tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-917937657923292882024-02-19T09:51:04.686+00:00Principles of EvolutionInsights into the applications of evolutionary theory to humans today. +more!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-42095812246468150582017-08-07T15:28:00.002+01:002017-08-07T15:28:54.818+01:00How do you experience evolutionary selection pressure?<div class="MsoNormal">
Evolutionary selection permeates the consciousness of members
of a species at a level higher than the individuals themselves. Everyone comes
into awareness about the selection pressures and adaptations taking place
across their population. This happens independently of who they happen to be. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Awareness of “life”, being alive, what it takes to survive,
exist in each individual even when they lack it in some perceived manner e.g.
being unattractive, having low self-esteem, being a failure. Indeed, it’s what
enables self-deprecation and sometimes suicide based on some of these beliefs
in an individual.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLo3vhZo5SEP-QDGc3cQVqicq1uYW1OPtinr9DGGTxOR6CrqrVsx4q3GOEax7JyDAtBx7OSLhwjX-6sm0S_Hk88eDi7A9PgZdb3SITjmz5WYHTVd_Qy8gAPvvSJY4fjVo5NLWr9P5mEjU/s1600/oameni-pe-strada-752x535.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="752" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLo3vhZo5SEP-QDGc3cQVqicq1uYW1OPtinr9DGGTxOR6CrqrVsx4q3GOEax7JyDAtBx7OSLhwjX-6sm0S_Hk88eDi7A9PgZdb3SITjmz5WYHTVd_Qy8gAPvvSJY4fjVo5NLWr9P5mEjU/s400/oameni-pe-strada-752x535.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each individual is not out for themselves, with the
selection pressure encouraging <i>them</i>
to succeed, but rather they are out for the collective they are part of,
whether they realise it or not, whether they like it or not. It is detrimental
to individuals to feel bad about themselves. However, this is the effect of
collective selection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Individuals therefore place themselves within that spectrum
of being alive and aligned with the path of survival and reproduction – the literal
path, and the ever-increasing figurative path in humans. Indeed, they aim to
become increasingly aligned.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eusociality is a popular example of altruistic behaviour
with most individuals being unable to reproduce even if they wanted to. Despite
e.g. humans <i>being able</i> to reproduce,
the perception alone that they may not be worthy is enough to prevent them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This awareness develops acutely during puberty, and causes
the associated angst regarding one’s identity, value and place amongst others.
Of course, as the selection pressures and direction of evolution itself
changes, a delicate balance must be struck between meeting established ideals
of survival, and being part of <i>creating
new ones</i> through our own initiative and behaviour.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Individuals are therefore placed to constantly gauge the extent
to which they may influence the evolutionary pathways of life, versus
themselves being influenced by the established path. This is seen with people
bargaining for their positions in the collective: balancing their perceived
unattractiveness with increased service to others; increased humour or other
valued features by established standards. Hence, a hybrid phenotype evolves
that carries over an originally negative connotation by associating with an
established positive connotation. <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-9861215071369548372016-07-03T17:16:00.000+01:002016-07-03T17:16:03.058+01:00No, but seriously: What is “Life”?<div class="MsoNormal">
i)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Attempts to define life in terms of humans thinking about
defining life in terms of egotistical individuals, genes, species or whatnot
have failed for what should be obvious reasons.<br />
Life is a natural phenomenon no different to any other.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
It can be regarded as an abstract concept referring to an energy exchange
process rather than any given chemical, object, individual or concrete material
arrangement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The temptation to define life as such has been merely a bias of the definer, of
our individual consciousness taking place in an individual body. While bodies
may exhibit life, as they are alive, they are not as such life itself, as life
itself does not operate in any significant way on a given object: not
individuals, nor species, nor size scales, chemicals nor arrangements of matter.
The failure of life at any of these levels (think individual death, species
extinction or even mass extinctions) does not overall hinder the process of
life through time, for as long as any single thread of life is unbroken e.g. a
monophyletic tree.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisi1Ic_0wXVrYNx6ZSHLsf4HQ8nW_EmNssuBgjmRJTCG2-30CiZYX4DdTYvEbimHHN1wjHsWvZALn7HRBOPt1XrVz0jHFvjJt6BMr2CNkevucxC68hmtB0afEKuvuYTFmxvzV_FlafZKM/s1600/ggg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisi1Ic_0wXVrYNx6ZSHLsf4HQ8nW_EmNssuBgjmRJTCG2-30CiZYX4DdTYvEbimHHN1wjHsWvZALn7HRBOPt1XrVz0jHFvjJt6BMr2CNkevucxC68hmtB0afEKuvuYTFmxvzV_FlafZKM/s400/ggg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Illusions of object dependency or the specifics of life expression are the result
of a specific form of life i.e. humans, trying to define life which inevitably
does pass through them. A life form looking upon itself and others unlike it,
trying to define it all. Many biases emerge.<br />
<br />
No object as such satisfies the shockingly simple prerequisites of the life
process in abstraction, that is, survival at one level (genetic, individual,
ecosystem or other) for reproduction at another (most often thought of at the
individual level; reproduction at one level is merely survival at another, so
the two concepts are subtly the same thing, for example reproduction of the
individual is survival of the population, or reproduction of the cell is
survival of the individual).<br />
<br />
Evolution transcends these discrete objects. It has transcended even DNA, where
any combination of RNA and intermediate molecules have shaped up the processes
of heredity and the production of biologicals based on amino acids. The process
of life simply does not adhere to a strict form that we have tried to impose on
it, be it a set of base chemicals, protein products, anatomical setups or
behavioural assumptions.<br />
<br />
ii)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regarding the simple prerequisites of the life process,
energy transfer via persistence at one level for reproduction (whether for
maintenance of the life process, or for expansion purposes which are dependent
on the environment and hence not purely inherent to the life process in
isolation) at another level:<br />
<br />
These conditions may be ascribed to non-life processes in the current sense,
for example products of humans, artificial intelligence, inorganic type items.
In this case the definition ca be freely adapted. Either these are equally part
of the life process, especially if they are energetic descendants of initial
life forms like humans; or just treated based on the conclusion of the definer’s
(humans’) inherent bias regarding what is to be acceptably taken under the simple
and generic umbrella definition of the life process.<br />
<br />
Essentially, “What is life?” passes through the human lens. The bulk of the
answer separating life from non-life is therefore a reflection of human self-reflection,
validation and perception. In reality, such steep distinction between the
living and non-living does not exist. For, as per the start of the essay, life
is a natural process fundamentally no different to any other in the universe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Image credit: Scott Eaton, www.scott-eaton.com</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-5108233961940989602016-03-16T19:04:00.003+00:002016-03-16T19:05:56.626+00:00The Agenda of Those Who Praise You<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Is praise for personal success just guised
reinforcement for doing something that benefits others while hurting that
individual? Often successful people aren’t themselves happy per se, truly, genuinely
fulfilled with the object of their success, whatever it may be – so why do they
seek it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Reinforcement and praise is given by
others, by society as a whole for doing certain things such as working hard and
being generous. These things clearly benefit others, and that is why they
should encourage it. They also often come at the expense of the individual doing
it; they suffer ill health from pursuing those activities, mental health
included, and take the brunt of things upon themselves. Another example of this
in action is entrepreneurship – what is entrepreneurship? Why has it been glamourised
so heavily?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNEwLDKV2KP-wCQ6OZliEc23VLH6wKiVEzMcmW_PH0Ce60sUmJSFOHDJsqx6MANzUaJw_XyD2OyIPdtZCgq5WBMXlvz_XUj7ckfpbk68KfiGlzVE1v80Q3mxO02FMIGjxonIwlrzev3l8/s1600/applause.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNEwLDKV2KP-wCQ6OZliEc23VLH6wKiVEzMcmW_PH0Ce60sUmJSFOHDJsqx6MANzUaJw_XyD2OyIPdtZCgq5WBMXlvz_XUj7ckfpbk68KfiGlzVE1v80Q3mxO02FMIGjxonIwlrzev3l8/s400/applause.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB">Simply, entrepreneurship is that act of
doing absolutely whatever it takes, often unpleasant activities no one else
would derive any happiness from, to do things which are going to benefit others.
