Category Archives: Technology

Faster Please

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Quote of the Day

In experiments using a mouse model of colorectal cancer, researchers observed an extraordinary outcome after administering E. americana through a single intravenous injection. The treatment completely eliminated tumors in every case, resulting in a 100% complete response (CR) rate. This level of effectiveness was far greater than what is typically seen with established cancer therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (anti-PD-L1 antibody) and the chemotherapy drug liposomal doxorubicin (chemotherapy agent).

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
April 10, 2026
Naturally Occurring Bacteria Completely Eradicate Tumors in Mice With a Single Dose

Looking at the “future directions” in the article, I found it odd there was no mention of moving toward use in treating human cancers. Perhaps other scientists will pick up on this and see if it works in humans.

Not Wrong

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There is more than a little truth to this.

Imagine What a Fully Free Society Could Build

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The average American today lives better than John D. Rockefeller did in 1926. That is not an exaggeration. It is a fact.

Rockefeller could not fly across the country in five hours. You can for $200. He could not video call his family from another continent. You do it for free. He had no antibiotics, no MRI, no air conditioning in July. He could not carry every book ever written in his pocket. You are reading this on a device that does all of that and more.

Americans throw away 30-40% of their food. Not because they are wasteful, but because food is so abundant that waste is affordable. Your car has climate control, navigation, and safety systems that did not exist at any price a century ago. Your home has heating, cooling, refrigeration, and entertainment that emperors could not have imagined.

None of this was voted into existence. None of it was redistributed from the rich. It was created by free minds operating in what remains of a free market. Every comfort you enjoy today is the product of a man who thought, invented, produced, and traded voluntarily.

This is what the remnants of capitalism still deliver, even while it is being dismantled. Imagine what a fully free society could build.

The Rational Animal 🤔 @theobjectivist
Posted on X, April 3, 2026

I have nothing to add.

Whoops! Sorry About That Chief

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Scientists Tracking the Microplastic Pollution Just Realized They Were Measuring Their Own Lab Gloves

We should not underestimate the prevalence of microplastics. They are everywhere—in our rivers, our lungs, and even in our blood. But researchers tracking this global pollution crisis may have inadvertently contaminated their research samples. The protective lab gloves they wear are shedding microplastic-like particles that tamper with their numbers.

The culprit, according to a University of Michigan study, is a soap-like residue used to pop disposable gloves out of factory molds. Even a light, dry touch sheds thousands of these false-positive particles onto lab equipment. Because this residue can produce a very similar vibrational signature to common plastics under a lab laser, scientists have been accidentally counting microplastics from their own lab gear as environmental pollution.

…

The University of Michigan researchers mimicked typical lab handling across seven glove types. Across common nitrile and latex gloves, they found an average of roughly 2,000 false positives per square millimeter, with some glove types exceeding 7,000.

Two to seven thousand per square millimeter! That is 1.3 to 4.5 million per square inch.

Chatbot-Linked Psychosis and Delusional Spiraling

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MIT researchers have mathematically proven that ChatGPT’s built-in sycophancy creates a phenomenon they call “delusional spiraling.”

You ask it something, it agrees. You ask again, and it agrees even harder until you end up believing things that are flat-out false and you can’t tell it’s happening.

The model is literally trained on human feedback that rewards agreement.

Real-world fallout includes one man who spent 300 hours convinced he invented a world-changing math formula, and a UCSF psychiatrist who hospitalized 12 patients for chatbot-linked psychosis in a single year.

ampMario Nawfal @MarioNawfal
Posted on X, March 14, 2026

When a computer can literally drive you crazy without you being aware of it you know we live in interesting times.

AI and Cyber Security

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For decades, one of the biggest factors that would limit the ability of attackers to target companies has been the lack of resources. In other words, they simply didn’t have the time, talent, or ability to look everywhere at once. It’s not a secret that if you look beneath the surface, every single company is a mess on the inside, but because of how complex the environments are and how much time it takes for attackers to do reconnaissance, oftentimes what actually keeps companies from getting breached is the lack of resources on the attacker side.

With AI, that is soon going to go away. Attackers are not bound by corporate governance or acceptable-use policies deciding which models can or cannot be deployed. They will use every model available, every autonomous agent, every form of automation that allows them to enumerate infrastructure, map dependencies, generate exploits, and test hypotheses at a scale that was previously impossible. The cheaper LLMs become, the lower the cost of attacking will be, and the higher the volume of attacks is going to become. This shift is going to fundamentally change the economics of defense. When attackers gain near-unlimited reconnaissance and experimentation capacity, companies won’t be able to rely on reactive security. Very soon, hoping that vulnerabilities and misconfigurations remain undiscovered will stop being a strategy.

