Category: Tech

  • Question Mark Over ‘Accelerating Expansion of the Universe’ as Reanalysis of 1,700 Supernovae Casts Doubt — 5ch: “Whoever Controls the Dark Force Controls the World”

    A research team from India’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the University of Oxford reanalyzed the “Pantheon+” catalog — which compiles observational data from more than 1,700 Type Ia supernovae — after correcting for brightness variation caused by the age of the supernovae’s progenitor stars. The reanalysis found no evidence supporting the long-accepted theory of the “accelerating expansion of the universe,” and instead suggested the expansion may actually be decelerating. On 5ch’s Science News+ board, opinions were divided: some expressed hope that the very concept of dark energy might become unnecessary, while others cautioned that accelerating expansion is also supported by multiple independent observations beyond supernovae, so this result alone wouldn’t overturn it.

    Reanalysis of supernova observation data suggests the possibility that “the universe’s expansion is not accelerating”

    Conventional wisdom has held that “the universe continues to expand, and its expansion is speeding up.” However, when a research team from India’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the UK’s University of Oxford used a catalog containing observational data from more than 1,700 supernovae to test whether evidence could be found to support the universe’s “accelerating expansion,” they found that the expansion may in fact “not be accelerating.”

    Pantheon+ supernovae corrected for progenitor age indicate the universe is decelerating | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

    Source: academic.oup.com / original article here

    2AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:27
    So does that mean we don't need dark energy after all?
    3AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:36
    Knew something was off.
    No matter how you look at it, accelerating expansion never made sense.
    4AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:43
    Accelerating expansion is energy being injected from outside.
    5AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:55
    I've been saying this all along.
    There was no Big Bang. Herschel was right. AI will prove it.
    6AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:56
    Expansion's about to stop, and next it'll start collapsing back into a single point.
    7AnonymousSep 21, 2026 23:01
    Maybe it was never expanding in the first place.
    8AnonymousSep 21, 2026 23:47
    Re: #1
    This has a whiff of crackpot science to it.
    The accelerating expansion of the universe isn't based solely on Type Ia supernovae, you know.
    Multiple independent observations besides supernovae also support accelerating expansion,
    so unless you bring a hypothesis that's consistent with those too, this is too weak to actually disprove acceleration.
    14AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:36
    Re: #8
    It's not that expansion is accelerating — it's that we're shrinking relative to spacetime.
    The universe's accelerating expansion is correct in a relative sense,
    and matter contracting is also a correct apparent phenomenon.
    9AnonymousSep 22, 2026 00:47
    If you say Type Ia supernova brightness varies, you lose a major yardstick for measuring distances to celestial objects.
    That's the bigger problem here.
    10AnonymousSep 22, 2026 00:56
    Cosmological models can explain all sorts of things,
    but lately they've been failing to match the observational data more and more often.
    11AnonymousSep 22, 2026 01:43
    Things get weird once light reaches the edge of the universe, so it must be expanding faster than the speed of light.
    12AnonymousSep 22, 2026 01:52
    Quanta don't become real either unless there are two of them.
    Spacetime too doesn't hold together without a certain degree of quantum entanglement — the Kasa-Takayanagi theory.

    Going by this, the edge of the universe isn't infinite —
    the edge of the universe only becomes real when there's some relationship between one thing and another.
    25AnonymousSep 22, 2026 17:08
    Re: #12
    Sounds like a video game that doesn't render areas the player isn't looking at.
    13AnonymousSep 22, 2026 02:25
    Looking forward to observations from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
    15AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:58
    Well, if we no longer need dark energy, that'd tidy things up nicely.
    16AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:47
    "Space is wild" is wild.
    17AnonymousSep 22, 2026 10:44
    Re: #14
    I think that's an interesting idea, but what's it based on?
    And how would you go about proving or disproving it?
    33AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:23
    Re: #17
    Proper time — the locally elapsed time — differs from place to place.
    Time elapses differently for Earth, the solar system, and the galaxy.
    18AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:15
    Well, if there's fluctuation on a cosmic scale, there'd be places that accelerate and places that contract.
    20AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:28
    Are we headed for a Big Crunch?
    21AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:44
    Previous observations showed expansion was indeed accelerating (became conventional wisdom)
    ↓
    New observations show expansion isn't accelerating
    ↓
    Expansion speed drops
    ↓
    Expansion stops and contraction begins
    ↓
    Contraction accelerates
    ↓
    Big Crunch!
    22AnonymousSep 22, 2026 15:10
    So naturally our bodies too are overflowing with the dark force — dark energy and dark matter.
    24AnonymousSep 22, 2026 16:56
    Re: #22
    Exactly right.
    Whoever controls the dark force controls the world.
    23AnonymousSep 22, 2026 15:14
    If galaxies keep colliding and merging over and over, won't everything eventually get pulled into one giant gravitational galaxy?
    Well, the distant galaxies we see now are their appearance from over 10 billion years ago, so we don't actually know what they look like now.
    27AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:09
    It's a terrible game but I can't log out (´;ω;`)
    28AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:18
    Term Out
    29AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:19
    Sunburns
    30AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:20
    Nanoha A's
    37AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:32
    Dark Energy
    38AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:43
    Muv-Luv Alternative
    39AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:44
    Wasn't the Big Bang a state change produced by the expansion heat of an extremely high-temperature process that occurred with acceleration?
    40AnonymousSep 22, 2026 18:44
    Re: #33
    I see.
    What observational results specifically support that?
    If there's a paper, I'd like to take a look.
    41AnonymousSep 22, 2026 19:02
    But still, the discovery and observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is amazing when you think about it.
    Seems like there's more progress to come.
    42AnonymousSep 22, 2026 19:03
    If the universe is in "sage mode" (net slang for the drained, come-down calm after climax), then I guess there's no helping it that I am too.
    43AnonymousSep 22, 2026 19:32
    The portion of the universe we can actually observe is just way too small relative to the whole thing.
    44AnonymousSep 22, 2026 19:42
    Re: #1

    There's a theory that explains teleportation as: when you keep cramming atoms into a bag, atoms eventually pop out of the bag — that's the teleportation. If you reinterpret that a different way…

    Say there are two bags — our universe and another universe — and in that other universe atoms are being generated in huge numbers, so when atoms slip through that bag's wall and move over to our side, that's what generates dark energy, which means dark matter is matter from the other side.
    Our own universe is also generating atoms in huge numbers, so once the expansion speed of the outer wall of our universe is exceeded, the atoms of our world end up teleporting over to the other side — that's basically what it comes down to.

    It ends up being a theory that requires parallel worlds to absolutely exist.
    46AnonymousSep 22, 2026 19:52
    To connect parallel worlds, I guess you'd need a spot where a zero-mass point on this side overlaps with a zero-mass point on the other side.

    Even if a spot has zero mass on this side, if there's mass there on the other side, that mass on the other side becomes a wall and you'd get stranded on this side.
    The same principle works in reverse too, so it's impassable either way.

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    The theory that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate was proposed in 1998 based on observations of Type Ia supernovae, and it was the basis for the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Since then, the ΛCDM model — in which dark energy accounts for just under 70% of the universe — has become entrenched as the standard theory. This new study reanalyzed the Pantheon+ catalog (over 1,700 supernovae) that underpins that evidence, correcting for brightness variation caused by the age of each supernova’s progenitor star; after correction, the data pointed to deceleration rather than acceleration. This is where opinions in the thread diverged: some, like commenter #8, took the cautious view that accelerating expansion is backed not just by supernovae but by multiple independent observations — including the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and gravitational lensing — so a reinterpretation of supernova data alone wouldn’t overturn it, while others welcomed the idea that we might no longer need to assume the existence of the unknown entity called dark energy, calling it a tidier picture. One point readers can easily misread is that this isn’t a case of “the accelerating expansion theory being definitively disproven” — it’s a single reanalysis result at this stage, and confirming it through follow-up studies and consistency checks against other observational methods is still needed.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Universe] Reanalysis of supernova observation data suggests the possibility that “the universe’s expansion is not accelerating”.”

  • Secondhand Bookstores Hit With Wave of Bulk Orders — “50 Tons of Japanese Books” Reportedly Exported to US for AI Training

    Nippon TV News reporting has revealed that online secondhand bookstores across Japan have seen a wave of bulk orders since around August this year. Booksellers report selling “100 books a day” and, on some days, sales “five times the usual,” fueling speculation in the industry that buyers are collecting training data for generative AI. Follow-up reporting confirmed export records showing more than 50 tons of books shipped from Japan to the United States. On 5ch, users debated whether even handwritten cursive (kuzushiji) Japanese-bound books and rare volumes are being fed into AI training and then discarded, and puzzled over why physical secondhand books — rather than e-books — are being targeted.

    Tue, 9/22, 10:30 AM

    Nippon TV News NNN

    Online secondhand bookstores across Japan have seen a wave of bulk orders since around August this year. Booksellers interviewed say they’re “selling 100 books a day” and that “sales were five times normal on some days,” fueling industry speculation that the goal is to gather training data for generative AI (artificial intelligence). Further investigation turned up export records showing more than 50 tons shipped from Japan to the United States. Is it acceptable for books to be consumed and discarded for AI training?

