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Space Habitats: The Megastructures We’ll Call Home

Explore the future of space habitats, from rotating cylinders and torus colonies to orbital cities, asteroid homes, and the megastructures humanity may one day live inside.

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Watch my exclusive video Nearby Supernovae: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… SFIA Merchandise: https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall… 🌐 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net ❤️ Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur ⭐ Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… 👥 Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 📣 Reddit Community: / isaacarthur 🐦 Follow on Twitter / X: / isaac_a_arthur 💬 SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Space Habitats: The Megastructures We’ll Call Home Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Editors: Briana Brownell, Ludwig Luska Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images, Anthrofuturism, Apogii.uk, Bryan Versteeg, Fishy Tree, Katie Byrne, Jarred Eagley, Jeremy Jozwik, Justin Dixon, Ken York YD Visual, Neil Blevins, Sergio Botero, Steve Bowers, and Udo Schroeter Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic and Markus Junnikkala, Phase Shift, Kai Engel, Chris Zabriskie, Taras Harkavyi, and Stellardrone 0:00 Intro 4:37 The Sunflower 14:07 The O’Neill Cylinder 49:00 Lewis One 57:40 Stanford Torus 1:22:19 Kalpana One 1:28:14 Nebula 1:29:27 Bernal Sphere 1:54:13 Bishop Ring 2:03:23 Topopolis 2:27:36 McKendree Cylinder 2:33:57 Hammer Habs 2:59:01 Rungworlds 3:04:35 Conglomerations 3:38:45 Epilogue.

🛒 SFIA Merchandise: https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall…
🌐 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
❤️ Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
⭐ Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a…
👥 Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
📣 Reddit Community: / isaacarthur.
🐦 Follow on Twitter / X: / isaac_a_arthur.
💬 SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Credits:
Space Habitats: The Megastructures We’ll Call Home.
Written, Produced \& Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editors: Briana Brownell, Ludwig Luska.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images, Anthrofuturism, Apogii.uk, Bryan Versteeg, Fishy Tree, Katie Byrne, Jarred Eagley, Jeremy Jozwik, Justin Dixon, Ken York YD Visual, Neil Blevins, Sergio Botero, Steve Bowers, and Udo Schroeter.
Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic and Markus Junnikkala, Phase Shift, Kai Engel, Chris Zabriskie, Taras Harkavyi, and Stellardrone.

0:00 Intro.
4:37 The Sunflower.
14:07 The O’Neill Cylinder.
49:00 Lewis One.
57:40 Stanford Torus.
1:22:19 Kalpana One.
1:28:14 Nebula.
1:29:27 Bernal Sphere.
1:54:13 Bishop Ring.
2:03:23 Topopolis.
2:27:36 McKendree Cylinder.
2:33:57 Hammer Habs.
2:59:01 Rungworlds.
3:04:35 Conglomerations.
3:38:45 Epilogue

Recursive Self Improvement

Computer, load up celery man.
Can AI build AI? Yes, and it already is. Sort of. I showcase the ability of AI agents like claude code to perform AI research, to build and optimize machine learning algorithms. I put various state-of-the-art LLMs like claude Mythos/Fable into an endless recursive research loop and have them build a neural network that learns the shape of the mandelbrot set. It is inspired by Andrej Karpathy’s autoresearch. While we watch this loop, I express my thoughts on the concept of recursive self improvement, arguing that it is possible, hard, and dangerous.
Sorry for the bitrate issues.

Fractalsearch repo: coming soon!

~SUPPORT ME~
Learn to code faster with Scrimba! (saves you 20% and support me): https://scrimba.com/?via=EmergentGarden.
Patreon: / emergentgarden.
Twitter: / max_romana.
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/emergentgard… Autoreasearch: https://github.com/karpathy/autoresearch Mandelbrot Zoom: • Mandelbrot World Record Attempt — Part 1 (… Celery Man: • Tim and Eric — Celery Man Karpathy’s Youtube: / @andrejkarpathy Self-building Cranes: • How Tower Cranes Build Themselves Darwin-Godel Machine: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22954 Hashgrid Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.05989 Anthropic’s RSI Article: https://www.anthropic.com/institute/r… Fable System Card: https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/d00db56… My Music Guy: / @acolyte-compositions “Equatorial Complex” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b… ~TIMESTAMPS~ (0:00) Recursive Self Improvement (3:14) fractalsearch (9:56) RSI is Possible (15:03) RSI is Hard (21:52) RSI is Dangerous (26:03) Results (28:28) Cost (29:29) Takeoff.

~SOURCES~
Autoreasearch: https://github.com/karpathy/autoresearch.
Mandelbrot Zoom: • Mandelbrot World Record Attempt — Part 1 (…
Celery Man: • Tim and Eric — Celery Man.
Karpathy’s Youtube: / @andrejkarpathy.
Self-building Cranes: • How Tower Cranes Build Themselves.
Darwin-Godel Machine: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22954
Hashgrid Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.05989
Anthropic’s RSI Article: https://www.anthropic.com/institute/r…
Fable System Card: https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/d00db56…

My Music Guy: / @acolyte-compositions.

New art test could help museums spot fake Van Goghs without touching paintings

A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Surface Topography: Metrology and Properties introduces a pioneering, noninvasive technique that can distinguish authentic artworks from forgeries, offering museums, collectors, and auction houses a major advantage in tackling art fraud.

