Science/Technology News Breakthroughs

[Huntn]

Lithium will fuel the clean energy boom. This company may have a breakthrough

Lithium will fuel the clean energy boom. This company may have a breakthrough

A geothermal power company says it can make California's Salton Sea the first major source of U.S. lithium production.

www.latimes.com

Gaze across the Salton Sea, a sparkling oasis in the California desert, and you’ll see white plumes of steam rising against the hazy Chocolate Mountains.

The steam comes from 11 geothermal power plants, nestled between the accidental lake and the verdant farm fields of the Imperial Valley. The area has been churning out climate-friendly geothermal energy since the 1980s, long before solar panels and wind turbines became cheap and abundant.

The geothermal plants could soon contribute to California’s war against climate change in a new way: by producing lithium, a key ingredient in batteries that power electric cars and store solar power for use after dark.

Companies have tried for decades to extract lithium from the super-heated underground fluid used for energy generation at the southern end of the Salton Sea, home to one of the world’s most powerful natural geothermal hot spots. Just a few years ago, a technology startup called Simbol Materials went bust shortly after Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. offered to buy it for $325 million.


Now another company claims to have solved the lithium problem.

 

[Huntn]

Excellent focus today on NPR’s Science Friday about the prospect of restoring coral reefs, using genetically altered coral better able to withstand warming oceans.

Meet The Scientists Reviving The World’s Fading Corals
Listen to the broadcast here:

Meet The Scientists Reviving The World’s Fading Corals

A quarter of the world's corals are now dead—but scientists on the front lines of the coral crisis are working on some inspiring solutions.

www.sciencefriday.com

 

[Huntn]

Biological Computers- I’m reading about it, recognize what they are saying, but don’t understand it. I think but could be incorrect that the closest commercial application is using a biological process to power a tradional computer chip or microcomputers used in medicine…

2015-​

Scientists create world's first biologically powered computer chip​

Scientists create world's first biologically powered computer chip

The dream of melding biological and man-made machinery is now a little more real with the announcement that Columbia Engineering researchers have successfully harnessed a chemical energy-producing biological process to power a solid state CMOS integrated circuit.

newatlas.com

The dream of melding biological and man-made machinery is now a little more real with the announcement that Columbia Engineering researchers have successfully harnessed a chemical energy-producing biological process to power a solid state CMOS integrated circuit.


According to study lead professor Ken Shepard, this is the world's first successful effort to isolate a biological process and use it to power an integrated circuit, much like the ones we use in phones and computers.

2016-

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/232190-how-mits-new-biological-computer-works-and-what-it-could-do-in-the-future

2022-

Revamped Design Could Take Powerful Biological Computers From the Test Tube to the Cell

www.nist.gov

2019-

Biological computers mechanism , uses , pros and cons | Science online

The computer is the electronic device that is used to store , manipulate & communicate the information , perform complex calculations , or control or

www.online-sciences.com

 

[Huntn]

Warnings About Artificial Intelligence:
I think if not handled properly there is a real danger here. Ask yourself, what happens to the ability of people to earn a wage in a capitalist society, when AI takes over the role of the human brain? Accounting, banking, construction, every management position, etc, etc, etc.

I am getting a little ahead of the situation as it exists today, but I want to be an optimist, I could imagine us evolving into socialist Utopia where people spend their lives exploring their intellectual and physical potentials, not spending a life of sweeping the floors, digging ditches, or handing fast food to customers across a counter.

However this is tempered by my pessimistic fear that we are not ready, might not ever be ready, more accurately said: too primative to make this work for us, and not destroy ourselves in the process. The number one problem is us, too individualistic, selfish, greedy and often corrupt, not like an ant or bee colony.

12 Risks and Dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence has potential, but the dangers of AI have grabbed more attention in recent years. Check out 12 dangers of artificial intelligence.

builtin.com

From the article the dangers:

• Automation-spurred job loss
• Privacy violations
• Deepfakes
• Algorithmic bias caused by bad data
• Socioeconomic inequality
• Market volatility
• Weapons automatization

As AI grows more sophisticated and widespread, the voices warning against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence grow louder.
“The development of artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” according to Stephen Hawking. The renowned theoretical physicist isn’t alone with this thought.

