AGI will be embedded into humanoid robots, which makes white-collar and blue-collar jobs a target ... More for walking/talking automation.getty In today’s column, I examine the highly worrisome qualms expressed that the advent of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is likely to usurp white-collar jobs. The stated concern is that since AGI will be on par with human intellect, any job that relies principally on intellectual pursuits such as typical white-collar work will be taken over via the use of AGI. Employers will realize that rather than dealing with human white-collar workers, they can more readily get the job done via AGI. This, in turn, has led to a rising call that people should aim toward blue-collar jobs, doing so because (presumably) those forms of employment will not be undercut via AGI. Sorry to say, that misses the bigger picture, namely that AGI when combined with humanoid robots is coming not only for white-collar jobs but also blue-collar jobs too. It is a proverbial double-whammy when it comes to the attainment of AGI. Let’s talk about it. This analysis of an innovative AI breakthrough is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here). Heading Toward AGI And ASI First, some fundamentals are required to set the stage for this weighty discussion. There is a great deal of research going on to further advance AI. The general goal is to either reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) or maybe even the outstretched possibility of achieving artificial superintelligence (ASI). AGI is AI that is considered on par with human intellect and can seemingly match our intelligence. ASI is AI that has gone beyond human intellect and would be superior in many if not all feasible ways. The idea is that ASI would be able to run circles around humans by outthinking us at every turn. For more details on the nature of conventional AI versus AGI and ASI, see my analysis at the link here. We have not yet attained AGI. In fact, it is unknown as to whether we will reach AGI, or that maybe AGI will be achievable in decades or perhaps centuries from now. The AGI attainment dates that are floating around are wildly varying and wildly unsubstantiated by any credible evidence or ironclad logic. ASI is even more beyond the pale when it comes to where we are currently with conventional AI. AGI Problem Only Half Seen Before launching into the primary matter at hand in this discussion, let’s contemplate a famous quote attributed to Charles Kettering, a legendary inventor, who said, “A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” I bring this up because those loud clamors right now about the assumption that AGI will replace white-collar workers are only seeing half of the problem. The problem as they see it is that since AGI is intellectually on par with humans, and since white-collar workers mainly use intellect in their work endeavors, AGI is going to be used in place of humans for white-collar work. I will in a moment explain why that’s only half of the problem and there is a demonstrative need to more carefully and fully articulate the nature of the problem. Will AGI Axiomatically Take White-Collar Jobs On a related facet, the belief that AGI will axiomatically replace white-collar labor makes a number of other related key assumptions. I shall briefly explore those and then come back to why the problem itself is only half-baked. The cost of using AGI for doing white-collar work will need to be presumably a better ROI choice over human workers. If not, then an employer would be wiser to stick with humans rather than employing AGI. There seems to often be an unstated belief that AGI is necessarily going to be a less costly route than employing humans. We don’t know yet what the cost of using AGI will be. It could be highly expensive. Indeed, some are worried that the world will divide into the AGI haves and AGI have-nots, partially due to the exorbitant cost that AGI might involve. If AGI is free to use, well, that would seem to be the nail in the coffin related to using human workers for the same capacity. Another angle is that AGI is relatively inexpensive in comparison to human labor. In that case, the use of AGI is likely to win over human labor usage. But if the cost of AGI is nearer to the cost of human labor (all in), or more so, then employers would rationally need to weigh the use of one versus the other. Note that when referring to the cost of human labor, there is more to that calculation than simply the dollar-hour labor rate per se. There are lots of other less apparent costs, such as the cost to manage human labor, the cost of dealing with HR-related issues, and many other factors that come into the weighty matter. Thus, an AGI versus human labor ROI will be more complex than it might seem at an initial glance. In addition, keep in mind that AGI would seemingly be readily switched on and off, and have other capacities that human labor would not equally tend to allow. The Other Half Is Coming Too Assume that by and large the advent of AGI will decimate the need for white-collar human labor. The refrain right now is that people should begin tilting toward blue-collar jobs as an alternative to white-collar jobs. This is a logical form of thinking in the sense that AGI as an intellectual mechanism would be unable to compete in jobs that involve hands-on work. A plumber needs to come to your house and do hands-on work to fix your plumbing. This is a physicality that entails arriving at your physical home, physically bringing and using tools, and physically repairing your faulty home plumbing. A truck driver likewise needs to sit in the cab of a truck and drive the vehicle. These are physically based tasks. There is no getting around the fact that these are hands-on activities. Aha, yes, those are physical tasks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that only human hands can perform them. The gradual emergence of humanoid robots will provide an alternative to human hands. A humanoid robot is a type of robot that is built to resemble a human in form and function. You’ve undoubtedly seen those types of robots in the many online video recordings showing them walking, jumping, grasping at objects, and so on. A tremendous amount of active research and development is taking place to devise humanoid robots. They look comical right now. You watch those videos and laugh when the robot trips over a mere stick lying on the ground, something that a human would seldom trip over. You scoff when a robot tries to grasp a coffee cup and inadvertently spills most of the coffee. It all seems humorous and a silly pursuit. Keep in mind that we are all observing the development process while it is still taking place. At some point, those guffaws of the humanoid robots will lessen. Humanoid robots will be as smooth and graceful as humans. This will continue to be honed. Eventually, humanoid robots will be less prone to physical errors that humans make. In a sense, the physicality of a humanoid robot will be on par with humans, if not better, due to its mechanical properties. Do not discount the coming era of quite physically capable humanoid robots. AGI And Humanoid Robots Pair Up You might remember that in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the fictional character known as The Strawman lacked a brain. Without seeming to anthropomorphize humanoid robots, the current situation is that those robots typically use a form of AI that is below the sophistication level of modern generative AI. That’s fine for now due to the need to first ensure that the physical movements of the robots get refined. I have discussed that a said-to-be realm of Physical AI is going to be a huge breakthrough with incredible ramifications, see my analysis at the link here. The idea underlying Physical AI is that the AI of today is being uplifted by doing data training on the physical world. This also tends to include the use of World Models, consisting of broad constructions about how the physical world works, such as that we are bound to operate under conditions of gravity, and other physical laws of nature, see the link here. The bottom line here is that there will be a close pairing of robust AI with humanoid robots. Imagine what a humanoid robot can accomplish if it is paired with AGI. I’ll break the suspense and point out that AGI paired with humanoid robots means that those robots readily enter the blue-collar worker realm. Suppose your plumbing needs fixing. No worries, a humanoid robot that encompasses AGI will be sent to your home. The AGI is astute enough to carry on conversations with you, and the AGI also fully operates the robot to undertake the plumbing tasks. How did the AGI-paired humanoid robot get to your home? Easy-peasy, it drove a car or truck to get there. I’ve previously predicted that all the work on devising autonomous vehicles and self-driving cars will get shaken up once we have suitable humanoid robots devised. There won’t be a need for a vehicle to contain self-driving capabilities. A humanoid robot will simply sit in the driver’s seat and drive the vehicle. This is a much more open-ended