Anders Sandberg
@arenamontanus.bsky.social
Academic jack-of-all-trades.
Behind all of this there is a serious and fairly urgent question: what should UAE become? What *can* it become? Money is not a problem, but it might not be a solution either. We will see if futures thinking can help.
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Behind all of this there is a serious and fairly urgent question: what should UAE become? What *can* it become? Money is not a problem, but it might not be a solution either. We will see if futures thinking can help.
Today's best (?) diet rationalisation: "Gold leaf has no calories."
Generally, I adore what they do with nuts here - the hazelnuts are just *so* good!
Still, Umm Ali might win as a dessert just by simplicity.
Generally, I adore what they do with nuts here - the hazelnuts are just *so* good!
Still, Umm Ali might win as a dessert just by simplicity.
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Today's best (?) diet rationalisation: "Gold leaf has no calories."
Generally, I adore what they do with nuts here - the hazelnuts are just *so* good!
Still, Umm Ali might win as a dessert just by simplicity.
Generally, I adore what they do with nuts here - the hazelnuts are just *so* good!
Still, Umm Ali might win as a dessert just by simplicity.
To be honest, this is not my kind of city. However, I often judge cities by their bookstores, and I found Kinokuniya rather good. Interesting to observe that Nick's Superintelligence is still selling well, more than 10 years after publishing.
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
To be honest, this is not my kind of city. However, I often judge cities by their bookstores, and I found Kinokuniya rather good. Interesting to observe that Nick's Superintelligence is still selling well, more than 10 years after publishing.
I met a bunch of earnest young researchers presenting posters (some things never change). I really liked hearing about acoustic detection of palm weevil infestation (I wonder if that also works for pine bark beetles?) #DubaiFuture #DFForum25 #PrototypesForHumanity
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
I met a bunch of earnest young researchers presenting posters (some things never change). I really liked hearing about acoustic detection of palm weevil infestation (I wonder if that also works for pine bark beetles?) #DubaiFuture #DFForum25 #PrototypesForHumanity
I am here for the Dubai Future Forum, held in the crazy and iconic Museum of the Future housed in the metal Dupin cyclide. Impractical? Yes. Still awesome.
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
I am here for the Dubai Future Forum, held in the crazy and iconic Museum of the Future housed in the metal Dupin cyclide. Impractical? Yes. Still awesome.
Dubai is as always exorbitantly absurd. A bit like a Las Vegas without the alcohol and gambling, with some eclectic cyberpunk touches.
November 17, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Dubai is as always exorbitantly absurd. A bit like a Las Vegas without the alcohol and gambling, with some eclectic cyberpunk touches.
Oxford in autumn can be nice. Especially indoors.
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Oxford in autumn can be nice. Especially indoors.
Lovely visualisation of CMEs. helioforecast.space/cme
November 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Lovely visualisation of CMEs. helioforecast.space/cme
This article was 2 years before the Manhattan Project, so it is unlikely to have been due to deliberate disinformation: it is an honest take on the state of knowledge. Except of course that there was actually a fair bit to worry about...
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
This article was 2 years before the Manhattan Project, so it is unlikely to have been due to deliberate disinformation: it is an honest take on the state of knowledge. Except of course that there was actually a fair bit to worry about...
There are some caveats, but don't worry, scientific consensus seems to be firmly on the safety side!
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
There are some caveats, but don't worry, scientific consensus seems to be firmly on the safety side!
Then comes a good description of the recent French experiment in making a self-sustaining chain reaction. And since it runs out, there is no risk.
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Then comes a good description of the recent French experiment in making a self-sustaining chain reaction. And since it runs out, there is no risk.
It gives a summary of a recent fission experiment and claims this caused widespread unease. However, physicists were unafraid to of being blown up (and blowing up the rest of the world).
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
It gives a summary of a recent fission experiment and claims this caused widespread unease. However, physicists were unafraid to of being blown up (and blowing up the rest of the world).
When @fermatslibrary.bsky.social brought up this 1940 article about why we have nothing to worry about from nuclear chain reactions, I checked that it was real and not a modern forgery. Because it seems almost too good to be true in light of current AI safety talk.
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 AM
When @fermatslibrary.bsky.social brought up this 1940 article about why we have nothing to worry about from nuclear chain reactions, I checked that it was real and not a modern forgery. Because it seems almost too good to be true in light of current AI safety talk.
All Saints' Day is one of those holidays that has grown on me. To me it is all about acknowledging the network of lives across the human project, past, present and future.