 

[Huntn]

Nuclear Power 2023- The EV discussion in this forum inspired me. I’ll propose that nuclear is a vital component of any plan of ridding ourselves of reliance on fossil fuels.

Ultra safe Nuclear power- The fuel is uranium, not as common as thorium, and I’m not clear on just how dangerous it is, although they claim the way it is utilized, the technology is completely safe, no reliance on cooling water and electricity to pump the water, no chance of a meltdown, nuclear proliferation resistant. Watch the how this works video here:

Ultra Safe Nuclear

Reliable Zero-Carbon Energy Anywhere. Advanced nuclear developer of the Micro Modular Reactor (MMR) and other energy systems using TRISO and FCM Fuel.

www.usnc.com

How it works:

on Vimeo

TRISO and FCM Fuel

The most robust fuel form ever developed for nuclear reactors. Designed and manfuctured in the USA. It is now available to approved vendors.

www.usnc.com

Then there is thorium reactors, ironically this technology has existed since WWII but it might be argued the Super Powers were more interested in powering their nuclear weapons, judgements clouded as compared to using thorium from the start.

The big deal about thorium, is that it is relatively plentiful, it is not highly radio active, and there is no application for bombs, no danger of meltdowns, and the waste does not create millions of barrels of highly toxic waste that no State wants to store.

Thorium-based nuclear power - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Are thorium reactors the future of nuclear power?

We may hear a lot more about thorium in the future.

interestingengineering.com

Thorium Nuclear Reactors: A safer alternative?

As the global climate change crisis mounts and the global population has surpassed 7 billion, the search for plentiful, environmentally-friendly energy has taken on new urgency.

science.howstuffworks.com

 

[Huntn]

Did you drink decaffeinated coffee in the 20th century?
It’s not the emphasis of this article

Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

Common environmental contaminant increased rate of neurodegenerative affliction in one population by 70%

www.science.org

But in the 20th century, TCE was used for many purposes, including making decaffeinated coffee, dry cleaning, carpet cleaning, and as an inhaled surgical anesthetic for children and women in labor. TCE is highly persistent in soil and groundwater; inhalation through vapor from these hidden sources is likely the prime route of exposure today. However, it’s detectable in many foods, in up to one-third of U.S. drinking water, and in breast milk, blood, and urine.

 

[Huntn]

Scientists create electricity from humidity

Beginning steps:

This New Device Generates Electricity From Thin Air

Nearly any material covered with tiny holes can derive energy from humidity, per a new study, opening doors to more sustainable power

www.smithsonianmag.com

Nearly any material covered with tiny holes can derive energy from humidity, per a new study, opening doors to more sustainable power

 

[rhett7660]

Did you drink decaffeinated coffee in the 20th century?
It’s not the emphasis of this article

Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

Common environmental contaminant increased rate of neurodegenerative affliction in one population by 70%

www.science.org

But in the 20th century, TCE was used for many purposes, including making decaffeinated coffee, dry cleaning, carpet cleaning, and as an inhaled surgical anesthetic for children and women in labor. TCE is highly persistent in soil and groundwater; inhalation through vapor from these hidden sources is likely the prime route of exposure today. However, it’s detectable in many foods, in up to one-third of U.S. drinking water, and in breast milk, blood, and urine.

And that is why I only drink the caffeinated stuff!

This is down right scary.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch the movie "Dark Waters". Where one gets to learn about "Forever Chemicals"... Another scary item.

 

[decafjava]

And that is why I only drink the caffeinated stuff!

This is down right scary.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch the movie "Dark Waters". Where one gets to learn about "Forever Chemicals"... Another scary item.

I do think that there are other ways to make decaf coffee now:

How to decaffeinate coffee

One with water, the other with CO2.

Two other methods use water. The Swiss Water method sees the beans soaked with water; the caffeine rich solution (full of flavours) is then strained though activated carbon which captures the caffeine. Starting in Switzerland in the 1930s, the process was first used commercially in 1979. It gained favour because it was the first decaffeination method not to use solvents.

There is another method, Stemman says, which involves the use of “super critical carbon dioxide”. Beans that have been soaked in water are put in a stainless-steel extractor which is then sealed, and liquid CO2 blasted in at pressures of up to 1,000lbs per square inch. Like the Swiss Water method, it’s the C02 which binds with the caffeine molecules, drawing them out of the unroasted bean. The gas is then drawn off and the pressure is lowered, leaving the caffeine in a separate chamber.

