Flickers of light from the edge of the cosmos help physicists advance the idea that the future is not predetermined
The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion?
The long read: A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right?
All Possible Views About Humanity's Future Are Wild
If humans will eventually spread out across the galaxy, then we are among the earliest living beings, with remarkable opportunities to shape the future
How are we writing the future of humanity?
Consciousness spinning
Neuralink and the Brain's Magical Future — Wait But Why
I knew the future would be shocking but this is a whole other level.
The Future of Everything is Lies, I Guess: Where Do We Go From Here?
This is a long article, so I've broken it up into a series of posts, listed below. You can also read the full work as a PDF or EPUB.
70-year-old quantum prediction comes true, as something is created from nothing
In our common experience, you can't get something for nothing. In the quantum realm, something really can emerge from nothing.
Out of Nowhere: The Emergence of Spacetime in Quantum Theories of Gravity
Out of Nowhere is the monograph co-authored by Nick Huggett and Christian Wüthrich, which appeared in 2025 from Oxford University Press. Selected chapters are posted here. (Our publication agreemen…
Four Futures
We are in a moment where the future is both wildly exciting and highly uncertain. The future state and greatest opportunities are likely determined by the axes: rate of advancement and the openness of the frontier models.
To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future | Quanta Magazine
A controversial theory suggests that perception, motor control, memory and other brain functions all depend on comparisons between ongoing actual experiences and the brain’s modeled expectations.
Brandon Yates on Twitter / X
I wrote a cosmology paper that's under peer review.I can't post it to arXiv because I don't have a university affiliation.If any of you happen to have published in astro-ph. CO, gr-qc, or hep-ph and can endorse me, I'd owe you one.#AcademicTwitter #PhysicsTwitter #Cosmology…— Brandon Yates (@bmichaelyates) March 13, 2026
A Physicist Who Thinks in Poetry from the Cosmic Edge
In her second pop-science book, theoretical cosmologist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein returns to her celestial and cultural roots.
The Future of Everything is Lies, I Guess
This is a long article, so I've broken it up into a series of posts, listed below. You can also read the full work as a PDF or EPUB.
ORI Polls App
The director of research at the Qualia Research Institute recently posted this poll asking whether people believed in universes with different laws of physics
The era of precision cosmology with voids
Cosmic voids, the large underdense regions of our Universe, have emerged over the past decade as powerful cosmological laboratories: their simple dynamics, sensitivity to local gravitational...
