wait, what does a doomsday clock have to do with us?
indulge us for a moment, and we'll get there. but if you really want to cut to the chase, click
here.
this sectional is heavily themed around the doomsday clock by the bulletin of the atomic scientists.
we swear we're not just saying what they have to say, however! we share many of the beliefs that they share; we just happen to find the doomsday clock analogy quite charming.
the doomsday clock was created by the bulletin of the atomic scientists in 1947 during the advent of the atomic age, when humanity figured out a means of being its own demise.
it's meant as an indicator of how humanity is faring and whether it's bettering or worsening its own prospects for survival.
throughout the years, the clock has seen a number of changes closer to and farther from midnight, or doomsday.
how are we doing then?
poorly. the farthest humanity's been from midnight was in 1991, when the clock was at 17 minutes to midnight. so how the hell did we end up at 89 seconds to midnight?
well, we could sit here all day listing off what humanity's done wrong, but then we'd be here all day. so here's three:
accelerating climate change that threatens to irreversibly destroy the ecosystems we depend on for life
a growing number of problems in human health, including anti-microbial resistance, emerging pathogenic diseases, and neglect of existing pathogenic diseases
deterioration of international geopolitics leading to democratic backsliding globally, an inability to cooperate on the aforementioned problems, and the potential for highly destructive wars
considering the decades of so-called innovation since 1991, you'd think the world would be better at finding solutions to these problems. however:
medicine being a commercial enterprise creates a disparity in who can access care, provides no profit motive for studying neglected diseases, and means that international cooperation is near impossible
the creation of the internet, but without meaningful legislation, has created a misinformation problem that directly fuels problems such as democratic backsliding
the rise of new technologies such as ai has exacerbated the problems of misinformation, accelerating climate change, and more
quite frankly we need to do something differently if we want the world to not just be better, but also survive:
Blindly continuing on the current path is a form of madness.
— Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
it doesn't have to be this way
lunatic lab's mission is to save the world. yeah, right. we know we're not going to single-handedly solve all the world's problems. but we can try. and we can start by rejecting the status quo.
lunatic lab exists because we don't care about the existing guidebooks that explain how to run a profitable business.
rather then selling a solution to an either existent or non-existent problem, we're instead here to solve problems.
as a consequence, we can't tell you exactly what it is we offer, but we can tell you the rather... unorthodox principles that we abide by:
no fear. the traditional advice for building a successful business is to specialize in something lucrative, scale it up, and walk away with the profits. but our definition of success isn't measured by dollars;
it's measured by how much good we've done for people. this means that once a venture succeeds, we aren't just going to play it safe and cash out. this time next week,
you'll see us back in the lab throwing out more world changing ideas that we can now fund with our profits.
want equipment to experiment with biology at home? what about the tools to be able to fabricate semiconductors at home? you never know!
no markups. okay, not literally. however, we do believe that our business's products should help as many people as possible.
this means that as long as there's enough income to keep the lights on and product to go around, you'll see as minimal of a markup as we can reasonably charge.
forget about 20% markup (though, if you want to help our mission, you're always free to tip!)
no trade secrets. secrets mean a lack of knowledge, and a lack of knowledge means a lack of innovation. how are we supposed to make the world a better place without inventive people collaborating to find solutions to problems?
unless we have to due to licensing agreements or in the name of safety, we promise that everything we create will go out into the world for others to iterate and improve on. our business structure isn't exempt from this either;
if you're interested in starting your own world changing internet anti-capitalist workers cooperative, we're eager to share!
this may seem like lunacy to the average bystander. after all, why partake on a venture that doesn't make us rich, satisfy shareholders, or keep us out of the eye of controversy?
because this is how we make a better world possible.
