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10.09.2026 - 23:17 [ Jacob Coxon / X ]

I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives. More thoughts below.

(September 9, 2026)

Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources. We have all witnessed the progress in each of these domains, and progress is not slowing.

The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible – but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger.

A common response is “if they truly believe this, why are they still building it?” At OpenAI, many have not deeply internalized the civilizational stakes. At Anthropic, the stakes are well-understood, but they are locked in a race to get there first – they believe no one else will act responsibly, so they must do it themselves, despite the risk.

10.09.2026 - 22:38 [ Philippe Borrel / Vimeo ]

„A World Beyond Humans ?“ (96′ / ARTE / 2012) A Documentary Film By Philippe Borrel

(Uploaded on Aug 23, 2016)

Despite being invented by thinking humans, technology is advancing faster than we could have ever predicted. From robot apps to nanotechnologies, the documentary „Un Monde sans Humains ?“ („A World Beyond Humans ?“) by Philippe Borrel gives an insight into the potential excesses of technoscience. Machines have become omnipresent, but is improving our lives their only objective ?

These warnings are at the heart of this investigative documentary‘s reflection, at a cross-section of huge financial stakes, powerful lobbies and people who are sounding today‘s alarm bells. The fusion between man and machine has already started and it is high time to question where exactly does man stand in this race for progress !

10.09.2026 - 22:27 [ Youtube ]

ARTE – Welt ohne Menschen (Dokumentation)

(Oct 30, 2012)

10.09.2026 - 22:15 [ Common Dreams ]

Anthropic Researcher Quits, Citing Internal Fears That AI ‘Could Kill Us All’ This Decade

„Recent hacks by models from OpenAI and Anthropic, some operating in collaborative swarms of agents, have illustrated how AI systems can adopt nefarious goals and try to conceal them from humans. Once the systems begin to improve on their own, Coxon said, he fears they could advance enough to refuse commands.“

10.09.2026 - 21:26 [ Time Nagazine ]

He Helped Build Powerful AI at OpenAI and Anthropic. Now He‘s Afraid It Could Kill Us

Coxon’s departure is unusual. Many of the most prominent researchers to leave frontier AI companies with public warnings worked on safety. But Coxon helped build the capabilities he now fears, spending roughly three years conducting pretraining research at OpenAI and Anthropic. His resignation offers a glimpse of how concern about the pace of development has spread beyond the teams specifically charged with making advanced AI safer.

13.02.2026 - 06:02 [ Telegraph.co.uk ]

Sun‘s protective ‚bubble‘ is shrinking

(October 18, 2008)

The scientists hope the IBEX mission will allow them to gain a better understanding of what happens at this boundary and help them predict what protection it will offer in the future.

Without the heliosphere the harmful intergalactic cosmic radiation would make life on Earth almost impossible by destroying DNA and making the climate uninhabitable.

Measurements made by the Ulysses deep space probe, which was launched in 1990 to orbit the sun, have shown that the pressure created inside the heliosphere by the solar wind has been decreasing.

13.02.2026 - 03:57 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Animation: Heliosphere

(March 9, 2022)

This complex environment surrounds the planets and ultimately has a crucial effect on the formation, evolution, and destiny of planetary systems. For one thing, our heliosphere acts as a giant shield, protecting the planets from galactic cosmic radiation. Earth is additionally shielded by its own magnetic field, the magnetosphere, which protects us not only from solar and cosmic particle radiation but also from erosion of the atmosphere by the solar wind. Planets without a shielding magnetic field, such as Mars and Venus, are exposed to such processes and have evolved differently.

NASA‘s studies of the heliosphere include research into: how the solar wind behaves near Earth; what causes and sustains magnetic and electric fields around other planets; how does the heliosphere interact with the interstellar medium; what do the boundaries of the heliosphere look like; what is the origin and evolution of the solar wind and the interstellar cosmic rays; and what contributes to the habitability of exoplanets.

