Thinking On Paper

The Martens Clause, a legal principle drafted by Russian-Imperial diplomat Fyodor Martens during the first Hague Peace Conference of 1899, established that even in the absence of specific written law, nations and individuals remain bound by "the laws of humanity and the requirements of public conscience." Originally conceived as a compromise to prevent the collapse of early international humanitarian law negotiations - when smaller nations like Belgium objected to how occupying powers classified resistance fighters - the clause became a foundational backstop in international law. It was subsequently invoked in some of the most consequential legal proceedings of the twentieth century, including the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46 to counter arguments that prosecuting Nazi war crimes constituted retroactive legislation, the 1949 Corfu Channel case where Albania was held responsible for failing to warn shipping of mines in its territorial waters, and the 1986 ICJ ruling against the United States for mining Nicaraguan harbors and supporting the Contra insurgency.Mark & Jeremy from Thinking On Paper are now asking whether this 127-year-old principle could serve as what some are calling a "minimum viable architecture" for governing emerging technologies — particularly artificial intelligence, commercial space operations, and quantum computing — where the pace of innovation vastly outstrips the speed of regulation. Jeremy argues that the clause's core logic — that something not being explicitly prohibited does not make it automatically permitted — could provide a much-needed ethical and legal floor beneath industries currently operating in regulatory grey zones, from AI training on copyrighted data to autonomous weapons systems and asteroid mining rights. Mark counters that the clause has historically only been applied retroactively to clear moral atrocities, and that its deliberately vague language, while effective at building diplomatic consensus, lacks the specificity needed to adjudicate the morally ambiguous questions at the frontier of technology, such as algorithmic bias, AI decision-making opacity, and the concentration of technical power among a small number of corporations and nation-states.Please enjoy the show. --🎧 Listen to every podcast⁠📺 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠🏠 Follow us on ⁠X⁠🏠 Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠To suggest guests or sponsor the show, please email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz--(00:00) The First Peace Conference: A Historical Perspective(07:37) The Martin's Clause: Implications for Modern Governance(10:05) Space Tech and the Outer Space Treaty(13:58) AI and the Need for Ethical Frameworks(17:21) Accountability in Technology Deployment(22:56) The Future of Humanity: Collaboration vs. Competition

A leaked Pentagon memo that made AI central to military strategy sparks a debate about automated targeting and the ethics of speed-over-safety. They unpack projects aimed at AI swarms and agent networks, and probe how bureaucratic barriers and vendor pushback were sidelined. The conversation centers on who controls lethal AI, supply chain labeling, and whether faster AI makes war more or less likely.

Iran posted an AI-generated LEGO propaganda video mocking Trump and Netanyahu. The White House fired back with Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and a Wii Sports video of Iranian military sites being destroyed. A senior White House official told Politico they were "just grinding away on banger memes, dude." A hundred million views later…- WATCH ON YOUTUBE -This is the AI slop propaganda war, playing out in public - mostly on Twitter -  as the bombs drop, the drones fly and the smoke and mirrors of a confused story evolve.Operation Epic Fury has killed hundreds, triggered one of the largest oil and energy shocks in history, and will reshape the Middle East - and global politics - for decades to come. This is the meme war that accompanies it.We react to all of it. The Iran LEGO propaganda video. The White House GTA Iran meme. The deleted Call of Duty airstrike video. The Wii bowling Iran war clip. Why did Iran use LEGO? Is this propaganda, or kids playing video game make believe? What does it mean when governments reach for children's toys and video game aesthetics to sell a real war to a generation raised on screens?The answer is uncomfortable. It is a desensitisation of death. It is a military hiring video dressed as a meme.This is part of our on-going AI and the War Machine Season.Please enjoy the show.--🎧 Listen to every podcast⁠📺 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠🏠 Follow us on ⁠X⁠🏠 Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠To suggest guests or sponsor the show, please email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyzTimestamps(00:00) What Is Propaganda?(00:36) Iran Lego Propaganda Video(02:45) Reaction(06:55) Whitehouse GTA Iran War Video(09:07) Epic Fury - US Wii Sports Video(13:22) Call Of Duty Iran War Video

