Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine a couple wanting to have a baby. They see the fertility specialist at a clinic, provide genetic material such as sperm or skin cells, and return sometime later. ‘The DNA of the resulting embryos will then be sequenced and carefully analyzed before decisions are made about which embryo or embryos to transfer to a womb for possible development,’ Greely writes. ‘Prospective parents will be told as much as they wish to know about the genetic makeup of dozens of embryos, and they will pick one or two for implantation, gestation, and birth.’ Besides the advantages of eliminating certain diseases, ‘It will be safe, lawful, and free.’

Will we be building a better world or a more homogeneous one?

Continue reading “Someday those who engage in intercourse for reproduction purposes could become stigmatized” »

“In his new role as the chair of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which oversees everything from threats posed by space weather to asteroids, Kendall’s already tackling the huge problem of space debris.”

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“How scientists recover fragments of the ancient solar system at the bottom of the planet”

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““I wake up and I say ‘This is going to be the best day of my life,” Lynch said. “I never put anything negative in my mind, so I start off by smiling at life.””

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We’re really excited to be working with the Toronto International Film Festival on a three-day event called POP showcasing some of the most inventive VR creations… and it’s coming up very soon — Friday, July 15th through Sunday, July 17th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. Tickets are on sale now, and we’d love to see you there.

Let’s talk about what you’ll see when you’re there. The theme of this POP event is empathy and real-world storytelling — how VR can really impact your view of (and connections to) the world. We have more than a dozen pieces that you can try.

Continue reading “Here’s what you’ll see at TIFF and The Verge’s VR showcase this month” »

An article on transhumanism and food in Extra Crispy, Time Inc’s new food site about breakfast:

Zoltan Istvan, presidential candidate for the Transhumanist Party, believes in anti-doughnut legislation and immortality.

By the 2020s, he tells Playboy, he expects medical technology to be at a point where nanobots will help out our immune system.

Prepare for a brave new world of hot robot love.

Ray Kurzweil is a celebrity technologist, well known both for his work as an inventor and for his relatively accurate predictions of technological change. Among his predictions is that of an imminent biotech revolution, which may enable people to restore and maintain healthy life for much longer periods of time than those humans have enjoyed historically. In the meantime, Ray says he takes 250 dietary supplements each day, in addition to receiving half a dozen intravenous therapies each week.

“Although my program may seem extreme, it is actually conservative – and optimal (based on my current knowledge). [My doctor] and I have extensively researched each of the several hundred therapies that I use for safety and efficacy. I stay away from ideas that are unproven or appear to be risky (the use of human-growth hormone, for example).” – Ray Kurzweil in The Singularity Is Near (pages 211–212)

Some of Ray’s dietary supplements are nootropics, intended to maintain and improve brain health. He lists them in his book, Transcend (pages 15 and 22). I’ve compared the nootropics he recommends to reviews on Examine.com, an independent and unbiased encyclopedia on supplementation and nutrition that is not affiliated in any way with any supplement company. Below is a table that summarizes what I found, followed by some observations.

Continue reading “Ray Kurzweil’s Nootropic Dietary Supplement Stack” »