Recent explosive growth has led to the “erroneous” planet achieving the title of the fastest-growing planet ever observed.
Several months ago, this planet started to rumble within the gaseous envelope surrounding it, and it is now consuming 6 billion tonnes (2.2 trillion pounds) per second. New research reveals it as the most voracious world recorded to date.
Known as Cha 1107-7626, this celestial body is 5-10 times larger than Jupiter and located 620 light-years away. As a “rogue” planet, it does not orbit a star but instead moves freely in its own path.
While the origins of these rogue planets remain a mystery, this finding suggests they may form more like stars than traditional planets.
“People often envision planets as tranquil, stable environments, but this discovery indicates that objects on planets drifting freely in space can lead to an exhilarating landscape,” said Dr. Victor Almendros-Abad, an astronomer at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy and the lead researcher on this study.
CHA 1107-7626 is enveloped by a disc of gas and dust, which is spiraling onto its surface and facilitating its growth through a process called accretion.
Last year, astronomers observed the planet’s increasing appetite for gas, leading to a situation where, by August 2025, it had ingested eight times more gas than it had just months prior.
“This represents the most intense accretion event ever documented for planetary mass objects,” stated Almendros-Abad.
Astronomers have uncovered hundreds of rogue planets, yet their origins remain elusive – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The exact characteristics of these drifting worlds have puzzled astronomers for years. There are currently two primary theories: they may have originally formed around stars but were ejected, or they emerged from a collapsing gas and dust cloud like stars.
To gather insights, astronomers captured light from the planet both before and during its recent growth spurt. They detected indications of a robust magnetic field influencing the gas accretion onto the planet. Additionally, they noticed signs of water vapor present during the growth phase but absent before it. Both phenomena are typically associated with growing stars and have not been observed on young planets.
“The concept that planetary objects can function like stars is awe-inspiring, prompting speculation about what an early stage of such worlds might entail,” remarked Dr. Amelia Bayo, an astronomer at the Southern Observatory in Europe, who contributed to this study.
Numerous Mayan individuals reside in Acanceh, Mexico
Educational Images/Universal Image Groups via Getty Images
Historically, the quantity of zinc and other trace elements in human nutrition was largely influenced by the local soil conditions. Recent findings suggest that our ancestors adapted to varying levels of micronutrients as they dispersed globally.
This adaptation may have resulted in notable repercussions. For instance, the shorter statures observed in certain populations might be a consequence of adapting to low iodine availability. Additionally, these historical adjustments may lead to some individuals today experiencing deficiencies or excesses of specific micronutrients.
“For much of human history, the micronutrient profile of our diet has been determined by the soil beneath us,” stated Jasmine Reese from the University of Pennsylvania.
Reese and her team analyzed the genomes of nearly 900 individuals globally to uncover evidence of adaptation to local concentrations of 13 trace elements, including iron, manganese, and selenium. They investigated signs of positive selection in 270 genes related to the ingestion of these elements, highlighting benefits of genetic variations that became more common within certain populations.
The most compelling evidence was for iodine-related genes in the Maya populations of Central America. A similar pattern was observed in the Mbuti and Biaka peoples of Central Africa.
In 2009, it was suggested that the short stature of the Mbuti and Biaka peoples may be attributed to their adaptation to low iodine levels. This relates to iodine-binding genes that influence thyroid hormone function and subsequently growth. These groups are also notably more susceptible to thyroid enlargement due to dietary iodine deficiencies compared to nearby populations.
Maya individuals also exhibit notably shorter statures, providing supporting evidence for the hypothesis that adaptations to low iodine levels influence height. Moreover, it is emphasized that the soils in the Mayan regions, particularly rainforests, are recognized as low in iodine.
“This is quite speculative,” she notes. “While I can’t definitively link short stature directly to iodine levels, we observe a striking correlation with the selection of iodine-related genes in these shorter populations.”
In the Uighur and Blahui populations of Central and South Asia, where soil magnesium concentrations are particularly elevated, there is strong selection impacting two genes involved in magnesium uptake. Some gene variants correlated with low magnesium levels suggest adaptive changes that minimize magnesium absorption to avoid toxicity from environmental excess.
These instances are merely a couple of examples. The research team has identified signs of positive selection related to at least one micronutrient across virtually all examined populations worldwide. “We truly observe a widespread signature of adaptation,” Reese states.
