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Category: singularity

What happens when intelligence escapes the bounds of flesh and bone? In this episode, we explore post-biological civilizations—entities that may trade biology for digital minds, machine bodies, or stranger forms still—and ask what becomes of identity, purpose, and humanity when the body is no longer required.

Watch my exclusive video Antimatter Propulsion: Harnessing the Power of Annihilation — https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa… Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30. SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Post-Biological Civilizations: Life Beyond Flesh and Bone Episode 498a; May 11, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Edited by: Ludwig Luska Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator Chris Zabriskie, “Unfoldment, Revealment” Phase Shift, “Forest Night” Lewis Gill, “The Phobos Diary” Stellardrone, “Red Giant” 0:00 Intro 1:24 The Physical Presence of Post-Biological Civilizations 3:38 Societal & Cultural Aspects of Post-Biological Life 5:08 The Scifi Path to Post-Biological Life 8:03 The Singularity and the Ultimate Transition 9:47 Many Paths to Post-Biological Life 17:50 The Fermi Paradox & Post-Biological Civilizations 27:39 Ethics & the Fate of Humanity 29:17 The Transition Process at a Civilizational Scale.
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa…
Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30.

SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Credits:
Post-Biological Civilizations: Life Beyond Flesh and Bone.
Episode 498a; May 11, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Edited by: Ludwig Luska.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Chris Zabriskie, \

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During that meeting, three main black hole models were outlined: the standard black hole predicted by classical general relativity, with both a singularity and an event horizon; the regular black hole, which eliminates the singularity but retains the horizon; and the black hole mimicker, which reproduces the external features of a black hole but has neither a singularity nor an event horizon.

The paper also describes how regular black holes and mimickers might form, how they could possibly transform into one another, and, most importantly, what kind of observational tests might one day distinguish them from standard black holes.

While the observations collected so far have been groundbreaking, they don’t tell us everything. Since 2015, we’ve detected gravitational waves from black hole mergers and obtained images of the shadows of two black holes: M87* and Sagittarius A*. But these observations focus only on the outside — they provide no insight into whether a singularity lies at the center.

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Repulsive gravity at the quantum scale would have flattened out inhomogeneities in the early universe.

In classical physics, gravity is universally attractive. At the quantum level, however, this may not always be the case. If vast quantities of matter are present within an infinitesimally small volume – at the centre of a black hole, for example, or during the very earliest moments of the universe – spacetime becomes curved at scales that approach the Planck length. This is the fundamental quantum unit of distance, and is around 1020 times smaller than a proton.

In these extremely curved regions, the classical theory of gravity – Einstein’s general theory of relativity – breaks down. However, research on loop quantum cosmology offers a possible solution. It suggests that gravity, in effect, becomes repulsive. Consequently, loop quantum cosmology predicts that our present universe began in a so-called “cosmic bounce”, rather than the Big Bang singularity predicted by general relativity.

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Leading physicist Raphael Bousso joins Brian Greene to explore the almost unreasonable capacity of our theories of gravity to give deep insights into quantum physics.

This program is part of the Big Ideas series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

Participant: Raphael Bousso.
Moderator: Brian Greene.

0:00:00 — Introduction.
00:01:12 Are there any cracks in Quantum Mechanics?
00:03:18 Bousso’s Case for Measurement-Driven Physics.
00:06:00 Does Quantum Mechanics Describe Reality?
00:09:37 How Decoherence Hides Quantum Weirdness.
00:15:05 Difference between Quantum and Classical Mechanics.
00:17:50 What Would Einstein Think of Modern Quantum Theory?
00:21:19 Entanglement’s Place in the Weird World of Quantum Theory.
00:26:45 Bousso’s Intuition for How Entanglement Works.
00:29:12 Einstein’s EPR Worries — What Do We Make of Them Now?
00:33:22 What Is a Singularity in a Black Hole?
00:38:06 How Oppenheimer and Snyder Modeled a Collapsing Star.
00:44:27 Insights Into Hawking Radiation — When Black Holes Began to Evaporate.
00:55:24 Gravity’s Quantum Secrets.
01:01:16 What Does Holography Say About Reality?
01:04:28 Rethinking How We Talk About Unification.
01:08:48 Bousso & Wall: The Quantum Focusing Conjecture.
01:14:33 From Theory to Test: Holography Gets Real.
01:19:34 The Value of String Theory Beyond Being ‘Right’
01:22:06 Penrose and the Proof That Singularities Are Real.
01:28:02 Hawking’s Theorem and the Rise of Singularities.
01:32:41 Is Gravity the Missing Piece in Quantum Theory?
01:39:07 How Bousso and Polchinski Rethought the Cosmological Constant.
01:51:10 Will the Universe Ever Give Up This Secret?
01:53:31 Credits.

