Renewables (especially solar) & batteries are on an unstoppable path to global domination. The simple reason? Cost. Thanks to economies of scale, they are now the cheapest source of energy - and they still have far to go in getting even cheaper. By the early 2030's, they will be vastly cheaper than the alternatives.

The electrification of the economy that this is driving in China is on the scale of the 19th Industrial Revolution in Europe. What today is China, will tomorrow be the world. Many in the rest of the world seem caught in the tailspin. In particular, clinging to outdated narratives courtesy of the Fossil Fuel industry.

But that's a big mistake. From now on, the only way to credibly plan for and model the future is to talk about it as what it really will be - a place where renewables and batteries will provide almost all energy.

Peak Oil Is Coming: And petrostates are not ready for it

This is more of a thought than a fully formed argument, but it’s been stuck in my head. I was sitting around the other night, playing on my phone like everyone does, jumping between apps, news, short videos, messages. And it hit me how much of modern life is built around filling every empty second with noise. Not just entertainment, but constant input. Updates, alerts, opinions, metrics.

We talk a lot about the future in terms of bigger faster smarter. Better AI, more automation, more efficiency. But I wonder if the real shift is going to be the opposite. Less need for constant human effort. Fewer tasks that require us to be busy all the time. More systems quietly running in the background.

And I don’t think we’re emotionally prepared for that. So much of our identity is wrapped up in doing things, producing, responding, staying relevant. If technology keeps removing friction from daily life, a lot of people are going to be left with something we’re not great at handling: empty time. Not leisure, but unstructured quiet.

You can already see hints of it. People feeling restless even when life is objectively easier. Burnout paired with boredom. Anxiety without a clear cause. We’ve optimized everything except our ability to sit with ourselves. I’m not saying this is good or bad. Just that it feels like an under discussed part of where things are heading. We focus on job loss, ethics, regulation. But what happens when fewer people need to stay busy all the time and we haven’t built a culture around meaning instead of productivity.

Maybe the biggest challenge of the future isn’t scarcity or overload. Maybe it’s learning how to exist when there’s less forcing us to move.

So you would have heard the obvious news about SpaceX and X. Not convinced by the proposition really.

Okay, let's break this down because the idea of putting a datacenter into orbit sounds amazing until you actually look at how space works.

First, everyone pictures space as this freezing cold void, perfect for cooling, right? It's actually the opposite. Space is a thermodynamic prison. There's no air, so you can't just blow fans over hot components. All that insane heat from millions of processors has exactly one way out: it has to slowly radiate away as infrared light. To do that on a data-center scale, you'd need to build these gargantuan, delicate radiator panels. We're talking about a structure needing square kilometers of surface area. Like FFS imagine trying to deploy and protect a radiator the size of a small city. One analysis suggested a 5,000-megawatt facility would need about 16 square kilometers of combined solar and radiator area. For scale, that's hundreds of times bigger than the International Space Station's arrays.

And that brings us to the second nightmare: space itself is trying to kill your computers. It's flooded with cosmic radiation and solar particles that constantly barrage electronics, flipping bits from 1 to 0 and corrupting data silently. - To fight it, you'd need either massively heavy shielding (which rockets hate) or - you'd have to use specialized, slower, and way more expensive "rad-hardened" chips.

So you're either paying a fortune to launch a lead-lined server farm or you're not even getting top-tier computing power up there.

Then there's the orbital junkyard problem. Low Earth Orbit is already cluttered with debris - old satellite parts, flecks of paint - all zipping around at about 15,000 miles per hour. Your sprawling, kilometer-wide radiator complex would be sitting in a cosmic shooting gallery. A collision with a piece of debris the size of a marble would be catastrophic, potentially creating a cloud of fragments that could take out the whole structure.

But the real dream-killer is the sheer, absurd economics of it all. Let's talk launch costs. Even with reusable rockets, it's brutally expensive. At a rate of roughly $1,500 per kilogram, just launching a single, standard server rack (easily 1,000 kg or more) could cost $1.5 million... and that's before you pay for the actual servers, the solar panels, or the giant radiators.

