When AI-driven science outpaces its institutions
AI also changes the economics of scientific attention. Where generating plausible hypotheses becomes cheaper, the scarce resource shifts toward judgment.
Read the analysisIndependent research and advisory services
Research for decisions before the evidence settles
We study how AI, digital assets, energy systems, and institutional rules interact—then translate emerging evidence into clearer choices for policy and strategy.
How FIR works
From emerging signal to decision
Evidence becomes useful when its institutional pathway is explicit.
- 01DetectWhat has changed—and how certain is the signal?
- 02InterpretWho faces pressure to respond, and what do they value?
- 03AssessWhich capacities and rules enable, block, or redirect action?
Current posts
Research articles, model code, and public analysis connected by a common concern: how institutions shape, interpret, and respond to technological change.
When AI data centers meet the energy value filter
A recent conversation about opposition to AI infrastructure tests—and sharpens—an argument in my draft chapter on Bitcoin mining.
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Python code for Bitcoin landfill mining article
The Python code replicates results and figures from: Rudd MA et al 2024. An integrated landfill gas-to-energy and Bitcoin mining framework
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40 bits: what the Coldcard failure reveals about trust in Bitcoin self-custody
What we know now: on July 31, 2026, an attacker swept roughly 594 BTC – about USD $38 million – from approximately 500 single-signature Bitcoin Coldcard wallets.
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Bitcoin mining using landfill gas - model code
Python code replicates results and reproduces Figures from Rudd et al. 2024. An integrated landfill gas-to-energy and Bitcoin mining framework. Journal of Cleaner Production
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The BIP-110 Choice: A Map of the Communities Behind Bitcoin's Data War
A proposal with vocal grassroots support is entering its August signaling window with minimal miner support. The reason is not that Bitcoiners have stopped
Read the analysisResearch areas
One institutional lens, applied across changing systems.
FIR works across domains where technical capability is moving faster than the categories used to govern, measure, and value its effects.
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AI, institutions, and economic adaptation
Measurement architectures, adaptation demand, labor and organizational adjustment, and anticipatory governance.
Bitcoin, digital assets, & money
Bitcoin, payment systems, custody, protocol governance, and the institutional consequences of digital scarcity.
Energy and compute systems
Flexible loads, AI infrastructure, grid integration, environmental performance, and resource constraints.
Governance under technological change
Institutional latency, policy design, scenario analysis, and adaptation when evidence remains incomplete.
Advisory
Clarity for decisions that cannot wait for settled evidence.
FIR works with organizations facing consequential choices under technological and institutional uncertainty.
Book a free 30-minute callCommissioned research
Focused studies, technical syntheses, and decision-ready reports.
Policy and regulatory analysis
Mechanism-led assessment of rules, incentives, and implementation risks.
Technology and governance assessment
Institutional due diligence for emerging systems and infrastructure.
Scenarios and research agendas
Structured exploration of pathways, evidence gaps, and strategic options.
Forthcoming book
When Policy Falls Behind: Bitcoin, AI, and the Governance of Fast Systems
A forthcoming book about how fast technological systems outrun the institutions expected to govern them: download draft chapters here.
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Independent research, built for use.
Futures Insight Research is an independent research and advisory practice based in British Columbia. It develops rigorous, usable analysis for organizations navigating technological and institutional change.
About Futures Insight Research