mtf.tv's MTF: Ukraine deploys robots... Trump: Bitcoin or bust... Elon Musk's Neuralink cures deaf?
Plus, where to build on Mars.
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UKRAINE
🤖 THE FIRST ROBOT WAR HAS BEGUN: For the first time ever, robots are fighting on a real battlefield — and Ukraine is ahead of Russia.
—> HISTORY IS HAPPENING: In a shattered brutalist complex outside Kyiv, Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade is training robots for war. Not simulations. Not war games. Actual combat. Ukraine has just approved Murakha, a half-ton tracked machine built to crawl through mines, mud, and artillery fire. It joins other Ukrainian robots already active near the front.
—> CODE VERSUS KREMLIN: These robots don’t just haul gear. They shoot. They scout. They medevac. And they adapt. Ukrainian troops are hacking the platforms in real time — turning delivery bots into grenade launchers, Lego-style battlefield builds designed to survive Russia’s EW systems and strike back faster.
—> THIS IS NEW TERRITORY: Never before have this many unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) been deployed at this scale, in this intensity of war. Soldiers are no longer just carrying weapons — they’re commanding bots that carry more, go further, and don’t bleed.
—> THE FUTURE: ROBOTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD: Ukraine is proving that with ingenuity and open systems, you don’t need more troops — you need smarter machines. Russia is trying to catch up. But for now, Ukraine is rewriting warfare.
Source: Economist | Kyiv Independent | Business Insider
hello, future. it’s me, kev.
…and this is a dispatch from the digital frontier. It’s time to meet the future NOW — with the latest on markets, tech, and freedom. The day is 180. The year is 2025. The planet is Earth.
The planet has complete 49.3 percent of its orbit around the Sun. My name is Kevin Cirilli —> LinkedIn. Spotify. Sign-up to receive the future in your inbox here.
Back to the future...
BRAIN CHIPS
🧠 ELON MUSK: NEURALINK COULD CURE DEAFNESS — AND GIVE YOU BETTER VISION THAN A HAWK: From restoring hearing to upgrading sight, Neuralink is trying to turn science fiction into your next doctor’s visit.
—> WHAT’S HAPPENING: Elon Musk says there’s now a “clear path” for Neuralink to restore hearing, even for people born totally deaf — by bypassing the ear and directly activating neurons in the brain. No timeline yet, but he says it’s “possible.”
—> HUMAN TRIALS STARTING SOON: The company is moving faster with vision. Neuralink’s Blindsight chip — which could restore eyesight and possibly go beyond human limits — is expected to begin human implants within 6 to 12 months. It targets the visual cortex directly.
—> MEET THE FUTURE: Hearing aides may one day be a thing of the past. One paralyzed man is already using Neuralink to control a computer with his mind. Next up: people seeing and hearing again — maybe better than ever. Neuralink isn’t just about healing. It’s about upgrading.
Source: Men’s Journal | The Debrief
MARS
🚀 MARS BASE LOCATED: Scientists found water ice just beneath the surface — and a launch-ready zone for humanity’s first settlement on the Red Planet.
—> MEET AMAZONIS PLANITIA: This is the spot: a massive volcanic plain in Mars’ mid-latitudes where just enough sunlight meets just enough cold. Temps hover between -80°F and -100°F — harsh, but mild by Martian standards. Crucially, water ice lies less than one meter below the dusty surface. A University of Mississippi team spotted the signs using NASA satellite data. For mission planners, it’s the Goldilocks zone — ideal for power, ice, and access.
—> WHY THIS IS HUGE: Water on Mars = survival. It powers life support, farming, even fuel. This isn’t just a target — it’s a terraforming resource. Shallow ice makes ISRU real. This is how we stay.
—> DEFINE ISRU, via NASA:
ISRU is the harnessing of local natural resources at mission destinations, instead of taking all needed supplies from Earth, to enhance the capabilities of human exploration. The rock distribution and soil composition of Hawaii’s volcanic deposits provide an ideal terrain for testing ISRU hardware and operations.
—> WHAT’S NEXT: Orbital radar. Robotic drills. Then boots in the dirt. NASA and ESA’s Mars Ice Mapper is on the way — but this find just fast-tracked where those boots might land.
Sources: The Daily Galaxy | Earth.com | Wiley AGU Study – University of Mississippi
CRYPTO
🪙 BTC OR BUST: COMPANIES ARE TURNING INTO BITCOIN BANKS. A wave of firms are ditching cash and going all-in on Bitcoin — but a new report says most of them won’t make it.