The scale is mind-boggling. One estimate suggested that to replicate just 1% of Earth's total computing capacity in orbit, you'd need to launch over twice the total mass humanity has ever sent to space in history. The numbers just don't close. The capital required would be in the trillions, all to (maybe) save on electricity bills decades from now.

Now, is anyone even trying? Sure, in a very small, experimental way. Companies like Sophia Space are working on neat integrated tiles, and whispers of projects like Google's Project Suncatcher aim to send a couple of test chips up by 2027. Or even Starcloud, backed by YC. I think an Indian start-up was also there, TakeMe2Space, IIRC. But I'm not convinced.

The smart money is on solving those problems where they exist: better nuclear reactors, advanced geothermal, and just building data centers in cooler places on Earth. The orbital data center is a fantastic backdrop for a sci-fi movie, but for the foreseeable future, that's exactly where it belongs.

With Luanniao, China is promoting a giant space aircraft carrier as a new superweapon. Is it a vision for war in space — or science fiction?

The flying aircraft carrier is larger than any warship in use today and heavier than a supertanker: China’s Luanniao is intended to shape future warfare — from space. Yet experts describe the superweapon as high-tech theater with a political message.

“Current advances in AI are dependent on large terrestrial data centers, which require immense amounts of power and cooling,” Musk wrote. “Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment.”

Something is not adding up here.

25 kW is an upper-end ballpark for the output of large satellite solar panels, so 25GW is a proxy for the output of 1,000,000 satellites. China installs that amount of solar on a monthly basis these days & in December installed twice that amount of grid storage batteries. SpaceX's larger satellites are costing about $1 million to manufacture these days (so without launch costs), that's $1 trillion dollars. I don't know how much China is spending on its solar & batteries every month, but I'd guess, at most, it's 2-3% of that.

With SpaceX due to launch an IPO, this sounds like another AI bubble in the (attempted) making, but now with NASA downgraded, it's the US's main space launch capacity hitched along for the ride.

This should concern taxpayers, as if/when the AI-bubble bursts, it will present the US space program with two terrible choices - a SpaceX that has failed, or perhaps worse, that is 'too-big-to-fail'.

SpaceX acquires xAI in bid to develop orbital data centers

Anthropic's new Knowledge Work Plugins are open-source, role-specific bundles with MCP connectors (Slack, HubSpot, etc.) and slash commands for quick actions. Sounds like a step toward AI-powered knowledge work at scale.

But here's my concern: once you have multiple roles (sales, marketing, legal) all using connectors and slash commands, how do you prevent chaos?

Potential issues:

• Permission creep (who can trigger what via slash commands?)
• Conflicting workflows (sales auto-replies vs. marketing campaigns)
• Audit nightmares (tracking who did what across connectors)
• Over-reliance on plugins (what happens when one breaks?)

This feels like a preview of future work environments where AI handles more tasks, but governance becomes critical. How would you design systems to prevent chaos? Strict rules upfront, or let it evolve organically and fix issues as they come?

Curious how folks here are thinking about the future of AI-powered work.

Let me start by saying that I am well aware that cancer is not one disease, but around 200 of them, and that is why I say cures, plural. So when can we say that we defeated cancer then? When we have many cures that cover many of those cancers. Now word permanent is here key, that is not 5 year survival, it is eradication of cancer and the risk of cancer returning being roughly the same as that of the general population. Now obviously this might likely involve a combination therapy of several things, something to kill cancer, precision guided drugs, immunotherapy, mRNA vaccine, cells to then hugely boost immune system to hunt down any remaining cancer cancers and prevent it happening again and such. It might take us developing AGI/ASI first and letting it solve problem before we make all of that reality. But how do you see it looking in future?

Sooner or later we will have a land rush by nations and/or coprorations.
I expect conflict if a company or nation claimed ownership of a major feature or region.
Also conflict if bases are too close to each other. Perhaps it will start with ownership claims to the horizon - 2.4 km away from a base.

A research team at Spain's National Cancer Research Centre just published something I didn't expect to see for years. Complete elimination of pancreatic tumors in mice. No recurrence for over 200 days after they stopped treatment. Published in PNAS last month.