Big corporations simply bypass the difficulties associated with
entrepreneurship by glamourising that lifestyle as something for the ‘little
people on the ground’ to do, in exchange for some insignificant items such as
luxury cars, etc. that that particular demographic is likely to value. It’s
simply a branch of altruism meant to maximise group benefit off the back of a
minority of individuals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">That individuals who do genuinely enjoy
doing sacrificial things such as entrepreneurship exist is not to be doubted. However,
many others most definitely do not enjoy those things. Even outwardly happy entrepreneurs
are simply happy in an abstract sense, that the success gives them fuel to keep
going. However, they have reported basic dissatisfactions and various kinds of
mental illness such as depression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">In a way, this is not dissimilar to the
genius/madman example, where great feats go hand in hand with great challenges
or suffering. In this context, it would make sense that the amount of praise is
correlated with the amount of suffering or difficulty an individual would have
in attaining that feat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So, who really calibrates your happiness and
success? You, or everyone else?</span><!--EndFragment-->
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-78862038699993393742016-02-26T11:38:00.000+00:002016-02-26T11:38:04.323+00:00Are you ready to leave your body?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Imagine you have just upgraded your mind, brain or otherwise
consciousness to an objectively superior carcass – a transhumanist dream come
true. You no longer have bodily limitations as before, such as running out of
breath or not being able to find the nearest toilet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjaoXIBLGOlYiy8XPe5N5nRh9ViCAY3MxZhZi_Xmfb5Yttj2d236AfojrnFuoPTTdEzR-j8QVk2gVFeHurvP4yt762SrpouKIndlWGhVCOo7CV_rePr9RmIB1cyxM6S4MGh1k3xPGUVu0/s1600/grass-hand-619614.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjaoXIBLGOlYiy8XPe5N5nRh9ViCAY3MxZhZi_Xmfb5Yttj2d236AfojrnFuoPTTdEzR-j8QVk2gVFeHurvP4yt762SrpouKIndlWGhVCOo7CV_rePr9RmIB1cyxM6S4MGh1k3xPGUVu0/s640/grass-hand-619614.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">How would you relate to your world, a world built around our previous
biological bodies? Would your mind quickly adapt to its new senses, or be left
alienated and unsatisfied, still tethered to the ghost of your body past?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What would waking up become, now that the potent touch of sunlight no
longer connects to your post-biological self? Homes, laden with accessories and
structure to suit a feeble human body, now rendered all but obsolete. What’s a
kitchen if you don’t need to squeeze chemical energy out of food? What’s a
table with chairs if you don’t get tired or need to make the most of feeding
and socialising in a designated space? What’s a bathroom for you now that
failing skin need no longer be bathed, and organic dirt cleansed, nor teeth
brushed, not bladders emptied?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s a street lamp or a morning alarm without limited eyesight and
uncomputerised brains? Indeed, what is much of everything to a post-human, when
the world was built for humans? The world as we know it, as timeless and
glorious as it may appear, all but fails to bear any significance to our augmented
selves, the future human body. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is surely nothing new, but what is different, and so very
important, is that we understand just how connected we really are to our
present biological selves, and how our minds are deeply tuned to that – how merely
handling our minds as separate from the body would render the first post-human
isolated, mad and suicidal; an outcome surely anathema to transhumanist
aspirations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Imagine that the biological body connections that we have to each other
are overlooked in your upgrading process. What does body language become when
your eyes are cameras, and your skin cold? Would anyone try to find your
heartbeat? What will restaurants offer when your energy is replenished through
a battery, and what activities will your bedroom evolve to host?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If you were the first, would it break your heart to be approached by
someone who asks “Are you alive? Prove you’re alive”, only to find that your
empathic connection that previously spared you having to answer those
questions, has now been broken. Indeed, we have no way of knowing that anyone
else shares our consciousness, other than the similarity of our individual
experiences and communication with them, whether bodily or mental. Will we have
to synchronise our transition to an extent, to prevent breaking off from
humanity?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Are you ready?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">[The purpose of this thought experiment is to stir debate about how
connected we really are to our bodies, and whether our mind alone in a
different body would be satisfied having spent all its evolution getting used
to our bodies now. I hint that we would not survive in a sudden transition to
post-biological bodies; however, transhumanist ambitions in that direction are
perfectly justified and desirable, and the key to success lies in a mindful
transition that does not overlook our current state.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-91709618672313982902016-01-09T14:25:00.001+00:002016-01-09T14:25:20.519+00:00Where does intuition come from?<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">Intuition is the complex, as of yet
unexplained phenomenon which enables people to gain knowledge without any
direct or obvious pathway from raw, disconnected components, to a unified,
coherent idea</span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">. </span></span><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">The source of intuition is unknown, and therefore knowledge
gathered through it is often questioned for its usefulness, validity and
accuracy</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">The
source and process of intuition can be viewed in a mathematical way.</span></span><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 6.0pt;"> </span></span><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">I propose a viewpoint, not my own or original,
that takes into account our human perspective and its relationship with the
physical reality truth</span></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">s.</span></span><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">This
can be boiled down to our own nature, and its necessary obedience of any
natural principles or laws.</span></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";"> </span>In essence, this means that we
are part of the universe, on the deepest and loosest level of connection,
through the fabrics that span the farthest regions of the world, by the most
fundamental principles such as time or gravity; and more intimately in our
environment, through the fabrics that span closer regions of the world, by more
specific principles such as biochemical processes and brain interpretation of
sensory signals. </span></span><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">We can
therefore access these laws within ourselves, by ourselves, as a function of
our position in the immediate and broader universe we are found in. Not only
are we observers of the environment and all its phenomena, but we are first and
foremost, part of it. From the most basic levels through to the highest, we are
a prime sample, test subject or specimen of the universe itself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">Much of the universe can be considered not to
be accessible to our perception in an obvious way, such as light in our eyes
and matter against the Pacinian corpuscles in our skin. Yes the spectrum of
sensation that is available, the synergy between different senses, as well as
our considerable processing power of all of them through the brain, amounts to
a respectable amount of information.</span></span><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-GB"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">By a
process of reverse engineering, we can therefore work out the fundamental
truths from the superficial expressions of these truths in ourselves and our
lives.</span></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span>Higher, more virtual interpretations
of these signals may occur mostly or solely within the brain, with minimal
novel sensory input, such as in the case of intuition in matters of social
interaction. Lower, physical interpretations of signals occurring in a more
physical sense, may provide starting points and clues to fundamental laws, such
as gravity, movement, diffusion, etc.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">In a first instance, these ideas are purely
experienced, and therefore not laid out systematically in an academic sense.
Whilst the latter process greatly enables the dissemination and progress of
those ideas, it is important to not dismiss the process of gathering these experiences
in itself; for they are the basis of any further knowledge.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141823; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">"There is no true interpretation of anything;
interpretation is a</span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">vehicle
in the service of human comprehension. The value of</span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">interpretation
is in enabling others to fruitfully think about an</span></span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="background: white;">idea."</span></span></blockquote>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; color: #141823; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">- Andreas Buja, Professor of Statistics</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" xml:lang="EN-GB">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";">This can be achieved to varying degrees,
depending on people's different abilities to reverse engineer these occurrences
back to the fundamental truths.</span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI";"> </span>It is therefore expected that any
given knowledge resulting from it may be more or less usable or accurate, since
the processors of intuitive knowledge are people. Like a furniture factory,
each person may well have equally valid raw materials (wood) and aspirations
for the end-point knowledge (furniture), but different ability to accomplish
this determines whether the end product really is of high quality or not.</span></span><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI",sans-serif; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Intuition is therefore a variable. This is
important in appreciating that its knowledge products cannot be treated in
black and white. They may be ill-intentioned conclusions or useless concepts,
as well as enlightening nuggets of truth and direction that ultimately guide us
through our exploration of the universe.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-13193858753887058082015-12-29T14:44:00.002+00:002015-12-29T14:44:31.710+00:00Life: survival versus reproduction<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 6.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Life
is often thought of and analysed from the viewpoint of the individual organism.