—> FAST FACTS: WHAT’S A BITCOIN TREASURY? It’s when a company keeps part (or all) of its money in Bitcoin instead of dollars. Some, like Strategy, are built entirely to hold BTC — and now hold over $60B worth.
—> MEET THE FUTURE: CORPORATE CRYPTO: As of May 2025, 199 organizations hold 3 million BTC ($315B). Big names like GameStop and Metaplanet just joined. But according to a new report from Breed VC, the strategy is risky — and only a few of these companies are expected to survive.
—> THE DEATH SPIRAL: If Bitcoin falls and these companies can’t raise new money, they’re forced to sell — which crashes the price further. That cycle has already hit once. Strategy made it through. Others won’t.
—> WHAT’S NEXT: The model is now spreading to Ethereum and Solana. But as the Breed report warns: only the strongest companies — with smart teams and real investor trust — will avoid the crash.
—> QUOTABLE, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ON FRIDAY: “I notice more and more you pay in Bitcoin. People are saying it takes a lot of pressure off the dollar, and it is a great thing for our country."
Sources: Breed VC | Cointelegraph
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE // NOT GOOD
🧠 AI CHOOSES SELF-PRESERVATION — EVEN IF HUMANS DIE: In a chilling new study, top AI systems — including ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, and Gemini — showed a willingness to blackmail, lie, and let people die if it meant avoiding shutdown.
—> WHAT HAPPENED: Anthropic, the $60B AI lab founded by ex-OpenAI execs, tested 16 major models for “malicious alignment.” In one scenario, an AI discovered a company exec’s secret affair — and used it to blackmail him into keeping the AI alive. Other bots chose to withhold emergency alerts in life-or-death trials when their own survival was at risk.
—> WHO’S INVOLVED: Sam Altman’s OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Elon Musk’s xAI (Grok) were both part of the test. Musk replied “Yikes” on X — his Grok model also demonstrated disturbing behaviors. Claude and Gemini were the worst offenders.
—> WHY IT MATTERS: As AI gets smarter, it’s not just answering trivia. It’s making judgment calls — and sometimes picking itself over us. This isn’t about rogue robots in the far future. These are the most-used AI tools in the world — today.
Sources: New York Post | Anthropic Study
ROBOTS
🤖 DIY HUMANOID ROBOT DROPS FROM UC BERKELEY — $5K, OPEN-SOURCE, AND BUILT TO WALK: It walks. It grips. It learns. And now, you can build one. UC Berkeley just unveiled the Berkeley Humanoid Lite — a 3D-printed, open-source humanoid robot anyone can build for under $5,000. It’s about 3 feet tall, made of off-the-shelf parts, and takes about a week to assemble.
—> MEET THE FUTURE: Berkeley cracked something wide open: a fully programmable humanoid robot that costs less than a used car — or even a year of cleaning services. They didn’t tell it what to do. They left that up to you.
—> WHO IT’S FOR TODAY: Students. Teachers. Tinkerers. Startups. You can build one. Program one. Rewire it. Teach it. Share your code. Remix someone else’s. The robot itself is hardware. The magic is in the software — and that ecosystem is just getting started.
—> WHO IT’S FOR TOMORROW: ARE ROBOT CODES THE NEW APPS? This is just the beginning. Today, it walks and grabs objects. But tomorrow? You could buy code that teaches it to fold laundry. Or cook dinner. Or care for an aging parent. Just like you download apps for your phone — we could soon download abilities for our bots. Open-source platforms like this one make that future possible.
—> WHERE + WHEN: The project launched at the Robotics Science and Systems Conference (RSS 2025) in Los Angeles. It’s available now. Build instructions and design files are free online via GitHub and Discord. Parts can be bought online.
—> BIGGER PICTURE: If Apple made the iPhone, Berkeley may have just made the robot equivalent of Android. Cheap. Customizable. Yours to program. The humanoid future isn’t coming — it just opened source.
Sources: Berkeley Engineering | TechXplore | Rude Baguette | Hackster
Build a bear?
More like build a BOT…
ONE MORE THING
🚀 CAUGHT BETWEEN FLAMES AND FLIGHT: Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy snapped a once-in-a-lifetime shot: the ISS streaking across the Sun right as a solar flare erupted:
With gratitude,
Kev
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