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What happens when AI starts improving itself without human input? Self-improving AI agents are evolving faster than anyone predicted—rewriting their own code, learning from mistakes, and inching closer to surpassing giants like OpenAI. This isn’t science fiction; it’s the AI singularity’s opening act, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

How do self-improving agents work? Unlike static models such as GPT-4, these systems use recursive self-improvement—analyzing their flaws, generating smarter algorithms, and iterating endlessly. Projects like AutoGPT and BabyAGI already demonstrate eerie autonomy, from debugging code to launching micro-businesses. We’ll dissect their architecture and compare them to OpenAI’s human-dependent models. Spoiler: The gap is narrowing fast.

Why is OpenAI sweating? While OpenAI focuses on safety and scalability, self-improving agents prioritize raw, exponential growth. Imagine an AI that optimizes itself 24/7, mastering quantum computing over a weekend or cracking protein folding in hours. But there’s a dark side: no “off switch,” biased self-modifications, and the risk of uncontrolled superintelligence.

Who will dominate the AI race? We’ll explore leaked research, ethical debates, and the critical question: Can OpenAI’s cautious approach outpace agents that learn to outthink their creators? Like, subscribe, and hit the bell—the future of AI is rewriting itself.

Can self-improving AI surpass OpenAI? What are autonomous AI agents? How dangerous is recursive AI? Will AI become uncontrollable? Can we stop self-improving AI? This video exposes the truth. Watch now—before the machines outpace us.

#ai.

Continue reading “The Rise of Self-Improving AI Agents: Will It Surpass OpenAI?” | >

Ever since general relativity pointed to the existence of black holes, the scientific community has been wary of one peculiar feature: the singularity at the center—a point, hidden behind the event horizon, where the laws of physics that govern the rest of the universe appear to break down completely. For some time now, researchers have been working on alternative models that are free of singularities.

A new paper published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the outcome of work carried out at the Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IFPU) in Trieste, reviews the state of the art in this area. It describes two alternative models, proposes observational tests, and explores how this line of research could also contribute to the development of a theory of quantum gravity.

“Hic sunt leones,” remarks Stefano Liberati, one of the authors of the paper and director of IFPU. The phrase refers to the hypothetical singularity predicted at the center of standard —those described by solutions to Einstein’s field equations. To understand what this means, a brief historical recap is helpful.

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When it comes to creating images of the earth from above, satellites, drones, planes and spacecraft are what tend to come to mind. But a startup called Near Space Labs is taking a very different approach to taking high-resolution photos from up high.

Near Space Labs is building aircraft that are raised by helium balloons and then rely on air currents to stay up, move around to take pictures from the stratosphere, and eventually glide back down to earth. On the back of significant traction with customers using its images, the startup has now raised $20 million to expand its business.

Bold Capital Partners (a VC firm founded by Peter Diamandis of XPRIZE and Singularity University fame), is leading the Series B round. Strategic backer USAA (the U.S. Automobile Association) is also investing alongside Climate Capital, Gaingels, River Park Ventures, and previous backers Crosslink Capital, Third Sphere, Draper Associates, and others that are not being named. Near Space Labs has now raised over $40 million, including a $13 million Series A in 2021.

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The quantum black hole with (almost) no equations by Professor Gerard ‘t Hooft.

How to reconcile Einstein’s theory of General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics is a notorious problem. Special relativity, on the other hand, was united completely with quantum mechanics when the Standard Model, including Higgs mechanism, was formulated as a relativistic quantum field theory.

Since Stephen Hawking shed new light on quantum mechanical effects in black holes, it was hoped that black holes may be used to obtain a more complete picture of Nature’s laws in that domain, but he arrived at claims that are difficult to use in this respect. Was he right? What happens with information sent into a black hole?

The discussion is not over; in this lecture it is shown that a mild conical singularity at the black hole horizon may be inevitable, while it doubles the temperature of quantum radiation emitted by a black hole, we illustrate the situation with only few equations.

About the Higgs Lecture.

The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences is delighted to present the Annual Higgs Lecture. The inaugural Annual Higgs Lecture was delivered in December 2012 by its name bearer, Professor Peter Higgs, who returned to King’s after graduating in 1950 with a first-class honours degree in Physics, and who famously predicted the Higgs Boson particle.

Continue reading “Higgs Lecture 2025: The quantum black hole with (almost) no equations” | >

Featuring LumaFusion, Waldorf Nave, In-Shot, Moodscaper, MultitrackDAW. I used In-Shot to assemble still collages and then imported them into LumaFusion with subtle zooming. I used some of the new LumaFusion transitions between these still images. I recorded Waldorf Nave and Moodscaper clips into MultitrackDAW and then exported them into LumaFusion for final blending and mastering.

I was going for a post-human world where the singularity has been achieved and humanoids benefit from the merger and constant stimulus of a fully integrated, technical, digital audio and visual experience. This experience can be named as Utopia, Xanadu or Heterotopia and, while I prefer the latter word, “heterotopia” is perhaps a little too obscure of a title. So, for the title I chose the spelling “PROJEKT” to indicate the scientific, technical feeling; and “HUMANOID” to indicate a better version of humankind; and “2050” as a nod to Bladerunner 2049, as well as a nod to the next generation of humanity. May it solve the problems that we are confronting today.

I hope you enjoy watching and listening!

Peace!
Tom.

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