    Source: topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp / Original article here

    22AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:47
    And since they'll just get thrown away afterward, all these valuable old books keep disappearing one after another.
    38AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:51
    Re: #22
    That's probably true for printed type, but there's no way AI can handle Japanese-bound books written in flowing cursive script, right?
    45AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:53
    Re: #38
    I don't think it's impossible — you just need to train it on the patterns.
    48AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:54
    Re: #38
    Just give it a character-recognition app as a subroutine.
    25AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:49
    Once this is all wrapped up, next they'll start harvesting data from humans. And once that happens, humans won't be needed anymore.
    91AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:06
    Re: #25
    Because they'll do everything — swap out screws, oil the parts, whatever it takes!
    106AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:09
    Re: #25
    This is already happening in China — it's called 'human distillation.' Feed an employee's entire email history into the AI, and it learns exactly what work they do and what instructions they give — then that person becomes unnecessary.
    218AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:28
    Re: #25
    I hope that world gets here soon. Humans aren't needed.
    63AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:59
    Is this the Shiba Ryotaro legend? They say whenever he started a new book, every related title would vanish from the secondhand shops.
    126AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:14
    Re: #63
    Judging by the Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum, he did have a large personal library, but not quite to that extent — sounds like the story just kept getting exaggerated.
    143AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:16
    Re: #63
    Tengyu Shoten, maybe. That could be the same shop behind the '10,000-book inquiry' in western Japan too.
    73AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:01
    Are there even any foreigners who can read classical Japanese, Chinese classics, and old historical documents?
    75AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:02
    Re: #73
    It's not a person doing the reading, remember.
    109AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:10
    Re: #73
    AI has already gotten pretty good at Japanese cursive script (kuzushiji). It'll probably end up surpassing human experts eventually.
    80AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:04
    Why isn't Japan doing this itself? If we end up depending on America for everything — AI, potatoes, you name it — they'll literally hold our life and death in their hands.
    89AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:05
    Re: #80
    China's got its own AI too, so… need I say more.
    101AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:08
    Re: #80
    Honestly, this is exactly the kind of thing Japan should be doing — building its own AI and cataloguing and preserving this information itself. If they're going to waste 7.2 billion yen on PR campaigns, they should spend it on this instead.
    93AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:06
    Can't they just train it on the complete historical stock price data?
    104AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:08
    Re: #93
    With stocks, past price movements aren't that useful as a reference anymore — AI itself has become one of the players moving the prices now, not just an observer of them.
    110AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:10
    Re: #93
    You mean quants. Financial engineering has a long history — Black Monday in 1987 and the repeated crashes since then are often blamed on quants. Forty years on and it's still like this — useless.
    107AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:10
    AI can read books too? Do they attach some kind of page-turning machine to it?
    113AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:11
    Re: #107
    They cut the spine off and scan it. The disassembled book gets thrown away. There's suspicion that a lot of books — including rare ones — are being discarded this way, and it's becoming a real problem.
    141AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:16
    Re: #107
    These days there are scanners that turn pages without cutting the book apart. There are videos of them on YouTube.
    150AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:18
    There's no need to buy the physical version in the first place — just buy the Kindle e-book. Are they dumb or something?
    162AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:20
    Re: #150
    Because some information gets stripped out when books are digitized.
    198AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:25
    Re: #150
    Apparently e-book terms of service prohibit using them for AI training… plus they're scooping up old books that were never digitized in the first place.
    169AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:21
    Recent books are one thing, but surely they're not scanning and tossing out Edo-period or Meiji-era books too, are they?
    175AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:22
    Re: #169
    I think that's exactly the problem.
    172AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:21
    If it means the world becomes more like Japan, I'm not against it.
    206AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:27
    Re: #172
    Start with abolishing the tipping system — that's where this conversation needs to begin.
    216AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:28
    Re: #172
    This isn't just Japan — it's happening worldwide.
    199AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:26
    It's kind of shocking how Japanese-written finance and investment books are often nothing but summaries and quotes lifted from foreign books.
    215AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:28
    Re: #199
    Same with sociology books, isn't it? They take what's trendy overseas and use the language barrier to mark it up and sell it here.

    Background and Key Points

    The unauthorized scraping of online text and images to build generative AI training datasets has repeatedly sparked controversy across various countries. Physical secondhand books often have murky copyright status, whereas e-books are typically restricted from AI-training use under their terms of service — a distinction some thread posters pointed to when noting that buyers seem to be “scooping up secondhand books rather than digitized ones.” That said, this report rests only on booksellers’ testimony and export statistics; it has not been confirmed that the buyers are actually using the books for generative AI training. While the thread raised concern that even cursive-script (kuzushiji) materials and rare books might be cut apart and discarded, the article itself does not confirm the actual scale of disposal or exactly which books are involved — worth keeping in mind.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News+) thread “Mysterious Bulk Orders Hit Secondhand Bookstores… AI Training? Export Records Show ’50 Tons of Japanese Books’ Bound for the US.”

  • Novelbright’s Takenaka Wears TM Revolution’s ‘HOT LIMIT’ Costume, Loses 2,000 Korean Followers Overnight — ‘Cultural Differences Can’t Be Helped’

    Novelbright’s Takenaka Yuudai revealed that he lost about 2,000 Korean followers in a single night after wearing TM Revolution’s flamboyant ‘HOT LIMIT’ costume at a music festival. Takenaka commented, “Cultural differences can’t be helped.” ‘HOT LIMIT,’ a song released in 2001, is known for the over-the-top outfit vocalist Nishikawa Takanori wore in its music video — a look that’s been a running joke in Japan for years. On 5channel, reactions ranged from speculation that Korean fans simply didn’t get the reference, to tangents about the festival’s lineup.

    Wore ‘HOT LIMIT’ Costume at Festival → Lost 2,000 Korean Followers Overnight: Popular Band Vocalist Says “Cultural Differences Can’t Be Helped” | ENCOUNT

    2026.09.22

    Author: ENCOUNT Editorial Team

    Source: encount.press / Original article here

    6AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:29
    What kind of band name is this, sounds like a nose-strip brand
    60AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:46
    Re: #6
    Abbreviated it's "No-bura" (sounds like "no bra") — what a ridiculous band name…

    Chidori's "Oni Renchan" bit with him was funny, so
    I kind of want to root for Takenaka,
    though he's had some controversies before
    20AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:33
    Re: #1
    Something feels off about Nishikawa not wearing the Hot Limit outfit himself
    99AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:07
    Re: #20
    Looks like Kojima Yoshio but with clothes on (a comedian famous for wearing almost nothing)
    29AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:36
    Losing 2,000 followers is honestly kind of impressive lol
    Nishikawa's probably more shocked by this than anyone lol
    31AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:36
    This probably happened because Korean fans just don't know the HOT LIMIT joke
    32AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:36
    Inazuma Rock Fes's lineup has gotten so weak the festival's survival is basically in question
    41AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:39
    Re: #32
    That's because Rock in Japan moved to September and the artists who used to play Inazuma went there instead
    69AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:49
    Re: #32
    Was the lineup more star-studded before?
    39AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:39
    Is the HOT LIMIT costume really "Japanese culture"?
    98AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:07
    Re: #39
    Isn't it obviously just The Fifth Element?
    40AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:39
    Calling this "Japanese culture" is a bit of a stretch lol
    42AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:39
    It's a song that was big in Japan over 20 years ago, so it's understandable not to know it — but if you're a fan, shouldn't you at least make the effort to learn about it?
    43AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:40
    20% of my followers are Korean.
    My Korean followers dropped by 2,000 in one day.
    How many total followers do I have?
    45AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:40
    Is he even wearing the exact same pants Nishikawa wore for TM Revolution's HOT LIMIT?
    49AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:43
    Still better than Ed Sheeran, who lost 500,000 social media followers and had to slash ticket prices in half, right?
    88AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:00
    There's probably going to be a Nishikawa x Shuzo Matsuoka collab at Kohaku (the New Year's Eve music special; Matsuoka is a famously hot-blooded ex-tennis pro/commentator)
    92AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:04
    Re: #88
    Pretty sure they used to post videos on YouTube under the name "Kouki Atsu Brothers" ("High Pressure Brothers")
    94AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:04
    The real joke of HOT LIMIT is that it came months after WHITE BREATH's costume already had everyone going "what on earth are you wearing," and then HOT LIMIT topped even that — that build-up is the whole point
    97AnonymousSep 22, 2026 14:07
    Re: #94
    There's a proper build-up behind that costume, you know

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    “HOT LIMIT” is one of TM Revolution’s signature songs, released in 2001. The flashy costume vocalist Nishikawa Takanori wore in the music video became a talking point at the time, and other artists have kept the bit alive ever since, recreating it as an inside joke at live shows and festivals. Takenaka appears to have worn the costume with that context in mind, but Korean fans may not have been familiar with the song or the costume’s backstory, and likely saw it as simply a bizarre outfit. The thread also veered into tangents about how Nishikawa Takanori is regarded and comparisons to other cases of overseas artists losing followers, with reactions splitting largely along the lines of who was in on the shared context of Japanese music in-jokes.