The study, developed at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, introduces a method that analyzes the microscopic “texture” of a painting by converting high-resolution images into 3D-like maps, allowing researchers to measure how rough or detailed the surface is using fractal dimensions. This measurement captures subtle patterns created by an artist’s brushwork—patterns so consistent that they act like a morphological signature unique to that artist.

Using works attributed to Vincent van Gogh, the researchers showed that the method can reliably distinguish between authentic paintings and known forgeries. In tests, the well-documented fake “The Plowmen” was identified as a strong outlier, while the recently authenticated “Sunset at Montmajour” aligned closely with Van Gogh’s known works.

[Qstr Seminar series] Kosuke Ito 20260508

Qualia structure of musical scale notes.

Western tonal music gives each scale note a distinctive qualia, defined by its relationship to the tonic (Do). We measured these qualia using Arthur’s (2018) rating scheme to characterise their structure and how it changes with music training. Term 1 yielded three findings: relative-pitch training modifies the qualia structure; absolute pitch breaks key-invariance, making qualia depend on the absolute key; and the auditory P2 component tracks the tonic’s special status as the referece pitch. Term 2 will consolidate these results, extend the work to music-major students, and open a new question — the qualia structure of triads.

We’ve Been Searching for Aliens the Wrong Way. That’s All About To Change

For 72 hours, enjoy 15% OFF on all Hoverpens with code PBS, or click the link https://noviumdesign.shop/PBS — Free shipping to most countries. Also on Amazon: https://noviumdesign.shop/crQH4A

We’ve been looking for messages from the stars ever since Frank Drake pointed the Green Bank radio telescope at Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridany 65 years ago. He saw nothing that couldn’t be explained by natural causes. Nor have the much more extensive SETI surveys conducted since. So, maybe there are no alien signals to see. Or maybe we need to update how we search for them. We have, after all, learned an awful lot since 1960—both about the galaxy and about observing the galaxy.

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Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements! https://mailchi.mp/1a6eb8f2717d/space… the Entire Space Time Library Here: https://search.pbsspacetime.com/ Hosted by Matt O’Dowd Written by Matt O’Dowd Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer Directed by Andrew Kornhaber Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour Executive Producer: Andrew Kornhaber Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: Mike Martin Spacetime is a production of Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios. This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content. © 2026 PBS. All rights reserved. End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: / multidroideka Space Time Was Made Possible In Part By: Big Bang Alexander Tamas Filip Rolenec Juan Benet Kenneth See Mark Rosenthal Matthew Ocko Morgan Hough Peter Barrett Vinnie Falco Daniel Muzquiz Quasar Ethan Cohen Glenn Sugden Grace Biaelcki Justin Lloyd Mark Heising Rad Antonov Shaun Williams Stephen Wilcox Tristan Lucian Claudius Aurelius Tyacke Hypernova Alex Kern Ben Delo Chuck Zegar Dean Galvin Donal Botkin Gregory Forfa Jeff White John R. Slavik Massimiliano Pala PAUL C PEDERSEN Scott Gorlick Scott Gray Spencer Jones Vlad Shipulin Zachary Haberman Антон Кочков Gamma Ray Burst Alex Gan aaron pinto Almog Cohen Anthony Leon Arko Provo Mukherjee Ayden Miller Bradley Jenkins Bradley Ulis Brandon Lattin Brian Cook Chris Liao Christopher Wade Chuck Lukaszewski Collin Dutrow Craig Falls Craig Stonaha Dan Warren Daniel Donahue Daniel Jennings Darrell Stewart David Giltinan David Johnston Doyle Vann Eric Kiebler Eric Raschke Eric Schrenker Faraz Khan Frederic Simon gmmiddleton Harsh Khandhadia Isaac Suttell James Trimmier Jason Bowen Jeb Campbell Jeff Harris Jeremy Soller Jerry Thomas jim bartosh John Anderson John De Witt John Funai John H. Austin, Jr. Joseph Salomone Junaid Ali Kacper Cieśla Kane Holbrook Kent Durham Koen Wilde Kyle Atkinson Lori Ferris Marcelo Garcia Marion Lang Mark Daniel Cohen Mark Delagasse Matt Kaprocki Matt Quinn Matthew Johnson Michael Barton Michael Clark Michael Lev Michael Purcell Mikk Mihkel Nurges Nick Hoffenstoffer III Nicolas Katsantonis Onemind Param Saxena Paul Wood Rad Antonov Reuben Brewer Richard Steenbergen Robert DeChellis Ross Kennedy Ross Story Russell Moore SamSword Sandhya Devi Sean Owen Shane Calimlim SilentGnome Terje Vold Thomas Dougherty Todd J Lerner Tybie Fitzhugh Zac Sweers.

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New study suggests the brain applies different standards of beauty to paintings and architecture

A recent study published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts provides evidence that the human brain applies different standards of beauty depending on the type of visual art it evaluates. By comparing the visual properties of historical building facades and artistic paintings, scientists found that architects and painters weigh aesthetic features like symmetry and complexity quite differently.

When people look at an image, their appreciation of its beauty relies on several visual variables. These variables include properties such as color, balance, symmetry, complexity, and the relationship between the main subject and its background. Psychological theories of visual perception propose that humans tend to prefer sensory properties that the brain can process easily.

“I have been interested in the Valuation System of the brain, the network that learns and deploys values for decision-making,” said Norberto Grzywacz, a professor of psychology at Loyola University Chicago. “In particular, I have had interests in aesthetic values, which this system also processes. At some point, I asked myself whether aesthetic values in a sensory domain, for example vision, are universal or specific to different domains.”

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