solution than having to craft components that go into and onto a vehicle to enable self-driving. See my coverage at the link here. Timing Is Notable One of the reasons that many do not give much thought to the pairing of AGI with humanoid robots is that today’s humanoid robots seem extraordinarily rudimentary and incapable of performing physical dexterity tasks on par with human capabilities. Meanwhile, there is brazen talk that AGI is just around the corner. AGI is said to be within our grasp. Let’s give the timing considerations a bit of scrutiny. There are three primary timing angles: Option 1: AGI first, then humanoid robots. AGI is attained before humanoid robots are sufficiently devised. Option 2: Humanoid robots first, then AGI. Humanoid robots are physically fluently adept before AGI is attained. Option 3: AGI and humanoid robots arrive about at the same time. AGI is attained and at the same time, it turns out that humanoid robots are fluently adept too, mainly by coincidence and not due to any cross-mixing. A skeptic would insist that there is a fourth possibility, consisting of the possibility that we never achieve AGI and/or we fail to achieve sufficiently physically capable humanoid robots. I am going to reject that possibility. Perhaps I am overly optimistic, but it seems to me that we will eventually attain AGI, and we will eventually attain physically capable humanoid robots. I shall next respectively consider each of the three genuinely reasonable possibilities. Option 1: AGI First, Then Humanoid Robots What if we manage to attain AGI before we manage to achieve physically fluent humanoid robots? That’s just fine. We would indubitably put AGI to work as a partner with humans in figuring out how we can push along the budding humanoid robot development process. It seems nearly obvious that with AGI’s capable assistance, we would overcome any bottlenecks and soon enough arrive at top-notch physically adept humanoid robots. At that juncture, we would then toss AGI into the humanoid robots and have ourselves quite an amazing combination. Option 2: Humanoid Robots First, Then AGI Suppose that we devise very physically adept humanoid robots but have not yet arrived at AGI. Are we in a pickle? Nope. We could use conventional advanced AI inside those humanoid robots. The combination would certainly be good enough for a wide variety of tasks. The odds are that we would need to be cautious about where such robots are utilized. Nonetheless, we would have essentially walking, talking, and productive humanoid robots. If AGI never happens, oh well, we end up with pretty good humanoid robots. On the other hand, once we arrive at AGI, those humanoid robots will be stellar. It’s just a matter of time. Option 3: AGI And Humanoid Robots At The Same Time Let’s consider the potential of AGI and humanoid robots perchance being attained around the same time. Assume that this timing isn’t due to an outright cross-mixing with each other. They just so happen to advance on a similar timeline. I tend to believe that’s the most likely of the three scenarios. Here’s why. First, despite all the hubris about AGI being within earshot, perhaps in the next year or two, which is a popular pronouncement by many AI luminaries, I tend to side with recent surveys of AI developers that put the date around the year 2040 (see my coverage at the link here). Some AI luminaires sneakily play with the definition of AGI in hopes of making their predictions come true sooner, akin to moving the goalposts to easily score points. For my coverage on Sam Altman’s efforts of moving the cheese regarding AGI attainment, see the link here. Second, if you are willing to entertain the year 2040 as a potential date for achieving AGI, that’s about 15 years from now. In my estimation, the advancements being made in humanoid robots will readily progress such that by 2040 they will be very physically adept. Probably be sooner, but let’s go with the year 2040 for ease of contemplation. In my view, we will likely have humanoid robots doing well enough that they will be put into use prior to arriving at AGI. The pinnacle of robust humanoid robots and the attainment of AGI will roughly coincide with each other. Two peas in a pod.Impact Of Enormous Consequences In an upcoming column posting, I will examine the enormous consequences of having AGI paired with fully physically capable humanoid robots. As noted above, this will have a humongous impact on white-collar work and blue-collar work. There will be gargantuan economic impacts, societal impacts, cultural impacts, and so on. Some final thoughts for now. A single whammy is already being hotly debated. The debates currently tend to be preoccupied with the loss of white-collar jobs due to the attainment of AGI. A saving grace seems to be that at least blue-collar jobs are going to be around and thriving, even once AGI is attained. The world doesn’t seem overly gloomy if you can cling to the upbeat posture that blue-collar tasks remain intact. The double whammy is a lot more to take in. But the double whammy is the truth. The truth needs to be faced. If you are having doubts as a human about the future, just remember the famous words of Vince Lombardi: “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” Humankind can handle the double whammy. Stay tuned for my upcoming coverage of what this entails.

Type foundry F37 has launched a new typeface inspired by one of Manchester’s last wooden street signs. And they worked with designer Craig Oldham and copywriter Ellen Ling to bring it to life on a series of billboards celebrating the city’s particular brand of pride. F37 Mancunio is based on the typeface on the sign underneath the railway in St Michael’s Place. F37 founder Rick Banks was drawn to the uneven stroke endings on the ‘C’ and the ‘S’ and designer Rodrigo Fuenzalida worked it into a full typeface with nine weights and “a width axis for flexibility.” Mancunio is named after the Roman fort that once stood in present-day Castlefield. “Rick found the reference ages ago and always wanted to turn it into a font,” says F37’s Keelin Wright. “We wanted to take something from the city, and create a font that represents the history of Manchester, but still feels quite modern as well.” The sign in St Michael’s Place that inspired F37’s Mancunio typeface Wright explains that although there are a lot grotesque sans serif fonts in the F37 library, the “quirky” letter endings and old-style numerals create “ a more human type of grotesque.” When it came to launching the typeface, Wright says they wanted to celebrate its connection to Manchester – where F37 is based – in the right way. “We thought because we’ve taken something physical from the city in terms of the sign, we want to give something physical back,” she explains. “We felt that the billboards would give something typographic to the city, especially around springtime, when Manchester is coming out of the gloom.” F37’s Mancunio typeface Banks and Oldham had worked together on several previous projects and bought in Ling to develop the copy-led campaign. She admits it was a daunting brief in some ways, given some high-profile misfires with localised campaigns in Manchester in recent years. In 2022, locals ridiculed a Magnum advert which misrepresented one of the city’s more insalubrious squares, while a recent Adidas billboard for Manchester United proclaiming that “Manneh is Red” was equally derided. Writing on LinkedIn, designer and United fan Andrew Whitehead said he had never once heard the club referred to as Manneh. “It’s not a nickname. It’s not Manchester United. It’s just… off,” he wrote. “This is what fake authenticity looks like.” “There is all this localised stuff that just bombs,” Ling says. “The pressure is on not to do something that feels tired and out of touch.” F37’s Mancunio typeface The team all felt it was important to steer away from many of the well-worn Manchester motifs, which many people feel have been co-opted by commercial interests looking to exploit the city’s creative soul. “When we were putting the brief together, we found pages and pages of reference for things that we didn’t want,” Wright says. “It was much harder to find things that showed what we actually wanted.” “A lot of this stuff feels like it was made by outsiders,” Oldham says. “History didn’t start here in the 1980s – there’s a wealth of culture and community spirit.” It was exciting, he says, to avoid cliches around Tony Wilson, the Hacienda stripes, and the city’s bee symbol and try and capture “the stoicism, the acerbic wit and the self-deprecating pride.” Some of the posters do take familiar topics – like the city’s famously bad weather or Ian Brown’s quote that Manchester has “Everything but a beach” – but Ling says they worked hard to find “a sting in the tail” and “reclaim” these tropes. Ellen Ling and Craig Oldham’s posters to launch F37’s Mancunio typeface. Photo by Tim Sinclair. Other references are extremely local and deliberately perplexing to outsiders, such as the celebration of Boombox Barry, an iconic local personality. “He’s part of our everyday experience of being in