26 JUN 2026

Day 177

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Douglas Adams · Mostly Harmless

A large, dark dirk with a broad blade and heavy section, far wider and thicker than an everyday thrusting weapon, shown as a prehistoric museum object.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Oxborough Dirk

Middle Bronze Age · Oxborough, 1988 · 1994,1003.1

Found at Oxborough in 1988, this oversized dirk is one of only six known across Europe — a weapon whose scale still puzzles specialists.

Enter lesson 5 MIN

II · THE IDEA · ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Soft Actor-Critic with Maximum Entropy

RL · Maximum entropy RL · Off-policy actor-critic

Soft Actor-Critic trains a stochastic policy to maximise both return and entropy. That dual objective produces sample-efficient continuous control that is unusually stable across hyperparameter settings.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

A small, pale, stylised astronaut figure lying on dusty ground among boot prints, simplified to helmet and suited limbs without facial detail.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Fallen Astronaut

Paul Van Hoeydonck · 1971 · Aluminium

In 1971 an 8.5-centimetre aluminium figure was placed at Mons Hadley beside a plaque of names, kept secret until the crew returned home.

Enter lesson 6 MIN