In a previous post (The Apparent Complexity in Life’s Evolution and Its
Explanation ), I suggested defining life as a process rather than an organism,
therefore clarifying tricky areas such as viruses and their status of being
alive or not, and other life products that may be alive in some situations that
are very conditional e.g. seeds.</span></span><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
attempting to explain life from the viewpoint of the individual organism, the
basic function of life appears to be survival of the organism. There have been
plenty of discussions over the fundamental unit of life in the context of
evolution, that have suggested various “vehicles” of life information including
genes themselves, species, populations (Jablonka and Lamb, 2006), etc.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
issue of course with this viewpoint is that organisms always die. Life clearly
has no interest whatsoever in the actual survival of any given organism into
infinity by itself. Indeed, the same can easily be extended to species. Life
has thrived not through survival of any given individual organism or species at
all, and instead, through survival of life processes spanning countless
individual organisms and species. This entire show has been sponsored by
reproduction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Reproduction in the
context of life is better or easier than plain survival – but what is it better
at?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It
is better at providing the opportunity for adaptation. Life cannot exist in a
vacuum, and if life is to be a complement of non-life, of the environment, it
must be able to change, to update, through time and space as the universe is
doing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
directionality of time explains why reproduction makes more sense than mere
survival ad infinitum. Each cycle, each generation, is a change. And starting
to change from square one, developmentally speaking, is far more
straightforward than starting to change from square 47. Getting babies and
children to learn slightly differently, or gain some new abilities that are
new, is easier than getting a mature, further down the line organism to do the
same. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">After
all, adults will have always been selected for as babies for their ability to
be adapted to their present, but not the unknown future. The only way,
apparently, to greet the future, the unknown pressures, is to renew the
organism, or indeed the genome, via reproduction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sexual reproduction
has often been discussed as the great enabler of diversification, mutation,
evolution. What about asexual reproduction? What is the point in reproducing
oneself if the result is merely clones all over again? Why make them rather than
simply maintain the already existing organisms?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">isn't</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> just the diversification offered by sexual reproduction that enables life
through reproduction; it is also merely the process of repeating a
developmental pathway, be it a different one or the exact same one all over
again, as it is in asexual reproduction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Cycling
life, which is defined as certain processes distinct from non-life, has been
much easier, more environmentally or energetically amenable than producing and
maintaining individual organisms themselves ad infinitum. This matter comes
into sharp focus when discussing ageing, death and the role of life’s evolution
in shaping organisms, reproduction, as well as potential directions to be taken
by civilizations to offset these evolved truths in an attempt to break them and
move forward into something else, away from past directions.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 6.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
point at which we will be able to offset the reliance of life on reproduction
in its original, or current, sense, is the point at which we are able to enact
changes, adaptations, of mature organisms, that are at least as efficient as
"natural" changes that occur in reproduction.</span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></span><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
could be things like manipulating the genome, developmental paths, tissues and
functions, etc.</span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
obviously is a grand challenge.</span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">After
all... Life hasn't been doing nothing all this time. Or indeed, time hasn't
been doing nothing all this life.</span></span><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-user-select: text;"><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></span><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 6.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Reference<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="paragraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">E.
Jablonka and M. Lamb (2006), Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic,
Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life, MIT Press, ISBN 978-0262600699</span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-62865702647808745692015-12-29T14:43:00.002+00:002015-12-29T14:43:55.338+00:00The Apparent Complexity in Life’s Evolution and Its Explanation<div class="MsoNormal">
1. What is to be defined as life? Life is a process rather
than an organism</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. In thinking about life’s evolution, apparent
directionality towards complexity has been noted, at the same time as the
apparent contradiction of simple life still existing alongside; this is the
“Why do monkeys still exist?” conundrum. What is this apparent direction
towards higher complexity, what’s behind it, is it evidence of God, is it
evidence of anything at all?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life’s evolution and apparent tendency towards complexity
is, I propose, simply a function of time and nothing else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life does not exist in a vacuum or in abstract. Life, as a
process distinct from non-life processes, takes place in a non-life environment
and must be tightly connected to it. We see this most evidently in the form of
life’s “adaptations” to its environments. Therefore, life is indeed a mirror,
or a complement, of all else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All else, in a general sense, is the universe itself. Don’t
ask about that – that’s a whole different soup trying to be worked out
altogether. If life is a mirror, or function, of the universe; and the universe
is indeed expanding in time space, with evolution being a function of time, it
follows that life’s evolution is a result of the universe’s movements. If an
increasing complexity of the universe is a function of the universe expanding,
then life evolves towards some seeming increasing complexity as a function of
the universe itself tending towards this complexity, or expansion – depending
on whether expansion and complexity are functions of each other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, what is complexity in this context? Complexity
characterises an increase in information density of a given object. A square
may be small and yellow. Another may be small, yellow and furry. The second has
to be more complex right? What, then, is an increasing complexity? What does it
lead to? It can be a deceiving concept. Take computers for example. Moore’s law
famously laid out that every couple of years or so the computing power humans
would be able to create would double, and at the same time become cheaper.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The computer itself is more complex because it achieves more
processes and handles more information than before – it is more complex. Yet
the size and price plummet. The size becomes simpler, the price becomes
simpler. Inherently, there is less information characterising a small,
ubiquitous object than a large, unique one. In this sense, increasing computing
complexity also and at the same time, decreases other of its parameters’
complexity. Computer becomes more complex as its structure and availability
becomes simpler.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This isn’t really a contradiction. After all, simplifying a
mass adds more complexity to the energy released, while simplifying the energy
adds more complexity to the mass in a mass-energy conversion. What are they
interchanging and what are they a function of? Time. The evolution of
complexity follows time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the universe is expanding thus creating more time, some
of it must be becoming more complex while the rest must be simplifying. This
processes follow one direction, that given by time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is life doing? Apparently, becoming more complex. Life
is evolving along this axis of time that is expanding into the universe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. If the environment of life is becoming more complex in
its phenomena, or indeed simply existing along the axis of time, life
necessarily follows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. No additional components are needed to cause an increase
in complexity. Time itself endows the environment with additional information
to build with, to build on. As a reductionist mathematical example, take
numbers 2 and 12. Number 2 may be considered less complex than 12 because it is
smaller in a spatial sense, or “earlier” in a time sense. However, in a
conceptual sense, number 12 doesn't need anything special to exist, given
number 2, other than the time axis, or indeed the space axis – interchangeable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only thing needed for 12 to exist, from a basic starting
unit of 2, is space for six number 2 (6 times 2 is 12); or time for 2 to be
counted 6 times. After all, we don’t look at a watch and say it’s only been 1
minute not 2 because the hand passing twice through the exact same space
“doesn't count”. It does count, that’s counting, and that’s time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2 2 2 2 2 2 is 12 in space</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2 “times” 6 is 12 in time</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5. Similarly, evolution of life does not require any magic
dust to tend towards complexity. Many products of evolution are simply results
of a long time on the same Earth, and the space itself being subject to
increasing complexity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This increasing complexity, defined by an increased
information density, has led to the apparent “complex life” we judge as such.