The Kessler Syndrome, first theorized by NASA scientist Donald Kessler in 1978, is no longer a distant hypothetical. When an active American communications satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite on February 10th, 2009, at 22,300 miles per hour, it scattered more than 23,000 trackable debris objects and an estimated 100 million smaller fragments into low-Earth orbit (LEO). Today, companies like Astroscale are racing to develop active debris removal (ADR) technology before orbital overcrowding triggers an irreversible chain-reaction of collisions. The barrier to launching satellites has dropped dramatically — SpaceX alone has reduced launch costs by over 90% through reusable rocket technology — meaning China, Amazon, and countless private operators are flooding LEO with new constellations faster than any international regulatory body can respond. With Starlink already operating thousands of satellites and a license filed for up to one million objects, the orbital environment is approaching what scientists describe as a tipping point: roughly 70,000 objects in LEO is the threshold beyond which collision cascades become self-sustaining and unstoppable, regardless of whether new launches cease entirely.The space debris crisis is inseparable from a deeper question about market power, monopoly risk, and the long-term governance of the space economy. SpaceX's dominance in orbital launch, satellite internet, and crewed spaceflight has produced extraordinary short-term innovation — but former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine's warning that "a private monopoly that the government is dependent on" poses unique dangers is becoming harder to dismiss. The US military's submarines, aircraft carriers, and intelligence infrastructure are increasingly reliant on SpaceX's Starlink connectivity and launch capabilities, raising urgent questions about what happens when a single private actor controls the physical infrastructure of a space-to-Earth economy worth trillions. The tragedy of the commons — the economic principle whereby individuals exploit a shared resource in their own interest until it is destroyed — maps directly onto orbital space: every satellite operator externalizes the debris cost onto every other current and future user of LEO. Without binding international coordination mechanisms, investment in debris remediation, and genuine competitive alternatives to SpaceX in the launch market, the space economy risks replicating — and amplifying — the worst failures of terrestrial economics in the most consequential new frontier humanity has ever opened.We're reading Space To Grow by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, this is Part 4. Please enjoy the show--🎧 Listen to every podcast⁠📺 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠🏠 Follow us on ⁠X⁠🏠 Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠To suggest guests or sponsor the show, please email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz--Timestamps(00:00) How 150,000 pieces of space junk ended up in orbit and why nobody cleaned them up(06:21) Kessler syndrome explained: the tipping point where collisions become unstoppable(10:57) Why the insurance market is not pricing orbital collision risk(13:50) Government intervention, the Moon Treaty and the five-year deorbit rule(20:26) Active debris removal: magnets, robots and who is building the solutions(22:37) Astroscale: how one company is trying to clean up space junk commercially(24:53) Who pays to clean up orbit when the market has no incentive to(26:26) Is SpaceX a monopoly and does that matter for the space industry(29:08) NASA Administrator: there is only one thing worse than a government monopoly(33:04) Space governance, coordination and whether the tragedy of the commons can be solved in orbit

Spin qubits could scale quantum computing using the same semiconductor fabrication lines that print 50 billion transistors on an Nvidia chip. No new manufacturing paradigm required.Brandon Severin, Oxford PhD and founder of Conductor Quantum, joins Mark and Jeremy to explain why that matters. You need hundreds of reliable qubits for meaningful quantum computation. The industry has dozens. Spin qubits, built from modified transistors, controlled by classical voltages, no lasers, no vacuum, may be the most practical path to millions.This episode covers:Why qubit fidelity and coherence time determine what a quantum computer can actually doHow AI automates the calibration problem that makes human-controlled quantum scaling impossible - "you can't have a billion Brandons"Why trapped ions vs spin qubits is the wrong debateWhat Google's quantum algorithm result actually proved, and why it mattersWhy the physicists who understand semiconductor manufacturing may unlock use cases pure quantum researchers never reachThe two camps dividing the quantum industry: build one qubit at a time, or build for a millionAlso: quantum startup culture vs the AI boom, Brandon's Y Combinator experience, and why scaling quantum looks more like building a rocket ship than climbing a ladder.--Brandon Severin: https://www.conductorquantum.com/--⁠⁠Listen to every podcast⁠⁠Follow us on⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠Follow us on⁠ ⁠X⁠⁠Follow Mark on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Follow Jeremy on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Read our⁠ ⁠Substack⁠⁠Email: ⁠hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz⁠--Timestamps(00:00) Introduction: spin qubits and the quantum scaling problem(03:47) Trapped ions vs spin qubits: fidelity, coherence, and tradeoffs(06:14) What qubit fidelity means and why it determines scaling limits(08:25) What is a spin qubit? Building from the transistor up(11:06) Semiconductor fabrication as quantum computing's manufacturing advantage(15:00) The quantum circus: superposition, measurement, Schrödinger's cat(17:17) Shuttling qubits — moving electrons across a chip(20:33) How AI automates quantum calibration (the control problem)(25:00) Quantum scaling vs AI scaling: the GPU parallel(29:08) Quantum startup culture and the AI generation gap(32:59) Building for a million qubits — rocket ships vs ladders(36:52) Why quantum is taking so long: talent, concentration, and meaning(39:43) What seems impossible now that will be routine in 20 years