Manchester,” Ling says. “It was nice to give him his flowers in terms of the joy that he brings, and the enigma that he is.” One poster even references the Magnum-advert debacle, celebrating “alfresco tinnies on a piss-soaked Piccadilly G.” For the design, they tried several approaches, including using acid colours, but Oldham says he and Banks realised at one point they were “trying too hard.” The stark white text on black background was the perfect way to showcase the typeface, Oldham says, and stands out in the cityscape. “This dense spot of black cuts through this ocean of visual clutter,” he explains. “It confronts people, and forces them to read the words.” Ling adds that the design works perfectly to communicate the deadpan tone of her copy lines. Ellen Ling and Craig Oldham’s posters to launch F37’s Mancunio typeface. Photo by Tim Sinclair. Manchester’s creative scene has been struggling with the changes wrought by the city’s rapid growth and development in recent years. Designers have even taken to remixing the city’s famous visual language to protest against “incessant gentrification.” Oldham recognises the tension, although he thinks it’s happening in many cities. “I think as cities grow and change rapidly, you get to a crossroads,” he says. “What are we going to change into? What are we going to take with us? And what have we got to leave behind? “I think that’s a universal worry, but Manchester’s very much at that point in its life cycle right now.” Ling agrees. “It’s not that the city’s independent spirit is being crushed, it’s more like it’s being Last Of Us fungi-d,” she says, in reference to the hit HBO show. “It does feel that everything that you know in your bones makes Manchester great is being commoditised.” F37’s Mancunio typeface Ellen Ling and Craig Oldham’s posters to launch F37’s Mancunio typeface. Photo by Tim Sinclair. Ellen Ling and Craig Oldham’s posters to launch F37’s Mancunio typeface. Photo by Tim Sinclair. Ellen Ling and Craig Oldham’s posters to launch F37’s Mancunio typeface. Photo by Tim Sinclair. Ellen Ling and Craig Oldham’s posters to launch F37’s Mancunio typeface. Photo by Tim Sinclair.

The Midnight Walk finds you in a gloomy world where fire is your friend (mostly) but a living lantern is an even greater buddy (always). You are The Burnt One, and you find yourself wandering through a world overtaken by darkness. Given that it’s perpetually night here, fire is an extremely valuable light source (and thankfully there’s some matches lying around to help you with that). Then again, you might not really want to see the things that are skulking around this world more clearly. There are some really creepy claymation monstrosities that are out to get you as you explore the game’s five different stories, and they are more than happy to give you an eyeful of their every unsettling detail as they devour you whole. Now, I am especially susceptible to claymation creatures. A youth spent stumbling across claymation horrors like Large Marge in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure has given me a tremendous weak spot, and this game hits that hard with its creative array of monsters and just how fast they can start to chase you down (thank goodness for frequent hiding places). However, this game also tries to redeem the creepy claymation creature for me with Potboy, our scary, yet endearing and cute companion for most of the journey. Something about his uneasiness to go on this adventure and the slow trust you build with him over the course of the game left me caring a great deal about his safety. Valuing him as a friend in a frightening place that I’m glad I didn’t have to walk alone. The Midnight Walk is frightening in its encounters with its many creative monsters, but it also highlights how important it is to have someone to face your fears with together, even if you were initially scared of that buddy to begin with. The Midnight Walk is available now on the PlayStation Store and Steam. About The Author

A Bridgehampton home that Susan Breitenbach, a Hamptons real estate agent, sold for more than $14 million in May 2025. Courtesy of Susan Breitenbach 2025-06-05T08:07:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Hamptons home sales are booming despite stock market volatility and recession fears. Home sales were up about 86% in the first quarter over the same time period in 2024. Prices and sales are soaring in the beach destination despite Wall Street volatility. As Wall Street reels with every twist and turn in President Donald Trump's trade war, there's little sign of economic uncertainty in Manhattan's favorite beach destination just 100 miles east.Demand for luxury real estate in the Hamptons is only growing. Sales and home prices have surged over the last year.Rising prices in the tony enclave are nothing new. The pandemic ushered in a surge of buyers looking to escape the city. The median sales price of homes in the Hamptons in the first quarter of 2025 was more than $2 million, a 13% increase over the previous year and nearly double what it was five years ago, according to a recent Douglas Elliman report.Perhaps more notably, the pace of sales is also soaring this year. Sales were up about 86% in the first quarter over the same time period last year, according to the Douglas Elliman report. That's after home sales fell in the wake of the pandemic buying frenzy, and haven't returned to the highs of 2020."The tired story of the housing recovery coming out of the pandemic is high prices, low sales," Jonathan Miller, who leads the real estate appraisal and consulting firm Miller Samuel and authored the Douglas Elliman report, told Business Insider. "The Hamptons doesn't fit that pattern. It's high prices and high sales."Miller added that the sharp rise in sales is "unusual and counter to the prevailing trends."Susan Breitenbach, a top Hamptons real estate agent with the Corcoran Group, said she's closed more deals so far this year than in all of 2024. She's sold a slew of luxury homes, including a $17.5 million oceanfront property in Bridgehampton, an Amagansett home for $13 million, a Sag Harbor home on less than an acre for $21 million, and a Southampton house for $5.6 million. "It was really very surprising," Breitenbach, who's been selling property in the Hamptons for more than 30 years, told BI. A Southampton home Breitenbach sold for $5.6 million in May 2025. Courtesy of Susan Breitenbach While some agents like Breitenbach are closing deals at the highest end of the market, the middle of the Hamptons market — homes between $1 million and $5 million — has driven the uptick in sales. These "meat and potatoes" sales, Miller said, are way up.So-called "tangible assets," like luxury real estate in very in-demand markets, can be particularly attractive to certain investors when markets are wobbly.Global stocks plummeted following Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs announcement, and while they've mostly rebounded since the administration walked back some of their tariffs, markets are on edge. In early June, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development cut its forecast for the US economic growth rate in 2025 from 2.8% to 1.6%, citing Trump's trade policies."Hamptons real estate has a long history of appreciating over time," Andrew Saunders, president of the Hamptons real estate brokerage Saunders & Associates, told BI. Some more cautious buyers "might look at what's happening in the world at large and say, 'You know what, I'm going to wait a month or two and let the world take a few spins and see what happens.' But we're not seeing that occur en masse."Miller credited big Wall Street bonuses in 2024 for some of the spike in sales and agreed that market volatility could be pushing some to diversify their investments.The Hamptons rental market might be more sensitive to economic uncertainty. Breitenbach said rental interest was much higher than usual in January but has since fallen off. Miller, who doesn't track rentals in the Hamptons, added that an increase in sales would naturally lead to a drop in rental demand.Breitenbach recently listed a home on 2.5 acres of oceanfront property in Water Mill, which sits between Southampton and Bridgehampton, for $44.5 million. "It's not about the house, it's about the land," she added. "And that's a deal." A Southampton home Breitenbach sold for nearly $12.7 million in January. Courtesy of Susan Breitenbach Hamptons buyers are from all over. Breitenbach said she's seen an uptick in California buyers this year, and she still has foreign buyers. But a large share of her clients are still Manhattanites."A lot of it is the high-end New York — Manhattan — buyers, because there aren't many places they can go on the weekends," she said.Breitenbach said Memorial Day weekend this year felt more packed than ever out east, even with cooler-than-normal weather. "It looked like Fourth of July," she said.She doesn't expect market volatility and even threats of a recession to change that."It's going to be a busy summer in the Hamptons regardless," Breitenbach said. "People keep coming out here no matter what's going on."

