Quantum mechanics theory predicts that, in addition to exhibiting particle-like behavior, particles of all sizes can also have wave-like properties. These properties can be represented using the wave function, a mathematical description of quantum systems that delineates a particle’s movements and the probability that it is in a specific position.
What if the end of everything came not from cosmic fate, but from us? This episode examines the physics, probability, and peril of experiments that could, in theory, unravel the universe.
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Credits:
Could We Accidentally Destroy the Universe?
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editors: Lukas Konecny.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Chapters.
0:00 Intro.
2:38 Vacuum Decay (False Vacuum Collapse)
9:59 Strange Matter Conversion.
13:09 Gray Goo Scenario (Nanotechnology Out of Control)
16:05 Runaway Energy Reaction.
19:06 Altering the Constants of Nature.
20:49 Brane Collision (M-Theory Catastrophe)
22:27 Time Travel or Causality Paradox.
23:55 Nebula.
25:20 Simulation Shutdown.
27:21 Big Rip or Cosmological Instability.
28:35 Baby Universe Creation or Collapse.
29:51 Why It Hasn’t Happened Yet (Anthropic Principle & More)
31:49 Channel Updates
A debate/discussion on ASI (artificial superintelligence) between Foresight Senior Fellow Mark S. Miller and MIRI founder Eliezer Yudkowsky. Sharing similar long-term goals, they nevertheless reach opposite conclusions on best strategy.
“What are the best strategies for addressing risks from artificial superintelligence? In this 4-hour conversation, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Mark Miller discuss their cruxes for disagreement. While Eliezer advocates an international treaty that bans anyone from building it, Mark argues that such a pause would make an ASI singleton more likely – which he sees as the greatest danger.”
What are the best strategies for addressing extreme risks from artificial superintelligence? In this 4-hour conversation, decision theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky and computer scientist Mark Miller discuss their cruxes for disagreement.
They examine the future of AI, existential risk, and whether alignment is even possible. Topics include AI risk scenarios, coalition dynamics, secure systems like seL4, hardware exploits like Rowhammer, molecular engineering with AlphaFold, and historical analogies like nuclear arms control. They explore superintelligence governance, multipolar vs singleton futures, and the philosophical challenges of trust, verification, and control in a post-AGI world.
Moderated by Christine Peterson, the discussion seeks the least risky strategy for reaching a preferred state amid superintelligent AI risks. Yudkowsky warns of catastrophic outcomes if AGI is not controlled, while Miller advocates decentralizing power and preserving human institutions as AI evolves.
Spintronics, or spin-electronics, is a revolutionary approach to information processing that utilizes the intrinsic angular momentum (spin) of electrons, rather than solely relying on electric charge flow. This technology promises faster, more energy-efficient data storage and logic devices. A central challenge in fully realizing spintronics has been the development of materials that can precisely control electron spin direction.
In a new development for spin-nanotechnology, researchers led by Professor Young Keun Kim of Korea University and Professor Ki Tae Nam of Seoul National University have successfully created magnetic nanohelices that can control electron spin.
This technology, which utilizes chiral magnetic materials to regulate electron spin at room temperature, has been published in Science.
Researchers at The City College of New York have shown how a quantum emitter, the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond, interacts in unexpected ways with a specially engineered photonic structure when moved around with a scanning tip.
The study, led by Carlos A. Meriles—Martin and Michele Cohen Professor of Physics in the Division of Science—and titled “Emission of Nitrogen–Vacancy Centres in Diamond Shaped by Topological Photonic Waveguide Modes,” appears in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
What has long been considered a drawback of the NV center—its broad and messy emission spectrum—turns out to enable a new type of coupling that reshapes its light in ways not seen before. This discovery has fundamental importance for quantum information technologies, since such coupling could help overcome longstanding challenges like spectral diffusion and open pathways toward robust spin–photon and spin–spin entanglement on a chip.
With the power to rewrite the genetic code underlying countless diseases, CRISPR holds immense promise to revolutionize medicine. But until scientists can deliver its gene-editing machinery safely and efficiently into relevant cells and tissues, that promise will remain out of reach.
Now, Northwestern University chemists have unveiled a new type of nanostructure that dramatically improves CRISPR delivery and potentially extends its scope of utility.
Called lipid nanoparticle spherical nucleic acids (LNP-SNAs), these tiny structures carry the full set of CRISPR editing tools—Cas9 enzymes, guide RNA and a DNA repair template—wrapped in a dense, protective shell of DNA. Not only does this DNA coating shield its cargo, but it also dictates which organs and tissues the LNP-SNAs travel to and makes it easier for them to enter cells.
China’s.
Discover how nanotubes can revolutionize insulation in aerospace and energy sectors by resisting over 4,700°F.
Quantum technologies, devices that work by leveraging quantum mechanical effects, could outperform classical technologies in some fields and settings. The so-called spin (i.e., intrinsic angular momentum) carried by quantum particles is central to the functioning of quantum systems, as it can store quantum information.
To reliably share quantum information across a network, however, spins need to be linked to photons (i.e., particles of light). For decades, engineers and quantum physicists have thus been trying to devise approaches to interface spins and photons.
One strategy to achieve this entails the use of quantum dots, nanoscale semiconductor structures that can trap electrons or holes in distinct energy levels. When placed in carefully engineered optical resonators known as microcavities, these structures can generate individual photons. Nonetheless, ensuring that the coherence of spins is not disrupted by magnetic noise originating from nearby nuclear spins and thus facilitating the preservation of quantum information over time has so far proved challenging.