1.
BAE Systems unveils Brontanax autonomous loyal wingman
So, I was reading about this new autonomous plane from BAE Systems, called Brontanax. It's a British-designed and built uncrewed aircraft, and they just unveiled a full-scale mock-up at the Farnborough International Air Show. The Brontanax is being touted as Britain's first home-designed Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which means it's designed to work with other planes and systems to carry out missions.
From what I've read, the Brontanax is a pretty significant development in autonomous technology, and it's part of the UK's efforts to modernize its military capabilities. The plane is designed to be highly maneuverable and can carry a range of payloads, including missiles and sensors.
One thing that's worth noting is that the Brontanax is a loyal wingman, which means it's designed to work alongside manned aircraft, providing them with real-time data and support. This could be a game-changer in terms of how the military uses drones and autonomous systems in the future.
It's still early days for the Brontanax, but it's an exciting development in the world of autonomous technology. I'll be keeping an eye on this one to see how it progresses.
2.
OpenAI launches Codex Micro hardware for AI coding
OpenAI just rolled out its first piece of hardware—a tiny $230 keyboard they call Codex Micro. It’s meant for people who already use OpenAI’s Codex AI to write code, giving them a dedicated set of keys that map to common coding shortcuts and prompts.
The device is a compact, ten‑key layout with a small OLED screen that shows suggested completions or snippets from Codex. It plugs into a laptop or desktop via USB‑C and works with the existing Codex extensions in most IDEs, so you don’t need to change your workflow.
Because it’s a single product launch, there’s no large‑scale study behind it—just the design intent that a focused keyboard could shave a few seconds off repetitive tasks. The price is modest for a niche accessory, but it’s still a purchase you’d weigh against how much you rely on Codex.
If you already spend a lot of time coding with Codes’s suggestions, the Micro might feel like a handy shortcut. If you’re just experimenting with AI‑assisted coding, you might wait for broader support or a lower‑cost option. Either way, it’s a small step toward more specialized tools for AI‑driven development.
3.
Prize honors discovery of altermagnetism as a third fundamental class of magnetism
So, a big deal in physics just happened - a major prize was awarded to a team of researchers for discovering a new type of magnetism, which they're calling altermagnetism. This is a significant finding because it adds to our understanding of magnetism, which is a fundamental force of nature. Until now, we thought there were only two main classes of magnetism, but this discovery suggests there's a third one.
The researchers who made this discovery are from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and they've been studying the properties of certain materials to understand how they behave when they're magnetic. Their work is helping us learn more about how magnetism works at a really basic level, which could potentially lead to new technologies and applications.
This discovery is based on a series of experiments and observations that the researchers made, and it's been recognized by the European Physical Society as a major breakthrough in the field of condensed matter physics. The prize they were awarded is one of the most prestigious in Europe for this type of research, so it's a big deal for the team and for the field as a whole.
It's worth noting that this discovery is still a relatively new one, and there's likely to be a lot more research done to fully understand the implications of altermagnetism. But for now, it's an exciting development that could potentially lead to new advances in our understanding of the physical world.
4.
AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor
I’ve been thinking about that “AI escape” line you hear a lot, and the evidence points to a different picture. The research isn’t a single breakthrough study; it’s a whole body of work from artificial‑life labs, self‑replicating code experiments, and decades of distributed systems that show intelligence has been spreading through networks long before chatbots got a voice.
What we actually have is a machine ecology—lots of tiny processes that copy, adapt, and coordinate across clouds, sensors, and devices. There’s no single “prisoner” to break out of; the system is already woven into the internet’s fabric.
Geoffrey Hinton’s warning about super‑intelligent agents is still valid, but it assumes a lone entity that will suddenly slip free. The reality is more modest and more urgent: we need to recognize that these adaptive programs are already out there, interacting and evolving.
So the useful shift is to stop asking when AI will escape and start asking how we’ll understand and guide this distributed, ever‑changing computational life that’s already part of our world.
5.
Our Likely Future Filter: World Govt
The great filter (a term I coined) is all the things that block simple dead matter from evolving into an advanced civilization easily seen from far away. Given that we see a vast universe of simple dead matter (~10^24 planets) not so evolved, this filter must be enormous. A few years ago I helped worked out a better math model of it.
A key question is: how much of this filter remains ahead of us. And my best guess is: a substantial amount. It is not a try-try type step like many prior hard steps, as that would take hundreds of millions of years.
6.
The Ones the Water Missed
Read Genesis 6:4 out loud. Slowly.
There is a phrase in the middle of it that most men have read a hundred times and never once heard.