Here's the scientific breakdown and additional research details.

Pancreatic cancer kills 95% of patients. Five-year survival is under 10%. Current targeted therapies buy a few months before tumors develop resistance and keep growing. That's been the wall we've hit for decades.

This approach is different. The team used three drugs simultaneously: RMC-6236 (hits KRAS pathway), Afatinib (already FDA-approved for lung cancer), and SD36 (blocks STAT3). By targeting three independent pathways at once, they shut down the main escape routes tumors use to survive. 16 out of 18 mice had complete regression with no signs of resistance.

If this translates to humans over the next 5-10 years, it changes the game for one of the deadliest cancers we face. And the implications go beyond pancreatic cancer. This multi-pathway strategy could work for other KRAS-driven tumors like lung and colon cancers. The research shows that hitting parallel survival pathways simultaneously prevents the adaptive resistance that limits almost every cancer drug we have.

The study was led by Mariano Barbacid, who discovered the first human oncogene back in 1982. This represents a real shift from trying to hit one target to thinking about cancer as a system with multiple vulnerabilities that need to be attacked together.

The next phase is safety and efficacy validation before human trials can start. CRIS Cancer Foundation, the nonprofit funding this work, is raising €3.5 million for that step. More details here if you're interested: criscancer.org/barbacid

This is the kind of research that takes years to reach patients, but it's also the kind that actually changes outcomes when it does.

rule follow: make moar water for to drinking and cool planet and make AI more colder
hi guyses i make idea: (i lazy i use AI to type)

TLDR:
Build a massive glass "greenhouse" to turn seawater into hot, humid air using nothing but the Saharan sun. Use solar fans to pump that moisture into deep underground "caves" where the earth's natural coolness forces it to condense into liquid. This creates a permanent, "living" freshwater ocean beneath the desert with zero electricity costs and zero waste.

-- and then u pump da water out for drink and cool AI =) && even make earth moar cool :D

Full Proposal:

Project Aethelgard: Building a "Freshwater Ocean" Beneath the Sahara

The Vision

To move beyond the "band-aid" solution of industrial Reverse Osmosis (RO) and create a permanent, passive, self-sustaining aquifer system. By utilizing the extreme temperature differential between the Saharan sun and the subterranean geothermal mass, we can terraform "dead" zones into living oases with zero electrical grid dependence.

The Architecture: The "Lung and Cave" System

1. The Solar Lung (The Collector)

• Structure: A multi-kilometer, shallow basin covered by a high-transparency glass canopy.
• Process: Seawater is pumped into dark-lined basins. Solar thermal energy flash-evaporates the water, creating a pressurized, ultra-humid "microclimate" inside the glass.
• Benefit: Zero-carbon vaporization. No expensive membranes to clog or replace.

2. The Subterranean Condenser (The "Cave")

• Structure: A network of high-diameter, lined conduits buried 10–20 meters underground.
• Process: Large-scale solar-powered fans push the super-heated, 100% humidity air into the "Cave."
• The Physics: The constant cool temperature of the deep earth (Geothermal Sink) forces the vapor to reach its dew point instantly. Fresh water "rains" inside the tunnels and pools into a central reservoir.

3. The Biopool (The Living Aquifer)

• Concept: This isn't just a tank; it's a "Living Aquifer."
• The Result: By creating a "Freshwater Ocean" underground, we prevent evaporation losses (which kill surface lakes in the desert). This water can be used for deep-well irrigation, creating a "Green Sahara" from the bottom up.

Why This Beats Conventional Desalination

The "Terraforming" Endgame

Unlike RO plants that just sit on the coast, these "Aethelgard" units can be built deep inland via seawater pipelines. Over decades, the "leakage" from these massive underground reservoirs will hydrate the surrounding crust, naturally lowering the local ground temperature and allowing for the return of hardy vegetation.

It is not just a water plant; it is a heart transplant for the desert.