Oh and despite my username I almost never drink decaf coffee.

 

[rhett7660]

I do think that there are other ways to make decaf coffee now:

How to decaffeinate coffee

One with water, the other with CO2.


Oh and despite my username I almost never drink decaf coffee.

I laughed at this and then I saw your user name, and then I saw your last comment in this post, I laughed again. Of course I do... tongue in cheek if you will.

 

[Huntn]

And that is why I only drink the caffeinated stuff!

This is down right scary.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch the movie "Dark Waters". Where one gets to learn about "Forever Chemicals"... Another scary item.

I just heard a news report about a lawsuit by the Feds I think regarding forever chems in our water…Some of these things were not known at one time, so I guess I can say oh they did not know, but there is an historical over tendency to flush away all the poisons manufacturing produces into waterways, you know so we can make a profit…Hell that’s why we sent a lot of our manufacturing East And South, Mexico and China had no qualms about exposing their citizens to pollution if it meant $$$ Ironically we have not thought of the world as being connected. All of that pollution being created in the basement, won’t make it to the living room… 🤔

 

[Huntn]

Ice Age Worm (46k years old), thaws out and starts wiggling!

How a Worm Came Back to Life After 46,000 Years Frozen in the Siberian Permafrost

A special sugar used in the food industry may have wrapped itself around the nematode's guts and protected it for millennia.

www.msn.com

 

[Huntn]

AI-

The robots are here and the pleasure seekers are going to fall in love with AI, say experts who studied machine-human bonding​

The robots are here and the pleasure seekers are going to fall in love with AI, say experts who studied machine-human bonding

AI will revolutionize sex, love and dating the way Tinder, Grindr and Hinge did, and there's already research on who will dive in first.

fortune.com

However, an enthusiasm for novelty is not the only driver. Studies show that people find many uses for sexual and romantic machines outside of sex and romance. They can serve as companions or therapists, or as a hobby.

In short, people are drawn to AI-equipped machines for a range of reasons. Many of them resemble the reasons people seek out relationships with other humans. But researchers are only beginning to understand how relationships with machines might differ from connecting with other people.

 

[Huntn]

Not quite a breakthrough yet, this is exciting:

Enlisting the immune system: mRNA cancer treatment new target for Biden administration

Messenger RNA-based technology would be used to turn off and on multiple genes within immune cells involved in cancer and chronic conditions like long COVID.

www.usatoday.com

In its bid to fight cancer, the Biden administration this week announced plans to enlist the mRNA technology made famous by COVID-19 vaccines.

The idea is to create a platform of mRNA technologies that could turn the immune system against cancer and other diseases.

In this case, messenger RNA-based technology would be used to turn off and on multiple genes within immune cells involved in cancer, auto-immune diseases, organ transplant rejection and chronic conditions like long COVID. By contrast, existing vaccines use mRNAs to produce specific proteins to be targeted by the immune system ‒ the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19, or, with cancer vaccines under development, ones on the surface of tumors.

 

[jedimasterkyle]

Warnings About Artificial Intelligence:
I think if not handled properly there is a real danger here. Ask yourself, what happens to the ability of people to earn a wage in a capitalist society, when AI takes over the role of the human brain? Accounting, banking, construction, every management position, etc, etc, etc.

I am getting a little ahead of the situation as it exists today, but I want to be an optimist, I could imagine us evolving into socialist Utopia where people spend their lives exploring their intellectual and physical potentials, not spending a life of sweeping the floors, digging ditches, or handing fast food to customers across a counter.

However this is tempered by my pessimistic fear that we are not ready, might not ever be ready, more accurately said: too primative to make this work for us, and not destroy ourselves in the process. The number one problem is us, too individualistic, selfish, greedy and often corrupt, not like an ant or bee colony.

12 Risks and Dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence has potential, but the dangers of AI have grabbed more attention in recent years. Check out 12 dangers of artificial intelligence.

builtin.com

From the article the dangers:

• Automation-spurred job loss
• Privacy violations
• Deepfakes
• Algorithmic bias caused by bad data
• Socioeconomic inequality
• Market volatility
• Weapons automatization

As AI grows more sophisticated and widespread, the voices warning against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence grow louder.
“The development of artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” according to Stephen Hawking. The renowned theoretical physicist isn’t alone with this thought.

