Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 11164

In Brief:

  • Bionic eyes are already in development and could alleviate sight issues for hundreds of millions suffering from visual impairments or blindness.
  • The mechanical eyes could also provide enhanced sight so cybernetic humans could see more of the electromagnetic spectrum.

With an estimated 285 million people worldwide with visual impairment, many treatments and technological innovations have long been in development. The panacea of restoring sight to the blind is the stuff of sci-fi: the bionic eye.

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Researchers have warned it is already too late to stop killer robots — and say banning them would be little more than a temporary solution.

University at Buffalo researchers claim ‘society is entering into a situation where systems like these have and will become possible.’

Elon Musk and Professor Stephen Hawking have both warned that artificial intelligence could develop a will of its own that is in conflict with that of humanity, and could herald dangers like powerful autonomous weapons.

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Last month in Paris, the Hello Tomorrow Global Summit brought together entrepreneurs and inventors, investors and industry for a two-day event exploring the science shaping the future.

Now in its third year, the conference is unique in the sci-and-tech futures circuit for putting scientists, academics and inventors centre stage, and in the same room as the investors and business types who can help bring their ideas to life. Some of the leading minds of tomorrow were there to present, discuss and debate their work.

Among them were some 500 startups battling for the Hello Tomorrow Challenge, a prize awarding early-stage science and tech ventures across 10 categories – from air quality to aeronautics – with equity-free cash, mentoring and exposure.

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A new avenue of research opens up for cancer and potential therapies.

A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) suggests there may be a way to limit tumor growth by targeting immune system cells called macrophages.

The research reveals that can “drill” through tumors to create new vessel-like structures for delivering oxygen and nutrients as tumors grow.

“This may represent a whole new therapeutic target for treating tumors,” said TSRI Professor Martin Friedlander, senior author of the new study, which was published November 11 in the journal Scientific Reports.

Continue reading “Immune cells may facilitate tumor growth” | >

More commentary about the Steve Aoki Party for Science and the Aoki Foundation.

Music business entrepreneur Steve Aoki has been a supporter of the SENS rejuvenation research programs for a while now. I’m always pleased to see successful people being vocal about their support for SENS, putting it front and center when talking to their audiences. Placing this important scientific work — as well as the prospects for near future therapies, and the need for philanthropic funding — in front of a bigger audience is a vital to the continued growth of our community and continued progress towards the medical control of aging. We need to reach out to entirely new networks of people, those who would never seek out the longevity science community on their own, as among their numbers are many who will be turn out to be interested, pleasantly surprised, and enthusiastic. Today, I’d wager, a large fraction of those people who will go on to be significant advocates and philanthropic donors of the late 2020s have no idea that we even exist, or that bringing an end to age-related disease, frailty, and suffering is possible outside the realm of science fiction.

Bootstrapping a cause never stops being hard. It was hard when small groups were striving to raise a few thousand dollars for SENS advocacy here and there, when having regular research programs and a million dollar fund looked to be an impossible distance away. It is hard today, when the SENS Research Foundation is trying to make the leap from a few million dollars in yearly research budgets to something ten times that size. Building greater public awareness and enthusiasm for the medical science of human rejuvenation is a very necessary part of that work. The sooner we collectively manage to change the zeitgeist to one in which charitable support for rejuvenation research is just as normal and lauded as support for cancer research, the better off we all are, and the more money that can be raised for scientific projects. So thanks are due to Steve Aoki for stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at this.

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