Despite our need to understand this deeply, life as a process is not that
interested.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6. As individual organisms we of course judge life by this
benchmark – the individual organism. Life as a process does not much care about
the individual organism, that’s why reproduction has evolved instead of mere
survival into infinity, and also it is why different species have arisen. The
actual form of the individual organism is quite irrelevant to life as a
process. That is why monkeys still exist. Life does not tend towards complexity
as a purpose in itself, like for example survival as a purpose in itself, which
we can agree is what life is so damned good at. Complexity, beauty, meaning in
individual species, life forms and organisms are a function of their
environment and the universe itself, and not anything to do with the definition
of life itself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life need not be anything other than just life. Life not
complex, not beautiful and not meaningful may well still be life; indeed still
is, life. On this note, referring back to point (1), life is a process. Life is
not a form. We have mistaken our perception of life as species-based,
appearance-based.<br />
Life permeates everything equally.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life is not the virus that lies dormant for 300 years before
it finds its host to enable it to live. Life is not the seed that lies buried
in an iceberg, never to grow into anything. Life is not the tree of life,
categorising parents and children into boxes based on the light frequencies our
eyes can distinguish between, to be able to tell them apart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life is the process that bridges these items seamlessly
through time and space into an unbroken continuum of perpetuation, unbiased
towards shape, form, function, purpose or lack thereof, intelligence, state of
consciousness, or indeed anything else that is tangent to its sole function –
to carry on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Any curiosity arising from this process of life, whether it
be a number of whatever we define as species, a number of whatever we define as
physiological phenomena, biochemical reactions and others, is to be sooner
attributed to the universe as a whole rather than life itself.</div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Life is simple but the universe is not.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-79399847749228387782014-09-13T00:06:00.001+01:002014-09-13T00:06:24.398+01:00What Living in a Computer Might Feel LikeWhat is the relationship between consciousness and sensory input?<br />
<br />
Consider this: you are on a beach sipping a cocktail while the sun sets over the horizon. There is significant information which may be considered fresh, or renewed, which is being drilled into your perception of the surroundings - the breeze, sight, sound, taste, smell, gravity, balance, etc.<br />
<br />
The continuous transfer of information into your brain is defining your conscious experience which feels unmistakeably "real".<br />
<br />
Now consider the exact same scenario on the beach, but as a dream. Your subjective experience may feel quite identical, as long as you don't spontaneously realise within the dream that it's a dream (lucid dreaming). Even then, the sensations simulated - without a doubt, they are simulated because there is no beach, there is no breeze, etc. - you are after all sedated in your bed with your body under paralysis; those sensations still feel pretty convincing, and only upon waking are they deemed lesser than "reality".<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJtMplQ39d5bU7hxN_zBvRW-x-zirfsUQpvebUgFMSLIQ34fn4RG_1Go-2-QOzRTBrX4a-VVfYF5K4I4hnkV0JDdLcHpoSNcDJTKfd8xcbUDKqHQZPCWX4QcLK_1FiRVwDPtjhP3F0TMc/s1600/Dreaming2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJtMplQ39d5bU7hxN_zBvRW-x-zirfsUQpvebUgFMSLIQ34fn4RG_1Go-2-QOzRTBrX4a-VVfYF5K4I4hnkV0JDdLcHpoSNcDJTKfd8xcbUDKqHQZPCWX4QcLK_1FiRVwDPtjhP3F0TMc/s1600/Dreaming2.jpg" /></a></div>
Nonetheless, there must be a clear line dividing the dreaming consciousness and the awake consciousness if lucid dreaming is even possible, which it is.<br />
<br />
I suggest that dreaming consciousness is supported by old information potentially being recycled in various ways, rather than intercepted live through sensory pathways. In a scenario where a mind is isolated from sensory input, for example as existing in a computer interface, and presumably pre-packed with information or programmed, the playing out of thoughts may end up feeling more like a dream than reality, due to the lack of live sensory input.<br />
<br />
The scenarios played out in the mind soon after fainting also feel like dreams, despite not actually occurring in the same sequence as that leading up to sleeping dreams. It would appear that the backstage processing of information is actually ongoing regardless of an awake or asleep state.<br />
<br />
So each night when you go to sleep, ponder for a second the sheer uniqueness of this experience: your body is sedated slowly and consciousness fades, only to resurrect itself back again intermittently in a dream world composed entirely of simulated imagery that nonetheless feels real, or almost real.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, only experiencing reality can provide the backdrop to concluding the dream experience is inferior, and who's to say that if we were wandering through dreams for long enough, we wouldn't get a better sense of ourselves and learn to control the situations encountered rather than let them happen to us, much like a toddler explores a brand new world and slowly learns their way around?<br /><br />And last but not least: if living in a computer that resembled continuous lucid dreaming i.e. being in control of the simulated environment and yourself to the point where you may be able to change anything and everything, essentially doing whatever you want to the full extent of the meaning, were possible for you - would you be tempted?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-16477701437874831422014-08-08T09:27:00.002+01:002014-08-08T09:27:37.217+01:00Death by Hunger, Death by Ageing<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">People die of hunger all the time. You can't make food out of nothing, right? No, people around you don't die of hunger at all, it may even seem a laughable, ridiculously unlikely event. But they do, people in the world die of hunger. Because you can't make food out of nothing. Our food? It comes from the sun - ultimately the energy from the sun. In a way, so does electricity and everything else. </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Because now, more than ever, we can transform types of energy from chemical to electrical and so on.<br /><br />That's why you and I - we don't die of hunger. The punchline: why is our compulsive urge to avoid death by hunger - to seek out food - accepted by ourselves so obviously, since it is merely an extension of our urge to stay alive? Food is just to stay alive, not a purpose of its own.<br /><br />Why is it that while hunger for food is a legitimate goal to pursue as a human being and as a civilization, hunger for what ultimately food is for - staying alive - is seen as illegitimate? Defeating ageing is seen as impossible. Just like making food out of nothing, or flying used to be. Why? If sunlight can sustain us, and air propel us, through time and through space, then why give up at another hurdle?<br /><br />Think about it.<br /><br /><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sens.org%2F&h=dAQHG7I7K&enc=AZM0n_M9no5PMVcfaItx8payrE5xBnUI6YdlgWHOXEhCvcbZKqlzFAqnCegRpIkijtCg--Zy7kdDqdgBa_iM4bM20PiWaqqnZB80xFP2vx43FsAYrLGW7JUoqprxZx0yDAiejmsjewMp18INaeRykN7W&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.sens.org</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-46009550340555954192014-08-08T09:18:00.002+01:002014-08-08T09:18:37.972+01:00The Long, Long, Cycle of Life<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">I remember a time when I was a child and wasn't aware of what happens as we get older and older. I asked mum what happens afterwards, and she said we stop getting older and older, and start getting younger and younger until we are children again. Then we get older and the cycle continues. I thought it was a beautiful thing and looked forward to my "second" childhood.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Today I acquired a unique per</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">spective on how the above metaphor is exactly what happens with our germ (egg and sperm) cells. In the lineage traced back to the beginning of time, one cell never died. It grew forwards and specialised into the cells that make up a new individual, including that one germ cell that was passed on. At fertilisation, the cell started going backwards and turning into a totipotent stem cell that could once more grow forwards and specialise again. To germ, back to stem cell, to germ and back again. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Never dying. This cell has been alive for all of time, and is now alive within you.<br /><br />So when you think what a "long" life should be, think of how long this little fella has been around.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-18383700728903540672014-08-08T09:13:00.001+01:002014-08-08T09:13:10.662+01:00What Young Scientists Should Do<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">“A Fred Sanger would not survive today’s world of science. With continuous reporting and appraisals, some committee would note that he published little of import between insulin in 1952 and his first paper on RNA sequencing in 1967 with ano</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">ther long gap until DNA sequencing in 1977. He would be labelled as unproductive, and his modest personal support would be denied. We no longer have a culture that allows individuals to embark on long-term—and what would be considered today extremely risky—projects.”<br /><br />"Today the Americans have developed a new culture in science based on the slavery of graduate students. Now graduate students of American institutions are afraid. He just performs. He’s got to perform. The post-doc is an indentured labourer. We now have labs that don’t work in the same way as the early labs where people were independent, where they could have their own ideas and could pursue them.<br /><br />The most important thing today is for young people to take responsibility, to actually know how to formulate an idea and how to work on it. Not to buy into the so-called apprenticeship. I think you can only foster that by having sort of deviant studies. That is, you go on and do something really different. Then I think you will be able to foster it."