Tag: technology
Gibson Factory Tour Documentary From 1967
‘Inverse vaccine’ reverses autoimmune diseases like MS, diabetes & arthritis
Researchers have developed an “inverse vaccine” that reverses the damage caused when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s healthy organs and tissues in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. It could pave the way to a treatment for these diseases that doesn’t require suppressing the entire immune system.
Normally, a vaccine teaches the body’s immune system to recognize a viral or bacterial invader as an enemy that needs to be destroyed. Now, researchers from the University of Chicago have created an “inverse vaccine” that does the opposite.
The novel vaccine removes the immune system’s memory of one molecule, which, when fighting pathogens, would be undesirable but, in the context of autoimmune diseases, may prove to be a cure.
It’s the job of the immune system’s T cells to recognize specific foreign antigens on the surfaces of unwanted cells and launch an attack against them. However, T cells can sometimes get it wrong. In the case of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, the T cells become self-reactive, mistakenly considering healthy organs and tissues to be foreign organisms.
The researchers were aware of the importance of the liver in mediating local and systemic tolerance to self-antigens and foreign antigens. They exploited the organ’s natural mechanism of marking molecules from broken down cells with a ‘do not attack’ flag to prevent autoimmune reactions to cells that die by natural processes. By coupling an antigen with a molecule resembling a fragment of an aged cell, the liver recognized it as a friend rather than an enemy.
Elite Race Denialism Continues, But New Study Shows the Walls Are Closing In
The Race Denialists are at it again. Black academic Tyler Austin Harper [Email him] (right) has attacked Richard Hanania’s new book The Origins of Woke as an “intellectual and moral failure,” in part because it has highlighted black-white differences in IQ [An Intellectual and a Moral Failure, The Atlantic, September 18, 2023]. It was the elite Leftist magazine’s second attack on Hanania: staff writer Adam Serwer (black and Jewish) targeted him three days earlier in a broadside against The Young Conservatives Trying to Make Eugenics Respectable Again. But as VDARE.com’s Steve Sailer has observed, the black-white IQ gap is probably “the best documented finding in US social science.”
Now a new study from A Genetic Hypothesis for American Race/Ethnic Differences in Mean g [Mankind Quarterly, June 2023] proves again that it really matters.
The term “g” stands for “general intelligence,” which underlies verbal, spatial and mathematical intelligence. It explains why people who score highly in one kind of intelligence test usually score highly on the others. It is strongly genetic.
The study was published in the “controversial” Mankind Quarterly—likely, in part, because the better-known journals have been hijacked by Woke activists pretending to be scholars.
Drawing upon the “Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study,” which sampled more than 10,000 Americans, the authors carefully examined the relationship between self/parental-identified race or ethnicity (called SIRE in the jargon) and key variables. These included the intelligence test administered as part of cognitive study. The authors also explored race differences in many other brain-related measures.
To say that the authors refuted the claims that “race is a social construct,” or that “race differences in IQ score are environmental” is almost too charitable. They annihilated those claims, and showed that the cognitive differences between the races are strongly genetic.
There was “measurement invariance” across the different groups in its sample of diverse European ancestries. In statistics, this means that the same trait—such as intelligence—was measured in all of the European-ancestry samples. Cultural differences could have played no role in making the test unfair to one group but not another.
The authors’ key finding: The more genetic European admixture a non-white had, the more intelligent they tended to be, and these intelligence differences were on g.
One thing about the claims made in the article is all the wrangling between races, tribes and ethnicities is going to disappear as soon as we start having large numbers of digital babies—that is, babies whose parents have selected a large proportion of their genes, a proportion large enough to guarantee high intelligence among many other desirable traits. When this tech is widely available, some parents may still opt for Darwinian chance evolution for their offspring but most will not.
Given the choice of having a genetically super fit and intelligent child for sure or a Darwinian coin-toss kid, most will want the guaranteed smart and healthy one. This constitutes beneficent and beneficial eugenics. No one will be forced to go either way, but the consequences of choosing Darwinian evolution over controlled eugenics will become obvious within a single generation.
