This is the bi-weekly visible open thread (there are also hidden open threads twice a week you can reach through the Open Thread tab on the top of the page). Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. You can also talk at the SSC subreddit or the SSC Discord server. Also:

1. Comment of the week is John Schilling on Google X Prize. There’s also a lot of good discussion in the free energy thread, though I can’t pick just one.

2. New ad for brain preservation company Nectome – see eg this article about their head researcher winning the Brain Preservation Prize. If you’re interested in helping, there’s an link for joining their team at the bottom of their site.

3. Nobody is under any obligation to comply with this, but if you want to encourage this blog to continue to exist, I request not to be cited in major national newspapers. I realize it’s meant well, and I appreciate the honor, but I’ve gotten a few more real-life threats than I’m entirely comfortable with, and I would prefer decreased publicity for now.

4. I recently put a couple of responses to an online spat up here because I needed somewhere to host them, unaware that this would email all several thousand people on my mailing list. Sorry about that. I’ve deleted some of them because of the whole “decreased publicity” thing, and I would appreciate help from anyone who knows how to make it so I can put random useful text up in an out-of-the-way place without insta-emailing everybody.

5. Thanks to Lanny for fixing this blog’s comment report function. You should now be able to report inappropriate comments again. If you can’t, please say so and we’ll try to figure out what went wrong.