If you are interested in brain computer interfaces (BCI), then you need to listen to this very exciting podcast!

I have only been aware of this DARPA NNN (Next-generation Non-surgical Neurotechnology) program since mid-March, and it is my number one topic of interest. I am interested in it because I have a plan for mind uploading to extend my life indefinitely — otherwise known as superlongevity in our group — but I have no interest in allowing anyone to drill holes in my head! DARPA is looking at ways for non-invasive methods of connecting the thoughts in our brains to computers. Over time, this could be a method to capture the thoughts and memories and emotions within my mind and transfer them into a computer substrate. And, to be clear, this mind upload will, in fact, be me.

Naturally, DARPA is not developing this so that I can upload my mind. This is part of their wounded warrior project, where they are trying to rehabilitate soldiers who have had the misfortune to have lost a limb. In addition to the non-invasive neural technology, they are working on haptics to provide a feedback loop for the sense of touch and temperature. They are also working on what they describe as third wave AI to support this technology.

The interview is with Dr Al Emondi, who has had a fascinating career in technology. He is the DARPA program manager in the Biological Technologies department.

I will always admire DARPA for its world-changing technology innovations!

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Dr. Al Emondi, Program Manager in the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), US Department of Defense.

Ira Pastor Comments:

Today, we are going to go down the fascinating pathway of advanced neuro-technologies and in doing so, are going to be joined again by our friends from theDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is an agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) which is responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military with a mission to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security, as well as a tangential mission to formulate and execute research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, often beyond immediate U.S. military requirements.

Brain-Computer Interface:

As some background to our discussion, a brain-computer interface (BCI) broadly refers to a neuro-technology that allows for a direct communication pathway between ones brain and an external device. BCIs differ from neuromodulation in that they allow for bidirectional information flow and are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.

DARPA:

Over the past couple of decades, DARPA has been working on very sophisticated neuro-technologies that rely on surgically implanted electrodes to interface with the central or peripheral nervous systems, demonstrating achievements such as neural control of prosthetic limbs, restoration of the sense of touch to the users of those limbs, relief of otherwise intractable neuropsychiatric illnesses such as depression, and improvement of memory formation and recall.

Fantastic article on Dr Yuancheng Ryan Lu’s age reversal experiment.

“ It suggests that it is entirely possible to reverse aging in cells with the use of a molecular mechanism already present in the cells. And so, scientists are now off to the races in the hopes of finding this cellular mechanism, and ways to activate this correction system in living beings…”

In 2006, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Japanese stem cell researcher, published his paper on induced pluripotent stem cells, and it changed the medical world. Dr. Yamanaka had found a way to convert a mature skin cell into a stem cell by injecting just a few genes. And for this, Dr. Yamanaka received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012, sharing it with another Sir John B. Gurdon, who found another method of inducing pluripotency.

Thirteen years after this paper was published (in 2019), Dr. Yuancheng Lu from the Sinclair Lab at Harvard University authored another paper (still being peer-reviewed) where he had used Dr. Yamanaka’s breakthrough to reverse aging.

To first explain what stem cells are (for those of you that don’t have much biology experience), we’re going to go back in time to when you were just a small mass of cells in your mother’s womb.

One of the world’s greatest anti-aging scientists continues his groundbreaking efforts. In the photo next to Dr David Sinclair, there is a fella who kind of looks like my friend, Dr Yuancheng Ryan Lu. Is that you? (Dr Lu has confirmed that he is indeed the scientist on the right. Dr Sinclair is on the left.)

I can’t wait to see what they develop next!

Harvard scientist David Sinclair is one of Longevity’s big hitters. Just a year after raising $50M in Series B financing, his company Life Biosciences LLC is looking for $100M to progress its anti-aging research [1].

Longevity. Technology: Life Biosciences had an original Series B goal of $25M; it doubled it. As NAD continues to embed in the anti-aging supplement marketplace, the company is looking to expand, with a range of subsidiaries under its Longevity umbrella. Although the company isn’t spilling any secrets on its proposed clinical trials, we will be sure to keep a close eye on progress.

Life Biosciences, valued last year at approximately $500M, is built on Sinclair’s experience as co-Director of the Paul F Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School, as a genetics professor at Harvard University and on previously-founded companies Arc Bio, Genocea and Ovascience.

If you are interested in mind uploading, then I have an excellent video for you to watch. Dr Keith Wiley discusses personal identity issues associated with whole brain emulation in today’s Carboncopies Journal Club Meeting.

If you are interested in artificial general intelligence (AGI), then I have a panel discussion to recommend. My friend, David Wood, has done a masterful job of selecting three panelists with deep insight into possible regulation of AGI. One of the panelists was my friend, Dan Faggella, who was eloquent and informative as usual. For this session of the London Futurists, David Wood selected two other panelists with significantly different opinions on how to properly restrain AGI.

As research around the world proceeds to improve the power, the scope, and the generality of AI systems, should developers adopt regulatory frameworks to help steer progress?

What are the main threats that such regulations should be guarding against? In the midst of an intense international race to obtain better AI, are such frameworks doomed to be ineffective? Might such frameworks do more harm than good, hindering valuable innovation? Are there good examples of precedents, from other fields of technology, of international agreements proving beneficial? Or is discussion of frameworks for the governance of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) a distraction from more pressing issues, given the potential long time scales ahead before AGI becomes a realistic prospect?

