Lifeboat Foundation

Early probes are one thing, but can we build a continuing presence among the stars, human or robotic? An evolutionary treatment of starflight sees it growing from a steadily expanding presence right here in our Solar System, the kind of infrastructure Alex Tolley examines in the essay below. How we get to a system-wide infrastructure is the challenge, one analyzed by a paper that sees artificial intelligence and 3D printing as key drivers leading to a rapidly expanding space economy. The subject is a natural for Tolley, who is co-author (with Brian McConnell) of A Design for a Reusable Water-Based Spacecraft Known as the Spacecoach (Springer, 2016). An ingenious solution to cheap transportation among the planets, the Spacecoach could readily be part of the equation as we bring assets available off-planet into our economy and deploy them for even deeper explorations. Alex is a lecturer in biology at the University of California, and has been a Centauri Dreams regular for as long as I can remember, one whose insights are often a touchstone for my own thinking.

By Alex Tolley

In Brief:

Researchers found a new “supercomputer” using nanotechnology. These biocomputers can solve mathematical problems faster, and they are more energy efficient.

Continue reading “Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Create a Super-Fast ‘Biological Computer’” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ClSRrM84Gk

More on Intel’s plans for a Quantum Neuromorphic chip to mimic the brain on QC. Should be interesting as they will be researching Quantum Biology/ Biosystem technology of the human brain to make this happen. And, will also be assessing cell electromagnetic spin, much of the other quantum mechanic properties of the brain. So, consider the race is on now for a Quantum Biosystem brain. And, the question now is which one will get there 1st and which type? DARPA’s Quantum Biosystem enhanced brain or one like Intel’s Quantum Neuromorphic chip mimicking the human brain?

Things are about to become very interesting for all.

Continue reading “Intel’s Quantum Computing” »

Posthumanists and perhaps especially transhumanists tend to downplay the value conflicts that are likely to emerge in the wake of a rapidly changing technoscientific landscape. What follows are six questions and scenarios that are designed to focus thinking by drawing together several tendencies that are not normally related to each other but which nevertheless provide the basis for future value conflicts.

1. Will ecological thinking eventuate in an instrumentalization of life? Generally speaking, biology – especially when a nervous system is involved — is more energy efficient when it comes to storing, accessing and processing information than even the best silicon-based computers. While we still don’t quite know why this is the case, we are nevertheless acquiring greater powers of ‘informing’ biological processes through strategic interventions, ranging from correcting ‘genetic errors’ to growing purpose-made organs, including neurons, from stem-cells. In that case, might we not ‘grow’ some organs to function in largely the same capacity as silicon-based computers – especially if it helps to reduce the overall burden that human activity places on the planet? (E.g. the brains in the vats in the film The Minority Report which engage in the precognition of crime.) In other words, this new ‘instrumentalization of life’ may be the most environmentally friendly way to prolong our own survival. But is this a good enough reason? Would these specially created organic thought-beings require legal protection or even rights? The environmental movement has been, generally speaking, against the multiplication of artificial life forms (e.g. the controversies surrounding genetically modified organisms), but in this scenario these life forms would potentially provide a means to achieve ecologically friendly goals.

2. Will concerns for social justice force us to enhance animals? We are becoming more capable of recognizing and decoding animal thoughts and feelings, a fact which has helped to bolster those concerned with animal welfare, not to mention ‘animal rights’. At the same time, we are also developing prosthetic devices (of the sort already worn by Steven Hawking) which can enhance the powers of disabled humans so their thoughts and feelings are can be communicated to a wider audience and hence enable them to participate in society more effectively. Might we not wish to apply similar prosthetics to animals – and perhaps even ourselves — in order to facilitate the transaction of thoughts and feelings between humans and animals? This proposal might aim ultimately to secure some mutually agreeable ‘social contract’, whereby animals are incorporated more explicitly in the human life-world — not as merely wards but as something closer to citizens. (See, e.g., Donaldson and Kymlicka’s Zoopolis.) However, would this set of policy initiatives constitute a violation of the animals’ species integrity and simply be a more insidious form of human domination?

Continue reading “Value Conflicts surrounding the Meaning of Life in the Trans/Post/Human Future” »

Looks like an interesting book for my Quantum Bio friends.

Quantum mechanics provides the most accurate microscopic description of the world around us, yet the interface between quantum mechanics and biology is only now being explored. This book uses a combination of experiment and theory to examine areas of biology believed to be strongly influenced by manifestly quantum phenomena. Covering subjects ranging from coherent energy transfer in photosynthetic light harvesting to spin coherence in the avian compass and the problem of molecular recognition in olfaction, the book is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics, biology a…

Cannot wait to see the outcomes as it will prove how Quantum principles are in fact a core peice in biology that will open up more innovation in areas like BMI, cell circuitry, etc.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will conduct a Proposers Day via webcast on Feb. 21 to discuss the RadioBio program that aims to determine whether purposeful signaling through electromagnetic waves occurs between biological cells.

“If we can prove that purposeful signaling is happening, the next step would be to discover how the process works,” Mike Fiddy, DARPA program manager, said in a statement released Tuesday.

Continue reading “DARPA to Hold Proposers Day for Electromagnetic Biosignaling Identification Program” »

As Geordie Rose was to QC; Jim Al-Khalili is to Quantum Biology. QC and QB will together make a new advance quantum tech world complete as both are needed to advance both the foundation(infrastructure) and the products and services we love and rely on.

What is quantum biology? Philip Ball explains how strange quantum effects take place in the messy world of biology, and how these are behind familiar biological phenomena such as smell, enzymes and bird’s migration.
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Continue reading “Quantum Biology: An Introduction” »

Nice report published in Jan on.

The mechanism of selectivity in ion channels is still an open question in biology for more than half a century. Here, we suggest that quantum interference can be a solution to explain the selectivity mechanism in ion channels since interference happens between similar ions through the same size of ion channels. In this paper, we simulate two neighboring ion channels on a cell membrane with the famous double-slit experiment in physics to investigate whether there is any possibility of matter-wave interference of ions via movement through ion channels. Our obtained decoherence timescales indicate that the quantum states of ions can only survive for short times, i.e. ≈100 picoseconds in each channel and ≈17–53 picoseconds outside the channels, giving the result that the quantum interference of ions seems unlikely due to environmental decoherence. However, we discuss our results and raise few points, which increase the possibility of interference.

Photoswitchable molecules are able to isomerize between two metastable forms through light stimuli. Originally being studied by photochemists, this type of molecule has now found a wide range of applications within physics, chemistry and biology. The extensive usage of photochromic molecules is due to the two isomers having fundamentally different physical and chemical properties. The most important attribute of a photoswitch is the photoisomerization quantum yield, which defines the efficiency of the photoisomerization event. Here we show how to determine the photoisomerization quantum yield in the solid state and in solution when taking thermal processes into account. The described method together with provided software allows for rapid and accurate determination of the isomerization process for this important class of molecules.