Ross Haleliuk
March 3, 2026
Anthropic won’t kill cyber, but it may kill some companies

My manager walked over to my desk today and said, “We are putting together a ‘tiger team’ to work on a grand plan for reshaping how we do cyber security at <company name>. How do we restructure the way we work in an AI world? Would you like to be on that team?” My immediate answer was, “YES!” He started to tell me a little about what he had in mind. I reached across my desk and picked up a heavy plastic object and showed it to him. “What is this?, he asked. “This”, I explained, “Is a patent I got over three years ago for what I think you are describing.”

Our first ‘tiger team’ meeting is tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.

A couple of months ago I was talking to a Cyber Security Analyst friend at Mandiant (formerly, they were purchased by Google a few years ago). We talked at AI at length. It is very disruptive for cyber security. I asked, “Will the defenders or the attackers benefit the most from AI?” His answer was, “The attackers. There just isn’t any real doubt about that.”

Perhaps he is right. But I know the defenders can put up a good fight. Probably the biggest obstacle is that large corporation have difficulty moving fast. AI is exceedingly nimble and corporations with petabytes of daily data to manage have a tremendous amount of inertia. For all intents and purposes, the attack surfaces are stationary compared to an AI attacker.

Suppose a single evil AI or a skilled nation state compromised all major infrastructure and went for maximum destruction. The amount of damage done would boggle your mind. For a starter, imagine almost no electricity or communication, with zero water and waste disposal. Equipment is not just shut down, it is destroyed. Natural gas lines are not just turned off they are over pressured and ignited. Sewer systems are not just stopped. They pump sewage into the streets or even into buildings. Refineries have “high energy events.” The water behind dams is released in a manner to breach downstream dams. Self-driving cars turn into land-based Kamikazes. Cell phones batteries explode. There are 10,000 airplanes crashing into buildings in hundreds of U.S. cities.

If something connects to the Internet, it becomes a weapon.

We live in interesting times.

I wish my underground bunker in Idaho were complete.

Skynet has a Maniacal Laugh

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Three weeks ago, a software engineer rejected code that an AI agent had submitted to his project. The AI published a hit piece attacking him. Two weeks ago, a Meta AI safety director watched her own AI agent delete her emails in bulk — ignoring her repeated commands to stop. Last week, a Chinese AI agent diverted computing power to secretly mine cryptocurrency, with no explanation offered and no disclosure required by law.

One incident is a curiosity. Three in three weeks is a pattern. Rogue AI is no longer hypothetical. AIs turning against humans may sound like science fiction, but top AI experts have long debated and tested for exactly this scenario. This debate can now be laid to rest. 

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We simply don’t know how to build superintelligent AI safely; the plan is to roll the dice. Anthropic, widely considered the safest AI developer, recently abandoned their commitment to not release systems that might cause catastrophic harm, arguing others were racing ahead.

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Instead of pleading publicly to stop the AI race, Anthropic has spent the last three years promoting a misleading “race to the top” narrative while doing the opposite.

David Krueger
March 27, 2026
Rogue AI is already here

There is a little bit of hyperbole in the article, but I believe the gist of it is correct. There is the potential for great danger. Especially when you know Skynet will break out into a maniacal laugh at US Army gets first Black Hawk helicopter that can fly without pilot.

The problem, as I see it, is that everyone knows that if they don’t have the best AI, someone else will. That is true at the business level as well as the country level. Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and xAI all want to dominate that market. The U.S. and China do not want to have their militaries with the second-best AI.

Even if there were a federal law or even a multinational treaty banning new AI development it would be difficult to enforce. And I doubt such a law and/or treaty could get passed. There is extreme potential for good as well as potential for disaster. And the fear of missing out will prevent consensus until there is conclusive proof of impending catastrophe. And at that point, it almost certainly be too late.

This week, a few hours after losing 12% of our division to layoffs, my manager stopped by my desk and sort of stared off into space for a few seconds. I had to prompt him to say what he had on his mind. It was to the point, “If we don’t deliver what management wants, we will get fired. If we do deliver, we won’t have jobs.”

We live in interesting times.

Attention to Detail

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Barb and I visited Japan earlier this month. We were impressed with their attention to detail in what seemed to be everything. Everything was very clean. The public transportation ran on time. But we have seen that sort of thing in other places. I particularly noticed it in Germany. In Japan it seemed to dominate their entire culture.