Quantum computing has been five years away for thirty-five years. Infleqtion CTO Pranav Gokhale makes the case that 2028 is different, because for the first time, logical qubits actually exist.He explains what a logical qubit is using a Wi-Fi analogy: noisy physical qubits are like corrupted data packets; logical qubits are the clean, usable signal that comes out the other end. Humanity had zero logical qubits before 2023. Infleqtion now has twelve, with a public roadmap to thirty in 2026 and one hundred in 2028.At one hundred logical qubits, material science and drug discovery become the first real quantum use cases - and the timeline stops being a prediction and starts being an engineering problem.--Other ways to connect with us:⁠Listen to every podcast⁠Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠Follow us on ⁠X⁠Follow Mark on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Read our ⁠Substack⁠Email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz

Why does it cost NASA $4.2 billion per launch when SpaceX predicts Starship could do the same job for $10 million?Mark and Jeremy work through Part 3 of Space to Grow by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, the book the space industry is reading, and find two stories running in parallel: the wreckage of the space SPAC bubble, and NASA's uncomfortable reinvention in the commercial era.This episode covers: How SPACs turned space startups into crypto: Virgin Orbit went from a $3.7B valuation to bankruptcy in two years; Astra went public at $2.1B with zero rockets that had ever reached orbit Why $100 invested in space startup stocks at IPO was worth $10 by early 2024 The stag hunt problem: why genuinely big things in space require coordination and trust that the industry hasn't built yet NASA's Artemis programme explained, and why the South Pole of the Moon holds 100,000 Olympic swimming pools of frozen water that could become rocket fuel The $4B SpaceX and $3.4B Blue Origin contracts that signal NASA is finally learning to share Can NASA evolve from doing it to enabling it, before China gets there first?--⁠Listen to every podcast⁠Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠Follow us on ⁠X⁠Follow Mark on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Read our ⁠Substack⁠Email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz--Chapters(00:00) What is a SPAC? (01:30) Why space SPACs failed (03:20) Virgin Orbit & Astra: the worst examples (06:00) SPACs vs Crypto: same story? (08:30) The Stag Hunt: why space needs coordination (11:00) NASA Artemis explained (13:00) SLS vs Starship cost breakdown (17:00) SpaceX & Blue Origin lunar contracts (20:00) The Moon Race vs China (22:00) Can NASA survive the commercial space era?

