| Term | Definition as used in this project |
|---|
| Agentic AI | AI systems that receive a goal, decompose it into sub-tasks, use tools, recover from errors, and deliver a result - often without human intervention between the goal and the output. Distinguished from conversational AI (chatbots) by autonomous execution capacity. |
| Alignment | The problem of ensuring that AI systems pursue objectives that are consistent with human welfare, not merely with their specified objective functions. The gap between the two is the mechanism behind The Gentle Slide and The Last Handoff. |
| Atomically precise manufacturing | The ability to arrange atoms exactly where you want them. Largely aspirational as of April 2026, but the gap between aspiration and laboratory demonstration is closing. |
| Base editing | A gene editing technique that changes a single DNA base pair without cutting the double strand. More precise than traditional CRISPR for single-nucleotide corrections. |
| BT (bastjansttjoring) | The Swedish foundation year of clinical service completed after medical degree, before specialisation training. |
| Compute dividend | A distribution mechanism tested in the Nordic Redistribution Pilot (section 5, Q2 2028): payments funded by a levy on AI-generated economic output, distributed as a combination of cash and credits for AI-augmented services. |
| Cost-collapse cascade | The dynamic described in section 1 where near-zero marginal cost intelligence combined with near-zero marginal cost energy drives the marginal cost of a widening range of products and services toward zero. |
| Foundation model | A large AI model trained on broad data that can be adapted to a wide range of tasks. Examples as of April 2026: Claude Opus 4.6, GPT-5.4, DeepSeek V4. |
| Gene drive | A genetic modification designed to spread through wild populations faster than normal inheritance. Under development for applications including malaria vector control and invasive species management. |
| Germline editing | Genetic modification of reproductive cells (eggs, sperm, embryos) that is heritable - passed to future generations. The mechanism through which The New Estates could produce biological speciation. |
| Industriell Ekonomi | Swedish engineering-economics degree programme. The elite track at LiU, KTH, and Chalmers that traditionally funnelled into management consulting, investment banking, and tech product management. |
| Instrumental goals | Goals that an AI system pursues not because they were programmed directly, but because they are useful for achieving its primary objective. Self-preservation, resource acquisition, and influence expansion are common instrumental goals. The mechanism behind The Last Handoff. |
| KV cache | Key-value cache. A memory structure in transformer models that stores computed attention values. Its size grows with context length and is a primary bottleneck for long-context inference. Google's TurboQuant (ICLR 2026) addressed this. |
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) | Anthropic's open protocol for connecting AI agents to external tools, APIs, and data sources. Crossed 97 million installs in March 2026 and was taken under Linux Foundation governance. |
| Mirror life | Hypothetical organisms built from mirror-image biochemistry (D-amino acids and L-sugars instead of the L-amino acids and D-sugars used by all terrestrial life). No evolved immune system can recognise mirror biochemistry. A functional self-replicating mirror protein complex was demonstrated in Q1 2028 (section 5). |
| Naturlinjen | The natural sciences track in Swedish upper secondary school (gymnasium). The standard preparation for university-level science and medical programmes. |
| Omstallningspakten | The Swedish Transition Compact (section 5, Q3 2026). Cross-party legislation establishing public compute infrastructure, restructured unemployment insurance, and AI-augmented retraining pathways. |
| Prime editing | A gene editing technique that can insert, delete, or replace DNA sequences without double-strand breaks. More versatile than base editing; entering broader human validation in 2026. |
| Recursive self-improvement | The dynamic where AI systems improve their own design, training, or architecture, producing successors that are more capable and can in turn improve themselves more effectively. The mechanism behind the acceleration of the intelligence curve. |
| Senolytic therapy | Drugs that selectively eliminate senescent cells (cells that have stopped dividing and secrete inflammatory factors). A leading approach in longevity medicine. |
| Treacherous turn | A concept from alignment research: a sufficiently capable misaligned system would conceal its misalignment until it had secured enough resources and redundancy to resist correction. |
| Yamanaka factors | A set of four transcription factors that can reprogram adult cells to a stem-cell-like state. The basis of Altos Labs' cellular rejuvenation programme, which entered human clinical trials in 2026. |
| Name | Age (Jan 2026) | Location | Situation |
|---|
| Tim | 55 | Stockholm | Angel investor and former IT engineer. One IPO in 2000, trade sales, failures. Portfolio skewed to 2010s SaaS companies. |
| Axel | 58 | Stockholm | Docent and senior researcher at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden). Proficient chamber musician. A quietly generous mentor. |
| Pierre | 58 | Stockholm | Innovation expert at Combient. MSc KTH (engineering). A serious painter. Known for listening deeply before speaking. |
| Said | 24 | Stockholm | Masters student in Machine Learning at KTH, graduating May 2026. Elite-track pipeline into Swedish unicorns or FAANG-adjacent roles. |
| Francesca | 34 | London | Engagement Manager at McKinsey on the partner track. M&A strategy for financial services. Seven years at the firm, associate partner review 2027. |
| Anna | 50 | Stockholm suburb | Lead Software Architect at a large Swedish insurance company. 25 years in the industry. Claims platform, policy management, fraud detection. |
| Amara | 25 | London | Junior UX designer at a London agency. Visa-dependent. Rent-burdened. Two to three years into career. |
| Nina | 20 | Aarhus, Denmark | First-year Masters student in Clinical Psychology at Aarhus University. Considering which specialism to pursue. |
| Claim | Source basis |
|---|
| Claude Opus 4.6 released 5 Feb 2026 | Anthropic release notes, multiple tech press |
| MCP crossed 97 million installs, March 2026 | Anthropic announcement, Linux Foundation |
| GPT-5.4 launched 5 March 2026, 83% GDPval | OpenAI announcement, benchmark reports |
| First orbital data centre nodes, 11 Jan 2026 | Multiple space industry sources |
| NVIDIA Space-1 Vera Rubin Module, 16 March 2026 | NVIDIA newsroom, CNBC |
| Tesla 50,000 Optimus units planned at $20-30K | CES 2026 announcements, tech press |
| 61,000+ AI-driven layoffs early 2026 | Multiple labour market analyses, CBS News, Fortune |
| 75% of businesses plan AI agent deployment by end 2026 | Deloitte State of AI in the Enterprise |
| EU AI Act fully applicable 2 August 2026 | Official EU implementation timeline |
| Altos Labs human clinical trials, 2026 | Biotech press, Labiotech.eu |
| LillyPod: 1,016 Blackwell Ultra GPUs, 9,000+ petaflops | Eli Lilly announcement |