Thinking On Paper

The man who wrote the original blueprint for mind uploading on what comes after Homo sapiens.Anders Sandberg, futurist, transhumanist, former Senior Research Fellow at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, and author of the forthcoming Law, Liberty and Leviathan: Human Autonomy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, joins us for one of the widest-ranging conversations the show has ever recorded.
This is a tour through the next thousand years. Anders pulls in memory palaces and atomic clocks, fruit-fly connectomes and Kuiper Belt city-states, drone warfare and Dracula's boredom, AI agents as "fallen angels" of your conscience, and what happens to marriage when both spouses can copy themselves.

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Chapters

(00:00) Augmentation and Human Potential
(08:09) The Impact of Mobile Technology on Humanity
(11:51) Accountability in AI Agents
(18:25) The Role of Empathy in Human-AI Interaction
(25:35) AGI vs. Alien Life: A Comparative Analysis
(27:36) Consciousness and Brain Emulation
(35:52) The Future of Uploaded Minds
(40:33) Exploring Parallel Realities and Memory Merging
(45:16) The Future of Human Collaboration and Organizations
(46:24) AI's Role in Managing Global Systems
(51:23) The Dual Economy: Human vs AI Management
(57:43) The Complexities of Space Ownership and Governance
(01:05:18) The Future of Space Exploration and Human Expansion
(01:17:49) The Impact of Space Race on Human Progress
(01:21:43) The Role of Nations and Corporations in Space Exploration
(01:24:22) Experimenting with New Forms of Governance
(01:26:18) NASA's Future in the Age of Innovation
(01:28:41) The Potential for Breakaway Movements in Space
(01:30:16) Trust and Coordination in Space Governance
(01:34:18) The Future of Fusion Energy
(01:42:15) The Value of Time and Life Extension
(01:48:06) Reinventing Identity in Extended Lifespans
(01:52:03) The Future of Humanity and Technology

Predictions are not facts. Yet we're betting our jobs, our democracies, and our children's attention spans on them.

Oxford philosopher Carissa Véliz, author of Prophecy and Privacy Is Power, joins Mark Fielding and Jeremy Gilbertson on Thinking On Paper to dismantle the most lucrative con of the AI era: the self-fulfilling prophecy.

When Sam Altman tells you that anyone in 2035 will command "the intellectual capacity equivalent to everyone in 2025"… when Dario Amodei warns AI will wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs… when Jensen Huang announces the IT department is now an HR department for AI agents... you are not hearing forecasts. You are hearing sales pitches dressed as inevitability.

Repeat them often enough, and HR really does start firing humans and buying OpenAI subscriptions. Klarna fired 700 people on the AI hype. A year later, they were hiring 700 people back.

This is the oldest trick in the book. From the Oracle of Delphi to Rasputin to Polymarket and Kalshi, and Carissa shows you how to see through it.
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CHAPTERS  

(00:00) Intro
(01:00) What is the good life? 
(02:00) Why knowing yourself matters more than strategy 
(04:44) The analog world vs the digital world 
(06:45) How prophecies exploit our need for security 
(08:47) Why ancient Rome banned predicting the emperor's death 
(10:11) The illusion of safety that AI sells us 
(12:27) When predictions work, and when they don't 
(15:00) Altman, Amodei, Huang: predictions or sales pitches? 
(28:29) How to resist prophecies as a busy person 
(29:53) Prediction markets, Polymarket, and democracy 
(31:49) TikTok, algorithms, and the Molly Russell case 
(36:08) "Engagement algorithms are cocaine in food" 
(40:54) Self-fulfilling prophecies as the perfect crime 
(43:44) Why comedy is the enemy of prophecy 
(46:59) What Seinfeld teaches us about predictive algorithms 
(52:16) Karikó and the Nobel Prize we almost missed 
(53:40) Increase your serendipity 
(56:13) Why Epicurus beats the Stoics

The AI meme war between the US and Iran has evolved into an absolute shit show. If you thought it was awful a few weeks ago, you ain't seen nothing yet.

AI-generated Lego propaganda videos were a curiosity. Sometimes funny, often violent, always troublesome and never diplomatic, they quickly gained millions of views across social media... because social media.

The White House Twitter (X) account was responsible for the US videos.

An Iranian media company called Explosive Media, the Iranian. America, either put off by the global consensus that it was losing the war, or bored, switched their AI models to tax season (with equal ineptitude).

Iran, losing the guns and missiles part of the war, has changed tact. Explosive Media turned up the heat. And was duly banned from YouTube. Which could of unleashed the beast. Now Iranian embassies are posting them on Twitter (X) and US creators are using the same format to mock it all with Lego.. Just watch it yourself. And let us know what you think.
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TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Explosive Media
(00:38) US Bowling Iran
(01:52) Trump's Mask
(03:20) Blockade, Blockade
(06:28) Drunken Hegseth
(08:00) Truth

Who owns the Moon? China? The USA? Nobody, everybody? We're about to find out.
Who owns the Moon? China? The USA? Nobody, everybody? We're about to find out. It's the last part of Space to Grow by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rousseau, and today we learn about asteroid mining, the trillion-dollar promise of Psyche-16 and the property rights questions raised by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

We detour to the Kuiper belt via John Locke, Kant, Hume, and Rousseau to ask who actually owns space. Along the way: Peter Diamandis and Planetary Resources, the role of DARPA and national security in funding the space industry, the "military celestial complex," and what happens when the global south is locked out of the rules being written above their heads.

If SpaceX builds at the south pole of the Moon and China plants a flag in the Sea of Storms, what then?

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Chapters

(00:00) Global Conflict and Space Resources
(02:04) Human Nature and Space Exploration
(03:28) The Economics of Asteroid Mining
(05:53) Legal Frameworks for Space Mining
(11:05) The Space Resource Exploration Act
(13:01) International Reactions to Space Mining Legislation
(17:19) Philosophical Perspectives on Space Ownership
(20:14) The Role of National Security in Space
(20:40) The Role of Government in Space Innovation
(21:34) National Security and the Space Industry
(23:10) Weaponization of Space: A New Era
(24:47) The Prisoner's Dilemma in Space Cooperation
(26:40) Humanity's Moral Compass in Space Exploration
(27:03) The Future of Humanity in Space

They're Chinese and crashing rockets. That's about all we know about the space company with the biggest financial backing of 2026.
There are plenty of US companies, so don't worry about the space race. Stoke Space, Sierra Space and Cesium Astro have scored hundreds of millions on the back of government security contracts. In fact, the ten largest funding rounds total over $3.7 billion. And it's only April.
As well as defence, encrypted GPS alternatives and space-based weather platforms being used by Formula One to tell drivers if the track is wet or not feature. As do satellite communications and reusable rockets
But the biggest surprise sits at the top of the list: Beijing-based iSpace China claimed the single largest raise at $729 million.

The Top 10 In Full

iSpace China — $729M
Sierra Space — $550M (Series C)
Vast Space — $500M (Series A)
Cesium Astro — $470M
Axiom Space — $350M
Stoke Space — $350M
PLD Space — €210M (Series C)
Tomorrow.io — $175M
Xona Space — $170M (Series C)
StarCloud — $170M

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Chapters
(00:00) Starcloud
(00:52) Xona Space
(03:27) Tomorrow IO
(06:01) PLD Space
(08:00) Stoke Space
(10:18) Axiom Space
(12:29) Cesium Astro
(14:50) VAST Space
(19:02) Sierra Space
(21:47) I-Space (Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd.)