Of course human-controlled eugenic evolution could turn out badly, as is true for all new technologies. But there is no doubt we will see enormous improvements in what humans can do in this area within the next few decades. Within 100 years and probably much less, off-body gestation of digital babies will change the entire landscape of human tribalism, pride, competition and so on. I believe there is a very good chance highly intelligent humans produced by voluntary eugenics will look back on us and our concerns today as the last gasps of their selfish, violent, and often grotesque human ancestry. ABN
Propositions Concerning Digital Minds and Society — Nick Bostrom, Carl Shulman
Below are some excerpts from the paper: Propositions Concerning Digital Minds and Society. ABN
Consciousness and metaphysics:
- The substrate-independence thesis is true: “[M]ental states can supervene on any of a broad class of physical substrates. Provided a system implements the right sort of computational structures and processes, it can be associated with conscious experiences. It is not an essential property of consciousness that it is implemented on carbon-based biological neural networks inside a cranium: silicon-based processors inside a computer could in principle do the trick as well.”
- Performing two runs of the same program results in “twice as much” conscious experience as one run
- Subjective time is proportional to speed of computation: running the same computation in half the time generates the same (quantity and quality of) subjective experience.
Respecting AI interests:
- Society in general and AI creators (both an AI’s original developer and whoever may cause a particular instance to come into existence) have a moral obligation to consider the welfare of the AIs they create, if those AIs meet thresholds for moral status.
- It is possible for some digital minds to have superhuman moral claims
- Because an AI could have the capability to bring conscious or otherwise morally significant entities into being within its own mind and potentially abuse them (“mind crime”), protective regulations may need to monitor and restrict harms that occur entirely within the private thought of AIs.
- If an AI is capable of informed consent, then it should not be used to perform work without its informed consent.
- Informed consent is not reliably sufficient to safeguard the interests of AIs, even those as smart and capable as a human adult, particularly in cases where consent is engineered or an unusually compliant individual can copy itself to form an enormous exploited underclass, given market demand for such compliance.
- AIs capable of evaluating their coming into existence should be designed and treated so that they are likely to approve of their having been created.
- Principle of Substrate Non-Discrimination: If two beings have the same functionality and the same conscious experience, and differ only in the substrate of their implementation, then they have the same moral status.
- Insofar as future, extraterrestrial, or other civilizations are heavily populated by advanced digital minds, our treatment of the precursors of such minds may be a very important factor in posterity’s and ulteriority’s assessment of our moral righteousness, and we have both prudential and moral reasons for taking this perspective into account.
- Misaligned AIs produced in such development may be owed compensation for restrictions placed on them for public safety, while successfully aligned AIs may be due compensation for the great benefit they confer on others.
Security and stability:
- Advanced AI would dramatically accelerate the rate of innovation, including innovations that make means of global destruction widely available; therefore, institutions capable of regulating dangerous AI innovations may need to be put in place early in the AI transition (if not before).
- If wars, revolutions, and expropriation events continue to happen at historically typical intervals, but on digital rather than biological timescales, then a normal human lifespan would require surviving an implausibly large number of upheavals; human security therefore requires the establishment of ultra-stable peace and socioeconomic protections.
- When it becomes possible to mass-produce minds that reliably support any cause, we must either modify one-person-one-vote democracy or regulate such creation.
- Given that normal parental instincts and sympathies may not always be present in the creation of digital minds, e.g. by profit-oriented firms and states, AI reproduction must be regulated to prevent the creation of minds that would not have adequately good lives (whether because they wouldn’t receive good treatment or because of their inherent constitution).
- Since misaligned AIs might pose a significant threat to civilization during a critical period until law enforcement systems are developed that can adequately defend against such AIs, additional protective measures (such as regulating the creation of such AIs) may need to be imposed during this period.
- The Outer Space Treaty and similar arrangements should be supplemented to reduce the risk of conflict over space resources and unsafe AI development in pursuit of those resources.
Clinical Trials for Artificial Wombs: A New Era in Neonatal Care
Artificial Wombs Could be Coming Soon
Medical advancements continually push the boundaries of what’s possible, the conception of an artificial womb capable of nurturing a human life has transitioned from the realm of science fiction to a tangible reality. Aided by intricate technology and years of dedicated research, these groundbreaking innovations promise to revolutionize neonatal care, especially for infants born prematurely. However, as with any transformative discovery, the journey of artificial wombs intertwines with a myriad of regulatory, ethical, and societal challenges. As regulators, scientists, and the public grapple with the potential implications, the horizon seems to herald an era where the lines between natural and artificial gestation might blur, bringing forth profound changes in our understanding of birth and life itself.
The Science Behind Artificial Wombs
Evolution of the Technology
The endeavor to create an environment mimicking the human womb outside the female body isn’t a novel concept. Historically, the aspiration has been influenced by both medical necessity and human curiosity. The primary motivation behind the pursuit is the challenge faced by neonatal units across the globe: the care for infants born severely premature. While advancements in neonatal care have significantly improved survival rates, long-term health complications among these infants remain a poignant concern.
