had a moment to visit this year, but really want to do so to see whether any of the small signs of change (such as bramble patches) have developed into larger or more interesting signs.

For the benefit of anyone who might think this refers to the field of mathematics (which is in a state of extraordinary upheaval), let me make clear that it is in fact about a literal field. When I last checked, I was delighted to see that some willows had gone from waist high to taller than me.

We also plan to be as open as possible about the recommendations we end up making, including explaining why we made them.

We are reading all of them, and while it is impossible to agree with all of them (since, unsurprisingly, a wide range of views are expressed), my sense is that the views of the committee are pretty representative, even if the people are not.

Unfortunately so do City.