Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,111

Synopsis: In this talk we articulate a positive vision of the future that is both viable given what we know, and also utterly radical in its implications. We introduce two key insights that, when taken together, synergize in powerful ways. Namely, (a) the long-tails of pleasure and pain, and (b) the correlation between wellbeing, productivity, and intelligence. This informs us how to distribute resources if we want to maximize wellbeing. Given the weight of the extremes, it is important to take them into account. But because of the causal significance of more typical hedonic ranges, engineering our baseline is a key consideration. This makes it natural to break down the task of paradise engineering into three components:

Avoid negative extremes.
increase hedonic baseline, and.
achieve new heights of experience.

With regards to : the future of consciousness is anodyne. It lacks extreme suffering in any of its guises. We will see how, if we aim right, a significant proportion of extreme suffering can be prevented with pragmatic technologies already available. Even just applying what we know today would be as significant for the reduction of suffering as the advent of anesthesia was in the context of surgery.

On : the future of consciousness is engaging. From novelty generation to Buddhist annealing, baseline-enhancing interventions will change the way we think of life. It is not only about making everyday fun, but also the economics of it.

And : the future of consciousness is ecstatic. A science of ecstasy will allow us to safely and reliably sample from a wide range of time-tested ultra-blissful peak experiences. A common cause with other sentient beings, and indeed with the interests of consciousness at large, can be forged in the knowledge of such deep experiences.

They give you a genuine, non-sentimental, reason to live. Together, action on these three levels can significantly advance the cause of eliminating suffering and engineering paradise. And our assessment is: there is a lot of low-hanging fruit in this space. Let’s pick it up!

Continue reading “The Future of Consciousness — Andrés Gómez Emilsson” | >

A result of the gradual increase in human lifespan and high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries.

The world’s population hit eight billion today, November 15, and this is a “milestone in human development,” according to a statement by the United Nations (UN).

This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene, and medicine.

Dmytro Varavin/iStock.

Considering the fact that the last time the global population notched seven billion was in 2011, the world population increased by one billion in the last 11 years. This raises concerns about overpopulation, which is directly linked to climate change.

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Advancing Novel Therapeutic Interventions For Unmet Medical Needs — Dr. Michael Hufford, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO, LyGenesis; Interim CEO, Morphoceuticals; Scientific Advisor, Juvenescence.

Dr. Michael Hufford, Ph.D. is the Co-Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of LyGenesis (https://www.lygenesis.com/), a clinical-stage cell therapy company that transforms patient’s lymph nodes into bioreactors capable of growing functioning ectopic organs. He also serves as the Interim CEO of Morphoceuticals (https://www.morphoceuticals.com/) a company focused on modifying electric potentials in cells and tissues for a variety of applications in regenerative medicine, from improving amputation stump health and limb regeneration, to organogenesis, to creating a bioelectric atlas where numerous disease indications may be corrected.

Dr. Hufford also serves as a scientific advisor to Juvenescence (https://juvlabs.com/) a biotech holding company that develops therapies and products to modify aging and help people live longer.

An entrepreneur and drug developer, Dr. Hufford has over 20 years of experience in the development and FDA regulatory approval of small molecules (Cypress Bioscience), biologics (Amylin Pharmaceuticals), as well as drug delivery technologies (e-Nicotine Technology). He has designed and executed clinical trials and drug development programs across a wide variety of therapeutic areas, from orphan metabolic diseases to psychiatric and oncology indications. His experience in-and out-licensing pre-clinical and clinical stage assets, executing corporate partnering deals, and in investor relations, has helped him to raise public, private, and angel-back financing for his companies. His philanthropic work includes co-founding and serving as the CEO of Harm Reduction Therapeutics, Inc. (https://www.harmreductiontherapeutics.org/), a nonprofit pharmaceutical company developing low-cost over-the-counter intra-nasal naloxone in the US to help prevent opioid overdose deaths.

Dr. Hufford earned his undergraduate degree with distinction from Purdue University, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, before completing a Research and Clinical Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is an award-winning lecturer, and the author of more than 100 scientific publications, presentations, and OpEds, with multiple issued and pending patents.

Continue reading “Dr. Michael Hufford, PhD — Advancing Novel Therapeutic Interventions For Unmet Medical Needs” | >

The patients had some, although severely diminished, visual function during the day, however, at night they were essentially blind, with light sensitivity 10,000–100,000 times less than normal.

According to researchers at the Scheie Eye Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, adults with a genetic form of childhood-onset blindness experienced remarkable recoveries of night vision within days of receiving an experimental gene therapy.

The patients had Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), a congenital blindness caused by GUCY2D gene mutations. The findings were published in the journal iScience. The researchers administered AAV gene therapy, which contains the DNA.

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐮𝐭 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐬 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧

𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙨𝙪𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙜𝙪𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙖 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣’𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩.

New research in fish suggests that gut microbes can have a crucial early influence on the brain’s social development.

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A multidisciplinary team of Weill Cornell Medicine researchers has received a five-year $5.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to fund a center aimed at developing messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to deter cancer development in at-risk groups.

The Weill Cornell Medicine CAP-IT Center for LNP RNA Immunoprevention was selected as one of two founding members of the Cancer Prevention-Interception Targeted Agent Discovery Program (CAP-IT), a collaborative research network funded by the NCI to discover agents that prevent or intercept cancer in high-risk populations.

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