Lifeboat Foundation

Someone invented an anti-choking device as an alternative to the Heimlich maneuver.

The world’s top AI researchers met to consider the threats posed by their research. The global economy could be the first casualty.

The plan could dramatically shift the mission of the space agency, prioritizing low-Earth orbit activity over distant exploration.

Let’s debate whether ageing is a disease *after* the diseases of old age are eliminated, shall we?

Whether or not ageing ought to be considered a disease is still matter of controversy, both among experts and laypeople. Particularly, the latter tend to turn up their noses at the thought of ageing being pathological and not ‘normal’, especially if they’re outside the life-extension/rejuvenation community. Clearly, they ignore the fact that ‘normal’ and ‘pathological’ aren’t mutually exclusive at all. It’s perfectly normal to suffer from hear loss in old age; notwithstanding, it is out of the question that hear loss is a pathology and we have developed several ways to make up for it. It presently can’t be cured, because like all age-related diseases, it can only get worse as long as the age-related damage that causes it keeps accumulating.

In my humble opinion of quasi-layperson (I’m nowhere near being an expert, but I do think I know about ageing more than your average Joe), whether or not ageing is a disease is merely a matter of semantics, depending largely on what we want to label as ‘ageing’—not to mention how we define ‘disease’.

If we say that ‘ageing’ is the set of age-related pathologies that affect a given person, then ageing isn’t a disease any more than a box of crayons is itself a crayon. Nonetheless, if you have a box of crayons then you have a bunch of crayons; if you have ageing as we defined it, then you have a bunch of diseases, and the grand total of your ailments doesn’t change whether you consider ageing as a disease as well or not. Quite frankly, I’d pick the box of crayons over ageing any time.

Continue reading “Health before semantics” »

Some small write-ups out today on the NY Times piece coverig transhumanism, including in The Paris Review, a well known literary publication for writing folks out there: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/02/09/touch-someone…ther-news/ &

http://transhumanist-party.org/2017/02/10/nyt-magazine-zoltan/ &

http://www.themillions.com/2017/02/dying-totally-mainstream.html

Continue reading “Nan Goldin: Photography Is ‘a Chance to Touch Someone with a Camera’” »

Brogan BamBrogan has jumped back into the race to transform transportation. The engineer, who left Hyperloop One amid a wild legal battle last summer, has launched his own effort to build a network of tubes and pods to fling people about the planet at near-supersonic speeds. It’s called Arrivo (Italian for “arrived”), and it plans to put you—or at least your stuff—in a working hyperloop in just three years.

As CEO, BamBrogan (yes, that’s his legal name) says the new Los Angeles–based company has lined up funding and is in talks to produce hyperloop systems for a variety of clients. Without revealing where those projects are, he says he plans to start by moving cargo, a good way to prove the system works and iron out the kinks without killing anybody, all while bringing in some revenue.

BamBrogan is a respected engineer who spent years at SpaceX before cofounding Hyperloop One with venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar in 2014. In July, he and three coworkers sued the company, alleging shenanigans like breach of fiduciary duty, violating labor laws, wrongful termination, and infliction of emotional distress. Hyperloop One countersued, accusing BamBrogan et al. of an attempted mutiny. In November, the aggrieved parties reached a confidential settlement and dropped the suits, which involved details like an overpaid fiancée, drunken shouting, a nightclub bouncer, and … um … a noose.

Continue reading “The Hyperloop’s Best-Known Engineer—Brogan BamBrogan—Is Back in the Race With His Own Company” »

Watch the first trailer here.

Summary:

• Many recent advances in artificial intelligence and aging biomarkers that transpired since 2013 are converging
• Gachon University and Gil Medical Center are at the forefront of aging research in Korea
• Aging research is gaining credibility in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare in general
• Insilico Medicine and Gachon University and Gil Medical Center have partnered to collaboratively develop biomarkers and interventions

Friday, 3rd of February, 2017, Baltimore, MD — Insilico Medicine today announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and started the first collaborative research project with one of the largest research and medical networks, Gachon University and Gil Medical Center. The intent of the long-term collaboration is to develop artificially intelligent multimodal biomarkers of aging and health status as well as interventions intended to slow down or even reverse the processes leading to the age-related loss of function.

I suggest they connect with DARPA or Dr Phillip Ball on QBS.

This is undoubtedly relief for certain medical conditions, but the potential for misuse, harm and control demands an ethical debate to define the limits. Unfortunately, Technocrats shun such discussions. ⁃ TN Editor.

In labs testing how brain implants could help people with physical disabilities, tales of success can be bittersweet.

Continue reading “Harvard Medical School Is Perfecting Brain Computer Interface Implants” »