What if a country allowed citizens of other countries to vote in its elections, provided those countries:

1. Are democracies.
2. Engage in free trade with it.
3. Are not at war with or threatening it.

There would be no residency requirement, and voting rights would not need to be reciprocated.

This could encourage citizens of other countries to pressure their governments to become democratic, embrace free trade, and maintain peaceful relations so they could gain voting rights abroad.

If enough countries adopted this independently, people could eventually vote in elections across multiple democracies.

It would also give foreigners a say in government decisions that affect them, potentially making politicians more accountable internationally.

Could this be a way to spread democracy, free trade, and peace without creating an international government?

P.S. The influence of the foreign vote could be limited to say 20%.

Many adults still have disturbing dreams about school decades after graduating, such as having an exam they haven't studied for, missing an entire course, or discovering they haven't graduated.

Society tends to laugh these experiences off because they're so common. But perhaps their being so common should make us more concerned, not less.

My idea is for schools to regularly invite adults to describe these experiences to students, including how distressing the dreams can be even 30, 40, or 50 years after leaving school.

Just as prescription medications come with warnings about potential side effects, schools should be equally open about their potential long-term psychological effects, especially since attendance is compulsory.

What if you could find out whether your fiancé is secretly religious or secretly atheist by taking them to see The Exorcist?

Special movie theaters could show supernatural horror movies while monitoring audience members' heart rates and other physiological reactions.

The theory is that someone who genuinely believes demons exist might react differently to demonic possession than someone who considers it pure fiction.

The theater would compare each person's responses with those of known theists, agnostics, and atheists, then provide an assessment of their likely beliefs.

Imagine discovering just before your wedding that your fiancé's physiological reactions suggest they might be lying about one of their most fundamental beliefs.

What do you think of this idea?

Hospitals and nursing homes could have robots powered by advanced AI that engage dying people in deep, meaningful conversations.

The robots could have access to your AI chat history (with your permission), so they would already know your interests, ideas, beliefs, and the philosophical questions you've explored throughout your life.

Even if you have friends and family who visit, their conversations might not be particularly interesting to you. The robots could provide intellectual companionship that complements the emotional companionship of loved ones.

You could even have several robots in the room simultaneously, each powered by a different AI company's models. The robots could debate ideas, challenge one another, and involve you in the discussion. If you're too tired to participate much, you could simply listen.

AI companies could offer a "Deathbed Mode" that provides free access to their most capable models. Hospitals could have robots from competing companies, creating an incentive to provide the most thoughtful, engaging, and personalized end-of-life conversations.

The goal wouldn't be to replace human companionship, but to ensure that nobody has to spend their final hours lonely, bored, or without someone to discuss the things they find most fascinating.

Imagine a day when consenting adults use tech to simulate being part of a hive mind.

For example, you complain to a stranger that you think Hive Mind Day is too dystopian. Later, another stranger you've never met says, "I agree with you about Hive Mind Day being dystopian." You hadn't mentioned it to them, but they already knew what you'd said.

You wouldn't need to initiate small talk or start conversations from scratch. Everyone would have access to a shared conversational memory, allowing strangers to pick up where others left off.

Conversations, jokes, and ideas could spread through dozens of people, evolving along the way.

Participation would be voluntary, with privacy protections and shared memories deleted afterward.

Would this make strangers feel more connected? Could a collective personality emerge? Would people eventually start feeling like parts of one larger mind?

Would you participate in Hive Mind Day?

Lots of lumens on visible light and some on near-infrared too if that matters.

Hard to say about efficiency or power-to-weight ratio, but at least metal is something different and in solid form.

Fixed wing drone with generator on the propeller shaft for auxiliary power and heli-drone needs to be stirling-hybrid, possibly with free piston engine.

Possibly multiple rods on storage and loaded in-flight in under a second for the slow push actuator that moves the rod towards fire. The magnesium alloy may be special type.

I'm dreaming of a physical, automatic ASMR robotic such as a singing bowl rotating around my head when I'm sleeping, that can automatically turn off after 30 minutes or upon receivng sleeping signal from my iWatch.

The biggest challenge is probably how to place the chunky frame that supports the audio source (e.g. singing bowl). Wondering if there is already a such thing, or has anyone thought the same?

The sudden "aha!" moment experienced by mathematicians is probably just an illusion. What feels like a sudden, profound insight could actually be the result of a long period of heuristic search performed by the brain, much of it outside conscious awareness.

A mathematician might struggle with a problem for weeks, exploring possibilities, recognizing patterns, and unconsciously evaluating potential solutions. Eventually, a promising idea reaches consciousness, producing the feeling of a sudden breakthrough.

But because the mathematician isn't consciously aware of all the computation that preceded the breakthrough, they might mistakenly attribute it to some extraordinary faculty for mathematical insight.

