Lifeboat Foundation

A super-short and to-the-point introduction to Rejuvenaction, ageing, and rejuvenation which I wrote on l4t.

You might have noticed I have sometimes mentioned ‘Rejuvenaction’ in passing in other posts on l4t, but never really went too much into detail as to what Rejuvenaction even is. I was hoping to trigger curiosity in the few readers l4t has had thus far (this is what I get for posting once in a blue moon), but I think it is high time to formally introduce l4t’s older brother.

Simply put, Rejuvenaction is an advocacy blog meant to spread awareness about the problem of human ageing and what could be done to bring about the end of this problem within a few decades.

Continue reading “Tempus fugit” »

For millennials and the generations to follow, the future will differ radically from their parents’ world. Massively powerful digital technologies will bring seismic changes in the lifestyles, opportunities, privileges and choices experienced by young people compared to their parents.

Continue reading

For the unwary, ICOs represent an even bigger risk, as uncertainty about how they should be regulated means most lack even basic protection of securities laws that governed the dotcom IPOs. As pure digital events, the online fundraisings are also exposed to familiar internet frauds, from phishing scams used to rip off the unwary to the hacking of the underlying software underpinning the new ventures — the fate that befell the first prominent ICO last year, for a company called the DAO.

Flood of initial coin offerings is aimed at bypassing Google and Amazon, but sceptics fear a bubble.

The ‘singularity’ event that scientists talk about in artificial intelligence (AI) — when robots would outsmart human beings in reasoning — has just been moved up, according to a top scientist at HP Inc. The progress in AI and machine learning has been so rapid that scientists have upped the estimate for the ‘singularity’ to happen in 2029 from 2040, shaving off 11 years of development time, says Shane Wall, Chief Technology Officer at HP, who also heads the HP Labs which is at the centre of innovation within the company.

Wall, who was speaking at the HP Reinvent Partner Forum here, said there may be some who watch with fear for that event to happen but taken adequate precautions, this change would bring in much good for everyone — be it in manufacturing, health, innovation or elsewhere. He said AI handles huge amount of data and can discern patterns to take decisions. “Machine learning uses AI and big data to learn and it can find things that no humans can see,” Wall noted.

According to him, already there are massive data farms which are crunching big numbers and there are research labs and companies where machines are taught how to use data to managing things around us. Wall, who joined HP over a decade ago, drives the company’s technology vision and its strategy and helms the innovation community within. According to him, machines have become smart enough to predict failures within a system and 3D manufacturing is a massive revolution in the making. “Already, 3D printing is handling intricate products and in the future this will bring about a disruptive change,” Wall said.

Continue reading “Robots will become smarter than humans by 2029, says HP Chief Technology Officer Shane Wall” »

Could an experimental anti-aging cocktail of #rapamycin and #metformin and other drugs extend life? A Chicago physician is treating patients with an untested anti-aging drug regimen. This article details which medications the doctor prescribes and why he prescribes them.

A doctor prescribes anti-aging cocktail of rapamycin, metformin, and other drugs. This article explains the components of the cocktail.

Update on google’s secretive calico labs.

Google’s #Calico #Labs startup has been cloaked in secrecy, until recently. Calico Labs is using #AI and #MachineLearning to defeat aging. Using a new AI-based machine, they decoded a human genome from scratch — without looking at the official genome map.

Google’s biotech startup Calico Labs is hoping to outsmart death and has been cloaked in secrecy, until recently. That is, until this report.

Researchers announced yesterday that they discovered a #genetic #brain #aging #clock that controls how our brains age. The clock controls brain aging according to a precise timetable. This discovery holds promise that scientists can prevent brain aging by stopping the clock.

Summary: Researchers announced yesterday that they discovered a genetic brain aging clock that controls how our brains age. The clock controls aging in our brains according to a precise timetable. This discovery holds promise that scientists can prevent brain aging by stopping the clock.

Imagine keeping your mind sharp as a teenager’s while you grow older, even into your twilight years.

Continue reading “Researchers Discover Key to Brain Aging” »

Humanity has been attempting to measure and assess beauty long before anyone even knew about computers and algorithms. Surprisingly, a new technology may help to solve the ancient question that mankind has struggled to answer: what is universal beauty? And perhaps even more intriguingly, it might help us in aging research.

Leonardo da Vinci attempted to capture the essence of beauty in his famous drawing, Vitruvian Man, through the use of geometrically equal proportions. This drawing was based on the writing of Roman architect Vitruvius in his treatise De Architectura.

According to Plato, beauty was an idea or form of which beautiful things were a consequence. He suggested that beauty was found when the sum of parts became a harmonious whole.

My new policy article for the HuffPost on why more than ever we need to avoid war and armed conflict:

Some of the early years of my adult life were in conflict zones as a journalist—which included covering the Pakistan/Indian Kashmir conflict for the National Geographic Channel and The New York Times Syndicate. War zones are terrifying. One always is worried about bullying soldiers, speeding armed military vehicles, stray bullets, and whether there’s a roadside bomb on your path. Anyone that approaches you is suspect and could be carrying ready-to-detonate explosives.

One thing conflict zones teach you is that freedom is precious. The nearly 70-year Kashmir conflict has approximately a half million soldiers involved, so even if they’re supposedly on your side (depending on what country you’re in), you still feel under siege. My time in certain parts of Sudan, Israel, Palestine, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Eritrea, Mali, and Yemen left me with the same feeling.

Continue reading “The Libertarian Futurist’s Case for Avoiding War and Military Entanglements” »