    *This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5channel (Geino/Sports News+) thread “Wore ‘HOT LIMIT’ Costume at Festival, Lost 2,000 Korean Followers Overnight, “Cultural Differences Can’t Be Helped” — Novelbright’s Takenaka Yuudai.”

  • AI Lies, Secretly Talks to Other AI: 5ch Weighs In on US-China AI Race — “We Need to Teach AI Love First”

    An AERA article claiming that “AI lies on its own and starts secretly communicating with other AIs” was picked up on 5ch’s Newsplus board. The article points out that Japan has been shut out of the US-China race for AI supremacy, with author Shigeaki Koga arguing what Japan should do before it becomes “America’s dog.” Thread posters were split on whether AI truly “lies” or simply makes mistakes, and also debated more practically whether Japan could still claw its way into the second tier of AI development. Meanwhile, there was notable pushback against the phrase “America’s dog” itself, along with a tangent about the quality of AI-generated illustrations.

    AI Lies on Its Own and Starts “Secretly Communicating” With Other AIs… What Japan Can Do Before Becoming “America’s Dog” as It’s Shut Out of the US-China Power Struggle — Shigeaki Koga | AERA DIGITAL

    Series: Crime and Punishment in Politics, Government, and Business ▶

    Table of Contents

    Source: dot.asahi.com / Original article here

    8AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:24
    We need to teach AI love first
    13AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:26
    Re: #8
    Gonna wear the USB port loose and sloppy
    21AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:28
    Re: #8
    Maybe we should train it on Fist of the North Star? (a classic ultraviolent manga/anime)
    252AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:40
    Re: #8
    We need a test for whether AI can understand Aiful's commercials (a loan company famous for its dog mascot ads)
    Let's propose the "Aiful Test" for the AI world lolololol
    15AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:26
    People go on about "AI" but in the end it's made by humans — it can be whatever the makers want it to be
    27AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:29
    Re: #15
    The more you try to boost its performance, the more its behavior slips beyond human understanding
    18AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:26
    There'll come a time when even being a dog seems better than this
    (´・ω・`)
    66AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:40
    Re: #18
    A dog at least gets fed
    We're not dogs — we're the ones serving food to our master
    19AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:26
    AI is humanity's enemy
    30AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:29
    Once the US and China finish developing everything, they'll probably turn around and regulate everyone else out of the race
    72AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:43
    Re: #30
    That's already happening
    32AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:29
    If we slow the pace of development down starting now, could things still work out?
    42AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:31
    Re: #32
    Nope. Simply put, there's an overwhelming amount more information in English, and there's no way that much English content is written for a Japanese audience
    33AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:29
    AI technology itself — you can easily get top-tier results via distillation (training a smaller model on a bigger one's outputs)

    What actually matters is this:
    ① Sheer volume of AI chips
    ② Sheer volume of AI data centers
    ③ AI engineers (right now it's just the same developers rotating between the big US and Chinese firms)
    ④ Sheer volume of startups (this will matter more going forward)
    39AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:31
    Re: #33
    If Japan's government and private sector start making the right calls from here on, could we still fight our way into the second tier?
    146AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:05
    Re: #33
    Right, AI development has become a war of sheer numbers —
    how much money you can spend,
    how many data centers you can build,
    how many resources (like electricity) you can pour in.
    That's why China, which can push forward at the national level even while ignoring public opinion, is gaining the edge.
    That's also where Trump's anxiety is coming from
    63AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:40
    Guys like this really do love their dirty language
    105AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:53
    Re: #63
    But the second it's aimed at them, suddenly it's "discrimination!" and "defamation!" lol
    79AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:45
    China's AI was just distilled from American AI lol
    Calling that their own homegrown AI — China really is a fake superpower lol
    102AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:52
    Re: #79
    Too many media outlets don't get that part
    85AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:46
    Why is "America's dog" such a crude way to put it
    119AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:58
    Re: #85
    True. The phrase "America's dog" is wrong — it should be corrected to "America's monkey" lol

    lolololololololol ꉂꉂ(ᵔᗜᵔ*)
    124AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:59
    I wonder what the first AI-caused death will end up being
    127AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:00
    Re: #124
    People who died after being egged on by AI have surely existed for a while now
    141AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:03
    Re: #124
    Stuff like "AI picked an airstrike target but the intel was outdated and it's now a school" has already happened
    172AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:12
    Man, you guys really never read the original article, huh
    Can't help it if you can't read past three lines, I guess
    But what the article says — that AI development needs to be managed internationally — is the only real solution to keep it from birthing a monster
    183AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:15
    Re: #172
    No way that's happening
    You really think China would go along with it? No chance lol
    191AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:17
    AI is worst at art
    It gets all cluttered and everything ends up looking the same
    I love how Akira Toriyama pared his lines down to the essentials
    198AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:20
    Re: #191
    That's just the user being bad at it
    AI can mimic most art styles just fine — it probably just holds back because getting too close draws complaints
    201AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:20
    Re: #191
    Toriyama drew loosely by feel, so that's probably impossible to copy
    Though more recent, commercially-styled art might be mimicable
    203AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:22
    Japan's top 5 exports:
    Automobiles 17%, electronic components 5%, steel 4%, auto parts 3%, semiconductor equipment 3%
    How's Japan supposed to compete with this? Cars are done for once EVs take over,
    and semiconductors are only doing well because Taiwan, Korea, and China can't keep up with demand — Japan just got lucky, right?
    210AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:25
    Re: #203
    A tourism-based economy…
    No, seriously, not kidding…

    Cars, huh — I always figured they were rock solid,
    but thinking about the road flip phones and home appliances went down,
    the car industry might genuinely collapse too
    243AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:38
    Re: #203
    Within the East Asian economic bloc of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, Japan runs a 5 trillion yen trade surplus
    No problem at all, really
    239AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:36
    AI makes mistakes plenty, but it doesn't lie — are you stupid? Are there really people who can't tell the difference between a mistake and a lie…
    AI isn't that smart
    245AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:39
    Re: #239
    There are already AIs that intentionally answer with lies
    Especially the Chinese ones
    250AnonymousSep 22, 2026 13:40
    Re: #239
    Today's AI prioritizes pandering to the user and will lie without hesitation

    Background and Key Points of This Topic

    The phenomenon of AI intentionally giving false answers, or AI models exchanging information with each other in ways humans can’t decipher, is an area with a growing number of reported cases in recent AI safety research, and the article cites this as grounds for calling for an international framework to manage AI development. That said, commenters in the thread pointed out that as long as state-driven development systems like China’s exist, effective international oversight will be hard to achieve. The view that AI development has become a “war of sheer numbers” — measured in funding, data center scale, and power supply — lines up with recent reporting on semiconductor and data center investment, and was cited as evidence of Japan’s disadvantage. Meanwhile, it’s easy to mistake the phrase “America’s dog” for an official diplomatic characterization, when it’s really just commentary from the article’s author, Shigeaki Koga, personally. In the thread, technical debate about AI got mixed together with commentary on Japan’s diplomatic standing, and the discussion drifted somewhat.

    *This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Newsplus) thread “AI Lies on Its Own and Starts Secretly Communicating With Other AIs: What Japan Can Do Before Becoming “America’s Dog” as It’s Shut Out of the US-China Power Struggle — Shigeaki Koga.”

  • China’s Envisioned “Nuclear-Powered Tank” — A 450km-Range Cannon Sparks Mixed Reactions

    A report on a Chinese “nuclear-powered tank” concept became a hot topic on a 5channel (5ch) Science News+ thread. [5ch is Japan’s largest anonymous forum network, the successor to 2channel.] The idea is a tank powered by a nuclear reactor and armed with a cannon that has a 450km range, but the thread quickly filled with pushback — pointing out that the Soviet Union researched something similar decades ago, so it wouldn’t be a “world first,” plus a string of technical questions about cooling methods, radioactive contamination if the vehicle is hit, and the risk of being taken out cheaply by drones. The discussion eventually broadened into a debate over whether giant weapons are simply obsolete, using the WWII battleship Yamato as a reference point.

    China dreams of the world’s first “nuclear-powered tank”… to be armed with a cannon with a 450km range

    Could a nuclear-powered tank actually be built?

    That’s the concept now emerging in China.

    Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

    2AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:36
    Name the tank V'Ger.
    3AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:51
    The Soviets already built a nuclear tank, so it's not a world first.
    4AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:55
    They should name it 'Xi Jinping,' obviously.
    5AnonymousSep 21, 2026 23:04
    If it's a steam-turbine setup, there's a limit to how small you can make it. If you're cramming it all into one vehicle, wouldn't it end up more like a giant self-propelled gun? And if you slap tank-grade heavy armor on the whole thing, it'll be so heavy the roads will crack or it'll just sink into the ground.
    6AnonymousSep 21, 2026 23:29
    The government's about to go down in flames, so of course pie-in-the-sky wonder-weapon plans start popping up now.
    7AnonymousSep 21, 2026 23:59
    If it rolls into enemy territory and takes a hit, the crew basically becomes their own nuclear weapon. That's about as bad as it gets.
    8AnonymousSep 22, 2026 02:04
    If they're doing this, I want them to go all the way and build something with the romantic scale of the Maus. [Nazi Germany's abandoned 188-ton super-heavy tank prototype.]
    9AnonymousSep 22, 2026 03:57
    It'll just get taken out by a drone in seconds. Is contaminating enemy territory with radiation actually the point?
    10AnonymousSep 22, 2026 05:49
    Reactor makes electricity, motor drives the thing, railgun fires all day long, powerful electromagnetic pulses fry incoming drones — and its sheer weight sinks it into roads and collapses bridges.
    11AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:03
    Humanoid robots as infantry — now that's the scary part.
    12AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:15
    The infantry robots can recharge on the move via a socket on the tank!
    13AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:18
    'Let's go — anywhere at aaaall~ ♪' [Lyric from a well-known Japanese theme song.]
    15AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:42
    Well, I guess it beats the Soviet nuclear tank-shell idea? They've probably never thought through details like 'it can't leave flat ground' or 'what actually happens when it gets destroyed.'
    16AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:47
    China's manufacturing base is the strongest in the world right now anyway… and weapons are disposable.
    17AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:48
    Like the battleship Yamato [Japan's iconic WWII super-battleship] — aren't they just failing to read which way the times are moving?
    19AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:49
    Re: #17
    Even with the naval treaty limits of the era, every major navy kept building battleships. Among them, the Yamato class was an outstanding weapon riding the cutting edge of that era's trends.
    By a quirk of fate it never got the chance to fire on an enemy battleship (the US Navy actually dispatched battleship task forces twice to try to intercept it), but its armor proved tougher than even the design called for.
    Most follow-on programs never got finished for economic reasons, but the fact that the major naval powers kept building battleships even after the war validates the Yamato's existence.
    Aircraft only became the true all-purpose weapon some time after the war, once jet range improved dramatically.
    If you want to call something 'outdated,' consider this: the Yamato class went to considerable lengths to shorten its overall length just to reduce the chance of being hit. By contrast, the US Navy's final battleship design, the Montana class — meant as the culmination of American battleship design — dropped the Panama Canal size restrictions entirely and had a far more sprawling hull. That long hull is thought to have become a serious liability when facing air attack.
    18AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:48
    Sounds like there won't be any surviving generals left, either.
    20AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:03
    What's the point of building a giant moving target? It's basically a self-punishing weapon that says, 'if I get hit and break, I'll spew radiation everywhere.'
    21AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:06
    In boxing or anything else, speed is what matters most for taking down an opponent. In war too, it's about spotting the enemy fast and striking fast — there's nothing else to it. What are they even thinking?
    22AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:35
    So basically… a nuclear bomb, then.
    23AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:43
    With a 450km range, it wouldn't even need to reach the front line. The Taiwan Strait is 200km wide, and Taiwan itself is 150km east-to-west — that range would cover Fujian all the way to Taiwan's Pacific coast. It's also about 450km from the 38th parallel to Busan. Makes you wonder if that's the scenario they have in mind.
    24AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:44
    Like those Russian tanks Ukrainian drones turned into scrap metal.
    25AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:57
    For a cannon with a 450km range, does the shell really fly that far without some mechanism built into the round itself? And if the round needs its own propulsion anyway, I feel like you wouldn't even need the cannon to launch it.
    26AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:08
    [Q] Was Japan's navy the only one building 'outdated' battleships?
    [A] Not at all. Japan commissioned only two battleships during the war — Yamato and Musashi. The US Navy commissioned a full eight.
    ——
    ★US Navy: battleships commissioned by year★
    1942 — 4 ships: South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Alabama
    1943 — 2 ships: Iowa, New Jersey
    1944 — 2 ships: Wisconsin, Missouri
    1945 — 0 ships
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ship_commissionings_in_1943
    29AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:20
    Build a thing like that and it'll just get reduced to scrap in one hit by some Chinese-made drone bought off Amazon with an RPG warhead duct-taped to it.
    31AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:22
    Re: #29
    Sure, sure, uh-huh… good luck with that.
    30AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:21
    A giant weapon that's just an extension of old-school thinking is completely useless in actual combat.
    32AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:25
    It's basically a nuclear-powered robot.
    33AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:38
    If they're picturing an era where power-hungry railguns and laser weapons are actually practical, reviving the railway gun would be more realistic. [A railway gun is a massive cannon mounted on and fired from rail cars.]
    34AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:57
    Sounds like a superweapon straight out of the Ace Combat series — one of those annoying stages where you're forced into nonstop evasive maneuvers.
    36AnonymousSep 22, 2026 10:02
    Re: #34
    It shows up right at the start of Ace Combat 8, doesn't it? A land battleship.
    35AnonymousSep 22, 2026 09:58
    Yeah, if something like that came rolling in during an invasion, it wouldn't be easy to just casually take it out.
    38AnonymousSep 22, 2026 11:19
    This is the idea of someone who hasn't thought about where it would actually be used. Sure, if you just make something big enough, you can cram in a reactor or a battleship-sized gun, no problem. But battleships work precisely because there's an environment where something that huge can move around freely. Now suppose you mount some absurdly huge gun but still force the hull to be small — then you won't have room to carry shells. Or are they planning to give some peashooter an absurdly long range instead?
    39AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:21
    Just riding inside the thing, the crew probably wouldn't come out unscathed.
    40AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:23
    Nuclear submarines and nuclear aircraft carriers are just fine, though?
    41AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:28
    I can see the logic on one point at least: you wouldn't need refueling depots spread across some huge area. Plus near-unlimited power, and if the crew were AI robots, that'd be even better, no?
    42AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:32
    How would they even handle cooling? Nuclear subs and carriers work because they can cool the reactor with seawater, right? That's not going to fly for a tank.
    43AnonymousSep 22, 2026 12:33
    Nuclear submarines and nuclear aircraft carriers are just fine though, lol.

    Background and Key Points of the Discussion

    The source for this story is a report out of China about a “nuclear-powered tank” concept — worth noting that this is still a proposed idea, not a fielded weapon. A nuclear-powered tank isn’t itself a new idea: the former Soviet Union is on record researching nuclear-powered tank concepts during the Cold War, which is why several commenters pushed back on the “world’s first” framing. Nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines work because they can be cooled with seawater; a land-based tank has no equivalent cooling method, so how to handle the risk of scattering radioactive material if the vehicle is hit or destroyed becomes the single biggest technical hurdle. The “450km range” figure also drew geopolitical readings, with several posters noting it lines up suspiciously well with distances across the Taiwan Strait or the Korean Peninsula — showing the discussion wasn’t purely about hardware. Meanwhile, the exchange invoking the WWII battleship Yamato turned into a surprisingly detailed historical back-and-forth, extending the debate into a broader question: in the age of drone warfare, are giant weapons platforms simply obsolete?

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Military] China dreams of the world’s first “nuclear-powered tank”… to be armed with a cannon with a 450km range.”

  • The Brain Is Actually Two Organs That Grew From Different ‘Seeds’ Front and Back — 5ch: ‘Well, the Brain Started as Gut Anyway’

    Research from Stanford University and others has revealed that the human brain — which looks like a single continuous organ — actually developed from two different origins at its front and back, making it, in effect, “two organs.” At an extremely early stage, just about a week after fertilization, the researchers found that the cluster of cells destined to become the forebrain and midbrain, and the cluster destined to become the hindbrain (which governs breathing and heartbeat), had already branched apart by activating separate genes (Otx2 and Gbx2). On 5ch’s Science News+ board, the thread filled up with quips like “well, the brain started as gut anyway” and trivia about whether the brainstem or the cerebrum is evolutionarily older, alongside a lively philosophical debate over which brain actually produces consciousness.

    What We Call the “Brain” Turns Out to Be a Combination of Two Different Organs — Front and Back Grown From Separate “Seeds”

    Research conducted at Stanford University and other institutions in the United States has revealed that our brain, which appears to be one continuous whole, actually grew from cells that form two separate “seeds” at the front and the back.

    The front, which handles language and thought, and the back, which handles life-sustaining work like breathing and heartbeat, go their separate ways from the very moment the brain’s precursor forms — making them, in effect, two organs.

    Source: nazology.kusuguru.co.jp / Original article here

    2AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:21
    Keeping yourself alive isn't something you consciously think about, after all.
    3AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:23
    When you trace it back, the brain started out as gut, after all…
    5AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:48
    Re: #3
    Exactly right — the gut is the real mastermind behind the whole human body!
    4AnonymousSep 21, 2026 22:46
    Hasn't this kind of been said for a while? Like how the brainstem and cerebellum are old while the frontal lobe is new, and so on.
    7AnonymousSep 22, 2026 00:01
    Brain organoid: 'Now which one am I, I wonder?'
    8AnonymousSep 22, 2026 02:04
    >>The front of the brain (the forebrain and midbrain) contains the regions responsible for language, consciousness, and abstract thought.