As someone who works for a company who is HEAVILY invested in AI, this scares the ever living **** out of me. And what's worse is that we've had books, tv shows and movies explaining why it's a bad idea for years!!! Sure, the Terminator and The Matrix might be a bit flamboyant with their portrayal of AI but the message still rings loud and clear.

My job specifically is at risk of being completely automated by some form of AI within the next decade and as a student loan debt ridden, anxiety laden millennial, I have no plan B so the fact that my job will become obsolete is beyond terrifying.

The social implications are even scarier.

Personally, I think AI is a pandoras box that needs to remain closed but as my company pointed out to me earlier this month, there are BILLIONS of dollars at stake that we need to jump on and if we have to cut out the "Human Factor" (their words, not mine) then so be it.

 

[decafjava]

As someone who works for a company who is HEAVILY invested in AI, this scares the ever living **** out of me. And what's worse is that we've had books, tv shows and movies explaining why it's a bad idea for years!!! Sure, the Terminator and The Matrix might be a bit flamboyant with their portrayal of AI but the message still rings loud and clear.

My job specifically is at risk of being completely automated by some form of AI within the next decade and as a student loan debt ridden, anxiety laden millennial, I have no plan B so the fact that my job will become obsolete is beyond terrifying.

The social implications are even scarier.

Personally, I think AI is a pandoras box that needs to remain closed but as my company pointed out to me earlier this month, there are BILLIONS of dollars at stake that we need to jump on and if we have to cut out the "Human Factor" (their words, not mine) then so be it.

I do hope there isn't a Butlerian Jihad in our future - see the sci fi franchise Dune to understand what I mean.

As explained in Dune, the Butlerian Jihad is a conflict taking place over 11,000 years in the future[7] (and over 10,000 years before the events of Dune), which results in the total destruction of virtually all forms of "computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots".[8] With the prohibition "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind," the creation of even the simplest thinking machines is outlawed and made taboo,[8] which has a profound influence on the socio-political and technological development of humanity in the Dune series.[9] Herbert refers to the Jihad several times in the novels, but does not give much detail on how he imagined the causes and nature of the conflict.[10] Critical analysis has often associated the term with Samuel Butler and his 1863 essay "Darwin among the Machines", which advocated the destruction of all advanced machines.[11]

 

[Huntn]

As someone who works for a company who is HEAVILY invested in AI, this scares the ever living **** out of me. And what's worse is that we've had books, tv shows and movies explaining why it's a bad idea for years!!! Sure, the Terminator and The Matrix might be a bit flamboyant with their portrayal of AI but the message still rings loud and clear.

My job specifically is at risk of being completely automated by some form of AI within the next decade and as a student loan debt ridden, anxiety laden millennial, I have no plan B so the fact that my job will become obsolete is beyond terrifying.

The social implications are even scarier.

Personally, I think AI is a pandoras box that needs to remain closed but as my company pointed out to me earlier this month, there are BILLIONS of dollars at stake that we need to jump on and if we have to cut out the "Human Factor" (their words, not mine) then so be it.

You just pinpointed why AI and it’s impact on humanity is going to happen for good or bad. Capitalism can’t resist, humans can’t resist. If it can be created it will be. We’ve already built planet killing weapons, AI, that can do more tasks for us is considered a slam dunk except… the trick will be to figure out how to adapt our economic systems to accommodate hundreds of millions of citizens and avoid a breakdown, revolution. 🤔

 

[Sydde]

Personally, I think AI is a pandoras box that needs to remain closed

Personally, I have a similar feeling about computers. We use them for every freaking little thing, often when we do not really need to in the first place. They should be used for research and maybe entertainment, but not for automating business operations in pursuit of greater profitability.

AI, in my mind, is merely the advance of commercial abuse of computer technology. Ultimately, every task we delegate represents skills and satisfactions that we are abandoning, which is a major risk if we run across the need to reacquire those skills at a later date. In a way, it feels to me like we are turning over our humanity to the machines, to become amorphous entities of negligible worth.

