51动漫

Feedback is 51动漫鈥檚 popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com

In out in out

It鈥檚 well-known that the internet is about 60 per cent cats and 35 per cent automated bots, so a cat-themed bot was inevitable.

Hence , the X (Twitter) account of a black cat called P茅pito who lives in France. His owner, Cl茅ment Storck, is an engineer with a , so he created a system that posts to X whenever P茅pito goes in or out of his cat flap.

The account is not, on the face of it, thrilling reading. Every post is either 鈥淧茅pito is out鈥� or 鈥淧茅pito is back home鈥�, with the time marked to the nearest second. These are accompanied by a black-and-white photo of P茅pito and a short video showing him coming in or out.

And yet @PepitoTheCat has more than 860,000 followers (of whom a surprising number live in Brazil). What鈥檚 more, they are attached. In June 2017, P茅pito went out and did not come back for 22 hours, and, as BuzzFeed put it, 鈥溾��. Storck had to create an actual written post, explaining that P茅pito had come back in through the 鈥渉uman鈥檚 door鈥�, so his return hadn鈥檛 registered on the system.

Feedback would just like to say: 22 hours? That鈥檚 nothing. One of Feedback鈥檚 felines routinely disappears for a day or so at a time. Worse, one of Feedback鈥檚 former felines once disappeared for six weeks, only to be discovered up a tree several hundred metres from where she was supposed to be.

P茅pito is surprisingly tenacious: the account has been going for 14 years, and P茅pito and is seemingly hale and hearty. However, the account has now entered more contentious territory, with the news that P茅pito鈥檚 owner is selling a . Dude: we just liked the cat.

On track

Feedback empathises with the people who spend all their pocket money on Hornby model railways, even if we ourselves never got heavily into the hobby. We were therefore delighted when Alan Edgar drew our attention to a press release from Northern Rail, one of the UK鈥檚 privatised rail firms (at the time of writing). In November 2024, the firm announced it had hired a new to lead its 鈥渄rive for growth鈥�: one Alex Hornby. The company鈥檚 managing director was quoted as saying that Hornby has 鈥渁 brilliant track record鈥�.

While we鈥檙e on names, Ian Gammie came across a about greenhouse gas emissions by the US military. Apparently, 鈥渢he US military is one of the largest climate polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more CO₂e (carbon-dioxide equivalent) than most countries鈥�. This was according to research by UK academics, which seems about right 鈥� after all, you wouldn鈥檛 catch any US academics writing something like that now. Ian was pleased to see that the report鈥檚 authors included Patrick Bigger and Oliver Belcher.

You just lost

In March, Feedback discussed Roko鈥檚 Basilisk: a particularly stupid thought experiment about artificial intelligence. It supposes that, in the future, there will be an all-powerful AI. This AI will create computer simulations of all the people alive today who didn鈥檛 help bring it into existence and endlessly torture them as a means of ensuring that we all get in line right now and help build the AI. If that sounds confusing, it鈥檚 because it doesn鈥檛 make a lick of sense.

Our colleague Jacob Aron recently reviewed a novel called Basilisk by Matt Wixey that plays with similar ideas. That led reader Finn Byrne to look up 鈥渃ognitohazards鈥�: the idea that some forms of knowledge are inherently dangerous. In the case of Roko鈥檚 Basilisk, simply knowing about the future AI seemingly puts you in danger of an eternity of torment, because the AI is going to torture only people who knowingly refused to contribute to its existence.

Then something bad happened. As Finn browsed the Wikipedia page for , aka information hazards, he lost The Game. And then he wrote to Feedback to tell us about it, and then we lost The Game, too. At this point, you too have just lost The Game.

As Finn explains, The Game is 鈥渁 very simple game played constantly by all of humanity鈥�. It has only three rules: 鈥�1) You are playing The Game. 2) Every time you think about The Game, you lose. 3) Loss of The Game must be announced.鈥� There is, of course, a website for it: .

The Game is something Feedback played a lot when we were a student and allegedly had time on our hands. On many occasions in pubs, watching TV or in science practicals, one of our friends would spontaneously announce: 鈥淛ust lost The Game.鈥� We had forgotten about it for quite some time, but now we are going to lose a lot.

Finn goes on to discuss strategies for The Game. You can鈥檛 win, except by developing permanent amnesia or dying, both of which seem like overkill. But you can make other people lose. 鈥淭he website includes a page for avid players to donate to the worthy cause of the words 鈥楲OSE THE GAME鈥� being written 鈥榦ver New York City in letters the size of the Empire State Building鈥�,鈥� says Finn. If you鈥檙e less keen to splash cash, you can leave hidden notes in strategic places.

Finally, there are awards for 鈥渕aking an outstanding number of people lose the game鈥�. Finn says that these have often been awarded to 鈥減eople who have mentioned The Game in newspapers or magazines鈥�.

Got a story for Feedback?

You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.