Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: existential risks

Billionaires are building a future without humans

AI companies are explicitly working toward AGI and are likely to succeed soon, possibly within years. Keep the Future Human explains how unchecked development of smarter-than-human, autonomous, general-purpose AI systems will almost inevitably lead to human replacement. But it doesn’t have to. Learn how we can keep the future human and experience the extraordinary benefits of Tool AI…

https://keepthefuturehuman.ai.

Chapters:
0:00 – The AI Race.
1:31 – Extinction Risk.
2:35 – AGI When?
4:08 – AI Will Take Power.
5:12 – Good News.
6:52 – Bad News.
8:11 – More Money, More Capability.
10:10 – AI-Assisted Alignment?
11:32 – Obedient vs Sovereign AI
12:53 – AI Is a New Lifeform.

Original Videos:
• Keep the Future Human (with Anthony Aguirre)
• AI Ethics Series | Ethical Horizons in Adv…

Editing:
https://zeino.tv/

Our BRLS Research Application, Fixation vs. Vitrification Reflection, Cryonics & Autism

In this epsiode of the Cryosphere chat we discuss:
● The research proposal we submitted to BRLS
● Why slow growth could be an existential risk to cryonics.
● Our review of the Fixation vs. Vitrification discussion.
● Why there are so many autistic cryonicists.

Links:
Fixation vs. Virtification Discussion: https://youtu.be/gvu8P9D6p0g?si=2KOSESeOndtVl33V
Biostasis Pacific Northwest: https://www.reddit.com/r/cryonics/comments/1ozxslv/announcin…northwest/
I’ll see ya later mom… Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/cryonics/comments/1owgnk0/ill_see_ya_later_mom/
Cryosphere Discord: https://discord.gg/ndshSfQwqz

Doomsday Devices & Ontological Weaponry

From nuclear nightmares to reality-breaking weapons, we examine how science and fiction imagine the end of everything. What happens when weapons don’t just destroy worlds but unmake reality itself? Explore the science of apocalypse.

Checkout Scav: https://go.nebula.tv/scav?ref=isaacar… Watch my exclusive video Autonomous Space Industry: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 Reddit: / isaacarthur Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Doomsday Devices & Ontological Weaponry Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Editor: Lukas Konecny Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic & Stellardrone Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:30 Classical Doomsday Devices 5:57 Cosmic-Scale Doomsday Devices 11:30 Ontological Weaponry – Breaking Reality 12:23 The Erasers of History 16:06 Weapons of Physics Editing 17:55 Mind and Meaning as Targets 20:06 Scavenger Hunt 21:30 Themes and Consequences 22:55 Practical Considerations & Paradoxes 24:07 Doomsday Devices vs. Ontological Weapons 26:48 The Fermi Paradox & Ultimate Destruction.
Watch my exclusive video Autonomous Space Industry: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–…
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.

Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a…
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur.
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Credits:
Doomsday Devices & Ontological Weaponry.
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editor: Lukas Konecny.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic & Stellardrone.

Chapters.
0:00 Intro.
1:30 Classical Doomsday Devices.
5:57 Cosmic-Scale Doomsday Devices.
11:30 Ontological Weaponry – Breaking Reality.
12:23 The Erasers of History.
16:06 Weapons of Physics Editing.
17:55 Mind and Meaning as Targets.
20:06 Scavenger Hunt.
21:30 Themes and Consequences.
22:55 Practical Considerations & Paradoxes.
24:07 Doomsday Devices vs. Ontological Weapons.
26:48 The Fermi Paradox & Ultimate Destruction.

Scientists Unlock Secrets of the Building Blocks of the Universe

Scientists at Indiana University have made a major advance in understanding how the universe came to exist. Their success comes from a collaboration between two large international research teams studying neutrinos, the nearly massless particles that stream endlessly through space and matter while rarely interacting with anything around them. The findings, published in Nature, bring researchers closer to solving one of science’s most profound mysteries: why the universe is filled with matter, stars, planets, and life, rather than nothing at all.

This breakthrough arose from an unprecedented partnership between two world-leading neutrino experiments: NOvA in the United States and T2K in Japan. By combining their data, scientists are gaining new insight into the hidden behavior of neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts, potentially revealing why the early universe avoided self-destruction immediately after the Big Bang.

In each experiment, beams of neutrinos are generated using powerful particle accelerators and then observed after traveling vast distances underground. Detecting them is an enormous challenge; out of countless particles, only a few interact in a way that leaves measurable traces. Using sophisticated detectors and advanced computing tools, researchers reconstruct these rare interactions to understand how neutrinos change as they move through space.

Caretaker AI & Genus Loci

Meet the caretaker AIs: guardians of planets, habitats, and civilizations. What happens when machines become the spirit and soul of the worlds they protect?

Checkout Rifftrax https://go.nebula.tv/rifftrax?ref=isa…
Watch my exclusive video The Fermi Paradox — Civilization Extinction Cycles: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–…
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.

Grab one of our new SFIA mugs and make your morning coffee a little more futuristic — available now on our Fourthwall store! https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall…

Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a…
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur.
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Credits:
Caretaker AI & Genus Loci 2025 Edition.
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editors: Ludwig Luska.
Graphics:
Bryan Versteeg.
Jeremy Jozwik.
Ken York YD Visual.
Kris Holland Mafic Studios.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator

Early humans dined on giant sloths and other Ice Age giants, archaeologists find

What did early humans like to eat? The answer, according to a team of archaeologists in Argentina, is extinct megafauna, such as giant sloths and giant armadillos. In a study published in the journal Science Advances, researchers demonstrate that these enormous animals were a staple food source for people in southern South America around 13,000 to 11,600 years ago. Their findings may also rewrite our understanding of how these massive creatures became extinct.

For years, the prevailing theory about the extinction of the last great Ice Age megafauna in South America was that it was primarily due to climate change. Humans were previously believed to have played a minor role in their demise, as they hunted smaller prey, such as guanacos (a relative of the camel) and cervids (deer). However, the abundance of bones of extinct megafauna in sites studied by the team suggests that they were probably the most important food source for these .

The archaeologists counted the at 20 sites in modern-day Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. These were places that had been reliably dated to before 11,600 years ago, when these giants were still roaming around. They compared the remains of megafauna (mammals weighing over 44 kilograms) with those of smaller animals to see which were more abundant. They also closely examined the bones for cut marks and other signs that would indicate humans had butchered them.

A volcano or a meteorite? New evidence sheds light on puzzling discovery in Greenland’s ice sheet

Buried deep in Greenland’s ice sheet lies a puzzling chemical signature that has sparked intense scientific debate. A sharp spike in platinum concentrations, discovered in an ice core (a cylinder of ice drilled out of ice sheets and glaciers) and dated to around 12,800 years ago, has provided support for a hypothesis that Earth was struck by an exotic meteorite or comet at that time.

Our new research published in PLOS One offers a much more mundane explanation: this mystery signature may have originated from a volcanic fissure eruption in Iceland, not space.

The timing matters. The platinum spike occurs near the beginning of our planet’s last great cold period, the Younger Dryas Event. This lasted from about 12,870 to 11,700 years ago and saw temperatures plummet across the northern hemisphere.

/* */