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The Fermi Paradox & The Hivemind Dilemma

Are we alone, or just looking for the wrong kind of aliens? Discover how the path to hive minds and distributed consciousness might answer the Fermi Paradox — and pose new dilemmas of their own.

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Credits:
The Fermi Paradox & The Hivemind Dilemma.
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editor: Lukas Konecny.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.

Chapters.
0:00 Intro.
1:25 What is a Hivemind?
3:48 Why Build a Hivemind?
9:51 The Hivemind Dilemma: Cognitive Horizon Limits.
14:56 FTL and the Limits of Superminds.
18:33 Asimov, Seldon, Gaia, Galaxia, and the Fallacy of Galactic Planning.
24:46 Galactic Civilizations & Fragmented Minds.
26:56 The Competition of Minds.

Physicists make critical energy breakthrough after unearthing long-forgotten experiment: ‘Our replication leaves no doubt’

Unlike more complex, high-energy fusion experiments such as those at the National Ignition Facility, this test was performed at a much lower energy level. That makes it a game changer for smaller labs and opens the door to more accessible fusion experimentation.

What the researchers learned is a notable contribution to ongoing fusion studies. If scientists can successfully scale fusion energy, it could power entire cities more affordably than conventional power while helping stabilize the grid. Fusion doesn’t generate heat-trapping pollution either, meaning cleaner air and healthier communities.

While fusion isn’t powering our homes just yet, such developments move us closer to a cleaner, more affordable energy future — especially with successes such as the 2022 ignition breakthrough at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Lithium loss ignites Alzheimer’s, but lithium compound can reverse disease in mice

What is the earliest spark that ignites the memory-robbing march of Alzheimer’s disease? Why do some people with Alzheimer’s-like changes in the brain never go on to develop dementia? These questions have bedeviled neuroscientists for decades.

Now, a team of researchers at Harvard Medical School may have found an answer: deficiency in the brain.

The work, published in Nature, shows for the first time that lithium occurs naturally in the brain, shields it from neurodegeneration, and maintains the normal function of all major brain cell types.

Scientists say it may be possible to protect aging brains from Alzheimer’s with an old remedy — lithium

In a major new finding almost a decade in the making, researchers at Harvard Medical School say they’ve found a key that may unlock many of the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease and brain aging — the humble metal lithium.

Lithium is best known to medicine as a mood stabilizer given to people who have bipolar disorder and depression. It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1970, but it was used by doctors to treat mood disorders for nearly a century beforehand.

Now, for the first time, researchers have shown that lithium is naturally present in the body in tiny amounts and that cells require it to function normally — much like vitamin C or iron. It also appears to play a critical role in maintaining brain health.

Major climate-GDP study under review after facing challenge

A blockbuster study published in top science journal Nature last year warned that unchecked climate change could slash global GDP by a staggering 62% by century’s end, setting off alarm bells among financial institutions worldwide.

But a re-analysis by Stanford University researchers in California, released Wednesday, challenges that conclusion—finding the projected hit to be about three times smaller and broadly in line with earlier estimates, after excluding an anomalous result tied to Uzbekistan.

The saga may culminate in a rare retraction, with Nature telling AFP it will have “further information to share soon”—a move that would almost certainly be seized upon by climate-change skeptics.

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