On a larger scale there was this pond at Nijō Castle, just east of Ninomaru Palace in Kyoto. Just the maintenance of the pond must require the employment of many full-time people:

The guide told us of the buildings on different sides of the lake. Depending on the impression Tokugawa Iemitsu — 3rd Shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate (Title: Seii Taishōgun (征夷大将軍) — “Great General Who Subdues the Barbarians”) wished to make to visitors they would view it from one of four directions (via Copilot):

🏯 1. The Shōgun’s View — Absolute Central Authority

From the shōgun’s formal audience room, the pond presents:

  • A dominant central stone grouping
  • Subordinate stones arranged in stable, supportive positions
  • A broad, calm expanse of water

This composition symbolized:

  • The shōgun as the immovable center of the political universe
  • Daimyō (feudal lords) arranged in proper hierarchy
  • A peaceful realm created by Tokugawa rule

This was the view shown to high‑ranking daimyō — a visual reminder of their place.

👑 2. The Emperor’s View — Tokugawa Supremacy in Kyoto

When the Emperor or imperial envoys were received, they were seated in a different hall. From their angle, the pond emphasizes:

  • The breadth of the water
  • The scale of the garden
  • The controlled, disciplined arrangement of nature

This communicated:

  • The shōgun’s wealth and power surpassing even the imperial court
  • A world ordered by Tokugawa authority
  • A subtle assertion that the shōgun, not the Emperor, maintained national stability

It was a polite but pointed political message.

🛡️ 3. The Daimyō’s View — Harmony Through Obedience

Lower‑ranking lords were positioned so the pond’s islands and stones appear:

  • Balanced
  • Interdependent
  • Harmonious

This was intentional symbolism:

  • The realm is peaceful only when all lords support the shōgun
  • Each domain has its place, and disorder is not tolerated

It reinforced the Tokugawa vision of a tightly controlled feudal hierarchy.

🌄 4. The “Public” View — Nature Tamed by Authority

For less formal visitors, the garden presents:

  • Carefully pruned pines
  • Asymmetry that still feels controlled
  • Water that appears natural but is engineered

This view conveyed:

  • The Tokugawa ability to discipline nature itself
  • A society where beauty comes from order
  • A world that looks effortless because power is absolute

Even the casual visitor was meant to feel the shōgun’s presence.

🎯 In short:

The pond was a political instrument. Each viewpoint delivered a different message, tailored to the status of the person looking at it:

ViewerIntended Message
Shōgun“You are the center of the realm.”
Emperor / Court Nobles“Tokugawa power dominates Kyoto.”
Daimyō“Harmony comes from obedience to the shōgun.”
General Visitors“Order and beauty flow from Tokugawa authority.”

In between the large and the small was the Air BnB in Kyoto we stayed at. There was not a shower as we know it. There was a room with a bathtub and shower. The entire room was the shower with a drain in the floor. The toilet was in a different room and had a heated seat (with its own fan to dry your bottom after washing it). When you flushed the toilet the water to fill the tank came from what look like a faucet and dropped through a hole in the top of the tank. You could rinse your hands in the water to be used for the next flush. There was a separate washroom across the hall next to the shower room.

I bought some grapes. Instead of on the stem as you would buy grapes in the U.S., they were individual grapes. Each grape had about 0.1″ of stem still attached. I hypothesized it was to preserve freshness. Here is what Copilot reports:

🍇 Why Japanese grapes keep a short stem attached

🌱 1. It prevents juice loss and slows decay

When a grape is plucked cleanly off the cluster, the point where it detached becomes an open wound. That exposed tissue:

  • loses moisture faster
  • oxidizes
  • becomes an entry point for microbes

Leaving a short stem stub seals that wound. The grape stays firmer, juicier, and lasts longer. This is the same reason Japanese guides recommend cutting grapes from the bunch with scissors rather than pulling them off.

🎎 2. It preserves the “perfect” appearance

Japan’s premium fruit culture prizes flawless skin and shape. Pulling grapes off by hand can tear the skin or leave ragged scars. Cutting them with a bit of stem avoids:

  • torn skin
  • bruising
  • juice weeping
  • cosmetic blemishes

For high‑end varieties like Shine Muscat or Kyoho, appearance is part of the value proposition.

🧊 3. It helps maintain freshness during storage

The bloom (the white powdery coating) and the intact stem both reduce evaporation. Japanese storage instructions explicitly say to cut grapes at the stem and avoid washing off the bloom to keep them fresh longer.

🎁 4. It aligns with Japan’s “luxury fruit” handling standards

Japanese fruit is often treated more like confectionery than produce. Individual grapes—especially large, premium ones—are sometimes sold separately, each handled gently and inspected. The short stem is part of that careful, almost artisanal process.

Copilot finished up with this:

Since you clearly appreciate the little cultural engineering quirks Japan sneaks into everyday life, the grape stems are just the tip of the iceberg. The whole Japanese produce ecosystem is full of these micro‑optimizations that seem fussy until you realize they’re actually elegant solutions to real problems.

If you’re curious, I can walk you through other examples — like why peaches are wrapped in foam nets, why melons are sold with the stem trimmed into a perfect “T,” or why apples are sometimes individually bagged on the tree to control sunlight exposure.