This research marks just the beginning, she emphasizes. Further investigations are crucial to elucidate the impacts of the numerous genetic variants discovered by the team. Given the global trade in food, individuals within certain populations may require increased or decreased intake of specific micronutrients. Reese compares this to populations in the UK, where individuals with darker skin may need vitamin D supplementation not just in winter but throughout the entire year.
“Understanding whether a specific population may require certain micronutrient supplements is essential,” notes Mark Stoneking at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
“They’ve conducted groundbreaking work in identifying signatures of selection from genomic data,” he states. “However, further research is needed to confirm these findings as genuine cases of selection, as some may inevitably turn out to be false positives.”
A potentially newly discovered galaxy from the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA, ESA, CSA, CEERS, G. Gandolfi
Astronomers might have found galaxies that formed very early in the universe, approximately 200 million years apart from their closest counterparts, but they caution that alternative explanations could exist.
Giovanni Gandolfi from the University of Padua, along with his team, examined data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in search of distant cosmic formations from the universe’s 13.8 billion-year timeline.
The greater the distance of a galaxy from Earth, the longer it takes for its light to reach us, and it will be redshifted due to the universe’s expansion.
Until now, the earliest confirmed galaxy identified by JWST, named Mom-Z14, has a redshift of 14.4, indicating that it has been moving toward us since the universe was just 280 million years old. Gandolfi and his colleagues, however, have reported finding 32 intriguing objects with redshifts, placing them at a time when the universe was merely 90 million years old. They have named this discovery Capotauro after the Italian mountains.
“Capotauro could represent the most distant galaxy we’ve encountered,” states Gandolfi.
The team derived their conclusion from observing minor fluctuations in a deep JWST survey of the sky that resemble a distant galaxy. By utilizing various filters on the telescope, they were able to determine the redshift of the light emitted by the galaxy, arriving at a count of 32.
If validated, this object might represent a very young galaxy in formation, or potentially a primitive black hole enveloped by a dense atmosphere.
Nonetheless, this presumed galaxy appears uncommonly bright, akin to those observed in later redshift instances like Mom-Z14, suggesting it has a mass approximating a billion times that of the Sun.
For a galaxy to reach such mass, its efficiency in converting gas into stars must be near 100%, according to Nicha Reese Chawarit from the National Institute of Astronomy in Thailand, indicating that the stars cannot explode. Modelling, however, suggests that achieving 10-20% or even lower is plausible. “I believe there’s something amiss,” she remarks.
If this is not a galaxy, Gandolfi and his team propose that the object could alternatively be a brown dwarf (a star that didn’t ignite). These alternative theories are also compelling, Gandolfi notes, particularly if it is a cold brown dwarf or distant planet, possibly 6000 light years away and at room temperature.
“It could represent one of the first substellar objects ever formed in our galaxy,” adds Gandolfi.
To confirm this, the team requires additional observing time on the JWST to precisely analyze the light from the object. Leethochawalit supports the notion that it may not be a galaxy but also states that such follow-up research could still be worthwhile.
“If it turns out to be a galaxy with a redshift of 32, then a lot of our previous assumptions might be entirely wrong,” she states.
World Capital of Astronomy: Chile
Discover the astronomical wonders of Chile. Explore some of the world’s most advanced observatories and experience the starry skies under some of the clearest conditions on Earth.
Research indicates a significant dissatisfaction during middle age, yet a previous phenomenon of “unhappy humps” in youth and later life seems to have faded.
This suggests that the issue is not an inherent unhappiness linked to middle age, but rather a decline in youthful happiness, a pattern supported by Alex Bryson from University College London.
“We are witnessing a surge in stress levels among individuals under 40, where the younger the demographic, the more pronounced the increase,” he remarks. “This indicates an upward trend in suffering among the younger population.”
Earlier studies spanning 145 countries reveal that individuals aged 30 and above, particularly around the age of 50, experience peak unhappiness. This trend appears to resonate with findings on Orangutans and chimpanzees.
However, Bryson and his team noticed the disappearance of the unhappy hump based on an analysis of the US National Mental Health Survey, which observed over 10 million adults from 1993 to 2024, including 40,000 households from 2009 to 2023.
To verify if this trend is global, researchers utilized data from Global Minds, a mental health study with about 2 million participants across 44 countries, including the US and UK. Findings showed that in all countries analyzed, unhappiness decreases with age, with “unhappy humps” being replaced by a gradual decline.
