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Merge Labs, Sam Altman, genetic targeting, ultrasound systems, Open AI, mechanosensitive channels

In recent years, neuroengineers have devised a number of new modalities for interfacing with the nervous system. Among these are optical stimulation, vibrational stimulation, and optogenetics. A newer and perhaps more promising technology is sonogenetics.

Sonogenetics, the use of focused ultrasound to control cells that have been made ultrasound-responsive via gene delivery, is moving from compelling papers to a potential platform strategy. From a neurotech commercialization standpoint, the significance of sonogenetics is less about a single lab trick and more about the emerging convergence of three capabilities: precise genetic targeting, durable and safe delivery, and field-robust ultrasound systems that work the first time outside the origin lab.

One commercial firm that may be exploiting this technology is Merge Labs. The startup recently made a big splash with a $250 million investment from Open AI and Sam Altman. While the company has not yet released its website and the technical personnel behind the company have not been identified, it is rumored to be working with focused ultrasound implants and sonogenetics as gene therapy. If Merge and its peers can validate durable expression, predictable dose–response, and reliable outside-the-lab bring-up, a first wave of indications will likely sit at the intersection of neurology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation, with longer-term spillover into human-machine interaction.

Quantum teleportation coexisting with classical communications in optical fiber

Quantum teleportation was achieved over the internet for the first time

[ https://www.sciencealert.com/quantum-teleportation-was-achie…first-time]

The ability for quantum and conventional networks to operate in the same optical fibers would aid the deployment of quantum network technology on a large scale. Quantum teleportation is a fundamental operation in quantum networking, but has yet to be demonstrated in fibers populated with high-power conventional optical signals. Here we report, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of quantum teleportation over fibers carrying conventional telecommunications traffic. Quantum state transfer is achieved over a 30.2-km fiber carrying 400-Gbps C-band classical traffic with a Bell state measurement performed at the fiber’s midpoint. To protect quantum fidelity from spontaneous Raman scattering noise, we use optimal O-band quantum channels, narrow spectro-temporal filtering, and multi-photon coincidence detection. Fidelity is shown to be well maintained with an elevated C-band launch power of 18.7 dBm for the single-channel 400-Gbps signal, which we project could support multiple classical channels totaling many terabits/s aggregate data rates. These results show the feasibility of advanced quantum and classical network applications operating within a unified fiber infrastructure.

Problems with modern Philosophical Solutions to Chalmer’s Hard Problem of Consciousness; and how the loss of the Primal Eye in early evolution seemingly gave rise to (waking and sleeping) ‘Subjectivity’

In this paper, I explore the limitations of various modern philosophical approaches to Chalmers’ Hard Problem of Consciousness, highlighting how the MVT/absent Primal Eye framework offers a compelling explanation for the qualitative nature of experience. We invite you to read these findings and share your thoughts on this intriguing intersection of philosophy and consciousness.

(https://www.academia.edu/144710257/Problems_with_modern_Philosophical_Solutions_to_Chalmer_s_Hard_Problem_of_Consciousness_and_how_the_loss_of_the_Primal_Eye_in_early_evolution_seemingly_gave_rise_to_waking_and_sleeping_Subjectivity)

Posthuman University Journal, October, 2025.

Materialist reductions fail to bridge the Explanatory Gap, functionalism fails to capture qualia, dissolutionism fails to account for phenomenal reality, and panpsychism collapses under the weight of the Combination Problem. The MVT/ absent Primal Eye philosophical framework seems to successfully explain the qualitative nature of experience without either denying its existence or creating an equally intractable set of metaphysical mysteries.

How to Turn Genes On or Off to Protect Brain Cells From Dementia

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What they discovered.

Kampmann’s work, supported by the National Institutes of Science (NIH), maps cellular “decision points” that determine whether brain cells survive or die — laying the groundwork for treatments that intervene before irreversible brain damage occurs.

Using CRISPR-based gene targeting technology that his team helped develop and pioneer the use of in brain cells, Kampmann has identified genes and cellular processes that influence the buildup of amyloid plaque and tau in the brain, two primary contributors to dementia. Thanks to this technology, called CRISPR interference and CRISPR activation, select genes in the laboratory can be turned on or off to protect brain cells from decline.