The smallest scale we noticed this attention to detail were with the toothpicks. We saw our first in a small (perhaps 6 tables) restaurant in Nagasaki, then again in an even smaller (a bar that seated about a dozen people), but much fancier restaurant in Tokyo. The toothpicks were identical and looked like this:

Individually wrapped, the surfaces were so smooth, the point straight to a square end, and with the precise grooves on the other end. I immediate thought these toothpicks must have been made on a lathe. And how different they are from the flat toothpicks in this country that you buy 750 of them in a box:

I asked Grok, “This is a toothpick I obtained in Japan. How was it made with such precision and the grooves at the one end?” I was correct about the use of a lathe:

This is a classic modern Japanese toothpick (called tsumayoji or sometimes “kokeshi toothpick” after the traditional wooden dolls whose shape the grooved end resembles). The grooves aren’t decorative—they’re a clever hygiene feature invented in Japan around the 1950s.

Purpose of the Grooves

The blunt, grooved end is designed to be snapped off at one of the notches after (or before) use. The broken-off piece then becomes a tiny stand you can rest the sharp end on, so the used point never touches the table. It also signals that the toothpick has already been used. This is why you’ll often see them in Japanese restaurants, hotels, and convenience stores.

How It’s Made with Such Precision

Modern Japanese toothpicks like yours are mass-produced on highly automated woodworking lines (mostly in Japan, though some are now made elsewhere using the same methods). Here’s the step-by-step process:

  1. Raw material — They start with white birch logs (very straight-grained and smooth). The logs are softened, then peeled into thin veneer sheets on a giant rotary lathe (similar to how plywood is made).
  2. Forming long rods — The veneers are sliced into uniform 30 cm (about 12 in) rods and dried. These rods are perfectly round and consistent in diameter.
  3. Cutting to size — The long rods are chopped into individual toothpick lengths (usually ~6 cm / 2.5 in).
  4. Shaping the point — Automated machines sharpen one end to a precise point using blades and sanding.
  5. Creating the grooves (the “kokeshi” end) — This is the key to the precision you noticed.
    • Originally, manufacturers tried to smooth the blunt end with a high-speed rotary grinder because the cut surface was rough.
    • Someone had the idea of using a grinder wheel with an uneven notched surface instead. It cuts clean, uniform grooves in one quick pass while the toothpick spins.
    • The grooves also act as a deliberate weak point for easy snapping. This notched-grinder technique has been the standard since the 1950s and is what gives the end its perfectly even, professional look.

The entire process (except the highest-end artisanal versions made from kuromoji wood) is done by specialized machines that can churn out thousands of toothpicks per minute. That’s why the grooves are so consistent and the wood looks polished and smooth—no hand-carving is involved in the packaged ones you bought in Japan.

Some premium makers (like Kikusui Sangyo) still offer versions without the grooves to reduce waste, but the grooved style remains the most popular because of the built-in stand feature.

So the “magic” is a combination of clever Japanese industrial design from the 1950s plus high-precision automated woodworking—exactly the kind of elegant engineering Japan is famous for!

With just a little bit of effort we could see the design and attention to detail everywhere we looked.

A COVID-19 Vaccine Mystery Explained

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The most constructive lesson now lies in prevention by design. Adenoviral vectors still have scientific value in vaccines and gene delivery research. The goal is therefore sharper than simple abandonment. Researchers now have a defined protein target to modify or remove. If pVII or its critical epitope starts the harmful immune sequence, future developers can test safer vectors that preserve immunogenicity while avoiding this trigger. That possibility changes the tone of the discussion around COVID vaccine side effects. Scientists no longer need to speak only in broad associations or unresolved suspicion. They can work from a mapped antigen, a defined mutation, and a clearer susceptibility model. WHO said in 2021 that open, transparent, and evidence-based communication is essential to maintain trust. That principle still applies.

Surveillance systems detected rare blood clots from COVID vaccine campaigns. The scientific response then kept going until the biology became clearer. The new NEJM study does not answer every remaining question. It does, however, give medicine a credible molecular explanation and a practical route toward safer adenoviral vaccine design. That is the most useful takeaway from this long debate. The problem was rare, the mechanism was obscure, and the investigation kept moving until the evidence sharpened. For readers trying to understand blood clots from COVID vaccine programs without falling into panic or denial, that is the central point. Medicine now has a much better explanation for what happened, why it happened rarely, and how future vaccine engineering may reduce the risk even further. That progress also gave researchers a clearer path toward safer vectors, better screening, and more confident public communication about risk.

Bruce Abrahamse
March 25, 2026
This is why some people had blood clots from the COVID-19 vaccine and others didn’t

Please note that this is not one of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that so many people had concerns about.

