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What Is the Universe, Really? | Leonard Susskind

When we talk about the universe, we usually imagine space filled with galaxies, stars, and matter expanding endlessly in all directions. It feels natural to think of the universe as a vast container — a place where everything exists. But modern theoretical physics suggests that this picture may be deeply misleading.

In this video, we explore a more fundamental question: what is the universe really made of? Is it space? Matter? Energy? Or something far more abstract than our everyday intuition allows?

Drawing on ideas associated with Leonard Susskind, this long-form exploration challenges the assumption that the universe is a physical stage where reality takes place. Instead, physics increasingly points toward a universe defined not by objects and locations, but by information, relationships, and boundaries.

Black hole physics, quantum theory, and modern cosmology have forced scientists to rethink the foundations of reality. In some of the deepest descriptions of nature, space and time no longer appear as fundamental ingredients. What we experience as a three-dimensional universe may be an emergent structure — a convenient description rather than the true underlying reality.

Rather than focusing on equations, this video emphasizes intuition and conceptual understanding. Through thought experiments and simple analogies, we examine why the universe feels like a place, why that picture works so well at human scales, and why it may break down at the most fundamental level.

Self-healing composite can make airplane, automobile and spacecraft components last for centuries

Researchers have created a self-healing composite that is tougher than materials currently used in aircraft wings, turbine blades and other applications—and can repair itself more than 1,000 times. The researchers estimate their self-healing strategy can extend the lifetime of conventional fiber-reinforced composite materials by centuries compared to the current decades-long design-life.

The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This would significantly drive down costs and labor associated with replacing damaged composite components, and reduce the amount of energy consumed and waste produced by many industrial sectors—because they’ll have fewer broken parts to manually inspect, repair or throw away,” says Jason Patrick, corresponding author of the paper and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University.

Artemis II astronauts will take bone marrow ‘avatars’ to the Moon, to see how damaging spaceflight really is

The agency also says studies show microgravity affects the development of bone marrow cells.

And while astronauts on the Space Station are shielded from much of the cosmic and solar radiation by the Earth’s magnetosphere, the Artemis II crew will fly beyond our planet’s protective layer.

Artemis II astronauts donate platelets that contain cells with a portion of stem and progenitor cells from their bone marrow.

Elon Musk Gets Huge New Partnership

Questions to inspire discussion.

🤖 Q: How will the US military become an AI-first warfighting force?

A: The Department of War will implement continuous experimentation, conduct quarterly force-on-force combat labs, and deploy AI coordinated swarms across all domains from Pentagon back offices to tactical front lines, building on the military AI lead established during President Trump’s first term.

🎯 Q: What defines responsible AI for military applications?

A: The Department of War defines responsible AI as objectively truthful and mission-relevant capabilities employed securely within laws governing military activities, focusing on factually accurate models without ideological constraints limiting lawful military applications.

Talent Acquisition and Workforce.

All-In’s 2026 Predictions

Questions to inspire discussion.

💰 Q: What would California’s wealth tax cost super voting shareholders like Larry Page and Sergey Brin? A: The tax multiplies voting ownership percentage by market cap to value super voting shares, resulting in a punitive tax rate of up to 50% on net worth for founders with control premiums.

🏃 Q: How much wealth could leave California if the asset seizure tax passes? A: An estimated half a trillion dollars in net worth could exit the state, creating severe budget implications for California’s social programs and general budget.

📊 Q: What should entrepreneurs do to prepare for potential wealth taxes on unrealized gains? A: Maintain a liquid safety net to cover tax bills on unrealized gains, though this is impossible to plan for if stock values later decline and bankrupt the company.

2026 Business Opportunities.

🤖 Q: Which company will become the first with more robots than humans? A: Amazon is predicted to become the first company with more robots than humans driving its bottom line by 2026 as they deploy robots while keeping human hiring flat.

The 2026 Timeline: AGI Arrival, Safety Concerns, Robotaxi Fleets & Hyperscaler Timelines | 221

The 2026 Timeline: AGI Arrival, Safety Concerns, Robotaxi Fleets & Hyperscaler Timelines ## The rapid advancement of AI and related technologies is expected to bring about a transformative turning point in human history by 2026, making traditional measures of economic growth, such as GDP, obsolete and requiring new metrics to track progress ## ## Questions to inspire discussion.

Measuring and Defining AGI

🤖 Q: How should we rigorously define and measure AGI capabilities? A: Use benchmarks to quantify specific capabilities rather than debating terminology, enabling clear communication about what AGI can actually do across multiple domains like marine biology, accounting, and art simultaneously.

🧠 Q: What makes AGI fundamentally different from human intelligence? A: AGI represents a complementary, orthogonal form of intelligence to human intelligence, not replicative, with potential to find cross-domain insights by combining expertise across fields humans typically can’t master simultaneously.

📊 Q: How can we measure AI self-awareness and moral status? A: Apply personhood benchmarks that quantify AI models’ self-awareness and requirements for moral treatment, with Opus 4.5 currently being state-of-the-art on these metrics for rigorous comparison across models.

AI Capabilities and Risks.

SpaceX IPO: Tesla Shareholder Warrants, SPARC, and Elon’s Liquidity Event

SpaceX’s potential Initial Public Offering (IPO) could not only reward long-term Tesla shareholders but also has significant implications for Elon Musk’s companies, with a possible valuation of $1.2–1.5 trillion, driven by ventures like Starlink and Starship # ## Questions to inspire discussion.

IPO Timing and Valuation Strategy.

🚀 Q: When could SpaceX realistically go public and at what valuation? A: SpaceX IPO timing targets mid-2026 with potential valuation of $1.2–1.5 trillion, dependent on Starship production readiness, successful orbital launches with Starlink payloads by mid-2024, and prevailing volatile public market conditions at listing time.

💰 Q: How much capital would SpaceX raise in the IPO? A: SpaceX would likely issue new shares to raise approximately $80 billion at the $1.2–1.5 trillion valuation target, rather than conducting a buyback of existing shares, with potential share prices ranging $50–150 per share.

📈 Q: What drives SpaceX’s trillion-dollar valuation thesis? A: Valuation hinges on Starlink satellite network (10M subscribers, 10K satellites), rapid and complete reusability of Starship launch vehicles, planned Moon and Mars bases by 2030–2040, and the Musk premium factor where investors pay extra for his involvement.

Starship as IPO Catalyst.

Astronomers build molecular cloud atlas for nearby Andromeda galaxy

Astronomers from Cardiff University, UK, have employed the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) to explore the nearby Andromeda galaxy. Results of the observational campaign, published December 27 on the pre-print server arXiv, yield important insights into the molecular cloud system of this galaxy.

Molecular clouds are huge complexes of interstellar gas and dust left over from the formation of galaxies, composed mostly of molecular hydrogen. Such clouds with masses greater than 100,000 solar masses are called giant molecular clouds (GMCs). In general, GMCs are 15–600 light years in diameter and are the coldest and densest parts of the interstellar medium.

The Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31, is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 152,000 light years and a mass of some 1.5 trillion solar masses.

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