“We can conduct large-scale experiments that target all the genes in the human genome — 20,000 of them,” said Kampmann, explaining his work after receiving the Byers Award earlier this year. “And that way, we can basically have a little knob on each gene to ask which of all of the genes play a role in a disease.”

Continue reading “How to Turn Genes On or Off to Protect Brain Cells From Dementia” | >

“Only a Question of Time” Does AI Mean We’re DOOMED? Plus Oz Pearlman Reads Piers Morgan’s Mind!

ExpressVPN: Right now you can get an extra four months of ExpressVPN for free. Just scan the QR code on the screen, or go to https://ExpressVPN.com/PIERS and get four extra months for free.

Two years ago, Elon Musk was among a thousand experts to sign an open letter demanding an urgent pause on the advancement of Artificial Intelligence because of the risks concerning job losses, misinformation and more.

But now Musk is now spending a billion dollars a month to compete in an AI arms race, which is inflating the stock market to bursting point.

Amazon just laid off 14,000 workers in its ongoing A.I pivot — so, are the worst fears of doomsaying experts already coming true?

Joining Piers Morgan to discuss are respected thinkers in this field; Dr Roman Yampolskiy, Dr Michio Kaku, Alex Smola and Avi Loeb.

Then; he’s performed for presidents, billionaires and sports stars, but Oz Pearlman’s recent extraction of Joe Rogan’s pin number may have been his biggest hit yet.

Continue reading ““Only a Question of Time” Does AI Mean We’re DOOMED? Plus Oz Pearlman Reads Piers Morgan’s Mind!” | >

POV: What You Would See During an AI Takeover

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly an AI attack, takeover, and/or extermination of humanity would like and how if it occurred in the VERY near future (or even if you do), this is a video you really need to see.

Highly recommend the full book, which goes into way more detail: https://amzn.to/4qeJgFL

Detailed sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o8N5hiV9dXsoi27RIA5-XVCh…sp=sharing.

Hey guys, I’m Drew. This video has taken literally months to finish, so if you liked it, would really appreciate a sub smile

I also post mid memes on twitter: https://twitter.com/PauseusMaximus.

Continue reading “POV: What You Would See During an AI Takeover” | >

View a PDF of the paper titled Reasoning with Sampling: Your Base Model is Smarter Than You Think, by Aayush Karan and 1 other authors

Frontier reasoning models have exhibited incredible capabilities across a wide array of disciplines, driven by posttraining large language models (LLMs) with reinforcement learning (RL). However, despite the widespread success of this paradigm, much of the literature has been devoted to disentangling truly novel behaviors that emerge during RL but are not present in the base models. In our work, we approach this question from a different angle, instead asking whether comparable reasoning capabilites can be elicited from base models at inference time by pure sampling, without any additional training. Inspired by Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques for sampling from sharpened distributions, we propose a simple iterative sampling algorithm leveraging the base models’ own likelihoods. Over different base models, we show that our algorithm offers substantial boosts in reasoning that nearly match and even outperform those from RL on a wide variety of single-shot tasks, including MATH500, HumanEval, and GPQA. Moreover, our sampler avoids the collapse in diversity over multiple samples that is characteristic of RL-posttraining. Crucially, our method does not require training, curated datasets, or a verifier, suggesting broad applicability beyond easily verifiable domains.

#Quantumgravity #Blackholes #Astrophysics #Feynmanpathintegral #Spacetimecurvature #Relativisticjets #Whitehole #Theoneequation #Scienceexplained #Research #Physics

When a Black Hole Becomes a White Hole — and Shoots a Jet Across the Universe.

https://lnkd.in/eUFddtjM

🌌 Have you ever wondered what happens inside a black hole — where physics seems to break? Einstein’s equations say it collapses forever… but quantum geometry tells a different story.

At the tiniest scales, spacetime itself pushes back. When curvature becomes extreme, a hidden repulsive side of gravity awakens — a mirror twin of the usual attraction. We call this curvature duality:

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