22.01.2026 - 13:03 [ Welt.de ]

Evolution: Das ist der Grund, wieso die Gehirne der Menschen schrumpfen

(16.11.2021)

Dass unser Gehirn langsam etwas an Masse verloren hat, ist jedoch nicht ganz so lange her: Erst vor rund 3.000 Jahren begann es zu schrumpfen.

(…)

Die Art und Weise, wie sich Individuen in einem Ameisenstaat organisieren, ähnelt unseren modernen Gesellschaftsstrukturen. Die Insekten haben, verglichen mit ihrer Körpergröße, ein Mini-Gehirn. Es ist etwa eine Million Mal kleiner als das eines Menschen – sie können aber Großes leisten. Das Prinzip dahinter ist eine Art kollektive Intelligenz. Nicht jeder muss alles können oder wissen, es gibt eine klare Aufgabenteilung.

22.01.2026 - 13:00 [ frontiersin.org ]

When and Why Did Human Brains Decrease in Size? A New Change-Point Analysis and Insights From Brain Evolution in Ants

(22 October 2021)

But we also find that human brain size reduction was surprisingly recent, occurring in the last 3,000 years. Our dating does not support hypotheses concerning brain size reduction as a by-product of body size reduction, a result of a shift to an agricultural diet, or a consequence of self-domestication. We suggest our analysis supports the hypothesis that the recent decrease in brain size may instead result from the externalization of knowledge and advantages of group-level decision-making due in part to the advent of social systems of distributed cognition and the storage and sharing of information. Humans live in social groups in which multiple brains contribute to the emergence of collective intelligence. Although difficult to study in the deep history of Homo, the impacts of group size, social organization, collective intelligence and other potential selective forces on brain evolution can be elucidated using ants as models.

13.11.2025 - 18:46 [ Harvard University ]

More than a planetary fender-bender: New study finds Earth collided with dense interstellar cloud, possibly affecting life on planet

(June 10, 2024)

Evidence of a long-ago collision involving the Earth was there in the form of specific radioactive isotopes deposited across the Earth and Moon. There were, however, skeptics.

But now researchers have tracked the sun’s path through the Milky Way back to a crash 2 to 3 million years ago with a dense interstellar cloud. The event was so violent it appears to have collapsed the sun’s protective bubble around the solar system and possibly even affected life on Earth.

(…)

“We don’t often discuss the impact of astrophysics on Earth because the astronomical timescales are very long, and the human species emerged on Earth just a few million years ago,” Loeb said. “But a few million years ago there was the potential for us to be passing through a very dense cloud. We didn’t work out the biological implications, but it’s clear that if you shrink the heliosphere to within the orbit of the Earth around the sun, we are not protected anymore. It could have significant implications for life on Earth.”

06.08.2025 - 09:21 [ Freitag.de ]

Psychopathische Eliten: Warum sich die Menschheit höchstwahrscheinlich selbst zerstört

(Aubust 5, 2025)

Kemp sieht in diesen „Agenten des Untergangs“ die Ursache für den gegenwärtigen Kurs in Richtung gesellschaftlichen Zusammenbruch. „Das sind die großen, psychopathischen Unternehmen und Konzerne, die globale Katastrophen riskieren“, sagt er. „Atomwaffen, Klimawandel und künstliche Intelligenz werden nur von einer sehr kleinen Zahl verschwiegener, sehr wohlhabender und mächtiger Gruppen wie dem militärisch-industriellen Komplex, Big Tech und der Industrie für fossile Brennstoffe produziert.“

„Der springende Punkt ist, dass es nicht um die gesamte Menschheit geht, die diese Bedrohungen schafft. Es geht nicht um die menschliche Natur. Es geht um kleine Gruppen, die das Schlimmste in uns hervorbringen, die um Profit und Macht konkurrieren und alle [Risiken] vertuschen.“

15.06.2025 - 18:09 [ Welt.de ]

Evolution: Das ist der Grund, wieso die Gehirne der Menschen schrumpfen

(16.11.2021)

Dass unser Gehirn langsam etwas an Masse verloren hat, ist jedoch nicht ganz so lange her: Erst vor rund 3.000 Jahren begann es zu schrumpfen.

