Lifeboat Foundation

On behalf of Mind Matters News, I listen and ask some questions about just how the enduring self — the thing we are most sure of — could be an illusion.

The findings also point to possible directions for treatment of the disease.

The results are published Sept. 6 in the journal Neuron.

Almost half the human genome is comprised of transposable elements, long and short stretches of DNA called “jumping genes” for their ability to move from one location of the genome to others. Once called “junk” DNA, these transposable sequences have been shown to play crucial regulatory roles in many biological functions. Once they fulfill these myriad roles, molecular regulators usually silence their expression.

It works by copying what happens in the hippocampus—a seahorse-shaped region deep in the brain that plays a crucial role in memory. The brain structure not only helps us form short-term memories but also appears to direct memories to other regions for long-term storage.

For more than 10 years, Theodore Berger and Dong Song at the University of Southern California and their colleagues have been developing a way to mimic this process. Their idea is to use brain electrodes to understand the electrical patterns of activity that occur when memories are encoded, and then use those same electrodes to fire similar patterns of activity.

https://www.timventura.com — Martin Ciupa discusses the existential risks and unintended consequences of AI superintelligence and the Singularity, along with concerns about AI augmentation through Neuralink. We also explore the philosophical underpinnings of The Singularity and how it fulfills a long-standing human need for transcendence in a technologically advanced society.

Martin Ciupa is a subject matter expert on artificial intelligence. Martin is the CEO of Remoscope Inc, an AI-based Telehealth startup, and an advisor & consultant to Mindmaze, a Unicorn Neurotech company focuses on applying advanced neuroscience to everyday life. Martin has decades of experience in computing and artificial intelligence, PhD studies in AI, and a Master’s Degree in Cybernetics. He joins us today to discuss AI Superintelligence and the Singularity.

Continue reading “Martin Ciupa — AI Superintelligence, The Singularity & Neuralink” »

The virus is mutating in new ways. Here’s what to expect.

Along the way, they discuss the early days of David’s HedWeb, the Abolitionist Project, the Three Supers of Transhumanism (Superhappiness, Superintelligence, and Superlongevity), philosophy and history of science, the nature of intelligence, field theories of consciousness, anesthesia, empathogens, anti-tolerance drugs, and much more.

Some of the key essays discussed:

Continue reading “David Pearce and Andrés Gómez Emilsson Chat About the Nature of Reality” »

Ray Kurzweil predicted Technological Singularity nearly 20 years ago. Elon Musk could enable a world of economic abundance with real world AI. Robotaxi and Teslabot will transform the world more than car and the first industrial revolution.

Tesla sells Model Ys for about $60000, but it currently costs them about $30000–40000 to make them. A Teslabot is 1/30th of the mass of a Model Y. It will use 1/30th of the batteries. The software is an overall cost of development. If billions of bots are produced then the cost would trend toward the cost of the hardware plus Apple iPhone-like margins including the software (say 40% gross margin). At Model Y cost of $30k then the hardware cost for Teslabot will go to $1000. $2000 with margins and software. A bot can work for 8,000 hours in a year. 8,760 hours in a year. $2000 divided by 8,000 hours is $0.25. If you add 10 cents per hour for electricity then it is $0.35 per hour. Going beyond that is bots can work in the factory and work cheaper than humans. Currently 15,000 workers in Tesla China factory. Replace all of them with $0.35 per hour bots. Reduce labor cost component. If a lot of bots can increase production rates. by 2X then all costs spread over more units. Bot-produced solar and batteries can lower the cost of energy by vastly increasing the supply. Those trends could get us to $500‑1000 per bot costs and lower energy costs. Having virtually unlimited labor costing less than 35 cents per hour will be transformational.

Continue reading “Elon’s Real World AI is the Real World Technological Singularity” »

Scientists from the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences at The University of Tsukuba created scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) “snapshots” with a delay between frames much shorter than previously possible. By using ultrafast laser methods, they improved the time resolution from picoseconds to tens of femtoseconds, which may greatly enhance the ability of condensed matter scientists to study extremely rapid processes.

One picosecond, which is a mere trillionth of a second, is much shorter than the blink of an eye. For most applications, a movie camera that could record frames in a picosecond would be much faster than necessary. However, for scientists trying to understand the ultrafast dynamics of materials using STM, such as the rearrangement of atoms during a phase transition or the brief excitation of electrons, it can be painfully slow.

Now, a team of researchers at the University of Tsukuba designed an STM system based on a pump-probe method that can be used over a wide range of delay times as short as 30 femtoseconds (ACS Photonics, “Subcycle mid-infrared electric-field-driven scanning tunneling microscopy with a time resolution higher than 30 fs”).

Research into how the blood protein vitronectin changes when under pressure – such as when it passes through the blood vessels at the back of the eye – could unlock the mechanism of macular degeneration.