So, do people in middle age report higher happiness levels today? “Not necessarily,” Bryson states. “Middle-aged individuals appear to remain in a stagnant state; any shifts in happiness are primarily observed in the younger demographic.”
These emerging trends are particularly pronounced in affluent English-speaking nations such as the UK and the US, while being less noticeable in regions of Africa with limited internet access. In Tanzania, for instance, only 32% of young internet users in 2022 reported significant happiness compared to their offline counterparts. Bryson noted that further investigation could shed light on these observations.
The decline in young people’s well-being may stem from several factors, notably the adverse impact of social media, along with the isolation and challenges in accessing mental health care exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Bryson.
The human skull from Harbin, China, is currently identified as Denisovan
Hebei Geo University
Denisovans, an enigmatic group of ancient humans, were initially recognized solely through their DNA, but now they have a distinct appearance.
With molecular data, Qiaomei Fu and her team at the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology have validated long-held suspicions among researchers.
This aligns with additional evidence that Denisovans were robust and heavyset. “I believe we observe individuals weighing around 100 kg of lean body mass: a truly massive individual,” stated Bens Viola, who was not part of the research team from the University of Toronto, Canada.
Denisovans were first discovered in 2010 in the Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains, where researchers found fragments of an unknown ancient hominin’s finger bone. The preserved DNA concluded that it was neither modern humans (Homo sapiens) nor Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), but rather an entirely new species.
Moreover, genetic findings indicated that Denisovans interbred with contemporary humans. Today, populations in Southeast Asia and Melanesia carry up to 5% of Denisovan DNA, signifying their earlier presence in Asia.
Following these revelations, researchers commenced their quest for Denisovan fossils in both fieldwork and museum collections. Several fossils have since been discovered, with a notable mandible found in the Baishaya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, confirmed through fossil and DNA protein analysis from surrounding sediments. Recently, a jawbone recovered from the Peng Channel off Taiwan’s coast was also confirmed as Denisovan through preserved proteins.
Nevertheless, there remained frustrating gaps, as all confirmed Denisovan fossils obtained via molecular evidence were small, leading to limited insight. Conversely, more complete fossils from Asia were considered candidate Denisovan remains, yet none yielded molecular evidence.
Fu and her team aimed to extract preserved DNA or proteins from the human skull discovered in Harbin, northeastern China. This skull, kept under wraps for decades, was first described in 2021 and is notably large and robust, characterized by prominent brow ridges and brain size similar to modern humans. It has been dubbed Homo longi—or Dragon Man—by its discoverer.
“My impression is that this specimen is representative of what we would expect Denisovan to be, in both size and context,” Viola remarked.
Fu noted that recovering preserved molecules from the Harbin skull was an arduous task. While her team struggled to obtain DNA from the bones, they successfully retrieved 95 proteins, including three variants unique to Denisovans.
Seeking further evidence, Fu turned to dental calculus, a hardened plaque that forms on teeth, which yielded mitochondrial DNA inherited from its maternal lineage. Although she described the quantity as “small,” it was sufficient to confirm the specimen as Denisovan.
“It’s an astonishing outcome, and the efforts made were commendable,” said Saman Subroun from the National Research Centre in Burgos, Spain. “I believe many researchers tend to overlook dental calculus in genetic studies.”
With the identification of the robust Harbin skull as Denisovan, the long-suspected notion of their substantial size is now validated.
“There was a clue,” Brown noted.
The reason for their size remains unclear. Neanderthals’ robust build is linked to the cold climates of Europe and West Asia where they thrived. While Denisovan sites, including Denisova Cave and the Tibetan Plateau, were also cold, others were tropical. “We need to contemplate the implications of this,” Viola stated.
It’s possible that Denisovans varied over time. The fragments from Denisova Cave suggest two distinct groups existed: one from 217,000 to 106,000 years ago and another from 84,000 to 52,000 years ago. The Harbin skull dates back at least 146,000 years, with Fu discovering that its proteins and mitochondrial DNA align with the older group. Nevertheless, we’ve yet to locate any large Denisovan fossils in contemporary times, leaving their full appearance uncertain.
“Numerous different groups inhabited the landscape independently, often isolated from each other for tens of thousands of years,” Viola remarked. We should not presume they all bore a similar appearance.