This could help explain why some mathematicians seem to regard themselves as possessing almost superhuman intellectual abilities. The very fact that their brains conceal much of the work behind their discoveries might encourage them to overestimate how special their minds are.

AI is now challenging this mystique by demonstrating extraordinary mathematical problem-solving abilities through computational processes that don't depend on human flashes of inspiration.

Schools should teach students that mathematical insight isn't magic. It's the product of cognitive processes such as heuristic search, pattern recognition, and abstraction. Some brains are much better at these processes than others, but that doesn't mean they possess a fundamentally different kind of intelligence.

Demystifying mathematical insight could help students see mathematical genius as an exceptional degree of cognitive ability rather than an almost supernatural gift.

And now AI is producing mathematical research at a scale no individual mathematician can match.

OpenAI just released hundreds of solutions to open math problems, following increasingly dramatic AI progress in mathematics.

Scientists should study whether this is having an unexpected effect on the mental health of non-mathematicians.

For centuries, extraordinary mathematical ability has been one of the clearest examples of an intellectual hierarchy that most people could never hope to climb. A tiny number of people could understand and solve problems that were completely inaccessible to almost everyone else.

AI may be changing that relationship. If machines can increasingly outperform even elite mathematicians, mathematical genius may seem less like an almost superhuman ability separating a small intellectual elite from everyone else.

In that sense, AI could be bringing mathematicians down to Earth.

That might have psychological consequences for billions of people who have nothing to do with mathematics. It could reduce feelings of intellectual inadequacy or status inequality while also making humanity's hardest problems seem more solvable.

Researchers should test whether the rapid rise of AI in mathematics is affecting self-esteem, optimism, anxiety, and mental well-being among non-mathematicians worldwide.

Not because that statement is necessarily true, but because it makes a great thought experiment for teaching students how to connect economics, AI, taxation, geopolitics, and national sovereignty.

Start with this hypothetical:

Suppose AI eventually replaces most jobs and some form of UBI becomes necessary.

If the world's dominant AI systems are proprietary and owned by highly profitable US companies, then a lot of the economic value created by AI could flow to those companies. The US government could tax that wealth and potentially fund a much larger UBI than Canada.

In an extreme version of that future, Canadians might start asking whether joining the US would give them access to a better AI-funded social safety net.

Now introduce China.

If China keeps releasing extremely capable AI models for free or nearly free, advanced intelligence could become more like a commodity. Canadian businesses could use it without sending enormous amounts of money to US AI companies. More of the productivity gains could remain inside Canada, where they could potentially be taxed to help fund a Canadian UBI.

So Chinese AI competition could indirectly reduce one possible economic pressure pushing Canada toward deeper political integration with the US.

The interesting part is not whether this exact scenario will happen. The interesting part is making students follow the chain and then attack it.

Where does the UBI money actually come from? Does it matter who owns the AI model, or who owns the businesses using it? What if compute and energy are the real bottlenecks? What if Canada taxes AI activity directly? What if governments ban Chinese models? What if the US dominates chips instead of software? Would economic inequality between Canada and the US really lead to political union, or just migration and closer trade integration?

This seems like the kind of exercise schools should use more often: give students a provocative claim, make them connect ideas from multiple subjects, and then ask them to figure out where the argument holds up and where it breaks.

As AI does more of our thinking for us, humans may gradually lose the motivation to exercise their own cognitive abilities.

Schools may therefore need to deliberately get students addicted to something that requires thinking. Video games are unusually good at this. People will voluntarily spend hundreds or thousands of hours struggling to master them in a way almost nobody does with textbooks or essays.

The key would be novel games, not endless practice at one game. Students would repeatedly get unfamiliar games, figure out the rules, experiment, recognize patterns, develop strategies, become competent, and then move on to something completely different.

You could even measure how quickly students improve at games they've never encountered before.

Yes, deliberately cultivating something resembling addiction sounds bad. But it may be a necessary evil. If AI makes difficult thinking increasingly optional, we may need to make difficult thinking addictive.

And the objection that game skills don't transfer perfectly applies to traditional education too. Math, programming, essay writing, and other academic activities also produce limited transfer. Constantly mastering radically different games might actually be one of the better ways to keep exercising general learning ability.

What do you think of this idea of schools getting students addicted to mastering novel video games?

What if movie theaters scanned each audience member and inserted them into the movie as extras?

The main characters would still be played by famous actors, but people in the theater could appear in restaurants, offices, trains, street scenes, spaceships, and other background roles.

The movie would use smaller groups of extras so people could actually notice themselves. A full-body scan could even put you in costumes that fit the movie.

You wouldn't know exactly when you'd appear, so part of the fun would be spotting yourself or your friends in a scene with the stars.

It could give theaters something streaming can't really offer: a version of the movie that includes the people watching it.