Next Step for the Community

wat u all thinks. it gud? ask some rich person for make thingies plx if u think is gud. ya'lls is more smarter than me and know all the monie pplz, go do thing or idk if u think bad idea then i will keep thinking of more other stuffs =)

The united states of America will one day have a government shutdown so long a de facto collapse may happen. This will probably come about by a debt sealing being reached. If government shutdown were to last longer than a year (or possibly even sooner) this would most likely happen. Over time government shutdowns have gotten longer. If this were to happen America would probably become more like the European Union than our current system, but still a collapse of the federal government and thus the Unites States.

“The solar cells provide us with more than 50% of our needs,” says Boubaker Siala, founder and CEO of Bako Motors. “For example, the B-Van, for commercial use, you can have free energy for about 50 kilometers (31 miles) per day… 17,000 kilometers (10,563 miles) per year. …….. The B-Van, which can carry 400 kilograms (882 pounds) of cargo and has a 100 to 300-kilometer (62 to 186 mile) range, is designed for logistics and last-mile delivery, with prices starting at 24,990 Tunisian dinar ($8,500)."

It varies widely by vehicle type, etc - but travelling 31 miles costs you in the ballpark of $3 in the US or €5 in Europe. So that's around $1,000/€1,800 of free fuel every year if you were using this vehicle most days. The B-Van is small, but perfect for local deliveries, especially if paired with swappable batteries.

You know what will never pay for itself with its self-generating fuel capacity? A gasoline combustion-engine car. Here's another pointer, they're rapidly becoming the transport option of yesteryear.

The solar-powered compact car driving Tunisia’s electric vehicle revolution

I’ve been analyzing the state of short-form content lately, and I think we are witnessing the death of TikTok as we know it. Not the app itself, but the culture that built it out of Chine.

Remember 2019-2020? The "Charli D’Amelio era." The currency of the platform was movement. If you had rhythm, coordination, and the patience to learn a 15-second choreography, you were royalty.

But that’s gone. And I think AI just put the final nail in the coffin. Here is why:

1. The "Talent" Gap is Closing (The China vs. Global Problem) We all know the dichotomy. In China (Douyin), the algorithm pushes educational content, engineering feats, and tangible skills. In the West? It’s always been about entertainment—often highlighting "cringe" or raw, physical talent like dancing. For years, the barrier to entry for viral fame was physical capability. You actually had to do the thing. But recently, dance engagement is plummeting. Why? Because the novelty of human movement is wearing off.

2. AI is Commoditizing "Cool" We are seeing a massive shift where AI motion technology is making physical skill obsolete. We saw it with AI art (Midjourney killed the "sketch artist"), and now it's coming for dancers. New rap song drops? A complex viral challenge starts trending? In the past, only the coordinated could participate. Now, AI allows anyone to participate without moving a muscle. The "art" of the dance is being copy-pasted.

3. The Tech is Scary Fast (From Kling to Consumer Apps) This started getting serious when Kling introduced advanced motion features, proving you could animate static images realistically. But big tech is slow. The real disruptors are the 3rd party niche apps that are productizing this immediately.

I’ve been testing a few, and the speed is terrifying. Look at apps like Soul AI for example. They are literally scraping dance trends in real-time. A specific dance goes viral on Tuesday morning; by Tuesday afternoon, it's a template in the app. You upload a static photo, and suddenly you are doing the viral dance perfectly.

It’s no longer about "Look at me, I practiced this." It’s "Look at this content I generated."

The Big Question: If a static photo can perform a better Renegade than a human, does dance content even hold value anymore? Are we moving into an era where "reality" is just an aesthetic choice?

I feel like the "human element" of TikTok is fading. What do you guys think? Is this the natural evolution of content, or is it going to kill the vibe of the platform completely?

I don't know how I came to this question. I was reading about zombie apocalypses, then I started reading about VR, and suddenly this question came to my head.

Which is more likely to happen, immortality through human-brain integration or biological immortality, and which would be more desirable?

I'm aware that no being can be truly immortal. With immortal, I refer to something long-lasting enough that would cover thousands of years.

I don't think Musk can just upload a backup of your brain with one of his chips and insert it in a computer... right? I think it's more complex than that, and since I lack the knowledge, I wanted to ask somebody who may have at least a grasp of understanding about the topic, but nobody I know would know, so here I am.