John L. Young, a computer-savvy architect, utilized his expertise to establish Encryption, a significant repository of sensitive documents that predates WikiLeaks and often surpasses it with an unrestricted approach to disclosing government secrets. He passed away on March 28th at a rehabilitation facility in Manhattan, at the age of 89.
His death went largely unreported at the time and was attributed to complications from large-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as confirmed by his wife, Deborah Nazzios.
Founded in 1996 by former CIA executives, Cryptome offers a collection of leaked, obscure documents in the public domain, organized in reverse chronological order, displayed in a minimalist style reminiscent of typewriter output.
Over time, the site has amassed about 70,000 documents, spanning from innocuous National Intelligence University course catalogues to sensitive disclosures, including the identities of numerous intelligence agents from the US, UK, and Japan.
“I am a steadfast opponent of all forms of government secrecy,” he stated to The Associated Press in 2013. “I’m pleased with the exposure and advocate for complete transparency.”
Young often received visits from the FBI and his internet service provider. At times, he would temporarily shut down the website to avoid legal issues, yet he was never charged with a crime, and Cryptome consistently returned online.
Around a decade ago, Cryptome had already been operating alongside WikiLeaks and other whistleblowing sites. Young initially supported WikiLeaks and even co-registered its domain, but later became critical of its leader, Julian Assange.
Unlike Assange, who considered himself a journalist, Young identified as an archivist, asserting that as long as a document was authentic, it deserved encryption. He maintained that he held vast amounts of information without being responsible for its content.
Young, who had been a leftist radical during the 1960s, retained his critical perspective of the government, often suggesting to journalists that they could be spies and accusing former associates of being double agents.
With degrees in philosophy and architecture, Young spent the 1970s leading a design nonprofit in New York.
In the 1980s, he specialized in ensuring that building systems and infrastructures complied with legal codes, a mission that would eventually parallel Cryptome’s objectives.
“As architects, we are mandated by state law to prioritize public health, safety, and welfare,” he explained to the website’s assistant in 2014. “In the interest of public welfare, we should act as architects who monitor those in authority.”
Young was an early proponent of computer-aided design, sparking discussions around digital privacy that began gaining traction in the late 1980s.
He joined the mailing list of cypherpunks, a collective of hackers and programmers advocating for internet openness and resisting government surveillance of online activity.
During a time when most government documents were only available in hard copy, Young made a scanner available for free to anyone wishing to leak secret documents online.
“Cryptome played a crucial role in demonstrating the potential for internet transparency,” he remarked, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending civil liberties in the digital domain.
Despite having admirers, Young faced criticism, even from those who appreciated his work, for not considering national security implications while uploading documents online.
Nonetheless, he countered that his efforts were, in fact, beneficial to the government.
“Understanding your vulnerabilities and confronting them is essential; you shouldn’t conceal them,” he told The Associated Press.
John Lee Young was born on December 22, 1935, in Millersview, a small town in central Texas. His mother, Beatrice (Rhodes) Young, was a homemaker, while his father, Orby Young, worked as a patrol construction worker. They divorced when John was young, and he spent his childhood living with various relatives throughout the state.
After graduating from school at 14, he spent three years picking cotton, peddling religious icons, and selling Fuller Brush products door-to-door before enlisting in the US military in 1953.
Assigned to the German Corps of Engineers, he traveled across Europe during his downtime, absorbing the extensive architectural heritage of the continent.
In 1956, despite not having a high school diploma, Young enrolled at Texas Tech. He later transferred to Rice University in Houston, graduating in 1963 with degrees in philosophy and architecture. He subsequently worked on a historic preservation project in the city.
Young pursued further education at Columbia University in 1967, where he enrolled in the inaugural Historical Preservation Program at the School of Architecture.
A year later, he joined fellow students in occupying Avery Hall, the university’s main building, in protest against the plans for a new gym.
Despite emerging as a leader among protesters, he graduated in 1969 without facing expulsion.
Young’s first wife, Martha (Calhoun) Young, passed away in 1968, leaving him to raise four children. His second marriage to Marjorie Hoogue ended in divorce. In 1990, he met Nazzios, and they married in 1998.
Surviving him are three children and two grandchildren from his first marriage—Malcolm, Lilac, and Anina Young—as well as the memory of his deceased daughter, Dara. He resided in Manhattan.
Even after founding Cryptome, Young continued his architectural practice, collaborating with Nazzios to maintain the website in a cost-effective manner, contributing roughly $2,000 a year for upkeep.