This 90 minute London Futurists live Zoom webinar featured a number of panellists with deep insight into the issues of improving AI:

• Joanna Bryson, Professor of Ethics and Technology at the Hertie School, Berlin, https://www.hertie-school.org/en/who-we-are/profile/person/bryson/
• Dan Faggella, CEO and Head of Research, Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research, https://danfaggella.com/
• Nell Watson, tech ethicist, machine learning researcher, and social reformer, https://www.nellwatson.com/

The webinar took place from 4pm UK time on Saturday 30th May. The video resolution is low, but the quality of the panellists contributions shines through.

For more information about this event, see https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/events/270900482/

Join London Futurists on Meetup at https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists

A superficial treatment of Transhumanism by CNN.

Photographer David Vintiner’s portraits feature subjects identifying as “transhuman,” including a man with bionic ears and a woman who can “feel” earthquakes.

There is even a section that clearly was written specifically to address a discussion that has engaged my friends, Dinorah Delfin and Dan Faggella. The title is:

FUTURE DEVICES: QUANTUM PHYSICS MEETS BIOLOGY MEETS NANOTECHNOLOGY

Now, some might be tempted to consider that particular combination to be “woo woo”, however, please keep in mind the author’s credentials. Sonia Contera is a professor of biological physics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford.

Increasingly, scientists are gaining control over matter at the nanometer scale. Spearheaded by physical scientists operating at the interfaces of physics and biology, advances in nanoscience and technology are transforming how people think about life and treat human health.

If you’re interested in superlongevity and cognitive enhancement, I have a YouTube video to recommend. Our good friend, Ira Pastor, on his excellent podcast ideaXme, discusses with Dr. Rudolph Tanzi the topic of inflammaging, specifically brain inflammation, plaque, tau tangles, brain health, and Alzheimer’s disease. Then they discuss some emergent therapies to prevent Alzheimer’s by protecting the neurons.

The discussion is concise and complete, but also very easy to follow.

Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador, interviews Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, Vice-Chair of Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, and Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Ira Pastor Comments

On this episode we are going to journey back to the topic of Alzheimer’s, a disease of substantial unmet medical need, projected to affect over a 100 million people globally by mid century.

Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, Vice-Chair of Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, and Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and has been investigating the genetics of neurological disease since the 1980s when he participated in the first study that used genetic markers to find a disease gene for Huntington’s disease.

In 1990, Dr. Tanzi received his Ph.D. in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, where his doctoral thesis was on the discovery and isolation of the first Alzheimer’s disease gene — the amyloid precursor protein (APP), published in 1987 in Science.

Dr. Tanzi’s work in Alzheimer’s disease research.

Interesting articles on theranostic iron nanowires. I’m interested in watching all aspects of development of nanobots, because I think it may lead to new forms of treatments for superlongevity and superintelligence.

Phys.org: Iron nanorobots go undercover to do surveillance on living cells in real time:

https://phys.org/…/2020–05-iron-nanorobots-undercover-surve…

Identifying the precise location of cells and their migration dynamics is of utmost importance for achieving the therapeutic potential of cells after implantation into a host. Magnetic resonance imaging is a suitable, non-invasive technique for cell monitoring when used in combination with contrast agents.

This work shows that nanowires with an iron core and an iron oxide shell are excellent materials for this application, due to their customizable magnetic properties and biocompatibility. The longitudinal and transverse magnetic relaxivities of the core–shell nanowires were evaluated at 1.5 T, revealing a high performance as T₂ contrast agents. Different levels of oxidation and various surface coatings were tested at 7 T. Their effects on the T₂ contrast were reflected in the tailored transverse relaxivities. Finally, the detection of nanowire-labeled breast cancer cells was demonstrated in T₂-weighted images of cells implanted in both, in vitro in tissue-mimicking phantoms and in vivo in mouse brain. Labeling the cells with a nanowire concentration of 0.8 μg of Fe/mL allowed the detection of 25 cells/µL in vitro, diminishing the possibility of side effects.

I always enjoy the perspective of David Wood, and in this session of the London Futurists there is a panel discussion about genetic engineering in the future.

Our DNA is becoming as readable, writable, and hackable as our information technology. The resulting genetic revolution is poised to transform our healthcare, our choices for the characteristics of the next generation, and our evolution as a species. The future could bring breathtaking advances in human well-being, but it could also descend into a dangerous genetic arms race.

These claims are made in the recent book “Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity”, https://hackingdarwin.com/ by Technology Futurist Jamie Metzl, https://jamiemetzl.com/

Jamie’s view is that society isn’t at all ready for the fast-approaching future of widespread genetic hacking.

Here is some feedback for his book:

• “An outstanding guide to the most important conversation of our lives” — Ray Kurzweil
• “A gifted and thoughtful writer, Metzl brings us to the frontiers of biology and technology, and reveals a world full of promise and peril.” — Siddhartha Mukherjee MD

This 90 minute live London Futurists webinar also featured, in addition to Jamie Metzl, two other distinguished panellists:

• Nessa Carey, http://www.nessacarey.co.uk/ is a virologist, researcher, and Visiting Professor in Molecular Biology at Imperial College London. Nessa is the author of “The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance”, “Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome”, and, most recently, “Hacking the Code of Life: How gene editing will rewrite our futures”, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hacking-Code-Life-editing-rewrite/dp/1785784978/