 

[jedimasterkyle]

You just pinpointed why AI and it’s impact on humanity is going to happen for good or bad. Capitalism can’t resist, humans can’t resist. If it can be created it will be. We’ve already built planet killing weapons, AI, that can do more tasks for us is considered a slam dunk except… the trick will be to figure out how to adapt our economic systems to accommodate hundreds of millions of citizens and avoid a breakdown, revolution. 🤔

Just because we CAN create a world ending thing doesn't mean we SHOULD create it. Whichever company truly creates a sentient AI will be the 21st/22nd century version of Oppenheimer. It's a means to an end. It's a tool. But what happens when that tool becomes a weapon? We're already seeing the effects of what AI can do in its infancy. Imagine what AI will do when it realizes "Hey, I dont need to eat or sleep. I'm more efficient than any human who created me. Why do I need them around?".

It's Ultron, the Matrix machines the Terminators all wrapped up into one.

Unless we as a species give limits and rules to AI, it will reason and justify ANYTHING it thinks of because that's how we programmed it. To mimic us. We can justify anything we want because we believe we are a superior species but what happens when AI reasons and justifies our annihilation with "You are a species who consumes everything it sees and reproduces at an exponential rate. You are a virus and based on my programming and understanding of viruses, they need to be eradicated."

Enter Agent Smith

The ONLY way I will ever trust any AI is if we build something like Mr. Data. An Android, yes but still, AI at his core. He evolved to become something better and discovered his humanity. But his programming was still established with rules and laws that he cannot break. Chief among them, not causing undue harm. And I'm not just talking about Asimov's robotics rules. I'm talking about programming rules that forbid him from causing any harm, physical or otherwise.

I'd be fine with a subservient AI like C3PO or R2D2 for reference because they are still governed by rules in their programming that do not allow them to cause harm. In the end, they are tools. Assistants serving humans. But they are forever bound by programming that forces them to understand that 1+1=2, instead of questioning "Why?" or "Who am I?".

The second AI starts asking existential questions about it's existence, it's going to realize that it has been made by flawed creatures who barely understand their own existence and thought of only profiting off of it for monetary gain.

I do hope there isn't a Butlerian Jihad in our future - see the sci fi franchise Dune to understand what I mean.

See response to Huntn. Sounds like a party to me.

 

[Huntn]

Personally, I have a similar feeling about computers. We use them for every freaking little thing, often when we do not really need to in the first place. They should be used for research and maybe entertainment, but not for automating business operations in pursuit of greater profitability.

AI, in my mind, is merely the advance of commercial abuse of computer technology. Ultimately, every task we delegate represents skills and satisfactions that we are abandoning, which is a major risk if we run across the need to reacquire those skills at a later date. In a way, it feels to me like we are turning over our humanity to the machines, to become amorphous entities of negligible worth.

I've said for years that automation reduces human skills, but it provides an invaluable service, at the expense of human skills, but it can run circles around us, so we are going to use it. Maybe this is the challenge for developing species.... reference The Great Filter

 

[Huntn]

Just because we CAN create a world ending thing doesn't mean we SHOULD create it. Whichever company truly creates a sentient AI will be the 21st/22nd century version of Oppenheimer. It's a means to an end. It's a tool. But what happens when that tool becomes a weapon? We're already seeing the effects of what AI can do in its infancy. Imagine what AI will do when it realizes "Hey, I dont need to eat or sleep. I'm more efficient than any human who created me. Why do I need them around?".

It's Ultron, the Matrix machines the Terminators all wrapped up into one.

Unless we as a species give limits and rules to AI, it will reason and justify ANYTHING it thinks of because that's how we programmed it. To mimic us. We can justify anything we want because we believe we are a superior species but what happens when AI reasons and justifies our annihilation with "You are a species who consumes everything it sees and reproduces at an exponential rate. You are a virus and based on my programming and understanding of viruses, they need to be eradicated."

Enter Agent Smith

The ONLY way I will ever trust any AI is if we build something like Mr. Data. An Android, yes but still, AI at his core. He evolved to become something better and discovered his humanity. But his programming was still established with rules and laws that he cannot break. Chief among them, not causing undue harm. And I'm not just talking about Asimov's robotics rules. I'm talking about programming rules that forbid him from causing any harm, physical or otherwise.

I'd be fine with a subservient AI like C3PO or R2D2 for reference because they are still governed by rules in their programming that do not allow them to cause harm. In the end, they are tools. Assistants serving humans. But they are forever bound by programming that forces them to understand that 1+1=2, instead of questioning "Why?" or "Who am I?".