He regarded it as a public service, a means of giving back to society.
“Individuals like John Young contributed significantly to the internet and its unique offerings during the ’90s and early 2000s,” Cohn remarked.
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) represent one of the greatest mysteries of the universe in our time. Initially identified in 2007, these transient radio wave phenomena have perplexed astronomers ever since.
Although we have detected thousands of them, the precise causes, origins, and unpredictable behaviors of FRBs remain elusive.
Just when scientists thought they were starting to unravel the mysteries, two new studies published in January 2025 added twists to the ongoing FRB enigma, challenging earlier theories.
“The FRB is one of those cosmic mysteries that deserves to be solved,” states Dr. Tarraneh Eftekhari, a radio astronomer at Northwestern University, in reference to the first new paper published in Astrophysics Letter.
Though the solution may be a long way off, the universe continues to guard its secrets.
What Makes the FRB Mysterious?
While it may not be entirely accurate to say that FRBs were discovered purely by chance, their initial detection happened within data collected for an entirely different purpose.
Pulsars, or “pulsating radio sources,” are far better understood cosmic phenomena, having been discovered in 1967 by Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, arising from neutron stars. These are incredibly dense remnants of giant stars boasting magnetic fields far stronger than Earth’s.
These rapidly spinning stellar remnants emit regular pulses of radio waves akin to cosmic beacons.
The consistency of these pulses and their emissions at specific frequencies initially led to the hypothesis that they could be of natural origin, which earned the first pulsar the nickname “Little Green Man 1.”
While pulsars quickly found their rightful place in astrophysics, FRBs tell a different story.
Jump forward to 2007 when they emerged unexpectedly from data gathered by the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey, an international collaboration involving Jodrell Bank Observatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bologna Astronomical Observatory, and Australia’s National Facilities.
The emission from this event was so powerful that it overshadowed all other known sources at the time by a substantial margin.
“In terms of energy output, a 1-millisecond-long FRB can emit as much energy as the Sun produces over three days,” says Dr. Fabian Djankowski, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Science and Technology specializing in FRBs.
However, for over five years after the initial detection, no similar events were recorded. Skepticism faded as more FRBs began to emerge.
Thousands have been detected since then, and astronomers estimate that two or three FRBs may blaze across the sky every minute.
These enigmatic signals release immense energy from deep space, illuminating the sky with their mysterious nature. And the strangeness does not end there.
Initially, FRBs were believed to be one-off occurrences, cosmic anomalies. This assumption seemed valid, as follow-up observations failed to reveal any repeating sources.
That changed in 2016 when FRB 121102 was found to emit repeated bursts. Currently, between 3% and 10% of FRBs are classified as “repeaters.”
Why do some FRBs remain silent after a single burst, while others emit multiple bursts? This is yet another mystery awaiting resolution.
read more:
What Causes FRBs?
Numerous hypotheses have been proposed regarding the cause of FRBs, ranging from chaotic black hole collisions to extraterrestrial signals. Many explanations have emerged, including the unlikely scenario of a microwave being accidentally detected. However, one candidate seems to rise above the rest.
“When massive stars collapse and go supernova, they leave behind highly magnetized neutron stars, or ‘magnetars,'” notes Eftekhari. “The reason magnetars are a compelling candidate for FRBs is that we have observed similar events emanating from known magnetars within our Milky Way.”
Neutron stars already possess strong magnetic fields, but magnetars are in a category of their own, with magnetic fields thousands of times stronger than those of typical neutron stars.
Furthermore, a higher frequency of FRBs has been detected in galaxies with rapid star formation. As Eftekhari explains, “To produce a supernova that results in a magnetar, a massive star is required, and these giant stars are found in star-forming galaxies.”
So, is the case settled? Not quite.
The Canadian CHIME radio telescope detected FRB 20240209A, potentially originating from a globular cluster. – Photo Credit: CHIME Experiment
This is where the two new studies published in January 2025 come into play, both examining the recurring FRB known as 20240209A.
“The first exciting aspect of this FRB is that it originates outside our galaxy,” says Vishwangi Shah, a doctoral student at McGill University, referencing the second study.
“There is only one other FRB detected outside our galaxy. In terms of its repeaters, I believe it originates from a globular cluster.”
Both Eftekhari and Shah suggest that 20240209A is also associated with globular clusters (dense groups of ancient stars existing on the outskirts of galaxies).