<br /><br />Long and captivating read <a href="http://kingsreview.co.uk/magazine/blog/2014/02/24/how-academia-and-publishing-are-destroying-scientific-innovation-a-conversation-with-sydney-brenner/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://kingsreview.co.uk/magazine/blog/2014/02/24/how-academia-and-publishing-are-destroying-scientific-innovation-a-conversation-with-sydney-brenner/</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-62753225232521659552014-08-08T09:11:00.003+01:002014-08-08T09:11:49.890+01:00Changing the Building Blocks of Life<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">"The history of science shows several changes to our worldviews, altering our folk-based narratives to more scientifically inspired (semi-)rational approaches. In this context, science has inflicted a series of disappointments and disillusi</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">ons to our folk-based beliefs, such as: the earth is not the center of the Universe, men and apes share the same ancestors, or that emotions and thinking is correlated to a neurological substrate. The promoters of these ideas were often attacked by those trying to keep the intellectual status quo.<br /><br />Xenobiology could easily trigger the next paradigm change in the way we understand nature and life. Just as the Earth lost its place as the center of the universe, or men lost its unique status in the animal world, our natural world could lose its unique status as being synonymous with “life.” But as with all other paradigm changes, concepts that better explain the world around us cannot be ignored for long."<br /><br /><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpmc%2Farticles%2FPMC2909387%2F&h=fAQHqKUSH&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2909387/</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-82381843007342231612014-08-08T09:00:00.003+01:002014-08-08T09:00:27.646+01:00Are there limits to what you can do in a dream?<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Researchers are very interested in figuring out how memory works, as well as what consciousness is. In order to gather more insight into these areas, they are studying the phenomenon of lucid dreaming in which people are aware, within a dream, that they are within a dream. Lucid dreaming can be accompanied by the ability to alter the dreaming environment at will.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">I'm not yet one of the people who</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"> can control how often they have lucid dreams, yet last night I had one. After the initial testing to check if it was indeed a dream (poking a hard surface and seeing it bend around my finger), and the inevitable playing out of certain "quick scenarios that could not happen in real life" (leave that to the imagination), I proceeded to do a few in-dream experiments.<br /><br />I tried to see just how much I can alter within the dream, and what the limitations are.<br /><br />1. After continuously altering everything in the environment for a few seconds, it became too difficult to continue. I got fatigued and changing things because more difficult.<br />2. Arbitrary elements persisted in the environment unless I specifically removed them - i.e. there is a stock background. It is easier to put things in than isolate them and take them out.<br />3. Just like in The Matrix, you have to believe in what you are attempting to create. If you doubt yourself it takes longer to change a chair for example into an armchair.<br /><br />Pending question: are the experiences perceived in dreams purely replicas of experiences already lived, or can they be generated anew, and therefore stay unique to the dream world?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-1372734198249270432014-08-08T08:56:00.001+01:002014-08-08T08:56:16.162+01:00Where did our Moon come from?<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Recently new evidence came to light that supported the long-held hypothesis regarding the formation of our Moon. Where did the Moon come from? Scientists believed that a very, very, very long time ago (4.5 billion years) a planetary body ca</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">lled Theia, the size of Mars, indirectly collided with Earth and formed a lot of debris. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Photo: Recently new evidence came to light that supported the long-held hypothesis regarding the formation of our Moon. Where did the Moon come from? Scientists believed that a very, very, very long time ago (4.5 billion years) a planetary body called Theia, the size of Mars, indirectly collided with Earth and formed a lot of debris.
The Moon formed over time from this remainder, and ever since has been orbiting out planet like clockwork. In 2 days, we'll have a full Moon as seen from Earth. The phases of the Moon have been calculated with extreme precision for every single day gone, and every single day yet to come.
Many associate the Moon with emotional depth, a hidden yet powerful force - the kind that makes the oceans move. And they do, they move, in tides. Whenever two people meet, a collision takes place. Most of what happens bounces off into deep space, just like the debris from Theia. Yet sometimes, a little something stays with you, becomes intertwined with your inner workings in a way beyond your comprehension, gives way to a silent force that likes to come out at night, and for a very long time will dance with you. Just like the Moon stayed with the Earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)" height="319" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/s600x600/10456003_10203370910607693_4683684853996889370_n.jpg?oh=ab112b8737c3411907a2b0800109982e&oe=547DF4AF&__gda__=1415529657_8c5d892fa6d6cd56670419ee6f00c69f" width="400" /><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">The Moon formed over time from this remainder, and ever since has been orbiting out planet like clockwork. In 2 days, we'll have a full Moon as seen from Earth. The phases of the Moon have been calculated with extreme precision for every single day gone, and every single day yet to come. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Many associate the Moon with emotional depth, a hidden yet powerful force - the kind that makes the oceans move. And they do, they move, in tides. Whenever two people meet, a collision takes place. Most of what happens bounces off into deep space, just like the debris from Theia. Yet sometimes, a little something stays with you, becomes intertwined with your inner workings in a way beyond your comprehension, gives way to a silent force that likes to come out at night, and for a very long time will dance with you. Just like the Moon stayed with the Earth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTheia_%28planet%29&h=eAQEKWS4y&enc=AZPe7Xe_-TMEwtBAodafjiYN9mU0lTG_VfrEqzoXBUTcXXS4DRYjZzsSWbytFzpIySRapvRKD90hcDdo1DLpiUJ1vNlyY2y038qi-hUEbHTR5n37mhdWZWtFfnsEfvXmaMJi-Gk4GwirKBOziABiUHD-&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-86262857324413855242014-08-08T08:49:00.002+01:002014-08-08T08:49:40.850+01:00Genetic Selection Guidelines on Babies<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Should people be able to choose their baby's sex, skin colour, intelligence, etc.? I propose a guideline that has the following foundation: the limitations of direct genetic engineering on babies should be the same as those of indirect selection through choosing who to have the baby with. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Guidelines are important here because there is a fine line between t</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">he inalienable human right to reproduce by choice with whomever, and outright eugenics (creating a human "superior master" race).<br /><br />I don't believe eugenics would be the main issue. After all, how many people would choose to have a child not genetically theirs because they objectively assess themselves as ugly and stupid (chuckle)?<br /><br />I believe the main issue would be an amplification of the already existing set of expectations parents lay on their children before they are born.<br /><br />A baby's general appearance can be selected indirectly by mate selection, therefore to that extent it should be available in genetic engineering. Thankfully, our genome is not as discerning as we are, and most features are not monogenic.<br /><br />You could select your baby's rough height, skin/hair colour, rough facial features, but you could not select the precise nose-mouth size ratio. Eye colour itself is a combo of around 16 genes.<br /><br />You can't select your baby's sex by choosing different partners - and so you shouldn't have that option through genetic engineering (again, not because there's something wrong or dangerous with that; there isn't; but because it would inflate parent expectations in a harmful way).<br /><br />Many attractive features such as sense of humour, occupation, and appearance are not inheritable e.g. make up, exercise, so in fact any genetic engineering should be focused on optimising health; any remaining subjective features should be put through the "if I chose a partner" test.<br /><br />If a feature could not be chosen indirectly through the partner, it should not be available directly via genetic engineering.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-29883799243366136672014-08-08T08:46:00.002+01:002014-08-08T08:46:43.123+01:00Can Artificial Intelligence Become "Alive"?<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Re: AI (Artificial Intelligence) et al.: The direction of all things which seem a result of human intelligence is not determined by this intelligence. AI in itself is just this intelligence; our intelligence is the means - not the cause or the purpose. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">Both cause and purpose are the driving forces behind all humans do, and AI is not inherently endowed with either. Both cause and purpose in quali</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 20px;">ty are constant tracing back to the first cell. It is what separates living from dead matter.<br /><br />The Sun is great and powerful. Yet it has no intent to survive and reproduce - to take over the world, to own, to expand. These are living matter properties that are not breathed into intelligent dead matter.<br /><br />Our consciousness is not suspended by intelligence. It is suspended by instinct. Our condition not logical. Even our inferior intelligence ultimately realises the nonsense condition life is. Superior AI does not doubt it.<br /><br />Without an illogical drive, which may or may not be tainted into the AI, the dead will not come to life. And just as our 'natural' intelligence, AI would only be another continuation and branching point in the tree of life that serves as a tool to fulfill ends.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-59109784120691176882014-05-31T15:06:00.002+01:002014-05-31T15:08:15.760+01:00Rejected Post on the Pro-Aging TranceA while back my university magazine approached me to write a scientific article for a well-educated but non-specialist audience i.e. my fellow students.<br />
<br />
After submitting it multiple times and trying to get in touch, I abandoned the whole thing (they didn't seem to be interested; or bother letting me know that they weren't interested anymore). I've just found the Word file and thought - hey, might as well share this with the world. Please take into consideration that some of the circumstantial aspects of this piece are now out of date.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Do you
believe in aging?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p> </o:p><img src="http://www.blirk.net/wallpapers/1440x900/nature-wallpaper-236.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You’re lying down on a soft, lush green lawn, staring at the
crisp blue sky, watching clouds fly by. Could it be that you could fly beside
them one day? This isn’t the thought of someone who has ever been on a plane.