(…)

Die Art und Weise, wie sich Individuen in einem Ameisenstaat organisieren, ähnelt unseren modernen Gesellschaftsstrukturen. Die Insekten haben, verglichen mit ihrer Körpergröße, ein Mini-Gehirn. Es ist etwa eine Million Mal kleiner als das eines Menschen – sie können aber Großes leisten. Das Prinzip dahinter ist eine Art kollektive Intelligenz. Nicht jeder muss alles können oder wissen, es gibt eine klare Aufgabenteilung.

15.06.2025 - 18:08 [ frontiersin.org ]

When and Why Did Human Brains Decrease in Size? A New Change-Point Analysis and Insights From Brain Evolution in Ants

(22 October 2021)

But we also find that human brain size reduction was surprisingly recent, occurring in the last 3,000 years. Our dating does not support hypotheses concerning brain size reduction as a by-product of body size reduction, a result of a shift to an agricultural diet, or a consequence of self-domestication. We suggest our analysis supports the hypothesis that the recent decrease in brain size may instead result from the externalization of knowledge and advantages of group-level decision-making due in part to the advent of social systems of distributed cognition and the storage and sharing of information. Humans live in social groups in which multiple brains contribute to the emergence of collective intelligence. Although difficult to study in the deep history of Homo, the impacts of group size, social organization, collective intelligence and other potential selective forces on brain evolution can be elucidated using ants as models.

04.09.2024 - 14:20 [ frontiersin.org ]

When and Why Did Human Brains Decrease in Size? A New Change-Point Analysis and Insights From Brain Evolution in Ants

(22 October 2021)

But we also find that human brain size reduction was surprisingly recent, occurring in the last 3,000 years. Our dating does not support hypotheses concerning brain size reduction as a by-product of body size reduction, a result of a shift to an agricultural diet, or a consequence of self-domestication. We suggest our analysis supports the hypothesis that the recent decrease in brain size may instead result from the externalization of knowledge and advantages of group-level decision-making due in part to the advent of social systems of distributed cognition and the storage and sharing of information. Humans live in social groups in which multiple brains contribute to the emergence of collective intelligence. Although difficult to study in the deep history of Homo, the impacts of group size, social organization, collective intelligence and other potential selective forces on brain evolution can be elucidated using ants as models.

04.09.2024 - 13:15 [ Welt.de ]

Evolution: Das ist der Grund, wieso die Gehirne der Menschen schrumpfen

(16.11.2021)

Dass unser Gehirn langsam etwas an Masse verloren hat, ist jedoch nicht ganz so lange her: Erst vor rund 3.000 Jahren begann es zu schrumpfen.

(…)

Die Art und Weise, wie sich Individuen in einem Ameisenstaat organisieren, ähnelt unseren modernen Gesellschaftsstrukturen. Die Insekten haben, verglichen mit ihrer Körpergröße, ein Mini-Gehirn. Es ist etwa eine Million Mal kleiner als das eines Menschen – sie können aber Großes leisten. Das Prinzip dahinter ist eine Art kollektive Intelligenz. Nicht jeder muss alles können oder wissen, es gibt eine klare Aufgabenteilung.

26.04.2024 - 02:35 [ Smithsonian Magazine ]

An Evolutionary Timeline of Homo Sapiens

(February 2, 2021)

Neanderthals once stretched across Eurasia from Portugal and the British Isles to Siberia. As Homo sapiens became more prevalent across these areas the Neanderthals faded in their turn, being generally consigned to history by some 40,000 years ago. (…)

Despite the bits of genetic ancestry they contributed to living people, all of our close relatives eventually died out, leaving Homo sapiens as the only human species. Their extinctions add one more intriguing, perhaps unanswerable question to the story of our evolution—why were we the only humans to survive?