Klarna’s CEO has warned that software engineers risk being left behind in the AI era — unless they’re also business-savvy. Speaking at SXSW London, Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the talent “who have really accelerated their careers at Klarna” are “business people who have learned to code.” The reason? “They can take their business understanding and turn it into deterministic or probabilistic statements with AI.” This shift, he warned, poses a threat to engineers. “A lot of them have allowed themselves to be isolated with technical challenges only, and not been that interested in what the business actually does,” he said. His message to them was blunt: “Engineers really need to step up and make sure they understand the business.” The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Siemiatkowski’s comments add another layer to Klarna’s controversial AI transformation. In December 2023, he said advances in the field had led the buy-now-pay-later firm to freeze hiring for all roles — except engineers. A year later, he had an update: the company had stopped bringing on new staff entirely. Open job listings, however, told a different story. Klarna also recently launched a new recruitment drive to ensure customers can always speak to a human. The apparent contradiction has drawn criticism, but the company is doubling down on automation. Last year, Klarna announced that its OpenAI-powered assistant was doing the work of 700 full-time customer service agents. It also used an AI-generated version of Siemiatkowski to present its financial update — suggesting even CEOs could be automated. The 43-year-old recently claimed that AI can already do “all of the jobs” that humans can do. At SXSW London, he stressed the need to be upfront about the risks. “I don’t want to be one of the tech CEOs that are like no worries everything will be fine, because I do think there will be major implications for white collar jobs and so I want to be honest about it,” he said. Despite the gloom, Siemiatkowski still sees big opportunities for people who blend business acumen with technical skills. “That category of people will become even more valuable going forward,” he said. Big names from both AI and fintech will be speaking at TNW Conference on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Want to join them? Well, we have a special offer for you — use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the ticket checkout to get 30% off. Story by Thomas Macaulay Managing editor Thomas is the managing editor of TNW. He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers. Away from work, he e (show all) Thomas is the managing editor of TNW. He leads our coverage of European tech and oversees our talented team of writers. Away from work, he enjoys playing chess (badly) and the guitar (even worse). Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

We may earn a commission from links on this page.While most people think of smart cameras as just a part of their security system, they’re also a good way to monitor the things growing in your yard. In most cases, the cameras you already have set up for security can be doing double duty as a tool to keep track of what's happening in your garden.I believe we’re on the cusp of smart cameras becoming a much bigger part of the gardening experience. For the last few years, smart bird houses have exploded in popularity. One of those companies, Bird Buddy, has launched an entirely new line of cameras specifically for micro-viewing experiences in the garden. Their Petal cameras, expected to be available next year, should be positioned closer to the ground than most security cameras, and are meant to capture bees, insects, and butterflies, as well as the growth of your plants. Using AI (as a subscription service), the camera will allow you to assign names to your plants and even communicate with them. Still, there is a lot you can do with security cameras already on the market. Remote monitoring Credit: Amanda Blum In an ideal world, you could pack up for vacation and your yard would take care of itself—but a smart camera can allow you to remotely keep an eye on what’s happening and monitor for any damage. What’s impressive to me is how well my solar-powered cameras maintain their connection, even during low temperatures and freezing rain.  I've been impressed at how much detail I can get from small plants through my cameras. Credit: Amanda Blum Cameras allow you to keep an active watch on your yard. Not only will your security camera let you know if your trusted waterer drops by while you're gone as promised, but you can actually see how your plants are doing and if additional help is needed.  I’m always impressed at how good the zoom is on the cameras I use around my yard; I can actually tell if a tomato is ripe or if broccoli is ready to be picked. Last year, when I couldn’t get outside because of a sprained ankle and had someone helping in the garden, being able to see what they were doing and communicate with them via my security camera was invaluable. It’s much more effective than trying to describe what you need or want. Catch pestsGarden pests are frustrating for a wealth of reasons. To start with, you often don’t know what kind of pest you’re dealing with, and it’s nearly impossible to catch them in the act. Smart cameras are perfect for this, because they give you fly-on-the-wall ability to passively watch. Motion detection does most of the work for you. My security camera let me know I had raccoons in my yard last winter. They weren’t doing any damage (yet), but it helped influence how I design my garden and chicken coops. The cameras identified the cat that had chosen my garden to use as a litter box, checking in each night around 1 a.m. I’ve been chasing down a rat for the last two weeks, and the cameras do a spectacular job of catching his activity, which tells me where to add traps and what I may be doing that is enabling him. Other uses for smart cameras in your yard Credit: Amanda Blum The most invaluable service I’ve gotten from my cameras are how I use them to monitor backyard pets. I could not figure out how my newly adopted doberman was escaping from the yard, so I installed security cameras, and discovered she was climbing a five-foot tall chain link fence. I’ve got three cameras installed in my chicken coop, and they tell me when there are eggs to be grabbed, if a chicken is becoming broody, if everyone got into the coop at night, and if that pesky rat has cracked into the chicken food. When I first got my chickens, I couldn’t figure out which bird was laying which color egg, but the cameras helped. And now that I have a beehive, being able to see the activity going in and out of the hive is a helpful to monitor the health of the hive, and if a rodent of any kind tries to get in, I’ll know immediately. How to choose a camera for your yardI’ve tried smart cameras from almost every major brand, and I’ve figured out some things. First, in almost all cases, I want a PTZ (point, tilt, zoom) camera. These allow you to use your phone as a remote control and move the camera around, often almost 360 degrees, to zoom in on what you want. This is far superior to a fixed range camera. It’s simply annoying to have something going on just outside of the range of your camera and not be able to do anything to adjust it remotely. Additionally, I look for an app that makes it easy to watch clips. While I think Reolink cameras are affordable and functional, their app forces you to watch a horizontal clip on a vertical screen, so details are incredibly small. The Ring app has a lot of bloat, bringing neighborhood alert notifications to your phone. I enjoy the Aqara, Switchbot, and Eufy apps for getting to the video quickly and easily. Lastly, as you add cameras to your collection, being able to remain free from subscription costs is a real bonus. For that reason, I have largely switched over to Eufy cameras, which—if connected