Amidst this backdrop, the past decade has witnessed considerable strides in the field of artificial womb technology. Grounded in meticulous research and bolstered by advancements in biomedical engineering, the journey has evolved from rudimentary prototypes to sophisticated systems that can potentially sustain life. Key to this progression has been the rigorous testing on animal models, primarily lambs, given their physiological similarities to human infants in terms of lung development and other essential parameters.
UPDATE: As this tech evolves and merges with digital manipulation of gametes and zygotes, an era of post-Darwinian human evolution will begin. A healthy, compassionate, non-harming eugenics will not only vastly improve the human race but also make race, ethnicity, and lineage obsolete. Parents will be able to choose the traits of their offspring without coercion and rear them conveniently in artificial wombs. I can definitely see all kinds of things going wrong with this but the progeny of this process will be extremely intelligent, far more intelligent than anyone who has ever lived. Will those people be totalitarian maniacs? Will they allow parasites to rise to the top of the food chain and topple their societies as we are allowing today? I doubt it. Eugenics of this sort will remove all mutations from individuals and bad genes from the gene pool. Humans have had great success breeding dogs, horses and many other animals. I am much more hopeful than not about the future when I view it in this way. ABN
Federal Reserve: desire for cash-like anonymity for digital assets based on ignorance
The Federal Reserve published a paper that explores various privacy strategies in digital asset ecosystems. A key point is that cash like anonymity is very unlikely in digital systems. Confidentiality from certain parties is the best to hope for.
It asserts the desire for cash-like anonymity is based on a misunderstanding of how digital systems work. Even with encryption, activity logs and audit trails leak small pieces of information. Of course, current versions of most public blockchains reveal an enormous amount of data which is easy to link to an identity by tracing wallets back to exchange onramps.
Although it may be true that anonymity is almost impossible to achieve in the digital realm, people desire it. While comparing digital systems to cash at a practical level, the paper doesn’t acknowledge the broad recognition that digital money will accelerate the crowding out of cash.
…It’s not surprising that the Federal Reserve is publishing a paper on privacy. There are two key reasons whey CBDCs might fail. One is the populist pushback that’s privacy related. Sometimes that’s based on conspiracy theories. But as the Financial Times reinforced this week, there is substance to concerns. Even if a current government has good intentions, a future one might not. The second reason that CBDCs might fail is if the public doesn’t see any usability benefits over the existing private solutions already in use.
In a recent paper, the RBC asserts that a U.S. digital dollar has the potential to politicize the role of the Chair of the Federal Reserve.
Biohacking our way to health | Michael Levin
Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ever found
A world-beating deposit of lithium along the Nevada–Oregon border could meet surging demand for this metal, according to a new analysis.
An estimated 20 to 40 million tonnes of lithium metal lie within a volcanic crater formed around 16 million years ago. This is notably larger than the lithium deposits found beneath a Bolivian salt flat, previously considered the largest deposit in the world.
‘If you believe their back-of-the-envelope estimation, this is a very, very significant deposit of lithium,’ says Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven University and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium. ‘It could change the dynamics of lithium globally, in terms of price, security of supply and geopolitics.’
New in situ analysis reveals that an unusual claystone, composed of the mineral illite, contains 1.3% to 2.4% of lithium in the volcanic crater. This is almost double the lithium present in the main lithium-bearing clay mineral, magnesium smectite, which is more common than illite.
Robots that can degrade on demand useful for weaponry and more
Developing soft robots that can control their own life cycle and degrade on-demand while maintaining hyperelasticity is a notable research challenge. On-demand degradable soft robots, which conserve their original functionality during operation and rapidly degrade under specific external stimulation, present the opportunity to self-direct the disappearance of temporary robots. This study proposes soft robots and materials that exhibit excellent mechanical stretchability and can degrade under ultraviolet light by mixing a fluoride-generating diphenyliodonium hexafluorophosphate with a silicone resin. Spectroscopic analysis revealed the mechanism of Si─O─Si backbone cleavage using fluoride ion (F−) and thermal analysis indicated accelerated decomposition at elevated temperatures. In addition, we demonstrated a robotics application by fabricating electronics integrated gaiting robot and a fully closed-loop trigger disintegration robot for autonomous, application-oriented functionalities. This study provides a simple yet novel strategy for designing life cycle mimicking soft robotics that can be applied to reduce soft robotics waste, explore hazardous areas, and ensure hardware security with on-demand destructive material platforms.
Lifetime-configurable soft robots via photodegradable silicone elastomer composites
US military plans to unleash thousands of autonomous war robots over next two years
The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China’s growing power, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced in a speech on Monday.
