This is about making debris removal operational, not experimental.
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Sean Carroll, CalTech, John’s Hopkins, Santa Fe Institute
One of the great intellectual achievements of the twentieth century was the theory of quantum mechanics, according to which observational results can only be predicted probabilistically rather than with certainty. Yet, after decades in which the theory has been successfully used on an everyday basis, most physicists would agree that we still don’t truly understand what it means. Sean Carroll will discuss the source of this puzzlement, and explain why an increasing number of physicists are led to an apparently astonishing conclusion: that the world we experience is constantly branching into different versions, representing the different possible outcomes of quantum measurements. This could have important consequences for quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime.
Sean Carroll is a research professor at CalTech, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at John’s Hopkins University, and Fractal Faculty at SFI. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology, quantum gravity and spacetime, philosophy of science, and the evolution of entropy and complexity. He’s authored “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime;” “The Big Picture;” “The Particle at the End of the Universe;” “From Eternity to Here;” and the textbook “Spacetime and Geometry.”
Scientists just created exotic new forms of matter that shouldn’t exist
A new quantum physics study reveals that simply changing a magnetic field over time can unlock entirely new forms of matter that don’t exist under normal conditions. By carefully “driving” materials with timed magnetic shifts, researchers created exotic quantum states that could be far more stable and resistant to errors—one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing. This breakthrough suggests that the future of quantum technology may depend not just on what materials are made of, but how they’re manipulated in time.
Monotheism, Scepticism and new Posthuman goddesses and gods
Ancient Egypt provides an excellent historical model of a permissive, non-monotheistic society that fostered a sophisticated philosophical and religious framework. In this civilization, the pantheon was not viewed as a collection of mutually exclusive, jealous deities, but rather as multifaceted expressions of a singular, underlying cosmic order, known as Ma’at (truth, balance, and justice). Egyptian gods were not distant, transcendent lawgivers, but dynamic, immanent forces embedded within the natural and social world.
This worldview can be understood through the lens of Steve Nichols’ lost primal eye theory of mind. In various posthuman movement (1988) and related works, Nichols argues that human consciousness is not static but evolving, and that our ancestors recognized a deeper, unitive potential rather than a rigid separation between humanity and the divine. In ancient Egypt, this dynamic was expressed through the idea that the Pharaoh, and ultimately all enlightened individuals, could transcend ordinary human limitation and realize a posthuman state. Rather than being subjects of an external master, humans could merge with the cosmos, making the Egyptian model an early manifestation of the posthuman approach to mind and consciousness. Even creation of your own afterlife, using MVT ‘aware circuits’
Prof Steve Nichols, May 2026.