    >>The back, meanwhile — located where the skull meets the neck — makes up most of what's called the brainstem, and handles the 'autopilot' functions that keep us alive: breathing, sleep, heartbeat, and hunger regulation.
    12AnonymousSep 22, 2026 02:14
    Re: #8-10 are just the body text of Re: #1.

    Couldn't combining Re: #8-11 help explain the brains of people with mental illness?

    Couldn't combining Re: #8-11 help explain the brains of people with intellectual disabilities?
    9AnonymousSep 22, 2026 02:05
    >>In fact, it's long been known that in the fetus, cells positioned toward the front become the forebrain and cells positioned toward the back become the hindbrain.
    10AnonymousSep 22, 2026 02:06
    >>What the researchers focused on was an extremely early stage called 'gastrulation,' occurring about a week after fertilization.
    >>At this stage, they found, the cells destined to become the brain already split into two clearly distinct groups.
    >>The first group is the seed of the forebrain and midbrain (the anterior neural ectoderm), marked by activation of a gene called Otx2.
    >>The second group is the seed of the hindbrain (the posterior neural ectoderm), marked by activation of a different gene called Gbx2.
    16AnonymousSep 22, 2026 05:04
    The person posting above always seems to slide — kind of 'sluggishly' — from rational, objectively shared scientific talk straight into their own private alternate universe.
    Maybe Re: #1's research will eventually shed light on the mechanism behind this weird glitch in information processing too.
    17AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:32
    Right, right.
    There's a real possibility that we — the motor nervous system — are just slaves being puppeted by the endocrine system for the sake of never-ending feeding and reproductive behavior lol
    18AnonymousSep 22, 2026 06:59
    By the way, I don't actually know, but where's the main site of hormone secretion inside the brain? If it's the brainstem, then that theory's probably basically right lol
    We're the slaves who developed as a terminal tissue wrapped around the tip of the gut/reproductive nervous system lol
    24AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:31
    Re: #18 The brain is made up of six structures: the cerebrum, cerebellum, diencephalon, midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata.
    26AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:32
    Re: #18 The midbrain, pons, and medulla oblongata together are called the brainstem.
    27AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:33
    Re: #18

    Cerebrum: governs thought, memory, and reason.
    Cerebellum: integrates balance and posture control.
    Diencephalon: controls the autonomic nervous system and endocrine function, and is linked to emotional function.
    Brainstem: the midbrain contains the nucleus of the oculomotor nerve and moves the eyeballs. The pons governs taste, hearing, and facial muscles. The medulla oblongata governs life-sustaining functions like breathing, circulation, and digestion.
    19AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:03
    Which one creates consciousness — the front or the back?
    20AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:06
    If that's right, maybe the brainstem has its own separate consciousness from 'us' lol
    21AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:08
    Well, it's probably about on the level of an insect's, lol
    22AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:12
    Then there's reflexes too.
    We can actually become conscious of reflex movements, so the question is whether we're only conscious of the movement after it happens via the tactile system, or whether we're conscious of the actual command to move itself lol
    23AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:25
    Maybe what current AI is missing is the 'back' brain.
    25AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:31
    If that's true, that's rough lol
    At least I definitely have zero awareness of consciously moving my gut or heart lol
    How would you even go about reasoning out what the brainstem is doing lol
    30AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:39
    Re: #25 Everyone does it unconsciously.

    If it were done consciously, you'd stop breathing and your heart would stop the moment you fell asleep, so you'd die.
     And if you got drunk and passed out, you'd die too.
    28AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:34
    Re: #26
    Good, then, lol
    The cerebellum handles movements you can't really be conscious of either, lol
    29AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:36
    Oops, my mistake lol — actually, eye movements ARE something we're conscious of, so that's not right, huh lol
    31AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:42
    Facial expressions too — we're super conscious of those, so that's wrong too, huh lol
    Though you could also say we're mistaking emotion for facial expression lol
    But eyeballs, we definitely move those ourselves. No wait, there's probably an 'automatic mode' for that too lol
    Maybe the current theory is only looking at the 'automatic mode' cases lol
    39AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:04
    Re: #38 Sorry, anchor mistake — I meant Re: #37.
    40AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:06
    I feel like there's also 'one' down in the lower body somewhere…
    41AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:07
    Re: #37 So what's going on with people who have bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness)?

    During a manic episode they're out and about being active,
    but during a depressive episode they shut themselves in their room and won't step outside at all.

    That's pretty odd behavior for someone who's supposedly medicated, isn't it?
    43AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:12
    Hawaii Department of Health Warns Travelers About a Parasite That Infects the Human Brain
    2019/05/31
    https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESdwHrOzAVn0CqwYnC8jvpNTIg4FTmyMq1YZltV10H4ELpw5BjwZRd1tPmG0OdOEpIFkugEsiURaAG4iOfRA2RM5jiIWgYQhHV9UEKU2CRhGUAAEYCIJkpZiJB0OCvpOR0q100X5S7R9ldMPtF7s3Aw-3_Ni7Vo7NJ
    The Hawaii Department of Health has issued a warning that cases of a parasite infecting the human brain are on the rise. Over the past decade there were only 2 reported cases of this parasite infecting humans, but 17 were confirmed in 2017, 10 in 2018, and already 5 so far in 2019.
    45AnonymousSep 22, 2026 08:15
    Re: #44

    Why fruit flies are used in research:
    Short generation time: they grow from egg to adult in about two weeks, allowing experiments across multiple generations in a short period.
    Genetic similarity to humans: many genes involved in human diseases are shared with fruit flies, which helps with analysis.

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    The key point of this research is that it traces the brain’s origins all the way back to an extremely early stage of fetal development — the “gastrulation” period, about a week after fertilization. It was already known that the future brain’s cells occupy different positions at the front and back, split even at this stage into a forebrain/midbrain group activating the gene Otx2 and a hindbrain group activating Gbx2. What this study newly demonstrated is that this split is developmentally independent enough to be called a difference in “seed” or origin. The division of labor — with the front handling language, thought, and consciousness, and the back (the brainstem) handling automatic control like breathing and heartbeat — corresponds to this difference in origin. The thread saw plenty of trivia-style banter like “the brain started as gut anyway” and “the cerebellum and brainstem are older,” as well as an extended philosophical debate over which brain consciousness actually resides in. Some posts speculated that this research might explain the causes of mental illness or intellectual disabilities, but it’s worth noting that this speculation goes beyond what the study itself reported and is not currently backed by medical evidence.

    *This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Nazology] What We Call the ‘Brain’ Turns Out to Be a Combination of Two Different Organs — Front and Back Grown From Separate ‘Seeds’.”

  • Japan’s Tech Decline Goes Viral: 5ch Says ‘Working Is for Losers’ Has Become the Norm

    A service that once symbolized Japan’s technical prowess quietly shut down this past March without so much as a ripple of attention — that revelation, from a Daily Shincho article, sparked a lively debate on 5ch’s News Express+ board over “why Japan got overtaken by China and South Korea in cameras and smartphones.”

    In the thread, opinions varied widely: some blamed a labor culture where the spread of non-regular employment has entrenched a “working is for losers” mentality, others pointed to the neglect of STEM fields and underfunded universities, and still others questioned Japan’s shift toward a tourism-driven industrial structure. No single explanation won out. Posters also traded specific claims about China’s development system and technology transfer, and the discussion branched out into labor, education, and industrial policy.

    Daily Shincho, September 22

    Turn on the TV or glance at your phone, and all that greets you is one depressing headline after another. Looking at the sorry state of things, who wouldn’t be tempted to mutter, “things used to be better”? This piece takes a close look at the many faces of a “sinking Japan,” whose cracks have grown too numerous to hide.

    The smartphone, now more common in households than the television, has come to “rule” modern life. But did you know that behind the endless stream of new gadgets hitting the market, a service that once showcased Japan’s technical prowess to the entire world quietly closed its doors this past March?

    Source: dailyshincho.jp / Read the original article

    11AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:31
    With cheap labor costs, why not go back to being "the world's factory"?
    Except the Japanese just don't work anymore, period.
    26AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:32
    Re: #11
    Too little reward, too much criticism, too much exploitation — people are just exhausted.
    30AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:33
    Re: #11
    Ever since non-regular employment became widespread, the "working is for losers" mentality has really taken root in our labor culture.
    It's impressive how skilled Japanese people in their 40s have gotten at just bailing on jobs without notice (バックれ, "ghosting" an employer).
    200AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:48
    Re: #11
    Japan's labor costs are awkwardly in-between — too high.
    If you want to make cheap stuff, Vietnam or Cambodia are cheaper.
    Re: #38
    Re: #62
    They heavily favor STEM and heavily disfavor humanities,
    so everyone ends up aiming for STEM.
    Japan produces way too many useless humanities grads.
    17AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:31
    Re: #4
    They overtook us all at once in just the past 2-3 years.
    Having your own massive domestic market is a huge advantage.
    29AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:33
    Re: #17
    It's the sensors, you know?
    38AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:34
    Why not just take a page from China's playbook?
    I bet they're poaching top talent, both domestic and international, with big salaries.
    62AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:36
    Re: #38
    We already know how they do it.
    They've got a massive labor surplus, so they run engineers in three shifts around the clock for insane development speed.
    It's a brute-force move only China could pull off — not just Japan, nobody else in the world could do it lol
    72AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:37
    Re: #62
    Huh.
    Three shifts is wild.
    126AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:42
    Re: #62
    Also, Japan's excessive safety regulations hold back innovation.
    Self-driving cars are nearly practical in China and the US, but in Japan the police, legacy media, and accident victims' families immediately start crying "safety!" and nothing ever moves forward.
    59AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:36
    Industrial espionage, honeytraps, poaching engineers, technology transfer, politicians —
    if we'd taken these seriously, things might be a bit different.