Infleqtion put a quantum atomic clock inside a UK military submarine. Before that, they put quantum technology on the International Space Station. They are building neutral atom quantum computers that operate at room temperature, atoms colder than outer space, controlled by lasers, no freezer required.Mark and Jeremy sit down with Matt Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion, to learn why neutral atoms are pulling ahead of every other quantum modality.This episode covers: Why GPS is becoming unreliable and how quantum clocks replace it with unspoofable, unjammable precision timing How neutral atoms become the coldest place in the known universe while the surrounding system stays at room temperature Why a quantum clock and a quantum computer are essentially the same technology at different levels of complexity The CPU → GPU → QPU data centre stack: how drug discovery and battery design get split across classical and quantum compute Why logical qubits - which humanity had never demonstrated before 2023 - change the quantum computing timeline How Infleqtion's quantum memory software is already expanding GPU context windows today--⁠⁠Listen to every podcast⁠⁠Follow us on⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠Follow us on⁠ ⁠X⁠⁠Follow Mark on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Follow Jeremy on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Read our⁠ ⁠Substack⁠⁠Email: ⁠hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz⁠--Timestamps:(00:00) Trailer(01:50) Why coordination matters: From internal strategy to GPS timing(04:48) What is a quantum clock and how does it link to GPS?(07:18) Nature's metronome: How atoms keep time with laser precision(08:14) Room temperature quantum: Why neutral atoms don't need freezers(12:38) The Rydberg state: Making atoms sensitive to the entire RF spectrum(14:03) Quantum clock on a UK submarine(17:06) Quantum in space: Voyager partnership and the International Space Station(18:48) Hybrid quantum-classical workflows: How QPUs layer above GPUs(23:18) Software layers: From laser control to developer applications(25:32) Drug discovery example: GPU, CPU, QPU(29:03) The bridge between classical and quantum: Memory architecture innovations(31:54) How Quantum Clocks & Products Lead To Quantum Computers(33:48) Nvidia(35:42) Quality or Quantity of Qubits (38:00) Quantum mechanics and free will: Does wave collapse prove consciousness?Love it.Thanks. --⁠⁠Listen to every podcast⁠⁠Follow us on⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠Follow us on⁠ ⁠X⁠⁠Follow Mark on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Follow Jeremy on⁠ ⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠Read our⁠ ⁠Substack⁠⁠Email: ⁠hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz⁠--Chapters(00:00) Why quantum computing matters right now (01:20) Why Nvidia is betting big on quantum (02:52) NVQ-Link: the bridge between quantum and classical computing(09:29) Who decides what runs on the quantum computer vs the GPU?(12:33) AI helping quantum, quantum helping AI (16:56) Building a space elevator battery: a real quantum workflow (20:09) The quantum algorithm zoo (22:04) From noisy qubits to logical qubits (24:00) How much energy does a quantum computer actually use? (27:05) The no-cloning theorem: why you can't copy-paste quantum data(27:20) The biggest unanswered question in quantum computing(30:47) A $20M NASA program and a telescope for underground (33:32) What do we want humans to be?

Sam Stanwyck, NVIDIA product lead uniting GPUs with quantum processors. Pranav Gokhale, Infleqtion CTO building neutral-atom QPUs and logical qubit roadmaps. They unpack NVQ-Link, real-time GPU–QPU co-processing, software that routes workloads, a space-elevator battery workflow, and the 2028 push toward 100 logical qubits.

In 2024, quantum computers started running out of helium-3. IBM, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are all building larger quantum data centers, and the dilution refrigerators that keep qubits near absolute zero are already outstripping terrestrial supply.The US reserve holds 29 kilograms. The moon holds an estimated 1.1 million tons.Mark and Jeremy sit down with Glen Martin, aerospace engineer, ISS designer, and CEO of the Extraterrestrial Mining Company, to learn why helium-3 may be the single resource that unlocks the cislunar economy.This episode covers: What helium-3 actually is, why it barely exists on Earth, and why the moon's surface is saturated with it Why quantum computers need it to stay below 10 millikelvin, and why supply is already failing to meet demand Fusion without radioactive waste: why helium-3 is the gold standard fuel for clean energy at a billion degrees How a private company plans to finance a lunar mine the same way infrastructure developers finance bridges, tunnels, and LNG terminals China landed on the moon in 2020 and 2024, specifically in the regions with the highest helium-3 concentrations, and brought back samples Why autonomous AI rovers, not human miners, will sift the lunar regolith Glen's thesis: helium-3 is the beaver pelt of the space economy, the one thing valuable enough to bring back from the moon that kicks open everything else There are no Mounties on the moon, but there is the Space Force--📺 Watch on YouTube--Timestamps(00:00) Trailer(02:45) What is Helium-3, and why are we mining the Moon?(05:29) Why there’s almost no Helium-3 on Earth, and a million tons on the Moon(09:01) How Helium-3 could be harvested from lunar dust(10:33) Fusion without fallout: the clean-energy promise of Helium-3(13:01) Space-based solar power and fusion: two paths to future energy.(17:56) How private companies plan to finance Moon mining(21:52) The new space race: U.S., China, and the competition for lunar fuel(25:03) Can treaties prevent conflict over Moon resources?(27:37) AI, autonomy, and the machines that will mine the Moon(29:31) NASA’s commercial lunar payloads and the rise of space infrastructure(31:08) What lunar regolith tells us about Helium-3 reserves(33:35) The trillion-dollar question: who profits from space resources?(36:17) Curiosity, wonder, and the future of human exploration(40:01) Technology, morality, and the choice to be good--⁠Listen to every podcast⁠Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠Follow us on ⁠X⁠Follow Mark on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Read our ⁠Substack⁠Email: hello@thinkingonpaper.xyz--