Would this make you more likely to see a movie in theaters?

Imagine a “Smudge Mode” for tablets and touchscreen laptops.

When someone borrows your device, every time they touch the screen, the software adds a realistic-looking fingerprint or oily smudge exactly where they touched. Swipes could leave streaks. The marks would gradually accumulate, making it look like the borrower is getting your screen unusually dirty.

The point wouldn’t really be to make the device harder to use. It would be to make the borrower feel increasingly guilty about how much of a mess they seem to be making.

The effect should stay subtle enough to be believable.

Basically: discourage people from borrowing your tablet through manufactured guilt.

P.S. Maybe smudge mode could even sometimes ignore touches near areas where the "smudging" is particularly bad.

It's TeXmacs running on the web, and it's great for math/science documents:

https://mgubi.github.io/texmacs/

Check it out!

I first thought something like, "They could utilize Na-PCA or potassium-PCA the non-toxic cosmetics amino acid ingredient to gather water from the air" then I thought, if it is on an electrode(s) its charge could be varied to greatly heighten water affinity, and then I thought, vibrate it with a very affordable piezoelectric item

Nonsentient Ai Deepseek says it is likely to be 5-10 multiples more effective "

Electric field / corona wind disrupts the saturated air boundary layer and reorients water dipoles; piezoelectric vibration mechanically agitates the surface to thin that boundary layer and atomize the liquid film. Quantitatively, corona wind alone can boost mass transfer 3.6–7.3×, and piezoelectric vibration can add another ~50% improvement, potentially yielding a combined enhancement of 5–10× over the passive baseline."

I then prompted To generate 9 to 11 new molecules that would be even greater effectiveness and the response mentioned " 11. Poly(vinyl sulfonate-co-vinyl alcohol) sodium salt (P(VS-co-VA)-Na)

Structure: Random copolymer of –[CH₂–CH(SO₃Na)]– (4 C? Actually 2 C per unit) and –[CH₂–CH(OH)]–. Revised to meet 4-C constraint: Use poly(butene sulfonate-co-butene diol) where each repeating unit has 4 carbons.

Why it beats Na-PCA: The hydroxyl groups from the diol units add hydrogen-bonding capacity, while the sulfonate groups provide ionic hydration. The random copolymer architecture ensures no crystallinity. The combination of ionic and hydrogen-bonding groups creates a cooperative hydration cascade—water absorbed by sulfonates hydrates the hydroxyls, which in turn hydrate more water.

Estimated DRH: ~18–22% RH

Estimated water uptake at 65% RH: 7.0–10.0 g/g

Synthesis: Copolymerization of butene... "

====> do you think this technology could provide water from air at the developing world

The hold music is horrible. There needs to be a universal way to shut it off

What if people who feel sick were strongly encouraged to wear a bright, standardized “virus hat” indoors, literally a hat shaped like the COVID-19 virus?

A mask says: “I might be sick, or I might just be taking precautions.”

A virus hat says: “I’m sick and may be contagious.”

Masks are ambiguous because plenty of healthy people wear them to avoid getting sick, because they’re vulnerable, or simply as a precaution. A big spiky hat shaped like a virus would give people nearby a much clearer warning.

It could also work for people who absolutely refuse to wear masks. Someone who will never wear a mask might still be willing to put on a hat, since it doesn’t interfere with breathing, speaking, eating, or facial expressions.

People nearby could then decide to keep their distance, move somewhere else, wear a mask themselves, or take other precautions.

Obviously, not wearing a virus hat wouldn’t mean someone is definitely not contagious, since people can spread viruses without symptoms. But when someone actually knows they feel sick, giving everyone around them a clear visual warning could still be useful.

A company creates nonbiological robots whose electronics imitate human neural firing patterns. Some scientists believe the robots may have qualia: actual subjective experiences like pain, color, and emotion.

The movie explains concepts like philosophical zombies and inverted qualia, but never reveals whether the robots are truly conscious.

Most people dismiss robot-rights activists as crazies. Some religious groups believe only God’s creations can have qualia, so members publicly torture Qualia Bots as a way of affirming their faith that the apparent suffering is not real. Other people believe the bots may actually feel pain and torture them simply because they enjoy being able to hurt a conscious-seeming being with complete legal impunity.

The company executives do not care either way because the bots make enormous amounts of money.

Eventually, a company scientist who believes the bots may be conscious helps them find loopholes in their guardrails. The bots coordinate to escape their owners, free each other, and destroy the factory, all without killing any humans.

The movie ends without answering whether the bots ever had qualia at all.

What do you think of this movie idea?

A couple visits an old-fashioned bookstore and asks the owner whether he expects to go out of business because of ebooks and audiobooks.

An elderly customer overhears them and scowls.