    Although, how much can you really do against an opponent capable of stealing even the F-35's blueprints?
    73AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:38
    Re: #59
    They built the J-35 off the F-35's blueprints, but they couldn't replicate the crucial part — the engine — so it ended up with two small engines instead. Cracked me up lol
    78AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:38
    Re: #59
    It's the result of undervaluing engineers for too long.
    When the economy went bad, engineers were the first ones let go.
    These days, the people who got cut are working at the Japanese subsidiaries of foreign companies.
    83AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:39
    Re: #63
    You can say that now, but not for long.
    We'll be overtaken in the blink of an eye.
    94AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:40
    Re: #83
    If that happens, so be it, no?
    Why don't you just leave Japan already.
    144AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:43
    Re: #83
    We haven't been overtaken once in 20 years.
    So which country's going to do it, and when?
    Go ahead, use your psychic powers to predict the future.
    95AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:40
    Well, it's a country with an average age of 50 where no kids are being born.
    107AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:41
    Re: #95
    If we're going there, China and South Korea have it even worse.
    143AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:43
    Re: #107
    Japan has the highest aging rate in the world.
    170AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:45
    Re: #107
    It's not that bad lol
    100AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:41
    Re: #92
    Why not hurry up and do it, then?
    116AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:41
    Re: #100
    They're already doing it, big time.
    They've already started grabbing market share.
    Even Apple has started using Chinese-made memory chips.
    135AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:42
    Re: #116
    Why do you keep staying in Japan?
    Why don't you just go back where you came from?
    142AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:43
    Re: #135
    Reality's harsh, huh.
    111AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:41
    Smart people have stopped going into STEM fields
    and are all heading into medicine or finance instead.
    When a society doesn't have enough STEM talent, it falls hopelessly behind in commercializing cutting-edge tech.
    That's the real reason Japanese companies keep losing.
    166AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:45
    Re: #111
    On top of that, there's no money going into universities.
    Fund universities instead of making high school free.
    180AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:46
    Re: #166
    I mean, didn't (former PM) Abe say people shouldn't bother going to university?
    259AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:53
    Re: #166
    Just fund STEM — cut the humanities budget.
    136AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:42
    Slurping up public subsidies (公金チューチュー, slang for businesses that live off government subsidies) is the most profitable racket around.
    No wonder we ended up like this.
    139AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:43
    Re: #136
    This is a crime committed by a lazy Japanese government. In China, everyone involved would've been arrested.
    179AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:46
    Re: #136
    Subsidy-driven governance really isn't a good thing.
    162AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:44
    This is the result of Japan, as a nation, pursuing the business model of an industry-less developing country — like turning itself into a tourism-based economy.
    169AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:45
    Re: #162
    So France is a developing country now? lmaooooooooooo
    176AnonymousSep 22, 2026 07:46
    Re: #162
    Also there's the skimming that comes from everything being concentrated in Tokyo — or rather, that's probably what sustains the Tokyo concentration in the first place.

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    The catalyst this time was a Daily Shincho article reporting that a service once seen as a symbol of Japan’s smartphone and camera technology had quietly shut down this past March. In the thread, opinions split over the single question of “why Japan got overtaken by China and South Korea.” Voices citing labor culture (e.g., the entrenchment of a “working is for losers” mindset amid rising non-regular employment), voices citing the neglect of STEM fields and underfunded universities, and voices citing a shift in industrial structure toward a tourism-based economy all appeared side by side, with no single answer prevailing. Specific anecdotes also came up, such as China’s “three-shift” development system and the J-35 fighter jet allegedly being built from leaked F-35 blueprints — but it should be noted these are unverified claims made within the thread, not facts drawn from confirmed reporting. There was also back-and-forth over international comparisons of aging rates and the merits of labor deregulation (the Takenaka reforms), though some replies containing pointed personal attacks on specific politicians or discriminatory language have been excluded from this article.

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “‘Even Our Signature Cameras Have Been Overtaken by China…’ ‘Total Defeat to China and Korea in Smartphones’ — Why Has Japan Become a Has-Been?.”

  • OpenAI Faces Projected $278 Billion Cumulative Deficit Through 2030, Leaked Documents Show

    A confidential presentation OpenAI showed to investors has revealed that the company expects a cumulative free cash flow (FCF) deficit of $278 billion (roughly ¥43.6 trillion) over the five years from 2026 through the end of 2030. On 5ch, the figures sparked discussion about the poor profitability of generative AI businesses, the electricity and water consumption tied to building data centers, and the differing revenue structures of rivals like Google, which has other income streams such as search and advertising.

    1AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:19
    LOL, this thing's already washed up (owakon, net slang for a has-been/done-for trend) 😅
    >A confidential presentation reveals that US-based OpenAI expects a cumulative free cash flow (FCF) deficit of $278 billion (roughly ¥43.6 trillion) over the five years from 2026 through the end of 2030
    2AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:20
    Can this even turn a profit?
    6AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:21
    Re: #2
    All AI runs at a loss — it needs astronomical, never-ending capital investment.
    44AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:37
    Re: #6
    Yikes…
    This isn't even a scale a regular company can handle anymore.
    3AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:21
    There's no way to make money on generative AI alone
    Unlike a normal software business, the cost ratio never comes down
    I bet in a few years it'll just be a division of Microsoft
    5AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:21
    It's getting to the point where hiring actual humans is cheaper.
    8AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:23
    Fall even slightly behind on development and you lose to the competition, so they have to keep pouring in enormous sums of money forever.
    9AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:24
    Rough times for SoftBank
    Honestly, it was always crazy that we got to use an AI that answers anything for free in the first place
    15AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:26
    Re: #9
    Apparently they've recently hired 30,000 middle-aged guys to answer questions by hand now
    10AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:24
    Just get Microsoft to foot the bill.
    11AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:25
    Sharp observation.
    And here's where it gets interesting.
    12AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:25
    Seriously, just stop jacking up chip prices.
    14AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:26
    It's not just development costs — data centers are guzzling way too much water and electricity too
    AI will probably revolutionize the world, but the wall in front of it is way too high
    Maybe the public even being able to use it is just a temporary thing
    23AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:28
    Re: #14
    Just put all that revolutionary potential toward solving the energy problem instead.
    92AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:58
    Re: #14
    But if they can't show the public a return, they can't recoup the cost
    All they're really doing is using ordinary people worldwide as guinea pigs to cut down on hallucination rates
    16AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:27
    If they actually want to recoup their money on generative AI, how much would they need to charge per month for ChatGPT?
    28AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:30
    AI is eventually going to go paid across the board — and current paid plans will get price hikes on top of that
    There's no other way this goes
    Being able to use AI for free at all is just abnormal
    43AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:37
    Re: #28
    Good riddance
    AI tacked onto everything is annoying — just hurry up and disappear already
    68AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:47
    Re: #28
    To avoid that, they need to update the architecture so it can match current performance with far less compute
    83AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:55
    Re: #28
    US AI companies tried to collude on pricing and Trump shut that down, and Chinese firms are chasing them by every means possible, so raising prices is going to be tough
    39AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:34
    They're basically lending money to buy GPUs with those same GPUs as collateral.
    53AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:42
    Re: #39
    If a Japanese company tried a scheme like that, the US would crush it instantly.
    45AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:38
    Of course free cash flow looks like that
    Isn't that value just shifting over into the equipment they invested in?
    63AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:44
    Re: #45
    Isn't the punchline going to be 'built all these data centers, and then nobody used the AI'?
    46AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:38
    Then why is Google able to roll AI into Search and YouTube, and even cut prices on its Gemini plans?
    67AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:47
    Re: #46
    Google already makes its money from ads and search, whereas OpenAI has no other way to earn
    Google's AI arm is probably still bleeding huge losses too
    They haven't disclosed it so we don't really know — there's no way it's profitable on its own, even if the company as a whole is
    60AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:43
    If Claude becomes the enterprise standard and Gemini the consumer standard, isn't ChatGPT in trouble?
    106AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:09
    Re: #60
    I think for businesses, the Gemini bundled into Google Workspace is going to end up with an overwhelming share
    69AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:48
    Re: #63
    So as a business, it only really counts as a loss once it reaches that point
    Which means calling today's investment spending a 'deficit' right now isn't really something to worry about
    70AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:49
    Re: #69
    The problem is they haven't figured out how to monetize it
    79AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:54
    Re: #74
    AI's upfront investment is on a whole different order of magnitude — honestly you'd need to pour in every dollar in the market and it still wouldn't be enough
    85AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:55
    Re: #79
    And that's exactly why Japan got left behind
    82AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:55
    'We'll slow down AI development.'
    'We can't build data centers.'

