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A talk by David Pearce for the Stepping into the Future conference 2022

Synopsis: No sentient being in the evolutionary history of life has enjoyed good health as defined by the World Health Organization. The founding constitution of the World Health Organization commits the international community to a daringly ambitious conception of health: “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing”. Health as so conceived is inconsistent with evolution via natural selection. Lifelong good health is inconsistent with a Darwinian genome. Indeed, the vision of the World Health Organization evokes the World Transhumanist Association. Transhumanists aspire to a civilization of superhappiness, superlongevity and superintelligence; but even an architecture of mind based on information-sensitive gradients of bliss cannot yield complete well-being. Post-Darwinian life will be sublime, but “complete” well-being is posthuman – more akin to Buddhist nirvana. So the aim of this talk is twofold. First, I shall explore the therapeutic interventions needed to underwrite the WHO conception of good health for everyone – or rather, a recognisable approximation of lifelong good health. What genes, allelic combinations and metabolic pathways must be targeted to deliver a biohappiness revolution: life based entirely on gradients of well-being? How can we devise a more civilized signalling system for human and nonhuman animal life than gradients of mental and physical pain? Secondly, how can genome reformists shift the Overton window of political discourse in favour of hedonic uplift? How can prospective parents worldwide – and the World Health Organization – be encouraged to embrace genome reform? For only germline engineering can fix the problem of suffering and create a happy biosphere for all sentient beings.

The End of Suffering – Genome Reform and the Future of Sentience – David Pearce

The conserved mitochondrial gene distribution in relatives of Turritopsis nutricula, an immortal jellyfish

Immortal jellyfish could actually be the key to immortality and regeneration. This article talks more in depth of its importance in the search of immortality.

Turritopsis nutricula (T. nutricula) is the one of the known reported organisms that can revert its life cycle to the polyp stage even after becoming sexually mature, defining itself as the only immortal organism in the animal kingdom. Therefore, the animal is having prime importance in basic biological, aging, and biomedical researches. However, till date, the genome of this organism has not been sequenced and even there is no molecular phylogenetic study to reveal its close relatives. Here, using phylogenetic analysis based on available 16s rRNA gene and protein sequences of Cytochrome oxidase subunit-I (COI or COX1) of T. nutricula, we have predicted the closest relatives of the organism. While we found Nemopsis bachei could be closest organism based on COX1 gene sequence; T. dohrnii may be designated as the closest taxon to T. nutricula based on rRNA. Moreover, we have figured out four species that showed similar root distance based on COX1 protein sequence.

Keywords: Turritopsis nutricula, immortal jellyfish, trans-differentiation, phylogeny, relativeness.

Gerontologists and biologists reached a consensus “evolutionary theory of aging,” [1, 2] embedding aging research into the mainstream of biological research. T. nutricula is the one of the known hydrozoan in the animal kingdom that can revert back into the immature polyp stage after reaching sexual maturity, designating itself as the only immortal animal [3]. T. nutricula interplay with the polyp and sexual maturity stages by virtue of trans-differentiation process [4]. Theoretically, this process can go on indefinitely therefore, the organism can be considered as biologically immortal and does not experience aging. Hence, in the basic biology of aging research, the organism has found itself great importance [5]. If a cell or organism undergoes aging, there are two vital biological processes viz.

Elon Musk Shares Transphobic Meme Following Report of Grimes Dating Chelsea Manning

Sooner or later Musks childish, morally and politically inept use of social media will thwart his greater (and great) ambition. Whatever your personal beliefs, there is exactly ZERO doubt that every generation since and including millennials has become exponentially less willing to tolerate this kind of stuff. Musk is going to NEED to both the fresh and enthusiastic intelligence and majority scale support, and not JUST in SpaceX research labs and on site engineering teams either.

He’s going to need IMMENSE, PROLONGED, and RELIABLE political support even as the reins of power are being passed from one generation to the next. If he keeps using Twitter like he has nothing to lose and no one’s support He’s going to find that he really does no longer have anything to lose nor anyones support.

At that point, he’ll have difficulty getting from city to city, much less get to Mars to build CITIES or become a secure, far more survivable interplanetary civilization!

That would be a tragedy of possibly humanity extinguishing scale. Is THAT really worth the freedom to act like an entitled, petty child on social media?!

