Futurology Today

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founded 2 years ago
ADMINS
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Diamond prices are down 60% since a 2011 high, and they are still falling. It's not all down to lab-grown diamonds, demand is down too, especially in China.

No one can lab-grow gold yet, so its rarity and scarcity protect its value, but that will end too. It's just a question of when. China launched an asteroid touch-down mission this week, which will make it the 4th country/region to do so, after Europe, the US & Japan.

How soon will it be feasible to mine asteroids? Who knows, but a breakthrough in space propulsion might mean the prospect happens quickly when it does. It's possible gold has twenty years or less of being high value left.

The $80 Billion Diamond Market Crash Leaves De Beers Reeling

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The US President and his formerly favorite South African have had a major falling out. The WH says it may pull all of SpaceX's contracts, the South African says 'go ahead', and he's decommissioning the Dragon crew vehicle, the US's only safe method of getting to and from the ISS.

Meanwhile, half of NASA's efforts are heading for the chop too.

"L'État, c'est moi." ("I am the state.") Louis XIV, the 'Sun King' said about his absolute monarchy. The problem with having just one person in charge is that everyone suffers when they behave idiotically. Sadly, the once mighty US Space Program looks like being a casualty of that. Surely, this paves the way for China to be the world's preeminent space power.

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There are still some people who haven't realized just how fast and vast the global switch to renewables is. If you're one of them, this statistic should put it in perspective. China installed 93 GW of solar capacity in May 2025. Put another way, that's about 30 nuclear power stations worth of electricity capacity. All this cheap renewable energy will power China's industrial might in AI & robotics too. Meanwhile western countries look increasingly dazed, confused, and out of date.

China breaks more records with surge in solar and wind power

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submitted 1 day ago by Lugh to c/avs
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Canada is heating up at twice the global average thanks to climate change. The fire seasons of 2023 and 2024 were the worst two years for wildfires in Canadian history - now 2025 looks set to beat their record.

Canadian wildfire smoke carries PM2.5 particles that can travel far into the U.S., worsening air quality in the Midwest, Northeast, and Great Lakes regions. These fine particles penetrate lungs and bloodstream, causing inflammation, lung damage, and higher infection risks. Children, the elderly, pregnant individuals, and those with heart or lung conditions are most vulnerable. Long-term exposure can worsen asthma, heart disease, and increase premature death risk.

Tough luck for Americans that they're living in the age of 'drill baby, drill' when the fossil fuel industry comes first, not them. As Lord Farquaad would say "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make".

Article - More than 90 wildfires are out of control in Canada

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Busting Unions with AI: How Amazon Uses AI to Crush Labor Movements (artificialintelligencemadesimple.substack.com)
submitted 4 weeks ago by Lugh to c/futurology
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Interesting that they are going the subscription route and not selling these outright. It works because the comparison with the cost of a human looks so favorable. I'd expect to see this with humanoid robots too as they take over more and more human jobs.

XRobotics’ countertop robots are cooking up 25,000 pizzas a month

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submitted 2 weeks ago by Lugh to c/futurology
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Humans will never go past Mars (ghostofcarnot.substack.com)
submitted 1 week ago by ghostofcarnot to c/futurology
 
 

Space is really spread out, and we will forever lack the means to get around it fast. Space also happens to be highly inhospitable to human life. For these reasons, I submit that no human will ever go farther than Mars.

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Three big, basic facts about Mars will render it forever out of reach for permanent human settlement. Read more about them on Substack.

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