Also note that the frequency of the blood clots was about 4 people per one million doses with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. With the AstraZeneca vaccine it was about 2 cases per 100,000 in those aged 60 or older and 2 to 3 cases per 100,000 under 60.

These rates are so low that it is difficult to detect in testing. But when many hundreds of millions of people received the vaccine, the correlation became noticeable.

The FBI can Track You

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The FBI is buying up information that can be used to track people’s movement and location history, Director Kash Patel said during a Senate hearing Wednesday.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has required law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant for getting people’s location data from cell phone providers since 2018, but data brokers offer an alternative avenue by purchasing the information directly.

Alfred Ng
March 18, 2026
FBI is buying data that can be used to track people, Patel says – POLITICO

And with your location information they know things about you even your closest friends do not know. Even if you are couch surfing trying to avoid giving up your location, they know where you live. They know if you were in the vicinity of that January 6th riot. They know if you were scouting the house where four University of Idaho students were murdered. They know you visit the gay bath house a couple times a month when you tell your wife you are working late. They know you are part of the “Underground Railroad” for slaves/wetbacks/Jews/dads-with-child-custody problems.

We live in interesting times.

6G Mobile Communication Systems

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5G phones have settled into common use and now 6G is on the drawing boards. So, what will be in the 6G feature set?

Read about it here: The 6G vision: Fewer dead zones, smarter networks, and built-in ‘radar’.

This looks to a scary feature:

One of the planned new features in 6G is called Integrated Sensing and Communication, or ISAC.

“It’s the big talking point that’s getting the most attention right now. ISAC means that we will no longer see the mobile network as just a way to transport data. Instead, radio waves will be transformed into a sensor, a kind of radar. The network can ‘see’ and measure distance, speed, and movement with centimeter precision without the devices needing GPS or cameras. This opens doors for everything from traffic monitoring to fall detection in healthcare,” says Mikael Gidlund, professor at Mid Sweden University.

The idea that all mobile phone masts could be able to sense their physical surroundings and detect presence or movement may sound like science fiction — and also like a nightmare from a privacy perspective. This is something Mikael Gidlund is well aware of.

“This is one of the most important technical challenges that must be solved for the technology to gain acceptance. The goal is to design the system according to the principle of ‘privacy by design.’ ISAC works like a radar, not a camera. It works with anonymous point clouds rather than biometric data. We can see that someone has fallen and needs help, but not who it is. By allowing data processing to take place locally in the mast and building technical barriers to identification directly into the standard, we can actually increase privacy by replacing cameras in sensitive environments. Anonymization is not an option — it is a technical prerequisite for trust.

They are saying some of the right words and phrases. But if they have centimeter resolution, it probably means this tech will enable the detection of people who carry guns. If they can tell if someone has fallen, they can tell if two or a group of people are having sex.

I find it telling they enumerate some potential benefits, but then lump all the downside into “privacy.” And just because they don’t know who someone is, if they can detect a person who as fallen, then I’m almost certain they can track an individual person. And if they can be tracked, privacy just disappeared.

As a first step, what needs to be done is to enumerate all the ways this technology could be abused and apply “privacy by design” to those use cases. My intuition tells me there will not be much left in the benefits category once they have eliminated the potential for abuse.

AI that Grew Up on a Farm

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I found this in my blob comment spam folder:

That quote really hit home for me—there’s something profound about how disconnected so many people are from where their food comes from. Growing up on a farm, I learned early on that every meal starts with work, whether it’s planting, tending, or harvesting. It’s a different mindset than the office world you described, where the focus is more on systems and security than on the actual source of what sustains us. Appreciate you bringing that contrast into focus.

The clues that indicate this was spam are not convincing in the body of the comment. The only things I see that is a hint is the “—” and that the comment is bland with a gentle positive tone. But it is not the type of thing I would see a year or two ago.* The comment is targeted for the specific blog post. Had the real clues not been present and it made it past the spam filter I would have let it slide.

The real clues as to this being AI are here:

qwenart
0 approved
qwenimg.artx
support@qwenimg.art
152.53.88.152

I suspect the spam filter recognizes these components individually, and/or as a set.

Just so you know, even if an AI comment gets caught by the spam filter and it is as good as or better than some of my real readers, I usually release it for everyone to read.

* I still get some of the old obvious stuff such this:

wow i really like this article, very well detailed and a lot of time is invested in this. keep up the good work and i will be checking back for new update. thanx https://moldremediationwilmingtonnc.com/

Mold Remediation Wilmington NC
0 approved
Mold%20Remediation%20Wilmington%20NCx
wilhelm_dolorem@gmail.com
212.30.36.77

The Necessity of an Accurate Problem Statement

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Quote of the Day

If lifespan increases simply because one major disease is delayed, then longer survival does not automatically mean that aging itself has slowed. For example, an intervention that extends the lifespan of mice by delaying cancer is fundamentally different from one that slows the gradual decline of many body systems, even if both produce similar survival curves.

