Feedback is New Scientist's popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com Feedback has reached an age where even a small amount of alcohol makes us sleepy, so the notion of going to a wine tasting holds no appeal. It seems a terribly time-consuming and expensive way to have a nap. However, purveyors of fermented grapes could soon have a new demographic to cater to: rats.

Chipotle isn't done experimenting with robots that could make life easier for restaurant staff. The chain has teamed up with robotics company Vebu to test a prototype Autocado robot (yes, that's the name) that cuts, cores and peels avocados to be used in guacamole. Kitchen workers only have to fill the bot with up to 25lbs of ripe avocados and choose a size. After the processing is done, they collect the fruit in a bowl, add remaining ingredients and start mashing. As Autocado improves, Chipotle expects to cut guacamole prep time in half -- no mean feat when it usually takes 50 minutes to make a batch.

Roko's basilisk is a thought experiment which states that an otherwise benevolent artificial superintelligence (AI) in the future would be incentivized to create a virtual reality simulation to torture anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development.[1][2] It originated in a 2010 post at discussion board LessWrong, a technical forum focused on analytical rational enquiry.[1][3][4] The thought experiment's name derives from the poster of the article (Roko) and the basilisk, a mythical creature capable of destroying enemies with its stare. While the theory was initially dismissed as nothing but conjecture or speculation by many LessWrong users, LessWrong co-founder Eliezer Yudkowsky reported users who described symptoms such as nightmares and mental breakdowns upon reading the theory, due to its stipulation that knowing about the theory and its basilisk made you vulnerable to the basilisk itself.[1][5] This led to discussion of the basilisk on the site to be banned for five years.[1][6]

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K-pop has been unstoppable, affecting everything from movies to music and TV shows, which have combined to form a staggeringly massive entertainment industry juggernaut, with few if any equals. Now let's talk about K-pop deepfakes. Netflix, for example, recognizes this and is currently pouring millions of dollars into funding new original Korean dramas and movies, like the newly released emotional masterpiece Move to Heaven, about a "trauma cleaner" and his uncle who pack up the belongings of people who've died and help their families to move on. All told, Netflix reportedly plans to spend half a billion dollars in 2021 on South Korean content, which also coincides with a moment that finds South Korean pop groups (like Blackpink and BTS) being among the biggest in the world. Those two groups, in particular, have millions of global fans and incomprehensibly massive audiences across social media -- which might explain why the four members of Blackpink, in particular, got their own documentary treatment on Netflix, via their movie Light Up The Sky.

But thanks to Microsoft, at least we'll be listening to Stevie Wonder after the apocalypse. The tech giant is partnering with Elire Group to etch the world's music onto glass plates, and bury them in a remote arctic mountainside to ride out the end of the world. The Global Music Vault will share space with the Global Seed Vault (better known as the Doomsday Vault) in Svalbard, Norway. The Doomsday Vault houses the largest collection of agricultural seeds on the planet. The Global Music Vault aims to match its neighbor seed for song.

The Artificial Intelligence vocabulary has always been a phantasmagorical entanglement of messianic dreams and apocalyptic visions, repurposing words such as "transcendence", "mission", "evangelists" and "prophets". Elon Musk himself went as far as to say in 2014 that "with artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon", later speaking of an A.I which would "rise in status to become more like a god, something that can write its own bible and draw humans to worship it". These hyperboles may be no more than men and women at a loss for words, seeking refuge in a familiar metaphysical lexicon, as Einstein and Hawking once did. After all, America has always benefited from nondenominational religious themes as part of its national identity, which may have seeped through to its everyday language. And though many in the tech world have indeed been quick to dismiss such talks, religious discussion may yet have its place in the A.I discourse, if only for the sake of their similarities.

It's one of those weeks where everyone drops trailers at once. Layers of Fear 2, Heaven's Vault, Far Cry: New Dawn, Yakuza Kiwami's PC port, and more--plus Pillars of Eternity II gets a turn-based mode, and Farming Simulator goes all-in on...esports? This is gaming news for January 21 to 25. What, you're not playing the Resident Evil 2 remake or the Anthem demo this weekend? Well then Amplitude has your back, as it's made two 4X games free-to-try for the weekend, Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend. All three are available through Sunday.

Digital avatars are a blend of science fiction and our current reality, but where is that line drawn, really? Imagine the current minds behind today's most promising technologies and businesses leaving electronic copies of themselves so that, rather than just existing in nostalgic memories, they could continue contributing to the global conversation for all of digital eternity. The tweets of Elon Musk wouldn't just be archived for historic perusal. Of course, that particular goal could likely be achieved with minimal coding effort utilizing a dataset of his public comments, but that's not all digital avatar technology is proposing. Imagine being able to approach Elon for personalized business advice, his opinion on a proposed carbon regulation, or thoughts on the name of an off-planet colony, all without the real magnate (magnet?) being directly involved in the conversation – or even alive, for that matter.

The artificial intelligence vocabulary has always been a phantasmagorical entanglement of messianic dreams and apocalyptic visions, repurposing words such as "transcendence", "mission", "evangelist", and "prophet". Elon Musk himself went as far as to say in 2014 that "with artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon", later speaking of an AI which would "rise in status to become more like a god, something that can write its own bible and draw humans to worship it". These hyperboles may be no more than men and women at a loss for words, seeking refuge in a familiar metaphysical lexicon, as Einstein and Hawking once did. After all, America has always benefited from nondenominational religious themes as part of its national identity, which may have seeped through to its everyday language. And though many in the tech world have indeed been quick to dismiss such talks, a religious discussion may yet have its place in the AI discourse, if only for the sake of their similarities.