This is the thought of the millions of people before us who didn’t. Imagine
being them - it makes perfect sense, after all, that humans don’t have wings
and can’t fly. Full stop. Yet people fly, they fly everyday beneath the clouds,
above the clouds, and beside the clouds. A small fraction of people made that
possible. It could be argued that without the wild belief that somehow a wingless
human might find themselves beside clouds, the achievement would never have
happened. Discoveries and research are driven by people’s vehement belief that
there is more around us that we don’t know of yet. So how come certain topics
more than others stir up disbelief among many, despite the experiences of the
past, and a base of crude empirical evidence?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">London, 16<sup>th</sup> century - the average life expectancy
is 30 years. The same place in the 21<sup>st</sup> century sees the average
life expectancy rocket to an average of 80 years and rising. Past experiences
show that it is possible for life expectancy to triple in the space of 500
years, with people not really making a big deal out of it. Improving sanitation
and healthcare may seem like easy things to have done in the past which
resulted in increased lifespan. Yet nothing is ever easy before it is done,
much like creating an aircraft is only commonplace once the very first one has
safely taken off and landed. <b>The idea
that it is possible to reverse the process which results in the most deaths
worldwide – aging – is seen as an untouchable fantasy, and has been all along. </b>Wasn’t
flying an untouchable fantasy? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The more big leaps are turned into small steps, the more
fathomable such breakthroughs become. Stopping aging has a very high rating of <i>impossible</i> indeed, yet stopping the
specific biological processes which may cause aging (mutant mitochondria and
death-resistant cells among others) has a much better rating, close to <i>very much possible</i>. The number of people
who believe aging will eventually be reversed at some point in the future is
much higher than the number of people who believe aging will be reversed closer
to our time. Will humans meet alien life? Why not? Will humans meet alien life
this year? A resounding no might be the answer. Imagine for a minute that a
group of people believe they will meet alien life within the year, despite
there being no chance of it happening. Aren’t their efforts going to
significantly increase that chance? Aren’t their actions the sole variable that
determines just how likely such breakthrough would be? If no one at all even
considered creating an airplane, how would it even be possible for one to have
been made?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I am currently taking part in a project about the so-called <b>pro-aging trance</b>. It’s a bit like looking back on the people
who thought flying was never going to happen, and trying to find out the
reasons behind it. Why did some people believe and others disbelieve? Could
those answers apply to people today and their beliefs about aging? Although
aging is biological in nature, studying people’s beliefs and profiling their
more general outlook requires a psychological approach. Faced with the apparent
certainty of death, people seek reassurance which can soften the thought of
something that is negative in essence. <b>There
is a continuum of perceived control over one’s life, which runs between an
internal locus of control and an external locus of control</b>. People who find
themselves at the end of the spectrum on the side of the internal locus of
control tend to attribute life’s events to their own actions, therefore blaming
themselves more for how things turn out, and even how the wider world turns
out. At the other end, people with an external locus of control see the world as
greater than them, and are likely to explain things in terms of luck and other
forces out of their reach.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The pro-aging trance is a term used to describe the state of
mind associated with accepting aging as an inevitable constant, therefore going
along with the prospect of aging and death. <b>Strictly speaking, aging is an inevitable constant, but not any more
than us being wingless is. </b>Many inevitable constants of nature have had
their effects nullified by our intelligent actions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is common to assume something as a fact of life when it
has been the case for a very long time, unchanged. Think of the monkey
experiment where several caged monkeys would be faced with a hanging banana,
yet each time they tried to reach for it, all monkeys were sprayed with water
(which they hate). The monkeys were replaced one by one with other monkeys
unaware of the water spraying. When the new monkeys tried to reach for the
banana, the other monkeys would stop them in a quite violent fashion. When
faced with the unavoidable, what can you do but accept it? People have been
accepting aging and death since our beginning. <b>The premise behind the pro-aging trance is that people with an internal
locus of control are likely to believe in reversing aging, and either oppose it
on moral grounds, or attempt to join efforts to achieve it</b>. On the other
hand, people with an external locus of control would reject the idea
altogether, or deem it so far-fetched that it deserves no attention from the
people alive today. The pro-aging trance project aims to discover if these
associations stand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The project was started by Kelsey Moody and his team at SUNY
Plattsburgh, and is being contributed to by Stuart Calimport of Aston
University, Kemal Akman of Munich University, Barry Bentley of Cambridge
University and myself. The initial motivation behind starting this project was,
in Kelsey’s words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Like many immortalists, I couldn't figure out why the heck
everyone in the world wasn't getting involved with age-related research. Being a psychology student at the time (I
completed a major in psychology before declaring a second in biochemistry), I
had the training necessary to study the PAT.
I recruited three undergraduates to work for me and we completed a
rather comprehensive literature review on the topic, ultimately implicating TMT
(Terror Management Theory) and LH (Learned Helplessness) as major players in
what we call the PAT.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">TMT states that most human behaviour is caused by the fear of
death, while learned helplessness is a state of a person or an animal that has
learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity arises for it to help
itself. This is caused by a constant avoiding of an unpleasant circumstance to
which that person or animal has been subjected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The results of this project will help understand people’s
attitudes towards rejuvenation biotechnologies, and that understanding is
needed to bring together the resources to advance the future of anti-aging
research into the present.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-343921123115100392013-10-10T13:21:00.003+01:002013-10-10T19:40:10.086+01:004 Reasons Google's Calico Won't "Solve Death"The on-line world has been taken ablaze by Calico's bid to end ageing, and thus death itself, but is this what they will actually focus on, and will they achieve it?<br />
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<img height="400" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5239d0e86bb3f77a7bb9ab04-960/google-solve-death.jpg" width="295" /><br />
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<b>The fact is ageing will be reversed, and death by "natural causes" will go with it. The questions are "When?" and "By whom?".</b><br />
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Until recently, not a lot was known about the approach Calico would take in this venture dubbed "moonshot thinking" - a term touted by Google as the source of all considerable human progress throughout history. This we don't doubt, but is this what Calico is all about?<br />
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<a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/10/09/new-details-google-anti-aging/" target="_blank">CNN's Dan Primack has revealed details about Calico's plan</a>, which hint at a less-than-moonshot thinking approach, and cast a serious question mark on its ability to deliver the punchy TIME headline. Here is why:<br />
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<b>1. The man with the idea, Bill Maris, arrived at the conclusion that the root of all death-causing disease is simply ageing itself. Not only is this widely known in the anti-ageing community (yup, there is one!), but it's something that's been pointed out by <a href="http://www.sens.org/" target="_blank">Dr Aubrey De Grey</a> time and again.</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The difference? Maris stated that the root cause of the root cause is cells failing mainly due to genetic degradation, whereas Dr De Grey's comprehensive classification of ageing damage reveals a considerable number which aren't purely genetic, and hence cannot be addressed by simple genetic therapy. Cell loss and atrophy, extracellular and intracellular debris and crosslinks all play a central role in ageing - think wrinkles and lost mobility alongside the true killers such as heart failure.<br />
<b><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="180" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Fj0Ky4GSyVk?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></b><b><br /></b><br />
<b>2. Calico's starting point according to Maris himself would be analysing the DNA of "healthy" 90-year old people, looking for common patterns which the rest - "unhealthy" 90-year old people don't have.</b><br />
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The problems? Firstly, there is no such thing as a healthy old person, in the true sense of the word. They all have a number of symptoms young people don't. These are either cosmetic, or silent physiological ones which, make no mistake, <i>are </i>present - they just haven't reached the threshold necessary for death.<br />
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Secondly, all these so-called healthy old people do indeed end up in the coffin. So all this cumulative damage to their bodies has been taking place just as it has for their fellow unhealthy 90-year old people. They just happened to have a higher threshold for bearing that damage.<br />
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Thirdly, and most crucially, being able to withstand the damage caused by ageing is not the same as reversing ageing. Reversing ageing is the true solution, and the only one that will lead to "solving death".<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>3. Calico's brain parent, Bill Maris, agrees that the current approach to age-related disease is unsuitable. The current approach involves prolonging the lives of hopelessly ill patients. It involves prolonging misery rather than improving health and longevity at the same time.</b><br />