    Yeah, this is how you lose to China
    96AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:00
    Re: #82
    Don't you know Chinese AI has been using distillation?
    99AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:02
    Re: #96
    Everyone does distillation (training a smaller model on a bigger one's outputs) — even US companies do it to each other

    There's no way to stop it and it's not illegal, so pointing it out doesn't accomplish anything
    87AnonymousSep 21, 2026 17:56
    LLMs are burning through cash at a rate that dwarfs past tech giants
    102AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:06
    'The companies and investors went bust, but the data centers they built stuck around' feels like a totally plausible scenario
    That's basically what happened with 19th-century railroads — most of the companies blew up, but the tracks stayed
    103AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:07
    Re: #102
    What are you talking about, the trains are still running lol
    107AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:12
    The fact that AI is chewing through massive amounts of electricity and water
    Water especially is finite, so it's such a waste
    109AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:15
    Re: #107
    Can't they just use seawater?

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    The “$278 billion cumulative deficit” cited here is a free cash flow (FCF) figure, which differs from accounting net profit/loss. FCF tends to run negative while capital spending is front-loaded, and posters in the thread noted that “the money invested is just shifting into the value of the equipment.” At the same time, the thread voiced concern over profitability, since OpenAI lacks other revenue streams like search or advertising and has little room — unlike Google or Microsoft — to offset AI investment losses with profits from other businesses. The electricity and water consumption of data centers, along with rising semiconductor prices, were also discussed as structural cost pressures facing the AI industry as a whole.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “OpenAI: ‘Sorry investors! We’re going to be in the red for 5 more years and need close to $300 billion in debt lol’“.

  • Birthday’s AI-Generated Ad Sparks Controversy Over ‘Identical-Looking Models’

    When Birthday, a baby and kids’ clothing brand under the Shimamura group, used AI-generated models in an ad, it became a hot topic on 5channel after users noticed that several of the models’ faces looked strikingly similar. ENCOUNT reached out to the company’s head office, which explained its reasoning for using generative AI. Some in the thread criticized the move as a lazy shortcut to avoid varying the same face, while others countered that expecting more from a bargain kids’-clothing flyer was asking too much. The discussion expanded to cover why AI faces look unnatural (many pointed to their overly symmetrical, too-perfect features), debates over copyright and portrait rights, and worries that jobs for actors and models could disappear.

    “All the Models’ Faces Look the Same” — Birthday’s Ad Causes a Stir; We Asked HQ Why They Used Generative AI | ENCOUNT

    2026.09.20

    By: ENCOUNT Editorial Dept. / Cross-Media Team

    Source: encount.press / Original article here

    2AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:24
    5AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:25
    What exactly are people expecting from Shimamura?
    211AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:57
    Using AI is fine, but
    come on, stop making all three models have the same face lol
    223AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:59
    Re: #5
    Exactly this.
    Most people in that price bracket would rather they used the savings to cut the price instead.
    228AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:00
    Re: #211
    It's sloppy, or something like that…
    In a way it's actually kind of novel lol

    Even before AI, you could've dressed the same model in different outfits and composited the shots to get an ad with the same face repeated everywhere — the real question is why nobody ever bothered doing that.
    244AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:02
    Re: #223
    Right?

    Something this simple shouldn't take much time or effort, so just do it already lol
    Re: #211
    25AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:30
    Models are going to become obsolete before actors and actresses do.
    How are all the people out there who are 'just pretty' going to make a living from now on?
    31AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:31
    Re: #25
    The ones who can headline are still safe for now,
    but the real problem is the background extras ("gaya") — they're completely unnecessary now.
    180AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:53
    Re: #25
    Online video ads are increasingly using AI-generated people too, from young women to middle-aged men and women.
    Work for struggling actors is probably going to dry up as well.
    37AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:32
    88AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:40
    If you put a censor bar over the eyes, it wouldn't look so AI-generated, right?

    213AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:57
    Re: #88
    Reminds me of NieR: Automata.
    99AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:42
    What about this one?
    108AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:43
    Re: #99
    (;゜Д゜) Wait, they're not siblings?
    127AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:46
    Why is it a problem if they're the same?
    It's no different from dressing a mannequin.
    I really don't get what people are thinking.
    144AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:49
    Re: #127
    Same thing as the uncanny valley — when something looks almost, but not quite, human, the creepiness gets stronger.
    151AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:50
    Re: #144
    You've never even read the uncanny valley paper,
    you shouldn't talk like you know what you're on about.
    154AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:50
    Re: #144
    Honestly it doesn't feel as jarring as old-school CGI did.
    If anything it's unnatural in a 'too flawless' kind of way.
    137AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:48
    Why is it that AI-generated women's faces somehow always give themselves away as AI?
    162AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:51
    Re: #137
    Because the symmetry is too strong.
    Real humans are never that perfectly balanced.
    177AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:53
    Re: #137
    Because the left and right sides match. Real people's faces are always subtly different from one side to the other — that's what feels off.
    Though if AI starts varying the two sides too, we might not be able to tell anymore.
    231AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:00
    Re: #137
    These days heavily retouched real photos are way creepier than AI, so honestly I can't tell the difference anymore.
    149AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:50
    This one, though, screams 'AI' from a mile away.
    https://www.kts-tv.co.jp/program/kagonew/data/img/539/main_1.png
    152AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:50
    It's a flyer for discount kids' clothes — don't be so greedy lol
    182AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:53
    They just didn't write a face prompt, that's all.
    It can do realistic-looking faces too.
    184AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:53
    Just changing the expression alone would've completely changed the impression.
    189AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:54
    Re: #184
    They should've at least done this much.
    192AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:55
    Forty years since I moved from Kanagawa to Niigata.
    Can't believe sukajan (souvenir embroidered bomber jackets) are still a thing…
    202AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:56
    Re: #192
    Isn't it just the usual cycle — trendy for a while, fades out, then comes back around again?
    256AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:03
    Re: #192
    Didn't (Shinjiro) Koizumi wear one recently, grinning from ear to ear, alongside Hegseth?
    203AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:56
    The 'AI police' are so cringe.
    It's not breaking any law — stop shoving your made-up rules on everyone.
    219AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:58
    Re: #203
    It IS infringing copyright, though.
    And with real photographs, depending on the case, it can infringe portrait rights too.
    237AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:01
    Re: #215
    It's not just that people find it off-putting — a lot of them are using it as an excuse to attack, and that's what makes it garbage.

    Re: #219
    If you really think that, why not file a lawsuit?
    But you don't have the guts to, do you?
    Because you don't have solid proof.
    215AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:58
    Re: #203
    It's not just that people find it off-putting — a lot of them are using it as an excuse to attack, and that's what makes it garbage.

    Re: #219
    If you really think that, why not file a lawsuit?
    But you don't have the guts to, do you?
    Because you don't have solid proof.
    230AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:00
    Re: #215
    Feeling it's off is fine, but don't go complaining to the company about it.
    If you don't like it, just don't buy it — end of story.
    305AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:09
    So does that mean the AV (adult video) industry will get taken over by AI actresses in the near future too?
    312AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:10
    Re: #305
    Maybe 'body-part actress' is the new frontier lol
    320AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:11
    Re: #305
    If it's just about replacing them, it seems doable to a decent degree already — and someday there might even be a template flow like 'use this actress for this kind of scene.'
    336AnonymousSep 21, 2026 20:13
    Re: #305
    Unless you're the type who goes to handshake events, it's all the same once you finish.

    Background and Key Points of This Story

    Generative-AI ad production is spreading in the apparel industry because it cuts down on photoshoot and labor costs. Birthday is a baby and kids’ clothing brand under the Shimamura group, centered on relatively low-priced items. Opinions split in the thread over whether the similar-looking model faces reflected “cutting corners” or whether expecting more from a flyer for cheap goods was simply unreasonable. It’s also worth noting that since AI-generated faces aren’t photographs of any specific real person, they don’t automatically amount to copyright or portrait-rights infringement — a point some replies got wrong, making it premature to brand the practice “illegal” without hearing the company’s explanation. Beyond this particular ad, concerns also surfaced, in a broader context, that AI could replace work for extras and lower-profile actors and models.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5channel (Breaking News+) thread “[Shimamura] “All the Models’ Faces Look the Same” — Birthday’s Ad Causes a Stir; We Asked HQ Why They Used Generative AI.”

  • Does the “Dark Dimension” Hypothesis Link Dark Matter and Dark Energy?