“This is remarkable,” Eftekhari comments. “The notion of magnetar progenitors poses a challenge since they typically require a group of young stars to form magnetars.”
So what does this mean for FRBs? One possibility is that magnetars are still the culprits, but they may be generated through entirely different mechanisms.
For instance, within these stellar graveyards, two normal neutron stars might combine to form magnetars. Alternatively, a white dwarf—a stellar remnant too small to evolve into a neutron star—could gather material from a nearby companion, culminating in a massive explosion that results in a magnetar.
Ultimately, the exact origin of these outlier events remains unknown. “It’s thrilling to contemplate that we might be dealing with a subpopulation of FRBs,” Eftekhari remarks. “This case isn’t as clear as it appears.”
Can We Determine the Origins of FRBs?
Despite nearly two decades of research, many questions regarding FRBs linger. Which objects are responsible? What processes drive these phenomena? And why do some FRBs repeat while others do not?
Thanks to advances in FRB detection technology, answers may be nearer than anticipated.
CHIME is currently undergoing enhancements aimed at pinpointing bursts with unprecedented precision.
This advancement in FRB detection represents great progress in unraveling their mysteries. While many FRBs have been observed, accurately identifying their environments has left several key questions regarding their origins unanswered.
Jankowski believes that in the near future, many cases like 20240209A could be unlocked, revealing their underlying mechanisms. “I anticipate significant progress in the coming years,” he adds.
The Square Kilometer Array (SKA), a massive observatory spanning Australia and South Africa, aims to join the search for FRBs shortly.
Eftekhari and Shah have also proposed utilizing the James Webb Space Telescope to explore the region where 20240209A was detected.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time for FRB research,” highlights Jankowski. “We are poised to make remarkable discoveries in the next few years.”
Meet Our Experts
Dr. Tarraneh Eftekhari is a radio astronomer at Northwestern University, USA, with contributions to various scientific journals including Astrophysics Letter, Nature Astronomy, and Astrophysical Journal.
Dr. Fabian Djankowski is an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Science and Technology who specializes in FRBs. His work has appeared in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Astrophysics Letter, and Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Vishwangi Shah is a doctoral student at McGill University in the USA and a researcher focusing on radio astronomy and FRBs. She has been published in Astrophysics Letter and Astronomy Journal.
aAfter three years, over 100 issues, two parental leaves, two AI summits and a cycle of cryptocurrency booms and busts, this will be my last newsletter. It also marks the end of 11 years at The Guardian. My first day was the launch of the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 16 launches on September 9th. It’s been an eventful time.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve been asking readers for questions and I’ve been bombarded with them. I apologize if I wasn’t able to answer all of your questions, but I’m so grateful to everyone who asked.
What was the most shocking thing you discovered in the TechScape study/report? – Alexandria Weber
In 2019, I received leaked internal TikTok moderation documents that revealed for the first time that the company had a written, global policy to enforce Chinese foreign policy on its platform. According to the leaks, the company censored videos that mentioned Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, and the banned religious group Falun Gong.
TikTok argued that the document was outdated at the time and had been revoked several months ago, replaced with new, more locally sensitive guidelines. As a sign of the direction the company was heading, it was a good sign. But the leak remains grounds for concern to this day that the company may not be all that independent from the Chinese government.
Computer Scientist Ray Kurzweil He says that within 20 years, we will have the ability to replicate the human mind with a computer.including all memories, Their personalities and Consciousness. Do you think this claim is credible? – David
Kurzweil’s “singularity” has been around 20 years into the future for the past 30 years, so I don’t see much reason to attach much importance to his predicted date, but my bigger issue with his predictions is that the order has changed somewhat over the last few years.
The traditional singularity theory holds that computers will continue to get faster and faster until they are finally fast enough to mimic the brain, at which point uploading will become possible. This is because AI will continue to become more and more powerful, eventually AI Solving the problem of uploading human brains.
In that vision of the future, brain uploading will only be possible after a superintelligent AI has already been created and remade the world. That seems like an odd thing to focus on.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a U.S. Senate hearing. Photo: Brendan Smiarowski/AFP/Getty Images
Do you think Facebook and Google have peaked?and slowly but inevitably slide towards relative insignificance? – Bernie
Never say never. Companies are constantly reinventing themselves. Of course, the tech industry is the best example of this. Apple almost lost its leading position in the 1990s, but has since made a remarkable comeback, from the iMac to the iPhone. Meta and Google are both competing to assume leadership positions in AI, which could once again make them some of the most important companies on the planet.