26.04.2024 - 02:05 [ Science.org ]

A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago

(19 Feb 2021)

Do terrestrial geomagnetic field reversals have an effect on Earth‘s climate? Cooper et al. created a precisely dated radiocarbon record around the time of the Laschamps geomagnetic reversal about 41,000 years ago from the rings of New Zealand swamp kauri trees. This record reveals a substantial increase in the carbon-14 content of the atmosphere culminating during the period of weakening magnetic field strength preceding the polarity switch. The authors modeled the consequences of this event and concluded that the geomagnetic field minimum caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration that drove synchronous global climate and environmental shifts.

(…)

We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.

(…)

In addition, chronological uncertainties are complicated in radiocarbon-dated terrestrial and marine records around the Laschamps because of the elevated production of C and Be, cosmogenic radionuclides resulting from the substantial increase in high-energy cosmic radiation reaching the upper atmosphere. The high Be flux has been well described from Greenland and Antarctic ice core records (6, 20, 21), which reveal synchronous century-long Be peaks across the Laschamps that appear to reflect a series of pronounced Grand Solar Minima (GSM; prolonged periods of low solar activity similar to the Spörer and Maunder Minima: 1410 to 1540 CE and 1645 to 1715 CE), with unknown climate impacts (20, 21).

26.04.2024 - 01:50 [ ScienceNews.org ]

50 years ago, scientists named Earth’s magnetic field as a suspect in extinctions

(November 19, 2020)

Effects of Earth’s magnetic field — Science News, November 21, 1970

„Earth’s magnetic field has frequently reversed at intervals of 1 million to 100 million years. A few scientists now suspect that these reversals may have had drastic effects on terrestrial life.… During the past 2.5 million years, eight species of one-cell marine animals called Radiolaria became extinct. Six of these extinctions occurred simultaneously throughout their geographic range immediately following magnetic reversals.“

26.04.2024 - 01:30 [ PRI.org ]

Scientists link Earth’s magnetic reversals to changes in planet’s life and climate

(April 19, 2021)

The researchers examined the rings of the tree to look for changes in the amount of carbon-14 over a period of years, Gramling explains. Carbon-14 is useful not only for dating things, but because the interaction of cosmic rays with molecules in the atmosphere produces a lot of it. And when the Earth has a weakened magnetic field, more cosmic rays hit the planet.

The scientists indeed found a large spike in carbon-14 in the tree, which they could then compare with the rock record that indicated a magnetic reversal. (…)

In addition, there is the documented rise in cave art right about 41,000-42,000 years ago, Gramling points out.

20.09.2023 - 03:12 [ Wikipedia ]

1000 Genomes Project

Some genomic differences may not affect fitness. Neutral variation, previously thought to be “junk” DNA, is unaffected by natural selection resulting in higher genetic variation at such sites when compared to sites where variation does influence fitness.[14]

It is not fully clear how natural selection has shaped population differences; however, genetic candidate regions under selection have been identified recently. (…)

It was found that on average, each person carries around 250–300 loss-of-function variants in annotated genes and 50-100 variants previously implicated in inherited disorders. Based on the two trios, it is estimated that the rate of de novo germline mutation is approximately 10−8 per base per generation.

20.09.2023 - 02:51 [ National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health (NIH) ]

The 1000 Genomes Project: Welcome to a New World

(Dec 2015)

“Now this is not the end… But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” as Winston Churchill said. Large-scale sequencing projects will continue for more regional or ethnic groups, in order to extend the global coverage. Much effort will focus on a better understanding of the relationship between genetic variation and common disorders. The translation of this massive genetic information to human health will benefit from the development of complex databases gathering genetic, clinical, and biological data, such as multi-omics profiles, while maintaining protection of potentially sensitive personal information (3). Efforts are also underway to increase genetic awareness in the public and to educate health professionals

24.04.2023 - 13:21 [ Science.org ]

A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago

(19 Feb 2021)

Do terrestrial geomagnetic field reversals have an effect on Earth‘s climate? Cooper et al. created a precisely dated radiocarbon record around the time of the Laschamps geomagnetic reversal about 41,000 years ago from the rings of New Zealand swamp kauri trees. This record reveals a substantial increase in the carbon-14 content of the atmosphere culminating during the period of weakening magnetic field strength preceding the polarity switch. The authors modeled the consequences of this event and concluded that the geomagnetic field minimum caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration that drove synchronous global climate and environmental shifts.

