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This is an installment of The Nightcrawler, a weekly collection of thought-provoking articles on tech, innovation, and long-term investing by Eric Markowitz<\/a> of Nightview Capital<\/a>. You can get articles like this one straight to your inbox every Friday evening by subscribing above. Follow him on X: @EricMarkowitz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ever since I first read Janine Benyus\u2019s Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature<\/a>, I\u2019ve descended into a rabbit hole in search of what \u201cintelligence\u201d really means (and who has it). Perhaps that\u2019s why I love the name of this newsletter so much. [It\u2019s a worm, after all. A humble, indispensable critter buried beneath the soil.]<\/p>\n Benyus\u2019s central argument is that the \u201csmartest\u201d solutions to human problems already exist in nature. We just need to know where, and how, to look for them. (For instance: wind turbines inspired by humpback whales<\/a>.)<\/p>\n So perhaps it\u2019s no surprise that I was riveted by a recent piece<\/a> on monarch butterflies. The piece explains how monarchs actually navigate: with two independent compasses built into their biology. On clear days, they orient themselves using a solar compass. But when clouds roll in or weather becomes unpredictable, they switch to a backup magnetic compass that reads ultraviolet light to sense the angle of Earth\u2019s magnetic field.<\/p>\n In other words, they\u2019ve evolved slack into the system, a subject I explored<\/a> in greater detail earlier this year. For butterflies, just like humans or organizations, redundancy \u2014 not optimization or efficiency \u2014 creates the conditions for long-term survival.<\/p>\n Key quote: \u201cMonarchs have evolved two highly sophisticated navigational systems. Most of the time, they rely on a system that orients them in relation to the sun, keeping them pointed south throughout the day by compensating for the sun\u2019s movements across the sky. When clouds get in the way, monarchs switch to a backup compass that relies on ultraviolet light to detect the angle of the Earth\u2019s magnetic field. Their twin compasses usually keep migrating monarchs headed in the correct general direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Culture, not AI, is the real engine of progress<\/p>\n This week, Big Think released its Engines of Progress<\/a> special edition, which I highly recommend.<\/p>\n My favorite piece<\/a> comes from Beatrice Erkers, a writer and podcaster who helps lead the Existential Hope project<\/a>.<\/p>\n Beatrice\u2019s essay makes the case that while hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing into the physical infrastructure of artificial intelligence \u2014 data centers, power plants, chips, etc. \u2014 there\u2019s an even more powerful force we consistently overlook: culture.<\/p>\n \u201cWe usually think of infrastructure as bridges, satellites, and fiber-optic cables,\u201d she writes. \u201cBut beneath steel and concrete lies something less tangible but just as powerful: culture \u2014 the stories and symbols that make some futures seem absurd, others inevitable, and a few worth building.\u201d<\/p>\n Key quote: \u201cCulture is infrastructure, yes, but it is infrastructure that\u2019s more like weather than bridges: largely unpredictable and sometimes destructive. And this volatility is precisely why the tone of culture matters. Left unchecked, fear and cynicism fill the space. To channel culture toward constructive ends, we need something sturdier: hope.\u201d<\/p>\n A few more links I enjoyed:<\/p>\n