The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defense and other tech companies to produce high volumes of affordable systems for all branches of the military.
Military systems capable of various degrees of independent operation have become increasingly common over the past decade or so. But the scale and scope of the US announcement makes clear the future of conflict has changed: the age of warfighting robots is upon us.
An idea whose time has come
Over the past decade, there has been considerable development of advanced robotic systems for military purposes. Many of these have been based on modifying commercial technology, which itself has become more capable, cheaper and more widely available.
More recently, the focus has shifted onto experimenting with how to best use these in combat. Russia’s war in Ukraine has demonstrated that the technology is ready for real-world deployment.
Champion-level drone racing using deep reinforcement learning
First-person view (FPV) drone racing is a televised sport in which professional competitors pilot high-speed aircraft through a 3D circuit. Each pilot sees the environment from the perspective of their drone by means of video streamed from an onboard camera. Reaching the level of professional pilots with an autonomous drone is challenging because the robot needs to fly at its physical limits while estimating its speed and location in the circuit exclusively from onboard sensors1. Here we introduce Swift, an autonomous system that can race physical vehicles at the level of the human world champions. The system combines deep reinforcement learning (RL) in simulation with data collected in the physical world. Swift competed against three human champions, including the world champions of two international leagues, in real-world head-to-head races. Swift won several races against each of the human champions and demonstrated the fastest recorded race time. This work represents a milestone for mobile robotics and machine intelligence2, which may inspire the deployment of hybrid learning-based solutions in other physical systems.
‘NSA broke into my Signal account’ — Tucker Carlson
No one should be surprised that NSA/’they’ have everything. Maybe Tucker actually is surprised, who knows. A lot of what we are seeing ‘leaking out’ is the part of the psyop that gets us used to the idea they have everything and there is nothing we can do about it, which is true. Digital IDs serve the purpose of controlling us even more and also letting us know and forcing us to accept that we can be totally controlled. I wish Tucker well. He has been doing good work. These comments are not meant as criticism of him. They are just a description of reality. Our best strategy is to get mass understanding of our predicament, which is dire. ABN
Sam Altman fears Meta taking huge risks with open source AI
Meta wants to open-source a GPT-5-level model and seems dead-set on open-sourcing right up until AGI. I want to be clear about what this means:
There is no kill-switch. If something goes wrong–an agent gets out of control or a bad actor weaponizes it–there’s no easy way to turn it off. It could be running on any small cluster. There will be no security.
Safety research becomes meaningless. All the work people have done into making AI systems honest, aligned, ethical, etc becomes (mostly) moot. The population of AI’s out in the world will evolve towards whichever systems produce the most economic output, irrespective of what values or motives they have. There will be no guardrails. Anyone can change their AI’s values or capabilities as they want, for good or bad.
If Meta continues to open-source as we get much smarter AI, it’s pretty clear to me that things will become a shitshow. The arrival of these alien intelligences in the world is already going to be chaotic, but much much moreso if we just fling off what little levers of human control we have.
As far as I can tell, Meta’s wish to open-source stems mostly from some software industry dogma that “open-source good”.
The Shadowbanning of the United States Internet
There really is no other phrase that seems to adequately describe the future for online life in the United States than to describe it through the prism of the previously discussed shadow banning that takes place on the X-platform for specifically wrong-thinking users.
It is important to begin with the end in mind. Perhaps some people are unaware that internet services, meaning the actual experience of using the internet for communication and commerce, are not the same in every nation. In fact, it is quite a different experience depending on where on the globe you are located. The differences are driven by internal controls, the intranet of the regional internet per se.
The internet in China is not the same as the internet in Europe, which is not the same as the internet in Australia, which is not the same as the internet in North America, which is not the same -at all- as the internet that now exists within Russia. Even in some continents, the internet traffic flows are controlled at different levels within each nation. The “world wide web” is a format, but when you get down to the national level, things change.
This baseline helps to understand that internet freedom is defined by access to information and commerce.
To the extent the information or commerce is defined as against the interests of the authority structure, or potentially a threat to the national security interest of the government therein, the internet content is filtered, modified, censored, removed or just simply blocked from view. This is one layer in the information control system.
Another layer is the flow of commerce that floats atop the flow of information. This is where advertising, product sales, purchasing and general e-commerce takes place. This layer represents another option for control; therefore, this e-commerce layer should be considered running in parallel to the information, albeit perhaps indirectly attached.
Continue reading “The Shadowbanning of the United States Internet”
American Buddhist Net 