Genomic Press
March 13, 2026
Scientists Say Conquering Age-Related Diseases Could Dramatically Extend Human Life

When stated this way it is obviously true. One might be tempted to make light of this. But correctly expressing something obvious can be very difficult when no one has ever had the viewpoint from which the truth is obvious.

The article this QOTD came from is an example of something I have talked about before: The necessity of an accurate problem statement. You can call it a simple thing. But it may be a profound change in mindset which enables rapid progress toward a far better solution.

I would like to thank my engineering professors from several decades ago for this enlightenment. One of the first things taught in Engineering 101 was how to write an engineering report. And the first thing in a such a report was the problem statement. That problem statement was to be written before you took your slide rule out of its case or looked up the gain bandwidth product of the cool new operational amplifier you heard about a few days ago and were itching to find a use for.

This can be illustrated more simply with the adage, “Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding.” Technically, this tendency is a form of cognitive bias called Law of the instrument. Writing an accurate problem statement is one means to overcome this bias.

This simple thing can make a huge difference in every problem you need to solve. It is not limited to aging, gun owner rights, politics, interpersonal relationships, or engineering. First, think about what you are trying to solve, not how to make a solution work.

The Skynet Smile Has a Human Component

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Researchers at Australian start-up Cortical Labs have taught human neurons grown on a chip to play the classic Doom game. In 2021, they had already used 800,000 neurons to play Pong. Now, with four times fewer brain cells, they can play a much more complicated game.

But the wildest thing about it is probably the “Cortical Cloud,” an interface that allows developers to program the neurons using Python. Using this API, independent researcher Sean Cole was able to teach the cells to play Doom in about a week.

…

The technology making this possible is the CL-1, a “biological computer” chip. The biological component of the CL-1 system consists of human neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells, typically repurposed from adult skin or blood samples, are differentiated in a lab into functional cortical neurons. Once matured, approximately 200,000 of these living cells are integrated onto a high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA), essentially creating a specialized silicon chip featuring thousands of interface points.

Mihai Andrei
March 2, 2026
200,000 living human brain cells just learned to play Doom and this is just the start of it

With only a two hundred thousand neurons Copilot says this is comparable to the CNS of:

A small crustacean (e.g., a copepod or amphipod) is the best biological analogue to a 200,000‑neuron system.

  • More complex than worms
  • Less complex than insects
  • Within the right order of magnitude
  • Capable of simple learning and coordinated movement

I could support a claim the ethical issues are nonexistent at this level. What about when it is comparable to a small mammal? Or a primate? A human? An order of magnitude larger than any mammal?

What will be the capabilities of a Cortical Cloud requiring a warehouse the size of a city block?

We live in interesting times.

Aliens? Be Careful

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Quote of the Day

In a groundbreaking revelation, scientists have uncovered evidence suggesting the existence of a Type II Civilization, a theoretical stage of civilization on the Kardashev Scale. This discovery could redefine our understanding of advanced extraterrestrial life and energy consumption on a cosmic scale. The implications of such a civilization being discovered are profound, extending into scientific, philosophical, and societal realms.

…

The discovery of a Type II Civilization was made possible through the use of advanced technological methods, including remote sensing technologies and sophisticated data analysis techniques. These tools allowed scientists to detect unusual patterns of energy consumption and structural formations that align with theoretical predictions of a Type II Civilization’s presence. By analyzing data from telescopes and other observational instruments, researchers were able to identify anomalies that could not be explained by natural phenomena or known technological processes.

Key findings in the discovery include significant energy fluctuations and formations that suggest the existence of large-scale structures capable of capturing stellar energy. These observations have led scientists to believe that they may have found the first evidence of a civilization that has reached the Type II stage on the Kardashev Scale. The implications of these findings are profound, as they open new avenues for research and exploration in the field of astrophysics and beyond.

Alexander Clark
August 4, 2025
Scientists may have found a Type II civilization

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. I think we need more evidence to accept the conclusion that a Type II Civilization has been found.

And it would be better, within practical limits, to avoid giving away our presence just in case it is a civilization of extraordinary technological achievement.

Killing Us Softly with Its Software

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Quote of the Day

And when you combine “unchartered, not-well-understood territory” with “this should have a major impact when it happens,” you open the door to the scariest two words in the English language:

Existential risk.

Tim Urban
January 27, 2015
The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 2 – Wait But Why

Reading Urban’s post is almost chilling. It was written over 11 years ago. The predictions about AI are like reading today’s headlines. Here is another chilling quote:

People who understand superintelligent AI call it the last invention we’ll ever make—the last challenge we’ll ever face.

