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Jul 20, 2021

Scientists Warn of “Bleak Cyborg Future” From Brain-Computer Interfaces

Posted by in categories: biological, computing, cyborgs, law, neuroscience

Researchers warn of the potential social, ethical, and legal consequences of technologies interacting heavily with human brains.

Surpassing the biological limitations of the brain and using one’s mind to interact with and control external electronic devices may sound like the distant cyborg future, but it could come sooner than we think.

Researchers from Imperial College London conducted a review of modern commercial brain-computer interface (BCI) devices, and they discuss the primary technological limitations and humanitarian concerns of these devices in APL Bioengineering, from AIP Publishing.

Jul 14, 2021

UK May Ban Boiling Lobsters Alive Under “Sentient Being” Law, So Can They Really Feel Pain?

Posted by in categories: ethics, government, law, space

Boiling lobsters alive may be banned under a new law in the UK designed to protect the welfare rights of animals considered sentient beings. So, are lobsters sentient, do they feel pain, and what does science have to say about the moral quagmire of crustacean agony and cooking pots?

Back in May 2021, the UK government introduced a bill to formally recognize animals as sentient beings. Among the many facets of the bill, it aimed to limit the import of products from trophy hunting, push for fairer space requirements for farm animals, and stop people from owning primates as pets.

However, the bill only covered animals with a backbone and didn’t include any protections for non-vertebrates, which includes octopuses, squid, insects, and crustaceans. The Times reports that ministers are now preparing to back an amendment to the House of Lords, the upper house of the UK Parliament, to extend the legislation to shellfish and cephalopod mollusks. As per the report, this is likely to involve an outright ban on boiling lobsters alive.

Jul 13, 2021

Silicon Valley bets on crypto projects to disrupt finance

Posted by in categories: finance, law

Lawyers and venture capitalists said DeFi inhabits a largely unregulated grey area that could face pressure from the new Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler. Some investors drew comparisons between DeFi and the boom in initial coin offerings four years ago, which collapsed following interventions by regulators.


Wave of ‘DeFi’ projects aim to reinvent exchanges, insurance, lending and more.

Jul 13, 2021

On Quantum Collapse as a Basis for the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Posted by in categories: law, quantum physics, time travel

Basically means that time travel would be tricky as the reality bubble could collapse. One would need to strengthen the reality so that the past would still be the past and future the future.


It was first suggested by David Z. Albert that the existence of a real, physical non-unitary process (i.e., “collapse”) at the quantum level would yield a complete explanation for the Second Law of Thermodynamics (i.e., the increase in entropy over time). The contribution of such a process would be to provide a physical basis for the ontological indeterminacy needed to derive the irreversible Second Law against a backdrop of otherwise reversible, deterministic physical laws. An alternative understanding of the source of this possible quantum “collapse” or non-unitarity is presented herein, in terms of the Transactional Interpretation (TI).

Jul 1, 2021

How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, food, health, law

“I realized that in the middle-dose group, which is the one that mattered for the no-effects level, they had conveniently left out one of the two baseline measurement days,” said Sheppard. “The outrageous thing was that the group they declared as NOEL was only that because they left out data from their analysis.” In a peer-reviewed paper published in October 2020, Sheppard and her colleagues concluded that “the omission of valid data without justification was a form of data falsification.”


In any case, bifenthrin was not the only pesticide that dodged testing to see if it presented dangers. The EPA’s pesticide office granted 972 industry requests to waive toxicity tests between December 2011 and May 2018, 89 percent of all requests made. Among the tests on pesticides that were never performed were 90 percent of tests looking for developmental neurotoxicity, 92 percent of chronic cancer studies, and 97 percent of studies looking at how pesticides harm the immune system.

By law, the companies that submit their products for review pay for these tests, and in a presentation about the waivers last year, Anna Lowit, a senior science adviser in the office, emphasized the savings to these companies: more than $300 million. Lowit also noted that animal lives were saved — a goal that the Trump administration and the chemical industry prioritized within the agency. The EPA developed the guidelines for waiving the tests along with BASF, Corteva, and Syngenta, pesticide manufacturers that all stand to benefit significantly from having their products bypass toxicity testing.

Continue reading “How Pesticide Companies Corrupted the EPA and Poisoned America” »

Jun 28, 2021

Video Game Voice Actors Alarmed

Posted by in categories: entertainment, information science, law, robotics/AI

Part of the problem mirrors the rise of automation in any other industry — performers told Input that they’re nervous that game studios might try to replace them with sophisticated algorithms in order to save a few bucks. But the game modder’s decision also raises questions about the agency that performers have over their own voices, as well as the artistry involved in bringing characters to life.

“If this is true, this is just heartbreaking,” video game voice actor Jay Britton tweeted about the mod. “Yes, AI might be able to replace things but should it? We literally get to decide. Replacing actors with AI is not only a legal minefield but an utterly soulless choice.”

“Why not remove all human creativity from games and use AI…” he added.

Jun 24, 2021

South African brothers disappear with $3.6B in bitcoin in alleged heist

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, finance, law

Two brothers in South Africa have disappeared along with $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin that was housed on their cryptocurrency investment platform, according to a Cape Town law firm hired by investors to investigate the alleged heist.

The law firm, Hanekom Attorneys, said it has reported the incident to the Hawks, an elite unit of South Africa’s national police force. Hanekom has also reported the matter to South African financial regulators and crypto exchanges around the world.

The brothers, Ameer and Raees Cajee, set up their crypto investment service, Africrypt, in 2019.

Jun 22, 2021

☄️Elon Musk’s SpaceX flies dangerously close to breaking the law

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, law, space travel, sustainability

SpaceX’s plans land it near trouble.


Musk Reads #252

Jun 19, 2021

CaAKG — The Science Behind Rejuvant | Tom Weldon Interview Series Part I

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, law, life extension, media & arts, science

This product came out months ago with some shocking numbers as to effect. But those effects were in mice tests. 10–20% increase in lifespan and 55% increase in healthspan. It is AKG, Rejuvant, it’s a product you can buy now. There will be a part 2 of this interview so I hope to hear about human data.


Here we present an interview with Tom Weldon the founder and CEO of Ponce de Leon Health, which makes Rejuvant a Calcium AKG based supplement. In this video Tom talks through the process and reasons for selecting CaAKG. He also talks about some of the other results that they found in their tests, especially with respect to mixing different supplements and their combined effects.

Continue reading “CaAKG — The Science Behind Rejuvant | Tom Weldon Interview Series Part I” »

Jun 16, 2021

Panama to Present Crypto-Related Bill in July

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, law

Following El Salvador, opposition politician Gabriel Silva says he is seeking consensus to make cryptocurrency legal tender in Panama.

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