to a Home Base—don’t need a subscription. What I use in my yard: I replaced all my floodlights with this camera for overhead views Eufy Wired Floodlight Cam $199.99 at Amazon $219.99 Save $20.00 Shop Now Shop Now $199.99 at Amazon $219.99 Save $20.00 I place these wireless cams anyplace I want a 360 view of what's happening in my yard. Eufy Solar Powered Wireless Camera $259.99 at Amazon $349.99 Save $90.00 Shop Now Shop Now $259.99 at Amazon $349.99 Save $90.00 I have this epoxied into three spots in my chicken coop. Eufy Indoor PTZ Camera $34.88 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $34.88 at Amazon Just added this to monitor my beehive. Eufycam S3 Pro $439.99 at Amazon $549.99 Save $110.00 Get Deal Get Deal $439.99 at Amazon $549.99 Save $110.00 All my cameras sync to the homebase so I don't need a subscription. Eufy HomeBase $149.99 at Amazon Get Deal Get Deal $149.99 at Amazon SEE 2 MORE Where to place your camera Credit: Amanda Blum All security cameras are either hardwired or wireless. You might already have exterior floodlights on your home, and wired security cameras can use those connections, replacing the lights (many units come with floodlights). In this case, your connection is likely high up, and can’t be moved easily. So long as it’s high up, you likely have a good field of vision of your yard, but make sure to consider plants that grow in the summer, and if they’ll block your view. If you don’t have these connections available and don’t want to pay an electrician to create them, you need wireless cameras. But I actually prefer my wireless cameras. First, the solar power on most of them is astounding. I live in the Pacific Northwest, a place with seven months of gloom, and my cameras always stay powered. Second, being wireless means you can move your camera around to find the perfect spot. Usually all you need is to screw the base into the spot you want the camera. Don’t be afraid to try different spots, when I was chasing down how my dog escaped, I had to keep moving the camera. I attached the camera to a 2x4, and moved the wood around the yard, leaning it against whatever was near until I found the right range of vision. 

BUTTPEACH Quantum Witch is a story of religious oppression, queer emancipation, and a dancing skeleton that hopes to popularise the ‘plotformer’ genre We spoke to Quantum Witch’s lone developer – NikkiJay – about how her experiences as part of a religious cult shaped the development of her game, an 80s-style ‘plotformer’ about finding your lost flock of faer. Image credit: NikkiJay Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on May 29, 2025 You might not have heard of Quantum Witch, but if you’ve an affinity for pixel-art platformers with engaging story-beats, meta-narratives, and an array of kooky characters, then you should be all over it. To just call Quantum Witch a colourful platformer with a strong narrative (read: ‘plotformer’) is to do it a disservice, though. Quantum Witch is so much more than its vibrant pixels; it is NikkiJay’s personal story of fleeing a religious cult, embracing her LGBTQ+ identity, and seeking solace in video games. There’s a dark undercurrent, but ultimately, Nikki chooses to tell her story – and a story that many others will no doubt see themselves in – with humour and pride. To get a better idea of exactly what informed Quantum Witch and how the indie ‘plotformer’ came together, VG247 sat down with NikkiJay to ask how growing up in a religious cult led to the development of the game and what she hopes audiences will get from it. The below interview discusses religious trauma, coercive control, and the abuse of power. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. VG247: I’m aware that Quantum Witch is largely informed by your own personal experiences of fleeing a religious cult; would you mind sharing some more about your experience, and how it has informed Quantum Witch’s story and characters? Nikki: I was born into the group and my family on both sides were third generation. Age 10, I needed my tonsils out and I had to tell the surgeon that I would rather die than accept certain medical treatments. As a 10-year-old, it's one of the questions they ask when you go for CPTSD diagnosis: “did you at any point honestly really believe you were going to die?” Yeah, I was told I had to be prepared for that. I had to die for God if that was the option that was presented to me. Either take this medical treatment that God said I couldn't have or die. I had to choose death. This cult literally kills kids for God. A lot of people stayed because the alternative was to lose your entire support structure and social network. You were literally by yourself with nothing, which was the option I chose in the end. It’s high coercive control. This way, they say that you have the personality God wants you to have. Religious control and abuse of that power is the biggest theme that made it into Quantum Witch. It is very much again about urgency and choice: I think if people have been through similar things, it's going to resonate with them. VG247: During the demo, I got the impression that Ren is largely not interested in the religious beliefs shared with her by others in Quantum Witch, but she still appears to have a fascination with the Old Gods. I have two questions about this: is Ren on the fence, so to speak, about her beliefs? Does this align with any of your thoughts and feelings about religion now? Nikki: Yeah, I am agnostic. I am a skeptic. I have to be open to the possibilities. A skeptic who isn't open to possibilities isn’t a skeptic. They're a cynic, and Ren is very much a skeptic. The majority of the characters in the game are just aspects of me that I've made into a character, it's just a little piece of me that I've enhanced without turning it into a stereotype as far as I can. Tyra [Ren’s partner] is more cynical: ‘come on, it's nonsense’. And Ren’s like, ‘no, let's go find out’. Her desire to go explore is going to lead her into things that she shouldn't have explored in the way that she's going to. But yeah, she is definitely that part of me who would like for there to be magic. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: Quantum Witch’s marketplace – which features unnamed characters that bear uncanny resemblances to some iconic video game mascots – is what I assume to be a representation of some of your favourite games. The game itself regularly reminded me of themes and mechanics from Undertale, The Binding of Isaac, and even Stardew Valley. What other games or pieces of media helped inspire Quantum Witch, and how? Nikki: I love Undertale. What I loved about Undertale is the mixture of all those styles and then you'd be talking to a character and suddenly you have to play a really fast reaction game. I can't do that. I'm too old. But it was a big inspiration in the style of game I wanted to create. As for the reason why the video game characters are there in the plot of [Quantum Witch’s] story; they do tie into the plot and there's a little hint that they say. And I just loved putting in my alternate takes on who these characters were. You might know Paul Rose from Digitizer. At the very beginning of the project, I had all my story beats worked out. This is what's going to happen. This is how it's all going to interact, but I could not – for the life of me – start it. I couldn't build the bridges between these beats and Rose helped me a lot. He did a script treatment and some of the dialogue in the marketplace is directly from him; [one of the characters you meet is] talking about pills and I was like, ‘that that just fits in perfectly because there is a character later on who might need that pill’. It’s also a bit of a cue for me to have the characters talk about medication. . I also wanted to add some queer flavor to them, so Princess Nectarine – who is similar to but legally distinct from a certain Nintendo character – is in a polycule with Bowser and Mario and they