But I agree with the premise of the question: excitement and attention around technology is shifting, and Google and Meta’s existing businesses are on the downside of that shift. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Google Search will continue to make money for the foreseeable future, but none of them are at the exciting forefront of their industries anymore.
And, of course, it’s hard not to peak when your company is the fourth or sixth largest in the world – there’s only so much room to “rise” further.
Where is the smartphone going from here? How can new smartphone models differentiate themselves from other models? – John Brown
The boring but true answer is that foldable phones will steadily fall in price and improve in quality until hardware design creativity suddenly blossoms again. Samsung has led the way with two approaches: the clamshell-style Flip, popular around the time of the Olympics, and the folio-style Fold. The screen technology is still not perfect—there’s a noticeable bump in the middle of the unfolded phone—and prices range from high to eye-wateringly expensive, but the devices are the only truly novel design the industry has seen in the past decade.
Then, in a year or two, Apple will release a foldable phone and everyone will know it exists.
The atmosphere surrounding technology seems to have changed dramatically over the last five years or so. There seems to be more anxiety about how technology will develop. Society is deteriorating, and few people are optimisticDo you think the industry can overcome it? – Ido Vock
I think the tech industry is in a very similar place to where the finance industry was 15 years ago. It will continue to attract smart, talented people because the work is interesting and the pay is good, but the atmosphere has clearly changed. I don’t think the industry can turn back the clock, but I wonder how much it needs to. Money solves a lot of problems, and it’s better to be rich than to be optimistic.
The real question for me is whether these changes in technology threaten to spill over into widespread skepticism about the whole notion of science and technology improving the world. I hope not. I remain fundamentally optimistic about human progress and think some of the upcoming breakthroughs in areas like health, green energy, and even space flight will be exciting.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Photo: Nintendo
The Greatest Game of All Time (And Why It’s the Best) Soulsborne)? – Chris M
For those unfamiliar, Soulsborne games are a genre created by developer FromSoftware and its director Hidetaka Miyazaki, characterized by a punishing difficulty curve, an indirect narrative structure, and a tone that can be memorably summed up as “a goddamn little man snickering at you from behind a locked door.” I personally have a soft spot for the series’ Bloodborne, which released on PlayStation 4 in 2015, but I’ve just spent 50 hours playing the latest Soulsborne entry, Elden Ring, and it’s fantastic.
But the greatest game of all time is still The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Six years on from the release of the Switch and the console’s defining launch title, nothing has yet surpassed that game, not even its perfect sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. That said, Elden Ring is a great game for adults who feel embarrassed about playing an all-ages title, but it does have a bit of a goth Zelda about it.
If I continue any more I’ll have to co-brand my last newsletter with Pushing Buttons, so I’d like to stop here.
During the time you’ve worked in this role, what’s the best example of where technology has made a real, valuable, positive difference to the world? – Steve Parks
In my professional life, the answer is undoubtedly machine transcription. It’s not flashy, but being able to generate imperfect real-time transcripts from recorded interviews is truly transformative for reporting, speeding up the process of turning an idea into a published news story by hours.
More broadly, I think the rise of machine translation is a similar answer. These tools have improved slowly and steadily over the past 20 years, to the point where a significant portion of humanity is now able to communicate with one another in a basically intelligible way, in near real time. One of the most interesting consequences of this is that, at least in the short term, nothing has actually changed: language ability is still valuable, people still consume content primarily in their own language or that has been professionally translated, and online communities have not consolidated into one giant global conglomerate.
Maybe it will be. Or maybe this science fiction-turned-reality technology will continue to be useful mainly for making my holidays more comfortable and for reading funny Bluesky posts from Japan.
What’s next? Thank you to all 17 readers
After 11 years at The Guardian, I’m not jumping right into another job and will be taking six weeks off. In the meantime, you can keep in touch with me on these unconventional social networks: Blue Sky or Backlog; I don’t plan on returning to writing a weekly newsletter anytime soon, but I do plan to post occasional round-up articles if you’re interested in occasional updates on where I’ve posted articles. My dormant Substack.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many of you TechScape readers over the years, and thank you for reading, emailing, sharing your stories, and continuing to support me. I have some great writers who will be taking over for me.
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