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It seems possible that all animals with brains need to sleep and dream or, like us, they would presumably lose touch with reality. Perhaps the same is true of artificial intelligence? Researchers might like to build in periods of enforced inactivity or who knows what AI might do ( 16/23 December 2023, p 44 ).

The collapse of national income for states reliant on coal, oil and gas production and export could lead to frightening scenarios ( 9 December 2023, p 11 ). The problem of climate refugees fleeing countries or areas such as Pacific islands due to devastating climate change impacts are very likely to be compounded by many …

Has Josh Bongard considered the consequences of embodied AI if he does manage to develop artificially intelligent robots that can feel and think with true, human-like understanding? The present level of AI already raises many serious problems – social, economic and psychological. The primary safeguard is that you can turn it off if things are …

Having read the call to develop embodied AI, I couldn't help but wonder if there were only some way that two ordinary people – a man and woman for instance – could get together in the privacy of their own homes and undertake some kind of experiment that resulted in a fully functioning intelligence, body …

The earliest supernovae were glimpsed in the galaxy GS-z12 ( 2 December 2023, p 13 ).

I fear Stuart Clark is being over-optimistic in saying that "we" could take refuge on a gas giant's moon when our sun becomes a red giant ( 16/23 December 2023, p 60 ). Creating suitable habitation and transporting people and materials will be prohibitively expensive and it is very probable that the only people who …

Regarding the potential future of artificial intelligence, if there ever needs to be a ban or control on further development, who will action it? We have already seen the US, European Union and UK governments incapable of understanding, let alone controlling, simple social media ( 16/23 December 2023, p 56 ). Control reminiscent of Nineteen …

Although the COP28 summit recognised that the planet is warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases, which inevitably leads to rising sea levels, there was no recognition that the melting of snow and ice greatly reduces the reflection of solar energy back into space, known as Earth's albedo. This allows more of the sun's heat …

On reading your story on negative emissions technology, it struck me that this could have been almost any article written about fusion reactors over the past 50 years, but with the words "nuclear fusion" replaced with "carbon dioxide removal". If the latter happens, it will be great, but the feeling remains that it may always …

Collapse of our techno-civilisation, built on fossil fuels, would have dire and permanent implications for future technology. Where will survivors find coal or tin to dig out by a pit and ladder, or oil you can drill down tens of metres to tap? Such low-hanging fruit to fuel a rebirth of advanced civilisation is long …