like to roleplay kidnapping. I did not set out to make a queer game. It's turned out that way because I can't help it, but it's not all these characters are. VG247: I know you’re a solo developer and this is a largely solo project, but I’m aware you’ve received some help with the whole endeavour. You mentioned Paul Rose. So could you tell me more about the people who have helped you with creating Quantum Witch and what they did? Nikki: I must absolutely shout out Jerden Cooke for the music. We composed a lot of it together, [with] me mostly on the ukulele which you can hear in Ren's theme. I don't know if you've seen the video clip of David Lynch helping compose Laura's Theme from Twin Peaks. Working with him is like that. I got some fantastic music which was like the music I could hear in my head when I started playing on the ukulele. He was able to put it down, basically extract it from my head, and put it into a word file. And Paul Rose; I knew him through Digitizer meetups. We just got talking on Twitter one day and met up. He's a great guy and things came about quite naturally because it was when Covid hit and a lot of TV work got cancelled. I said to him, look, you should get yourself on Fiverr. Put your writing services out there because people should be paying for this. I will be your first customer, and so I was! Without his help, this would have still been a collection of little story beats that I would have had no idea how to wire together. And I've always wanted to work with Stephanie Sterling. What if I just ping her on Bluesky and say, "Hey, want to write a chapter of this game? It's got a dancing skeleton in it." She said, "Yeah, I'm in." She said that when she started to do it, she wasn't entirely sure whether it would be the right project because she just saw a [dancing] skeleton. The more she wrote for [Quantum Witch] and the more she played the game, she went, "Yeah, this is my wheelhouse,” and she poured her religious trauma into it, which happened to just fit absolutely perfectly. It's like I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with, and this is kind of what I want to say to indie developers who are solo. You're not alone. You might just want one name on the credit, but it takes a village to raise a child. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: I was taken aback by just how cosy the game is. Admittedly, even with the subject matter, I didn’t expect – largely given the art style – for this to be all doom and gloom, but I definitely didn’t expect something so jovial and honestly, straight-up funny. How did you decide that this was the approach you wanted to take when creating Ren’s story? Nikki: [Stardew Valley], Chrono Trigger and Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door are my three most played games. I love the style of Stardew Valley and I love that there's some darkness hidden in Stardew Valley. I really liked the humor in it. I mean, if you thought I shouldn't be laughing at this, but I am, then that’s an achievement. That's exactly what I wanted. My main coping mechanism is humor. I'm not saying it's a healthy coping mechanism, but it kind of works. And I mean, I was heavily influenced by reading a lot of Douglas Adams. and he was able to find humor in the most bleak situations. And the graphical style… When I started this, I couldn't draw a convincing stick figure. I look at the art that I did four years ago when I started messing about with this idea and it's just embarrassing. Objectively terrible, but my main influences were Stardew Valley and The Darkside Detective. I loved the low-resolution style art, but there was so much character in them. So, I took a pixel art course on Udemy and a color theory course and… then just found, hey, I can do this now. That's weird. VG247: While looking into Quantum Witch and yourself, I found a lovely quote of yours from The Guardian: “A lot of religion is about giving up autonomy to some mystical power that you’ve never seen, heard or met. Over the course of the game, Ren takes that agency back… It’s a queer emancipation story.” Could you expand on this? Nikki: The consequence of being yourself in a group that says ‘no, being yourself is wrong’ is that you just get thrown out. It's weird because I think of my experiences as unique, but the themes they really do seem to be universal. Stephanie Sterling from The Jimquisition: she wrote a chapter of the later part of the game. I originally said to her, can you write these three scenes? She came back and said “I couldn't stop writing. I just love this universe” It's weird, because you wouldn't know it was a different author. The religious oppression of queer people is the same wherever you go. I'm really hoping just that I've got that balance right between a game that's fun and cozy and humorous, – that there is a dancing skeleton who can see through time – but also has that deeper meaning and that message that you take back control. A lot of people would look at this and think ‘you must be anti-religion’ and I'm 100% for freedom of religion, but that also means I'm 100% for freedom from religion. Whether you've got faith or not, nobody wants somebody else's faith forced on you. You can't have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: How long is Quantum Witch set to be, and how many endings will there be? I know you also mentioned some side quests having various conclusions, as well as the game’s main endings being different depending on your decisions. Nikki: I watched a tester play from beginning to end. It took him about three and a half hours, and he got my second favorite ending. He had questions about the lore and I said, "play it again and make different choices, and you'll get a different ending, which will probably answer that for you." It's difficult to say how many endings there are. There's three definite categories of endings. There's bleak. There's interesting, where you kind of get a bittersweet ending, and then there's the super happy ending, and there are variations on each of those. [These depend] on the characters you've helped. There's also little puzzles that you can go and solve which can enhance the happy ending. It's kind of like an open-world choose-your-own adventure book, but in pixel format. If I'm going to do a full playthrough of all choices and all stories, I will easily put aside six or seven hours to do it and I wrote it. So, I'm not trying to discover it. I think it's like The Stanley Parable in that sense. VG247: I also learned that Quantum Witch could have been a novel. It could have initially started out that way and you then obviously decided to turn this into a game. How did that come about? Nikki: One of my friends was doing the National Novel Writing November. I thought, I've got this story in my head which might fit, so I started writing it. I don't know if anybody's realized this, [but video games] are quite difficult to make, and novels are very easy because you just type... I was wrong and I really did not enjoy writing it. I decided, thinking back on my childhood, I want to make this into a game. I want to make this interactive. Choice is a big theme. I want to give the player a choice. And it did end up as a point and click [game] for a while, rather than a plotformer. No matter what you do, it is a valid choice. There are no game over screens in Quantum Witch. Anything you do is just a part of the story and the game is over when you get the credits. Quantum Witch is a surprisingly cosy and jovial take on topics of religious trauma and queer identities, but if your curiosity about this game is piqued, it’s up to you to find out all of its secrets. NikkiJay stresses that there’s so much to discover for those who are eager to explore the game and discover all of its various paths, endings, and dialogue. For those who want to try Quantum Witch out, you can find a demo for the game on Steam, and it’ll also be participating in Steam’s Next Fest during June.

