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They Are Waiting for Us To Die: Aestivation Hypothesis

What if advanced civilizations aren’t absent—they’re just waiting? What if they looked at our universe, full of burning stars and abundant energy, and decided it’s too hot, too expensive, too wasteful to be awake? What if everyone else has gone into hibernation, sleeping through the entire age of stars, waiting trillions of years for the universe to cool? The Aestivation Hypothesis offers a stunning solution to the Fermi Paradox: intelligent civilizations aren’t missing—they’re deliberately dormant, conserving energy for a colder, more efficient future. We might be the only ones awake in a sleeping cosmos.

Over the next 80 minutes, we’ll explore one of the most patient answers to why we haven’t found aliens. From thermodynamic efficiency to cosmic hibernation, from automated watchers keeping vigil to the choice between experiencing now versus waiting for optimal conditions trillions of years ahead, we’ll examine why the rational strategy might be to sleep through our entire era. This changes everything about the Fermi Paradox, the Drake Equation, and what it means to be awake during the universe’s most “expensive” age.

CHAPTERS:

0:00 — Introduction: The Patience of Stars.

4:30 — The Fermi Paradox Once More.

8:20 — Introducing the Aestivation Hypothesis.

GDC’s Survey Says Over 50% Of Game Devs See Gen AI As Harmful

Each year, thousands of professionals contribute to GDC’s State of the Game Industry report, offering studios, investors, and creators a snapshot of where the market is headed.

This year’s survey gathered responses from more than 2,300 game industry professionals, including developers, producers, marketers, executives, and investors, covering topics such as layoffs, diversity and inclusion, business models, and generative AI. Just over half of respondents were based in the United States, with a disproportionate share coming from North America and Western Europe, meaning the survey is not fully representative of the global industry.

However, some of these findings may reflect broader global trends. You can feel the mood shifting around AI, with its use increasingly sparking backlash whenever it comes up, from Baldur’s Gate 3 controversies to “Microslop”.

Biomolecular condensates sustain pH gradients at equilibrium through charge neutralization

PH is a critical regulator of (bio)chemical processes and therefore tightly regulated in nature. Now, proteins have been shown to possess the functionality to drive pH gradients without requiring energy input or membrane enclosure but through condensation. Protein condensates can drive unique pH gradients that modulate biochemical activity in both living and artificial systems.

Antithrombotic Treatment for Stroke Prevention in Cervical Artery Dissection: The STOP-CAD Study

This was a multicenter international retrospective observational study (63 sites from 16 countries; Figure S1) that included patients presenting to an acute care hospital and diagnosed with CAD without concomitant major trauma. We identified adult patients aged ≥18 years with CAD based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes (443.21 and 443.24),8,9 International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes (I77.71, I77.74, and I77.75),10 or from institutional registries. These codes have been used or validated in prior studies.8–10

The patients’ vascular neuroimaging studies were reviewed by site principal investigators, and only those with clinical suspicion for CAD and imaging confirmation were included. Imaging confirmation required the presence of at least one of the following imaging features: crescent-shaped hyperintensity in the vessel wall indicating an intramural hematoma; a double lumen sign; the presence of a dissecting pseudoaneurysm, intimal flap, or vessel irregularity; or flame-shaped or tapering stenosis or occlusion of the artery at a typical dissection site and without evidence of atherosclerotic changes. Imaging reports, when available, were reviewed by neurologists at the lead site to confirm a dissection diagnosis.

We excluded patients with incidental chronic dissection, those with major head or neck trauma within the previous 4 weeks (eg, causing skull or cervical fractures or hemorrhage), those with a dissecting aneurysm causing primary subarachnoid hemorrhage, and those with iatrogenic dissection.

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