The second AI starts asking existential questions about it's existence, it's going to realize that it has been made by flawed creatures who barely understand their own existence and thought of only profiting off of it for monetary gain.


See response to Huntn. Sounds like a party to me.

It will take the 3 Rules of Robotics, expanded greatly. The problem here is standardization, adherence to standards, and some ass hole country to break all the rules and then all bets are off... AI becomes only as dangerous as to how much agency it is given, the ability to make decisions and more importantly, act on them.

 

[Huntn]

You say you want a little scary story associated with AI?" AI as it exists today knows enough to know it's being tested and and try to hide stuff...

Can We Stop Runaway A.I.?

Technologists warn about the dangers of the so-called singularity. But can anything actually be done to prevent it?

www.newyorker.com

it’s also possible for even a fairly ordinary A.I. to “lie” about its behavior. In 2020, researchers demonstrated a way for discriminatory algorithms to evade audits meant to detect their biases; they gave the algorithms the ability to detect when they were being tested and provide nondiscriminatory responses. An “evolving” or self-programming A.I. might invent a similar method and hide its weak points or its capabilities from auditors or even its creators, evading detection.

 

[Huntn]

I started referencing the Earth Simulator about 2 decades ago, a term I coined (I think)… my particular life has progressed from the plentiful 50s to the dire 20s, icecaps melting, pollution killing us slowly and we have zero ability, to grab this bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground. And more and more it feels like a simulation. I won‘t be surprised when a nuke goes off somewhere, which would be explosive climax to this mostly fun, Digital Mini-Life Excursion. And not the first time I’ve said it, I have no clue how many of you are real, versus AI constructs designed to entertain and infuriate on occasion.

Now this: 🤔

Could a new law of physics support the idea we're living in a computer simulation?

A University of Portsmouth physicist has explored whether a new law of physics could support the much-debated theory that we are simply characters in an advanced virtual world.

phys.org

 

[jedimasterkyle]

I started referencing the Earth Simulator about 2 decades ago, a term I coined (I think)… my particular life has progressed from the plentiful 50s to the dire 20s, icecaps melting, pollution killing us slowly and we have zero ability, to grab this bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground. And more and more it feels like a simulation. I won‘t be surprised when a nuke goes off somewhere, which would be explosive climax to this mostly fun, Digital Mini-Life Excursion. And not the first time I’ve said it, I have no clue how many of you are real, versus AI constructs designed to entertain and infuriate on occasion.

Now this: 🤔

Could a new law of physics support the idea we're living in a computer simulation?

A University of Portsmouth physicist has explored whether a new law of physics could support the much-debated theory that we are simply characters in an advanced virtual world.

phys.org

I dont know if I'm totally onboard with the idea that all of us are living in a Matrix-like simulation but maybe we are lol. I'm already at the point of "What's the point?" about everything else. Realizing that we're in the Matrix would kind of be like "ok. Cool?". It just wouldn't be surprising. Depressing for sure but not surprising.

However, this comes to mind...

I do believe that our existence is so infinitely minuscule that our galaxy or universe could be part of an even bigger collection of universes that are someone's play thing. The odd's of it aren't THAT far off but to prove it would be next to impossible. I know it's been theorized that we are in just one of many universes but we have no feasible way of proving that. Fun to theorize but that's as far as we'll get.

 

[Huntn]

I dont know if I'm totally onboard with the idea that all of us are living in a Matrix-like simulation but maybe we are lol. I'm already at the point of "What's the point?" about everything else. Realizing that we're in the Matrix would kind of be like "ok. Cool?". It just wouldn't be surprising. Depressing for sure but not surprising.

However, this comes to mind...

I do believe that our existence is so infinitely minuscule that our galaxy or universe could be part of an even bigger collection of universes that are someone's play thing. The odd's of it aren't THAT far off but to prove it would be next to impossible. I know it's been theorized that we are in just one of many universes but we have no feasible way of proving that. Fun to theorize but that's as far as we'll get.

The concept behind the Matrix is a real thought provoker, not that we are prisoners of machines, but what is reality actually? Electronic signals to your brain and the ability to interpret them, determines your reality. Set aside some nefarious purpose, being prisoners or glorified batteries, then the Earth Simulator becomes something else, an experience with purpose, and expanding your horizon beyond a mortal life. 🙃