(…)

We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.

24.04.2023 - 13:16 [ ORF.at ]

Erdmagnetfeld: Polwanderung veränderte das Weltklima

Ungefilterte Strahlung aus dem Weltraum zerriss Luftpartikel in der Erdatmosphäre, trennte Elektronen ab und emittierte Licht. Diese ionisierte Luft brutzelte die Ozonschicht weg, heißt es in einer Presseaussendung zur Studie. In Folge dürften überall auf dem Globus Polarlichter aufgetaucht sein, nicht nur rund um den geographischen Nord- und Südpol wie heute. (…)

Das Erdmagnetfeld schwächelt bereits seit rund 2.000 Jahren wieder. Verglichen mit den ersten direkten Messungen vor 170 Jahren wurde eine Abschwächung um neun Prozent festgestellt, im Bereich des Südatlantiks sogar um dreißig Prozent.

25.10.2021 - 17:04 [ PRI.org ]

Scientists link Earth‘s magnetic reversals to changes in planet‘s life and climate

(April 19, 2021)

The researchers examined the rings of the tree to look for changes in the amount of carbon-14 over a period of years, Gramling explains. Carbon-14 is useful not only for dating things, but because the interaction of cosmic rays with molecules in the atmosphere produces a lot of it. And when the Earth has a weakened magnetic field, more cosmic rays hit the planet.

The scientists indeed found a large spike in carbon-14 in the tree, which they could then compare with the rock record that indicated a magnetic reversal. (…)

In addition, there is the documented rise in cave art right about 41,000-42,000 years ago, Gramling points out.

20.09.2021 - 05:45 [ PRI.org ]

Scientists link Earth‘s magnetic reversals to changes in planet‘s life and climate

(April 19, 2021)

The researchers examined the rings of the tree to look for changes in the amount of carbon-14 over a period of years, Gramling explains. Carbon-14 is useful not only for dating things, but because the interaction of cosmic rays with molecules in the atmosphere produces a lot of it. And when the Earth has a weakened magnetic field, more cosmic rays hit the planet.

The scientists indeed found a large spike in carbon-14 in the tree, which they could then compare with the rock record that indicated a magnetic reversal. (…)

In addition, there is the documented rise in cave art right about 41,000-42,000 years ago, Gramling points out.

21.02.2021 - 13:30 [ Sciencealert.com ]

Earth‘s Magnetic Field Could Be Changing Much Faster Than We Ever Realised

(08.07.2020)

Quicker changes in direction seem to coincide with a local weakening of the magnetic field, the new research found. One shift in particular was highlighted: a movement of 2.5 degrees per year 39,000 years ago, right after the most recent Laschamp excursion flip, when the Earth‘s magnetic field was weakened around the west coast of Central America.

21.02.2021 - 13:05 [ ScienceNews.org ]

50 years ago, scientists named Earth’s magnetic field as a suspect in extinctions

(November 19, 2020)

Effects of Earth’s magnetic field — Science News, November 21, 1970

„Earth’s magnetic field has frequently reversed at intervals of 1 million to 100 million years. A few scientists now suspect that these reversals may have had drastic effects on terrestrial life.… During the past 2.5 million years, eight species of one-cell marine animals called Radiolaria became extinct. Six of these extinctions occurred simultaneously throughout their geographic range immediately following magnetic reversals.“

21.02.2021 - 12:40 [ Science Magazine ]

A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago

(19.02.2021)

We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.

21.02.2021 - 12:35 [ CNN ]

Reversal of Earth‘s magnetic poles may have triggered Neanderthal extinction — and it could happen again

(19.02.2021)

Some 42,000 years ago, in an event known as the Laschamp Excursion, the poles did just that for around 800 years, before swapping back — but scientists were unsure exactly how or if it impacted the world.

Now, a team of researchers from Sydney‘s University of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum say the flip, along with changing solar winds, could have triggered an array of dramatic climate shifts leading to environmental change and mass extinctions.