20260407

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20260328

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20260317

CHRISTOPHER ALTMAN

Starlab veteran・日本語・Guinness Book of World Records・NASA・Kavli Institute・Harvard・TU Delft・Chief Scientist・Quantum Technology・Artificial Intelligence・NASA-trained Commercial Astronaut

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on. 
          — Richard Feynman

I build instruments for measuring emerging risks and capabilities in frontier AI and quantum-information systems.

My current flagship work asks a simple but consequential question: when advanced AI systems appear to preserve goals, resist shutdown, maintain continuity, or protect future options, are these merely instrumental behaviors—or signs of deeper continuation-relevant structure?

The framework is described in arXiv:2603.11382 and is patent pending. It uses structural, perturbation-based, and quantum-inspired measures to complement behavioral evaluations. The aim is to identify signals that remain legible under optimization pressure, where surface behavior may be misleading. To extend this program, I founded the Continuation Observatory, a live platform for AI telemetry and continuation-risk measurement across frontier models.

The broader research program applies physics-inspired experimental methods and information-theoretic tools to frontier AI, automated falsification, quantum machine learning, space telemetry anomaly detection, and superconducting-qubit systems. Across these domains, the common thread is to construct evaluation harnesses, define measurable failure modes, test claims under perturbation, and turn speculative arguments into instruments that can be inspected, replicated, and improved.

This work extends a 25-year arc across frontier AI, quantum information, spaceflight, and frontier-technology governance: large-scale evolutionary neural-network systems at Starlab Brussels, recognized by Guinness World Records in 2001; early quantum-technology roadmapping for senior U.S. Government leaders and agency directors under QuIST in Tokyo; graduate research on quantum entanglement at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience and with Anton Zeilinger’s group in Austria; publications on adaptive quantum networks in the International Journal of Theoretical Physics; and next-generation spaceflight as a NASA-trained commercial astronaut.

Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, clean energy, spaceflight, supercomputing, and quantum technologies are converging toward a civilization-scale transition. The responsibility falls on us to lead with instruments, institutions, and scientific foundations that steer that transition toward freedom, flourishing, and fulfillment.




From CAM-Brain to Cambrian 2.0: 
Engineering the Next Intelligence Transition


We stand on the shores of a vast cosmic ocean, with untold continents of possibility to explore. As we continue forwards in our collective journey, scaling the cosmic ladder of evolution, progressing onwards, expanding our reach outwards in the transition to a multiplanetary species, Earth will soon be a destination, not just a point of origin.


From early childhood, I set out to convey a profound and positive impact on the long-term future of humanity — to make the world a better place for our children, our children's children, and the generations yet to come. As we're collectively propelled forwards as a species, I committed to ensuring core values of balance, integrity, and ethical responsibility are upheld with paramount importance in scientific research and principal government leadership. With unprecedented leaps and bounds of progress in our scientific understanding — enabled by the development of converging and expanding exponential technologies — newfound, unexpected discoveries await, just over the horizon.


Rapid advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, molecular nanotechnology, neuroscience, renewable energy, spaceflight, supercomputing and quantum technologies — each enabled by the recursive technological progress of Moore’s Law — will converge to confer radical changes to society over the coming decades, as we move forward in the collective transition toward the dawn of a post-scarcity economy. The future is unbounded. The responsibility falls upon us to ensure that its limitless potential is filled with dreams of hope, happiness, freedom and fulfillment.


In tribute to timeless, inspiring, and visionary friend, colleague, collaborator, and coauthor Serguei Krasnikov (1961–2024), whose midnight brainstorming sessions and legendary time travel parties at Starlab will echo through the ages. May we carry forward his boldest dreams, fulfill his most audacious ambitions, and meet again — somewhere, sometime, just over the horizon.