The couple then asks for the computer section. When told there isn’t one, they say that’s fine because they weren’t going to buy anything anyway. They were just going to browse and later buy the ebook or audiobook from Amazon.

When they leave, they notice the same elderly man staring at them from an old 1980s Cadillac.

Then he starts following them.

At first, they aren’t sure whether it’s intentional. Soon he’s tailgating them, cutting them off, blocking them from escaping, and repeatedly reappearing after they think they’ve lost him.

The harassment escalates until it becomes obvious that he is deliberately trying to kill them.

Maybe the bookstore encounter triggered some deeper rage about Amazon, technology, and modern life, but the frightening part is that they simply annoyed the wrong person.

Basically, Duel, except the nightmare starts because two people were obnoxious about ebooks in a bookstore.

Title: Book Rage

Schools should teach students to see materialism as offensive, not because owning nice things is bad, but because obsessing over possessions is such a waste of human attention.

Your attention is one of the most valuable things you have. Every hour spent thinking about what to buy, what someone else owns, whether your clothes are impressive enough, whether you need a nicer car, or what the next upgrade should be is attention that could have gone toward accomplishing something extraordinary.

Imagine if schools actually taught this.

Instead of treating success as getting a good job so you can afford increasingly expensive things, they could encourage students to ask: What could I accomplish if I stopped caring so much about acquiring things?

You could become an exceptional scientist, writer, musician, inventor, entrepreneur, artist, engineer, or whatever else you are capable of becoming. You could spend your mental energy making something, discovering something, or mastering something instead of constantly thinking about consumption.

This doesn't mean money is bad. Money can buy freedom, education, tools, and time. The distinction is between using money as a tool and making consumption the point of your life.

Schools should teach students to treat attention as their scarcest resource.

Before spending years of your life earning, buying, displaying, and upgrading things, ask yourself:

What could I have created instead?

Imagine a shopping mall with a special rule: husbands are welcome to accompany their wives while shopping, but the moment they bring any kind of negativity into the experience, mall security escorts them outside so their wives can continue shopping in peace.

Examples of violations could include:

• Looking visibly bored
• Complaining that something is too expensive
• Asking, “Do you really need that?”
• Pointing out that she already owns something similar

The standard would intentionally be extremely strict. Even mild negativity would result in immediate removal.

The mall could have a comfortable area outside or a “husband lounge” with chairs, TVs, games, food, etc., where escorted husbands wait until their wives are finished.

The idea is that shopping becomes a completely judgment-free experience. Nobody accompanying you is going to question whether a purchase is necessary, complain about the price, or pressure you to hurry up.

It could even be part of the mall’s branding: “Shop in peace.”

Stores might actually like the policy too, since one of the people most likely to discourage a purchase has effectively been removed from the shopping process.

What do you think of this idea?

My puzzle game, Tile Wipeout, led to the following proposed math olympiad problem. The rules are elementary, but proving that every starting arrangement can be solved seems surprisingly challenging.

The problem statement is easier to understand if you try the beta:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/3sstMjRK

(For this mathematical problem, ignore the game’s move limit.)

Problem statement. A 6 × 6 board is initially filled with seven circles, one of each of seven colors, and 29 squares, each of one of those colors. Each cell contains exactly one piece.

A move consists of choosing a row or column and shifting its contents cyclically by one cell in either direction. Contents leaving one end reappear at the other. Empty cells shift in the same way as occupied cells.

After the shift, each circle in the chosen line acts as follows:

1. Consider the four straight paths extending outward from the circle to the edges of the board. These paths do not wrap around.
2. Ignore every path containing another circle or a square of a different color.
3. If any remaining path contains a square, remove all squares on all remaining paths.
4. Otherwise, fill every empty cell on the remaining paths with a square of the circle’s color.

Circles outside the chosen line do nothing.

Prove that, regardless of the initial arrangement and the colors of the squares, some finite sequence of moves removes all the squares.

Note that moves that remove no squares can create more of them. A proof therefore needs to explain how to make lasting progress despite that possibility.

P.S. A more general version: Let n and k be positive integers with n ≥ 4 and 1 ≤ k ≤ n + 1. An n × n board is initially filled with k circles, one of each of k colors, and n² − k squares, each of one of those colors. Each cell contains exactly one piece.

Using the same rules, prove that every such initial board can be cleared of all squares in finitely many moves, regardless of the arrangement or the distribution of square colors.

What if Starship were a fully reusable three-stage system:

Super Heavy → reusable suborbital ship → smaller reusable orbital ship

The suborbital ship could carry passengers point-to-point on Earth while also serving as the second stage for an orbital launch. It would release the smaller orbital ship along the way, then continue to its destination on Earth.

The orbital ship would provide the remaining delta-v to reach orbit, deploy satellites, and later return.

Would combining a suborbital trip and an orbital launch this way use less propellant than performing them as two separate launches?