ZDNETThe Memorial Day forecast is looking mild and gloomy, so if you aren't soaking up the sun at the beach this holiday, maybe you're shopping for some summer essentials instead. It might sound silly to consider a health tracker a summer essential. I test them out year-round, and they come in handy while I exercise at the park, pay for food and snacks at the beach (thank you, Apple Pay on Apple Watch), or track my steps on vacation. I've rounded up some of my favorite health trackers you can shop at a discount right now, ahead of Memorial Day. From a fitness tracker fit for marathon training to a smart ring that will capture your night's rest and recovery, these are the deals I recommend mostShop Amazon Memorial Day dealsMy favorite Memorial Day health tracker deals Nina Raemont/ZDNET Current price: $200Original price: $250The nice thing about buying one of Oura's earlier model smart rings is you'll get the same app and software experience -- just a different form factor and one less day of battery life. If prospective Oura Ring buyers don't mind this, they should opt for the Oura Ring 3, which has reduced its price by around 20% since the Oura Ring 4's debut.The Oura Ring tracks your daily sleep, stress, activity, and readiness to deliver scores, insights, and recommendations. It's a great health tracker for people looking to optimize their sleep and activity routine, but who want gentle recommendations and encouragements that won't make them feel bad about a poor night of sleep or a day of low activity. It's constantly innovating with new features, like a Cardiovascular Age feature that tells you if your physiological age is ahead, behind, or at your chronological age. Plus, it partners with other health brands, like Dexcom, so you can keep track of your glucose levels on the Oura app if you use its Stelo continuous glucose monitor. The smart ring is compatible with Android and iOS phones, so everybody can use it to capture data. The only downside of an Oura Ring is its $70 annual subscription (which is not on sale) to unlock all that data it collects and displays. The Ring Gen 3 is also an sale in select finishes and sizes at Oura.  Show more View now at Amazon Kerry Wan/ZDNET Current price: $299Original price: $399I test health trackers for a living, but even when I am (or am not) testing a wearable for work, I have the Apple Watch Series 10 on my wrist. As an avid exerciser who goes to the gym most days of the week, no fitness tracker makes me feel as on top of my exercise as my Apple Watch and my closed activity rings. This deal applies to the Apple Watch Series 10 in rose gold and silver. The sport loop the smartwatch comes with is uber-comfortable, especially for exercise, and also moisture-wicking (I've taken many a shower with this smartwatch on and haven't had any issues of prolonged wetness. The Apple Watch Series 10 is an accurate health and sleep tracker that doubles as your iPhone's assistant. Yes, you can record hundreds of workouts on the Fitness app or stay up to date on your sleep in the Vitals app, but you can also set timers while you're cooking, respond to calls or texts, and even locate your lost phone with a quick and easy ping. That's the best part of Apple Watch -- you get accurate data aggregation of your health metrics and a personal assistant around your wrist.  Show more View now at Amazon Matthew Miller/ZDNET Current price: $350Original price: $450Maybe you want a health tracker that you'll only wear during workouts -- or you aren't an iPhone owner and an Apple Watch wouldn't work with your phone. Either way, if you aren't interested in the Apple Watch Series 10, I'd recommend the Garmin Venu 3S instead. Garmin watches are loved by runners, bikers, and outdoorsy exercisers, and they come with several health and sleep-tracking features that rival Oura and Apple. Unlike the Apple Watch's one-day battery life, the Garmin Venu 3S comes with a ten-day battery life to power a week's worth of walk, run, or cycle sessions. It also tracks your sleep -- and naps -- to identify sleep stages and monitor vitals during rest. Even though it doesn't have the seamless integration of an Apple Watch for an iPhone or a Galaxy Watch for a Samsung phone, you can still take calls straight from your watch once it's paired with your smartphone.  Show more View now at Amazon Jason Hiner/ZDNET Current price: $199Original price: $250 Apple has released new earbuds since it debuted the AirPods Pro 2 in 2022, but none have been able to match the Pro 2's software and hardware functionalities. These are Apple's best earbuds, and lucky for us, they regularly go on sale. The AirPods Pro 2 include noise cancellation that minimizes distractions around you, microphones that make your voice clear on calls, and a battery life that will carry you through a run, workday, or commute home. Other benefits of the Pro 2 within the Apple ecosystem include getting text notifications spoken to you through the earbuds as you're on the go, and a seamless connection and setup.  Show more View now at Amazon FAQs When is Memorial Day? Memorial Day is Monday, May 26.  How did I choose these Memorial Day deals? As I type this, three fitness trackers are around my wrist and fingers. I wear and test these health trackers constantly and have developed opinions on which ones are worth buying -- and which ones are worthy of skipping. I and someone on the ZDNET team have tested and can vouch for the products I recommended above. Looking for the next best product? Get expert reviews and editor favorites with ZDNET Recommends. Show more ZDNET Recommends

May 23, 20255 min readThe Creepy Calculus of Measuring Death RiskMeet micromorts and microlives, statistical units that help mathematicians to calculate riskBy Manon Bischoff edited by Daisy Yuhas M-SUR/Alamy Stock PhotoPeople are generally bad at assessing probabilities. That’s why we have irrational fears and why we overestimate our odds of winning the lottery.Whenever I have to travel by plane, for example, my palms sweat, my heart races and my thoughts take a gloomy turn. I should be much more worried when I get on my bike in Darmstadt, Germany, where I live. Statistically, I’m in much greater danger on the road than in the air. Yet my bike commute doesn’t cause me any stress at all.Recently, a friend told me about a concept within decision theory that is supposed to help people get a better sense of hazards and risks. In 1980 electrical engineer Ronald Arthur Howard coined the micromort unit to quantify life-threatening danger.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.One micromort corresponds to a one-in-a-million chance of dying during a certain activity. Do you want to run a marathon? The risk is seven micromorts. Are you going under general anesthesia? That’s 10 micromorts. To arrive at these figures, you first need detailed statistics. How many people engaged in these activities and died in the process? And the results depend heavily on the group of people being studied (their age, gender, and so on), as well as the geographic location.Better Living through StatisticsSurprisingly, the history of statistics doesn’t go back very far. In the 17th century, British demographer John Graunt pioneered mortality statistics by analyzing records of deaths and baptisms. But it would take another 200 years for society to recognize the social benefits of these approaches.Today the utility of this mathematical subfield is undisputed. Insurance companies and banks use statistics to carry out risk assessments. Statistical surveys make it possible to investigate psychological and sociological phenomena. Physical research would be unthinkable without statistics.Thanks to Howard and the micromort, the risks in our everyday lives can also be estimated with the help of statistics. By examining the proportion of people who die while undertaking a particular activity, he was able to create a general mortality risk for those activities.But more recently, mathematician David Spiegelhalter noticed something missing in Howard’s analysis: the micromort unit merely indicates how likely it is that a very specific action will kill us. This may make sense for a one-off activity such as climbing a mountain. But for long-term habits, such as regularly eating fast food, the measure is of only limited use.For example, smoking a cigarette causes just 0.21 micromort and would therefore be significantly less risky