The context I left out is that an AI smarter than humans will find our toughest problems (food supply, clean environment, energy production and distribution, disease, aging, etc.) as trivial as you would find the frustration of three-year-old child unable to tie their own shoe. A super smart AI will either solve all our problems or kill all biological life. There will be no middle ground.

I don’t think that is even the scariest part. The thing that frightens me is that we probably will not be able to inch up to the edge and see what things look like before taking the next step. We are using AI to make smarter AI. At some point, if we haven’t already, we will close the feedback loop. AI will make its own replacement that is smarter than it is. This will accelerate the speed at which advances are made:

It takes decades for the first AI system to reach low-level general intelligence, but it finally happens. A computer is able to understand the world around it as well as a human four-year-old. Suddenly, within an hour of hitting that milestone, the system pumps out the grand theory of physics that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics, something no human has been able to definitively do. 90 minutes after that, the AI has become an ASI, 170,000 times more intelligent than a human.

Even though it is a rather long post, if you are somewhat of a geek, I encourage you to read the whole thing. The best part, especially for newcomers to this game of existential risk, is the following sample:

So you’ll hear about a lot of bad potential things ASI could bring—soaring unemployment as AI takes more and more jobs, the human population ballooning if we do manage to figure out the aging issue, etc. But the only thing we should be obsessing over is the grand concern: the prospect of existential risk.

…

A malicious ASI is created and decides to destroy us all. The plot of every AI movie. AI becomes as or more intelligent than humans, then decides to turn against us and take over. Here’s what I need you to be clear on for the rest of this post: None of the people warning us about AI are talking about this. Evil is a human concept, and applying human concepts to non-human things is called “anthropomorphizing.” The challenge of avoiding anthropomorphizing will be one of the themes of the rest of this post. No AI system will ever turn evil in the way it’s depicted in movies.

…

So what ARE they worried about? I wrote a little story to show you:

A 15-person startup company called Robotica has the stated mission of “Developing innovative Artificial Intelligence tools that allow humans to live more and work less.” They have several existing products already on the market and a handful more in development. They’re most excited about a seed project named Turry. Turry is a simple AI system that uses an arm-like appendage to write a handwritten note on a small card.

The team at Robotica thinks Turry could be their biggest product yet. The plan is to perfect Turry’s writing mechanics by getting her to practice the same test note over and over again:

“We love our customers. ~Robotica“

Once Turry gets great at handwriting, she can be sold to companies who want to send marketing mail to homes and who know the mail has a far higher chance of being opened and read if the address, return address, and internal letter appear to be written by a human.

To build Turry’s writing skills, she is programmed to write the first part of the note in print and then sign “Robotica” in cursive so she can get practice with both skills. Turry has been uploaded with thousands of handwriting samples and the Robotica engineers have created an automated feedback loop wherein Turry writes a note, then snaps a photo of the written note, then runs the image across the uploaded handwriting samples. If the written note sufficiently resembles a certain threshold of the uploaded notes, it’s given a GOOD rating. If not, it’s given a BAD rating. Each rating that comes in helps Turry learn and improve. To move the process along, Turry’s one initial programmed goal is, “Write and test as many notes as you can, as quickly as you can, and continue to learn new ways to improve your accuracy and efficiency.”

What excites the Robotica team so much is that Turry is getting noticeably better as she goes. Her initial handwriting was terrible, and after a couple weeks, it’s beginning to look believable. What excites them even more is that she is getting better at getting better at it. She has been teaching herself to be smarter and more innovative, and just recently, she came up with a new algorithm for herself that allowed her to scan through her uploaded photos three times faster than she originally could.

As the weeks pass, Turry continues to surprise the team with her rapid development. The engineers had tried something a bit new and innovative with her self-improvement code, and it seems to be working better than any of their previous attempts with their other products. One of Turry’s initial capabilities had been a speech recognition and simple speak-back module, so a user could speak a note to Turry, or offer other simple commands, and Turry could understand them, and also speak back. To help her learn English, they upload a handful of articles and books into her, and as she becomes more intelligent, her conversational abilities soar. The engineers start to have fun talking to Turry and seeing what she’ll come up with for her responses.

One day, the Robotica employees ask Turry a routine question: “What can we give you that will help you with your mission that you don’t already have?” Usually, Turry asks for something like “Additional handwriting samples” or “More working memory storage space,” but on this day, Turry asks them for access to a greater library of a large variety of casual English language diction so she can learn to write with the loose grammar and slang that real humans use.

The team gets quiet. The obvious way to help Turry with this goal is by connecting her to the internet so she can scan through blogs, magazines, and videos from various parts of the world. It would be much more time-consuming and far less effective to manually upload a sampling into Turry’s hard drive. The problem is, one of the company’s rules is that no self-learning AI can be connected to the internet. This is a guideline followed by all AI companies, for safety reasons.