Musk and his dreams already have enemies enough. Why put HIMSELF at the top of that list? After all, this dream is NOT his alone, nor even remotly it’s originator. He’s just the only person to have the right mix of buisness acumen, technological literacy, enthusiasm, imagination, discipline, charisma, and luck to actually make it a reality. If he fails now, that dream WILL die. Whether its because of global warming, war, disease, atrophied critical thinking skills, educational decline, all of the above or some black swan event, the funds, time, will, and the global interconnectedness between scientific institutions and freedom to innovate and leverage those many convergent capabilities to achieve what MUST be achieved will be reduced or gone entirely. ☝️🤨👈

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New DNA Modification System Discovered in Animals — “It’s Almost Unbelievable”

Marine Biological Laboratory finds gene captured from bacteria more than 60 million years ago.

Your DNA holds the blueprint to build your body, but it’s a living document: Adjustments to the design can be made by epigenetic marks. Cataloguing these marks and how they work is important for understanding biology and genetics—and coming up with therapies to address diseases and disorders.

In humans and our fellow eukaryotes, two principal epigenetic marks are known. But a team from the University of Chicago-affiliated Marine Biological Laboratory has discovered a third, novel epigenetic mark—one formerly known only in bacteria—in small freshwater animals called bdelloid rotifers.

Exclusive: China captures powerful US NSA cyberspy tool

China captured a spy tool deployed by the US National Security Agency, which is capable of lurking in a victim’s computer to access sensitive information and was found to have controlled global internet equipment and stole large amounts of users’ information, according to a report the Global Times obtained from the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center exclusively on Monday.

According to the report, the Trojan horse, “NOPEN,” is a remote control tool for Unix/Linux computer systems. It is mainly used for stealing files, accessing systems, redirecting network communication, and viewing a target device’s information.

Through technical analysis, the center believes that the “NOPEN” Trojan horse is characterized by complex technology, comprehensive functions and strong concealment, which can fit a variety of processor architectures and operating systems. It can also collaborate with other cyber weapons and is a typical tool used for cyber espionage.

New window system allows for long-term studies of brain activity

Bilal Haider is studying how multiple areas of the brain work together for visual perception. This could help researchers understand if neural activity “traffic jams” underlie all kinds of visual impairments: from running a red light when visual attention is elsewhere, to shedding light on the autism-affected brain.

To do this kind of work, researchers need a reliable “map” of all the visual areas with specific coordinates for each unique brain. Drawing the map requires monitoring and recording data from an active, working brain, which usually means creating a window in the skull to watch blood flow activity.

Haider’s team has developed a better approach—a new kind of window that’s more stable and allows for longer-term studies. The assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University explains how in a paper published in February in Scientific Reports.

Fully vaccinated will need fourth dose later this year, and new variant dubbed ‘deltacron’ detected in Europe

Fully vaccinated people will need a fourth shot later in 2022, according to the head of Pfizer Inc., who said that COVID-19 is not going to just go away in the coming years.

Albert Bourla told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” that people are going to have to learn to live with the virus.

He said a fourth dose — that is, a second booster — is necessary “right now.”

How “bodies on a chip” can transform animal welfare

Circa 2019

When Ken-Ichiro Kamei, a microengineer at Kyoto University, goes out drinking with his friends, he usually brings along one of his “bodies on a chip.” When the topic of work inevitably comes up, he’ll whip out the chip – which looks like a lab slide, but with an added crystal-clear silicone rubber layer containing faintly visible troughs and channels – and declare, “I’m making these devices to recreate humans and animals.”

Wows inevitably ensue. “It’s like I’m a magician and my friends have asked me to do some tricks,” Kamei chuckles.

Kamei is at the forefront of a new field of biotechnology that seeks to replicate organs, systems and entire bodies on chips such as the one he likes to show off. While traditional biochemical experiments carried out on lab plates are static and isolated, the chips Kamei uses contain an interconnected system of channels, valves and pumps that allow for more complex interactions – to the point that they can mimic a living system. Recognizing the potential such chips have for revolutionizing medical research, in 2016 the World Economic Forum named “organs-on-chips” in their top 10 emerging technologies of the year. But while those specialised chips mimic particular tissues or organs, Kamei and his colleagues aim to eventually mimic whole animals. “It’s quite ambitious,” he says.