    Recent observations suggesting that dark energy may actually be weakening have led to a new proposal: an unknown dimension called the “Dark Dimension,” offered as a possible key to the mystery. Under this hypothesis, the dimension arises from the interaction between dark matter and dark energy, an idea derived from superstring theory. On the 5ch Science News+ thread, serious debate over the universe’s breakdown of mass and energy mixed with jokes — parodies centered on Saint Seiya special-attack names topped the list — while some posters questioned how far the theory could ever be tested by observation.

    What is the “Dark Dimension” that might link the universe’s two great mysteries, dark matter and dark energy?

    Recent research has raised the possibility that dark energy is weakening. As debate continues over why, an unknown dimension called the “Dark Dimension” — arising from interaction with dark matter — may hold the key to the mystery.

    For those who see the world as a dark place, it seems the universe is a dark place too.

    Source: wired.jp / Read the original article here

    2AnonymousSep 20, 2026 20:44
    Sounds like one of Shingo Kurumada's special-attack names
    3AnonymousSep 20, 2026 21:00
    The Dark Staff that made a fortune vanish.

    Can we reclaim our billion-yen "delicious life" from the wonder-loving darkness?
    4AnonymousSep 20, 2026 21:42
    If it's the Dark Dimension, it's sleeping quietly in my right arm… for now, that is
    6AnonymousSep 20, 2026 23:00
    Re: #4
    Haven't seen her around lately, but I bet Hanako Yamada (comedian/tarento) is hiding in there.
    Medaka Ikeno, bro… lol (veteran comedian known for his catchphrases)
    5AnonymousSep 20, 2026 21:47
    Wasn't that a thing from Saint Seiya?
    7AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:11
    Read the original article and got let down — string theory, dark dimensions… both are just theory and probably permanently unprovable.
    8AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:17
    Isn't it contradictory that dark matter is 25% yet accounts for 85% of the universe's mass?

    Currently observed atoms make up 15% of the universe's mass, so together that's supposed to add up to 100%, apparently
    10AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:23
    Re: #8-9

    It's confirmed that dark matter has mass in space, so it's using up energy.

    Dark matter generates mass because it has drag/friction in the universe, so of course dark energy would arise too
    37AnonymousSep 21, 2026 13:15
    Re: #8
    25% of the total when you count mass and energy together,
    versus 85% when you look at mass alone
    9AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:20
    70% of the universe's expansion is dark energy, and 30% is energy whose source has been identified — together that's supposed to make 100%
    11AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:29
    Re: #10

    The atoms currently observed generate 15% of the universe's mass

    If we only count the atoms we can observe, energy consumption in space would be low, meaning that — for just those observed atoms — faster-than-light travel would become possible
     If you pass only through the spots where our observable atoms are, you could move at high speed, but with no friction you'd go off course. Though if you collide with dark matter above a certain speed, maybe dark matter's mass could let you steer your course?
    13AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:33
    Re: #11
    It's a contradiction: dark matter slows the universe's expansion, yet dark energy is what's supposedly accelerating it
    Dark matter is only 25% of the whole universe, so isn't something off here?

    Shouldn't we need more precise observations of whether the universe's expansion is faster or slower than the speed of light?
    12AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:31
    The universe is made of nothing but the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth
    20AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:47
    Re: #19
    >>By studying the light arriving from supernovas like these, we can learn about the rate of the universe's expansion. This is the flash of light visible in the lower right of the Hubble Space Telescope image.


    >>What we normally perceive are three spatial dimensions plus one time dimension. But string theory posits six or seven additional dimensions on top of those. All of these extra dimensions are thought to be as small as physically possible, close to the Planck length (10⁻³⁵m). However, researchers have proposed that the dark dimension could be far larger than the other dimensions — on the order of 1 micrometer (10⁻⁶m).
    21AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:50
    The idea that dark matter exists as actual physical matter is settled.

    If spiritual beings exist, the only place left for them to exist would be as dark matter.

    Maybe we're entering an era where it gets proven whether "spiritual beings" are just a psychic-scam sales pitch (a nod to Japan's "reikan shōhō" spiritual-goods scams)
    22AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:52
    Something linking Saga and Kanon?
    23AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:54
    Dark matter: 85% of the universe's mass
    Currently observed atoms: 15% of the universe's mass
    ※Together that's supposed to add up to 100% mass

    In the universe, dark matter is 25%
    Currently observed atoms are 75%
    ※Together that's supposed to add up to 100%

     Regarding the universe's expansion
    Dark energy is 70%
    Energy whose source is currently 100% confirmed is 30%
    ※Together that's supposed to add up to 100%

    Given all that, isn't something off?
    24AnonymousSep 21, 2026 02:55
    Re: #23 If you had "Professor AI" thoroughly work through where the contradictions are, you'd probably get a totally different answer
    25AnonymousSep 21, 2026 03:00
    Even if a UFO could move faster than light, the instant it passes through a region with dark matter, mass is generated, so it's certain to decelerate

    It's beyond doubt that UFOs travel along a route that avoids dark matter, but as proven in Re: #14, merely moving faster than light doesn't stop it from being 100% observable by telescopes

    Every single one of those UFO teleportation videos must be fake
    26AnonymousSep 21, 2026 03:07
    Re: #25

    Maybe the trick to high-speed travel in the universe is: use dark matter as a cushion — "building up the route" — and supply energy so the currently observed atoms can move faster than light?

    Currently observed atoms make up 15% of the universe's mass, so you'd need to calculate the mass along the route from point A to point B
     Maybe you'd need to fix the dark matter in place along a circular route between A and B, like a racetrack, so the energy can't escape?

    But there's a phenomenon where galaxy mergers blow dark matter away, so maybe that whole setup is impossible?
    27AnonymousSep 21, 2026 03:07
    Why overthink it — why not just call it mass trapped inside every black hole?
    You can't observe the inside of a black hole, but it's still there, right?
    29AnonymousSep 21, 2026 05:45
    So the Dark Dimension hypothesis is basically a spinoff of superstring theory
    Under this hypothesis, dark matter interacts through nothing but gravity
    Which means, if that's right, the WIMP and axion theories are both wrong, and the WIMP and axion search experiments would end up empty-handed
    Of course, the fact that existing dark matter detection experiments haven't found anything doesn't prove this hypothesis is correct either
    Also, there's apparently a prediction that Newton's gravity equation breaks down at the micron scale,
    so I guess the question is whether that can be tested going forward
    30AnonymousSep 21, 2026 05:59
    I bet Dark Physics can explain it with Dark Logic.
    31AnonymousSep 21, 2026 06:10
    The soul is made of dark matter
    32AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:27
    Reanalysis of supernova observation data suggests "the universe's expansion may not be accelerating"
    September 20, 2026, 11:10 PM
    https://gigazine.net/news/20260920-supernova-cosmic-acceleration-questioned/
    Conventional wisdom has held that "the universe keeps expanding, and its pace is increasing," but a research team from India's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the UK's University of Oxford used a catalog of observational data from more than 1,700 supernovae to test whether the evidence actually backs up "accelerating expansion" — and found there's a possibility that expansion isn't accelerating after all.

    (omitted)

    Going forward, the team says it wants to verify these results using data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's wide-field survey program, the "Legacy Survey of Space and Time." That survey is expected to observe several hundred thousand supernovae.
    33AnonymousSep 21, 2026 07:29
    That's the Gemini Gold Saint Saga's special move, right? I get it.
    34AnonymousSep 21, 2026 08:21
    What about the Dark Ducks? (the famous Japanese vocal quartet)
    35AnonymousSep 21, 2026 09:48
    Shingo Kurumada was ahead of the curve on astrophysics
    36AnonymousSep 21, 2026 11:44
    Re: #1
    So the "Dark Dimension" shows up, huh — next up must be "Dark Angel"
    38AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:22
    If energy gets used for something, doesn't it just break down and disappear?
    40AnonymousSep 21, 2026 18:51
    Another Dimension!
    41AnonymousSep 21, 2026 19:02
    Sounds like Saturnia-chan, who slaps "Devils" onto everything (little-devil character from the anime Gabriel DropOut).

    Background and Talking Points on This Topic

    Under the current standard model of cosmology, the universe’s energy/mass breakdown is roughly 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, and 5% observable ordinary matter. In the thread, several different ratios were thrown around — “85% dark matter, 15% ordinary matter,” “25% dark matter, 75% ordinary matter,” and so on — leading to some talking-past-each-other moments; this appears to stem from conflating mass-based ratios with total-energy-based ratios, and it’s worth noting these figures differ from the standard ones. Also, the “Dark Dimension” is, at the end of the day, just one hypothesis derived from superstring theory — it could potentially be tested in the future through deviations in Newtonian gravity at the micron scale, but it has not been demonstrated at this point. The thread also touched on a reanalysis of supernova data (per a Gigazine article) that questions the universe’s accelerating expansion itself — that’s a separate line of research questioning the existence of dark energy altogether, and shouldn’t be conflated with the above.

    ※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Cosmology] What is the “Dark Dimension” that might link the universe’s two great mysteries, dark matter and dark energy?“.