than getting out of bed in the morning at the age of 45 (which results in six micromorts). Smoking, however, has long-lasting negative consequences for the body that getting up in the morning does not. The long-term risk is therefore not recorded.So Spiegelhalter introduced the “microlife” measure to take into account the long-term effects of different activities. This quantifies how much life you lose on average by carrying out an activity. Each microlife that is lost reduces your life expectancy by half an hour. Two hours of watching TV each day might cost one microlife, for instance.One of the most significant differences between micromorts and microlives is that one of the two types of units compounds over time, and the other does not. If I survive my morning bike ride to the Darmstadt train station, my micromort count for that ride drops back to zero. The next day I start the journey again with the same risk.It’s different with microlife data: if I smoke a cigarette and then a second one an hour later, the time I’ve lost adds up. And of course, the mere ticking of the clock also shortens my available years of life. Every day 48 microlives are lost.But unlike micromorts, I can regain microlives. For example, a 20-minute walk provides me with around two microlives—that is, an extra hour of life expectancy. And eating a healthy diet with fruits and vegetables could gain you four microlives daily.Reality CheckAll these facts and figures are entertaining to read about and can make for interesting conversation starters—“Hey, did you know that this beer shortens your life by about 15 minutes?”—at least with the right crowd. But how do you calculate the microlives you lose as a result of an action?First, you have to compare the life expectancy of different people. For example: How does the life expectancy of smokers and nonsmokers differ? By taking this difference and dividing it by the average number of cigarettes smoked, we can calculate the average amount of time that each cigarette robs us of.This result is clearly inexact. The difference in life expectancy will also depend on factors such as a person’s gender, place of residence and age. These data can still be captured, but when it comes to general lifestyle factors, things get complicated. For example, studies show that many smokers generally have an unhealthier lifestyle and exercise less.Such correlations cannot always be calculated and accounted for. When it comes to smoking, however, there have been long-term studies that followed many people, some of whom stopped smoking at some point in their life, over several decades.These data make it easier to isolate the effect that smoking has on a person’s life expectancy. Such research suggests that a single cigarette is likely to rob a person of slightly less than the originally calculated 15 minutes of life if they have the other lifestyle habits of a nonsmoker. So should we be consulting statistics at the start of every day to maximize our lifespan? Perhaps we should be studying these analyses to engage in activities with as few micromorts as possible and try to gain, rather than lose, microlives?Not exactly. Micromorts and microlives can help you better assess risks. But you shouldn’t attach too much importance to them. After all, our world is complex. You may gain back two microlives during a walk, but you could also get in an unlucky accident along the way and be hit by a car. Ultimately, micromorts and microlives are just too simple a tool to evaluate the full range of consequences associated with an action. Exercise can improve your state of mind, which has a positive effect not only on your quality of life but also on your lifespan.That said, it can still be a source of comfort to turn to statistics—particularly when we want to understand if our fear is rational or not. For my part, I will try to remind myself of how few micromorts are associated with flying. Maybe that will help.This article originally appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft and was reproduced with permission.

Warhammer 40K unveils Boltgun 2, tactical RPG Dark Heresy, and, yes, a free typing game Plus new Space Marine 2 DLC and more. Image credit: Owlcat News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on May 22, 2025 It's been a busy day in the grimdark world of Warhammer 40K, thanks to its latest video game focused Warhammer Skulls showcase. Not only have we learned a couple of classics getting a spruce-up, there's brand-new stuff coming too, including a Boltgun sequel, new tactical RPG Dark Heresy, plus a smattering of fresh DLC. Warhammer 40K: Boltgun 2, which seems as good a place as any to start, is exactly what it sounds like - a follow-up to developer Auroch Digital's acclaimed 2023 retro shooter Boltgun. Details are relatively limited at present, but it'll pick up immediately after the events of the first game, and offer another helping of old-school-inspired FPS action over the course of its branching single-player campaign. There's talk of new locations - "from the colossal heights of a hive city to the impenetrable mangrove swamps of a jungle" - plus new weapons and never-before-seen foes, including the ferocious Bloodletters and their daemonic Juggernauts. Warhammer 40K Boltgun 2 teaser trailer.Watch on YouTube All that's coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC sometime in 2026. However! There's an extra - and more immediate - treat for Boltgun fans in the form of Boltgun: Words of Vengeance. This "first person typer" twist on the retro shooter - in which players must deploy their QWERTY skills for maximum carnage - is entirely free and available to download on Steam today. Elsewhere in the gloomy world of Warhammer 40K, developer Owlcat has announced Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy, a "narrative-driven tactical RPG" set against the backdrop of the Noctis Aeterna and the mystery of the Tyrant Star. "Players will lead a warband of diverse companions in a desperate battle against heresy and corruption," the studio explains, "from loyal Imperial subjects, such as a veteran Guardsman from the death world of Catachan, to nefarious xenos, including a bird-like Kroot mercenary." Warhammer 40K: Dark Heresy announcement trailer.Watch on YouTube There's talk of full voice acting, "intricate investigations", turn-based combat, and "choices that carry grave consequences", all said to build on the ideas introduced in Owlcat's Rogue Trader. And if that sounds intriguing, Dark Heresy is coming to Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC (via Steam, GOG, and Epic) at some currently undisclosed future point. Speaking of Rogue Trader, Owlcat has also announced a 24th June release date for the game's second expansion, Lex Imperialis. This introduces a faction of "incorruptible enforcers" known as the Adeptus Arbites, plus a new companion - Solomorne Anthar - across its 15-hour storyline. Additionally, the studio has revealed it's working on a Season Pass 2 for Rogue Trader, bundling together an appearance customisation pack and two more 15-hour expansions - each featuring new quests and a new companion. The first of these expansions takes players to a Necron vault curated by Trazyn the Infinite, where they'll encounter ancient guardians and uncover relics relating to the Von Valancius legacy. The second new expansion promises a "descent into madness and mystery" as they explore a "surreal" voidship graveyard. Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader - Lex Imperialis release date trailerWatch on YouTube And while we're on the subject of DLC, there's one last bit of business to discuss in the form of Space Marine 2's new Siege mode. This "endless" PvE mode for the acclaimed shooter unfolds on Kadaku, where three players must survive against ever-more-deadly waves of Tyranid and Chaos as they attempt to defend an Imperial fortress. It'll be playable on Steam via developer Saber Interactive's Public Test Server starting 4th June, and it gets its full release across all platforms as part of a free update on 26th June. Space Marine 2 - Siege Mode teaser trailer.Watch on YouTube All of which pretty much covers the big Warhammer 40K news, but it's probably also worth mentioning there are currently significant discounts across a huge number of Warhammer games on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as part of today's Warhammer Day celebrations.