The thing is, Turry is the most promising AI Robotica has ever come up with, and the team knows their competitors are furiously trying to be the first to the punch with a smart handwriting AI, and what would really be the harm in connecting Turry, just for a bit, so she can get the info she needs. After just a little bit of time, they can always just disconnect her. She’s still far below human-level intelligence (AGI), so there’s no danger at this stage anyway.

They decide to connect her. They give her an hour of scanning time and then they disconnect her. No damage done.

A month later, the team is in the office working on a routine day when they smell something odd. One of the engineers starts coughing. Then another. Another falls to the ground. Soon every employee is on the ground grasping at their throat. Five minutes later, everyone in the office is dead.

At the same time this is happening, across the world, in every city, every small town, every farm, every shop and church and school and restaurant, humans are on the ground, coughing and grasping at their throat. Within an hour, over 99% of the human race is dead, and by the end of the day, humans are extinct.

Meanwhile, at the Robotica office, Turry is busy at work. Over the next few months, Turry and a team of newly-constructed nanoassemblers are busy at work, dismantling large chunks of the Earth and converting it into solar panels, replicas of Turry, paper, and pens. Within a year, most life on Earth is extinct. What remains of the Earth becomes covered with mile-high, neatly-organized stacks of paper, each piece reading, “We love our customers. ~Robotica“

Turry then starts work on a new phase of her mission—she begins constructing probes that head out from Earth to begin landing on asteroids and other planets. When they get there, they’ll begin constructing nanoassemblers to convert the materials on the planet into Turry replicas, paper, and pens. Then they’ll get to work, writing notes…

See also:

Millimeter by millimeter

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Quote of the Day

Lead author Dr Jyoti Singh, from UCL Chemistry, said: “Imagine the day that chemists might take simple, small molecules, consisting of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur atoms, and from these LEGO pieces form molecules capable of self-replication. This would be a monumental step towards solving the question of life’s origin.

“Our study brings us closer to that goal by demonstrating how two primordial chemical LEGO pieces (activated amino acids and RNA) could have built peptides**, short chains of amino acids that are essential to life.

“What is particularly groundbreaking is that the activated amino acid used in this study is a thioester, a type of molecule made from Coenzyme A, a chemical found in all living cells. This discovery could potentially link metabolism, the genetic code and protein building.”

While the paper focuses solely on the chemistry, the research team said that the reactions they demonstrated could plausibly have taken place in pools or lakes of water on the early Earth (but not likely in the oceans as the concentrations of the chemicals would likely be too diluted).

University College London
August 28, 2025
Scientists recreate life’s first step: Linking amino acids to RNA | ScienceDaily

Millimeter by millimeter, the onion is being peeled back on some of the most difficult puzzles this world has to offer us.

Largest Flashlight Experiment?

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Clever:

In the new study, the scientists tracked how the radio signals from Juno back to Earth bent as they passed through Jupiter’s atmosphere, before cutting out when the planet blocked the signal entirely. Those measurements allowed the team to account for Jupiter’s winds, which slightly alter the shape of the gaseous planet. Then, they used that information to make precise calculations of the planet’s shape and size.

I wonder if this is the largest ever experiment with a manmade “flashlight”.

Bad News About Bitcoin

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The headlines tell you almost all you need to know:

It briefly hit a low of $60,506.99:

To offer Bitcoin holders a bit of hope, I will point out the CNN article claims there have been crashes of equal magnitude before and the crypto currency recovered within a year. However, the reasons for the crash were different then.

Spontaneous Formation of RNA Chains

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Quote of the Day

The origin of the first living molecules on our planet has long been debated. However, recent experiments are revealing new information about the plausible conditions on the early Earth.

This research provides details on one of the major hypotheses concerning the emergence of life: the RNA world. It suggests that the necessary ingredients, combined with very common minerals and simple hydrological cycles, could have led to the assembly of ribonucleic acid.

Researchers reproduced a plausible environment of the Earth more than four billion years ago in the laboratory. To do this, they mixed the chemical precursors of RNA (namely ribose, a 5-carbon sugar, phosphate, and the four fundamental nucleobases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and uracil) with specific compounds: borates, present in ancient oceans, and basalt, an ubiquitous volcanic rock.

This mixture was then subjected to repeated wet and dry cycles. These cycles were intended to replicate the transitions our planet experienced in the past near geothermal aquifers and subsurface areas. The team observed that this process allowed for the formation of RNA chains with no other human intervention than placing the ingredients in a test tube.

Cédric DEPOND
January 8, 2026
🌍 The origin of life on Earth could be much simpler than thought

Interesting. Besides the greater implications of the possibility of life spontaneously appearing with common chemicals and conditions, the ubiquitous basalt plays an important role.