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So why is it then, that Calico's approach involves mimicking a damage-withstanding genetic predisposition and making it accessible to everyone else, when this therapy does not address ageing itself? This merely delays age-related disease, or ensures a painless death at best. That death is no less likely to come than it was before. Indeed, ageing would not have been addressed in the slightest.<br />
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<b>4. The head of Calico, Art Levinson, is also a chairman at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genentech" target="_blank">Genentech</a>. In case you didn't know, which you probably didn't, Genentech is the world's foremost biotechnology company whose profits are derived from a portfolio of drugs used worldwide to manage a range of age-related diseases such as diabetes (insulin), heart failure (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNKase" target="_blank">TNKase</a>) and Alzheimer's disease (in the making).</b><br />
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All cynicism aside, it can be expected that the likely outcome of any operation overseen by someone who's spent the better part of their life surrounded by the old medical approach to age-related disease is likely to be closer to the original, rather than further away.<br />
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So will this "moonshot thinking" venture end up at the polar opposite of its promise, and instead of taking off like a Concorde, just huddle along the well-trodden highways Google would've liked to build in a lawless city?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-90948099467538057222012-09-02T23:51:00.000+01:002012-09-02T23:52:57.042+01:00Curiosity and the Evolution of Space Exploration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/8/28/1346131725764/The-Mars-Curiosity-rovers-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/8/28/1346131725764/The-Mars-Curiosity-rovers-001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Mars. Actual, real, Mars. </div>
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The data that the Curiosity rover (which finds itself on the red planet right now) will provide, is going to be useful in determining the place of life on Mars. Despite our neighbour planet being classified as "alien" in every way, looking at the above image taken on it gives a sense of familiarity. Indeed, the processes by which those rocks formed, as well as the processes by which life arises, are perhaps more universal than we perceive them to be.</div>
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The classic image of the Earth in the solar system portrays our mother planet as special and unique. Many people go as far as to suggest there is no life in the universe as there is on Earth. I for one am tempted to believe that there is life in the universe, wide and tall and diverse. </div>
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Does the knowledge about the Earth render itself useless on another planet? On the contrary, all knowledge acquired is as relevant to the rest of the universe as it is to our planet.</div>
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Curiosity is a very apt name for the rover on Mars. It also names the human attribute which has led to many amazing discoveries and inventions throughout civilisation. The path has already been set for humans to colonise the universe.</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-79602770026206459532012-03-28T00:58:00.000+01:002012-03-28T00:58:50.732+01:00The "Purpose" of the Female OrgasmI read on Wikipedia today that the female orgasm has no reproductive use, whereas the male orgasm does. Who the hell comes up with this bollo**s? Firstly, orgasms by themselves cannot be directly related to reproduction, since the vast, vast, vast majority of living things reproduce just fine without them. Secondly, there is no such thing as <b>purpose</b> in evolution.<br />
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Our idea of purpose is something preconceived to serve a function. For example, a chair is made to be sat on. A typewriter is made to be typed with. A blog post is written to be read and shared. Evolution does not work that way. Nothing is ever made to serve any function because nothing is made according to a function, before that function exists. The concept of <b>function</b> itself is tightly dependent on the environment. A function is the relationship between two things which are connected to each other by cause, effect and time.<br />
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The only reason most things have a function in living things is because those that didn't, couldn't survive. The fundamental blueprint for life on Earth came to be the moment the very first, basic life form evolved. That is our common ancestor - of all alive today. Really, everything that came afterwards couldn't have been that far off the right recipe for life, since what it came from was a work of perfection (loosely, relatively speaking).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>So what's the deal with this whole orgasm thing?</u></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span><br />
The idea suggested on Wikipedia is that orgasms encourage men to have sex, and since orgasms are associated with ejaculation of sperm, then that means that orgasm is involved in reproduction. On the other hand, female orgasms are not associated with an egg maturing, or anything like that, hence female orgasms are not involved in reproduction.<br />
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What results in reproduction in simple species, things such as mere chemical signals over a minuscule pathway, builds up to bigger things such as hormone secretion in dogs - and so the accumulation of these precursors is almost like an inheritance passed on to further species which diverge from the ancestors.<br />
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Would men have sex if they never knew of orgasms? Would women? Undoubtedly. Would men and women have more sex if they knew of orgasms? Certainly.<br />
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But such moment of truth never existed to start off with, because as humans, we have always been orgasming, and so have our ancestors further back. It's like having two ears was never up for selection, simply because it had been established a long time ago that that is the template. Women have orgasms, and while orgasms are not part of the zoomed-in mechanism of reproduction, they are part of the zoomed-out mechanism of reproduction.<br />
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Arguably, no one "knows" of orgasms before they have one, in the sense of actually knowing what it feels like. Yet they may still masturbate as children or teenagers, or even later on. The drive is not the orgasm initially, but the feeling of pleasure caused by stimulation - a feeling perhaps so basic that could be traced down many, many generations of species.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-5305385453121639672012-02-22T15:14:00.004+00:002012-03-02T20:53:01.973+00:00Why don't you want to live forever?I am currently taking part in a very interesting project relating to the pro-aging trance. The pro-aging trance is basically people's perception that our lives will doubtlessly end as a result of aging, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. You might think, well, is there?<br />
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It's a psychological phenomenon that when someone is put in a situation where they are faced with a negative outlook e.g. "I will die, death is a certainty, what could I possibly do to change this? Nothing", they will find ways to cope with it, "I might adhere to some religion or group which promises life after death, or the persistence of "our" kind".<br />
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There are two subcategories of this: people with an external locus of control, and people with an internal locus of control. Those with an external locus of control attribute their abilities and life events to outside factors such as luck, god, karma, etc., while those with an internal locus of control attribute them to their own actions - instead of trying to find their cause, they focus on changing it.<br />
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People with an internal locus of control, therefore, would supposedly see aging as an inevitability, and when faced with the concept of defying aging, would be indifferent. Those with an external locus of control would be further split into:<br />
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1. People who acknowledge the idea as a true possibility, yet oppose it from a moral viewpoint (similar to the opposition to stem cell research e.g. lab grown beef burgers)<br />
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2. People who acknowledge the idea as a true possibility, and join in with others who are working to achieve it. Are you one of them?<br />
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The purpose of the project is to find out whether this model is correct, whether loci of control correlate with one's position on aging and rejuvenation technologies, and their subsequent likelihood to support it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-26271113683958774302012-01-18T18:07:00.000+00:002012-01-18T18:09:33.089+00:003 predictions that will change human evolution as we know itLately I have been reading a lot about innovations which could change our world and evolution forever. Frankly, most of them are very interesting, especially if you often wonder what the next big corner stone of humanity will be. These are the ones I've found most fascinating:<br />
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1. <b>Mind uploading</b> - this is the prediction that soon we'll be able to "upload", much like we do with photos and other information, human brains onto computers which would then be able to think using information from the brain that was uploaded. There are interesting questions surrounding this idea, such as Would uploaded brains have consciousness like humans do? How much control would they have over the computer on which they "exist"?</div>
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It would even be possible to store a brain (not the physical brain of course, just the "code" for a certain brain) on a very small storing device, similar in function to a memory card, and send it off into space to travel for a very long period of time, and then arrive to its destination thousands or millions of Earth years in the future. This would eliminate the complications of keeping a human body alive for so long, and transporting so much food, facilities like showers, and all that comes with the high maintenance human body.</div>
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2. <b>Artificial intelligence</b> - inevitably, if we do upload human minds, the issue of artificial intelligence would take a different spin. For example, at the moment, so-called artificial intelligence attempts such as iPhone's Siri and Japanese robots are hopelessly limited to a narrow range of capabilities which come nowhere near what a real human mind can achieve in terms of language and intelligence (other than mathematical and memory-based).</div>
