Lifeboat Foundation

What if everything in our world has a soul and mind? What if every desk, chair, and potted plant has a conscious stream of thoughts? That’s the basic idea behind Panpsychism, a theory first put forward in the late 16th century by Francesco Patrizi. It’s been a hundred years or so since science won out about this theory in the 1920s, but now it’s regaining momentum.

To understand why this theory is regaining popularity requires us to look at one of the most difficult conundrums that human scientists have ever faced: where consciousness comes from. Scientists have been trying to solve this hard problem for over a hundred years, and while developments in neuroscience, psychology, and quantum physics have come far, we still don’t have a definitive answer.

The argument is regaining momentum, though, thanks in part to the work of Italian neuroscientist and psychiatrist Giulio Tononi, who proposed the idea that there is widespread consciousness even found in the simplest of systems. Tononi and American neuroscientist Christof Koch argued that consciousness will follow where there are organized lumps of matter. Some even believe that the stars may be conscious.

Two of my passions are electric bicycle projects and DIY solar powered projects. In fact I’ve written the book on both topics. So to see these two fields combined in one quirky-yet-awesome product totally made my week. I just hope you’re as excited as I am to dive into this strange electric bike/car contraption that boasts a heap of features from seating for two to a giant solar panel array offering nearly unlimited range!

It’s just one of many strange, awesome and fun-looking electric vehicles I’ve discovered while window shopping on the world’s most eclectic digital thrift store: Alibaba. And now it has the honor of officially becoming this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!

We’ve seen solar powered electric bicycles before, but they’re usually designed with some serious pedaling requirements. The low power of even large-sized panels means that riders generally still have to provide some significant leg assist.

Plasma cell neoplasms occur when abnormal plasma cells form cancerous tumors in bone or soft tissue.

When there is only one tumor, the disease is called a plasmacytoma. When there are multiple tumors, it is called multiple

Learn more about multiple treatment, statistics, research, and clinical trials.

In a study published in Nature Mental Health, scientists from China and the United States have found that individuals suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) may face a higher high risk of brain aging.

Previously undescribed human gut bacteria that aid in the digestion of plant cellulose are scarce in urban societies but abundant in ancient and hunter-gatherer microbiomes, according to a new Science study.

There are trillions of microbes in the human gastrointestinal tract, each of which expresses its own genome, and carries out a variety of biochemical processes. Gut microbes can generate a variety of molecules that can have a significant impact on human health, such as vitamins, specially modified bile acids, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).

SCFAs have fewer than six carbon atoms, and are found in a few major forms, including acetate, propionate, and butyrate. When we eat fibers that are tough to digest, gut microbes metabolize them instead, and generate SCFAs. Many links have been found between butyrate and human health; it is thought to have roles in the maintainence of epithelial barriers, prevention of gut inflammation in the gut and colorectal cancer, and oxidative stress relief.

Other species of human used to walk the Earth. Homo sapiens are the last to survive.

This article is almost a year old, yet still wildly interesting.

An MIT scientist developed a wearable BCI device that allows users to access the internet with their minds.

The wearable device records neural signals as and when a person hears or thinks of words.

Continue reading “Explained: AlterEgo—a Device With Which You Can Communicate With Machines With The ‘internet In Your Head’” »

Don’t want Google’s experimental AI search feature embedded into your search pages? Too bad.

According to Search Engine Land, Google has started unleashing its AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) product, which was previously available for users only on an opt-in basis, into the browsers of users who didn’t choose to partake in Google’s AI search experiment.

Google has defended the unsolicited SGE-ification of its platform, telling Search Engine Land that it’s thus far only incorporated SGE automatically into a “subset of queries” that take up a “small percentage of search traffic in the US” and arguing further that the rollout will allow them to glean feedback from the users who, again, didn’t elect to opt into the generative AI search service.