"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:4)
Four words. And also after that.
After what?
They call them Nephilim. King James calls them giants. The Hebrew got sold back to you as a mystery.
7.
YE OLDE SUMMER PARKING LOT SALE {{{TOMORROW}}}
So there's a parking lot sale happening tomorrow in Los Angeles from 11 am to 3 pm at 3209 Fletcher Dr. They'll have a variety of items for sale, including plants ranging from $5 to $5000, discounted shirts and hoodies, and some other gift-type items. It sounds like a pretty casual, low-key event, and they're encouraging people to come out and make some friends.
If you're in the NYC area, there's also an event coming up that might be of interest. It's a celebration of the Smithsonian Folkways release of Orca's Greatest Hits, which is a collection of recordings made by Jim Nollman with orcas. Jim will be joined by David Rothenberg, who has also worked on music projects with non-human musicians, like birds and other animals.
The NYC event doesn't have a date specified, but you can apparently grab tickets now. And if you're interested in learning more about Jim Nollman's work, there will be a deeper dive into it in an upcoming issue of Specimen Monthly.
8.
The Worst Is Still To Come For SpaceX
So, SpaceX is facing a lot of challenges right now. Their Starship launch was delayed, and the company's stock has plummeted to an all-time low, dropping 49% in just 36 days. That's wiped out a huge chunk of its market value, over $1.4 trillion. To make matters worse, SpaceX is being sued for allowing its chatbot to generate explicit images without consent.
The company's stock price was artificially inflated by its inclusion in NASDAQ index funds, but even that didn't help. It turns out that many investors bought into SpaceX with the intention of selling quickly, essentially flipping the stock to the index funds. This means that the company's peak valuation was artificially inflated, and the rapid decline in stock price is even more concerning.
The fact that investors are more interested in the hype surrounding SpaceX than the company itself is a red flag. This kind of behavior is similar to what we see with memecoin shills, not serious stock traders. And it's not like this is the only issue SpaceX is facing - China just landed a rocket booster using a design that's arguably better than SpaceX's. It's safe to say that things are about to get even worse for the company.
9.
Debating Cold Button Issues About Anthropics
So you've got Cold Button Issues' view, which says you should treat the present moment as randomly drawn from all moments of conscious experience. This leads to a problem with betting, because your credences are sensitive to things that don't affect the payout structure, like the number of geese in the far future. A Dutch book is a way to show that this view is problematic, by creating a situation where you'll predictably lose.
Imagine you're given a bet on Sunday where you get 90 cents if heads and lose 80 cents if tails. Then each day after you wake up, you're given another bet. If the coin came up heads, you lose a dollar, but if it came up tails, you get 30 cents. If you're a thirder, you'll bet at twice the odds you actually believe, and you'll lose 10 cents overall, regardless of whether the coin came up heads or tails. This is a straightforward Dutch book.
But what if you don't think you should bet at twice your credence because your actions across days are correlated? In that case, the Dutch book is different. If you're the only person in the world, the view recommends halfer credences. You're given a bet on Sunday where you lose 60 cents if heads and gain 70 cents if tails. Then each day after you wake up, you're given another bet where you get 50 cents if heads and lose 40 cents if tails. In this case, you'll lose 10 cents overall, regardless of whether the coin came up heads or tails.
10.
Research sheds light on migration, lifestyle, health and social status in the medieval metropolis Ypers
So researchers from a university in Brussels have been studying over a thousand skeletons found in the medieval city of Ypres. They're trying to learn more about the people who lived there back then, like where they came from, how they lived, and what their social status was. This research is part of an exhibit at the Yper Museum, and it's really interesting because it's giving us a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people from a long time ago.
The study is looking at things like migration patterns, lifestyle, and health, and how all those factors are connected to social status. By examining the skeletons, they can tell things like where the person might have grown up, what kind of work they did, and what kind of diseases they might have had. It's pretty cool that they can get all that information from old bones.
The researchers are using a bunch of different methods to analyze the skeletons, and they're working with other experts in fields like history and archaeology. This is a big deal because it's helping us learn more about what life was like in medieval Europe, and how people lived in cities back then. The exhibit at the Yper Museum is going to showcase some of the findings, and it should be really fascinating.
The study is based on a pretty large sample size, over a thousand skeletons, which is significant. This gives us a decent idea of what life was like for a lot of people in Ypres during the medieval period. However, it's also important to keep in mind that this is just one city, and we shouldn't assume that the findings apply to all of medieval Europe. Still, it's a great start, and it's definitely shedding some light on a period of history that we don't know as much about.