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<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQOOQDP4z6_BMQz4Hqpmcave7xFuZAnSuTt5EkXeJa1yjnTX34T" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQOOQDP4z6_BMQz4Hqpmcave7xFuZAnSuTt5EkXeJa1yjnTX34T" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"></span></a><a href="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRswTqGObHZ5Bbdgxfswp8QVKsaWizmw-2Y21R58OhUO8jx8n9ijw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRswTqGObHZ5Bbdgxfswp8QVKsaWizmw-2Y21R58OhUO8jx8n9ijw" /></a>If an uploaded mind can be tinkered with, for example improving memory and processing speed and power, then the realisation of infinite intelligence wouldn't be far off. This concept would abide by Moore's law which in the field of computing states that <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"the transistor density of integrated circuits doubles every 2 years". Essentially, this means that the power of artificial intelligence would then increase exponentially, and before we'd know it, artificial intelligence will have surpassed human intelligence to the point that we might not even be able to understand, or relate to, artificial intelligence that ultimately we have created.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine reading a book on the detailed biochemistry of chloroplasts (given that you know nothing about it). It's likely that you will not understand one word at all, except "to", "in", "it", etc. Now imagine that a highly intelligent artificial entity (be it a robot, computer, etc.) has been successfully made, and everyone in the world is eager to find out the answers to all their questions. Upon asking any question whose answer humanity does not know, the highly intelligent entity answers without hesitation, in so much competent detail that it is impossible for us to understand it. Perhaps a different machine would have to be made that could simplify the answers so the average person could understand. Would our own fantasy of infinite intelligence overtake our own abilities to the point that it would alienate us, leave us behind, or even wipe us out?</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">3. <b>Live forever</b> - most people are convinced that eternal life is not a doable thing. However, experiments on various animals have shown that in fact, doubling one's lifespan is possible. People just like us, in the 17th century, hoped to live to 30. In the most longevity-blessed countries, the people hope to live to 90. A few have surpassed 120. But without fail, all long-lived people have aged. Popular belief states that "The only way to live a long life is to be old". I am convinced, however, that even longer lived, youthful lives will be possible in the future.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">If you had the choice of living a very long time as a bionic individual, or a non-bionic individual, you'd probably enjoy to be non-bionic. To be able to feel someone else's human body rather than machine body. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; line-height: 16px;">The implications of much-extended lifespans are many and complex. It's a hotly debated subject, with some people plainly rejecting the idea, and others strongly in favour.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Natural selection relies on diversity which causes differential reproductive success. As humans, we have already created a complex artificial environment which inevitably bypasses natural selection as we know it, and is instead dominated by artificial selection and sexual selection. Our gene pool as a species is hugely diverse, and we measure our reproductive success in brain children as well as, or perhaps even more so than, actual children.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">Will the genes and memes that we carry, in their battle for survival, be the end of us? Will the future be made of machines that rule the universe silently, with minds derived from humans who, in their quest to achieve ultimate intelligence and power, have forgotten to maintain the human species itself?</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-24267396074670633362011-12-29T21:01:00.003+00:002011-12-29T21:09:53.549+00:00Did out feet and hands evolve together?In <i>The Descent of Man</i>, Darwin suggested that bipedalism evolved first in humans, which in turn freed the hands for other purposes, such as building tools. That seems feasible, but less than a year ago, Canadian scientists created a computer model which suggested that feet and hands might have evolved together at the same time, as there is a correlation between the proportions of finger length to toe length. The researchers used measurements from chimpanzees to work this out.<br />
It's a fairly typical causation question: did our ancestors walk upright <i>because</i> they were using their hands all the time, or did they start using their hands all the time <i>because</i> they were walking upright? Or, as in any other correlation, did they evolve both abilities simultaneously? Over the thousands and thousands of years, it is so much easier to assume they did evolve "pretty much" together, but if we were to rewind to that period in our evolution, would one or the other ability be obvious to have come first? The study doesn't actually attempt to answer this question, as theoretically it's equally possible for a change in hands to result in a change in feet, and vice versa.<br />
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But common sense points out that it isn't possible to use hands much for tool building if they are engaged in moving. So bipedalism <i>must have</i> started evolving before the ability to use hands in more complex activities such as stone tool making. That is just a thought experiment, though, and until more definitive evidence is found, this subject remains debatable. What do you think?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-47595745123214787142011-12-29T01:35:00.000+00:002011-12-29T21:12:56.853+00:00The path our humble feet have walked...Aren't feet the natural progression from toes (read post <a href="http://principlesofevolution.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-do-fingers-and-toes-wrinkle-in.html" target="_blank">here</a>)? Human feet are interesting things, not just because:<br />
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a) they are made up of 25% of all bones in the body<br />
b) many people have a fetish for them,<br />
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but because they are the small things which have evolved to hold our entire bodies.<br />
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In a previous post about how our bodies evolved so far, there is a little paragraph about our feet compared to those of Neanderthals. It emphasizes especially how our feet's evolution was closely linked with competition with the Neanderthals, in the sense that the structure of our feet enabled our ancestors to endure more prolonged walking over increasingly long distances, as well as running for long periods of time, chasing prey until it got exhausted, rather than being the fastest.<br />
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To many it seems, myself included, that human feet are so tiny - how can they support our entire body, as well as when put under pressure, for example when running? There are certain properties that our feet have evolved to have, like supporting our weight, walking and running, healing, etc.<br />
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Feet may seem like a couple of bones here and there, and some soft tissue, all wrapped in some skin. In fact, as can be seen in the picture above, our feet are made up of hundreds of ligaments, tendons and muscles, as well as 26+ bones and even more joints. The architecture going on there is very intricate, as all those smaller pieces work together to achieve the properties which allow feet to offer all their functions.<br />
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And yet, feet aren't works of perfection. They are prone to infections due to their location, touching the ground; athlete's foot? Ingrown toenail anyone? Also, they have their fair share of "genetic disorders" such as club foot and flat foot. Asymptomatic flat feet are considered a normal human variation, as they don't cause dysfunction or pain... I should know, mine are flat.<br />
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Next post in the top2toe tab will be about a certain Darwinian debate on how our hands evolved, and whether or not that was linked to the evolution of our feet/bipedalism. Darwin suggested our ancestors started using their hands for crafting/tools as their bipedalism evolved, allowing for the hands to be free. More in the next post.<br />
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(P.S.: Oh, and about the fetish bit... neurologist <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Vilayanur S. Ramachandran </span>thinks that the feet are somehow linked to genitals in our minds, because they both occupy the same area of the brain...)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91793765792329288.post-30477216813644377542011-12-03T17:36:00.001+00:002011-12-03T18:20:50.117+00:00Why people say "LOL" when they're not laughingRecently I saw a picture on Facebook which was funny. Actually, it wasn't funny as much as witty. Either way, I commented on it and wrote "lol =)". Clearly I was not actually laughing, nor was the picture funny in the actual sense of the word. So why LOL?<br />
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Understanding the real meaning behind LOL requires understanding of the real meaning behind laughter.<br />
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Laughter is an expression of positiveness and approval. More powerful than any word, laughing at something or someone is a strong opinion of an underlying aspect of the situation. It doesn't have to be funny; it can be ridiculous, witty, subtle or even cruel and mocking. In essence, the word LOL has replaced actual laughter in situations where actual laughter simply isn't provoked. Yes, some pictures on Facebook are funny, but they're not REALLY that funny, and some jokes are witty but don't make us laugh.<br />
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Sometimes, LOL is used to approve of disapproving something.<br />
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"She bought a real fur coat, then binned it because the fashion changed"<br />
"LOL".<br />
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This explains the sometimes ridiculous situation where a group of friends or acquaintances laugh together, despite some or most of them not really finding anything funny. They do it out of willingness to be part of the same frame of mind or group, maybe to facilitate getting closer to someone they fancy.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0