I listened to the first hour. it takes time… and the right frame of mind, but it’s worth it.
Jeff Hawkins is the founder of Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience in 2002 and Numenta in 2005. In his 2004 book titled On Intelligence, and in his research before and after, he and his team have worked to reverse-engineer the neocortex and propose artificial intelligence architectures, approaches, and ideas that are inspired by the human brain. These ideas include Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) from 2004 and The Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence from 2017. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. Audio podcast version is available on https://lexfridman.com/ai/
In this podcast, Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., and the Chief Science Officer/Co-founder of SENS Research Foundation discusses his fascination with aging and his ongoing efforts to change the way we think about, and treat, age-related conditions. Dr. de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist and the innovative developer of the SENS platform. He is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association. He received a Ph.D. in Biology from the prestigious University of Cambridge. Dr. de Grey states that aging is the greatest medical problem we face as it causes the most suffering. He discusses the various excuses that are given as reason to simply disregard aging as a field in need of greater research, from the standard, ‘everything ages, just accept it,’ to the more philosophical—‘death, by its existence, gives meaning to life,’ and the social excuse—‘treating aging in a new way would only create new problems that could be much worse.’ But according to Dr. de Gray, not a single excuse holds up, all fall to the slightest scrutiny when really considered. Dr. de Grey explains that in order to design and implement therapies that will prevent the health problems of an aging population, we need to learn from what has already been proven and acknowledged in the past. SENS Research Foundation seeks to develop and promote access to innovative new therapies that can cure or possibly even prevent the diseases and difficult, troubling disabilities of aging by repairing built-up damage in our bodies. Wrapping up, Dr. de Grey explains cell therapy and damage, loss of cells, and the processes needed to bring about the repair. And the doctor goes into detail regarding the injection of stem cells to repair the damage, replace lost cells, etc.
Urolithin A, a metabolite of biomolecules found in pomegranates and other fruits, could help slow certain aging processes. EPFL spin-off Amazentis, in conjunction with EPFL and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, has published a paper Metabolism outlining the results of their clinical trial.
It is a fact of life that skeletal muscles begin to lose strength and mass once a person reaches the age of 50. A recent clinical trial involving two EPFL entities — spin-off Amazentis and the Laboratory of Integrative Systems Physiology (LISP) — showed that urolithin A, a compound derived from biomolecules found in fruits such as pomegranates, could slow down this process by improving the functioning of mitochondria — the cells’ powerhouses. A joint paper presenting the results of the trial also demonstrates that ingesting the compound poses no risk to human health.
David Marcus has written a post intended to give “clarity” to the critics of Libra, the blockchain network Facebook is trying to seed.
First, to those who say the system is not really decentralized: “We totally get the point,” Marcus wrote in the July 3 post. “But it was important to start with trusted entities that could operate in a regulated environment and with the operational expertise required to ensure the integrity of the network in its foundational stage.”
He reiterated that “we’re committed to gradually transitioning to a permissionless state in the years to come,” and added that in the meantime, “I’d argue that one hundred geographically distributed, industry-diverse organizations is quite decentralized.” ( There are only 28 so far, however.)
