Suggestions is New Scientist’s well-liked sideways take a look at the most recent science and expertise information. You’ll be able to submit objects you consider could amuse readers to Suggestions by emailing suggestions@newscientist.com
In out in out
It’s well-known that the web is about 60 per cent cats and 35 per cent automated bots, so a cat-themed bot was inevitable.
Therefore @PepitoTheCat, the X (Twitter) account of a black cat referred to as Pépito who lives in France. His proprietor, Clément Storck, is an engineer with a fascination for automation, so he created a system that posts to X each time Pépito goes in or out of his cat flap.
The account just isn’t, on the face of it, thrilling studying. Each put up is both “Pépito is out” or “Pépito is again residence”, with the time marked to the closest second. These are accompanied by a black-and-white photograph of Pépito and a brief video exhibiting him coming in or out.
And but @PepitoTheCat has greater than 860,000 followers (of whom a stunning quantity stay in Brazil). What’s extra, they’re connected. In June 2017, Pépito went out and didn’t come again for 22 hours, and, as BuzzFeed put it, “principally all of Brazil freaked out“. Storck needed to create an precise written put up, explaining that Pépito had come again in by way of the “human’s door”, so his return hadn’t registered on the system.
Suggestions would similar to to say: 22 hours? That’s nothing. Considered one of Suggestions’s felines routinely disappears for a day or so at a time. Worse, one in every of Suggestions’s former felines as soon as disappeared for six weeks, solely to be found up a tree a number of hundred metres from the place she was purported to be.
Pépito is surprisingly tenacious: the account has been going for 14 years, and Pépito turns 18 in September and is seemingly hale and hearty. Nevertheless, the account has now entered extra contentious territory, with the information that Pépito’s proprietor is promoting a Pépito-themed cryptocoin. Dude: we simply appreciated the cat.
On monitor
Suggestions empathises with the individuals who spend all their pocket cash on Hornby mannequin railways, even when we ourselves by no means obtained closely into the passion. We have been subsequently delighted when Alan Edgar drew our consideration to a press launch from Northern Rail, one of many UK’s privatised rail companies (on the time of writing). In November 2024, the agency introduced it had employed a brand new business and buyer director to steer its “drive for development”: one Alex Hornby. The corporate’s managing director was quoted as saying that Hornby has “an excellent monitor document”.
Whereas we’re on names, Ian Gammie got here throughout a 2019 report about greenhouse fuel emissions by the US navy. Apparently, “the US navy is without doubt one of the largest local weather polluters in historical past, consuming extra liquid fuels and emitting extra CO2e (carbon-dioxide equal) than most nations”. This was in keeping with analysis by UK teachers, which appears about proper – in spite of everything, you wouldn’t catch any US teachers writing one thing like that now. Ian was happy to see that the report’s authors included Patrick Greater and Oliver Belcher.
You simply misplaced
In March, Suggestions mentioned Roko’s Basilisk: a very silly thought experiment about synthetic intelligence. It supposes that, sooner or later, there will likely be an omnipotent AI. This AI will create laptop simulations of all of the folks alive at present who didn’t assist carry it into existence and endlessly torture them as a method of guaranteeing that all of us get in line proper now and assist construct the AI. If that sounds complicated, it’s as a result of it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Our colleague Jacob Aron lately reviewed a novel referred to as Basilisk by Matt Wixey that performs with comparable concepts. That led reader Finn Byrne to lookup “cognitohazards”: the concept that some types of data are inherently harmful. Within the case of Roko’s Basilisk, merely understanding concerning the future AI seemingly places you at risk of an eternity of torment, as a result of the AI goes to torture solely individuals who knowingly refused to contribute to its existence.
Then one thing dangerous occurred. As Finn browsed the Wikipedia web page for cognitohazards, aka data hazards, he misplaced The Recreation. After which he wrote to Suggestions to inform us about it, after which we misplaced The Recreation, too. At this level, you too have simply misplaced The Recreation.
As Finn explains, The Recreation is “a quite simple sport performed continually by all of humanity”. It has solely three guidelines: “1) You’re taking part in The Recreation. 2) Each time you concentrate on The Recreation, you lose. 3) Lack of The Recreation should be introduced.” There may be, after all, a web site for it: losethegame.internet.
The Recreation is one thing Suggestions performed loads once we have been a scholar and allegedly had time on our fingers. On many events in pubs, watching TV or in science practicals, one in every of our buddies would spontaneously announce: “Simply misplaced The Recreation.” We had forgotten about it for fairly a while, however now we’re going to lose loads.
Finn goes on to debate methods for The Recreation. You’ll be able to’t win, besides by growing everlasting amnesia or dying, each of which seem to be overkill. However you may make different folks lose. “The web site features a web page for avid gamers to donate to the worthy reason behind the phrases ‘LOSE THE GAME’ being written ‘over New York Metropolis in letters the scale of the Empire State Constructing’,” says Finn. In the event you’re much less eager to splash money, you may go away hidden notes in strategic locations.
Lastly, there are awards for “making an impressive variety of folks lose the sport”. Finn says that these have typically been awarded to “individuals who have talked about The Recreation in newspapers or magazines”.
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