November 3, 2025 at 1:47 AM
All Saints' Day is one of those holidays that has grown on me. To me it is all about acknowledging the network of lives across the human project, past, present and future.
Also, the core metabolic network in cells is surprisingly small. It is a bow-tie graph where there is a big fan-in to about 150 metabolites that are used for everything and form a densely connected core, and then a vast fan-out to all the specialised stuff.
October 20, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Also, the core metabolic network in cells is surprisingly small. It is a bow-tie graph where there is a big fan-in to about 150 metabolites that are used for everything and form a densely connected core, and then a vast fan-out to all the specialised stuff.
Biochemistry uses far less types of chemical reactions than are known or allowed.
(Lin, G. M., Warden-Rothman, R., & Voigt, C. A. (2019). Retrosynthetic design of metabolic pathways to chemicals not found in nature. Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 14, 82-107.)
(Lin, G. M., Warden-Rothman, R., & Voigt, C. A. (2019). Retrosynthetic design of metabolic pathways to chemicals not found in nature. Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 14, 82-107.)
October 20, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Biochemistry uses far less types of chemical reactions than are known or allowed.
(Lin, G. M., Warden-Rothman, R., & Voigt, C. A. (2019). Retrosynthetic design of metabolic pathways to chemicals not found in nature. Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 14, 82-107.)
(Lin, G. M., Warden-Rothman, R., & Voigt, C. A. (2019). Retrosynthetic design of metabolic pathways to chemicals not found in nature. Current Opinion in Systems Biology, 14, 82-107.)
But the fact that we do get emergent models, generalisation, and problem-solving in what is "just" predicting sequences of frames is a big thing. Should not be surprising after the LLMs, but it takes many learning samples for us humans...
October 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
But the fact that we do get emergent models, generalisation, and problem-solving in what is "just" predicting sequences of frames is a big thing. Should not be surprising after the LLMs, but it takes many learning samples for us humans...
Paper and video makes an important point: video generation contains an amazing amount of world knowledge and emergent strategic thinking that in the past one could write entire SIGGRAPH (or AI) papers about how to model for one particular case. A sweet demo of the Bitter Lesson.
October 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Paper and video makes an important point: video generation contains an amazing amount of world knowledge and emergent strategic thinking that in the past one could write entire SIGGRAPH (or AI) papers about how to model for one particular case. A sweet demo of the Bitter Lesson.
The cliched "sexy robot" has breasts because of the male mammalian gaze. What attributes would a "sexy von Neumann replicator" have?
October 6, 2025 at 10:44 AM
The cliched "sexy robot" has breasts because of the male mammalian gaze. What attributes would a "sexy von Neumann replicator" have?
Currently refining the range calculation to actually integrate dust along a trajectory. For a starting point above the plane there is a "shadow" from the inner region that is hard to reach. Getting out of the plane really matters.
October 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Currently refining the range calculation to actually integrate dust along a trajectory. For a starting point above the plane there is a "shadow" from the inner region that is hard to reach. Getting out of the plane really matters.
A crude model assumes the dust density at the sender system sets the range. Settlement starts from sol, reaches nearby systems above or below the plane, and goes everywhere in a few steps.
October 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM
A crude model assumes the dust density at the sender system sets the range. Settlement starts from sol, reaches nearby systems above or below the plane, and goes everywhere in a few steps.
If we assume dust follows gas, it will make a disk with a height scale 0.1 kpc and radial scale length similar to thin disk of stars. We are close to its plane, hence the dark lanes in Milky Way.
October 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM
If we assume dust follows gas, it will make a disk with a height scale 0.1 kpc and radial scale length similar to thin disk of stars. We are close to its plane, hence the dark lanes in Milky Way.
The exact range needed depends on the star density; for the solar neighborhood it is about 8 lightyears. Here I use bigger ranges since I cannot run 300 billion stars on my laptop yet.
October 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM
The exact range needed depends on the star density; for the solar neighborhood it is about 8 lightyears. Here I use bigger ranges since I cannot run 300 billion stars on my laptop yet.
One of my big questions is how much dust affects interstellar settlement. I ended up making a model of Milky Way stellar density with a dust model, assuming settlement only happens inside a range set by integrated dust density.
October 5, 2025 at 10:05 PM
One of my big questions is how much dust affects interstellar settlement. I ended up making a model of Milky Way stellar density with a dust model, assuming settlement only happens inside a range set by integrated dust density.