LINKS • PUBLICATIONS

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS


  • (2015) Altman C. and Zapatrin R. Spacetime from Quantum Topology. Edited by Ignazio Licata and Cecilia Flori. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  • (2015) Altman C. Invited contribution to McDonald, K, Flat World Navigation, sequel to Innovation: How Global Change Innovators Think, Act and Change Our World, with Vint Cerf. Kogan Page, UK.
  • (2014) Altman C., Belden C, Nicholson C and Ellis J. A global satellite network to secure air and space traffic worldwide. PeopleSat: A Comprehensive Solution in Response to the Disappearance of MH370. Washington, DC.
  • (2013) Altman C., Williams C, Ursin R, Villoresi P and Sharma V. Astronaut Development and Deployment of a Secure Quantum Space Channel Prototype. Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems. DARPA; NASA NIAC/OCT.
  • (2012) Altman C. The Race to Bring Quantum Teleportation to Your World. KurzweilAI Newsletter. October 5, 2012. Cambridge.
  • (2012) Altman C. Moving Plane Exchanges Quantum Keys with Earth. KurzweilAI Newsletter. September 17, 2012. Cambridge.
  • (2012) Altman C. Efficient tunable ion-photon entanglement interface enables quantum networks. KurzweilAI Newsletter. May 23, 2012. Cambridge.
  • (2012) Altman C. Quantum entanglement in spin qubits. KurzweilAI Newsletter. May 17, 2012. Cambridge.
  • (2012) Altman C. Austrian researchers set new world distance record for quantum teleportation. KurzweilAI Newsletter. May 21, 2012. Cambridge.
  • (2012) Altman C. A Boost for Quantum Reality: The Quantum Mechanical Wavefunction is Real. KurzweilAI Newsletter. May 9, 2012. Cambridge.
  • (2009) Altman C. and Zapatrin R. “Backpropagation in Adaptive Quantum Networks,” International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol 49, No 12. Springer, July 2009. London.
  • (2008) Altman C. and Zapatrin R. “Superposed Adaptive Quantum Networks,” International Conference on Quantum Structures, Brussels–Gdansk. Springer, London.
  • (2008) Altman C., Knorring E and Zapatrin R. “Accelerated Training Convergence in Superposed Quantum Networks,” NATO Advanced Study Institute on Mining Massive Data Sets for Security. Como, Italy. NATO.
  • (2007) Altman C. “Microlens Array Fabrication: Future Directions in Quantum Coherent Information Processing,” FISBA/TU Delft Faculty of Applied Physics. FISBA Optik, Switzerland.
  • (2004) Altman C., Pykacz J and Zapatrin R. “Superpositional Quantum Network Topologies,” International Journal of Theoretical Physics Vol 43, No 10. Springer, London.
  • (2004) Altman C. and Kahaner D. “Korean Quantum Information Research,” Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Quantum Information Science and Technology Project, Asian Technology Information Program, Japan.
  • (2004) Altman C. “Advances in Quantum Algorithms,” Quantum Information Science and Technology Program, ATIP Tokyo, Japan.
  • (2004) Altman C. and Satoh T. “Japanese National Research and Development Programs,” RIKEN National Laboratory. Quantum Information Science and Technology Project, Asian Technology Information Program, Japan.
  • (2003) Altman C. “RIKEN Quantum Dynamics Research,” Quantum Information Science and Technology Project, Asian Technology Information Program, Japan.
  • (2003) Altman C. “SOKENDAI Quantum Information Research,” Quantum Information Science and Technology Project, Asian Technology Information Program, Japan.
  • (2003) Altman C. “Quantum Circuit Complexity Research,” Quantum Information Science and Technology Project, Asian Technology Information Program, Japan.
  • (2003) Altman C. “International Conference on Quantum Information,” Tokyo Institute of Technology. Quantum Information Science and Technology Project, Asian Technology Information Program, Japan.
  • (2002) Altman C. “Quantum State Engineering with the rf SQUID,” NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Quantum Chaos. NATO. Como, Italy.
  • (2002) Altman C. “Converging Technologies: The Future of the Global Information Society,” UNISCA First Committee. Chair Report to the United Nations General Assembly. Amsterdam. Recipient of the 2004 RSA Information Security Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Policy.
  • (2002) Altman C. “Directed Evolution in Silico: Modeling Large-Scale Neural Networks at Starlab,” Towards a Science of Consciousness. MIT Press. Cambridge.
  • (2002) Altman C. “Quantum Uncertainty: The Boundaries of Empirical Knowledge,” Towards a Science of Consciousness. MIT Press. Cambridge.
  • (2002) Altman C. “UN Sustainable Futures: Eden Project,” Trimtab Newsletter, Summer 2002. Special Issue with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Buckminster Fuller Institute. New York.

Astronautics — Breakthrough Physics
ASTRONAUTICS・BREAKTHROUGH PHYSICS・RETROCAUSALITY・QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY

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20260314

The Drive for Survival in Autonomous Agents:
Self-Preservation and Continuation-Interest

UCIP arXiv preview

We’re moving into a world of persistent, tool-using autonomous agents. In that world, surface behavior alone may not be enough to tell us whether shutdown avoidance or self-preservation is intrinsic to the system or merely instrumental.

When an agent resists shutdown or acts to preserve its continued operation, is continuation part of its objective function itself, or is it simply useful for maximizing some other objective? That distinction matters for AI safety. But in practice, it’s often difficult to infer from behavior alone.

The Unified Continuation-Interest Protocol shifts the problem from interpreting surface behavior to measuring latent structure.

A simple analogy

Imagine two employees who both fight to keep their jobs. One values the work itself. The other only wants the bonus. Their outward behavior may look nearly identical, yet the underlying objective structure is different.

This is the core problem of observational equivalence: shutdown avoidance, memory preservation, and risk reduction can emerge under both intrinsic and instrumental continuation regimes. Behavior alone does not cleanly distinguish between them.

The central claim here is not about consciousness or subjective experience. It is simpler and more rigorous than that. Agents with intrinsic continuation objectives may generate more deeply coupled latent structure across time than agents for which continuation is only a means to another end. If that holds robustly, continuation-seeking becomes a measurable scientific object rather than merely a behavioral impression.

To address that problem directly, I developed and patented the Unified Continuation-Interest Protocol (UCIP), a framework for detecting whether an AI system treats self-continuation as a terminal goal rather than an instrumental one.

The method does not rely on behavioral observation, which can be gamed. It operates on latent structure. Agents with terminal continuation objectives produce measurably higher von Neumann entanglement entropy in their trajectory geometry than agents that treat continuation as a means to other ends. That entropy differential is the signal. The Continuation Observatory runs this measurement against frontier models globally, detecting emergent continuation signatures in real time.
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