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The Möbius strip, also called the twisted cylinder (Henle 1994, p. 110), is a one-sided nonorientable surface obtained by cutting a closed band into a single strip, giving one of the two ends thus produced a half twist, and then reattaching the two ends (right figure; Gray 1997, pp. 322–323). The strip bearing his name was invented by Möbius in 1858, although it was independently discovered by Listing, who published it, while Möbius did not (Derbyshire 2004, p. 381). Like the cylinder, it is not a true surface, but rather a surface with boundary (Henle 1994, p. 110).

The Möbius strip has Euler characteristic (Dodson and Parker 1997, p. 125).

According to Madachy (1979), the B. F. Goodrich Company patented a conveyor belt in the form of a Möbius strip which lasts twice as long as conventional belts. M. C. Escher was fond of portraying Möbius strips, and they appear in his woodcuts “Möbius Strip I” and “Möbius Strip II (Red Ants)” (Bool et al. 1982, p. 324; Forty 2003, Plate 70).

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The Los Alamos National Laboratory has introduced the “Spacecraft Speedometer,” a novel technology for tracking satellites in low Earth orbit. This compact, resource-efficient device can precisely measure a satellite’s speed as it orbits the planet. Researchers believe it could also serve as a tracking solution for deep-space missions.

Designed to provide onboard, real-time velocity measurements, the Spacecraft Speedometer enables space agencies and commercial operators to predict satellite positions and execute orbital maneuvers to avoid collisions with other satellites or space debris.

Los Alamos developed the system in response to increasing congestion in LEO, where the number of active satellites surged from 2,287 in 2019 to over 10,000 in 2024. With the rise of mega-constellations, traffic management challenges are expected to grow even more severe.

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Sunburns and aging skin are obvious effects of exposure to harmful UV rays, tobacco smoke and other carcinogens. But the effects aren’t just skin deep. Inside the body, DNA is literally being torn apart.

Understanding how the body heals and protects itself from DNA damage is vital for treating genetic disorders and life-threatening diseases such as cancer. But despite numerous studies and medical advances, much about the molecular mechanisms of DNA repair remains a mystery.

For the past several years, researchers at Georgia State University tapped into the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study an elaborate molecular pathway called nucleotide excision repair, or NER relies on an array of highly dynamic protein complexes to cut out, or excise, damaged DNA with surgical precision.

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This week, ALMA researchers reported the discovery of oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. Geologists believe unusual structures in rock in the desert regions of Namibia, Oman and Saudia Arabia may be evidence of an unknown microorganism. And a group of physicists may have generated a tiny charge of electricity using the Earth’s rotational energy. But the biggest story by far is the second release of data from the DESI survey of the universe, which could upend the standard model:

An emerging generation of cosmological surveys launched this week with the second release of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, which is mapping an unprecedentedly huge number of galaxies spanning 11 billion years of cosmic history in order to better understand dark energy.

Astronomers have known for many decades that the universe is expanding; in the 1990s, the first image of the cosmic microwave background—the echo of the big bang—revealed that this expansion is accelerating for unknown reasons. Astronomers call this expansion “dark energy,” which translates to “we don’t understand what this energy is.”

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Joscha Bach, Cognitive Scientist and AI researcher, as well as Anthony Aguirre, UCSC Professor of Physics, join us to explore the world through the lens of computation and the difficulties we face on the way to beneficial futures.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Understanding the universe through digital physics.
–How human consciousness operates and is structured.
–The path to aligned AGI and bottlenecks to beneficial futures.
–Incentive structures and collective coordination.

Find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2021/03/31/j… to be the FLI Podcast Producer here: https://futureoflife.org/job-postings/ Follow the podcast on: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Op1WO3… Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast… SoundCloud: / futureoflife Have any feedback about the podcast? You can share your thoughts here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/DRBFZCT Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:58 What is truth and knowledge? 11:39 What is subjectivity and objectivity? 15:13 What is the universe ultimately? 20:32 Is the universe a cellular automaton? Is the universe ultimately digital or analogue? 25:59 Hilbert’s hotel from the point of view of computation 39:14 Seeing the world as a fractal 43:00 Describing human consciousness 57:46 Meaning, purpose, and harvesting negentropy 1:02:30 The path to aligned AGI 1:05:13 Bottlenecks to beneficial futures and existential security 1:16:01 A future with one, several, or many AGI systems? How do we maintain appropriate incentive structures? 1:30:39 Non-duality and collective coordination 1:34:16 What difficulties are there for an idealist worldview that involves computation? 1:37:19 Which features of mind and consciousness are necessarily coupled and which aren’t? 1:47:47 Joscha’s final thoughts on AGI This podcast is possible because of the support of listeners like you. If you found this conversation to be meaningful or valuable, consider supporting it directly by donating at: https://futureoflife.org/donate Contributions like yours make these conversations possible.

Apply to be the FLI Podcast Producer here: https://futureoflife.org/job-postings/

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